Into the Jungle: A Novella

Chapter 9

The creature looped its neck around Ruby's midsection once, the weight squeezing tears into her eyes and bogging her arms. Ruby saw her knife just under the mud. She pulled her arm free and strained to grab it. The snake prepared to wrap again, but when its head came near her thigh, Ruby stabbed it between the eyes and pushed it under the puddle. Her heart was pounding faster than normal, and she choked air into her lungs.

Then the snake's muscles weakened, but its heavy body weighed her down.

Ruby stayed still until she couldn't breathe anymore. She wiggled and unraveled the snake from around her belly. She couldn't move its heavy body completely, so she tugged her feet from the mud and dragged herself from between its kink.

Her eyesight went black a little.

Her gaze landed on its severed head.

Ruby wasn't sure if Jesus saved her from this beast, but she was still alive. What else could it be?

Suddenly, Ruby heard her sister scream. She looked at the tree to see a swaying vine but no sign of Iris.

"RUBY!" Iris hollered.

Ruby turned to the river and saw her sister in the water, drowning in the current with desperate hands extended. She put her knife away and leaped inside, ignoring severe pain as her body smashed into sharp rocks hidden by the murk. Thankfully, she swam in rushing waters with her father. Ruby tried peeking under the waves in hopes of seeing her sister's feet, but the green water blocked her sight, causing her to slam into more rocks.

Ruby sprang to the surface and hacked air into her lungs. She scanned her surroundings. A dark-gray rock poked out of the water, and then Ruby gasped when she saw Iris bang into it and briefly stop. Ruby faced the stone, dived under the water, paddled faster, and then surfaced. Her sister was holding onto the rock for dear life as the current thrust her legs the opposite way. Ruby swam closer and looped Iris' chest with one hand before paddling with her free hand and pushing the kid ashore.

Iris was sobbing.

Ruby knelt behind the kid and squeezed her chest with both arms, emptying her system of water that might drown her. Then she patted Iris' pockets to affirm the medicine was still there. "Iris, get over it; we gotta keep moving," she commanded while gently clapping the girl's cheek and wringing the water from her hair.

Iris panted. "Ruby . . . I . . . need . . ."

"If we don't hurry, then we'll be too late. Let's go. Move forward in everything."

This side of the river was puddled, too, so Ruby elevated Iris and vigorously stepped through the mud, straining sometimes to pull her ankles free but not stopping for the smallest second as her dad's face drove her harder.

"Jesus," she said through her teeth, "if You are good, please help me get home."

"He's good-good!" Iris replied with a quiver.

Ruby smirked, thinking back to the lion that failed to eat her.

After the mud, the girls ran for a while, sprinting in the direction Ruby guessed the stream was. Something about this area reminded her of the Poison Berri tree—maybe because she and her father hunted here before. But her body shivered after the thought. She didn't know why.

The hot sun dried her face quickly, and just when she inhaled a breath of hope, the bushes rattled ahead. She tugged Iris to a stop and watched as four baby gorillas fled through the woods and leaped over logs. Something wasn't right, but Ruby continued running.

"Hey," Iris shouted, "I think those fluffy things want to play!"

With a wobbly voice, Ruby replied, "I don't think they want to play. They were probably scared. And . . . um . . . and . . ."