Previous Post Forest Week:  Lost In The Tropics Part 1     Wind blew through a high canopy of trees, the equatorial sun baking them into torturous heat.  The river that existed silently below the trees, along with daily deluges of rain, added a thick humidity that made the atmosphere under those trees almost intolerable by human standards.  Which was why the serenity of the area was almost untouched by humans or their technology.     That serenity was violently interrupted as a helicopter flew just over the tops of those trees at high speed, the wake of the blade wash bending the highest tree branches dangerously.     At the controls was a hand more precise than most humans would be capable of.  Anna was aiding the Lair Legion in surveillance from above the trees.  She piloted the helicopter at high speed, wearing an infrared scanner on her forehead, which she wired to her data port on the back of her head.  She was capable of processing both that and visual data at the same time.     The Lair Legion was in a forest in New England, thousands of miles from where Anna was flying.  But that’s where things got weird - because she originally started flying in New England.  Somehow a dimensional anomaly redirected her to a tropical forest.     She checked the fuel gauge every once in a while.  Being so far from the launch point meant sooner or later she would run low on fuel, and be forced to land.  Then she would be lost in the jungle, and who knows how far away from the Lair Legion she would be.  Fortunately she was somewhat better suited to wilderness survival than an average human.     Hallie briefed her in what to expect down there.  Extremely hostile environment, even more hostile creatures, poisonous foliage, scarce food, and contaminated water.  As long as the thick canopy of trees blocked her view of the sky, no satellite comms or radio frequency would penetrate.  She would be alone, until she could reach a clearing.     Speaking of a clearing, Anna was starting to worry, since she was unable to find a spot that wasn’t thick with foliage, suitable to land a helicopter.  She wanted to avoid crashing it and igniting a forest fire, which she would have to keep on the move to avoid.     A cabin warning chime sounded.  She had about ten minutes of fuel left.  She clenched her teeth, transmitted her current coordinates to Hallie in case she had to be found, and slowed to a hover.  Then she descended quickly.     Louder cabin alarms started going off as the rotors clipped tree branches, but she ignored them since the helicopter was still descending in more or less a controlled fashion.  She gripped the navigation stick tightly, jerking it with quick motions to keep from landing the craft on its side.     Finally, with a solid bump that she could feel to her titanium skeleton, the helicopter hit solid ground.  She shut down the engines and turned off as much equipment as she could, to save the battery.     Once the rotors stopped turning, Anna opened the door and stepped out.  She made a note to herself of its location - it wasn’t safe to sleep on the jungle floor, so the helicopter would be home at night.     Her boots squished into the soft foliage of the jungle floor.  All around her were sounds - calls of birds, insects, predators - so that it was deafening.  She tried to focus on the sounds of traveling on land, so that she might had advance warning of any predators that might be about.     Less than ideal for walking in the heat and humidity, she wore a coverall wrapped shirt, and matching pants, which together looked a bit like a black and pink racing uniform.  She unwrapped the top, the velcro making a quiet ripping sound, and she discarded it in the helicopter, leaving her with a sleeveless black tee-shirt.     Anna shut the door of the helicopter tightly.  Even leaving it a tiny bit open would result in it being taken over by insects, or invaded by something dangerous like a poisonous snake.     For a moment, she closed her eyes and switched on her transmitter to try and ‘ping’ any Lair Legion Comm-Cards in the area to try and figure out how far any of them were.  The ‘ping’ went unanswered, though, meaning she was way out of range.     As with humans, Anna required some food for energy, as well as water to continue operating normally, though she needed far less.  Though the hour was getting late, she decided it was a good idea to hike away from the helicopter before it got dark.     While she walked, the one thing that struck her most about the jungle was the loneliness.  She always had someone to talk to up to this point - now she had nobody with her, and no wireless communications.  It left her with a feeling of hopelessness that she had to fight so it didn’t bring her down emotionally.  She wondered if that was a reflection of her more human traits.     Suddenly, she stopped.  The shadows around her, on the ground, seemed to move, like something was above.  She looked up, and there was nothing immediately visible.  But a quick switch to infrared, and there were large heat signatures everywhere above.  She was surrounded.     Anna broke into a sprint, and the silent shadows above her became a rustle, as they could no longer move quietly and keep up.  She ran away from the helicopter, to make sure her one refuge would stay safe, so she wouldn’t have to abandon it.     She skidded to a halt, as two of them dropped to the ground in front of her.  They looked like small fuzzy bears, only they were very strong and quick.     Anna knew that she was stronger, and quicker.  She hoped they wouldn’t know, since aside from her hair and eyes, she looked like an average human.     Two more of the bears attempted to drop directly on top of her and pin her, but she stepped aside just in time.  They had insurance against that, however - the first two that dropped attacked in the place of their fallen comrades.     In a flurry of movement, she backhanded one, and then deterred the other with a spinning kick.  She was still alarmed, however, at how fast wild animals could move - she barely had enough time.     Then she ran again, pouring on the speed to put as much distance between herself and them.  Once she thought she was a good distance away, she paused for a breath.  She noticed then that her arm had taken a slice from one of the bears’ claws.  The nanites within her body were in the process of repairing it.  That made the need for food, to replenish those depleted raw materials, even more important.     But they were all around her again, creeping in from all sides.  She looked around to survey her surroundings, and realized that she had run in a circle.  They couldn’t affect her memory, as the briefing said, but they were definitely affecting her perceptions.     She realized then that those bears were the ones creating the dimensional distortions - and she was trapped in one, like a goldfish in a glass bowl.  She would either have to fight them, or allow herself to be captured peacefully, or they would keep her there until they wore her down.     With the wealth of food in the jungle, it was unlikely they would attempt to eat her.  Especially because to an animal, she didn’t smell that particularly edible.  If they meant to destroy her, they wouldn’t have carefully tried to surround and capture her - but they might change their minds if she resists too much.  Surrender seemed like a logical and relatively safe answer.     This time, when the first two bears dropped in front of her, she held up her hands.  She thought it odd that they weren’t angry about her earlier resistance - they seemed to believe it was normal.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“If you understand me,”  she said, “I surrender.”     The bears from behind her hit her hard on the back of the head.  Normally that wouldn’t render her unconscious, so she feigned it in order to satisfy them, thinking she could still monitor what they did with her hearing.  She crumpled to the ground, her eyes shut. TO BE CONTINUED      -- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2009 by Jason Froikin, and may not be  --    reprinted without permission.   -- Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow --  Liu Xi Xian and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin --  Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin

On a complete side note, I hate the fact that the subject box on the reply form does not allow me to see all of what I type...  In fact, I have to type blind after I write more than the box will hold... it doesn't follow the cursor, but rather just lets me continue typing sight-unseen beyond the box.