Jungle Justice - by PM2K (2010)
"Why the hell did I ever listen to you?"
Momoko flinches at the harsh slap of Sara's tone, then blinks painfully as sweat stings her right eye. She wipes it away quickly, and just manages to avoid being hit by a branch, which snaps back following the passage of the taller woman.
"I'm sorry... really..." the Tokyo native stammers in a slightly accented voice. "I honestly thought it was this way..."
"Dammit! This is just... dammit!" Sara curses, pushing past the next mass of thick jungle vegetation to find only more of the same. There's just no trace of the muddy trail they had been following back to where they had parked the Land Rover.
The well tanned brunette leans against a nearby tree, and bites her lower lip. She rolls her shoulders, bare under the grey tank top she is wearing, and gives her head a gentle shake, causing her long braid to flip free off her back to drape down her front.
Momoko slowly approaches, golden skin glistening with a fine film of moisture. Her straight black tresses flow out from under the green colored pith helmet she's wearing to reach just below her jawline. Stopping a few feet away from her companion, she adjusts the khaki shirt whose ends are tied tightly under her breasts, exposing her waist's bare curves and ample cleavage to the humid jungle air.
Both women wear army green shorts which stop midway down their thighs, and ankle high hiking boots, with socks barely visible above the tops of the footwear. Neither wear bras, as the relentless humidity made them unbearable on their skin.
Sara hefts the pack sack hanging off of her right shoulder, and sighs deeply. Her grey eyes flash her frustration at Momoko, who averts her dark ones.
"Girl, are you certain this is the right direction? Really certain?"
The Japanese woman remains silent for a moment, attempting to gather her thoughts for some sort of response.
It took too long.
"God damn it... " Sara curses. The weight on her shoulder seems to feel a little more awkward, but she ignores it.
Momoko fingers the small metal cross hanging low around her neck nestling between her breasts, another of her nervous habits.
"You said all we had to do was follow the sun to the river..." Sara growls. "We've been walking for hours, and we still haven't found any goddamn river!"
Looking up towards the sky, heavily screened by the overhead crowns of the trees, her lips narrow in response to the approaching twilight.
"And soon, we'll have no freaking sun, either..." she glowers. "And then what? We have no tents, no gear, no Land Rover, nothing!"
Momoko begins to feel her own anger rise, and suddenly she snaps.
"So this is my fault?" she says sharply, part of her pleased to see Sara flinch with surprise at her response.
"You said you knew the way..."
"I did... until that damn trail melted away!" Momoko retorts. "I mean, you haven't had any luck finding it, either..."
Sara falls silent. She was right, of course. Try as she might, she just couldn't pick up any traces of the bush trail they had taken to get to that shrine...
"Maybe we shouldn't have killed her..." Momoko says quietly.
Sara shoots a sharp glance at her, then sighs. She's beginning to think maybe this has all been a horrible idea...
It had started out over lunch.
The two archeology grad students were spending the semester working on a routine dig at a city located in the heart of the jungle. Both quickly grew bored of the exercise, being two among a crew of a hundred drawn from around the world, working dawn to dusk using shovels, brooms and brushes to move dirt around.
During a lunch break, Sara confided to Momoko she was getting sick of it.
"This isn't what I signed up for.... this is just freaking yard work!" she growled, picking over her tuna salad.
Momoko sipped iced tea from a drinking box while her friend grumbled, nodding when the occasion called for it. She had developed similar feelings. Understanding how important it was to learn the fundamentals of field work really didn't prepare one for how backbreaking and tedious it was to do.
"God... I don't know why anyone would still bother with this place..." Sara groaned. "It must have been picked clean back in the 1920s..."
"There's always something new to find out... to learn..." Momoko said quietly.
Sara snorts.
"Yeah... just not here..."
The two fell silent, and looked over the dig site from their perch atop a grassy mound. Dust filtered the sky over the stumps of walls and foundations of the city. Behind them, the vast jungle stretched, seeming to taunt them with its hidden secrets.
"One golden artifact.... just one..." Sara mumbles.
"Pardon?"
"I mean, this is a big valley... surely all of it hasn't been found...."
A burst of laughter escapes Momoko.
"There you go again... all about the gold... You are in the wrong profession for that..."
Sara grunts in response.
"Really? You've seen the university's collection, and the one in the museum here. Who do you think found those?"
"That was a lot of years ago..." Momoko said. "You said it yourself, this site has been picked clean..."
Sara nods, then her eyes narrow.
"Yeah.... picked clean here.... but this can't be the only site..."
Momoko raised an eyebrow, then nods.
"Okay, I agree with that... but how exactly are we going to find something no one else knows about?"
Sara frowns. In this era of GPS and satellite technology, it would be hard for a whole city to remain hidden, even buried in vegetation.
"It would have to be small... small enough to be overlooked..." she says. "A shrine, maybe..."
A sudden clatter grabs both of their attentions. Looking down the slope towards the stones of the dig site, the two students see the slim, brown skinned form of a teenaged native girl, sprawled across the ground. The contents of two baskets she had been carrying spilled out in front of her, a colorful scattering of orange, yellow and red fruits.
As one, Momoko and Sara rise and dash down the hill, quickly reaching the girl. Wordlessly, they scoop up the fruit and reload the baskets, while their owner stammers her thanks.
"No problem, Anya..." Sara says. The teen was a regular sight at the dig, like many other kids doing numerous small chores for badly needed income. Unlike many of the others doing the same, she also attended school, as her uniform of a white blouse and knee length black skirt attests to.
Her jet black hair is tied back in a waist long loose braid. Sandals cover her bare feet.
Then, Sara's eyes are drawn to a bright glint. Staring, she finds herself looking at a golden pendant. Hand crafted, the winged creature lacked the refinement of modern jewelry, but the skill of whoever crafted it was evident.
Momoko, still squatting to snag the last of the fruit, is puzzled by Sara's wide eyed reaction, until she too notices the pendant.
"That's very pretty, Anya..." Sara begins, tearing her attention away from the gold's glitter to stare into the girl's dark eyes.
"Thank you..." she says quietly, and begins stroking it gently.
Momoko leans closer, casting a quick glance at the pendent. Maybe about an inch square, several coins' thickness... and judging by how it hangs off of Anya's neck, it clearly has some heft to it.
Looking back towards Anya, Momoko sits down, then casually asks about it.
"I never saw you wear that before..." she says. Taking her cue, Sara steps back a but, then sat down as well, trying not to look eager. Inside, she's twisted into knots.
Anya smiles shyly, then resumes gathering up the baskets.
Sara manages to smile warmly, then grasps one of the baskets.
"Why don't you stay and catch your breath for a moment? That was a nasty spill you took..."
Uncertainty clouds Anya's expression, but she relents, sitting down carefully. She accepts a fresh iced tea box from Momoko, and sips daintily through the straw provided.
Moments pass before Sara decides it is time to bring up the pendent again.
"It was my grandmother's," she says, sighing. "She gave it to me, so I would have someone watch over me while I was away at school... but I never wore it before..."
Her expression saddened.
It didn't take much longer for Anya to explain she had received word her grandmother had died, one of the last of her people still living in their ancestral village.
"I'm sorry about that..." Sara says, then her eyes narrow. "I suppose there's someone handling the funeral rites... you know... to help her pass over?"
Anya shakes her head sadly.
"The local missionaries held a service for her... I was here, and couldn't attend, but I heard about it later. It was kind of them, but..."
Momoko's eyes light up. She gets what Sara was doing.
"But not the way your grandmother would prefer? She would have liked to be honored according to her traditional ways, right?"
"Yes... but how would you know?" Anya asks.
Sara smiles.
"We've been studying your culture. She needs to be honored at a place sacred to your people..."
Anya nods, then sighs.
"But that is impossible for me..." she says. "It is so far away, and I can't afford to make the journey..."
Sara and Momoko exchange glances and smile.
The trip took the better part of a day by Land rover, borrowed for the occasion from the dig's motor pool. Less than ten minutes of that was spent on a road.
The dirt track snaked through the heavily forested hills for what seemed like ages, then began to gradually descend into the river valley. The GPS was useless in this terrain, for while it displayed the landscape fairly well, the trails remain unmarked.
Anya proved to be an excellent navigator, though, and as the sun began to wane in the late afternoon, they reached the outskirts of her village.
Sara, Momoko and Anya get out of the vehicle, and look around. The settlement has been abandoned for some time, and with the death of Anya's grandmother, is now empty of human habitation.
Anya smiles sweetly at the two of them.
"Thank you both so much..." she says. "I won't be long..."
The teen, a small backpack hanging off her shoulder, runs off into the jungle. She had explained the area she needed to go was sacred and forbidden to outsiders, and seemed relieved when neither of her two companions pushed the matter.
They even supplied her with the backpack to carry the items she needed to ensure her grandmother's spirit could move on in peace.
Sara nods to Momoko, who reaches into the pocket of her shorts to extract a slim device. She presses the power button and it lights up.
"I hope this works... I haven't been able to get a clear signal all day..."
Sara grunts.
"It will... those phones can work as long as they are close enough together..."
The GPS function lights up on the phone's screen, with a bright dot appearing in the center.
"There she is... straight ahead..." Momoko says. "Let's hope she doesn't find your phone..."
The two head out in Anya's general direction, guided by the glowing dot.
At first, it is fairly easy. The muddy trail is clear, with the prints of Anya's sandals visible. Then the heavy undergrowth began to cover it up, and it is only thanks to the phone's direction finder the pair were able to make their way forward.
Even so...
"Damn... this is a bitch..." Sara growls. Dark mud splatters her shorts, and her right leg is thickly smeared in it, the result of stepping in the wrong spot.
"I'll say..." Momoko gasps. She is also mud spattered. Neither had thought about how treacherous this trek would get, but the idea of being close to their destination propels them forward.
Finally, they emerge from the jungle into a small clearing, heavily shaded by the forest canopy. Several ancient stone cairns encircle the site, while in the center is a squatter structure, also of stone. And housed within that...
The idol steals Sara and Momoko's breath away. The size of a marble bust, the intricately carved head is clearly made of gold.
"Holy..." Sara gasps. "That is just... wow..."
"Wow..." Momoko nods.
Memorized by the glitter, the pair walk past the circle of cairns straight for the shrine, then freeze when they hear a voice behind them.
"What are you doing?"
They spin around to see Anya, who stares at them in disbelief and anger. A garland of flowers dangles from one hand, while she holds a candle with the other.
"I can't believe this! I told you this is a sacred spot! You have to leave! Now!"
Momoko's face reddens, and she begins to back away. She feels an apology forming in her mouth when Sara suddenly steps forward and grabs the idol, removing it from the shrine.
"Go ahead and pray for your grandma..." she says. "I'll just take this as payment for the drive..."
Anya begins to shake in fury. Her expression frightens Momoko, who senses the violence within, but Sara just frowns.
"What? You can't honestly think this thing has any power? Honey, this is just a lump of gold... You go to school... surely you realize this is just primitive superstition..."
"Put that back!"
Anya startles the pair by lunging forward, and grabs the idol. Sara hangs on, and the pair grapple violently.
"Momoko! Do something! She's crazy!" Sara calls out, terrified by the fury of Anya's attack.
Momoko hesitates, then moves to try and restrain her. Anya lashes out, catching the Japanese woman off guard and sending her sprawling. In doing so, the native girl loses her grip on the idol.
Sara senses this, and tears it free. Anya whirls around to try and grab it again, when Sara reacts, and swings the golden object.
It connects with Anya's head with a sickening smack. She stumbles backwards from the impact, then falls, the back of her skull striking the shrine with a soft wet sound. Her eyes stare sightlessly as the pupils dilate, and she slowly slumps to the ground, staining the grey rocks with a trail of blood.
Sara and Momoko stare at Anya's lifeless body in shock. Her expression contains a look of disbelief on it, and maybe a hint of betrayal, as the last light in her eyes fades away.
"Oh... God..." Momoko stammers. "Oh God.... what did you do to her? Oh God... oh my God..."
Sara keeps staring quietly, the idol heavy in her hand. She is breathing heavily, her limbs trembling.
Momoko squats down beside Anya, and reaches out to check her neck for a pulse.
"Don't.... don't bother..." Sara says, breaking her silence. "She's dead..."
Momoko falls back, shaking her head slowly, almost as if in denial.
"What... what are we going to do? We killed her... We..."
Sara sighs deeply, as if to gather her thoughts.
"Nothing... we did nothing..."
Momoko looks over to her, blinking away tears. She looks confused.
"Look... we left early, right? No one saw us leave together... and if they did, we just tell them we dropped Anya off somewhere along the road..."
Momoko stares in disbelief. She gestures in the direction of Anya, who remains slumped against the shrine.
"What do we do about her? I mean, we can't just leave her here...."
"Why not? We can't take her with us," Sara says. "They'll be too many questions... and we can't afford to draw attention to us and the treasure.... at least, not in this region."
Momoko falls silent. Her face displays her misgivings.
"We... we should at least bury her..." she says at last. "At the very least, we should do that..."
"Using what?" Sara retorts. "We didn't bring anything with us... it is all in the Rover. Besides... Anya said this is sacred ground.... and no one is likely to come out here to disturb her. Not any more."
In the end, the two left the teen where she had died. Momoko did lay the wreath of flowers around her neck, and uttered a short prayer. Sara placed the idol in the backpack, and attempted to hurry her companion along.
"We have to get going... we're losing the light..." she said.
"Okay..." Momoko says quietly. "But we're going to have a tough time making it back to camp. It'll be dawn before we..."
"We're not going back."
She glances at Sara.
"We're not?"
"No. We're closer to San Padro anyway," Sara says. "With luck, we should get there before ten... with no one the wiser..."
With Momoko taking the lead, Sara explained her plan. She knew a person who could sell the idol for them, no doubt for less than its true value, but enough to keep the two of them comfortable for years afterwards. Living far away from here.
"We couldn't sell it ourselves..." Sara said, "without having to answer a lot of questions..."
All they needed to do now is find their way back to the Rover...
"Dammit!"
Sara continues to peer at the thick underbrush for any sign of the trail. but can only see the broad leaves of jungle ferns forming a vast featureless carpet running off in every direction. Surrounded by heavy walls of trees, there is no landmark to get a fix on.
Momoko pushes the pith helmet back off her forehead and sighs. It just didn't make sense. None of this looked familiar at all.
"How did we get so far off track like this?" Sara says. "It didn't take that long to get to the shrine..."
Hearing Momoko sigh again, she turns to glare at her.
"You were tracking her... don't you have any clue where we were going?"
"I was just following the phone signal..." Momoko sighs again. "I told you that..."
The light continues to fade, the setting of the sun bringing about the encroaching darkness.
Now Sara sighs.
"Look... maybe we can still find the river before it gets too dark... do you have any sort of bearing we can follow? Anything?"
Momoko frowns, and closes her eyes. After concentrating for a moment, her heart skips a beat. Did she really hear that? Did she really catch the faint sound of water trickling, or is her mind grasping at straws?
The growing twilight and Sara's anxious stare sharpens her hearing. Yes... now she is certain it is water...
"Yes... yes, I think so..." she says. "I hear the river! This way!"
Momoko lunges forward, towards the direction where she thinks the sound is coming from. Sara, feeling enthused by her friend's burst of energy, follows close behind.
Over the next half hour, the landscape remained the same, but a rising odor of dampness in the air urges them on. The ground beneath them slowly changes; the carpet of plants thins, the earth becomes muddier, making sloppy, sucking sounds under the impact of their feet.
The sounds of running water get louder too.
"There!" Momoko points in triumph. She grins broadly.
Sara follows her gesture and returns the smile. In the distance, across a dark expanse of water and fern flecked mud, is a river. The area is rimmed with trees, but none grow in the wet earth.
Not heeding the warning the strange site is offering to the observant, both young woman dash forward, eager to cross the stream. On the other side lies hope they can find their way back to the village, and the Rover...
Sara has been following Momoko across the slushy ground when it happened, so fast she couldn't believe it. One moment she is watching her friend making her way towards the river, and the next...
The ground melts beneath Momoko without warning, and with a shrill cry of terror she sinks downwards, her slim bare legs rapidly gliding deep into a thick slurry of muddy slime, which swallows her past her hips in an eye blink.
Sara rushes forward to try and help... only to feel her feet quickly sink into the wobbling wet mass...
Looking around desperately as she is consumed to mid thigh, Sara gaps in horror as the ground around them liquifies, transforming into a heavy, viscous jelly. Sara can feel Momoko's panicked movements ripple through the sudden quagmire, as her friend thrashes desperately to free herself.
"Help me! Sara! Help me! Help meeeee..."
"Stop moving around! You're making it worse!"
Momoko freezes in place, her bare belly quivering in reaction to the cool touch of the liquid earth. She struggles to remain calm, even as she feels herself slip a little deeper into the morass.
"Sara... I can't feel any bottom here... and I keep going down... I'm sinking... I'm sinking fast!"
"Calm down..." Sara gasps, trying to rein in her own hammering heart. The hems of her shorts have submerged, and the fabric darkens from the moisture it soaks up.
She also cannot feel anything solid beneath her feet, which continue to slip downward into the shifting mass of jungle muck. Straining, Sara attempts to free her legs, but is unable to budge either of them.
"Damn... I... I can't move..." She looks over to Momoko, whose sunk past her belly, and sees the fear in her eyes. Thick rims of mud surround her lower ribs now, and she lifts her arms up in a desperate attempt to keep them out of the sticky grime.
"I can't either..." she whimpers. "Oh, God... what is this stuff? It's like quicksand or something..."
"Or something..." Sara replies. Despite her best efforts to remain still, she continues to sink, shuddering when the mud oozes heavily over her groin, cups the bottom of her hips and surrounds the top of her shorts.
Momoko's breathing becomes more ragged as she settles deeper... the heavy mud has worked its way up her rib cage and now cradles her breasts in its clammy, rubbery grip. She stretches her arms out further, and turns her head, looking at Sara just as the brunette slips waist deep in the slimy earth.
"Sara... what are we going to do? What?"
"I don't know..." Sara says, as her control starts to slip. She looks around frantically, but can't find anything to grab hold of to pull herself free. "I don't know..."
Momoko cries out as she sinks further. The muddy slime flows over her shirt, filling her cleavage and lapping at her underarms.
"Help! Somebody help us!!! We're sinking fast! Help!" she shouts, the dark mud slowly creeping over her chest.
Sara slips down a little deeper, shivering as the mud rises to her lower ribs.
"Momoko... save your breath.... there's no one around for miles..." she says, a tone of resignation in her voice. "No one even knows we're out here..."
Momoko utters a sob, as the mire reaches the top of her shoulders. She struggles to keep her arms up, but is losing that battle. They are now half sunk in the quaking surface.
"Oh God... oh God.... we're going to die, aren't we? We're going to keep on sinking and sinking until the quicksand sucks us under..."
"Don't say that..." Sara says, as the muck presses under her breasts. "Don't say that... Momoko..." The weight of the backpack keeps dragging hard on her shoulder, but she won't give it up.
Momoko is panting now, her breath coming in a shallow series of gasps, the jelly-mud slapping lazily beneath her chin. Her arms had slipped under several minutes before, and the mud's surface churns from her efforts to try to stay afloat for just a few more moments.
Sara, her breasts half sunk now in the quavering muck, stretches out her right arm towards her friend. Momoko, who has tilted her head back to keep the mud from covering her mouth, is now ear deep in the morass. Her pith helmet, its rim sunk into the muck's surface, tilts back farther like the lid of a car's trunk, exposing her forehead to the jungle air.
"Reach for me..." Sara says. "I'm... I'm not sinking as fast as you... maybe I can..."
"I... can't move my arms..." Momoko gasps, the mud rising over her ears. Only her face and the front half of her helmet remain above the quivering mass of muddy ground. Her eyes widen in terror and panic.
Sara, tears blurring her eyes, can only watch as the dark mud consumes Momoko.
"I'm sorry.... I'm so sorry to have gotten you into this..." she sobs quietly.
Momoko falls silent, and stops struggling. Her eyes lock onto Sara's, and she manages a weak smile before her mouth slips under. Her nostrils flare as she inhales noisily, her body trying to bring in all the air it can, although it is plain this is a futile gesture.
In moments, the dark muck stops up her nose, and Momoko begins struggling again, in an attempt to clear the jungle mire. But all this does is drive her under, the muck oozing over her sunken eyes and forehead, her last words muffled murmurs, her final breath sputtering wetly on the heaving surface.
"Momoko.... oh, Momoko...." Sara says, tears running down her mud spattered cheeks.
As a final, somewhat macabre touch, her pith helmet, now free of its owner, rises slightly and falls forward with a soft slap, bobbing gently on the dark quicksand's surface. Thick bubbles form and pop around it.
Sara, now sunk to her shoulders, can still feel Momoko squirming, deep within the muddy bog, as it trembles in response to her movements.
"Don't worry, Momoko.... I'll be joining you soon..." she says softly.
Feeling the strap of the backpack dig at her, Sara sighs, and shrugs it off. She feels the object with the idol within it slide past her as it sinks rapidly into the bottomless slime.
"You want it so much... you can keep it..." she says, and shudders as warmish mud rolls over the top of her shoulders and surrounds her neck.
Unlike Momoko, Sara doesn't tilt her head back in her last moments. Instead, she takes a deep breath and stares at the pith helmet, feeling the mud rise over her mouth and nose, filling her ears to muffle all sound, save for the pounding of her heart.
As the mire rises over her cheeks, she closes her eyes, feeling the heavy mud press against her eyelids. She feels herself gliding downward, her hair floating briefly before being pulled down with the rest of her as the quicksand closes over the crown of her head.
Lungs bursting, Sara attempts to let out the last of her air slowly, an effort to ease herself out of this world. But the heaviness of the quicksand wouldn't let her, and all of her breath is forced out at once, causing the bog's surface to froth violently.
Panic seizes her as her body tries to suck in air, but instead finds only brackish mud... and Sara thrashes out the last of her life painfully beneath the suffocating jungle mire.
The last of the day's light fades over the expanse of quicksand, as two sets of bubbles slow, then fade away quietly. The surface ceases to quake and ripple, and soon all is calm again. A pair of shallow dents, lightly coated with a thin skin of water, gradually fill in.
The only thing to disturb the slowly flattening surface and to mark the resting place of Sara and Momoko is a single, half sunk pith helmet...
