Original Ladiesbingo Prompt: "The Heart of the Jungle/Forest"

Other than the occasional caw of parrots overhead and the crunch of twigs and debris beneath her boots, nothing reached Karen's ears except her own throbbing heartbeat and shaking breaths. She'd lost track of how long she'd been walking. The foliage overhead was so thick that only a few strands of sunlight managed to break through. It could have been high noon, but right then it felt only a step away from midnight.

Karen turned her head. Her partners seemed just as adrift as she was. Hannie was hurriedly swatting flies from her brow, while Nancy kept turning her head back and forth, her eyes searching the growing shadows.

Karen's throat tightened. This deep in, they couldn't turn around even if they wanted to. The jungle was a living maze, one that far too many other explorers had searched vainly for an exit from. She'd never felt further from her home - not when her family had first split it into two, nor when she'd left both behind to go to college - than she did now. It seemed less that she was standing in an unexplored pocket of Earth than on an alien world.

"Has anyone checked the map?" Nancy asked.

Hannie crossed her arms over her chest. "Do you see a road? What good will it do us out here?"

"The compass, then," Nancy replied. "Don't one of you have the compass?"

Karen paled. Hurriedly, she stuck her hands in her pockets. "I thought you had the compass, Nancy!"

"Me? Wasn't it Hannie's job to keep track of it?"

Hannie groaned. She pulled her bulging backpack off her shoulders and leaned down, hurriedly digging through the piles of foodstuff, bandages, and extra clothes stuffed inside. Flies and mosquitoes circled her forehead like moons orbiting Jupiter.

"Check the front pockets," Karen said. Humid as it was, a shiver ran up her spine. They'd had the compass yesterday. Karen could distinctly remember Hannie holding it high, waving it around with one hand as she'd used the other to map out which direction they should go next.

She couldn't have lost it, could she?

It wasn't a rhetorical question, not really. Not when both of its possible answers were just as likely.

It wouldn't be the first item to get misplaced along their journey. Pens, socks, notes - they might one day serve as the only signs that Karen and her companions had ever been here.

"I've checked all my pockets!" Hannie bit her lip. "It's not there! It's not-"

"Let me check." Karen stepped forward, pulling the backpack from her. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a wrinkled handkerchief and handed it to Hannie. "Why don't you just sit back for a few minutes?"

Hannie nodded but didn't meet her gaze. She sat down with her legs crossed and buried her face behind Karen's handkerchief.

Karen pulled off her own backpack and pulled a flashlight from it. Her mom had once told her that sometimes the best way to work through a problem was to have someone look at it with fresh eyes. It couldn't hurt to test that hypothesis, could it?

"Did you find it yet, Karen?" Nancy asked.

Karen shook her head. "I'm trying to focus!"

Nancy stiffened but said nothing. Karen shot a quick glance from her to Hannie before just as quickly pulling it away. The pressure of their gazes on her back was so intense that Karen half wondered how she hadn't melted beneath them.

Karen reached a hand down to the very bottom of the backpack and began digging through it. She crossed the fingers of her other hand.

She worked with a fury. The sticky, hot air melted away, the surrounding noise so distant that little more than whispers reached her ears. Right then, all that existed in the world was Karen herself and Hannie's backpack.

Her fingers brushed against cold metal.

"I did it! I found-"

Her next words were swallowed by a roar from overhead.

"Roarrrr!" David Michael repeated, curling up his fingers like claws.

"David Michael!" Karen screeched. "What do you think you're doing?"

He crossed his arms over his chest and rolled his eyes. "What do you think?"

Karen turned her head, looking from Hannie to Nancy. Each mirrored her own expression with their wide eyes and opened jaws.

After a few long, silent moments, David Michael finally spoke. "I'm a lion," he said, putting his hands on his hips. "You know, the king of the jungle!"

Karen rolled her eyes. "Lions don't live in jungles!"

Hannie laughed. "I thought he was a gorilla!"

David Michael smirked. "Hey, that's not a bad idea!" He began beating his hands against his chest.

Karen stamped her foot. "He's not anything!" She narrowed her eyes at him. "Who said you could play with us?"

David Michael stuck out his tongue at her. "It's not playing if you're not having fun! All you've been doing is walking around the backyard all morning."

"It was fun!" And it still would be, if he hadn't decided to be such a meanie-mo!

"Sure, I guess." David Michael shrugged. "But aren't gorillas even more fun?"

Karen chuckled. "Yeah," she said, looking back towards Hannie and Nancy. "You're right. But do you know what's even better than one gorilla?"

"What?"

"Three gorillas!"

Karen raced forward. Hannie and Nancy jumped to their feet behind her. The three began beating their chests and whooping.

"Hey!" David Michael cried.

His only answer was a series of shrieks and growls.