The twisted wreckage of the boat drifted downstream before crashing against the jagged rocks beneath the roaring waterfall. Equipment floated away in shattered pieces, while a bruised and soaked group of survivors scrambled ashore.
From a nearby outcropping hidden beneath thick jungle foliage, I watched.
The scene was all too familiar.
I'd seen this moment before—in the movie.
That waterfall. That betrayal.
Jack bribing Bill to keep going even when he knew better.
And now they were in deep trouble, crawling out of the river like soaked, angry rats.
If it weren't for keeping a low profile, I'd have made sure Jack didn't make it past that fall.
---
"You almost got killed!" Gail shouted at Bill, panting, her clothes soaked through.
Bill pulled himself to his feet. "You think I wanted this? That was my damn boat!"
Mitchell scoffed, shaking his head, water dripping off his jacket. "You'll lose your goddamned payday if you don't get us out of this."
"You said you could get us there safely," Gail snapped, her voice rising. "If you knew it was dangerous, you should've turned around!"
"Enough!" Jack barked, stepping between them.
They all looked at him.
"There's nothing we can do about that now," he said. "We've got to focus. Bickering amongst ourselves is a waste of energy."
"Yeah?" Mitchell muttered, wringing out his shirt.
Jack turned to Sam, "What've we got?"
Sam looked through the dripping bag, taking quick stock. "Specimen jars, a map… some water. No food."
Tran joined her, flipping open a ruined tablet. "Well, the hard drive is toast."
Cole handed over a muddy black phone. "Pretty much all the gear's shot… except for the cell."
Bill brightened. "Thank god. We can call the police."
"Police?" Tran echoed, incredulous. "The nearest patrol is all the way back in Pam."
"And the only way they could reach us—" he pointed back toward the massive waterfall behind them, "—is over there."
They all stared at it. Towering. Inescapable. Blocking the way back.
"So… we're stuck here," Sam muttered.
"Looks that way," Mitchell said. "Unless we keep pushing forward."
Gail shook her head. "We don't even know where we are."
"I do," Jack said confidently. "We're still on the path to the valley. If we follow the river east, we'll get there."
"And what then?" Tran asked, folding his arms.
"Then we find the orchid," Jack said, his eyes lighting up. "Get what we came for. Then we call for evac."
I narrowed my eyes.
Of course. Still obsessed with the flower.
The same obsession that got him killed.
-----
The group trudged forward through waist-deep murky water, the jungle pressing in from all sides. Mosquitoes buzzed in clouds, the air thick and oppressive. Somewhere beyond the swamp, hidden by dense vegetation, was Livingston's boat—their only hope of escape.
Cole shivered and glanced around nervously.
"Shit… something just touched me."
"Cole, don't joke like that," Gail snapped, her voice tight. The memory of nearly being dragged under by a crocodile still haunted her.
"No, seriously," he hissed, his eyes wide. "It just touched me again!"
"Cole, shut up and keep moving," Jack said sternly, pushing forward with determination.
Behind them, Ben smirked as an idea crossed his mind. He began humming the Jaws theme under his breath, low and eerie.
"Dun dun… dun dun…"
"Knock it off, Ben," Gail muttered, annoyed.
But then—
Splash!
Ben vanished into the water with a scream, cut off by a muffled glorp as something yanked him beneath the surface.
"Ben?" Gail shouted, panic rising in her voice. "Ben?!"
The others turned in shock, calling his name as they scanned the churning water. Suddenly, Ben burst back up, thrashing violently.
"HELP! HELP ME!" he screamed, his limbs flailing as he was dragged in circles.
Blood tinged the water red, and his shirt was ripped open, gashes decorating his torso. Before they could reach him, he was yanked under again—only to resurface a few meters away, coughing and bleeding.
That's when they heard it.
HISSSSSSSSSSSS!
A massive shape shot out of the water—a gigantic snake, black and glistening with swamp muck, its fangs bared. The mutated anaconda lunged for the injured Ben, its jaws opened wide for the final strike—
But something intercepted it mid-air.
Me.
I crashed into it like a living battering ram, sending both our massive bodies crashing into the water in an explosion of foam and mud. The humans screamed, backing away as the river erupted around us.
"GO!" Mitchell shouted, grabbing Ben's arm while Bill supported the other side. "This is our chance!"
As the others helped drag the wounded man through the water toward shore, I focused all my attention on the enemy wrapped around me.
It was bigger—longer, thicker. Its coils began to wrap around my torso, trying to crush the life out of me. But I was stronger.
Stronger. Faster. Harder.
Its coils pressed against my overlapping armored scales, but they didn't sink in. My flexibility was reduced due to the armor, but it worked both ways—the bastard couldn't get a proper hold on me either.
I shifted, twisted, and struck.
I sank my jaws into its skull.
Crunch.
Its skull caved under the pressure of my bite, but pain shot through my head as my teeth shattered from the force. My bite strength had grown, yes—but my teeth still weren't evolved for this.
Still, it worked.
The mutated anaconda went limp.
Its coils slid off my body like wet rope. The water stilled as its corpse drifted away, blood clouding the river.
Ding!
> 🧬 You have hunted: Mutated Anaconda
+1000 Evolution Points
Intergratable genetic material detected
→ Trait: +30% Growth Speed
Do you wish to integrate? [Yes/No]
"Yes," I hissed without hesitation.
---
Meanwhile, Bill and the others had made it to a small clearing near the edge of the swamp, dragging the now unconscious Ben behind them. His body was limp—his face pale from blood loss and trauma. Sam knelt beside him, checking his pulse and trying to stop the bleeding with a torn piece of her shirt.
Cole was pacing back and forth in the mud, breathing hard, clearly on the edge of a breakdown. Gail sat curled against a mossy log, hugging her knees, trembling as silent tears streamed down her face.
Mitchell stood off to the side, one hand on his chin, staring into nothing. Jack sat on a rock nearby, elbows on his knees, eyes locked on the ground as if trying to make sense of the insanity they had just witnessed.
The silence broke suddenly.
"Did you see that?!" Cole shouted, flailing his arms. "It almost got Ben! If it wasn't for that other freak of nature intervening, he'd be GONE! What the hell was that anyway?! An armored snake? Is this some failed inGens failed experiment they dumped in here?! I'm telling you—we got no chance! NO CHANCE! I—"
"Cole!" Bill barked, cutting him off with a glare that could drill through stone.
Cole clamped his mouth shut, but his eyes were wild with fear.
Sam looked up from Ben, her face pale.
"What was that, Bill?" she asked, her voice shaking. "That thing that... saved him?"
Bill exhaled slowly, eyes scanning the treeline.
"A snake. An anaconda to be exact. A big one. A freak of nature… the biggest I've ever seen."
He paused, as if the words stuck in his throat.
"And that armored monstrosity that attacked it?" He shook his head. "I don't even know what to call it. I've never seen anything like it. That thing wasn't normal."
"Alright," Sam said abruptly, rising to her feet. Her voice was hard, final. "This expedition is over."
Jack's head shot up. "Wait, what?! You can't say that! We're so close! Tell her, Mitchell."
Everyone turned to look at Mitchell.
He stared at Jack a moment longer, then looked down at Ben's barely breathing body… and then at Sam.
"It's over, Jack," he said firmly.
Jack opened his mouth, but no words came out.
Gail buried her face into her knees. Cole stood frozen, glancing nervously at the water's edge. Sam knelt back down beside Ben, her jaw clenched as she applied more pressure to his wounds.
The jungle around them seemed quieter now, but not in a peaceful way—more like something had just shifted in the food chain.
Something bigger had arrived.
And from the shadows of the trees, I was watching.
Silent. Still. Listening.
Waiting.
My eyes narrowed as they lingered on the red-haired man barking orders.
Jack.
The same obnoxious egomaniac whose obsession with the flower got Mitchell and Tran killed and almost got Sam killed in the original timeline. The same man who would risk everyone for profit.