Humid, the trees provided little relief to the trio as they waded through thick foliage. The shade, usually a blessed relief, did little to cool them down. Being dressed for English February weather didn’t help. Ryan and Miles had already shed their outer layers and left them on the ferry, while Isaac was one of those mad lads who dressed for summer nearly all year round.

The sweat that dripped off of them didn’t evaporate, sticking to their clothes claggy and uncomfortable in dark patches. Miles grabbed the front of his shirt, wafting it to get some fresh air to his skin, only to give up when it made little difference, and a bead of sweat threatened to roll in his eye.

Ryan, who had initially led the venture, kicking a trail into the vegetation to create a trail for the others to follow, was now panting in exertion and slowing down. The buzzing of insects came from all directions and taking a break to catch his breath, he slapped at a mosquito as it landed on his neck.

The brief lull in their progress was enough for the many ants to climb their shoes. Miles began shifting from foot to foot to counter their progress. Turning to the rear of the group, Issac was annoyingly happy. Though his skin reddened and, in some places, broke into hives, the urgency that pushed the others forward was absent. He was smiling stupidly at a weird caterpillar like bug crawling on his arm.

“That thing is bright fucking red, mate.” Miles stated dryly, lacking the energy to muster the amount of alarm he acutely felt towards the hairy thing in his voice.

“So what?”

“So it’s probably poisonous.”

“Ooo” Isaac mocked, eyes still on the bug, slowly making its way up his shoulder. He raised his free hand towards Miles, wiggling his fingers in a mystic mumbo-jumbo gesture. “I’m so worried. So worried.”

“And you’re covered in ants.” Bare legs exposed and wearing flip-flops, it baffled him that Issac would waltz into the unknown so impressively unprepared.

“And you’re being a pussy.”

Glad that Issac’s crossed eyed attention was now on the bug crawling across his forehead, Miles stiffened at the insult. He knew if the other man caught his reaction, it would stick forever. Worse still, he didn’t have the same energy he somehow possessed, and the argument just wasn’t worth it.

“You’d be wise to listen.” Ryan raised an eyebrow at the idiocy and crossed his arms as he faced him both.

“What, you too? Where’s your sense of adventure? It’s not everyday you get kidnapped by aliens.”

Ryan huffed angrily, wishing he had never mockingly mentioned aliens for this moron to latch onto. As much as he wanted to say something about that, he stopped himself. It wasn’t the pressing issue, and if he was going to pick a hill to die on here, it wouldn’t be about the involvement of aliens, of all things.

“No, by all means, continue and die a stupid death. That is your birthright and you seem keen to claim it. I’m sure your parents will be delighted to receive your stinking corpse.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Looking skeptical but considering at the mention of his parents, he entered a staring contest with the older man. Rendered ineffective by the bug moving down the side of his face. Wordlessly he allowed it to crawl back down his arm, and onto a tree trunk.

Before he could turn back his companions, a three-fingered hand, the digits long and bony with black claw-like fingernails, reached around and plucked the bug from the bark. Jolting with enough force that it started Miles and Ryan into doing the same. When no threat was obvious, they looked towards him in irritation.

“Tell me you saw that!”

“All I see is a twat fucking around with shit he shouldn’t.” Miles pinched the bridge of his nose, only to wince as it rubbed sweat into his eyes.

“I swear, there was a hand, a green hand. It took the caterpillar.”

“You appear to be hallucinating.” Ryan sighed. “Looks like it was poisonous after all.”

Examining the tree trunk and even touching it to test its realness and walking all the way round. Nothing was amiss to Isaac’s growing frustration, but he was sure his eyes were not fooling him.

“We should go back.” Miles turned back to the trail they had created walking in.

“Pussy.” Miles rolled his eyes and didn’t rise to the insult.

“No, if there’s any chance of finding people, we must continue this path.”

“And you think we can do that with this guy tripping balls?”

“I can do that. You can take him back to the boat.”

Ryan made his move into the forest before they could reply, but before he could take more than a single step, Miles stopped him with a firm hand on his shoulder. His mind worked to find a reason to avoid splitting up that the Frenchman would go for.

“We don’t know what’s in there. Going alone is the same amount of stupid as picking up strange insects.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

“You would be wise to listen.” Isaac parroted back Ryan’s earlier words in a poorly imitated accent and a shit-eating grin. He wiggled his eyebrows at the increasingly agitated man, as Miles looked with him with horror and disbelief, a pleading expression that asked him to drop whatever point he was trying to make.

“ça y est, je vais!” Ryan jerked his body forwards to dislodge Miles and began marching into the forest.

“Wait!”

“N’essayez même pas de m’arrêter.”

“Just let him go, mate.”

“What about your daughter, hey!? What happens if you get yourself killed, hu!? Leave her with me? With this guy!?”

“I’ll have you know kids love me.”

“I’m sure your brother doesn’t even like you!”

Finally, the point seemed to get through to Ryan. He paused in his tracks, his limbs trembling with the amount of adrenaline that coursed through his body and demanded he do something with it.

With so much aggression and nothing to aim it at, he waited for it to bleed out of him before he could turn around and take it out on the only people available. If only they knew how close he was to decking one of them. Fuck the consequences.

With skilled practice that still didn’t come easy to him, Ryan stilled the beating of his heart, took a calming breath and, when feeling as serene as he was probably going to get, finally faced his companions with a much more neutral posture. Setting a punishing pace for them to follow with the path back already broken in.

A speed that wasn’t nearly fast enough if those two idiots still had time to bicker behind him. Clenching his fist and calling on his mindfulness techniques, the rustling of foliage behind him that came from neither Miles nor Isaac was obvious to him. On red alert, he spun around just as he heard the argument stop and Miles gasp.

In a standoff, the small green humanoid creature stood stock still between them. Naked other than wearing a loincloth and examining them as much as they were examining it. The creature had pointy ears and though it didn’t appear to be much of a threat had sharp looking black nails. As usual, the resident idiot broke the tension.

“I knew it, aliens. Admit it, admit it, I was right. Ha.”