They were leeches, albeit monstrous ones mutated by the wastelands. They hid themselves on leaves and twigs, in muddy ground and gravel. When they weren’t feeding, they were thin and brown like twigs, making them difficult to spot. When something got close enough, the parasites latched on and began to gorge.
They didn’t only drink blood but consumed fat beneath the skin as well. Once that was gone, the leeches began to consume muscle, continuously releasing a numbing agent to keep the host unaware. By the time victims became weak or started having dizzy spells, they were already on death’s doorstep.
“Not your hands!” Leonine cried. “Ya gotta burn ‘em off!” [2]
Everyone else was checking themselves and each other for the nasty hitchhikers. Cloudhawk found several and though he didn’t know how long they’d been feeding on him, they were already round and fat. He was covered in the cold sweat of fear, but thankfully there weren’t many. It could have been much worse.
So far there wasn’t much Cloudhawk liked about this devilish jungle.
They quickly fled the leech breeding grounds and came upon a place where the sound of trickling water tickled their ears. They found a brook whose sound was as pleasing as a jade wind chime. It wasn’t a large stream, but in the parched and baked wastelands where they came from, it was a deluge worth more than any treasure.
“Stay away from the water.” Leonine spoke in a manner that left no room for debate. “We go around!”
Enticing as the brook was, Leonine had shown them he knew the dangers of the oasis eight or nine times by now. If he said not to go near it, the others weren’t going to question him.
They started trekking around the banks.
All of a sudden, a strange animal call sounded from the trees nearby. Leonine, his face stiffening, lifted his hand. “Stop!”
Everyone froze, still as the trees that circled them. What new terror were they in store for?
As Cloudhawk carefully looked around, he found a creature lying on its stomach amidst the foliage. Its skin was a magnificent bluish-green and was covered in a slick fluid that glistened. Its cheeks puffed out as an air pouch bulged from its throat. Elaborate patterns were etched on the skin of its dorsum and its underbelly was a plain white. Altogether, this new monster was about the size of a wild dog and was the source of that strange cry.
In the old days, it was called a frog.
This creature had since mutated like everything else. In addition to its size, its moist skin was also covered in scaly armor.
One of the fighters reacted by firing a bolt at it from his crossbow.
Thud.
The arrow tumbled into the forest. The front half dug harmlessly into the ground while the back clattered into the brush and it was then that they noticed that a corrosive fluid was eating away at it. Too fast for them to see, the giant frog had used its tongue to knock the bolt out of the air.
“You fucking jackass! Who told you to shoot?!”
Leonine had to fight the urge to cut the moron apart with his knife. A frog’s dynamic vision was highly attuned and it could pick out targets mid-flight no matter how fast they were moving. However, staying still made the frogs effectively blind, and if one was lucky, one could avoid detection. Now that this idiot attacked the frog, it could guess where they were.
Rrribbit! Rrrrrrribit, ribbit! [3]
The sounds came from all around them like a tide. As many as six or seven frogs appeared, perfectly camouflaged in the jungle around them until now. If they remained still and quiet, there was practically no way to pick them out of the surroundings.
“Move!”
Leonine cleaved one of the frogs with his saber and made to retreat. These monsters could leap tremendous distances and used their tongues to attack prey. Not only were their muscular tongues as dangerous and speedy as bullets, they were also coated with a powerful toxin. One hit and its victim would go numb and lose consciousness.
Luckily, the frogs weren’t interested in eating humans. So long as offenders left their territory, they weren’t known for chasing over long distances. Leonine lost three more warriors in the course of their escape and they were forced to find another way around.
“Eh? What’s that?”
Not long after fleeing the threat of death by frog, the diminished group came across a grove of trees. Blanketing their roots were red and purple fungi growing from the decayed remains of… something. The largest of them was about as tall as a man, its cap wide as an umbrella. Its particular shade sparkled like a gemstone, beautiful to behold.
What in the world was this growth? Even Leonine had never seen anything like it before.
The oasis was a never-ending parade of strange and fantastical things, so coming across something new wasn’t uncommon. What Leonine did know was that these kinds of plants usually grew on the corpses of dead mutant creatures and humans. Fresh and delectable as they looked, did these fungi also feed on flesh?
Whether they did or not wasn’t important. The fewer mysterious and unknown things they came across, the better.
They didn’t have a choice. Leonine would have to lead them along another detour.
The others didn’t offer an opposing opinion. Only a fool would look at the bones strewn across the floor and think they indicated safe passage. Who would go looking for trouble? Finding a longer way was better than dying, certainly!
The thirty-some who remained tread along the outer ring of the grove and around.
Suddenly, a mighty gust swept through and spores from the mushroom forest were rustled up. Like a cloud, they spread over a wide area, with some landing on the travelers’ clothes or skin. Some were inhaled deep into unwitting lungs.
Bad. This was bad.
Everyone’s face changed when they realized what had happened. They didn’t know what these spores were, but they knew anything from the mushrooms touching them had to be bad.
1. I went walking through wilds of Shangri-la once with a group of people and my wife. We stopped to take some pictures and I wandered through a bush. When I got out on the other side I noticed something squirming on my calf and realized it was a leech. I’d never felt it grab me but it was quickly getting fat. I had to really pull to get it off while my wife was hysterical. When we got back to the van, the driver just said to slap em a few times and they fall off, or failing that, take a lighter to their tail. You might be surprised to learn that leeches are used even today in modern hospitals as an effective way to draw out stagnant blood.
2. See.
3. In China they describe a frog’s sound like ‘gua’, which I think is more accurate really.
58 The Fatal Forest
Cloudhawk was one of the unfortunate ones to breath in the spores. The initial reaction was a pungent and burning sensation that ran all along his throat and into his lungs. It felt like he’d breathed in burning coal dust.
It only lasted four or five seconds before things began to change. Sensations Cloudhawk didn’t expect emerged.
A sense of elation welled up in him, a joy that went beyond anything reasonable. It started in his brain and spread out to every part of his body until he felt like he was floating among the clouds. He no longer felt the pain from his wounds, or even remembered they were there.
These spores stopped pain?
Cloudhawk began to notice other changes. His heart began to beat faster and images flitted out of the corners of his eyes. His head felt heavy and muddled like he was in a dream world which only increased this enigmatic happy mood he found himself in.
These spores had to be some sort of neurotoxin, a natural hallucinogenic. Victims felt joyous and were filled with contentment, but also hallucinated and were numbed to the outside world. However, it was also intensely addictive. The moment Cloudhawk breathed it in, he couldn’t stop. He wanted more. Like a drunk man, he swayed unsteadily, fighting a bone-deep itch and a stuffy ringing in his head. He had to have more. He needed to keep this high going.
What to do? Why, the
cadaver-strewn cluster of mushrooms had plenty more spores!
Enticing as the thought was, Cloudhawk recognized the danger. He sharply bit his tongue in an attempt to clear his head. He covered his mouth and nose with a cloth used to keep out wind and sand.
The Bloodsoaked Queen had also started to sway and her eyes were glassy. Cloudhawk lurched towards her and covered her mask’s air intake valve with his hand. He loudly called to her. “Don’t breathe it. Don’t breathe! The spores are poisonous!”
She was a willful and tenacious woman, so when Cloudhawk called to her, she quickly recovered her senses. Angry and ashamed, she growled at him through her mask. “Touch me again and I’ll cut your hand off.”
Clearly the Queen wasn’t being negatively affected by the dust anymore. Cloudhawk sighed in relief and removed his hand.
Seemingly, the effects of the neurotoxin were quick to dissipate, but just as quick were the onset of withdrawal symptoms. Cloudhawk felt like there were a hundred ants crawling along his bones, a sensation that was maddening.
Luckily, he and the Queen had only inhaled a small amount. A few of their companions were not so fortunate and had been subjected to a much larger dose. The resulting hallucinations broke their minds.
“Ah! Ah! Aaaaaahhhhhh!!”
A few of them were red from head to toe like they’d been boiled, their mouths working like fish out of water. There were not enough spores in the air to feed their addiction so their desperate eyes fixed on the mushroom cluster.
Cloudhawk shouted. “Quick, grab ‘em!”
His words fell on deaf ears. Most of the fighters had taken in some spores and were battling their effects themselves. How could they stop these three crazed addicts when they could hardly handle it themselves?
Cloudhawk could only watch as these three poor bastards stumbled into the mushroom forest. They barked and howled, pulled off their clothes, and dug dirty nails into their skin to reach itches they’ll never be able to scratch.
Pop! Sllluuurp.
They ripped off strips of their own skin and cast them to the ground with wet slaps. Insane, they ran from invisible foes and inflicted terrible wounds on themselves in their all-consuming hysteria.
In a blink, they became fonts of blood. They wandered through the mushroom forest, nourishing the earth with their vital fluids, and sowing the earth with their own flesh like attentive farmers in their fields. The gruesome, gory display continued for ten minutes until, no longer able to hold up their mangled bodies, the men collapsed in the center of the mushroom patch.
More flesh and blood were scattered over the field than was left on their bones. Cloudhawk tried not to think about what he’d just witnessed.
Fuck, that’s how these evil mushrooms had grown so well. It also explained all these twisted bones! Watching these killers wander to their own deaths and turn themselves into fertilizer… if I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I’d hardly believe it.
Eventually, the others snapped out of it and when they saw the grisly fate that had befallen their companions, everyone was eager to leave. They fled as quickly as they could, but were exhausted from the trying journey and were still suffering the after-effects of the mushroom spores. They found what they hoped was a relatively safe place to rest and recover.
“Hey Leonine, how much farther to the Greenland Outpost?” Cloudhawk was throwing bits of rabbit jerky into his mouth and chewing on them to regain some strength. “Can we get there today?” He asked.
“It ain’t far,” he replied. “But it ain’t a question of gettin’ there – it’s about gettin’ there ‘fore night falls.” Leonine swept his eyes around their dimming surroundings with visible concern. “If we get caught here over night, not half this crew will see the next sunrise!”
Hunters preferred to stalk their prey in the dark.
The wastelands were vast and sparsely populated by both beasts and foliage. They, of course, had their own dangers. The situation they found themselves in here within the oasis was different, for though it was smaller, it had a hundred times the number of fiends hidden inside. During the day, predators stayed in their lairs, but when the cloak of night descended, the forest would become a thousand times more dangerous.
Cloudhawk was dispirited but also curious. “Leonine, I can tell you know the oasis well. You’ve gotta be from the Greenland Outpost, am I right?”
“Nope.”
“So why are you headed there?”
Before being brought to this damn oasis, Cloudhawk wouldn’t have even thought to ask the question. After all the dangers he and the Queen had been subjected to, he couldn’t keep his mouth shut any longer. Leonine’s response, that he wasn’t from the Greenland Outpost, took him by surprise. If that were true, then what was the whole point of this escapade? Traveling through the oasis, the ruins, and the wastelands was nothing but a parade of personal risk.
Leonine lifted his head and stared at Cloudhawk. “My business is my own. You don’t need to understand. Just like I’m not askin’ you any questions about what y’all are up to.”
Cloudhawk furrowed his brows at the answer. There was something off about this old man!
He believed that there was always a reason for everything someone did. There had to be some purpose for which Leonine risked his life again and again in the oasis, even if that reason was just that he was looking to die. But if he wasn’t going to fess up, what could Cloudhawk do about it?
Besides, the wastelands were covered in sweepers that would kill him without a second thought. Any situation was better than the one he'd been in before.
Leonine used his saber to help push him to his feet. “We’re movin’.”
As the oasis got darker, some of the soldiers fashioned makeshift torches and the group used the light of these fires to grope along. As the light of day slipped away, they could see less and less of their surroundings, while the creatures that hunted at the night could move through it like fish in water.
The Queen trudged along beside them until suddenly, she came to a stop. She called out with a harsh whisper. “I hear something!”
Cloudhawk stopped and focused, holding his breath so he could pay closer attention. From the depths of the trees, he could indeed hear something that sounded like the flapping of insect wings. As the buzz grew louder, he could tell there were a bunch of them, and they were getting closer.
Cloudhawk carefully listened for the precise location of the sound. Then, drawing his exorcist rod, he swung around and struck! His weapon connected with a hard shell and something hit the ground. It was like a locust from the old days, only huge and writhing frantically on the ground. It was about the size of a pigeon from the history books, but with a hideous head and eight long, black talons. Most frightening was its scorpion-like tail, which he knew at a glance was filled with poison.
“Scorpion Locusts.” Leonine could hear the sound closing in around them too. “Douse those torches, we gotta get outta here!”
The makeshift torches were hastily thrown to the ground and put out. Leonine wasted no time taking the lead and guiding them away.
As they wandered through the darkness Cloudhawk could see and hear all manner of hideous bugs flitting around. Suddenly, the forest was full of them, no less than a hundred pairs of wings aggressively buzzing by their ears. Once they spotted the humans, they gave chase.
“Ah!”
One of the locusts rushed at a fighter and latched onto his face with its sharp claws. Blood poured as the black talons dug into flesh. Although several of his companions were coming to join the fray, the scorpion locust whipped its hideous tail and jabbed it right into its victim’s cheek. In a matter of seconds, he swelled up like a balloon. The fighter couldn’t scream, couldn’t flee, and just collapsed to the ground mouth foaming white froth.
Ten more swarmed him. He managed to struggle, but only for a few short moments before he became dinner for these carnivorous insects.
Cloudhawk stared in horror. Its poison was tha
t potent?
He screwed his focus to its limit, determined not to let any of these monstrosities get close. Luckily, he was still close to the Queen so if any of them got past his stick, she could deal with them. If not for her, Cloudhawk was sure he wouldn’t survive the night even if he had ten lives.
Another pained cry rang out. Their crew had lost another one.
Leonine hadn’t planned on running into creatures like these either. They were coming in from every direction. The most frightening thing about this threat was that one tiny scratch was enough to seal one’s fate.
There was no choice. They had to do whatever they could to survive!
Leonine took off and the others followed him into a host of cobwebs. The locusts gave chase but were predictably caught by the sticky tendrils that thickly covered the trees. Struggled as they might, they couldn’t break free.
The humans didn’t have a chance to catch their breaths.
Scores of enormous spiders leapt from their nests in the trees. Each one was a meter or two long, too numerous to count. The oasis had gone from a cloud of insects to a maze of spiders and spider webs. Quicker than they thought possible, the spiders’ prey were wrapped up like mummies and left to dangle in the wind, hanging like ghastly fruit from the trees.
Thud!
One of the spiders spat a glob of sticky spider web, striking one of the fleeing humans. He was immediately stuck, but more terrifying was the quality of the spider silk. It was coated in some sort of corrosive fluid and the skin it touched first turned red and then turned necrotic black, sizzling all the while.
Spiders chittered closer, in numbers greater than the travelers could believe.
Cloudhawk couldn’t help but shout through the night. “Leonine, what kind of fucking hell did you lead us into!”
“It’s a shortcut!” He didn’t mention that it was a shortcut he hadn’t wanted to take, but if they hadn’t taken this risk, they surely would have died. More of the locusts were fighting through the webs and the spiders went after them. Natural enemies, the two sides continued to take each other out.
The Wastelander Page 44
