Survivor 3295743

3

Even though I had won the fight I was still sore as hell and the hole was no longer a viable home. In a hellish wilderness like this where everything seemed to consider me as an appetizer I had no choice but to run. All of the blood and meat from the rats was bound to attract real predatory animals which would probably be too much for me even in better conditions.

Covered in the blood and smell of my recent fighting, I would only be too easy to track down. So, after retrieving my mandibles once more I immediately started making my way up a nearby tree with the help of my mandibles and climbing picks. My goal was to find water to try and clean myself and hide my tracks with.

It was a fairly common concept for animals being hunted, usually by dogs, to cross water and buy time by letting the water cover and move their scent while they got on land somewhere else. I hoped to use the same practice, but something about this insane jungle told me it would not be as easy as I thought. I had only been awake for a few hours and already fought for my life twice against twice as many enemies.

By the time I was high enough up to look over the neighboring treetops one of my mandibles was cracking from the strain of being stabbed into the tough tree. However, it had served its purpose better than I could have expected. I was high enough up that a quick scan of the surroundings revealed a large parting in the jungle trees a few miles away that wound its way through the jungle for as far as I could see.

If that was not a river than I was not a human!

Making my way back down the tree with one breaking mandible was a little troublesome, causing me to favor that side of my body and put more strain on the still whole tool. However, half of the way down, the curving end of the breaking mandible finally split hollowly apart after I had chopped it into the tree. If not for its plethora of teeth that could dig into the bark, I might have dropped like a rock.

Using the teeth remaining on the broken half of mandible to control my fall by dragging at the bark, I actually managed to pick up speed in my climb down from the tree. Once I reached the bottom, though, I found myself looking down at the speckled green and black broken piece of mandible filled with dead and drying tissues with some regret. It might not have been the ultimate weapon but this thing had saved my life at least twice.

"You did your job and you did it well," I say melodramatically to the broken mandible, kicking up a shallow hole in the ground to somewhat respectfully bury the broken tool. In the future I would have to remember how useful the parts of giant bugs were.

I made my way quickly through the jungle in order to put as much distance between myself and the rat hole as I could. Not only was I still dripping their blood with the sweat coming out of my pores but I myself probably looked like a snack to the wildlife here. Being too easy to find would make me too easy to kill.

Along the way I encountered more of the locals such as giant bugs and birds following me among the trees. Luckily, though, none of them decided to attack. Just the first bird I saw was big enough to snatch me up in a single foot and fly away with its healthy snack.

There were also a variety of plants along the way which bore what looked like fruits but I was wary of interacting with them. Even if they were not poisonous eating, one that was unripe would probably give me a crippling food poisoning. The last thing I needed was to eat something that would end up getting me eaten.

I did, though, take the time to examine some vegetation that looked familiar such as a cluster of thorny citrus trees that gave off the familiar scent of lemons and grapefruit. Some of the fruits were different degrees of bluish-green and greenish-yellow so it only took a minute or two to figure out which color was ripe. Using the unripened fruit as a hopeful deterrent, I even tried using the harshly bitter citrus scent to wash and mask some of the blood on my body.

When I finally came within hearing of rushing water I stopped to rest for the first time only to find that I was not all that tired. The sun was roughly only half of the way to the top of the sky when I woke up and was now half of the way down from the top of the sky. With an estimated fifteen hours of daylight, now, I actually woke up at a normal time and it was now a normal early evening.

I had been moving for at least six hours and even after fighting and climbing that tree I felt more or less fine. Just yesterday if I had tried to climb a tree like that I would probably need real equipment and even then I would never get more than a story or two off of the ground. My body honestly felt as if I had been lazy at PE and just walked the track field all class.

Just as I was getting ready to head out I caught the sounds of buzzing from not far away and just overhead. Looking slowly over and up in that direction, I see several large flying insects with six awkwardly long legs half as long as I was tall and a long curling body under a fat head.

The mouth of that broad head was a hollow spear and protruding from where I imagine a chin should be while a shorter but equally chilling hollow stinger protruded from their butts.

Their short upper bodies and heads sported hard carapaces while their lower bodies were soft sacks that looked like they were deflated sacs. I had no idea what they were besides dangerous at first glance, but their lower stingers made me think of bees while the sac-like body and upper tube mouth reminded me of mosquitoes. For all I knew, they were basically a mottled brown and gray hybrid but that was only more reason to worry.

They probably had both a venom and sucked the fluids from prey. If the tube was collapsible like a butterfly then it would be too delicate for penetration, but they were solid with a slight hinge at the base like assassin beetles. If I got stuck in the chest or stomach by one of those, they could probably suck out an entire organ in the first second.

None of them seem to have noticed I was here because they were more focused on some low hanging vines and branches nearby, but I found myself petrified in place from fear of giving myself away. If they knew I was here, would they come at me? I was afraid to find out.

Seconds ticked by slowly as the beesquitoes simply hovered about in swift circles that would have been impossible to follow if not for their sizes. If they were half of their size but moved at the same speed potential as now, they could probably hit sonic speeds. I was sweating thickly.

Finally, after only five or so seconds, the first beesquito to stop hovering while facing my direction immediately took notice of me. I had no idea what kind of visuals their hundred-facet eyes gave them but if I had eyes that big there would be nothing that could hide from me even if I was buzzing around like a bullet. Because they only just now noticed me, I could only assume their light and color spectrum were different from my own naked eyes.

For all I knew, this thing could see smells and only just noticed the ambient blood and sweat and citrus around me.

As soon as the beesquito started forward its companions did not even hesitate to question before following suit. These guys were not like the group of rats, they moved as a single unit instead of testing the waters. I had no choice but to go on the offensive immediately.

One leaping stride fueled by panicked adrenaline was enough to close the distance as the lead bug came down to my level. I was honestly too afraid to attack it head on and thus hopped up in an attempt to spin and throw my leg out in the windmill to strike from the side. However, I forgot about my new leg strength.

My short hop and spin took me right over the beesquito's forward rushing dive and passed his companions where I landed a few yards away in an awkward stumble.

Unfettered by missing in their initial pass, the trio of beesquitoes simply whipped around and changed their positions. The lead bug still came rushing at me from dead ahead but the other two hung a little further back than before and also flew higher up to keep me from dodging the same way as before. These big bugs had big brain energy.

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