Undiscovered: Book One: The New Jungle

Chapter 8

"Hey, wake up." Chris yelled to Christine and Randal. "It's morning and we've got a long day of not dying to do."

"Okay, what first?" Christine asked, trying to sound energized even though she was so tired she had trouble lifting her eyelids and she was hungry to the point that she was worried the sound of her stomach alone would alert some sort of predator. She found it ironic that her hunger may seal her fate as food.

"Well, I take it your all hungry." Randal said.

"Oh thank God, I need food now!" Christine said as if a prayer had been answered.

"Okay, well there's a river right there, I'm going fishing." Randal said.

"How? Are you going to catch them cat-style like you caught the dragon?" Chris asked mockingly.

"No, that would take too long and be very inefficient. I'm using a spear." Randal replied grabbing a stick. He then grabbed the pocket knife and with one deft move he sliced the tip off and made a sharp point to the end. He took only a few seconds to make a very sharp weapon out of the branch.

He then took off in the direction of the river.

He stood on the edge of the river waiting for a fish to swim by so he could spear it. It didn't take long for a fish about one foot long to swim by. He stood perfectly still, brandishing his spear, like a statue. When the fish swam into range of he's spear he threw it. The spear missed by a fraction of an inch.

"Frick! Well, at least there are plenty more where that came from." Randal mumbled to himself.

It didn't take long for another fish to swim by. This one would work quite nicely. He stood like a statue for a few seconds and then threw the spear full force at the fishes gills. The spear slammed into the fishes breathing organs and a cloud of blood emerged from the side of its neck. He pulled the spear out and looked at it. This one was two feet long. It had a head that looked sort of like that of a pike but it's body was shaped almost like the body of an eel. Past it's front fins it gained a long serpentine body with a long fin going down the top and bottom. The fish was covered in thick armorlike scales and he was glad he threw at the gills, if he had thrown it at the body it would have bounced off. The beasts mouth was full of teeth like an alligator and he was glad the thing was dead, if not the thing could have bitten his hand off.

The next fish he caught was less weird. It was no more than a trout shaped, particularly fishy fish. He returned to camp with a few more of these particularly fishy fish, along with his monster of course.

"Wow, you are just a natural born survivor aren't you." Chris said amazed at Randal. "And what's that freak of nature?" He inquired at the odd looking monster fish.

"How in the world do you expect me to know what this thing is. It is pretty cool though, accept here's the thing, this fish isn't full grown." Randal replied.

"How do you know?" Christine asked.

"Well, fish can have their growth measured by the amount of ridges on their scales. The thing is this thing has hardly any. Fish grow throughout their lives, this thing will probably get about six feet long if they grow like the fish in the nearby rivers." Randal answered.

"Okay, well I don't exactly want to encounter a fish like that in the wrong place at that size. I don't know what I would do if I had to deal with one at six feet." Christine said.

The group ate their fill of the fish. Randal was quite proud of himself and smiled happily most of the time.