Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-38191277-20190405121814

There was nowhere else the boys and I would rather be than dropping out of a helicopter into some unknown jungle. This was our life. War was all we'd ever known. This particular mission was search and destroy. We'd done this type of mission countless times, in fact I'd venture to say that we were the best. Which is why when we were told that this mission would be more difficult than any we'd ever been on before, we were up for the challenge. We were told that the assholes hiding out in this jungle had some top secret information that we needed to retrieve and that we were to leave no survivors. 5 men, including myself, dropped in the woods to kill some bad guys. We were right at home.

The guys and I had been together on almost every mission. We all shared a brotherly bond but Davidson and I were the closest out of the group. He and I had the same living situation back home, nice apartment, a wife and a dog. Rodriguez was the youngest of all of us, he'd always talk about his plans for when he made it back home, always wore a cross and carried around a picture of his girlfriend. Taylor was the tough guy of the squadron. He never talked about his life back home, he said thinking about those things just make you weak. Last but not least we had Jackson. Jackson was the crazy one of the group, he was trigger happy and impatient but for the most part he followed orders. He had a daughter with his ex wife back home named Melissa that he told us was the only reason he ever wanted to make it back.

We'd all touched ground and we were doing a gear check to make sure we had everything we needed for the mission ahead. The trunks of the trees seemed to shoot up to the sky forever and the tree tops covered the sky almost completely. Red sticky sap dripped from the tree trunks, the air was thin and smelled of rotting leaves. We dropped in at night so it was very cold and there was fog all around us which lowered our visibility dramatically. We all gave each other quick nods to indicate that we were ready to move. We talked in a whisper and used flashlights sparingly to avoid being detected by the enemy. We had been walking for about 30 minutes, keeping communication to a minimum when Davidson gestured me over to him.

"Do you hear that?" He said in a low voice.

"I don't hear anything."

"Exactly. We've been in too many jungles to count and we've never been in one this quite before. Where the hell are we anyway?"

"They didn't tell us in the briefing but by the looks of this place I'd say we're in the South American Cloud Forest."

Rodriguez saw us conversing and made his way over to us while Jackson and Taylor went on ahead.

"what's going on?" Rodriguez said.

"Have you heard any noises or animals since we've been here?" I asked.

"Come to think about it, no I haven't."

"Let's keep moving. Rodriguez, let Jackson and Taylor know to listen out for any noise."

"On it, Sarg." Rodriguez said as he sped off and disappeared into the fog.

Davidson and I picked up the pace to try and catch up with the rest of the squad but there was no sign of them anywhere and the fog seemed to get thicker the deeper into the forest we went. A few moments later we heard 3 men yelling and a shot rang out. Normally when a gun goes off in the forest we'll see birds fly out of the trees with loud cries but this time, there was nothing. Once again we heard more yelling, this time I only heard 2 men. Davidson and I were running as fast as we could following the sound of the yelling when we reached a large circular clearing. Taylor was on his back in a pile of leaves with blood leaking out of his forehead. Jackson and Rodriguez both had their sidearms aimed at one another.

"Put the god damn gun down Jackson! NOW!" Rodriguez screamed sounding as if he was on the verge of tears.

"He shot Taylor in the head, Sarg! I saw him!"

" He.. He was trying to hurt my Melissa.. I WON'T LET ANYONE HURT MY MELISSA!" Jackson yelled. His eyes were bloodshot, he was dripping with sweat and had an absent look on his face.

"Put the damn gun down Jackson. Melissa is safe at home with her mother.." I said as I slowly reached for my sidearm.

"No! she is here! She ran away after HE tried to hurt her!" Jackson said as he gestured his weapon towards Taylor's lifeless body.

In that moment Rodriguez rushed towards Jackson in an effort to disarm him. Jackson turned quickly and shot Rodriguez in the chest and he dropped face first on the ground with a thud. I drew my sidearm and shot Jackson twice, once in the chest and the other in the side of his neck.

"Davidson! Check up on Rodriguez, He had a vest on he should be alright." I said as I rushed over to Jackson.

I knelt down beside Jackson and lifted his head up into my hands. The blood from the wound on his neck rushed down and covered my hands. I held back tears as best as I could.

"Jackson.. Buddy, why?.. Why did you make me do this to you..?" I said with my eyes closed. I didn't want my last memory of him to be one of him dying in my arms, although that was inevitable.

He couldn't speak. With every breath he took more blood poured from his neck and mouth. I looked over to see Davidson helping Rodriguez to his feet. The final gurgling sound came from Jackson and his eyes shut. He was gone. As I was laying him back down onto the leaves my hand brushed his neck and I felt something odd. I turned him onto his side and what I saw was a huge blister. It almost took up the whole back of his neck. The skin around the outside was almost completely see through but the blister was filled with yellowish puss. I could see something floating inside the gross looking liquid, it was round and black. Davidson and Rodriguez must have seen me investigating and made their way over to me without me noticing.

"What the hell is that?" Davidson asked with a confused look on his face.

"I have no idea but it looks like there's something inside." I said while pulling the knife from my belt.

"Oh god.. You aren't going to cut it open are you?" Rodriguez said, squinting his eyes in disgust.

I didn't bother to respond and I immediately took my knife to the blister. I made one small incision and the yellow substance started pouring out. It was thick and smelled worse than a damn dead body. Rodriguez gagged and Davidson backed away with his hand over his mouth and nose. I tried my best to keep my composure as I continued to cut away and more of this liquid dripped down my dead friend's neck. After a few more seconds all of it had drained out and I could see what was floating inside.

On the inside of the blister there was a smaller hole dug into the back of Jackson's neck. Inside the hole there was what looked like a little black ball. I used my knife to touch it and when I did it started to wiggle back and forth quickly. I got to my feet and took a step back and we all watched in horror as this thing moved rapidly in all different directions. A moment later it seemed to be coming loose. It was almost completely out of its hole and I could see long, skinny black legs start to emerge from it. The creatures legs had tiny spikes on them that were covered in blood making them look like rose thorns. It walked slowly down from Jackson's neck to his shoulder, I couldn't see any other features about the creature. Its body was solid black with no sign of eyes or a mouth. once it reached the ground it borrowed itself down into the leaves at an incredible speed. The 3 of us were left in complete and utter shock. 20+ years in the military and it is still one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen.

"What the.." Was all that Davidson was able to say in the moment.

"We have to get out of here Sarg! What in the hell was that thing?" Rodriguez said frantically.

"I.. I don't know but we have to complete the mission before we can get the hell out of here."

"Do you think that thing is what made Jackson lose his damn mind like that?"

"My god.." I said holding my head in my hands. I tried my best to justify what I had just done to him. He would have killed us all if I didn't stop him, I thought to myself.

In that moment we heard some movement in the bushes. We all paused and exchanged looks to confirm that we had all heard it. I gave the signal to fall back behind some bushes nearby. This had been the first noise we'd heard since being here that wasn't one of us. we all had our M4 Carbine service weapons in hand expecting to see the enemy we came here for. What we saw was much different. Looking to the opposite side of the clearing we saw the silhouette of something enormous run by extremely fast. As it ran it snapped large branches off of the trees without losing any momentum and when it got close enough we could feel the ground shake with every step. It seemed to be running back and forth when all of the sudden it stopped completely and started whipping its head around in all directions as if looking to make sure nothing else was around.

It must have felt it was safe because it stepped out into the clearing where we we got a good look at it in the moonlight for the first time.

"What is this place?.." Davidson said as we took our first look at the giant in front of us.

By my estimate the monster had to have been at least 8 feet tall. It had long, thick legs and it was covered in dark brown fur. Its upper body looked solid and muscular. It did not have fur on its chest or back, instead it had what looked like rough black skin. It had dark circles around it red glowing eyes and you could see the smoke from each breathe the creature took in the cold. Although now moving at a normal pace, I found it terrifying that something this big was able to move at such an immense speed. It didn't take long for us to notice what it was here for. It was here to feed. It started making its way closer to Jackson's body which in turn was closer to us.

"This damn thing is going to eat Jackson." Davidson whispered.

I quickly put my finger over my mouth to signal Davidson to keep his mouth shut while I thought of a plan. While I struggled to think of something I noticed that Rodriguez had turned around to start moving. I grabbed him by the arm and he turned around and gave me a sharp look.

"He may have shot me but I WILL NOT let this freakin.. THING eat Jackson. You've got to let me do this."


 * "**Rodriguez wait.." I said trying to keep my voice down but he was already on the move again.

The creature knelt down next to Jackson's body similar to the way I had earlier. It grabbed him by the neck with one hand, lifted his torso slightly off the ground and with the other hand tore Jackson's left arm off with no effort. Davidson put a hand over his mouth.

"Jesus." He said looking away from the beast.

I gave Davidson the signal to start moving when we heard 3 shots fire, each 1 second apart for maximum accuracy. I saw all 3 shots connect with the beast's chest but it did not seem to react. I could see the the white scuff like marks on the creatures chest where the bullets had hit it's rough black skin. Rodriguez came stepping out of the tree's firing more shots but all were connecting with the creatures seemingly bullet proof skin. The beast stood up from its kneeling position and it somehow seemed larger than it was just a minute before. I was frozen. It looked directly at Rodriguez and made a low guttural growl. I could see on his face that Rodriguez had started to panic. He took a couple more ineffective shots and the monster exploded into a full sprint directly at Rodriguez.

"GET OUT OF THERE NOW!" I yelled as loud as I possibly could.

Pulling our weapons up, Davidson and I fired at the creature's back to no avail. The beast didn't even seem to notice that there we're 2 other people firing on him. We unloaded our entire magazine but it was too late. The monster had been trying to get away but in the process it swung its arm out at Rodriguez catching him in the side and sending him flying into a nearby tree. The giant continued running off into the woods until we could no longer feel the rumble of the earth. We rushed over to Rodriguez as fast as we could and the creature was nowhere to be seen.

"RODRIGUEZ! RODRIGUEZ!? Can you hear me?" I yelled. He was covered in dirt and leaves and was dripping blood from his head and bottom lip.

He moaned in pain.

"He's alive! Davidson cover me. Make sure that damn thing doesn't come back."

"My..My ribs and my arm.."

"We're gonna get you out of here brother. I promise."

We had minimal medical supplies but I was able to bandage up Rodriguez's mid section as well as I could between his cries of pain. I made a makeshift sling for his arm out of what was left. As I was finishing up we felt a familiar rumbling of the ground.

"Its close." Davidson said gripping his weapon tight and staring off into the treeline.

"Alright I've got an idea of how to kill this damn thing. Do you still have that metal wire in your pack?"

After explaining the plan to Rodriguez he reluctantly agreed to be moved to the other side of the clearing. With one of us on each side we carried him and placed him up against a tree. It took us a few minutes to set up but we managed to get it done with no sign of the creature and then we hid.

"HELP ME! Somebody HELP!" Rodriguez called out as loud as he could considering his injuries.

"PLEASE SOMEBODY!"

At that moment we felt the rumbling of the ground once more.

"Oh it's coming and its coming fast." Davidson said with a smile.

We began to hear leaves crunching and twigs snapping and there it was. The creature broke the tree line running at full speed directly at Rodriguez. He was coming for the kill when all of the sudden there was a loud snapping noise and the beast went flying forward through the air. In ironic fashion the monster slammed head first into a tree and laid there completely still. Davidson and I advanced on the creature and Rodriguez gave us a thumbs up to let us know he was alright.

"I can't believe that tripwire worked!" Davidson said in an excited tone.

I didn't say a word. I didn't know how long the creature was going to be out cold and I wanted to get rid of the damn thing once and for all. It laid face down on its stomach but I wanted to get a good look at it. It took Davidson and I both to lift with all of our strength to flip it over on its back. I kept my M4 locked onto to the beast as I examined it. It seemed to have that black rough skin under its fur all over its body except for the head and neck. That's when I knew I could most likely kill it with a head shot. I aimed my rifle at its head and was about to squeeze the trigger when Rodriguez spoke up.

"Wait." He said.

"Let me do it. That bastard almost killed me and it tried to eat Jackson."

I went over to Rodriguez and threw his good arm over my shoulder and lifted him to his feet as he whimpered in pain. I walked him over to the creature slowly and handed him my sidearm. He pointed the pistol at the creature with a shaky hand, took a good long look at it and pulled the trigger. Blood and brains got on all of us. The monsters blood was more of a pink color than red and its brain was a shade of purple. I wondered if we were ever going to make it out of here alive.

We needed to get out of the clearing. With Rodriguez's injuries it really slowed our movement down. It was now up to Davidson and I to complete the mission while also keeping Rodriguez alive. That's when it hit me. Is there even a mission? Or is the reason they dropped us here with no Intel because they knew what was out here? They knew we were the best at what we do. They left us out here to try to take these creatures out. We were expendable. I kept my thoughts to myself because I didn't want the guys thinking we were going to die out here. I made a promise and I intended to keep it.

Rodriguez told us that he couldn't go on any longer so we decided to set up camp behind some shrubbery and take turns on watch. Davidson set up the sleeping bags so him and Rodriguez could get some rest while I took the first shift. A few hours passed and I noticed that the sun was not coming up. It felt as though time was not moving the way it should be. We had been in this place for hours and the sky has not changed at all since we arrived. It was still foggy and dark and the only lights were from our flashlights or the moonlight when the tree tops allowed it to penetrate. As I was looking up at the sky I noticed 2 glowing yellow lights in the tree above me but when I blinked they were gone. I must have been imagining them, I need some rest I thought.

It was still my shift on watch and a few minutes later I was fast asleep. I awoke to the sound of wings flapping hard in the air followed by the worst scream you could possibly imagine. I shot up from the tree I was leaning against and turned to see something latched on to Rodriguez's good arm. The flying creature was so dark that the only reason I could see it was because its wings were still flapping as it had Rodriguez's forearm in it's mouth.

"It's biting me! GET IT OFF ME! GET IT OFF!" Rodriguez cried.

Davidson ran over and grabbed onto the creatures wings and pulled as hard as he could but it would not budge. I ran to the other side and saw that it's fangs were coming straight through the other side of Rodriguez's arm. I tried grabbing the bat looking creature by the mouth and prying it open but its jaw strength proved to be too much for me. In that moment the demon bat opened it's eyes and I saw the same yellow glow I had seen in the trees before I fell asleep. This thing had been stalking us, waiting for the right opportunity to strike and picked the weakest of all us. A true hunter. I got extremely angry at this point and I drew the knife from my belt and stabbed the creature through its skinny black neck. It let out a screech like a stuck pig and opened it's mouth up. The fangs retracted like a snake's as its mouth filled with pink blood. Davidson threw it to the ground and I followed it down, stabbing it what felt like a hundred more times until it was nothing but a bloody pink mess.

"Sarg! Sarg! Rodriguez isn't looking so good!" Davidson said while trying to pull me to my feet.

I looked over at Rodriguez and immediately noticed that the holes in his arm where the fangs had gone through had turned a sickly purplish color. His arm was already swollen to twice the size and he was extremely pale.

"We need to get a tourniquet on his arm. It looks like its already infected." I said while taking off my belt.

I wrapped the belt around his arm and tightened it as much as I could and locked it in place. His arm was already secreting a disgusting smelling yellow puss and continued swelling so much that I was forced to loosen the belt to keep Rodriguez from screaming in pain. He started to cough uncontrollably and he couldn't form a sentence. Davidson and I exchanged grim looks as we both knew we couldn't do anything to stop whatever was coming next.

"I cant.. I cant.." Rodriguez said as he gestured towards his throat frantically.

His throat was closing up. There was nothing we could do at this point. We laid him on his back on top of his sleeping bag and huddled close to him trying to make his final moments as comfortable as possible. He reached up with his swollen arm, pulled the cross off of his neck and put it in my hand. He looked directly at me when the light went out in his eyes..

" Damn it.. DAMN IT, DAMN IT, DAMN IT!" I said as I punched the ground as hard as I could. I had broken my promise.

"Get on that damn radio and tell Control we've lost 3 men and we need extract ASAP."

"Jackson had the radio Sir."


 * "*Jesus and nobody thought it would be a good idea to grab it!?" I yelled punching the ground one last time.

"We have to head back. We can't do this alone."

So that's what we did. We back tracked for about 2 hours and finally the clearing was in sight. I gave Davidson the signal to move slowly and quietly. There was no way to know what else could be out there. We both crouched down behind a tree and tried to get a good look at the clearing before we moved in. The plan was to move from tree to tree until we could reach Jackson's body, retrieve the radio and get right back out. We split up, I'd grab the radio while Davidson covered me from the opposite side of the clearing. We worked our way around but when I reached the place where Jackson's body should have been, it was gone. The only things left were his clothes and boots. The radio had been strapped to his vest so there was a good chance that it was still there.

Davidson and I made eye contact and gave each other nods. I started to move in slowly towards the pile of clothes. They were covered in dry blood and I tried my best not to think about how most of it was because of me. I threw the boots to the side and immediately went for the vest. It felt heavy which gave me hope that the radio was still inside and intact. I pulled open the velcro strap and revealed the radio. I held up the radio with a smile and looked to other side of the clearing where Davidson was supposed to cover me from but he wasn't there. I looked around to see if he had switched positions but still nothing. I put the radio in my vest and started to back away towards the trees when a loud scream broke the silence. I ran straight to the other side of the clearing towards the source of the deathly scream.

When I reached the other side I saw Davidson's weapon on the ground exactly where he had been crouched just a minute prior. Another scream broke through the air but this one seemed to have been cut short. I adjusted my path based on the direction the scream came from and took off running as fast as I could. After what felt like hours of running I saw something out of the corner of my eye sitting under a tree. I sprinted over to the tree and got a closer look at what it was. It was Davidson's pack. I bent down to pick the boot up when I heard leaves rustling in the tree top above me.

I reached for my weapon slowly and turned the attached flashlight on. I took two quick steps back, pulled my weapon up and illuminated the top of the tree. This tree was much taller and its trunk was much thicker than the rest in the area. I didn't see anything at first but after examining the rest of the tree I saw something green and almost as thick as the tree trunk coiled around a giant branch. I followed the length of its body with the flashlight. It seemed to go on forever. When I finally reached the end of this incredibly long creature my heart sank. It had no head just a big red hole with sharp black teeth. I shined the flashlight on the creatures face just in time to see him finish overtaking Davidson's whole upper body, leaving only his legs dangling lifelessly from it's mouth. I was frozen with shock. I didn't know what to do at first. I thought maybe he was still alive somehow, maybe I could save him. I aimed my weapon a safe distance away from the mouth of the creature before firing so I wouldn't kill Davidson if he wasn't dead already.

I held down the trigger and started to unload the whole magazine into the side of the creature. I could see the pink blood start pouring from all the holes I was making in it's body. The creatures skin seemed to crawl and it began to move. My magazine was empty so I pulled out my sidearm and began firing more shots at the monster.

"LET HIM GO YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" I yelled continuing to fire until my mag was empty once again.

I reached for my pack to grab a fresh magazine when I heard the leaves rustle again and a loud thud that shook the ground. I rushed to the other side of the enormous tree. There I saw Davidson, he was laying face down in the dirt and not moving. I walked over and crouched beside him, praying that by some miracle he was still alive. I turned him over on his back and all hope was lost. His eyes were missing, leaving nothing but two dark and bloody holes. Part of his left cheek had been eaten away exposing a silver tooth. The skin on his nose was gone leaving nothing but a sharp bone protruding from his face. The rest of his body hadn't been eaten but it was covered in a mucus-like slime. I laid my head on his chest and cried. There was no reason for me to pretend to be strong anymore.

It pained me to not be able to give my best friend a proper burial but I didn't know what I'd uncover If I started digging in this place and I also didn't have the proper tools to dig a grave. I pulled the dog tags from Davidson's body and shoved them in my pocket. After a few minutes I managed to compose myself enough to remember that I still had the radio. I had to get away from that tree in case that creature managed to survive and wanted me as its next meal.

I walked back in the direction that I thought I had come from but I soon found myself completely lost. I checked the compass on the handle of my knife but the needle just spun in circles endlessly. After a few minutes of walking I felt drained. I was exhausted and hungry. I pointed my flashlight to the top of a tree and examined it carefully before determining that it was safe to sit under and catch my breath. I pulled the radio from my vest, flipped it to the correct channel and began calling for help.

"Control. Come in Control. This is Sergeant Cruz requesting immediate evac from unknown location, over."

"Control. Come in Control! I have 4 men KIA. I'm the last one.."

Static.

There is no one coming to rescue me from this hell. I grabbed a granola bar from my pack and devoured it in two bites then leaned my head back against the tree, tears running down my face as I clutched the cross, radio and dog tags with both hands. I drifted off to sleep and when I awoke I could barely open my eyes, the light was too bright. The sun had finally come up. I looked up at the sky like it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

"You're safe now honey. You're home." I looked over and saw my wife's beautiful brown hair and big brown eyes. I reached out to grab her hand.

"I love you." I said.

"I love you too" My wife said.

I was so tired. My eyes started to close again. My neck hurts so much. 