The World's Next Plague

by Colten Steele

  “You guys go ahead, I will catch up,” was Manon’s reply.

  Armando walked into the picture and spoke seriously. “There is no time for this. We have to stay together.”

  “Okay, okay. I will wrap this up. Seriously, go on ahead. I am one minute behind you.”

  Armando walked out of the picture, and Manon stared back into the camera.

  “We have discovered a terrible secret here deep in the Brazilian rainforest. If I do not make it back to civilization or nothing is done to address this dreadful threat to mankind, and you are seeing this, please find a way to get this information to the people who can make a difference. Please don’t let this danger stay hidden until it is too late. The consequences of…”

  A scream split the air and Manon’s head snapped to his right. He bolted to his feet and lunged towards the camera. He reached for the button to stop the recording, but missed. A second scream and a gunshot caused him to jump and look off again into the distance. Manon stumbled, upsetting the tripod. The camera fell directly into the dirt and leaves, lens first, before leaning to its left and hitting the ground with a jarring impact. The video camera briefly flickered out, showing only a black screen, before it continued recording. The filth covered lens ended up pointing towards the turmoil, but only a portion of the scene was visible.

  Manon regained his feet and the camera recorded him sprinting away. In the distant background, a few meters into the trees and brush, blurred by the dirty lens, vague shapes could be seen struggling on the ground, while others stood with weapons pointing towards the commotion.

  ~ Chapter XIII ~

  As Manon had predicted the night before, the biggest problem of all were the spiders… just not in the way he had imagined.

  The howler monkey fought the instinct to flee as the three large men approached. The guns gave off the particularly disturbing scent of metal and oil. He grew more unsettled as they got closer. He moved further behind the trunk of the tree he was in, and there remained motionless.

  Only when the men approached within ten meters did he begin to sense the spiders secured to the top of their packs. Gradually, his caution turned to a blinding rage. The nearest man passed just below him and the second was just behind. The primate could sense a spider near the man’s head.

  The howler monkey dropped down directly on top of the second man and attacked the back of his head with teeth and claws. The man, bleeding copiously, screamed and clawed at his attacker. Panicked, he stuck his rifle over his right shoulder, next to his ear, and shot at whatever was on his back. Blood flowed from his ear and a loud buzzing invaded his head. From the remaining working eardrum, he heard another scream, though he was unable to tell which direction it came from.

  The man threw off his backpack behind him. The monkey fell to the ground with it. Sensing the spider’s presence in the box, the primate started ripping at the thin material covering the plastic with teeth and nails in an uncontrolled frenzy.

  The bitten man turned quickly around, fully intending to shoot his attacker. At that moment, with his weapon half raised, he fell to the ground and started convulsing.

  ~ Chapter XIV ~

  Armando turned around to face the screams and gunshots behind him. The scene was overwhelming in its confusion.

  One of the soldiers with him was down on his back, face bloody, shaking uncontrollably. His weapon still tightly clutched in one hand clattered against the hard soil. Next to the man on the ground, a black ball of thick fur was savagely ripping strips of material from a backpack, tossing them into the air. Further down the trail, the third soldier in line was kneeling on the ground, bent halfway over, holding his hands tightly over a bleeding wound in his chest. Blood poured through his fingers.

  Armando took quick aim at the attacker ripping through the backpack and shot three times. At this short distance each shot hit and the thing was thrown back down the trail, rolling, where it collided with the third soldier in the path.

  The ball of fur jumped back to its feet disoriented, and Armando could see now it was a monkey. He could not risk another shot since there was no way to avoid hitting the other man behind it.

  The third soldier punched feebly at the bleeding hairy beast which had appeared in front of him. The monkey attacked the threat in return, and soon the two were rolling on the ground. The quickly weakening man with the chest wound was reduced to fending off the bites and scratches of his incredibly powerful attacker when Armando arrived.

  Armando grabbed the monkey and threw him from the man. The furry creature flew through the air and landed hard up against a tree trunk. It was quickly back on its feet and striding towards Armando with incredible dexterity.

  Armando just had time to pull his pistol up and take a snap shot at the creature before it leapt up and locked its jaws onto his forearm.

  Time seemed to slow. Events moved frame by frame. Armando noticed Manon running their direction. He noticed the third soldier at his feet convulsing uncontrollably with his backpack still secured tightly around his torso. The assailant latched to him had blood filled eyes like a madman, nostrils flaring, as it worried his arm.

  Armando was surprised there was no pain. In a motion that seemed to take minutes he brought the pistol up, placed the end of the barrel at the side of the monkey’s head, and squeezed off a shot. The top of the head disappeared in slow motion. The body fell lifeless to the ground in front of him, taking a portion of his arm in jaws which had locked up tight in death.

  As time returned to its normal speed, Manon arrived. He was digging around through the destroyed pack and finally located a first aid kit. Manon pulled out a spray bottle containing disinfectant and large gauze pad before approaching Armando.

  “Let me see your arm,” Manon demanded. Logically, he knew there was no hope of stopping what was going to happen next, but years of experience in dangerous situations had taught him to instinctively care for his team.

  Armando held out the arm. Shock still counteracted his pain. Manon liberally applied the disinfectant spray to the gaping wound.

  “Hold this,” he instructed Armando, and pushed the large square of gauze into the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Armando put his hand on the white fabric and held it there while Manon started wrapping it tightly with more gauze from a roll he had found.

  Armando asked “Why am I not changed? The others all fell quickly when they were bitten.”

  “I think you are immune,” Manon suggested. “I believe you would have turned into a Jombi when Rock attacked you if you were susceptible to the infection.”

  Armando stared into the distance. He was getting weak from blood loss. The adrenalin had quickly worn off and left him tired. “Immune?”

  A shot caused him to come back to the present. Peering around Manon, Armando saw Pauley holding a pistol. He had taken a shot from behind the soldier without the backpack who had regained his feet and was lumbering, with arms extended, towards Manon. Pauley took a second shot which hit between the shoulder blades, causing a gout of blood and tissue to explode from a hole in its chest, but the creature continued approaching.

  Manon watched as Pauley moved the gun towards him. At first, Manon was sure Pauley was aiming directly at him, but then he noticed the gun was pointing directly over his shoulder. It was then Manon realized he had forgotten about the threat behind him; the soldier still wearing the backpack

  Manon saw the pistol leap in Pauley’s hands, and heard the bullet pass near his head, just before a heavy weight collapsed on top of him, tearing with hands and teeth at his neck and shoulders. Next to him, Armando was struggling to fend off an attack from the Jombi Pauley had shot from behind.

  The last thing Manon saw before succumbing to the darkness was Pauley running wildly away into the jungle.

  ~ Epilogue 1 ~

  Tanis knew he did not have long to live. It had been two moons since the white men had changed into Jombi. The three o
f them stood as silent sentinels, guarding the clearing, since that day. The fourth man had not turned, and Tanis had watched from a safe distance as the others tore the screaming survivor to pieces.

  For the last two days, Tanis had been propped up against a large tree trunk at the edge of the clearing. His shirt, necklaces and other bangles had been set beside him on the ground. A swollen red lump larger than his fist protruded from his scrawny right leg. He was sweating, and the pain in his legs kept him from being able to walk. Sensing weakness, the spiders were growing bolder with each passing hour, and now waited just out of his reach.

  Tanis had not had anything to drink in days. His tongue was swollen and his head throbbed dreadfully. Occasionally, he would return to reality and have a few minutes of lucid thought, before again becoming confused, forgetting where and who he was.

  In one of these moments of clarity Tanis made his last conscious decision. Falling sideways, he grasped a nearby spider with desiccated, stick-like, fingers. The fangs sank deep into his wrist and soon the pain and thirst were forgotten.

  ~ Afterward ~

  I watched the end of the tape many times on our way back to civilization. It was very difficult to see everything that was happening. The recording showed a chaotic scene, and it was impossible to make out all of the details due to the distance and the lens being partially obscured.

  I was able to see something dark and covered in fur jump from the trees and attack the group, but I was unable to make out exactly what it had been. I believe it was a howler monkey based on the calls from the wildlife we heard while my crew was in the clearing many years later, but it could have been a different species.

  I was able to count the gunshots and watch as the crew fought among themselves for survival. I also watched as three distinct figures stood after all of the commotion was over. Each stayed in one spot until the camera stopped recording. A fourth figure lay unmoving on the ground.

  When my crew was there, we did not encounter any spiders, but on the recording made by Manon the plentiful spiders were often referred to and discussed. I do not know what happened to them all in the many years before we arrived. Perhaps their species, once infected, was unable to reproduce and they died out.

  I also watched as Pauley escaped into the jungle unharmed. Where he went, what he did, or if he survived is a mystery. As far as I know, the green bottle went with him.

  I took many liberties with the story to fill in the missing pieces, but the tape exists... or at least it once existed. I encourage anyone at the Archive channel to search for and distribute the tape. I also encourage those in authority or in the medical community to take this threat seriously before it is too late. If there is the slightest chance an illness like the one I saw still exists, we must be proactive in finding and eliminating it.

  ###END###

  Author Notes