Heart of the Jungle - Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Three: "Call Me 'Doctor'" - Dr. Vera Bailey

"Ow!" Spencer cried. "Wh-what was that for?!"

"Oh you know what! For abandoning us!"

"I don't-"

"Oh don't play innocent! You left to pursue your own selfish expeditions leaving the jealous Van Pelt to try and outdo you, leading us here, and now in the middle of this giant mess!"

She looked the same as she had in the cut-scene, only now looked more scraped up and dirty, having been on the run in the jungle. She wore a blue button-up shirt, the buttons undone with the ends tied in a knot, with a creme coloured tank top underneath, green khaki pants, brown combat boots, and leather finger-less gloves. Her yellowish-blonde hair was tied back in a messy fishtail braid over her shoulder, as though she had hastily pulled it back, a few wisps escaping here and there. Her face was tanned and smeared with dirt, but wore a determined look. She had a handgun resting against each hip and a knife sticking out of her boot. She looked to be in about her mid-thirties and she spoke with an English accent.

There was a pause, the others too shocked to respond, especially Spencer. They had no idea what was going on.

"Wait, you guys know each other?" said Martha, gesturing to Dr. Bailey and Spencer, and breaking the shocked silence.

"Yes. We've worked together in the past. Who are you?" Dr. Bailey demanded of the redhead.

"Um, Martha - I mean Ruby Roundhouse, I guess..." This only earned her a confused look.

"Why the hell are you wearing that in the jungle?" Dr. Bailey asked, scrunching up her nose at Martha's shorts and short-sleeved crop-top, just as Martha had done.

"I said the same thing," the red-head assured her.

"Bethany," Bethany cried when the young woman turned to her next.

Now Dr. Bailey looked even more confused. "Bethany?"

"Look, I know this is going to sound, well, weird, but I'm not actually Dr. Bravestone," Spencer told her.

"Really?" Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"No, I'm serious!" he insisted. "I'm being completely honest. My name is Spencer, but I got trapped in his body. So I look and sound like Dr. Bravestone, but I'm not really him. See, that's Martha, but she's trapped as Ruby Roundhouse, and Bethany as Professor Sheldon 'Shelly' Oberon. And Fridge-"

But Fridge jumped in. "Hey girl. How are you? I'm Anthony." He gave her a grin.

She regarded him. "And yet you're Franklin Finbar. Bravestone's assis-"

"Assistant, yeah we know. We've been through that already." He was obviously still bitter about this.

"So, yeah," Spencer finished. "It's the truth," he added for good measure, the other's nodding in agreement.

Now Dr. Bailey regarded the four of them, arms crossed. "So let me get this straight: you all look like these people but you're really someone else trapped inside their bodies?"

It did sound pretty absurd, but it was true. "Yes."

She gave a sigh. "The curse is spreading, getting worse. It's trapped you as people you're really not, that's how strong it is. I need to act quickly to put an end to this madness."

Now it was the four's turn to look confused. "Uh no, this ain't a curse-" began Fridge, but Spencer cut him off.

"Yeah, yeah, it's the curse. And that's why we're here. We're here to help you."

"Oh..."

"Nigel sent us."

"Of course he did."

"We're here to help you break the curse and save Jumanji."

"Well, thank you, that's very kind, but I don't need your help. Good day." With a small, stiff smile, she turned swiftly on her heel and stalked into the jungle.

There was a shocked silence. "Did she just," began Fridge.

"Leave us?" finished Martha.

"Yeah," said Spencer.

"Rude!" cried Bethany.

"Uh, hey, wait up!" The group took off after her.

"You don't understand, we need to do this in order to go home," Spencer explained, catching up with her. Wow, she was fast.

"What? Can't you just go home?"

"No, we can't go back without helping you." Again, it sounded strange. "It's, the curse," Spencer added, hoping that would make her more likely to believe them, whereas in any other case it probably wouldn't.

"Well, like I said, that's very kind, but I don't want nor need your help. Nothing personal, it's just I'm working alone this time around. It's better that way." With that she continued on.

"What-"

"She can't do that!"

"What's up with all this 'curse' stuff?" Fridge demanded of Spencer.

"I don't think she realizes this is a game," Spencer said, lowering his voice.

"What? How could she not?"

"Well just think: Nigel referred to this as a game, but she hasn't. She seems dead serious."

"Do you think she's trapped here too? Or is she another NPC or whatever?"

"No, I think she's also an NPC."

"But she doesn't repeat herself."

"I don't know man. She must have an expanded set of programmed responses, cause I get the feeling that she's the character we interact with themost in the game. All I'm saying is that let's try to not mention the whole game thing. She already doesn't want our help, we don't want to give her another reason for not wanting it. I think we've confused her enough already."

They continued following her through the trees. I didn't take her long to notice. "What part of 'I don't need your help' don't you get?"

"Look, Vera-"

"Doctor."

"Doctor Vera."

"Doctor Bailey!"

"Sorry! Look, we can help each other. We help you break the curse and you help us complete our quest so we can go home. You can trust us."

"That's what they all say." She sighed, hands on her hips. "Fine. But try and keep up. I won't have you slowing me down, I can't afford that."

The others gave a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

"Dr. Vera Bailey, well-known archaeologist and anthropologist adventurer. You can call me 'Doctor'."

"'Doctor', like just 'Doctor'?" said Martha. "Like Doctor Who?"

"Yes, just 'Doctor'. Now come on then." She waved them onward. "Oh, and welcome to the jungle."

(Haha I had to have Karen Gillan reference 'Doctor Who', I just had to! ;) Haha! And I realized that how I imagined Vera is very similar to the look of Brie Larson's character in Kong: Skull Island, so while reading you can imagine that she looks like Mason Weaver :) And I actually imagined Vera taking pictures of everything in Jumanji, as she says later she's fascinated by it all (which is what I would do if I were to ever go on an adventure like that! ;)) Hope you enjoyed, thanks so much for reading and for the 200+ reads already - this story has only been out a week so that's amazing!)