Undiscovered: Book One: The New Jungle

Chapter 18

"Guys get up. We have a long day of looking for a way out of this deathtrap ahead of us." Chris said happily as he began thrashing Randal, and then Christine.

"Uh, God we're up, we're up." Randal said angrily. "I was trying to sleep."

"Yeah, so was I." Christine said.

"Well, I'm sure you would rather sleep in the resort, if we find out how to get back we'll have five days left." Chris said. "Now up, up."

"Fine, I won't have to go fishing, we have meat, and we also have the purified river water and leather fruit juice. Let's get going. I'm ready to get out of this hellhole." Randal said, picking up on the excitement of his friend. "I'm gonna pack up, I have a few things I want to bring." He said, picking up his snake whacking stick, his fishing spear, and the flint one. He then picked it the stilted antelope skull and loaded it into his drawstring backpack.

"Wait, if we're going to go there is someone I want you to meet Randal. Chris has already seen him. Follow me." Christine said. The group then walked into the jungle until they saw a clearing. Christine then began calling in a way not unlike how one may call a pet cat.

After a few moments a little spotted shape emerged from the brush. There, in front of Christine stood the beast cat cub, and behind the little cub was the four foot tall mother.

"Hi Hercules. Did you miss me." Christine said to the cub. She then removed two pieces of raw meat from her backpack. One was small and the other was larger. She delicately handed the first piece to the baby beast cat and tossed the larger one to the mother.

"There you go Big Mama." Christine said as she watched the huge cats jaws snap onto the piece of stilted antelope. Christine then walked up to Randal and gestured to him to pet the little creature.

"What is this, how, why what? How, you don't like dirty things." Randal stuttered.

"Hercules is different. Go ahead, pet him." Christine told him.

Randal crouched and stroked the little bunch of fur and muscle. He was about the size of a house cat but played like a kitten. He batted his hands with his sheathed claws and rolled onto his back.

"He is cute, but you would probably want to say your goodbyes. We probably won't be coming back." Randal stated, feeling sad for Christine, he hated to be the one to tell her of all people to leave her little friend.

"Yeah, your right." Christine said sadly. "Goodbye Hercules, I'll miss you. Grow big and strong." Christine said with tears rolling down her face. She pet him one last time and Big Mama chuffed lightly and padded up to her. The cat then lifted her head, which reached her face at this point, and then licked the tears off of her cheeks. Christine lifted up her hand and stroked the huge cat's shoulder. This was odd because the cat would never let Christine touch her.

"Well, let's go and get everything we didn't gather at first, like my antelope hide." Randal said. He then walked quietly up to Christine. He placed his hand on her shoulder as she crouched on the ground sadly stroking Hercules. "Do you want to stay here while we get the rest of our things?" Randal asked.

"Yeah, I'd like that." Christine answered quietly.

As the to boys left Christine sat with Hercules and Big Mama. As she allowed Hercules to playfully swat at her shoestring she wondered, whats it like to be so young and unaware. When you have everything done for you, and you don't have to worry about anything. Hercules didn't know that his friend was leaving, he only knew to enjoy now. Christine supposed that should be what she should be doing now. Once she got back to the resort, for the final four days, she would live a life similar to that.

It wasn't long until the boys came back to the clearing and told her it was time to leave. Christine patted Hercules on the head and began to walk away. The little cub sat and watched her, wide eyed with his head tilted. Did he think Christine would come back tomorrow? Christine would probably guess no, the look in his eyes said everything, he knew.

"Uh, I think I'll miss the mud here least of all." Chris stated, trying his hardest to lighten the mood.

"I don't know, I hear it's some sort of natural moisturizer." Randal said, laughing.

"Wow, this is it, were finally gonna get out of this place." Christine stated.

"Well, I suppose we should keep this place a secret." Randal stated. "We have plenty of jungles being destroyed and poached from."

"Yeah, I think your antelope things should be the only thing we bring back. No one will find out." Chris said.

As the group walked through the jungle back to where they remember being lost. As soon as they reached the area a pungent smell washed over the three.

"What in God's name is that smell?" Randal asked.

"Cat urine." Randal and Christine said in unison.