Pray for Darkness: Terror in the Green Inferno (3 page)

Recognizing their cue, the boys nodded sympathetically.

Ben scowled. “Does anyone do anything to stop them?”

“Mmm. The government, they try, but the jungle—is too big to see everywhere all the time.” There was a definite note of sadness in the way he said this, though his expression remained unchanged.

As the gold sluicing machine and its operator slipped from view, the boys went back to scanning the shoreline for more signs of wildlife, Auggie jotting down notes in his journal and Ben shooting video for his travelogue. Cooper was content just to live in the moment.

An hour or so later, Ernesto opened a cooler and produced four small bundles wrapped in banana leaves. “This is the lunch,” he said sheepishly, keeping one bundle for himself and handing out the others. He reached into the cooler again and came up with three plastic bottles of water and three little packages of plastic utensils, which he distributed to the tourists.

Ben opened his bundle with care. Inside the banana leaf was a fist-sized lump of rice mixed with chunks of mango, pineapple, and chicken. His stomach rumbled with anticipation. He had not eaten since yesterday, and last night’s heavy drinking had left his stomach churning. He dug in eagerly and was pleased to find the food was pretty good—delicious, actually—a bit like pork fried rice, only tastier and less greasy. “This is really good,” he managed between bites.

Cooper was listening to his iPod again, chewing happily as he watched the scenery drift by.

Balancing his bundle on his lap, Auggie twisted the cap from the water bottle and drank greedily, not caring when the excess dribbled down his chin and onto the front of his shirt.

“You okay?” asked Ben. He held up his unopened water bottle. “You can have mine if you want.”

Auggie smiled and waved away the proffered bottle. “Thanks, man. I should be good now.” Feeling a little lightheaded, he untied the thin strip of bark that held the banana leaf closed. Unfolding the leaf with care, he probed the contents with his fork. After a brief inspection of the food, he took a small portion onto his fork. He ate slowly, tentatively, and when he didn’t drop dead from food poisoning, he finally allowed himself to relax a bit.

Ben was right,
thought Auggie.
This really is an adventure.

And someday they’d tell their grandchildren all about it.

Two

Some four and a half hours later, they came upon a wooden stairway that protruded from the jungle like a long brown tongue. There were no other visible traces of civilization, no welcome signs, no porters waiting to greet them or to help them with their luggage. The jungle loomed before them, awaiting their arrival.

“Hey, check it out,” said Cooper. “This must be the place, huh?”

“Uh-huh,” replied Ernesto, shouldering his small daypack. “From here we walk it to the main lodge.”

Ben’s eyes were wild with anticipation. “Awesome,” he murmured.

Felix adjusted the tiller and aimed the
peki-peki
straight for the shore. At the last moment he cut the engine, and they drifted forward in silence until the prow pressed softly into the muddy bank. Ben, Auggie, and Cooper retrieved their backpacks and exited at the bow. It felt good to be on solid ground, to stand and stretch and feel the solid reality of this strange new land beneath their feet. Checking their gear, they waited while Ernesto and Felix exchanged a few words in Spanish. The two men shook hands, and then Ernesto came ashore and helped to shove the canoe back into the deep water.

“What were they saying?” asked Cooper.

Ben only shook his head. He turned to Auggie, who did the same.

The driver gave the motor some juice, and the
peki-peki
lurched forward into the rushing current. As the propeller churned the brown water, the driver’s face erupted into a cheerful, gap-toothed grin, and he waved to them as he continued upstream.

Auggie followed the shrinking
peki-peki
until it disappeared around a bend in the river. The stark reality of their isolation suddenly overwhelmed him, and he found it difficult to breathe. “Felix… he’s not… coming with us?”

Standing slightly apart from them, Ernesto was gazing at the gap in the forest from which the stairway descended. Against the dark profusion of the jungle, he suddenly looked laughably small, undeniably fragile. Now he turned to them with his calm, dark eyes. “The drivers, they stay in house on the other side of the river, uh-huh.”

As they started toward the stairs, a flotilla of insects fluttered up from the coarse grass that grew along the water’s edge. Their iridescent wings shimmered in the sunlight, intensely green and veined with ornate patterns.

“Whoa,” said Cooper, stopping abruptly. “Check out those butterflies.”

Auggie was already searching frantically for the proper depth-of-field setting on his camera.

“Mmm, these are moths,” Ernesto murmured softly, as if fearful of frightening the insects away.

“Wow, those’re moths?” marveled Cooper. “The ones back home sure don’t look like that.”

“Mmm. Is very pretty.”

Suspended in air, the moths pirouetted in lazy circles, twirling round and round as though caught in a vortex. After several seconds they landed, one by one, on a patch of mud by the water’s edge. Ben was momentarily hypnotized by the slow dance. He turned to Auggie, who was already reviewing his pictures. “Did you get a good shot?”

“I think so.” His eyes were bright as he looked up from the camera.

Ernesto turned to them. “Hey, guys? We go to the Amazonia Lodge now. Is just a few minutes through the jungle.” He turned and started down the narrow path leading into the cavernous trees.

Auggie lingered for a moment as the others went on ahead. He raised his camera, using the digital image on the screen to frame his shot: the towering trees, the drooping vines, the constantly moving shadows, the barely visible trail. Snapping a picture, Auggie looked at the screen and admired the result. The unmoving image did little to convey the intricacies of the jungle, but it would have to do for now. Tapping the POWER button, he lowered the camera to get a better look at the living jungle before him. Seeing it through his viewfinder was one thing, but witnessing it with his own two eyes was an entirely different experience, somehow invigorating, terrifying, and humbling, all at the same time.

A light breeze stirred from the river, and the trees swayed seductively, as if to whisper:
There’s nothing to be afraid of here, Auggie. Nothing to fear at all. Now, why don’t you just run along and join your friends before you lose them. Before it’s too late. Before it’s too late to—

Go home!

Run!

Get out of here!

— run along now, run along.

Auggie shuddered. The sudden conviction that he was being watched, backed by no proof whatever, overpowered him. He could rationalize that this new, unfounded fear was all in his head, and yet—

“Hey, man! You coming?” Ben was waiting just inside the mouth of the path, practically shaking with excitement. A little farther down the trail, Cooper was smiling and moving his hands animatedly as he chatted with Ernesto.

Auggie took one last look up at the billowing trees. Wiping the sweat from his face with his shirtsleeve, he turned and trotted along to catch up to the others.

Ben clapped his hand on Auggie’s shoulder. “Ready, bud?”

Auggie sucked in a breath and released it slowly. He turned to Ben with a nervous smile. “Okay, let’s do this.”

Taking one last glance at each other, the three boys stepped out of the light and into the permanent gloom of the jungle proper.

***

While Ernesto strolled on ahead of them, the three Americans walked in single file with their eyes tacked to the ground, fearful of what unknown creatures might lurk under the layers of fallen leaves. A profusion of branches loomed a hundred feet above them, blotting out the sun, and the shadows lay deep and dark between the towering trunks. Beneath the canopy was an alien world, no less mysterious than the untouched depths of the ocean floor.

A curtain of sound enveloped them, a pleasant cacophony of things that squawked, things that whistled, things that seemed to heckle them as they walked by. All around them the trees hummed and clicked and buzzed with unseen life. The fear of things that bite and sting was soon forgotten, replaced by the irresistible lure of the unknown. And so they walked in quiet wonder, exchanging furtive glances and shy smiles as the nature of the jungle revealed itself in increments. They walked with their faces tilted toward the patchwork sky, heads swiveling restlessly from side to side, trying in vain to locate the sources of these mysterious melodies. They walked with wide eyes and open mouths.

They walked as children amongst giants.

“Damn, it’s humid,” Ben murmured. “It’s like walking through a clou—”

A splash of sunshine lit up the path ahead. After walking perhaps half a mile, they had arrived at a break in the canopy, and the jungle abruptly gave way to a grassy clearing. They found themselves looking up at a magnificent two-storey structure that resembled an outpost from the days of early explorers. Constructed entirely of bamboo, mahogany, and other native materials, the thatched-roof lodge appeared as both a manmade marvel and a natural extension of the jungle. The entire complex rested on stilts and was flanked by elevated walkways that connected the main building to two separate, smaller structures.

Ernesto led the three young men up the stairs and into the shade of the lodge. Auggie, Ben, and Cooper followed him, taking in their new surroundings.

“Hey, Ernesto,” Cooper said, pointing, “what kind of flowers are those?”

“Mmm, these are the birds of paradise. Very nice flowers. They can be found all over the jungle.”

“Cool.”

“Hey,” Auggie said with a touch of pride. “Check it out.”

He tilted his camera so that Ben could see the bright, waxy bulbs of the flower on the viewing screen. Ben nodded, genuinely impressed. “Nice shot.”

Auggie’s grin brightened his entire face. “Thanks.”

Ben tossed his arm around the thin boy’s shoulders. “Just look at this place, man! It’s amazing!”

“Are you kidding me?” Cooper said. He gestured toward the middle of the lodge, where a handful of people were sipping drinks at a long wooden countertop skirted with a mat of woven reeds. “There’s a bar?”

Ernesto nodded. “Uh-huh. Yes. You can come here for the drinkess.”

On the other side of the bar was a dining area with large communal tables and enough room to accommodate fifty or so guests. Scattered throughout the lodge were several couches and hammocks, all presently vacant. Ernesto set his backpack down on one of the couches.

“Hey, guys? Wait here, okay?”

“Sure,” said Cooper. “Thanks, Ernesto.”

When Ernesto was gone, Ben turned to his friends with a wry smile. “So much for roughing it, huh?”

Auggie had his head tilted all the way back and was admiring the steep pitch and exposed beams of the cathedral ceiling. “I didn’t realize how big this place would be.”

“This is amazing,” concluded Cooper. The three of them looked at one another and grinned.

A moment later, a young woman appeared with a tray holding three tall glasses filled with a rust-colored liquid. “You like drink?” she asked. She set the tray down on a tall wicker table, and the boys gathered around to see the offering.

“Thank you,” Ben said. The glass was cold and beaded with moisture. He downed half the contents in a single gulp. “That’s good. What kind of juice is this?”

The woman looked pleased. “This is mango juice,” she said, smiling politely. “You like?”

“Yes, it’s very good, thank you,” Auggie replied.

Cooper held the glass against his forehead and smiled. “Oh, yeah, that feels good.”

The woman was still smiling graciously as she carried the empty tray back to the bar.

“The people here are really friendly, aren’t they?” asked Auggie.

“The people here are awesome,” Ben agreed.

Cooper paused with the glass hovering at his lips. “That Juice Girl was pretty cute.” He took a delicate sip, licking his lips as though savoring a fine wine. “How old do you think she is?”

Before his friends could respond, Ernesto reappeared. “Coo-per, Ben-nah, Aw-gee,” he said, announcing each syllable with care. “You guys are in Room 10. It is over there.” He gestured toward the elevated walkway to their left. “In two hours, we go for small hike to the jungle platform, okay?”

Cooper jumped up and gave the diminutive man a friendly clap on the shoulder. “I can’t wait! Thanks, Ernesto. We’ll see you in a little while, my friend.”

Ernesto was visibly pleased by this open show of affection. His face, usually so passive, broke into a brilliant smile that revealed two rows of small white teeth. Ben and Auggie were not surprised by Ernesto’s sudden change; they had witnessed this, what they fondly referred to as The Cooper Effect, countless times before. There was something about Cooper, some charming and endearing quality that set people at ease almost immediately. Ernesto was still beaming as they said their good-byes, and the boys were aware that some new connection had been made that circumvented the invisible barrier separating the tourists from the locals.

The three boys followed the wooden walkway to a long building made of bamboo and thatch. Here the walkway turned into a narrow catwalk that hemmed the back of the building and provided access to the guest rooms. There were no doors to speak of—only heavy cloth curtains suspended on wires, which could be drawn for privacy. The rooms themselves were quiet at the moment, and the long curtains rippled gently in the breeze.

“No doors?” Auggie blurted, and the others looked at him with interest. “I mean, do you think our stuff will be safe?”

Ben chuckled to himself. “You worry too much.”

Cooper tried to peek into one of the rooms, but the curtain flapped shut before his eyes. “I think we’re the only ones here right now.”

Ben nodded. “They must be out doing all those excursions we read about.”

Soon they reached their room, which was located at the extremity of the building.

Ben paused in front of the doorway, effectively blocking their path. Pushing the curtain aside with a flourish, he turned to look at them with an arched smile. “Here we go,” he said, and they followed him inside.

The first thing they noticed was that the room was completely open in the front; the only thing separating them from the jungle was a wooden railing with bamboo slats. Kitty-cornered by the railing, an orange hammock swayed invitingly. Beyond that, there was little else of interest: three small beds, a round wicker table, two chairs, and a long shelf that ran the entire length of one wall. Suspended above each of the beds was a white platform that housed a nylon mosquito net. For all that, the room was small but cozy.

“Nice!” Cooper said, wandering over to the railing. He stuck his head outside. “Look at this! You can practically touch the trees from here!”

They were admiring the view when a bizarre caterwauling arose from the jungle.

Blooooop! Blooooop! Bloooooo—

Muscles tensed. Eyes widened. The three boys looked at one another, frozen but for the pounding of their hearts. Cooper was the first who dared to speak. “What… the hell… was that?” He imagined it was the sound an ambulance would make as it plunged into a lake.

Ben was leaning against the railing on his elbows, eyes skimming the trees. “We’re somewhere in the middle of the Amazon fucking jungle,” he said dreamily. “We are miles and miles away from anywhere. And no one we know, no one back home, would even have the balls to come here.” Now he turned to them with the rakish grin they knew so well. “We’ll be talking about this trip for the rest of our lives.”

Cooper gave him a one-armed hug and shook his hand. “Good call, man. This place rocks.”

“Let’s get a picture,” Auggie suggested, and the others chattered in agreement.

They took pictures of each other in various poses around the room, including several group shots using the timer option on Auggie’s camera. Afterwards, Cooper retired to the hammock while Auggie and Ben sorted through their gear, reorganizing clothes and arranging toiletries and other essentials on the room’s only shelf.

Folding a pair of hiking pants, Auggie turned to look at Cooper, who was stretched out in the hammock with his eyes closed. Looking very much like a sleeping child, his face was a paragon of innocence, as though he had not a worry in the world. “Hey, Coop, aren’t you going to unpack some of your stuff?”