The Jungle

When i was recruited into the special forces, I didn't think much of it. They explained that all we would do is be paratroopers and go behind enemy lines. Which at the time sounded kind of cool. Anyways, I was young, and willing to take orders.

"How did you get assigned the mission?"

I was 23, and I was stationed in Northern Vietnam where I met the contractors. "Who were the contractors?" Lt. Currey and Col. Sanma. They had come up to me and gave me the opprutinty. When they asked, I listened. It was my first mission, so i thought nothing of it. They took me to the Head Quarters at the base. Man, I know it's weird, but it seemed liked it had a very long hallway. It felt like centuries had passed before we actually got to the meeting room. When we finally did, they sat me down around this large, round table. They told me that if i were to not want to do this mission, I would have to back out now before any details were given.

"Why?"

They said if I had decided to quit in the mission's progress, that I wouldn't see be able to see the bullet in my head.

"What was the mission?"

I am taking a big risk here telling you. You know that? If I tell you, you might not live too see tommorow.

"I'll take my chances."

They had told me, that a CIA Cargo Plane had crashed near a village in Vietnam a week ago. The cargo plane was carrying a secret bio-chemical weapon, that was called Blue Grass. Our mission: Go in and recover the weapon, and take out anybody who was in our way. The mission was announced as: Operation Forest Fire.

"How did you get to the village?"

I was taken with three other men: Jen, Tret and Barbat. We went by a Humvee, to a city called Da Nang. Then from there we traveled by foot about fifteen miles into the jungle.

"How long did it take you to travel to the village?

It took about a day. As we journeyed further into the jungle, I began to feel almost...constricted. Like the air was being taken out of me. I also had the feeling that somebody was breathing down my neck, or someone was staring at me. Finally when we begen to get closer to the villiage, we noticed very...... peculiar things.

"Like what 'peculiar" things?"

The outside had stakes.. with bodies. As well with other bodies lying around. When we saw the bodies, we just realized what kind of shit hole we were caught in.

"Were the villagers friendly?"

When we entered the village, you could smell the rotten flesh in the air that was coming from a burn pile inside the village. I ended up seeing my breakfast by first glance. So did Tret, and to this day I am surprised the others didn't throw up either. All around, bodies of women and children were lying around......like they were trash. No burial, just tossed to the side like dog shit

."Who had killed the villagers?"

When we saw the bodies, we had figured that the Vietcong had passed through. But when we Barbat had checked the bodies, he noticed that the bodies....had bites.

"Bites?"

Yes.... human bites. As well with all the bodies being burned.

"What did you do with the bodies?"

We couldn't really do anything. Though my heart told me to do something, my brain was focused on the mission. Nothing else. As we were about to leave, we heard....cries.

"Cries? From Who?"

They came from a girl. Sounded no older than six. The cries seem to be coming from a nearby hut. We went to investigate. As we gained closer to one of the only standing huts, the cries become sadder, and more demented. When we finally reached the tent, it sounded like she was in your ear......crying......and crying. I opened the flap to the bamboo hut, and saw a small girl. In front of her layed a mangled body. The body was a woman. Her black matted hair, and foggy grey eyes had sent a shiver down my spine. Along with a pool of blood, surrounding the woman, the girl was on her knees, staring at the body. I slowly walked to her, and as the moaning and crying had got louder and louder, I could feel evil. The kind of evil that only Satan himself would give off. My fellow soliders had warned me before i even went in there, that we couldn't the girl. But i ignored him. Something about her......was hypnotizing me. I was drawn to her. When i was about 2 feet take away, the crying stopped. I finally opened my mouth and asked: "Are you okay?" She stood up slowly, and turned around. Half of her right cheek was missing, revealing nasty and bloody teeth, with flesh still in between. Her eyes were pitch black, and full of darkness. Her skin on her arms  had seemed to be slowly rotting away. Her nose was missing........and her hair, was full of pores, and lops of bald spots. When I slowly began to back away, She then looked at me straight in the face, and whispered. As the soft and seductive whispers filled my head, I saw images.

"Of what, Mr. Wood?"

Of evil. Just....pure evil. Images of....young, mutilated children. Cannibals. Monsters. Demons. Killers.

"What happened next?"

She screamed. Screamed so loud it almost made my ears bleed. I closed my eyes, and fired my rifle. My bullet was followed along by my crew's bullets as well. With the sound of penetrating bones and flesh, we then realized our mission wasn't even half done.

"Wow, that is.... horrifying."

Tell me something i don't know.

"What did you do after the village?"

We followed the map that had been given to us by the contractors. We were about 20 miles away, and since it was already dark, we decided to just rest until tomorrow. After our tents had been pitched, we started a fire and ate out MRE's. That night we hadn't said a word. We just sat there with the girl haunting our thoughts.......We went to sleep early that night. It was around 4:00 am when I heard noises outside my tent. It sounded like footsteps, which made me believe it was most likely an animal of some sort, but in the back of my head I had a feeling that whoever was there, was somebody that I would regret seeing. So when I grabbed my rifle, I pretended I was ready, but I had no idea.

"Who was it?"

.........

"Mr. Wood?"

There were three people. All were naked and looked.........pale. Like they haven't seen daylight in their lives. All three were men. The men had no hair, and their teeth had pointed out of their mouths and they seemed to have no ears. Their eyes were pitch black, and they had crawled on all fours, and had their heads in the air.....smelling for us. They were coming to hunt. I slowly took out my rifle, and put the barrel through the unzipped portion, and fired. The bullet hit the woman in the head. The others quickly turned and noticed me, which forced me to fire upon the three men. I hit all of them. The others immediatley jumped out of their tents and came out with their guns. They asked me what it was, and all i could do was just stare at the three bodies.

"What did they say about that?"

They were as creeped out as i was. But for some reason, I cut off their heads.

"Why?"

The voices had told me to.

"What did you do with the heads?"

I put them around my belt.

"What happened after you decapitated them?"

We decided to kept guard until morning. When the morning came, we traveled first thing.

"How far was the objective?"

From where we were, 10 miles away. As we traveled, hours had past. When we got to the objective, we were confused.

"Why?"

There was no plane. We saw nothing, just jungle. Thinking we were off, we headed further in, which was probably the most stupidest idea i could think of.

"How is that?"

We got lost. We tried turning around, re tracking......anything we could think of.

"What happened then?"

We were trapped in the jungle. After about two days, we snapped out of denial. We accepted we were trapped. We began to dig holes, which is where we would sleep in. Just in case if we died, we would die in our graves already. Every night, the voices of the owls hooing, and the all the other habitants come to live as we went to sleep..was troubling. I felt like I was being watched......

"Like you did when you first arrived?"

Yes. Exactly like that.

"So what happened while you were in the jungle?

With our rifles, we were able to hunt. Mostly birds, but after a week the ammo slowly deteriorated. Within two weeks we had made spears to catch animals, but to our dismay they're were no animals that liked to come across us. Night after night, I could hear her seductive whispers flood my mind. And I would see......the images in my head. Everytime i would see an image, one of my men died. Barbat was first, he died of the flu. Jen died of a mosquito bite. And Tret.......

"What happened to him?"

He said he was going to look for help. He never came back.

"Where did you put the bodies? Of your squad members?"

I.....I don't remember.

"Mr. Wood, you were in that jungle for five years. You must of known where you buried the bodies, because we didn't find them in their graves they dug."

I don't know where they went.

"What did you do in the jungle. For instance how did you survive?"

At night, I would hear the monsters that attacked our camp. And I would hunt.

"What would you hunt?"

Anything. Mostly gophers. I caught more than i can count. Days, months, years passed.....I become an animal. Everytime I would sleep, if i did sleep, i would hear the voices, and whispers. And see the images. I was still a kid.......

"What was the last thing you remember in the jungle?"

I was sleeping. Dark had came so I slept in my ditch. As i slept, i heard the footsteps of the monsters. I quickly grabbed my spear and climbed the nearby tree. As I waited, they came closer and closer. Finally, they were right beneath me. There were three of them; this was odd because I saw more than that usually. It didn't matter to me though. I just dropped down and speared the one in the middle. It spewed through his neck, and the two others tackled me. I laid there fighting, but then I was hit with something, Then I ended up here.

"Mr. Wood, I need to tell you something."

What?

"The village you came across, there was no village. Never existed. And you were found with the heads of Jen, Barbat and Tret. Also, for five years, children, women and men have been going missing, for five years now. All going into the path of the jungle. Over two hundred people Mr. Wood."

.........

"Do you know where you are, Mr. Wood?"

No.

"You are at the Trenen's Hospital for the Criminally Insane. You've been here for three months. Do you know who I am?"

No.

"I am Dr. Parker. I am your Psychiatrist."

"Mr, Wood, I think you should attend more extensive therapy. I am going to assign for shock therapy. And after that, you will be better, and you will forget all about the jungle...."