Survival of the Fittest

Chapter Four - The Scientist

The overwhelming smell of burning rubber wakes me up. As I open my eyes I can't quite make sense of my surroundings. It's a mixture of blurriness and things just being too far away. I move a little, feeling a little more restricted than I'm used to. I'm not claustrophobic but the fact that I can't have free space around myself makes me a little anxious. I blink a few times until the view comes into focus, only to realize I am hundreds of feet up in the air. I feel my heart drop for a second as I stare down at my literal nightmare: a bug-infested jungle.

"Hooooly shit!"

I'm a pretty big dude, so the fact that I have a legitimate fear for bugs and birds is not a joke. I'm a Zoologist and my whole life I worked up to this moment. I was supposed to be in Rio right now giving a lecture. Instead, I am strapped to an airplane seat, against a branch that is in one of the largest trees I've seen.

Alright, it's fine. Just a couple of feet in the air. I can get down. Easy peasy.

I feel my stomach start twisting as I look down.

Note how I mentioned I'm not afraid of tight spaces. Can I add heights to my list? No, it's okay-I'm fine.

As I look around I hear one or two screams, but it soon fades and I'm left to the sound of the Amazon. Exactly what you'd imagine the Amazon to sound like. Animal, bird, and insect noises. It's damp and I'm feeling a little woozy from the climate change.

"Now you just need to get down, champ."

I start looking around. There's a spider's nest on the opposite side of the tree and I feel my insides twist.

"I walked, no, fucking jumped, into my worst nightmare."

I reach up to the branch above me and hook my arm tightly around me as I wiggle myself a little in the seat. With my free hand, I unbuckle the belt and just as I free myself, the seat starts to fall so I quickly grab onto the branch with both hands. My heart is racing a million miles per hour as I just avoided going splat on the ground. I use all my body weight to hoist myself up to the branch so I can get a tighter grip and move to the stem of the tree.

Now is the exact moment I can see that I have been slacking at the gym lately because this is much harder than it should be. I used to do gymnastics when I was younger, so this should be second nature. Instead, I'm feeling my age creep up on me and I grunt along the way as I shuffle to the side of the branch.

"Note to self, you have a gym membership for a reason you twat."

I feel a little tingle on my finger, but I can't be bothered to look up. God knows if that is an insect, then I do not want to know about it. Ignorance is bliss. If the universe is telling me something then it's two big middle fingers pointed at my face. I knew that karma would catch up with me eventually after cutting that old lady off on my way home about a week ago.

She called it.

I can feel drops of sweat running down my neckline as I finally make it to the stem of the tree. I hug my hands around the stem and hold on tight as I close my eyes. I take a deep breath in and out as I try to wrap my head around what's happening. The absolute worst thing that could have happened was that our plane went down. My fear of getting framed for murder has not been replaced by this exact moment-getting stranded in the fucking Amazon rainforest. A place that holds my worst fears and nightmares. A place that could grant me the best history lesson, but at the same time give me the worst anxiety.

For the past seven years I have neglected everything good in my life and always put everything second to my job. All I wanted was to make a difference, and somehow working with endangered animals and studying them gave me a purpose. However, with that, I have also given away any shot I might have had at love or a future with a family.