Corazon

A Hey Arnold Jungle Movie fanfic

Genre: Action / Adventure / Suspense / Romance

This fic is inspired by many fan fics I've been reading about the Jungle Movie, some info of what Craig Bartlett was going to do from the web, and for me, Congo by Michael Crichton (the book has some outdated technology but is well worth a read if you like good ol' fashioned pulp yarn, evil corporate raiders, and some ravenous monsters!)

Disclaimer: Hey Arnold belongs to Craig Bartlett and Nickelodeon

PROLOGUE: Los devoradores

The morning sun descended its heat onto the coolness of the San Lorenzo jungle, and with the fogginess gone; a world of beauty and danger had emerged. Enormous trees, with branches and leaves that dripped cool water for life below. Though not having as much variety as the Amazon rainforest, this jungle still had a lot of wonders to behold. Howler monkeys, toucans, black jaguars, anacondas, poison-arrow frogs, poisonous plants, you name it plus huge ferns that could reach a man who was 6'9. On the surface, if you took a photograph it would look quite post card-ish, but once inside the damn place, that feeling would evaporate and be replaced with walking on Mars.

An expedition of geologists and executives was now currently underway in one of the islands of Costa Rica where San Lorenzo was and leading them was a mercenary named John Cogan; he was a tough well-built man who broke from the SBS (UK counterpart of the Navy Seals). He had been hired to take them beyond the axis line of the ordinary parts of the San Lorenzo jungle, and into the deeper, technology proof regions where it is said that no living soul has ever returned. He had led expeditions for companies before: oil, gas, coal, GPS builders, logging, geological parties, and weapons manufacturers. He spoke some Spanish and other native tongues of this region which made him suitable for the job. He traveled to many jungles in his past-time but he had a feeling that something was completely off here.

Before leading this expedition, he was set to have a mission where he was tasked to hunt down a husband and wife team who have been sabotaging his client's operation in the jungle. But he declined and demanded another mission since the fee was low, so he recommended the company to a small pack of river pirates who would gladly take the prize while Cogan himself handled the expedition.

Cogan couldn't imagine why they would want to go this particular region of San Lorenzo. He thought it was an area where even if you had the most advance form of technology available, the untamed savageness of the jungle would devour it instantly, like if there was some invisible shield blocking all forms of satellite communications in this sector. But he knew better than to ask why they wanted to go beyond the axis line, instead he'd rather let the answer speak for itself once the expedition knew. What they were after was something called a Type Zero diamond. To the geologists, it was the rarest type of diamond found anywhere in the world and rumors flung around suggesting it is beyond the axis line of San Lorenzo. Their conversations about diamonds went far over Cogan's head, such as ions, atomic structure, electrons, protons, neutrons, you name it. Now what their intentions with the diamond were, Cogan didn't know, since even that remained classified.

For days, the expedition was still adamant on the hunt for the diamond. This was standard procedure for the company: if you don't find your prize, don't bother coming back. It was all going routinely until one day around noon when the Costa Rican porters flatly refused to proceed any further. They insisted that any men foolish enough to go further would be eaten alive, and would only leave the skeletons behind. They kept touching their bodies, and repeating that they would be eaten.

Like most of the Costa Rican porters, all of them had superstitions about the San Lorenzo jungle, with only the geos and the execs being oblivious. Cogan called for the headman. "What tribes are here?" Cogan asked, pointing to the jungle ahead.

"No tribes," the headman said.

"No tribes at all? Not even the Green Eyes?" he asked, referring to the mysterious tribe of San Lorenzo.

"No men come here," the headman said. "This is the area of los devoradores."

"Who are the devourers?"

"Devorhombs," the headman said ominously. "They are watching us. You should not have come here."

"What do they look like?"

"No one knows, but I would be fine with just the Chupacabra. That's how scared I am of them."

Cogan sighed. Like his type, he got tired of hearing about devorhombs. Devorhombs was everywhere, in plants and rocks and storms and enemies of all kinds. But the belief in devorhombs was prevalent throughout much of Costa Rica, especially in San Lorenzo. He obliged to waste the rest of the day in tedious negotiation. In the end, he doubled their wages and promised them firearms when they returned to the mainland, and they reluctantly agreed to continue on. Cogan considered the incident an irritating native ploy. Porters were known to invoke some local superstition to increase their wages, once an expedition was deep enough into the field and be dependent on them. He grumbled as he told the men that he'll increase their salaries once they were finished. "I can't wait to get out of this hellhole. I should've brought in Dieter… he's better than the best of us combined." he thought.

Even when they came upon several areas littered with shattered fragments of bone-which the porters found frightening-Cogan was not concerned. Upon examination, he found the bones were not human but rather the small leftover, delicate bones of howler monkeys. It was true that there had been many bones, and eating bones was a strange site for him to see, but he had been through many jungles in his lifetime and had seen many inexplicable things.

The place was off-putting even for Cogan, but he kept his cool and moved on, even when they found small delicate bones of howler monkeys. There had many bones around the area and he had no idea why there were many bones, but then again many of the world's jungles were to him the definition of "survival of the fittest."

The expedition then saw overgrown fragments of stone that suggested a city had once stood in this area. Cogan had come upon unexplored ruins before. In Peru, in the Congo (he got lucky to get out of there since the area was about to go into a civil war), in Asia, there were cities lost to the human eye that have now been discovered.

They began to set camp near the ruins. The porters were panic-stricken, insisting that the evil forces would attack them during nightfall. Their fear also infected the geologists and executives; to pacify them, Cogan had posted a few guards that night; himself and some of the more efficient porters. In the back of his mind, Cogan thought these legends were utter rubbish and that nothing would happen tonight.

It was midnight. Movement circled in the bushes, and sounds of very low wheez came in. Cogan thought it was a black jaguar but other than that, it remained quiet for the rest of nightfall until dawn.

Suddenly, a beeping sound came from the packing bags. While the porters were curious at the sound, Cogan got to the bags quickly and took out a cell phone sized device that included transmissions from thousands of miles away, a motion sensor device, and a GPS grid point system. He typed in a message to the company and their response was CORLOK? It means they asked him if the rare Type Zero diamond was located. He responded no and typed that they would only have a few minutes before the satellite feed would go dead. Wonder how the expedition will react to this, he thought.

Overhead, the howler monkeys howled and screamed in the trees, shaking the branches, Cogan glanced upward, wondering what had set them going. But it was normal for them to fight in the morning. Then, something struck him lightly in the chest. At first he thought it was an insect but glancing down at his khaki shirt, he saw red liquid, and what he thought at first looked like a very red fruit. He bent down picked up the fruit, and his eyes were now wide-eyed. This wasn't a fruit; it was an eyeball with all its innards squashed right out!

He quickly armed himself with his assault rifle and looked over to where his guards were. They weren't anywhere around him. Cogan moved across the campsite. Overhead, the howler monkeys fell silent. He heard his boots squish in the mud as he moved past the tents of sleeping men. And then he heard the wheezing sound again. It was an odd, soft sound, carried on the swirling morning mist. Cogan wondered to himself if there were any regrets in his life.

The motion sensor all of a sudden beeped slowly, but then built up speed and was now beginning to reach nanoseconds. Then he saw the rest of his guards… and they weren't sleeping. Puddles of blood now formed a halo around the camp. Then he heard bones being crunched by inhuman jaws. His heart pounded minute by minute. "Who the bloody hell's there!" No answer. "What the bloody hell have you done to my crew?!" Though the ground didn't feel anything, his body had sudden tremors and when Cogan saw what was responsible for the deaths, he screamed till whatever it was silenced him.

A/N: Please review! :)