I can survive too! ch.1-3

Chapter 1

In a jungle untouched since time began, the sounds of the birds nesting in the trees',insects with there mating calls, and the sudden loud crash of leaves branches and anything in the way of this human wrecking ball. With a blur of dull color as the many types of life flashed by him, be it animal or vegetation, it mattered not for he was a one track mind. His heart pounding his legs and arms pumping.

At first glance if you would have seen this boy you would have thought, "Is he crazy? Is he being chased? Is he ok?" For Wayne none of these were the case. He just had a one track mind. For Wayne was a special kind of kid. If he ever put his mind to somthing he would always do it or fail on a scale rarely seen to at least try. This however would be one of his worst failures. Wayne ran into a thicket of small plants almost trampling a small family of what looked like quail to him. How was he supposed to know the only reason he was even here was to prove somthing to himself and to the others that said he couldn't.

For Wayne this was supposed to be a test to see if he could survive like the men he had seen on Television do hundereds of times, or thats what he wanted everyone to think. He constantly lied to himself that this was what he wanted to do. That this is why he was here. In reality he couldn't and didnt want to face the truth that has lied infront of him for the last 3 months.

Three months ago he was a happy teen that just a week celebrated his 18th birthday. Hellian as he was he loved his mother and sister. They were the only ones that could understand him. Yeah sure the few friends that he had that had tried could never make the connection to him. Since he couldn't make the connection to people he relied on his his family for alot although he mostly stayed a loner.

It was that day that he took a quote from his favorite president that he quoted "lives in infamy". His mother and sister had decided to go to the store to pick up groceries, befor leaving he told his mother to get his favorite treat dried mango's. As time went by as he did his school work, mostly procrastinating thinking of his mango's, the phone rang. Thinking it was his mother calling to double check on what he wanted he was shocked to find it the local police department. They had told him that his mother and sister had been in a wreck and that they were sending a cruiser to come get him now. They refused to tell him any details especially staying quite about there condition.

After a agonizing apprehensive 30 minutes with a elderly officer who tried to ease the mood by telling him joke that went out of style 20 years ago he raced into the hospital. The car had not even parked yet befor the door was open and he rushed into the side entrance for the E.R. "Where are they" he said slurring the whole thing together. The lady behind the desk so used to this didnt even look up. "Who dearie?" she said filing her nails. "My family d**n it!" the desk nurse looked up sypathetic eyes. "Oh you poor dear they were your family"

Wayne had herd enough he charged through the swinging doors as he would find them himself. "Wait" was all he herd as he sprinted down the hall trying to find his mother and sister. Anxiety was taking hold as room after room, Hall after hall he came up empty handed. He began screaming there name franticly as he searched taking the notice of every doctor and nurse on the floor. Till he saw the room. Doctor's and nurse alike knew instantly who he was and that this wasnt good. They tried to bar his path as best they could. No use for Wayne's body only had one impulse get to my family.

After slamming through half the staff on the floor he entered the room to see only his sister if you could even call her that. For the girl he had love hated joked and teased with he whole life was his best friend and now he could bearly recognize her laying in this medical bed with enough hoses protruding from her body to make a steven king movie. She was missing both legs one above the knee the other clean off at the hip. The only feeling he had was a knot in his stomach as it grew he threw up all over the floor and passed out.

The police had explained that a driver had been under the influence of narcotics had hit them doing 80 after hallucination that he was on fire. The collision was head on ejecting his mother out of the car after the seat belt failed killing her instantly. As for his sister the car hand ca lapsed in on itself trapping his sisters legs and causing sever brain trauma from the crash she was vertually brain dead.

After weeks of hit and miss calls his closest living relatives decided to pull the plug since he was not old enough to make the decision. For weeks he had been devastated. After about 2 months he was a hollow shell but he made a mask for himself. There had been alot that had happened in that time all he remembered was that his mother had left him alot of money in the event that she died.

A month later the loneliness was crushing him. His being his personality, his very soul. After watching a episode of "Survive This" a new reality series on survival he set out to do it himself. Driven by the desire to get rid of these feeling's and no better way to fix it that he could see thats what he set out to do.

After acquiring the gear that he thought was necessary and after many beg's and plee's from he's few friends that cared to either end this meaningless quest or at least take more gear. A short trip on a plane that dropped him off in the middle of nowhere. No way to communicate with the outside world, here starts the journey of our misguided teen.

The teen had blasted through the wooded terrain as if it was his back yard. Sweat beaded his tan white skin. He wore mountain boots camouflage cargo pants and a black wife beater. The heat had made him shed all other articles of clothing cause of the extreme heat and humidity. A large survival knife stay at his hip taping him with every step of his left leg as a ever constant reminder that it was there. On his back was a large back pack that had a back support for large loads. He carried all the clothes he had dropped from getting her in the pack along with water and few other survival gear such as rope and one ready to eat meal wet weather gear cause being soaked for long periods of time didn't appeal to him,a flint and striker,and a solar powered charger for his ipod that he listened to continue-sly.

A tail hung down from the canopy of the foliage above. As his continued to run about with no general direction by fate alone hit the tail hard. Blowing it off as only being a vine continued as if nothing happened. Unfortunatly for him or maybe it was fortunate either way it changed his life from that point on. For the tail that he hit was a sleeping Lamia know as Maple.

She woke up abruptly and erratated that somthing had just hurt her tail, Her the biggest predator in the jungle for at least 20 miles. She looked down to see the human running towards "The Great Drop". "The Great Drop" happend to be one of the famous waterfalls of the area that long ago when people inhabited the jungle would visit for spiritual enlightenment. "Serves him right" she thought as she rested back on her maple tan scales.

Maple had got her name like most lamia's in this jungle did by the color of there scales. Well she soft tan skin lighter than her scales dark silk smooth hair and maple eyes. She was angular like most to attract her food although not many humans of late. As she rested there a pang in the back of her mind be it her conscious or kind heart she could rest there knowing the boy was about to rush to his death.

Wayne had already picked up the pace, staying in step to the double base that was playing on the heavy metal song he was listening. Unaware that a pissed mythical creature was hot on his trail going to try to stop him. What was unclear was would the drop be better than what she had in mind for she was growing more iratable the longer she chased him for many reasons.

"How can a creature that only has two legs be so fast" she said as she pushed herself to catch up. Wayne was fast approaching the cliff. He may have herd the roaring waters had he not plugged his ears with the ear buds jamming out as he ran. The waterfall like everything else in the jungle cause is odd becasue aside from the noise thats the only way to know its there if you were deaf you would take a step out of some big leafed plants and you would just drop.

30 feet till he reaches the cliff. "Im not gonna make it" she said panting to catch the boy. 20 feet "This isnt good" she said. 10 feet left "d**n it Noo!" she yelled out as he slammed out of the brush into open space. The last thing Wayne see's the world in a dizzying flip befor everything goes black.

END of CHAPTER 1

Chapter 2

The sound of water could be herd as a mist was chilled on his skin. This wasnt the dampness he had felt earlier. This wasn't from the jungle heat, that caused him to saturate his clothes with sweat. He had trouble making out the sound. It was dulled, "Oh my headphones must still be in" he thought. As a pang ran through his skull. As he lay there he was almost relaxed, except for the throb of pain he felt with every beat of his heart. Wayne didnt want to move his body the more aware he became the more aches riddled his body. His shoulders, his back, chest, neck. It was all sore. Pushing though the pain in his skull he dared ask the question "What happened?"

The pain won over as he gave up for now trying to figure it out. Reluctantly His eyes cracked open to be met by a blinding light. Red and yellow spots danced in his eyes. Blinking repeatedly trying to make them go away. He decided to just hold his eyes shut till they went away on there own. Close to a minute later they had disappeared. He slowly slid his eyes open to met again by the light but not as harsh as the first time. He winced at the light but could make out the shadow of the jungle canopy above and the rays of sunlight that slithered through the leaves of the canopy. Brightly colored birds flew low into his field of vision. As he looked around he could see a large rock face and the waterfall.

With an unmotivated groan he used his arms to push of the soft clay like earth. Propping himself, up he looked around to get his bearings. Beside him lay his pack, a small tear was in one of the side pouches and the left strap looked frayed, but it would hold. At first glance it looked like all of his stuff was present and in working order. Even his Ipod which had cause this slight mishap even if he wasnt aware of it.

In the canopy far above Wayne were a single maple pair of eyes watching him. With a scowl on her face she muttered to herself "Of all the dimwits in the world I have to save the one that trys to run off a cliff." She says as she runs a hand through her once smooth hair. "Its gonna take me hours to get all this tangles out" she huffed as she eyed the boy from afar. She was more than content to stay away from him. For in one day he had, hurt her tail, made her chase and save him, and above all messed up her hair. "Boy you are lucky I am so kind,"she said "for any other predator would have just let you die and ate the remains." A smile spread across her face as she praised herself. After all she was "The biggest predator" which made her highest on the food chain and queen above all else.

While maple combed her, Wayne had finaly started to move around. Even if it was rather stiffly. Maple couldnt make out what exactly he was doing but to her it looked like he was pick up sticks. "Only humans would do such a useless thing." she said with a snort. Wayne was busy at work collecting sticks for a fire. He had seen the men on the survival shows do this. After collecting the wood he thought would be enough, he unsheathed his knife. The handle was odd in his hand he had never held more than a kitchen knife and that was when he washed them. Now here he was trying to make wood shavings to start a fire. He examined the knife a little more when he came back from his thoughts. The blade was long black, and curved at the end. It was serrated at the base of the hilt. Wayne knew very little about knives or anything in this jungle for that matter. The one thing he did know was making a fire was going to be hard and tiring.

Wayne held the stick with one hand and the knife at the top of the stick with the other. The stick was inbeded into the soft clay. Wayne's body was tense, he had never done this befor. What if he cut himself? What if he couldnt find help. Would he died out here? Why did I even come here? All thoughts racing through his head now that the general high of being her had worn off. His hand trembled as he got ready to make the tender for the fire. "You can do this. You can do this" he kept repeating to himself. Slowly the long knife bit into the dry-ish stick. A long narrow piece of stringy bark peeled of the distance the knife had traveled. "That wasn't too bad he thought." Maple soon grew bored of watching the boy and left to hunt.

"Why are humans' so boring she thought as she slithered from one tree to another. Using her body to bridge gaps between trees, she moved effortlessly to her favorite hunting grounds that contained her favorite snack. Her tail soon blended in with the tree and her upper body hid by leaves as tasted the air with her tongue and listened for her prey. It didnt take long for the prey she hunted to appear. She could taste it befor she saw the panther move into sight. Maples breathing swallowed to short wisps of breath. Her eyes became slits like those of her premative relatives. Her body could feel every groove and indention of the trees' bark. The panther pawed its way toward the deadly serpent, unaware that he was not the highest on the food chain today.

The panther was almost in range. Maple loosed the end of her tail to lay on the ground. She would entice the prey into think it was a easy meal, but when it took the bait would become a meal itself. With a few twitches of her tail, the predator honed in on the noise. Like a rehearsed action the big cat did exactly as she wanted. Seconds later she was out of the tree wrapping coils around the predator. In that amount of time she had came from the tree wrapped a massive coil around the creatures mid-section. Using the smaller portion of her tail, tangled the panthers massive paws and securely wrapped itself around the cats neck. Just like a massive constrictor Maple used her massive 37 and half foot tail to Squeeze till the cat lay still.

With a satisfied grin of her triumph her jaw popped. It hung loose on one side in low sag. Then another pop and her whole jaw had unhinged itself. Using her tail as a hoist she lifted the cat above her now gaping wide maw. As the big cat lowered closer Maple used her arms to guide the big cat down her gullet. As the head pushed into her mouth, her throat began to widen as it slid down. The now at the shoulders continued to work it down her throat. Savoring the juicy morsel as now the rib cage and front legs began there decent. Her stomach beginning to bulge as the first part of the panther made it to her gut. The fur was slick as her saliva helped the creature slide down. Now working her way to the mid-section and the bottom of the front paws. Her stomach now bulging from the big cat as her body tryed to curl the big cat into a ball as the meal came down. Now the hind legs. "I always did want to try what humans call vinasin." she jocked as the paws went down. The last of her meal ,which was her favorit part, was the tail. That she slurped down like a piece of black furry spaghetti.

With here belly full and about as big as her. She slowly made her way back into the trees' who protested the extra weight loudly. "Shut up, Im not fat" she yelled as each branch her bulk hit creaked. It took her twice as long to get back as it did when she first left, else she run the risk of the branches breaking and her crashing to the ground below. After finding a sturdy branch that she could watch the human from she lay there resting. In the time it took maple to hunt and return Wayne had already got a small pit made for his fire as he was about to light it.

Flint and striker in hand and coated in a whole new sheen of sweat ,Wayne was almost done. In the shows he watched it had never looked that hard to set a fire up. With a flick of his wrist sparks jumped to life from the flint onto the tender bundle. He's hopes shot sky high as he had worked so hard and rasped his on the rocks so many times to make it he was excited. The bundle too the spark but died out shortly after. Wayne tried again but no use. "Maybe not the best idea to try to make one this close to a waterfall. he said. Laying back on the waterproof clothes as a bed he sat there.

While Wayne wasnt looking the abandoned fire began to smoke. One of the key things he forgot to add was air. They all had blown on it to make it catch. As he lay there cold tired and hungry, the fire began to come alive first as a small flame no bigger than a lighter would make then started to grow into a decent fire. Wayne had a puzzled look on his face but a renewed spirit to him. As he pulled out the only food he had to eat. Maple looked on. "Not bad human, not bad at all. You may survive this jungle yet" as she gave a loan yawn and fell into a deep slumber.

END of CHAPTER 2

Chapter 3


Night time in the jungle isn't much different that during the day. Still hot, still humid, and everything still wants to eat you. For Wayne this was a hard lesson. After a few choice cuss words and a freshly bloody knee from tripping over yet another root he was officaly frustrated. As he trudges back to his small camp with a fire now smoldering, he thinks back to how this happened. Just a few hours ago he had ran off a cliff and woke up ,miraculously without a scratch, at the bottom and decided on making camp here. When things finally started looking up after making a fire he regretted to find all of his wooddamp or wet and utterly uuseless. Now with the sun going down and him tracking through a jungle he doesn't know and has been in only half a day, to look for wood. Which brings him back to where he was now as he walks into his miserable looking camp.

Maple atop her tree now waking from her after dinner nap looked down to her Wayne cussing as he dragged his feet back to camp. "This is pathetic to watch." She thought giving a stretch over her entire body that shook the whole tree. This one of the few times anyone would ever know he presence was there.

Wayne jumped as a tree not far from him shuddered with movement. It was a big reality check, knowing that there are things bigger than him in this jungle. Much bigger than him. Wayne tried his best to lay a bed out in the mud like sand that he made his camp on. It was about to be a brutal sleep, like when he and his friends would camp out behind one of there houses with sleeping bags. This however was real and much worse.

As Wayne lay on top of his rain gear still sweating insect of the jungle became alive. Between the stinch of his sweat and the still bloody knee they all saw him as breakfast. And the first ones to arrive to the buffet where the mosquitoes. They tormented Wayne all night as he tried he best to fend off thee bugs, as all he wanted to do was sleep. "I'll be eaten alive before morning he thought glumly as he shut he's eyes for the night still swatting the flying blood suckers.

The now awake and fully alert maple laughed at the sight of this human sleeping in the mud. "In this jungle you will learn fast human it act or react. Most don't get second chances, so be thankful for what I did because you will pay me back soon." She said only loud enough for her to hear as she left her perch. She was heading to the lake further down the river for a bath. Even for an inhabitant of the jungle she her self would got dirty and grimy from time to time,though she would never admit it.

After a short detour to pick up some lavender and other natural herbs, she a arrived at a bend in the river that opened up into a lagoon. "Ah such a beautiful night for a dip" she said examining the small lake like lagoon. Moon light poured into to the area where trees canopy and vegetation were absent. The moon light hitting it made the water sparkle. The trees housed many nocturnal insects as they sang their music to one another. Lily pads floated in the shallow end of the lagoon with frogs pitched on them out for there evening meal.

"So tranquil she thought as she moved to the edge of the the bank. With elegant grace she slipped into the lagoon. As the last of her tail sank beneath the surface her hair popped up. "Brrrrrr" she hissed to herself. The water in thelagoon usually stayed colder than other areas of the river do to the usual sun blocking canopy on the north side. In her mind it was a small price to pay for a place to bath without the worry of leaches. The added bonus was that it was peaceful.

As she tryed to get used to the water she began to crush the juices out of the few herbs she brought with her and began to rub it on her exposed skin. The herbs not only cleaned her it kept the bugs away. The lavender was her favorite so she used that on her hair. While she scrubbed by hand she slid her tail against the smooth stones under the surface of the water. Usually she hadno problem with dirt getting under her scales but the sap of the trees was sticky aand usually collected a lot of debris.

For maple it wasn't a long process due to the fact that she usually did this every night and also she still disliked the cold water. She felt it made her sluggish if she stayed in to long. As she slid out of the water and up a tree she began to wring out her hair. "I wonder how that idiots during?" She said as she looked at a frog who in response croaked. For some reason this annoyed her, as most other reptiles did, as she shot back at the frog a glare. "I could eat you right now!!!" She almost growled. "How can we be related when your so stupid, ughhhh" she soon slithered off to head back to the perch. The frog just gave another croak as she left.