Jeff could hear the sluggish dragging of flesh across stone closing in slowly behind him. The sound echoed through the dark tunnel, hurting his ears. Jeff had always had an acute sense of hearing, being able to hear people’s conversations from buildings five blocks down the street. His apartment was in L.A., where even though it was early fall the air was still warm and familiar. Not like the dark tunnel he found himself trapped inside. The agent had told him of a televised scavenger hunt that would be taking place in Venezuela. Jeff had felt that maybe his special sense would give him the upper hand over the other contestants in some way. Even though he wasn’t one for watching reality television, let alone participating in it, the advantage he felt he had and what the deal included were more than enough to oblige him to commit. The scavenger hunt entailed a six day trip in which the contestants would be staying at the five star Hilton, sipping champagne poolside during the evening, and snorkeling, hiking, and exploring through the South American countryside during the day. He would have been all right with that, but this black, cramped tunnel he found himself crawling in was not part of the deal. The helicopter had suffered difficulties and made an emergency landing at the edge of the jungle. One of the contestants, Joel, had yelled to the others of a terrible beast that occupied the area. He had explained how it feasted on animals and the occasional native or tourist who happened to wander away from the near village. Just as Joel had opened his mouth the woods and brush around them had been enveloped by a thunderous, tortured moan; a ferocious sound that had stung Jeff’s ears like a hornet.
At that point everyone had scattered, including Jeff. He had run off in the direction of several others but had somehow lost them along the way. He had taken too many wrong turns and ended up in that tunnel, somewhere below the earth, without light and with something clearly behind him, although he was unsure how far. The sound was blaring in his ear, but it could have been coming from a distance of a half a mile; Jeff had no way of telling. That acute sense of his played with his mind during times of extreme stress, tricking him to look behind his shoulder into the blackness. Typically, Jeff was able to control his hearing but whenever fear would grab a hold of him he had a hard time concentrating. The confined tunnel also caused the noise behind him to ricochet in all directions, which hindered Jeff in locating its distance. Crawling on hands and knees, he could barely twist to view the path behind, and even when he turned his head, all he saw was the dark of the cramped tunnel he felt closing in around him. He could tell his path was narrowing.
Thump… thump… thump… Jeff felt his heart racing in his chest as he heard the scratching of something dragging against the stone behind him. It reminded him of the noise the chalk would make against the board in grade school, causing a clamor so awful he had to cover his ears, and eventually wear earplugs to class. He wished he had those earplugs now to block out the sound. Jeff could hear another sound, heavy panting. This sound seemed familiar to Jeff, almost mimicking his own exhausted breath. It didn’t sound like that of an animal, but he thought that maybe the confined space of the tunnel was playing with the noise. He thought of the beast they had all been afraid of. The image grew in his mind as he inched through the tunnel. Jeff imagined the clawed beast dragging its withered flesh slowly and hungrily. He could almost see its red eyes bulging out of its shrunken skull, and bared crooked, yellow fangs extending below its shriveled black lips.
Just as he was imagining what terrible creature was closing in on him Jeff felt a sudden pain in his leg. He heard the rip of his pant leg and realized he was stuck. His ankle was caught by something, and he couldn’t break free. Jeff heard the heavy breathing and piercing scratching closing in on him. He couldn’t take it anymore; he felt the breath he knew wasn’t there against the nape of his sweating neck. Finally he screamed; he hated to scream, as the noise would rattle through his skull like a hurricane. The loud yell that came from his lips was out of terror and desperation. Suddenly lights flashed from behind him, and he could see again, the dark dispensed and the tunnel became lighter. He could see the root his ankle was twisted in and was able to pry himself free. He looked ahead and saw where he needed to go. He followed the tunnel through a series of sharp curves until he eventually saw the light at the end. Dragging himself the extra few feet he popped out to a more than surprising sight. The sound behind him completely gone and cameras situated all around him, he realized what was happening.
Once outside and able to stand, Jeff saw a man crawling from the tunnel behind him, holding a camera with a light mounted on the top in one hand and a glove with metal talons extending from the fingertips on the other. “Congratulations, Jeff! You’re the first one to complete their task for Jungle Fear.” The man had handed off the camera and the glove to one of the other men swarming about with cameras. “This is the future of reality television, introducing contestants to an unfamiliar atmosphere and the concept of a monster of some kind. We hired Danny to take the copter down, and Joel to invoke you guys with the fear of the human-eating jungle beast. From there we pretty much just inconspicuously follow you guys around with cameras and film the rest.” Jeff didn’t know what to say, he was still shocked, he felt his legs collapse beneath him and just before passing out heard someone shout, “Get this man to the Hilton, pronto! His suite’s all ready for him.”
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