I've Found You

Chapter 1

Black. That's all the girl could remember. Her memory was bare as she stood looking at the destruction around her. "Jess? Cody? Michael?" No one answered her. There was a huge hole that mined its way down through the leaves and branches, it had knocked over trees, and now, the menace of a machine was lying on the ground in front of the girl, pieces scattered everywhere. And she was a part of the terrible mess. She was the one who organised the expedition, and now, it was her fault that this beautiful segment of the amazon was gone. She looked at her watch, and then at the helicopter, well, what was left of it. Nearly an hour ago, that piece of debris was in the air, flying high with the rest of the helicopter all in one piece.

The trees were crowding around the petite teenager. She could only just see a patch of light through the canopy. The feel of wet leaves slapping her face as she wandered through the jungle was certainly not welcoming. The sound of crunching of her feet on the leaf covered ground was getting more irritating by the minute. She was heading towards a gurgling sound of water flowing. She could feel the wet air around herself. She was surrounded by the same dark, plain, green of the Amazon.

The girl thought she could hear a slithering sound, behind her. She knew what it had to be straight away. She hated those scaly skinned reptiles. The young girl was no stranger to this kind of situation. But this one sounded louder than any King Brown or Red Belly she'd ever heard back in Australia. Her hairs stood on end, she could feel the sweat dripping down her face and mingling with the moisture of the air. She strained her eyes painfully and just gained sight of a river. Although following it was her original plan, with the dangers around her, she realised the river probably contained crocodiles; but right now, she didn't want to get eaten by a Boa Constrictor.

She practically ran up the tree and went to the river by climbing onto other branches in a Tarzan like manner. She was slowly climbing down the tree next to the river, her heart had just stopped racing when it started again. She could see a small shack and a bridge going over the river towards it. "Hello?" She experimented, "Hello!"

"Who's there?" A strange voice replied.

"I can hear you! Help! Help!" She panicked, running across the bridge to the hut. When she got to the hut, she could smell the stench of rotting fruit.

"Come in," the voice said with a slight accent.

"Okay," She said nervously, tip-toeing through the small doorway.

She screamed. The voice she had been following had come from a hairy ape-monkey thing.

"B-but how can y-," She stammered.

"My name is Mala, do not be scared of me, I only wish to help you." The curious girl had so many questions to ask about him, how did you get here? What are you? But she needed to know more important things.

Looking around the room, the thatching, the carving, she knew the creature must be of some intelligence, so she asked, "How much do you know about expedition 23?"

Mala gestured me to sit down.

"I know not much, but maybe enough to help," he chucked some kind of nut into his mouth. "This jungle is very dangerous," he warned her, looking a bit scared himself. "Your friends have been captured by the Kanou people," he informed her.

"Who are the 'Kanou' people? How do you know they've been captured?" she bit her finger nails vigorously.

"The Kanou people are the people of expedition 02; they were lost in the jungle just like you. I wanted to help them, but the jungle spirits told me they were bad people. They roamed the jungle for years and lived on the land. They went feral and turned to cannibalism. I saw your friends get captured when I was berry picking,"

The girl's face drooped, and Mala recognised the sign as sorrow, as if his comment had caused her deep pain. Mala let out a deep breath.

"What's wrong?"

"It's, it's your friends; they won't last long in the hands of the ferals," he reasoned.

"I've heard of the tale of expedition 02, I figured it was a fake," She said surprised. She started heading out the door.

"Aren't you going to help me find my friends?"

"Are you crazy? It's nearly dark!"

"I'm not afraid of the dark; I've got a torch anyway." She reasoned.

"You have a lot to learn, um, what's your name?"

"Blue."

"Oh, Blue, come inside; and close the door behind you."

Blue obeyed.

The girl felt deep in the pit of her stomach, something special, something rarely formed inside her, as she had dealt with many tragedies of her own, she never lets anyone too close, but so early on? So soon? What was this thing she felt? Was it........trust?