Plague

CHAPTER 43

Samantha followed Benjamin Cornell, who was led by a guide they’d hired in Iquitos, into the deadly green maze that was the Amazon Rainforest. Ben had translated as the guide explained that, encompassing 1.7 billion acres, the Amazon was the planet’s largest eco-region on land and contains-it’s believed-more unknown species of insect, bird, rodent, and small mammal than there are catalogued and identified species currently known to science. Wet, tropical rainforests are the richest biomes of life, and the Amazon is king among them all. Sam, who had previously known this, had always wanted to visit the forest.

The bulk of the forest is found in Brazil with only a small fraction found in Peru. But that small portion is rough and uninhabitable for those not accustomed to its harsh climate, its deadly insects, and the constant threat of exposure. The days swell to temperatures over 130°F and the nights, though they have the potential to not be much cooler, can dip to temperatures requiring winter clothing and sleeping bags, depending on the season.

Now that Samantha was here, she couldn’t remember why she had wanted to come.

Her mind travelled off and she thought about the last conversation she’d had back in town yesterday. It was with Ralph and they’d spoken over a landline at the hotel.

He sounded weak, as if he hadn’t gotten any sleep the few days before they’d talked. He coughed incessantly, every few sentences, but when Sam would press him on it all he’d say was, “I’m fine, I’m fine,” and then move on to a different topic.

“I’ll be back in eight days,” Samantha had assured him. “Four in the forest and four to get back to Atlanta. Hopefully there’ll still be a job waiting for me.”

“Always, my dear,” he said wistfully. “Always.”

They’d said goodbye and Ralph told her that he’d like to speak with her again after they found whatever it was they thought they were looking for. But he’d said that in case they didn’t speak again, he wanted her to know that careers in the government didn’t last.

“You’ll love the CDC,” he’d said, “but she won’t love you.”

He sighed and said goodbye and Samantha had sat for nearly five minutes afterward, pondering why he would have ended the conversation the way he had.

Sam stopped and took a sip out of a Nalgene bottle that was attached to a backpack that carried her supplies. Villages along the way would offer food and shelter for next to nothing, but just in case, their guide had told them, it was best to bring your own camping gear. You never knew who would offend one of the local Indians and cause the group to be denied entry to the village for the night.

Duncan, Cami, and Agent Donner were behind her. All of them, panting and sweating and red-faced, had to stop every mile or so for a sip of water. The humidity soaked their clothes and made them feel sticky and wet; like they’d taken a bath in cola. The heat cooked it onto their skin so that it would begin to itch. The guide told them if they didn’t stop and rest to air themselves out, the skin that was covered by clothing could peel.

“You doin’ okay?” Duncan looked at Sam and wiped his forehead with a bandana.

“Yeah,” she said, taking another sip of water. “How far you think we’ve gone?”

“Twenty miles maybe, give or take a few. I have a pedometer on my iPod but that ran out of juice. Anybody’s cell working?”

They all checked; none of them were getting reception.

Benjamin yelled out behind him, “Don’t slow down. We’ve got a village about ten miles from here. We can make it before nightfall if we hurry.”

They continued the slow, grinding work of putting one foot in front of the other as their feet swelled in their boots and the last drops of moisture leaked from their skin. Sam kept her head low but would occasionally glance up at the beautiful scenery around her. It appeared like something out of an Ansel Adams photo. It was haunting and beautiful simultaneously, and somehow, perhaps subconsciously, it frightened her. The fear of the unknown. Deep in this jungle were things that lay undiscovered, just waiting for a living organism to pass by.

The day grew hotter and the insects seemed to get worse. They were a constant blanket around her, their buzzing growing unbearable in her ears. They went for the moist parts of her face: her nostrils, eyes, mouth. And they were unrelenting. She would bat several of them away only to have double that amount swarm in to take their place.

Soon her Nalgene bottle was empty and she began getting pasty-mouthed. It amazed her how quickly dehydration set in. When her lids closed they felt like sandpaper against her eyeballs and the warm breeze that was blowing gently through the rainforest wasn’t helping.

The terrain grew rough for a while, turning uphill on a steep slope, but it soon declined and she leaned back and relaxed her thigh muscles, letting gravity do the work.

“There’s a bug out here,” Duncan said from behind her, out of breath and panting, “that stings you on your lips or in your eyes. But it’s not a sting, it’s an injection. It lays its eggs inside you and you won’t even know until you get a big bump that eventually hatches.”

“Thanks,” Sam said.

Sam counted three and a half hours before the dense vegetation began to clear and they were in a valley. She could see huts in the distance and as they drew closer she could make out children playing in front of the village, goats tied to stakes, a couple of donkeys, and the glistening brown figures of the villagers. They dressed modestly compared to what she expected; the women’s breasts were exposed but other than that, they covered up everything that would have been covered back home. Some of the men wore sneakers and T-shirts. The Nike slogans and 80s mantras on the T-shirts-thrift store donations all of them-looked out of place in the serene and majestic background of this lush wilderness.

The guide began speaking with a group of men that had come out to meet them. Sam noticed that two of the men were carrying rifles, a gift from the modern world. No doubt along with cigarettes and alcohol and chewing tobacco. Indigenous tribes rarely adopted anything good from civilization; there was no money in teaching them about books and computers. Instead, Coca-Cola and Marlboro were the greeters at the door.

The guide turned and spoke to Benjamin in hushed tones before Benjamin turned to the others.

“Okay,” he said. “He says we can stay here for fifty cents apiece. That includes dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow.”

“That’s nothing,” Cami said. “I think we should pay them more. Dinner by itself’ll be worth more than that.”

“No,” Agent Donner said, “we can’t let them think we have money to burn. They’ll rob us and dump our bodies in the river for the piranhas. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s no police out here.”

“He’s right, Cam,” Benjamin said. “These people are noble ‘cause they live off the land, but they don’t think the same way we do. They only see survival.”

“Noble my ass,” Duncan said, motioning with his chin toward the village.

They turned to see what he was looking at. A man was strangling a woman while she fought against him with everything she had. As she fell to the ground, he began to kick her in the head before some of the elders ran over to restrain him. No one helped the woman up.

Sam sprinted over as Benjamin yelled, “No, don’t get involved.”

The woman was bloodied and the strangulation marks around her neck were bright red. Her nose was bleeding profusely and Sam held her hands open, hoping she understood that she was not here to harm. She took a first aid kit out of her pack and used guaze to control the bleeding, tilting the woman’s head back and squeezing the nostrils shut. When the bleeding had stopped, Sam checked her other wounds. A bruise on her eye was causing it to swell shut but she had no ice to give her.

“Are you okay? Bueno?” she said, realizing that the odds of her speaking Spanish were no better than her speaking English.

The woman rose without a word and began walking away before disappearing into one of the huts.

“What was that about?” Duncan asked.

Benjamin asked the guide and replied, “He says the woman had disobeyed her husband.”

“Disobeyed how?”

Benjamin asked and then translated, “He doesn’t know.”

Sam rose and turned to see the group of men leering at her, venom in their eyes. The man that had beaten the woman was waving his hands at her, clearly furious and causing a scene, like he wanted to come over and do the same to her. Just in case, Duncan walked over to her and put his hand on her arm.

“Funny thing about being out in the jungle,” she said to him. “People seem to forget their civility.”

“It’s not that, Sam. I think this might be what we naturally are without God.”

“Guys,” Benjamin shouted, “let’s get our huts set up. They’re having dinner soon and if we miss it, there won’t be any leftovers.”

Sam took a deep breath and began walking with Duncan to rejoin the group. She glanced back once to the hut the woman had disappeared into. There was a small child at the door, peering out and she smiled at him. He turned and went back inside.