Chapter 16 Live Bait

A dart flew fast into the wind and pinned onto a dart board. A shriek was heard and then followed by a growl. What came next were soft chuckles.

"Adrianna, you cheat as fuck." an upset Jose grunted and more mocking laughter followed.

Adrianna snorted with her arms crossed, "It's not my fault that you throw like a bitch."

Jose took a swig of his beer. "Fine, whatever, it's your turn."

Adrianna picked up her lit cigarette off the ash tray and took a gentle pull. She snatched a dart from Diego with a grin. Jose lit up his own cigarette as he watched her aim.

Adrianna looked back at the guys and threw the dart. Jose growled in jealousy when it hit the Bull's eye. That only prompted Diego and Paulo to laugh hard at him.

"She didn't even have to look at the board." Paulo patted Jose's shoulder teasingly.

"Man, fuck you. I want to see either of you guys beat her." Jose retorted only to be laughed at more.

Stephanie joined everyone outside and shielded her eyes from the sunlight. She looked at the guys laughing clumsily. Her face twisted into a cringe at their vulgar language.

Stephanie walked away from them and faced the river. It was peaceful and full of life. Green trees along its banks heightened its graceful scenery. Paulo glanced at her once and made his way to Alejandro who was in the company of Matt and Mark.

Matt and Alejandro were squatting whereas Mark crossed his legs with his laptop on his lap. Paulo peeped at the screen and turned pale. His eyes stretched in disbelief.

"What the fuck?" he whispered loud enough for Matt and Alejandro to turn their heads to him.

On the screen were several dead bodies of an Amazonian tribe floating in the river. The image of a little girl; who could have been at least four, flashed before the screen. She was missing both her arms and one leg. The body, like the others, was already decomposing. Paulo was horrified to even imagine the scent.

He walked away coughing in order to keep himself from vomiting. His state alarmed Jose and Diego. Jose pulled Adrianna's sleeve and motioned his head up to Paulo.

"What's going on?" Adrianna asked aloud and not only caught Matt's attention but Stephanie's too.

"We are approaching the evil forest." Matt briefly stated.

Adrianna went over to look at the laptop and her mouth fell agape. "What?"

"Is this the tribe you spoke about back in Rio?" Matt asked Adrianna and she nodded her head in confirmation. "This is live footage that Mark's drones are picking up."

"But how though? This tribe wouldn't be dumb enough to go into the evil forest. They are superstitious." Adrianna remarked, confused.

"It's possible that the evil forest has expanded." Alejandro pointed out.

Tension filled the air as the looming thoughts of seeing hell in a few hours poured in. The sound of a gun getting cocked forced everyone to snap out of their thoughts and abruptly turn their heads. Their eyes fell on Paulo who positioned a pistol up.

"Might as well be ready for anything." Paulo commented, his eyes full of fear but his posture bold and confident.

"Good idea. Everyone, ready your weapons." Alejandro agreed.

****

Ruth was curled up into a ball and fast asleep on her soft bed. The door opening didn't wake her up, but she opened her eyes at the click of it closing. She smiled delighted at the kind maid who helped her last night.

Ruth watched in silence as the maid pulled in a trailer with a silver dish on it. She hugged her pillow as the maid smiled faintly back at her.

"Hello," Ruth greeted her.

The maid blankly looked at her. She dropped her gaze and wiped her hands on her apron nervously. The maid looked back at her and made a few hand gestures. Ruth recognized what she did and smiled wider at the maid. She lifted her hands to make hand gestures of her own.

'Don't worry, I am fluent in sign language.' Ruth motioned and the maid lit up.

'Oh wow, this is great. It's been a while since I had someone to talk to.' the maid happily motioned. 'How did you learn sign language?'

Ruth smiled at her. 'I took a sign language class when I was in high school.'

'Okay, that's nice.' the maid looked over at the silver dish. 'I brought you breakfast.'

She opened the dish to chopped up bits of fresh meat. Ruth cringed and backed away. The maid happily shook her head at her.

'This isn't your breakfast.' she lifted the bowl up and another was exposed at the bottom. 'I hope you like rice.' she handed her the bowl.

Ruth sniffed it and her eyes beamed. 'Thank you so much.'

'I will eat the meat on your behalf.' she said and Ruth dropped her brows stunned. 'My lord commanded that you only eat human flesh and drink human blood. It is part of the preparation ritual before you get married to him. If I return with a bowl full of meat, I will get into trouble and so will you.'

Ruth put the bowl of rice aside. 'But this is too much. Secretly giving me food is one thing but eating that disgusting meat on my behalf is another.'

'Don't worry, I am used to eating people. I am a slave here. I eat what is given to me.' the maid insisted.

Ruth dulled her eyes at her in pity and the maid shook her head dismissively. 'You are so kind to me, why?' Ruth asked, curious but somewhat suspicious.

It was in deed strange to her that one of Asmodues’ followers would willingly betray him. He was a god to them.

'Because I know what suffering is. Now come on, eat while I finish this up in the corner over there.'

'Wait, what is your name?'

The maid smiled warmly at Ruth and pulled out a piece of paper from her apron. She handed it to Ruth and went to the corner with the bloody bowl. Ruth watched her sit down with her back turned. She shifted her eyes back to the paper— trying hard to ignore the chewing sounds.

My name is Muriel was clearly written on it in a fourth grade handwriting.

Ruth covered her mouth and tears trekked down her eyes. She turned her watery gaze to Muriel and let out a soft cry. Muriel didn't turn to look at her but continued to eat.

****

The gang steadily sailed into the evil forest. They cocked up their guns and aimed them with their fingers on the triggers. Roy sailed the boat nervously. The sight of Paulo standing guard beside him calmed him down a little.

Adrianna had a firm hold on her katana. Strapped on her thighs were daggers and hanging behind her back was a machine gun.

Aside from the numerous bodies in the river, everything else in the forest appeared to be normal. The gang sailed deeper into the forest and nothing alarming caught their attention until Matt said, "This is strange."

"What are you talking about?" Mark asked him.

"It's too silent. There's supposed to be at least chirping birds in the trees or some shit like that." Matt pointed out.

"Yes, you are right." Alejandro rubbed his chin.

A sudden cry was heard and guns pointed in its direction. The team was stunned to see a tribe woman crying profusely with a wrapped baby in her arms. Her face was smudged in dirt and blood. A small wrapper covered her lower part and the baby hid her naked breasts.

She held out her hand to the team; crying and begging in her mother tongue. Adrianna narrowed her eyebrows in pity and gave a concerned look to Alejandro.

"We have to help her." she suggested.

"No, we cannot." Fernanda walked up the upper deck with Stephanie behind her. "Let's keep moving forward."

Adrianna scowled at her appalled, "She is alone with a baby. Her whole family has been murdered. How can you be so cold?"

"We are wasting time talking about this." Fernanda bluntly said to Adrianna's anger.

"And you’re supposed to be a woman of God? I knew that you were a hypocrite the moment I saw you." Adrianna snarled, "Alejandro, do something."

Alejandro scratched his head conflicted. His mind raced at Adrianna's seriousness and Fernanda's aloof attitude. The crying woman wasn't helping him either.

"All right, she won't get on the boat, but we will at least give her a blanket and a few cans of food." Alejandro resolved.

A raft was tossed into the river. Adrianna took a deep breath before getting onto it. She paddled her way to the woman who looked at her high with anticipation. Everyone kept their guns ready and their senses on high alert. Adrianna swallowed hard as she slowly narrowed the distance between her and the woman.

Three bodies floated up ahead. She kept on paddling and when she was close enough, she poked the bodies away. Matt had his eye on his sniper. He maintained his calm just like he was trained to do.

Adrianna finally hit land to everyone's relief. The woman ran closer to her and let out her hand. Adrianna took it to a deathly hold. The woman's eyes turned freakishly dark. She grinned at Adrianna with a mouth full of long pointy fangs.

Adrianna's heart dropped. She froze looking into the abyss deep within the lifeless sockets before her. A sudden bang startled her, and she looked back only to see a gigantic snake like tail smashing the boat.

Matt, Mark and Alejandro jumped off in a bid to save their lives. Paulo and Roy were plunged into the river. The deck broke underneath Jose's feet. He carefully jumped away from the cracks until he dived only to be whipped further away across the river.

Fernanda and Stephanie held onto the boat as it sank. The tail narrowly hit Stephanie and she screamed aloud. It came for them again and both women jumped into the river. The tail slapped the surface with a violent burst of water. Within seconds, the boat was underwater with only pieces of it popping up and down the river.

Adrianna's body trembled in fear. In horror, she saw the wrapper that contained the baby fall to the ground with no baby in sight. She let out a sharp scream at the half snake half woman body the strange woman now had. Adrianna trailed her tail and was terrified to see that it went all the way to where the boat was.

The creature hissed with her long serpent tongue out and snatched Adrianna. Matt shouted when he saw the creature violently crawl into the forest with Adrianna clutched in its arm. The snake tail brushed against him at an impossible speed and swept its way into the forest—taking down trees in its path. Matt and Alejandro swam as fast as they could, frantically yelling Adrianna's name.