Lonely Jungle

Chapter 7

In the early hours of the morning, Jake was getting ready. He had all his things. His bow, 6 arrows. He didn't think he could carry all of them, so he took 4 of them and began searching. Looking for any signs of life tracks, or broken twigs. He tried to travel against the wind he didn't want his scent being carried toward any nearby animals. They would likely be long gone before he could even see them if they smelled him. He was listening for any sounds which would give him an indication of life. He stayed low and moved fast. Jake was nervous he wouldn't get too many chances at this; he would have to severely wound or kill it with his first arrow otherwise he would not get another chance. Any hexapede would flee too fast for him to keep up expectantly in this dense jungle they could easily break his line of sight and lose him. Jake carried his arrows in his left hand along with his bow. One of his arrows was resting on the bowstring ready for use.

Jake approached a small clearing when he heard the sound of movement, he turned his ears left and right. Once he was certain he had located the source of the sound, he began his approach. He reached a small bush, and he could see it in the distance. A hexapede, it was occupied with eating from the plants around it. Jake needed to get closer at this distance he wouldn't be able to land a clean shot. Jake began to slowly creep closer, taking extra care with each step. Once he was a reasonable distance away. He breathed in and readied his bow, on the breath out he pulled the string back and aimed for the head right in the eyes. But before he could release the string a moment of hesitation caused Jake to change where he was aiming. He decided to go for the heart it was a bigger target, and if he missed, he would have a higher chance of hitting something.

He could hear his heart pounding in his chest, he released the string. TWANG. The arrow flew with great speed and hits the hexapede. It didn't fell the beast, and it started to run off. Jake quickly followed and broke out into a sprint trying to keep up with the hexapede but the gap between them kept getting further away. the unit it ran through some dense foliage, once Jake reached the last place, he saw the hexapede he looked all around and he didn't see it. Jake's frustration began to build up if only he had aimed for the head, he would have killed it. now he was down an arrow and wasted half the day tracking that hexapede down. Just as Jake was about to leave in search of another when he saw a small bit of blood on the root of a tree which was protruding from the earth. A little further ahead there was some more blood on the ground. He decided to look for more bloodstains as he kept following the trail, he kept finding more bloodstains on the plants, the roots of the trees and the dirt on the ground. As he proceeded further, he saw broken twigs and footprints. Until he saw it.

The hexapede had collapsed and was lying on the ground an arrow sticking out of its chest. Its breathing was laboured. He rushed toward it and unsheathed his knife, looking into the eyes of this helpless creature. Jake felt a small twinge of guilt before he plunged his knife deep into the hexapede chest killing the creature. As he took his Knife out blood began to rush out, and the life began to drain out of its eyes. until it was dead. Jake quickly began to gut the creature, separating its anus from its body. After he cut the connective tissue holding the animal's colon in place. At the top of the initial incision, he cut upwards just past the pelvis bone Jake took extra care not to cut the abdominal wall. he made an incision through the hide starting at the point of the hexapede brisket and working his way down to the pelvis bone. It was a male, so he cut down each side of the pelvic ridge. On the underside of the animal starting at the animal's brisket, Jake began to cut through the hide down to the pelvis bone.

At the bottom of the ribcage, Jake made a shallow cut through the abdominal muscles. He inserted his middle and index finger facing upwards, then he lifted the abdominal muscle to keep it away from the stomach. Then he began to slice along the lining, via the same incision made through the hide only stopping at the lower end of the abdomen between the two rear legs. Jake then pushed the bladder and intestines to one side and cut through the pelvis bone. This took a long time because he was using, the knife. Once through he pushed the rear legs apart. He then went up to the sternum and started to cut through the rib cage, all the way up to the neck then he forcibly split the ribcage. In the chest cavity, he severed the windpipe and sliced through the diaphragm, this freed it from the wall of the ribcage.

Finally, Jake pulled all organs out of the animal. He decided to leave the liver, heart and kidneys. The rest of the carcase was more than enough to feed him, and he didn't have a taste for these organs. He had tried liver before the texture and the way it felt in his mouth put him off eating it. Jake would leave it for the animals who would probably make better use of it. Jake picked up the carcase and carried it on his shoulder back to his tree. Once back he cut the meat which he wasn't going to eat tonight into smaller pieces, he then set up some drying racks in an area which received a lot of sunlight. He placed the meat on the drying racks, Jake didn't have any salt which he could use to preserve the meat. He had a rough idea of where the sea is, if he headed northeast, he would eventually hit the sea. The only problem is that he didn't know how far it was, the journey could take weeks or even months. He also needed a basket of some sort to carry the salt back. Jake made a mental note of this, he would try this later salt would be a valuable resource. He skinned the hexapede and left it for later. Jake couldn't help but smile while he was making the fire, it was a good kill and the meat would satisfy him for a while.

Norm's Pov

Norm and Max were setting with Dr Grace a few days passed, and they finally got set up and worked on a plan to stall the bulldozers.

Dr Grace started to explain the plan "Right so just to go over it one last time. Trudy will come with some supplies which I requested extra equipment for experiments. We will give her an EMP bomb and disable her GPS, Trudy will then fly over the bulldozers and drop the EMP. It's set on a timer and will be set off, a few seconds after hitting the ground. It will then explode leaving no trace. Most of the systems on the bulldozers are electric. The EMP will wipe them all, requiring them to be replaced or reprogrammed. The reason I decided to base in the halleluiah mountains is that it naturally interferes with the GPS. So as far as the RDA has been concerned her last known position was entering it, on a supply run they will think she's with us. Once she is back here we will reenable the GPS and she will head back to Hell's Gate. If this works well they won't suspect us, and it will buy us enough time to re-establish communications with one of the tribes. Hopefully, we can gain enough trust and rally them to our cause."

"Ok, everything ready we're just waiting for the supply run to deploy our plan right?" Max asked it was clear to the other two he was a bit nervous.

"Yes, oh wait one more thing Norm you're going to go with Trudy to drop the EMP on the." Dr Grace said.

"Alright." Stated Norm

Time Skip

1 Week Later

Trudy had touched down near the base. Norm and Max rushed to get the equipment off the aircraft. While Dr Grace was in the process of disabling the GPS. Once everything was ready Norm Got on the Aircraft, Mask on with EMP in hand.

"Right once Trudy gives the signal you will drop the EMP straight down, you got that?" Asked Dr Grace.

"Got it," Norm replied while shaking his head.

Once everything was finished Trudy set off with Norm in the back. they leave the Halleluiah Mountains and made their way toward the Bulldozers.

"You Nervous?" Trudy asked over the headsets.

"A little," Norm replied.

Trudy chuckled "Don't worry, nothing will go wrong and we will get the job done."

"Why are you helping us?" Norm asked.

"I came here for the money at first but after a while the things that the RDA were doing made me stick to my stomach, now I can finally jump at the chance of stopping them before they do any more harm," Trudy replied.

After sitting in silence for a while it was finally broken by Trudy saying "we're here get ready, once I'm in a position you need to drop it. We got to do this fast and unnoticed. "

Norm stood up EMP in hand ready to drop it.

"Drop it," Trudy said.

Norm dropped it imminently and Trudy flew off just as fast. The EMP hit the ground near the two bulldozers unbeknownst to the operators. It went off silently causing the bulldozers to shut down, soon after a small explosion went off leaving no trace of an EMP.

Jake's Pov

Jake was in the treetops he was exploring the area, he wanted to familiarise himself with the area and find something which could be of use. On his search he came across another Na'vi, they were smaller than Jake and had a bow in their hand. It was probably a young hunter. They hadn't seen Jake which was either because of Jake's increasing skill or more likely the child's lack of it. Jake hid himself carefully and watched with amusement, as this child tried to track his prey. It kind of reminded Jake of himself, why just a week ago he was in the same boat although, with more urgency as if he failed, he would have likely starved. While this child had a tribe to lean on while he learned the ropes. He followed the child while maintaining a good distance to not scare or alert any animals.

The child stopped as he found a hexapede, he got closer to it before drawing his bow. Jake noticed that the child's bow was more ornate than his and his arrows looked to be of a higher quality when compared to his. While watching this child Jake noticed out of the corner of his eye a black figure moving closer. The child was unaware of it but Jake noticed, his eyes widened in horror as realised what it was. He rushed down the tree and readied his bow, he tried to shout at the kid but when he yelled his voice was raw and he could barely speak at a normal level. The Thanator had made its way out of the foliage and was preparing to pounce on the child. Jake fired an arrow and almost hit the Thanator in the eye, but few over its head narrowly alerting the child to the danger. The Thanator's attention was focused on Jake, The Child making his escape quickly after noticing it. Jake readied his bow and fired another arrow, at the same time the Thanator began to bolt toward Jake. This arrow narrowly missed the Thanator again.

Jake began to run bobbing and weaving through the trees, sliding in between some tree roots which the Thanator couldn't fit through. It tried to claw its way to Jake while he hastily fires another arrow; it hits the Thanator's tooth at an angle and knocks out one of its teeth and ripped open its mouth. The Thanator flinches back in pain, Jakes uses this opportunity to flee he had one arrow left. Jake didn't carry more because he didn't plan to fight; he decided that better mobility while climbing was better. He thought four arrows were more than enough to defend himself in the unlikely event of a conflict; oh how wrong he was. The Thanator had broken out of its stupor and began to chase after Jake again. Jake saw a nearby vine, and he grabbed it and began to climb.

Once he reached a branch he looked down only to see the Thanator attempting, and succeeding to clime the tree he was on. He really must have pissed it off; he readied his arrow and fired an arrow. He fired it at the Thanator hitting it on its torso. Jake quickly began to jump from branch to branch, trying to flee from the Thanator. However, he lost his footing while turning to look back at the Thanator, which had given up pursuing him from above and was now on the ground following him. He fell to the ground. As he got up he turned to see the Thanator lunging at him. He quickly ducked out of the way, he turns to face the Thanator with his spear in hand. The Thanator quickly turns and rushes at Jake swiping at him; breaking his spear in two and wounding Jake's chest. Jake flew back being knocked to the ground by this strike; the Thanator had wasted no time and bites Jake's leg. He howls in pain the Thanator shakes his head and flings Jake into a tree. It was approaching him slowly by all means it had Jake dead to rights along time ago, but it was toying with him trying to cause pain before ending his life. Recompense for its tooth Jake supposed as the Thanator approached him.

This was it. For a small moment, Jake thought that he would have a chance at surviving. That brief flicker of hope was extinguished by chance. He had been lucky so far, it made him comfortable with his situation. Now it was all over so quickly a few brief moments and now he was done for. The Thanator was towering over Jake now, it looked Jake in the eye, and he could see the anger emanating from it. he had pissed it off. As the Thanator readied to make the killing blow, the sound of galloping caught the attention of the Thanator for the briefest of moments. Arrows began to fly out from the dense foliage; wounding the Thanator and causing it to flee. Jakes was feeling lightheaded all the blood he was losing was causing his vison to become hazy. A few blurry figures started to approach him a couple of them dismounting their beasts before approaching him. Before he could make out their faces before everything went black.