A Mysterious Strike in the Night

Beaded with sweat, James suddenly woke up with a start. It was only a little after midnight with darkness consuming the camp like the bottom of a mine, and the air was humid and stuffy, yet James was wide awake now. His quick arising in his mosquito-net covered hammock had flung it off balance and upside-down, twisting him in the classic hammock mess. Normally he would’ve slowly undid himself in a lethargic manner, but his sudden fright still held him in a sleepless grip. Breathing heavy and fingers fumbling, he quickly undid the zipper and fell out on his knees. Wet, cold mud oozed onto his thick pants. He was quite awake now. The sudden fall and the freezing wet sensation on his legs only made his nervousness worse. He speedily stood up and looked around him in a panic. Taking a few more deep breaths, he managed to calm down a little bit and think more effectively.

Pausing momentarily, he noticed an unusual silence that sat inside his stomach. Almost as eerie as the silence was the troubling feeling of being watched. A large swallow went down James’ throat. “Flashlight,” was his first thought, and he quietly felt for his backpack. Soon that was in hand and his gun was put in place, but right as he looked up a large shadow flashed past. He went to turn the flashlight on but an overwhelming feeling of fear came upon him. “I should go wake up Joe,” he thought. The Utilities Device’s screen was still on with Joe slumped over the laptop stand. “Hey, Joe!” James nudged him. Suddenly writing appeared on the screen. Glancing over he read:

“// (1:37PM) FAILED TO CONNECT

// (12:56AM) CONNECTED! COMMENCING SCAN.

Crash Scan Finished!

//REPORT//

Water Damage: FALSE

Static Damage: FALSE

Crushed Damage: FALSE

<(null)/> Attention: CODE: EXC_UNKNOWN_POWER_OUTAGE: ‘Could be related to a high energy level exposure to radiation. Batteries are ashed. Try replacing them.’”

James grabbed the extra pack and replaced them. Soon the laptop was rebooting itself, and the infrared images came up in unison with a beeping sound. A very large animal was within 20 feet! James shook Joe’s shoulder hard, “Joe! Joe! Wake up!”

Joe stood straight away, looked over at the screen James was pointing at, and  grabbed his gun instantly after. “Go wake everyone else up now!!”

James turned on his flashlight, ran to each hammock, and roused all he could. On the third hammock, Mark flipped just as James did when he awoke, yet he turned back over at the same time James tried to help. The result was James being rolled across the hammock and over, landing on his face, and sliding far through the slick mud and tall, wet brush into a tree. James then blacked out.

---

James came to on the ground, facing a blackened tree. His head hurt, his back was sore and felt blistered, and his left shoulder was in excruciating pain. “Why can’t I feel my arm??” he thought until he drowsily looked to his side. “Oh. What arm.”

A huge snowball of thoughts came rolling down into his head: What had happened? Where was everyone? What was it that had attacked us? All these and more fired around his head until a big beam of sunlight hit his face. Sunlight shouldn’t be reaching the forest floor like that. Now he had to get up. With only his stomach-muscles, he lifted himself up and with his right arm dragged his body onto the tree to rest.

“Oooohh man!” he cried aloud. Where their camp had been was a barren clearing covered in burnt trees and ash. With the removal of trees the rising sun could now poke through. The shock proved to be too much for his weak body, and he passed out again.

Since every crew member had a health monitoring system, a helicopter arrived a few minutes later responding to two blackouts, a lost signal, and three registered heart stops. A tragic event had taken place.