Heart of the Jungle - Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Two: 'Welcome to the Jungle, We've Got Fun and Games!'

"This is so stupid!" huffed Bethany. "We've been walking for hours!"

"It hasn't been that long," mumbled Martha.

"Well it feels like it! I just want to go home!"

"We all do!" Martha reminded her, more harshly than she intended.

Bethany took offence to her tone. "Well excuse me for being upset!"

"I'm upset too! I'm just keeping it to myself!"

"Hey Spencer, are you actually following that map?" Fridge asked.

Spencer held the map at arm's length and examined it. "Kinda... I'm having a bit of trouble reading it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well not all of it's here. The writing's all broken up. Plus there's this whole piece missing." He pointed to the torn edge.

"Nigel said to find the missing piece. Do you think he meant the map?" tried Martha.

"That's what I'm thinking."

"What do you mean? You can't read this?" Bethany came over, taking the map from his hands. "It's just a map of Jumanji."

"Cartography!" Martha suddenly gasped. "It was one of Professor Oberon's skills."

"Oh, so you can't read this but I can?" Bethany looked impressed.

"That's right. The characters we chose, we all have special skills," said Spencer, realizing this too. "So there must be a way to access our skills-" He began patting himself down, gasping when, after pressing his chest, a bright green box listing strengths and weaknesses appeared before him. "Dr. Smolder Bravestone, age 40. Strengths: fearless, climbing, speed, boomerang - smoldering intensity?" He answered by turning and staring off into the distance dramatically.

"What the hell are you doing?" demanded Fridge.

This broke the trance. "What just happened?"

"Uh, you just smoldered," Bethany told him with a grin.

Spencer turned back to his list. "Weakness: none." He nodded, content with his skills.

"Damn that is a man right there," Bethany commented.

"Okay, stop it," said Martha when it started to get awkward.

"I can't help it," Bethany defended.

"How did you do that? The list?" Martha asked Spencer.

"Uh, I think I just pressed my chest."

Martha turned away slightly and tried pressing her own chest. A bright red box appeared in front of her. "Ruby Roundhouse, age 33. Strenghts: Karate, T'ai Chi, Aikido, dancing fighting - dance fighting? Is that even a thing? Weakness: venom."

Bethany tried next. A bright yellow box appeared. Professor Sheldon 'Shelly' Oberon, age 45. Her strengths were cartography, archaeology, and paleontology. Her weakness was endurance. "Seriously?" she said, assessing her skill set. "Pal-e-on-tology? What does that even mean?"

"Um, study of fossils, I think," Martha said. "You know, like dinosaurs. That's pretty cool." She wished she got a skill like that, instead of - dance fighting?

Lastly was Fridge. A bright pink box appeared, listing his strengths as zoology and weapons valet, and his weaknesses as speed, strength, and - cake? Franklin 'Mouse' Finbar, age 40.

"I hate this game!" he declared. "Everybody else got good stuff!"

"Why do I have to be the oldest?!" whined Bethany.

"Weakness: cake?" said Martha, reading Fridge's list.

"Yes, cake is my weakness. Along with speed and strength. How is strength my weakness?! And speed? Why would I need to be fast if I'm being chased through the damn jungle?!" He was fuming.

"Well, you are a good weapons valet," Martha tried to make him feel better.

"What's that?"

"I think it means you carry my weapons in your backpack and give them to me if and when I tell you to," Spencer explained. Now Fridge looked even more unhappy.

"You guys!" Bethany suddenly gasped. "It's changing! The map's changing!" The other three rushed over to see that indeed it was. More was appearing. "See, it didn't say this before and now it does-" Bethany pointed to the new part. From the Deep was written by the water.

"'From the Deep'," Spencer read. "The hippo, it came from the deep. "You know, the one-"

"That did the thing, yes." Bethany cut him off. "Moving on."

"I think that that must have been the first level, and now we're on our way to the second level."

"Well don't look at me you're the video game genius."

Spencer gave a sweep of his arm. "Lead the way Professor Oberon."

Now Bethany led the way, map in hand. Once again they were walking through the dense jungle. A nearby rustling drew them to a halt.

"That better not be another man-eating hippo," mumbled Fridge.

Dum, dum, dum. Dum, dum, dum. Dum, dum, dum. There were the drums again.

"Um, guys-" Bethany whispered.

The drums cut out and when they did, a figure emerged.

They could only see the figure's outline, the sunlight pouring through the trees casting a shadow on them. They stood before the group, leg up on a rock.

When the shadow passed, the group found themselves face-to-face with a young woman.

Spencer's first thought was, "she's really beautiful" and also, "she means business".

The others recognized her too - it was Dr. Vera Bailey from the cut-scene, who they needed to find and help.

"It's her!" cried Bethany, pointing. The young woman appeared briefly startled by this.

"You're Dr. Vera Bailey, " Spencer said, stepping forward.

She smirked. "Very good Bravestone." And with that, she struck him right across the face.

(Haha, there's the official introduction to my character :) hope you enjoyed this chapter, thanks so much for reading and for the 100+ reads already! Also, I'm listening to the soundtrack while writing this - I highly recommend it, it's so good!)