The Man with Munnari Eyes

by M L Bellante

  The Man with Munnari Eyes

  Novel One

  The Munnari Chronicles:

  ML Bellante

  Copyright 2019 ML Bellante

  All rights reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without specific written permission from the publisher. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

  Bookwise Publishing, Riverton, Utah

  www.bookwisepublishing.com

  Editor & Producer: K Christoffersen

  Illustrator: Brian Hailes

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2019940217

  ISBN 978-1-60645-240-0 Trade Paperback

  ISBN 978-1-60645-238-7 Ebook

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Order online at Amazon.com

  7/8/2019

  Dedication

  To my wonderful wife, Denise,

  who stands by my side through all things;

  and to my marvelous children . . .

  Kimberly, Aaron, Brian, Michelle,

  Colleen, Keith, and Nicole

  who challenge and inspired me.

  CHAPTER 1

  AN UNEXPECTED PLACE

  He opened his eyes and found himself in an unexpected place. Not the sterile grays of the rip chamber he was expecting, but a wilderness of lush greens, dense brush, and towering trees whose canopy blocked the sky. He was flat on his back, and as he peered through the visor of his environmental suit, he could see a triple layer of vegetation above. Obviously, this was not Tranquility’s He-3 Base. His nausea began to subside, but a headache raged. As it slowly began to abate, he gathered his wits and made his first attempt to communicate.

  “Houston, this is Coleman, do you copy? Over.” He waited a few moments, but all he heard was dead air and the faint call of a bird’s chatter. “Houston, this is Coleman, do you copy? Over.”

  He lay on his back looking upward through his helmet visor. Unexpectedly, he felt a tugging at his left boot. He raised his head high enough to see a huge creature pulling at it. The creature’s body was over a foot across. It had eight legs, each covered in what appeared to be a hard shell encrusted with thorns or small spikes. The body had a thorny shell to match and was segmented in two places. Its coloring matched the greens and browns of the surrounding vegetation.

  In a convulsive reaction, he kicked at the creature. It reared back on its six hind legs and motioned threateningly with its two pincer-tipped front legs. Suddenly, its body turned dark red as it started to wave back and forth threateningly. Coleman instinctively sat upright and scooted back a few feet. The creature continued its threat pose for a few more seconds, forelegs still waving from side to side, daring Coleman to approach. When he didn’t, the creature lowered itself and scuttled away, disappearing into the thick, verdant cover.

  In a slightly panicked voice, Coleman repeated, “Houston, this is Coleman. Do you copy? Over.” He noticed a few ants or termites, each more than two inches long, crawling over the legs of his suit. He jumped up and brushed them off, stamping his feet and doing a wild dance in the process. “Giant spiders and big bugs are not what I signed up for! Houston, this is Coleman! Do you copy? Over.” All he heard was white noise coming from his helmet’s speaker.

  He breathed deeply and took account of himself for a moment. His headache and nausea were gone. He had been warned by the med-team to expect these effects, and they were right. He was grateful they didn’t last long.

  “Houston, this is Coleman. Do you copy? Over.” Nothing. “If anyone can hear me, please respond. Over.” He touched the control panel on his belt and activated the beacon. “Houston, I’ve activated the beacon. I’ll continue transmitting in case you can hear me, but I still can’t hear you. I’m in a kind of jungle or rainforest. I’ve seen two-inch long ants and a spiny spider with a body over a foot long. I don’t know where things like this come from, but I hope you do. Over.”

  Coleman started looking around the area. Not much to see except heavy vegetation. As he moved, a creature would occasionally dart deeper into the undergrowth, disturbing the bushes and leaves. He was never able to get a good look at what was moving. All he saw were flashes of movement on the periphery of his vision.

  Surprisingly, he felt something hit his helmet and he watched as orange goo slowly slid down his visor. He turned, looked upward, and saw a monkey peering at him from around the trunk of a tree about twenty feet up in the branches. Again, he felt something hit him, this time in the back.

  “Oh, that’s just great. Now, I’ve got monkeys throwing rotten fruit at me. Houston, this is Coleman. I don’t think I’m in the Everglades. There are monkeys here. They are about three feet tall, have light brown hair, and black skin. Oh, and they have tails about three feet long. Over.”

  Now, that should really make it easy for them to locate me, he thought sarcastically. That pretty much describes half of all the monkey species. He knew he needed to find something unique about the area to help mission control find his location. Maybe I should try to find one of those spider things. The thought of hunting spiders the size of basketballs didn’t please him at all. He’d hated all arachnids since he’d been bitten by a black widow when he was a child. He still had a tiny scar on his left wrist from the bite.

  He began moving around the small clearing where he had landed. He brushed aside the leafy fern under which the spider had disappeared. Nothing there and nothing moved. Whatever it was, it had left the area. He breathed a sigh of relief and continued his search, disturbing more creatures in the process. They scuttled away as quickly as they could, ensuring that he was never able to get a good look at them. He did, however, transmit detailed descriptions of all the plants he saw.

  Coleman searched for an hour while his environmental suit continued to keep him cool and comfortable, but he knew it had only about twenty-four hours of battery life. Conserving his suit’s batteries was going to be a priority. It was his only way of communicating with mission control. The beacon had its own power source and would continue transmitting for seventy-two hours. He hoped to be home by then. He flipped another switch on his belt and the suit turned off, releasing the stays of his helmet. He grabbed it between his two gloved hands, gave it a quick turn, and lifted it over his head. A blast of warm, dense air cascaded over him. In his first breath, he tasted an eternity of rotting debris.

  “Man, this place stinks,” he said aloud. He found a fallen branch, stuck it into the soft earth and put his helmet on it. It looked like a head on a pike. Thirst nagged at him. “I’m going to need water before long. I wonder if there’s a fast running stream around here?” He listened intently for a few seconds, but all he could hear was the constant chatter of birds and the occasional hoot of a monkey.

  “Runny stream,” came a voice from the branches above. Coleman jerked his head in the direction of the sound. Staring back at him was a large parrot-like bird with green and black feathers. “Runny stream,” it called again.

  “Now, that’s impressive, my friend,” said Coleman.

  The bird responded with, “My fend,” and cocked its head sideways. Coleman laughed, and the bird spread its wings and flew away repeating, “My fend . . . my fend . . . my fend,” until Coleman could hear it no longer.

  All at once, a bright flash bathed the jungle floor in white light, acc
enting the black shadows. A few seconds later came the rolling thunder. “Nuts!” was Coleman’s reply as he reached for his helmet. He had just enough time to secure it on his head before a torrential downpour began. Lightning and thunder flashed and boomed for what seemed to Coleman to be hours. During this time, he found meager shelter under a large leaf. His environmental suit kept him dry, but he continued to worry about its power supply and what he would do when the batteries were exhausted.

  Slowly, the curtain of rain lifted and Coleman saw a horde of insects disgorge from the undergrowth. Quickly, they took flight and he became engulfed in a fog of flying creatures. They appeared to be winged termites with bodies over two inches in length. An even larger dragonfly-like creature darted in quick bursts through the horde of termites. It hovered using its twelve-inch wingspan in front of his face, examining him for several seconds before flitting into the horde of flying insects once more.

  Coleman stood spellbound by what he was watching. As the termites hit one another, they seemed to embrace, their wings falling off, and the creatures dropping to the ground. As this phenomenon continued, he found his visor becoming covered with the discarded wings. Several times he had to wipe them away when his vision became obstructed. Eventually, the swarm subsided. He flipped the power switch on his belt again and the suit shut down. He removed his helmet and tucked it under his left arm. His throat was dry.

  Lots of water around here, he thought. He found a small pool that had formed in the hollow of a large leaf. He gently held the leaf as he took a tentative sip.

  “That’s terrible!” he growled and spat out the bitter water. He tried a few other pools he found on other types of leaves but they weren’t any better. He wasn’t sure if it was safe to drink or not and he didn’t want to find out the hard way. It was time to find some fresh water that didn’t taste as if it came from a sewer.

  He saw movement under one of the leaves from which he had tested the water. It looked like a snake. He watched intently and, as it moved, he could see it had legs, many legs.

  It must be over eight feet long, he thought. The movement stopped. With a shudder, Coleman glanced up to see the head of a multi-legged creature slowly waving back and forth nearly four feet above the jungle floor. Its antennae were twirling in the air and its large mandibles were snapping a warning.

  “What the heck is that?” he yelled and jumped back, moving away from the creature’s head as fast as he could. “I think it’s time to move on. I’m drawing too much attention here.”

  He moved forward in a straight line. He couldn’t be sure of his direction because the triple canopy blocked the sun. He passed many mounds that stood ten to twelve feet high. Taking a closer look, he found large termites crawling in and out of holes in the hills. “I bet these beggars have a nasty bite,” he mumbled to himself.

  Onward he trudged. Several times he found his way blocked by dense foliage and had to backtrack. After about an hour, he thought he heard running water. He carefully moved toward the sound. Eventually, it began to grow louder and soon he came upon a huge, flowing spring. Water gushed more than five feet upward. An artesian well? He cupped his gloved hands, dipped them in it and took a taste. “Not bad,” he said and began gulping down the refreshing liquid. He stepped back and wiped his mouth. I didn’t realize I was so thirsty.

  By this time, he could tell the sun was low in the sky. Dark shadows engulfed the jungle floor. It would be night soon and Coleman knew the most dangerous predators would be out to feed.

  He began to feel hunger pangs himself. He had been required to fast for twenty-four hours before being ripped. The med-team told him fasting would reduce his nausea. Fortunately, his nausea hadn’t lasted long and had removed any desire for food until now. Unfortunately, darkness was approaching and the most important thing for him to do was to find shelter and a safe place overnight.

  He began moving around the spring looking for a place to bed down. As he did, he noticed a lone monkey scrambling down from the branches high above. It jumped to the ground and took a few tentative steps toward the water. It was very observant and kept swiveling its head back and forth. Warily, it dipped its head into the pool of fresh water and drank its fill. After that, several other monkeys gained enough courage to do the same. Down they came in what seemed to be a tide. It wasn’t long before the entire area was covered in brown fur. Coleman remained still as he watched.

  A new, deafening crack echoed from high above. The area again became bathed in white light and a deluge of rain gushed forth. The monkeys started shouting and chattering in surprise as they scurried into the trees. Coleman placed his helmet over his head and activated his suit’s power supply. The rain poured down his visor, distorting his view.

  “I hope this doesn’t last long,” he muttered.

  Darkness slowly engulfed his surroundings, squeezing away what little light that reached the jungle floor. For the first time today he felt alone, isolated, and vulnerable. He still needed to find shelter, but the gathering darkness and the unrelenting torrent of rain weren’t helping. Every few minutes, another round of lightning and thunder testified to him that the heavens were at war with the earth. He had never felt such uneasiness in his life.

  Coleman had spent nearly ten years in the Army, most of that time serving as a Ranger, and he’d spent many a night like this one during training and while on combat missions in South and Central America. Nevertheless, he felt the darkness pressing in on him. The unseen threats and terrors of the night began to cause him to worry because he was unarmed and unprepared to protect himself if he needed to. He sensed danger. He slowly backed up until he gently bumped into a tree trunk. A large fern leaf covered him and provided scant protection from the rain. He remained upright but leaned against the tree for support. He checked his equipment. The beacon was transmitting and he still had several hours of reserve on the main suit.

  First thing in the morning, I’m going to have to build a shelter. I’m not going to be able to rely on the suit much after that.

  He thought he saw something moving ahead of him, so he turned on his helmet’s LEDs and knelt to take a closer look at the biggest slug he had ever seen. Coleman’s head was about a foot off the jungle floor when a feeling of foreboding swelled in his gut. He heard the snap of a twig or branch but before he could turn his head to look, he felt something heavy land on his back, forcing his head into the body of the slug and mashing it all over his visor. Instantly, he knew a powerful creature was attacking him.

  He was lifted by his utility belt and savagely shaken from side to side. Horror filled his heart as snarls and growls filled his ears. Whatever had ahold of him dropped him to the ground and jumped on him again, ripping and tearing at his backpack. He felt a crushing bite to his right arm above the elbow. The pressure was excruciating but the bite failed to penetrate his environmental suit. The creature released his arm and attempted to crush his neck. He could hear the beast’s teeth sliding off his helmet, causing his attacker to become even more enraged. He could feel claws raking his back and sides but, fortunately, none of the strikes reached his flesh. In the air, he could hear panicked screams and shouts, which he realized with a start, were coming from his own mouth.

  The creature continued biting and clawing at him. Every time he attempted to rise to his knees or feet, he was knocked to the ground and suffered another pummeling by tooth and claw. He kept his back to the beast with his arms pulled tight against his sides, hoping this defensive maneuver would provide the most protection from the assault. In the light of the LEDs, he could see bits of fabric from his suit scattered around the area.

  The attack began to subside and he thought for a moment the creature was about to give up. That thought fled his mind as another even more violent attack ensued. His com system sounded an alarm as the stays of his helmet released, and the LEDs turned off.

  “I won’t die like this!” he yelled.

  He grabbed his helmet with both hands and gave it a twist and a pul
l. At the same time, he rolled to his left and grasped the helmet’s neck rim with his right hand. As he did this, the beast leapt at him and began clawing at his chest with its forelegs. Again, the area was bathed in white light as another lightning bolt flashed above. For the first time, he got a glimpse of his assailant. Terror gripped his soul as his eyes stared into a foot-long jaw of razor-sharp teeth, accentuated by six-inch-long fangs. The monster’s face resembled that of a long-snouted dog, yet its skin looked scaly, like that of a reptile or crocodile. It had a long scar chiseled across its snout. Coleman’s body convulsed in a reaction of fear and anger. As the beast lunged for his exposed neck, he slammed his helmet into the side of its head, knocking the creature off him and dazing it. He jumped to his feet and turned to face the monster’s next attack.

  He could hardly see in the darkness and continuing downpour, but the creature’s heavy breathing made it easy to guess where it was. A snarl announced the monster’s next attack was on the way. Coleman swung his helmet at a flash of movement just as the creature hit him in the chest and drove him to the ground again. The beast didn’t go for his neck this time but bit into his right thigh. The pressure was overwhelming and Coleman howled in agony, but the monster’s teeth were unable to penetrate the suit’s tough fabric. Screaming in pain, he sat up and nailed the creature hard on its left side with his helmet. It gave a yelp and retreated.

  Coleman quickly scrambled up and awaited the next assault. Just as he regained his feet, the sky split with a streak of lightning and he could see his antagonist again. It was about six feet long with no tail. Coleman guessed it to be several hundred pounds. Just as quickly, darkness engulfed him, and he heard the creature snarling and circling to his left. In an instant, he was hit again, this time at the knees. He flew into the air and landed in a heap. In a flash, the beast was on him once more, tearing to get at his vitals. Coleman rolled onto his stomach as it began clawing and biting his backpack. A loud, hissing screech filled Coleman’s ears as one of the rebreather tanks was punctured. The creature jumped back and scrutinized this unexpected cacophony. Coleman scrambled to his feet. His left knee ached from the last assault; his right arm and right thigh throbbed from the crushing bites they had suffered. He couldn’t hear the creature this time, so he moved in a tight circle, expecting another attack. He didn’t have to wait long. This time he was hit from the rear and his face slammed into the ground. The monster picked him up by the belt again and shook him. The shaking lasted for more than ten seconds, and Coleman felt himself losing consciousness as a dark green fog invaded his mind.