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Back Jungle Up Save as PDF
Chapters (63)
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  63. Author’s Note

I shut my eyes against the agony and counted to ten, at which point I knew the excruciating, nauseating pain would begin to subside. When I opened my eyes, which were now watering, Camila’s face was less than an inch from mine. Her hypnotic brown eyes examined me; her ever-present grin softened in concern.

“I’m okay,” I assured her, gritting out a smile against the pain.

Her grin slowly returned, and she reached out with her triple claws and softy raked the side of my head.

I should mention that I was considering calling off the search for Gina and running off to live in the jungle with Camila for the rest of my life.

“That damn black palm get ya?” Vern shouted from right in front of me.

“Sure did,” I said, giving my shoulder a rub. “Feels like I just got a tetanus shot.” Which, oddly enough, I was long overdue for.

“Got me good a few times too. Stuff is a bitch.”

Outside of the limited information Gina had told me about the jungle, everything I knew was from watching the TV show Naked and Afraid. It was a reality show where a camera crew followed one man and one woman (usually hard-core survivalists) who were trying to survive for twenty-one days in some of the most inhospitable places on earth. As if that weren’t challenging enough, they did it naked. Some of the episodes took place in the mountains, or even the desert, but the vast majority were set in the jungle. They’d shot episodes in the jungles of Colombia, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Belize—even one in Bolivia. The jungle appeared daunting onscreen, but until you are in the thick of it, it’s hard to describe just how ruthless it is.

I asked, “Was the jungle in Vietnam this thick?”

Vern stopped and turned around. “Just about. But imagine trying to get through this shit without giving away your position to the Viet Cong.”

I hadn’t thought about that. I hoped we weren’t giving our position away to Gina’s abductors as we massacred our way through the dense foliage.

As if on cue, Diego’s loud whistle filled the silence.

Vern and I hurried to catch up to him. We pushed through a barrage of branches and thick vines, then almost fell into twenty square feet of open earth.

Diego was standing in front of a pile of white ash. Across from the ash was what looked like a quickly assembled lean-to.

This had been someone’s camp.

16

16

jungle
august 5, 3:44 p.m.
day of abduction

“Agua,” Gina said. “Necesito agua.”

The soldier in front of her turned his head slightly but said nothing.