Shivers: A Ghastly Shade of Green

Chapter 11

I wanted to cry, but there was no time for that now.

I felt sure that either Timmy was in terrible danger from Snake-eye – or I was!

I had to find a way back to the cabin – fast! But I had absolutely no clue which direction to start running.

It was dark in the jungle. Tiny rays of sunshine trickled through the trees. It was so dim and hot that I felt as if I'd stepped into an enormous green oven. I was being baked like a loaf of bread.

Jungle birds squawked from the branches. Jungle insects chirped from the bushes. Jungle animals howled in the distance.

Jungle lizards climbed the vines. Jungle monkeys jumped from limb to limb.

I heard a sudden crack in the woods – as if someone heavy had stepped on a tree branch on the ground.

I strained my eyes, peering through the dense tangle. I saw nothing and no one.

I glanced toward Tannin again, then plunged boldly forward through the forest.

The problem was, I still wasn't sure if I was plunging forward or backward or sideways.

I only knew I had to start walking. All I could do was hope I was walking in the right direction.

After a few minutes, though, it got harder and harder to move in any direction. The jumble of leaves and prickly bushes seemed to grow thicker ahead of me.

I pushed more branches and more limbs out of my way with each step I took. But by the time I decided to turn back, the jungle behind me was just as thick. Soon I didn't know how to get out of the dense undergrowth.

I felt trapped, sealed inside a tomb of green leaves.

And it was so hot – too hot! I couldn't get any air into my lungs in this place.

I felt like I was suffocating.

Then I thought I saw the leaves actually move toward me, the branches slowly reaching out to grab me by the neck! The trees were going to strangle me!

I was going to die in the Florida forest, just like Tannin!

I knew I must be losing my mind from the jungle heat. I felt so hopeless and so tired and so hot that I couldn't make myself budge an inch through the wall of green leaves.

Until I heard another branch snap, somewhere to my right.

Maybe there was a clearing in that direction, a place where the undergrowth thinned out! Maybe there was a path to take me back toward the cabin!

It was my only hope. I wrestled with the mass of branches, tearing and ripping them to move toward the clearing. They seemed to fight back, to push against my hands and pull at my arms.

At last, I broke through the tangled leaves and limbs and vines – and I found there really was a clearing.

I smiled and drew a deep, relieved breath of humid air. And found I was not alone.

Standing there, directly in front of me, stood Snake-eye!

He had a sneer on his lips and his hatchet in the air, aimed at my brains!

The steel blade caught a single ray of sunlight and shone bright amid the dense greenery.

Snake-eye had found his next victim – me!

He was about to hack me into little slices of fish bait!