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Author's Chapter Notes:

This is kind of gross!

Chapter 16

 

 

 

It had been good thinking to leave the water bottles outside during the storm last night, as the next morning when Brian went out to check, they were full to the brim. Being rainwater we figured it would be OK to drink, or should I say, Howie told us it was alright to drink. So if we got sick drinking it, it was all Howie’s fault. I had a little taste of it and although it didn’t taste like regular water from a tap back home, it was better than nothing at all.

“Taste OK?” Brian asked

“I think so” I replied and handed the bottle to him, although he didn’t drink from it and stuck to the shop bought water we had left.

“I ain’t drinking that shit until I know it’s OK” AJ sat up and unzipped his sleeping bag.

“It’s fine” I told him and took a big gulp to prove it.

Half an hour later I was far from fine.

“Dude, you look a bit green” AJ observed.

“I don’t feel so good” I replied, taking deep breaths to try and get rid of the sickly feeling which was coming over me.

Now I’ve puked a hell of a lot over the years due to drink, but that was alcohol, not water. I barely made it out of the cave before I was puking my guts up. If that wasn’t bad enough, I had the most awful stomach cramps and my guts were gurgling. It wasn’t long until it was coming out of me at both ends. I felt like shit.

“You alr…shit Nick, buddy are you OK?” Brian asked coming out of the cave to check up on me as I’d been gone a while.

I wasn’t OK. I felt weak and was curled up on a rock, clutching my stomach. All I wanted was to be home, in my nice comfy bed with a remedy to this sickness. I didn’t want to die out here in the jungle. What a way to go, death by rainwater!

“I feel like hell” I croaked out.

“You look like it too. It must’ve been the water, let me go warn the others not to drink it” he said and rushed back into the cave.

When I felt as if there was nothing left inside my body, I dragged myself back into the cave and flopped down onto my sleeping bag.

“That’s the last time I listen to you D” I tried to joke and closed my eyes.

“Oh god Nick, I’m sorry, I really thought it’d be OK” he apologized.

“You weren’t to know, no worries” I told him. It was my own stupid fault for drinking it.

I must’ve drifted off to sleep for a few hours because when I woke up, the sun was high in the sky and I was feeling a lot better. Maybe my body had purged all the bad stuff and I wasn’t going to die from some tropical rainwater disease after all.

But just as my health was improving, one of the group’s was worsening.

“He’s not woken up today and I’m worried, this can’t be good. I’m checking his head injury” Brian said and unwrapped the dressing on Jordan’s head. Whatever Brian saw, it couldn’t have been pretty. Within moments, Brian was gagging and threw up right there in the cave.

“What is it?” AJ asked and walked over to check it out for himself. “Fuck me, that’s the grossest thing I’ve ever seen”

AJ held his hand over his mouth and ran to the entrance of the cave, where he stood taking deep breaths “oh my fucking god, he’s got shit crawling around in his head”.

“He’s got what?” I asked, not sure I heard him correctly.

“Maggots or some shit like that…in his fucking head” AJ said and lit up a cigarette and puffed hard. He was down to the last packet and had been trying to ration them.

“No way” I shook my head, thinking AJ must be exaggerating like he’s prone to do.

“It’s true” Brian said, wiping his mouth and leaning against the cave wall.

I had nothing left to puke, but I still gagged. How on earth Howie didn’t puke, I’ll never know. That man must have guts of steel or something.

“I saw something like this on TV once. This explorer had bot fly larvae burrowed under his skin and they had to be cut out. It was horrific, but the guy was fine afterwards” I recalled.

“Dude, you watch some weird shit” AJ said.

“Look who’s talking!” I replied. “Even though it was a gross as fuck, it was an interesting show”

“Here you go then, you can cut them out” Brian handed me a knife and stepped away.

Jordan obviously didn’t know what was going on; poor bastard was completely out of it. No wonder he hadn’t been right. I could imagine plenty of ways to die, but this…this was just the worst.

I moved closer and asked that someone hold the torch steady so that I could see what I was doing properly. I didn’t want to end up slicing a vein or anything like that.

“Fuck” I muttered. Why did I have to do this? Just because I’d seen it on TV didn’t mean I knew what to do. I wasn’t an expert. What if I fucked up and cut his brain out?

“I’d help, but I don’t think I can with this leg” Howie offered, but I knew he wouldn’t be much use. I had to do this kneeling down and leaning over, which is something Howie couldn’t do.

“Here goes” I muttered and leaned over. The wound was gaping open and festering with tons of maggoty bot fly things buried into his flesh. If that wasn’t bad enough, the smell was revolting too and I swallowed down the bile which was creeping up my throat. I had to do this. I had to be strong. I’d seen it on TV and it didn’t look too hard. If they could do it with a knife on TV, then so could I.

Howie held the torch and no one else had the stomach for the job. I poked the knife into the wound and scraped a couple of larvae away.

“Gross” Howie muttered as he looked over my shoulder.

“Tell me about it!” I replied and then turned back to the job.

The wound began to bleed and I wiped the blood away with my t-shirt so that I could see what I was doing. It was horrendous. There weren’t just a few larvae, there were fucking loads. And not just larvae either, but hatched friggin bot flies, squirming around inside his head.

“Guys, I don’t think I can do this” I told them “he’s infested with them”

I heard AJ and Brian puking. I didn’t blame them. I wasn’t doing much better.

“How bad does it look?” Howie tried to bend over to see for himself “fuck…”

So much for the stomach of steel.

I picked up the torch and shone it on Jordan’s gaping, infested wound and shook my head. I didn’t know what to do. Should I poke around some more, or should I leave it?

I dug my fingers in and tried to get everything out of there, but they were too deep and must’ve penetrated his brain. I gave up. I was glad he was unconscious and not aware of what was happening to him.

We sat at the mouth of the cave, contemplating what to do, but it was obvious that Jordan wasn’t going to make it.

A couple of hours later, he took his last breath.

 

 

Chapter End Notes:

I've posted two chapters in a row because I might not get to update again for over a week as I'm going away Monday.  Hope this isn't too gross!  I got the idea after watching a TV show a while ago where this guy was walking the whole length of the Amazon and he had a bot fly in his head too.  Obviously his was removed and he was fine, but it was gross.  I exaggerated Jordan's, lol, I have no idea if bot flies kill.