A dark haired man pushed aside a leafy branch of Cyrilla, stepping over a lichen-encrusted rock as he continued on his way. He ruthlessly pushed a wayward bang out of his eyes, his skin so sticky from the moisture that saturated the jungle that it stuck to the side of his head. In the canopy overhead a particularly raucous Sunbittern was making itself heard as the insects painted the air their own tune. As the man reached to push another stalk away, he paused to pluck a fallen fruit off the ground from beside it. Inspecting the fruit for damage, he took a generous bite and continued deeper into the heart of the primeval forest.
Seeing a red tag tied to a branch up ahead, he slowed down with a smile. He could hear voices up ahead. "Miss me?" he called. From behind a tree a head of cropped blue hair poked out, waving to him.
"Mamoru, where have you been!" A beautiful japanese woman emerged from a few yards away, holding more of the red tags in her hands, which were both set on her hips. "Do you even know how dangerous it is out here?" Her waist-length hair seemed to swell with her temper, despite the oppressive heat and humidity.
Mamoru put his hands up to shield himself from anger that was coming off the woman in waves. "It's hot enough to bake a monkey out here sorry, Rei, Ami," he gave a nod to the blue-haired woman, "it took me a little longer than expected to find my way back, but it was worth it." Reaching into the pocket of his tool belt, he pulled forth a shard or broken pottery. "I found this about two grids east, it has part of the language painted onto it!"
Ami stood up as Rei rushed over, both of them focused entirely on the piece of ceramic, although Rei smacked the back of Mamoru's head for good measure. "I think you're right!" Ami said, an excited light in her eyes. "This could be our first break! If I can prove this isn't from a native or ancestral dialect known to this area, you might be able to get enough funding to set up an excavation site!"
Rei tossed her dank hair over her shoulder, where it hung limp behind her. "Where did you get that fruit?" Mamoru gave her a sheepish smile. "It better have been on the ground, or else I'll-"
"It was, it was!" Mamoru took another bite. "I swear," he said around a mouthful.
"Next time you're late, we really will leave you." She turned to disappear back into the foliage. Mamoru could see a glimpse of a native on the other side of the tree.
"That translator is still hanging around?" he asked, sitting down beside Ami as she settled back in to examining the shapes of the rocks on the ground, which were distinctly pointed like arrowheads. She was rifling through her backpack, bubblewrapping and ziplocking artifacts they'd discovered earlier.
"Alejandro," Ami put emphasis on the name, "will be around until he's sure we aren't here to further any political unrest," Ami confirmed.
"And here I thought he was just sticking around to try and get into Rei's pants," Mamoru joked. "Its not like we've seen anyone who speaks anything other than chirps and squacks for miles."
"Rei knows we're just here to survey. She wouldn't get into a relationship that quickly anyways." Mamoru tried not to smile at Ami's inability to detect his dry sarcasm.
"Oh that's right " he drawled with a sly smile, reaching down to begin rolling up the leg of his pants. "Something bit me on the way back there "
"What!" Ami turned all her attention to his leg, searching for the bite wound. "What bit you? Did you bring it back with you? Are you experiencing double vision, headache, nausea?" She put a hand to his forehead. "Oh my, you're burning up!"
Mamoru bubbled over laughing. "Oh Ami, you're too easy."
Ami frowned, biting her lip. "Hysteria, fever "
"Nothing bit me!" He confessed. "I was just yanking your chain."
"But your skin felt "
"And I'm sure yours is equally hot. Its sweltering out here, I feel like I'm taking a shower." He raised a hand to fan his face.
"You shouldn't tease about things like that," Ami scolded, although Mamoru could see a hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth. "I'm here in case anyone needs medical attention, and it's not a joke!" She cut him off before he could laugh again. "This jungle is teeming with poisonous flora and fauna. You and Rei are lucky to have someone with my unique expertise in prehistorical archeology, linguistics, AND medical training available to help you with your survey."
"Lucky for me you're Rei's best friend." Ami shot him a stern look. "I know, it won't happen again," Mamoru couldn't help adding, "mom."
Ami gave him a reprimanding glare but Mamoru could still see her lips twitching towards a smile.
"So what have you and Rei unearthed while I was gone?"
"A few artifacts, mostly stone. Rei found some broken jewelry an hour ago."
Ami glanced back at the rocks. "What I want to know is where is the rest of it?" she asked, still talking towards the ground.
"Probably buried six strata beneath us. Time has a way of layering and eroding things into nothingness."
"I hope there is some of the actual architecture left there are so many artifacts scattered all across this area." Ami sounded wistful, and Mamoru put a consoling hand on her shoulder.
"Let's not get too carried away. The chances of us finding any ruins are slim to none, and we still haven't carbon dated any of these relics. They could be leftovers from the indigenous people living in this area for all we know. We won't know until we get them back to the lab, and that is a few continents away." Glancing down, Mamoru's eye caught on a strand of animal fur by the roots of the tree. "That's not from anything territorial, is it?"
Ami glanced at the hair, tugging on it till it was free from the dirt. Mamoru watched as the hair stretched longer and longer, still half buried in sediment. Ami's expression was as baffled as his as she continued to pull on the hair.
Rei came back over towards the other two, bending over see what the other two were so focused on. As Alejandro followed her, Rei shooed him away, much to Mamoru's amusement.
"What could possibly have grown hair this long?" Mamoru looked at the loops of it Ami held in her hands. "Is it a root from the tree?"
Ami shook her head. "No this hair is too fine. And the texture is wrong." She examined the metallic red color on the fur as she brushed the grunge off the brittle hair. "If I didn't know better "
Rei was suddenly completely focused on that one hair. "You don't think " Mamoru could hear the feverish excitement beginning to creep into her voice.
"No," Ami dismissed her. "Its likely just from a primate or other human that's been through this area, anything else would have been degraded down to nothing from erosion without protection by now. But lets take it back with us to test it, just in case." She tugged on the hair again, gathering it in her palm as more of it was freed from the dirt.
"How much of this is there?" Mamoru put the husk of his fruit on the ground, and sunk his hand into the soil, only to discover another three brittle hairs. "Ami "
"If its a body, we have to report it." Rei wet her lips, mouth suddenly dry. "Its not like it's unheard of for people to get killed down here, for one reason or another."
"We're not reporting anything until we know what it is," Mamoru said, glancing up to make sure Alejandro was still a safe distance away.
"Rei, go distract the translator while we unearth whatever is buried here."
"Excuse you-"
"This isn't up for discussion!" He said in an angry hush. "We'll deal with whatever it is, but if it is a body, I don't want him to notify anyone before we do." Rei crossed her arms over her chest, spun on her heel and stomped away.
"We're just archeologists, we're not police" Ami said, brows knit. "Maybe we should leave this to the local authorities, in case we contaminate any evidence "
"This is the thick of the jungle in the middle of Colombia. Somehow, I don't think they'll be using forensic analysis to determine cause of death."
Ami nodded, and set down the hair she'd gathered so she could begin parting the dirt with both hands. Mamoru glanced back over his shoulder to make sure Rei was still keeping the translator occupied and away from them as they dug.
"Look at all these hairs jesus," Mamoru pushed another clump of hair aside. "This had to be a human. No primate grows hairs this long. Its almost like they're growing out of the tree itself," Mamoru followed the path of the hairs to the base of the tree. "Maybe someone made a grave here before the tree was planted."
Ami craned her neck upward to try and see the top of the tree. "Not likely."
"We're going to have to dig into it sideways from the roots. Rei would never forgive me, if we ended up harming the precious ecosystem here." Ami nodded in agreement.
They dug for several long minutes while Rei led the translator and guide further away from the site. The closer to the rhizome they got, the more hairs they uncovered in various states of decay.
"This is too much hair for one body. This could be serialized killing burial site," Ami suggested, a hint of alarm coloring her voice.
"Or ritualistic," Mamoru suggested, unwilling to give up the hope they might uncover some organic remains of a prehistorical human.
"What is that?" Ami said, lifting a root as gingerly as she could from its entrenchment. She covered her mouth in horror.
"Looks like another root," Mamoru noted, reaching out to pull the root from the soil. Ami grabbed his hand as he got closer, shaking her head no.
He looked closer, and saw why Ami had stopped digging.
Entwined with the roots of the tree, buried several feet in the dirt and covered in fungus and blood from where the root had been removed was a human hand.
"God..." Mamoru breathed.
"We have to keep digging. Whoever died here they need to be put to rest properly." Ami reached a trembling hand out to begin untangling the digits from the roots. That was when she screamed.
"What! Ami are you alright?" Mamoru took Ami by the shoulders, inspecting her for injury.
Ami was shivering from head to toe, her breathing shallow and her eyes wide with disbelief. "It it moved."
"What?" Mamrou felt himself tense as every zombie movie he'd ever seen danced before him. Then he remembered reality, and relaxed. "A little revenge for earlier? I never knew you were such a good actress." He released her shoulders. "You've made your point though, I won't trick you again."
He turned back to the hand, using a brush from his toolkit to sweep the soil off the fingers. The nails were impossibly caked with grime and the trail of fungi and tendrils of the tree had grown into the interior of the flesh. "What kind of sick person would kill someone so young " he looked at the length of the fingers again, pressing his lips together and setting the brush aside to begin digging again.
Ami gathered herself, shaking her head. "I felt it move, I thought I did." She put a hand to her head, closing her eyes. "The heat must be getting to me," she admitted. "Or maybe just the situation."
Mamoru half-nodded in her direction, already halfway up the arm in his efforts to uncover the body. "Its okay Ami. There were a few minutes while I tried to find my way back earlier that I thought I'd die out here. Something about this place " He lifted the limp hand by the elbow, propping it up on a rock as he dug further into the tree. "I'll be glad when we're out of here."
Ami nodded, moving to the other side of Mamoru to search for the other arm.
"How old do you think they were?" Mamoru wondered aloud. "They couldn't have been more than 12 when they died."
"I won't know until I see the condition of the rest of the body, but I'd actually say its more likely based on the length of the forearm to be someone in their late-teens." Ami pulled another clump of roots from the soil, revealing another hand.
"A matching set," Mamoru tried to lighten the atmosphere, checking that the size and pallor matched with the first hand. "Well at least we know there wasn't a serial killing."
"One small positi-" Ami froze mid sentence, eyes bulging. Mamoru watched in disbelief as the foot she'd found tried to kick itself free of dirt.
"IT'S A ZOMBIE!" He didn't even have time to register that the ridiculous words had escaped from his head and exited out his mouth before the noise from them silenced all surrounding wildlife. As he turned to bolt, Ami grabbed his ankle, effectively tripping him into the dirt.
"There is no such thing as a zombie," she said, watching frozen as the second leg loosed itself from being entrenched in the tree's lower half. "Clearly whatever happened here wasn't a murder. Look, we need to get them out before they suffocate."
Against his better judgement, Mamoru turned to see what Ami was talking about. "You see this skin-pallor?" she said, gesturing to a patch of only moderately dirtied flesh while she worked to free the second leg which was tangled in several roots. "Whoever is buried here hasn't even begun to deteriorate. Their epithelial tissue is fully intact. I don't know how they survived so long out in the jungle like this, but if we don't hurry and get them out, I can guarantee they will die."
With renewed vigor, Ami began pulling roots away from the body, uncovering a hip, and then a shoulder. They dug and dug, and the body flailed against them, desperate and frenzied as it tried to free itself. Ami peeled back a piece of the tree's bark and tossed it aside, revealing the crown of a silver-haired head. Mamoru joined in, only realizing once they had almost fully uncovered the body that the very female figure inside the tree was very naked.
Averting his eyes, he couldn't help but sneak a glance as he pulled off his shirt and held it out for Ami to use to protect the girl's modesty. Ami continued to disentangle plants from the girl's limbs and torso while Mamoru focused on cracking the tree open wide enough to free her head.
With a lurching gasp, a face broke through the splintered heartwood at the base of the tree. Wild eyes stared at nothing, limbs still spiraling in panicked patterns. Spitting out dirt, wood and sap the girl bent forward, heaving on the ground as she struggled to take in air. The shirt Ami had draped over her front section fell onto the fresh earth as she rasped and choked.
"Ami do something!" Mamoru picked up the shirt, hanging it off her shoulder like a sleeve and forcing himself not to overreact.
"I am." Ami had placed both her hands on the girl's shoulders, and was forcing her to lean back so that she could see the extent of the damage. "Her abdominal cavity has been punctured by the tree's roots, and when we removed it, it reopened the wound. If we don't close it her left lung will collapse from the lack of pressure and she'll asphyxiate. Quick, I need my bag."
Mamoru sprinted to the backpack, snatching it off the ground and running back. Ami rifled through the bag, procuring her instruments and beginning work on closing up the wound on the girl's chest while the girl wheezed and shuddered. "Keep her as steady as you can! This will have to hold until we can get back to camp where the rest of my medical supplies are!"
Ami began constructing a temporary block for the wound while Mamoru braced the girl by her shoulders. She began to thrash again as soon as she was held down, but he used his superior weight to keep her down. While Ami continued, he noticed her features for the first time.
She had skin so pale it was almost translucent, a small-heart shaped face and vacuous white eyes. They skittered to both sides as she tried to see what was going on, crying nonstop, and it dawned on him that she was blind. The brittle red hair they'd found on the forest floor was in fact silvery white at the top of her head, and longer than any hair he'd ever seen. It was easily three full meters in length. Her skin wasn't wrinkled, but Ami had been right in predicting she might be in her late teens, it wasn't impossible with her complexion. Her skin had deep indents and creases from the roots of the tree, some were leaking red misery.
Ami finished closing the breach in the airway and moved to bandage the girl's hand even as she started to make weak croaks and gasps. Mamoru helped her sit up and held her arm stationary while Ami wrapped the injured fingers in sterile bandages. The girl was speaking in a frenetic whisper, Mamoru was sure of it, but he only knew Japanese and English, and this was neither of the two. "We need that translator back here, right around now," he remarked, helping Ami finish up with the bleeding wounds on the girl's other arm. Repeatedly the girl attempted to hit or claw Mamoru and Ami away from herself, to which Mamoru responded by pinning the offending limb as delicately as he could without causing further injury so Ami could focus. The girl's movements were weak and uncontrolled, despite her obvious fear.
"Go get him," Ami said after a moment, taking the shirt off the girl's sleeve and tugging it over her head. As Mamoru watched, the girl began to struggle again, ripping a new hole in his shirt before Ami could help her find the sleeve gaps.
He stood and rushed down the trail of red flags on the trees to Rei's location. He found her and Alejandro sitting and enjoying the view of the jungle canopy from a high point on the mountain while they looked at some ancient jewelry pieces. "We need your help!" He said, panting as he bent forward to catch his breath.
Rei turned towards him with a scowl, "What no-Mamoru?" Noticing that he was shirtless, covered in dirt and winded, Rei got up to help brace Mamoru from falling over.
The native rose as well, "Wout es et?" he asked. His accent was thick enough that it made it difficult for Mamoru to communicate with him sometimes even when he spoke English.
"She's saying something, we need you to translate it. And we need to get her back to the camp site as soon as possible."
As they hurried back towards Ami, Mamoru gave them an abridged version of what they'd found. He left out the part about first assuming she was dead, and the fact they'd had to dig up half a tree just to get her out. He hoped Ami had at least partially covered up the damage they'd done before Rei the eco-nazi saw it.
When they pushed past the final layer of vines and greenery to the area they'd found her, he saw Ami sitting trying to placate the girl with soothing sounds as the strange girl continued to rasp out garbled whispers and spasm about.
"What does the gibberish mean?" He demanded.
Alejandro held up a hand to silence him, listening to the quiet words.
"Well?" Mamoru interrupted again after a few seconds.
"I duo nat knouw," the man said, warding Mamoru off with his hands.
"You're a translator! This is what we're paying you for!"
"No es Espanish. Es berry deefrent. " he said.
Mamoru turned a perplexed look to Rei, who rolled her eyes heavenward. "He said that she's not speaking Spanish, Portugese, or any other language he recognizes. This is something not resembling any of the endemic languages."
"Look at this!" Ami held was still bent near the woman, and in her hands she had several more shards of ceramic, each with pieces of unfamiliar letters on them. From a few feet away, Mamoru could see hundreds more artifacts scattered amongst the roots, all around the body of the mysterious blind girl.
AN: I'm trying nano in a month not november for once. I started late, and I don't know how motivated I will be to finish, but its worth a try. Shorter chapters, a longer plot, we'll see how it goes. This is my first AU/AR, and the characters are going to be anywhere from slightly OOC to very OOC since this was planned as a original piece of fiction and altered for the SM universe since I don't know how far I'll get with it. Anyways, hope you enjoyed chapter 1. :)