Neo-Odyssey

Chapter Ten

The beginning of the trek out was a simple, if tedious affair.

Collin, personally, found it calming, and a good exercise to boot slugging it through the thick black swamp sludge.

Yet, aside from himself, all but Tantoo were far from comfortable with the experience. Five miles out and Collin lost track of the amount of times that Clarice, Kaleb or Florence had to take a pause or tripped over something unseen beneath the waters. He wouldn't call them clumsy per say, just inexperienced. Used to not having to watch their footwork.

Fortune often sours when hard times roll up. As usual, dad's advice is spot on. Damnit, you'd think a plane with five hundred plus passengers would've left us a little more fortunate with picks for helping hands.

Still, it wasn't all wasted time and idle banter. Tantoo was always sure to give a cursory check to every piece of foliage they stumbled across, be it a shrub, a tree, a patch of moss or puddle of algae bobbing along the surface of the still inky muck they'd been trudging along for the better part of the afternoon.

"No good," was what he'd invariably say, before rattling off a list of reasons why they'd get no use out of the plants in question. Collin was sure that it was for Kaleb's benefit more so than anyone else's, they all trusted Tantoo's judgement, their impromptu expedition leader just needed to be sure of it.

Probably to tell folks back at the plane why we're passing this stuff up. I'd really hate to be in his shoes right now, having five hundred lives looking towards you to save the day just can't be easy.

Eventually, though, their luck would take a turn for the better. Or, so they thought...

By the evening, Tantoo shot his fist up into the air in a halting gesture, every soul following behind him freezing still in their tracks.

"What is it? What do you see?" Clarice asked him, breaking the silence.

"In the distance, there's a mass of dark shapes. Don't think you indoorsy folks could make it out. Fog banks tint's off. Could be trouble..."

Collin narrowed his eyes, took a good long look himself, and sure enough saw verbatim what Tantoo was describing. The grimy white fog was offset by something else. And not just that by his reckoning...

"It's thinner, too. Something might be, no, something is dispersing it. Tantoo, I don't think this is animals or anything of the sort. I think it's some change in the geography."

Tantoo turned back to him and, after taking a few seconds starting at him, getting a look at his face, gave him the jolliest genuine grin Collin had seen since his last family Christmas dinner meet-up.

"Dead right. Nice catch. You've got better eyes than me, just not quite so aware of what to look for I'd bet," Tantoo declared, looking back at the dark patch, waking towards it while gesturing with his hand for Collin to follow. "Just him. Nobody else. If there's something nasty up ahead, it'd do us good to only bring up those of us who'd be able to deal with unfriendly fauna."

"Mr. Tantoo, you say that as if expecting an ambush," Kaleb said in the loudest hushed voice Collin had ever heard, or thought possible for that matter, "you don't seriously think-"

"Not now, Marshal. Taking a needless risk in the woods is how you end up dead. Maybe not this time, but sometime down the line. We know these parts have predators, and we don't know nothin' about this patch of dirt. It's just careful common sense, or it would be... honestly, if it does end up being a nicer part of this dead marshland then I think it more than likely we'll run into a burrow or nest of some sort."

"I see... very well... Mr. Merriweather, I trust you'll keep Mr. Tantoo safe?"

Collin nodded, which was enough for Kaleb, judging by the reserved acceptance that seemed to radiate from the Air Marshal's all too calm body. Collin didn't get how his body language could be as composed as his talk, usually the subconscious would shine through something that contrasted a person's thoughtful presentations of themselves, at least in his experience. Kaleb though?

The only time he'd seemed put off to Collin was when dealing with that criminal the night before.

Come to think of it, wasn't that supposed to be some sort of sting operation? Even knowing all the details on that scumbag, he was still thrown through a loop. I wonder if there's more to that creep than he's letting on. No, 'wonder' is too weak a word. There's definitely something up with him. Kaleb too for that matter. It might be my biases showing... but... Kaleb Jones feels way too competent and composed to be any sort of over-glorified security cop...

"Hey, Collin right? You all good, or you checking out into the clouds 'n leaving ol' Tantoo to give this spooky spot a look-see?"

Collin bit his lip, waving his left arm dismissively toward the wilderness aficionado.

"You don't need to be concerned. Trust me, I'm taking this just as seriously as you are, if not more."

"Ha! Could'a fooled me! Well, no matter. Keep your eyes peeled and ears sharp, here be monsters..."

A few more steps and Collin found himself relieved of the horrid irritating sensation of bog muck sloshing around his lower legs. The raised ground of this mysterious new outcropping of land felt interesting beneath his feet.

"It's spongy," he muttered, giving it a few testing stamps, applying varying levels of pressure, finding his conclusion to be accurately apt.

"Like nothing I've ever waltzed over before, that's for damn sure. It's not givin' way, it ain't even wet by the feel of it. Tch, I'd have you dig it out a bit to have a look at what's beneath, but we really shouldn't go pushing our luck if it don't affect us none."

Collin couldn't argue with that logic. Looking over the area a bit more, he was happy to find the mist incredibly thinned here, startlingly so, enough that he could make out the shapes of decently sized trees intermittently sprouted around the general area.

"Guess we can confirm what those shapes were. Hey, Tantoo, what do you make of all this?"

Tantoo was busy kneeling down near the base of one of the trees, giving its trunk a good feel with his hands. Looking at his face, he seemed somewhat troubled.

"It's not bark..."

That warred a raised brow from Collin.

"What do you mean?"

Tantoo stood up, continuing to run his hands up it all the while.

"Hold that thought. I'm feeling something else. Sticky, thin, tough. Hmmm...."

He pulled his hands away with a surprisingly necessary amount of force, thin sturdy gossamer strands coming along with them, stuck to his palms as surely as they were stuck to the tree.

"Collin, these are webs..."

The experienced prizefighter could see that plain as day.

"Yeah. It is. And?"

Tantoo was frozen, not a muscle moving, save for his mouth, and what involuntary acts his body forced upon him.

"These... aren't... capture... threads..." he said slowly, controlling his breathing and micro movements to a level that thoroughly impressed Collin... and worried him in equal amounts...

"I think... they're... sensory..."

Collin's eyes went wide, his body moving before the thought fully cemented itself in his head. He glanced upwards and realized, suddenly, that he couldn't see the tops of the trees around them thanks to the fog banks wafting overhead. Straining his ears, he also found that he could hear... something. Which, compared to the dead silence of the swamplands up until this point, might as well have been a tolling danger bell for the mess they'd just stumbled into.

"When I say move..."

An unspoken understanding of the situation quickly formed between the two experienced veterans of their respective crafts. Collin could hear that near imperceivable sound grow yet closer, yet louder, and wasn't about to just let whatever was behind it get the drop on them. He took a combat ready stance, shuffled carefully over to Tantoo, and angled his focus upwards, fists clenched and ready to fly.

"Move!"

Tantoo moved back and away from the tree as forcefully as he could manage, his feet getting little in the way of solid purchase on the odd local ground. Those threads stuck to his hands didn't so much as snap at the effort, stretching and pulling off of the tree and with him, their long lines uprooting, and bringing with that uprooting a grim rustling sound above them. The silent assassin that had laid those webs descended suddenly, large fangs bared to bite down into what it thought was hapless prey. To Collin's eyes it looked like something you'd find in the deepest darkest recesses of the South American rainforest, a monstrous goliath of a spider the size of a cat. It wasn't a tarantula type, lacking that strain's signature bristly hairs, but it had the mass and menace of a bird eater all the same.

Collin moved on instinct, launching an uppercut skywards directly towards the descending arachnid. It didn't seem to be able to maneuver when in freefall, and Collin guessed it to be just about as intelligent as any common spider, which worked well enough to his advantage. Pivoting his body as he flew into motion, he quickly reoriented his strike, changing the angle from a straight upwards blow to an arc with a trajectory set to collide with the very tree the spider had leapt down from. Pinned behind it, the would-be predator got the full force of Collin's K.O. capable punch without the slightest bit of dispersed force. He felt its insides pulp as its exoskeleton cracked beneath his fist, cutting up the skin of his fingers and knuckles something fierce. Collin felt liquid running down and between his digits as he heard the spider let out some sort of stomach turning shriek, then die.

"Well, that was exciting. Mind giving me a hand?" Tantoo asked, waving his still webbed up hands around for emphasis.

Collin got to work on the small yet strong silk strands immediately. He tore off some of his shirt, wrapped his hands in it to avoid getting himself stuck on the webs like Tantoo had, and managed to tear the strong silky bindings to shreds with no small effort on his part.

I'm just glad these are genuine silk threads. If they were something artificial, it'd probably cut up my palms like piano wire.

He shuddered at the meme thought, recoiling as memories he'd long kept buried bubbled up in the back of his mind. He was glad there was enough to do in the here and now to keep him from thinking too much in general. He had a feeling that he'd be getting a bad sleep tonight one way or another.

"There. Are you alright, Tantoo?" Collin asked, lending the survivalist blogger a hand to help him back up, one which the ultimately pragmatic nature expert took without hesitation, his face creased by some small worry that, steadily enough, melted away.

"More or less. It's not the first time I've gotten too close for comfort with a predator after getting a lil' bit cocky. Still, considering I have you by my side, I think I can be forgiven for being a bit less attentive than usual."

"This coming from the man who was preaching caution-first before?"

Tantoo laughed at that remark, fighting to keep it as hushed as possible lest anything else around them get alerted to their presence. The effort looking uncomfortable at best and painful at worst to Collin.

"It's... ngh... it's why I... I...do it..." he coughed, looking somewhat sickly, ill even, as the amusement of the situation left him. Only the seriousness of it lingering. "I'm a fool at the best of times I'll admit. I'm just a fool whose self-aware is all, and knows better than to let others make the same mistakes I've had to live through."

He rolled up his long sleeve, showing off an intricate web of scars upon his right arm to Collin.

"Growing up, my grandpa would always scold me when I screwed up. Call me a fool. I'm glad he did, I'd be dead by now in my line of work if he hadn't. Bobcats, bad weather, rats, nearly had a nasty run in with an alligator once, if you'd believe it. Not to mention my own slip ups. The big long line going down from my thumb to my elbow joint was from a slip-up I made while carving a wooden spear. The odd blemish at the top right of my palm was from tripping while carrying a makeshift water boiling vessel, filled to the brim like the rank amateur I was."

As he rolled his sleeve back down, Collin found himself admiring the man's honesty and self-awareness. Even so...

"Does Kaleb know about this history of mistakes you've racked up?"

Tantoo shook his head guiltily, eyes looking down like a scolded child.

"No... that said... can you say you don't have a secret or two you've kept to yourself for one reason or another?"

Collin kept his silence.

"I thought so. Look... you know how to do your job, I know how to do mine. It's that simple. Whatever else might be going on with us, it doesn't matter. Helping the people in the plane, making sure the sick and worried get to eat, and the children don't stop smiling, that's what matters. So let's put a pin in this chat of ours and get back to work."

Collin didn't push the topic any further. Rather, he bent down to grab the corpse of the spider, legs curled up and cracked chest leaking, and tossed it to Tantoo.

"Is it edible?"

Tantoo smiled as he started looking it over, feeling the texture of its exoskeleton, smelling it, feeling its oozing ichor against his fingertips

"Well, while I've never had the pleasure of going down to the green hell myself, I believe South America Goliath spiders are edible, so we have that going for us. Apparently, they taste shrimp like. Makes sense, both having shells 'n stuff. It doesn't smell particularly off, and this gunk running out of it doesn't feel irritable... so it probably isn't poisonous. Still, if it has venom, you might've caused it to rupture and contaminate the whole thing with that punch of yours. Not a criticism mind you, it's just how things be."

He unstrapped an empty backpack he'd been carrying this whole trip, unzipping it and dumping the spider carcass inside, before zipping it back up and throwing it back over his shoulders.

"Now then, let's see what you are..." Tantoo mused as he re-affixed his attention to the tree trunk, tapping it, putting his ear to the trunk and then tapping it, scraping it a bit, sniffing it, and a half dozen other tests that Collin found to be tedious to observe.

"This is... ridiculous..." Tantoo seemed to only grow more and more perplexed with every passing test. Eventually taking a deep breath, reaching back around him, and pulling out some cloth wrapped object he'd been keeping tied to his person.

"What's that?" Collin inquired, watching Tantoo unwrap the think with no shortage of interest.

"A little something I whipped up in preparation for this trip. Took the steel from a luggage carry handle, put some rope together from some donated clothes, and used it to tie a funky looking rock that Jonah kid tripped over while he was helping to put together that outdoors work station."

Collin was unsurprised to see a basic short spear after that description. The steel rod that made up its shaft looked a bit flimsy to his eyes, but the DIY rope seemed sturdy enough, and the jagged black stone tip seemed like some sort of obsidian, so he trusted that it could cut well enough. Though...

"It doesn't look right." Collin said absentmindedly. It seemed weirdly greasy to him, slick and oily, with an odd faint haziness reflecting through and around it from what little light penetrated the fog banks above.

"Huh, didn't think anyone else would notice. Yeah, you're 100% right on that. The thing feels electrically charged if you'd touch it, and a little warm on the surface to boot. I've got no clue what type of rock it's made of, it's far too sturdy for obsidian, and I don't know enough about Jet to make heads or tails if that is what it is. In either case, it shouldn't-"

"Wait... you said it felt charged, right?"

Tantoo cocked his head to the size. At first his look was confused... then the gears in his head started to visibly turn, just as they had with Collin.

"The plane. Our tech. None of them can hold a charge anymore..."

Both looked to the spear tip, Collin walking over and feeling its flat himself. Sure enough, it felt faintly warm, and coaxed out a sensation that reminded him of sucking on a battery when he was too young to know better.

"Collin, freakiness of this aside, we need to keep focused on the task at hand. Okay? We'll bring this up to Kaleb later, right now, I need you to keep an eye out while I carve us a strip of this definitely-not-a-tree."

Collin didn't object to that, every hair standing on end as he kept watch above and below, ears pricked for the slightest telltale sound of another unforeseen attack attempt. Fortunately, nothing of the sort happened while Tantoo shaved off a nice long strip of the tree looking plant, about as long and thick as your average restaurant napkin.

"Here we are. So, no sap's leaking out, and it doesn't look like it has any ringmarks either, so definitely not any sort of tree I can think of. Area beyond the outer layer looks a bit spongey. And it all has a slight scent of mildew."

"Spongey..."

Collin stamped the ground, feeling its likewise spongey texture bounce beneath his foot.

"Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing. Whatever's up with this patch of dirt, wasting time questioning it while we're still out and about won't help none. Best finish up here then get to speculating. Now then, that clump to the side of your right foot, it looks like a moss. Mind grabbing it for me?"

Collin bent over, wrapping his hand around it and tore the well rooted stuff from the earth. The fuzzy aqua blue plant felt sticky in his hands, not like a web, more like the side of a recycling bin after suffering one too many cans with liquid still inside. Giving it a brief sniff, it even had a faint ripeness to it, with a dash of... hand sanitizer?"

"Hey, this smell... its alcoholic..."

"Huh, ain't that something. Pass it over friend."

Colling walked over to the well-tanned outdoorsman, holding out his hand so Tantoo's keen nose could get a whiff of the stuff.

"Weird, kinda smells like candy floss. Looks a bit like it too. Course the alcohol content means it's probably been over-ripened. But if it could ferment then that also means it's got some nutrients we can use. Gather some while I shave more of this tree, one we've got it filled to the brim we'll head back to the others and get out of this place."

That sounded fine by the professional boxer. He might've been a fighter, a celebrity at this point to boot, but he was more than used to menial drudgery. He'd helped his dad work odd jobs to earn ends meet, and even after his uncle took Collin under his wing, he'd still done the occasional shady side gig moving cargo to earn enough to keep pursuing his passions. Even so, that combat instinct he prided himself on didn't slacken for a second as he grabbed handfuls of the fluff strewn around this weird patch of land.

Something was off, yet even so, he'd be sure to spring into action the moment things went pear shaped...