The jungle swallowed them.
As soon as the wreckage vanished behind the thick wall of ferns and vines, the noise changed. It grew denser, more alive — the hum of insects rising into a constant, vibrating pulse. Every branch, leaf, and twisted root seemed like it was watching.
Aiden moved carefully, slicing through low-hanging vines with a pocketknife. Mira followed close behind, marking their trail with bright blue strips of cloth torn from an airline seat. Leo brought up the rear, nervously glancing around at every rustle and buzz.
"How far are we going?" Leo asked after a few minutes. His voice was too loud in the silence between their footfalls.
"Until we find water," Aiden replied. "Then we turn back. No more than an hour out."
"Assuming we don't get eaten first," Mira muttered.
The trees here were monstrous — towering trunks as wide as trucks, with bark like damp stone. The ground was soft underfoot, layers of decaying vegetation creating a thick, spongy mat. The air smelled of earth and mold, and the occasional waft of something sulfurous made Aiden's nose wrinkle.
"So… you ever seen plants like this?" Mira asked, running a hand along a fern as tall as she was.
Aiden shook his head. "Not alive."
Leo stopped in his tracks. "Look at this."
He knelt beside a large depression in the soil. It was circular, almost a foot wide, and had three long toe-like imprints with claw tips. Several more followed in a line, veering off through the underbrush.
"Bird tracks?" Mira asked.
"Too big," Leo said. "Too deep, too spaced out. Something heavy."
"Maybe a cassowary or emu escaped from a zoo," Aiden offered half-heartedly. Even as he said it, he knew how ridiculous it sounded.
Leo didn't respond. His eyes were fixed ahead, scanning the treeline.
Mira glanced around, then pointed to a low slope. "We should head that way. Water usually flows downhill."
They pressed on, cutting through dense ferns and ducking beneath hanging moss. The canopy above blocked out most of the sunlight, casting everything in a greenish twilight. The buzzing grew louder the deeper they went.
Then they heard it — faint, but unmistakable.
Running water.
They moved faster now, stepping carefully over twisted roots and strange, tube-like plants growing from the ground like coral. Aiden brushed past a fern and gasped as something the size of his fist buzzed past his ear — a dragonfly, its wings nearly translucent and glittering like oil.
When they finally reached the stream, it was like stumbling into a different world.
The creek was wide and shallow, lined with smooth stones and strange, lumpy moss. The water was crystal clear, revealing tiny silver fish darting between pebbles. Trees hung low overhead, their massive leaves drooping like curtains.
Mira knelt and splashed her face. "Finally. Fresh water."
Leo dipped his fingers in, then took a careful sip. "Cold. Clean, I think."
Aiden stood still, eyes locked on the muddy bank across the stream.
More tracks.
Not one set. Three. Different shapes. One was long and sinuous, like a giant snake had slithered through. Another was clawed and deep, the soil churned as though something massive had stamped through in a hurry.
The third…
Aiden crouched, staring.
Three-toed. Long heel. Claws that dug furrows deep into the mud.
"You guys…" he said quietly. "These aren't birds."
Mira and Leo joined him. Mira swore under her breath. Leo just stared, lips pressed tightly together.
"What kind of animal makes this?" she asked.
Aiden didn't answer. He was thinking of the nature documentaries again — the ones with museum reconstructions and animated models.
One name floated up from the back of his mind: Eryops. An ancient amphibian the size of a crocodile. And that was one of the smaller creatures from before the dinosaurs.
"We should head back," Aiden said. "Now."
Leo looked reluctant. "We just got here."
"Exactly. We found water. We can lead others back later. But something big came through here. Recently."
As if on cue, a branch cracked in the distance.
They froze.
Then — another sound. Not a growl. Not a roar.
Chuffing. Wet. Guttural. Like lungs exhaling through mud.
"Move," Aiden hissed.
They turned and hurried back the way they'd come, following the cloth strips Mira had marked. Their pace was quick, not quite running but close. Every step was a gamble — soft ground threatened to pull at their boots, and thorny vines lashed at their legs.
Behind them, something moved.
The trees rustled, and a low thud echoed in the canopy.
Not wind.
Not a falling branch.
Footsteps.
Heavy ones.
They picked up speed.
"Don't look back," Mira said, voice tight.
Leo didn't listen. He turned — and stumbled with a yelp, nearly falling before Aiden caught his arm.
"What did you see?" Aiden demanded.
"Eyes," Leo gasped. "Red. Just… watching."
Aiden didn't ask more.
They reached the edge of the wreckage a few minutes later, bursting out of the underbrush and startling two people gathering supplies.
"You alright?" someone asked.
Mira waved them off. "Fine. Water's about half a mile downhill. But something's out there."
The man in the suit, now sunburned and irritated, stormed over. "Where the hell have you been? You can't just disappear—"
"We found tracks," Aiden cut in. "Large ones. Not normal."
"You found an animal," the man said, rolling his eyes. "Of course there are animals. It's a jungle."
"Not like this."
Mira crossed her arms. "We're not just playing castaway here. We need to set up a real perimeter. Keep fires going. Watches at night."
The man scoffed. "You three run off, come back with ghost stories, and now you're in charge?"
Leo took a step forward. "You didn't see what we saw."
"No," the man said sharply, "I didn't. Because I was here trying to keep people alive while the rest of you played explorer."
Aiden turned away. Arguing wouldn't help. The real problem wasn't the man.
It was the jungle.
And whatever was moving in it.
That night, Aiden sat with Mira and Leo near a small fire at the edge of the clearing. Most of the others were asleep or pretending to be. The man in the suit — Garrett, they'd learned — was still pacing like a general without an army.
"So," Mira said quietly, "You still think this is just some island?"
Aiden stared into the flames. "I don't know. But if it is…"
He glanced toward the dark trees.
"…then it's an island the world forgot a long time ago."