Chapter 3: Awakening.
A loud roaring noise was the first thing he became aware of, it was strange kinda like the noise you get when you open a car window at high speeds, the next feeling he got was a bitter cold all over his body combined with a strange sensation of falling.
Slowly he forced his eyes open as the feeling was making him feel sick to his stomach, the first thing he saw was blue sky and what appeared to be clouds, but they were far bigger than usual, it almost felt like he could reach out and touch them, it was at that point he realized he actually could reach out and touch them as he punched straight through one.
Spinning over it took him less than a second to realize that somehow he was in freefall heading straight down towards a forestry, he was beginning to wish that he'd never opened his eyes now, the adrenaline that was now pounding through his body like someone opened a damn gate instantly cleared his groggy mind and he brought his arms and legs up into the balance position to stop himself spinning, as soon as he did he felt a rush under each of his arms and legs and he was unable to pull them far away from his sides, glancing to his sides he appeared to have fabric connecting his arms and legs together and at first his heart sunk believing them to be bound up, another second went by and he realized that it was actually a military wing suit he was wearing and the rush he'd felt was the canopies filling up with air. Pushing his arms and legs out straight to his sides Jack was able to gain control of the suit and was able to begin steering it, looking around at the massive green canopy below him he began looking for a possible crash site that might allow him to survive an impact, suddenly a pulsing beep caught his attention as it seemed to becoming from the centre of his chest, glancing down he immediately spotted a large silver hexagonal piece strapped into the centre of his chest, it appear to have a large red light flashing dead centre of it that timed perfectly to the beeping.
Steering with his hands and feet Jack managed to turn himself so that the wingsuit cells fully inflated and slowed his descent marginally from 120 miles per hour to simply 25 miles per hour, but it had the added effect of increasing his forward velocity up to nearly 200 miles per hour.
Speeding through the air like a green missile Jack attempted to search for a viable landing spot, trees were not a good idea as he was likely to end up as a kebab on the branches, so as nasty as it was water was the only viable brake in this situation, at 120 miles an hour it would be like hitting concrete, but at 25 he may be able to survive it if he was able to kill his forward velocity at the last moment. Scanning the horizon for any signs of a river or a lake he turned his head from left to right, but he wasn't seeing much other than trees in every direction he looked, as it turned out he really didn't have to worry about his landing spot as the beeping thing on his chest suddenly went full crescendo and issued a seriously high pitched whine, just before he was yanked upwards like a giant invisible hand had grabbed him from the sky and tore him upwards. Looking upwards Jack could see the large parachute above his head, but as he looked at the connecting cords he noticed that there were no steering toggles on it, so whoever had put the damn thing on him had never intended him to really have any control over where he ended up, they just wanted him alive.
"Fucking goddamn FUCKING TREES!" Jack yelled to no-one as for the tenth time this hour he attempted to free himself from his now upside down hanging position.
As he'd made contact with the canopy his chute had predictably caught in the branches but so had his connecting lines and they'd managed to flip him upside down, it had also torn shit out of his wingsuit rendering it useless, so here he hung like a seriously pissed of piñata trying to get some purchase to free himself.
Ironically from Jack's point of view he'd nearly made it all the way to the ground, he was currently hanging only six feet off the forest floor, but he might as well be a fucking million miles from it right now, looking up at the tree branch above him that his lines were wrapped around he noticed something attached to his boot, bending forwards for a better look he noticed that there was a knife in a scabbard attached to his foot,
"Oh for fuck sake, well done Jack it's only taken you an hour to notice the fucking knife" he said exasperated with himself, but then to be fair with himself he never wore a knife on his leg he always wore it at the base of his spine across his hips, but whoever had dressed him up like a flying fucking action man and thrown his arse out of a plane obviously hadn't taken his wardrobe choices into account. Bending double he slowly retrieved the large black combat knife from the boot scabbard, the next part was going to be unpleasant to say the least, so quickly he leaned up and grabbed the lines with one hand and with the other cut them right through with the razor sharp knife.
The sharp impact to the centre of his back instantly winded Jack, even the fall wasn't high it still hit him square in the flat of the back as he impacted the ground, coughing and wheezing he rolled onto his side, slowly he was able to regain his breath and rose up into a sitting position, "Some fucker's gonna pay for that one" he said to himself between coughs.
Jack took a few minutes to get his breath back properly before he slowly got himself to his feet and took stock of his situation, a heavy weight on his back caught his attention and he felt behind him over his right shoulder, his hand instantly found a very familiar cold hard feeling object, feeling around for release straps he removed the .50 AS50 from his back. Turning the weapon over in his hands he checked it over, the weight told him that it was loaded and primed ready to go, he quickly checked the breech and confirmed his hypothesis that the gun was loaded and ready, ejecting the magazine he found ten cartridges in it,
"Hmmmmm heavy loaded" he said to himself curious of the fact that not only was the magazine full but it also had a round ready in the breech of the gun.
The next thing he did was to place the weapon down so that he could take the trashed wingsuit off, underneath it he was wearing standard forest pattern military fatigues and not the type he had been wearing when he was in South America, so whoever had thrown his arse out of this plane had taken great lengths to kit him out, he was also wearing a flak jacket with all the standard pouches all over it, most contained magazines for the AS50 at a rough count he had ten full magazines, so just over a hundred rounds for the large sniper rifle, he also came across large calibre pistol rounds in magazines within the pouches, looking down at his hip he found himself to be carrying a .50 Desert Eagle in a holster. Lifting it from the holster he checked it over, it had also been heavy loaded like the AS50, it wasn't his first choice of handgun as it was heavy and had one hell of a kick to it, but at least whatever you hit with the thing stayed down.
After a full pat down of himself he discovered he was carrying a full operational load out, right down to the emergency dry eat rations and mini medikit, but what type of operation was this? Not only that where bloody hell was he? He'd found no order pack or no instructions of any kind, he also wasn't carrying any radio or any form of communication equipment, so he couldn't call anyone or they couldn't call him, nor was he carrying any form of navigation equipment, no map, no compass, no GPS.
This entire situation was really starting to freak him out, but for now he settled on working out just finding out where the hell he was, so he decided to head for higher ground and to try and orientate himself, so he shouldered the AS50 and moved out.
As he moved through the forest Jack was on constant guard as he didn't know if he was in either enemy territory or not, though he figured by the method of his arrival here it was most likely, so he kept his head on a constant swivel as he moved through the forest, but things just didn't seem right to him here, he couldn't quite place it but this whole thing just felt off, for instance he'd been noticing lots of different types of plants that he'd never seen before, not that Jack was a botanist but having been through most if the jungles on earth he knew most of what to expect in what region by sight, he knew what to stay away from and what could come in useful, but here there were large amount of plants that not only did not grow on the same sides of the planet but were cohabiting the same space, some of them he'd never even seen before.
He also got the constant itchy feeling of being watched, but every time he looked around himself there was nothing, that was also true of wildlife, he hadn't seen a single animal since he'd arrived which was more than just strange it was downright freaky, usually by now he'd have seen monkeys or birds or something, or even heard them, but here it was silent except for insects, just where in the name of fuck was he?
As he walked a sudden vibration in the ground caught his attention, dropping to one knee Jack swung his rifle through a firing arc but nothing appeared in his view, so gingerly he placed a hand to the ground and instantly felt the vibrations get stronger and they seemed to be increasing by the second which meant that they were getting closer, again he swung the rifle through a firing arc but this time spinning 360 to look all around himself, this time he did see something and instantly wished he hadn't, to his right hand side rear he spotted a tree disappear from the upper canopy which meant something had pushed it over and these trees were fucking huge, then only a second later another got pushed down only a few feet from it, whatever the fuck was strong enough to push the trees down was heading straight for him.
Jack aimed his rifle in the direction of the rapidly approaching object, the only thing he knew that was strong enough to push trees this size down was either a bulldozer or possible a full battle tank like a challenger, but for something like that there would be an engine noise and there was simply nothing but the now closing sound of breaking wood and whatever it was, it was snapping these trees like twigs in its path. Looking through the scope of the rifle he caught a glimpse of something grey, it was absolutely massive standing at least six meters high, way bigger than either a tank or a bulldozer, that's when he got the shock of his life, he saw a leg.
Jack blinked more than once as this info sank into his very confused brain, he wasn't looking at a vehicle but an actual living thing!
CRACK! Another tree went down as the massive thing kept moving towards him, finally his instincts and training kicked in and he turned got to his feet and broke into a full on sprint, if this thing was actually coming for him he needed to get into a place to engage it and in this environment a sniper rifle even one as good as the AS50 is almost useless due to the confined space, he needed clear space to draw a bead on it at range, so moving as quick as he could he sprinted through the forest, hoping to find some sort of clearing where he could engage the thing.
After a few minutes at full tilt with the massive living tank behind him gaining ground by the second Jack finally got his wish, he burst out of the tree line into a huge grassy clearing which was split in half by a rather large river, scanning the area he instantly spotted what he needed, to the left side there was a large rocky outcrop that stood about 8 meters tall, hopefully this would slow what-ever the fuck this thing was down, so Jack burned arse heading straight for it.
Climbing was not Jack's specialty by a long shot, but it was funny what being chased by a living tank could do for one's abilities, he went up the rock like a fucking skink lizard on speed till he found a large flat piece near the top and got into position to shoot, now all he had to do was acquire and engage, that was if he could slow the jack hammer in his chest down enough for him to get an accurate shot off otherwise he may as well throw the bullets at it, especially as he hadn't zeroed this weapon himself which is a big thing for any shooter let alone sniper. As he tried to steady and slow his heart and breathing down he watched more and more trees falling like match sticks, which wasn't really helping if he was honest, he lined his scope on the area he figured where the thing would emerge based on its trail through the forest, that's when he saw it and his eye nearly burst through the scope like a cheesy Disney cartoon.
The creature looked like a cross between a giant rhino and a dinosaur, it was at least six meters tall and covered in grey skin that looked like armoured scales, it's head was narrow and pointed like a crocodile complete with a set of protruding giant man crushing teeth, also there were six huge horns that ran up the centre of its snout to the centre of its head, it also had a massive long tail with what looked like a massive bone hammer head on the tip, if all that wasn't bad enough it looked severely pissed off.
The creature lifted its huge head into the air and began sniffing, obviously looking for the scent of its prey, then in an instant it lowered its massive snout and looked straight in Jack's direction, "Ahhh fuck" he said under his breath when he realized it had spotted him up on the ledge, the creature let out an almighty roar that made Jack's blood run cold and his heart start doing back flips, it turned and lined itself up on the rocks, Jack lined up on the creature's head and took up the aim, the second it took a step forwards he fired.
The massive rifle roared and jumped in Jack's hands as the round left the barrel and screamed towards its mark, before bouncing harmlessly off the creature's skull.
"Oh fuck I think I pissed it off!" Jack screamedas the creature roared angrily and began to charge towards him, he lined up again and fired another, this one hit one of the horns on its head taking
chunk out of it, this angered the creature even more and with a tilt of its shoulders it started moving even faster, it was rapidly closing the gap and Jack was really doubting the survivability of this rock if it made contact at this speed, his heart was hammering again now making his hands shake like crazy, then he saw it, one chance just one but if he could hit it, he fired again but this one bounced harmlessly off its skull again, he fired again, another bounce, he started taking deep breaths, he needed to calm down, get control of this or he was done for, he slowed his breathing, listened to his heart and started counting, breathe in, hold, count, exhale and repeat, the creature was almost on top of him now, he focused and fired one last round.
The creature did a nose dive and drove the first horn on its large snout into the ground, the force of its charge caused the whole thing to flip over itself and it landed straight on its back but continued to slide forwards, it slammed into the rocky outcrop with enough force to shake it, Jack closed his eyes and took a few breaths and when the dust settled he darned to get to his knees and look over the side, a huge red socket stared back at him with red tears running down its face, exactly where the creature's massive eye had been before Jack's bullet had sent it straight back into its skull where it along with the bullet it was attached to had ricocheted around inside turning the creature's brain into mush, killing it instantly.
"Holy fucking shit! It worked! It actually fucking worked!" Jack exclaimed looking down at the huge dead dino dozer at the base of the outcrop, at first he didn't believe it was actually dead and fully expected it to spring back to life even more pissed off than it had been before it's charge at him, so he kept his rifle trained on it for two whole minutes waiting for it to move, but it neither moved or breathed in that time, so slowly Jack picked himself up off the ledge and gingerly climbed down to the ground. Slowly and silently he walked around the huge felled beast and took a good look at it, on the ground he could see just how gargantuan it actually was, it was at least six meters tall by fourteen long snout to tail, but he still couldn't believe what he was seeing, creatures like this just didn't exist surely? Prodding it a couple of times with the rifle barrel provoked no reaction from it, Jack shook his head, this whole situation had gone from fucked up to a whole new dimension of fucked up, not only had he been dropped out of a plane while unconscious into a jungle, but now that jungle seemed to be home to fucked up dino dozers that could snap 100ft trees like twigs and seemed to be carnivorous while being able to smell a man from god knows how far away, just what fucking twilight zone had he dropped into?
Deciding that this wasn't a good place to hang around Jack used the clearing to spot the high ground that he needed, off to his left the terrain rose sharply leaning to what looked like a small mountain, he figured this would be useful to scout from but also might give him cover in the form of a cave to set up for the night, he really didn't feel like camping on the ground if those giant fuckers were going to be rampaging around, so with himself orientated he set off in the direction of the mountain, all the while having no idea that his every move from the second he'd burst out of the tree line till now was being observed by a silent and totally amazed observer.