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18.58% My life as a Tomb Raider in Nanyang / Chapter 21: Enter the Jungle

Chapter 21: Enter the Jungle

Bobby, with a cup of hot coffee in his hand, went up to Firecracker Tan and said, "Hi, Firecracker Tan. Your glass jar bomb was awesome. Can you teach me how to do it?"

Hearing that Bobby wanted to learn about his glass jar, Firecracker Tan's eyes lit up.

He put his hands on Bobby's shoulders, his eyes wide open, and said, "Finally, someone who appreciates my craft!"

Bobby then raised his hand with the hot coffee, hit Firecracker Tan's hand, and spilled the hot coffee all over him.

"I'm so sorry, Firecracker Tan."

"Argh. Now I'm all sticky, and I smell like coffee."

"Go get a shower; it will be so uncomfortable," I suggested.

"Hmph. Nice timing. Be careful." Firecracker Tan took out new clothes for changing, then walked to the shower.

"I need to go take a leak," I said and followed him closely.

Firecracker Tan undressed, placed his old clothes and his belongings in the changing area, then went into the bathroom stall.

I took out his phone from his pocket.

I clicked on the power button; there was a screen lock.

I held the screen against the fluorescent light and saw the grease mark on the screen, shaped like an 'L'.

I tried swiping the pattern from top to bottom.

"I'm singing in the rain..." Firecracker Tan sang.

Sounds of water coming down then added to his voice.

It startled me. I wiped the sweat off my forehead and said to myself, "I'd better hurry."

No go; it was the wrong sequence.

Thereafter, the water stopped.

I didn't know whether he was done or just applying soap.

There was no other choice but to quickly try again.

I swiped from the bottom to the top, and bingo!

The phone was unlocked.

On the screen was a photo.

Firecracker Tan was hugging a woman, together with a small little girl by their side.

The little girl, most likely his daughter, holding a teddy bear, was looking up at her parents, smiling.

Damn it, he was just looking at a photo of his family.

I then immediately looked at his SMS and email.

Nothing; he wasn't talking to anyone.

"Clack."

I heard the bathroom stall unlock. I immediately browsed back to his family photo, turned off the phone, and placed it back.

Very quietly, I tiptoed out of the shower.

I went back to the gathering area, lit up to let my mind do its work.

There was only Kurnawan left.

I recollected every moment with Kurnawan, from greeting us at the airport right until now.

Like a silent movie, the images played in my head.

Any moment that stood out?

I couldn't figure it out.

Across the gathering area, Kurnawan was practicing Pencak Silat (martial arts from Southeast Asia).

With the karambits in his hands, his swift, elegant movement was a sight to behold.

I thought to myself, how would I fight against him?

Most likely, I would be dead with my throat slit within a few seconds.

With that in mind, I went over to Bobby.

"Bobby, listen and stay quiet. There's a traitor among us. I suspect it's Kurnawan."

"Wait, what?" Bobby was shocked, his eyes wide open.

"Be cautious with him from now on; never turn your back to him."

"Why don't you tell the rest?"

"I will when I figure it out. We might alert the real traitor if I got it wrong."

He nodded in agreement.

"In the meantime..." I got closer and whispered to him my plan.

...

The next day, Sea Snake Fang felt better.

Amy Lee decided it was time to move out.

We checked all the necessities: batteries, water, and food.

We packed up everything and started on our journey into the jungle.

You could feel the gradual change in the ground.

Initially, it was a smooth ride, but subsequently, it got bumpier.

When it got rough, we were like a bunch of dice being shaken in a dice cup.

The scenery changed from sparse vegetation to lush greenery everywhere.

Throughout the journey, we had to pause occasionally to tow a jeep whenever one got stuck in the mud.

Finally, the vegetation was too thick for the jeeps, so we had to move on foot.

"Unload everything you need; make sure you don't leave anything important," Amy Lee reminded us.

I checked my backpack, making sure I had everything.

I looked up into the dense, thick forest and swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

So it begins, I thought to myself.

"Maybe Kurnawan can take the lead; he should be more familiar," I suggested, trying to keep his back to us.

Kurnawan, with his usual smile, shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Sure. Let me know if I'm going too fast."

He walked ahead, took out his parang, swung at the rotans in front of him, and thereafter walked into the jungle.

We quickly followed.

...

After two hours of bashing through, we decided to rest at a small clearing.

The humid air together with the undulating terrain made it very exhausting.

On top of that, we were carrying heavy loads of around 10kg each.

The constant howls in the distance and the insects swarming at us only added to our misery.

"Damn these leeches," Bobby cried out loud.

I took a peep; he had his boots off, exposing his foot.

All over it were a few black-colored leeches, now bloated, looking shaped like teardrops after feasting on Bobby's blood.

I shook my head, took out my small bottle of salt, and sprinkled some of it on the leeches.

The leeches, reacting to the salt, fell off soon after.

"I need to go for a dump; I'll be back soon," Kurnawan said.

He then wandered off to find a dumping spot.

Then it hit me.

Kurnawan didn't do anything odd when he was around us.

He did it when we left him on his own.

Like when he offered to stay at the hotel to take care of the hotel staff.

I nudged Bobby, signaling to him, "We need to go for a dump too."

"Must have been the coffee," I said, placing my hand on my stomach.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
ShinyZebra ShinyZebra

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Chapter 22: Wayang Kulit

We hurriedly left, trying to catch up to Kurnawan.

But he was fast; we had lost sight of him.

I tried looking at the leaves and soil on the ground for his track.

Nothing.

Kurnawan's years of jungle experience were evident.

We then came upon a Y junction in the trail.

"Bobby, check over there," I whispered, pointing to a small trail on the left.

Bobby nodded and went on his way.

I carried on, taking the trail to the right.

After a few meters, I heard rustling of bushes ahead.

I hastened my pace, trying to keep up.

When I got close to the bushes, they swayed vigorously.

Crouching down, I slowly got nearer and nearer to the bush.

Suddenly, a monkey jumped out right at me.

I stumbled back, nearly cursing out loud with the jump scare.

My heart was pumping fast, so forceful that I could feel every throb all over my body.

After that, the adrenaline rush kicked in; I could faintly hear some voices further ahead.

I composed myself by taking a few deep breaths.

When I felt better, I crouched and got near the voices.

Seeing that there was a huge tree trunk, I took cover behind it and peered ahead.

To my surprise, it was Clement and his party.

The bastard was able to somehow track us.

It didn't take me long to know the answer; standing right there was Kurnawan.

I felt tingles on my skin; hair on my arms stood up.

Chills went down my spine.

It was my first taste of betrayal.

All the stories I'd read and heard still didn't prepare me for this.

Crystal Siti, sitting down with her legs crossed, had one of her crystals tied to a string.

She was letting it twirl around freely while holding the string.

Initially, it twirled around in a circular motion.

Slowly, it began to swing in a particular direction.

Finally, it settled on the direction, which was pointing at me.

Crystal Siti stared in my direction, pointed at the tree trunk, and shouted: "There's someone there!"

All of them stood up and came at me.

I wasted no time, turned around and ran.

Shouting at the top of my lungs, "Everybody run. Clement is behind me! They are here!"

There were twigs coming at my face; I didn't waste any time swiping them away.

"Bang! Bang!"

Shots rang out, and I could hear the bullets whizzing by.

As I got close to our resting area, I tripped on a tree root.

With the force of my velocity, I tumbled forward.

When I came to a stop, I opened my eyes and saw the canopy of the forest.

Then Amy Lee's head popped into the picture, followed by the rest of the team.

They pulled me back up.

We quickly took cover behind the tree trunks.

Amy Lee and Sea Snake Fang fired back in Clement's team's direction.

After a while, the gunfire faded; we scanned intensely at the trees and bushes.

It was quiet; no one approached.

They didn't want a showdown, choosing to disappear into the forest instead.

They wanted to slowly grind us down.

"Let's move; we can't stay put. Best to put distance between us," I said as I picked up my backpack.

Everyone agreed; we wasted no time and moved on.

"Susurrus"

Sounds of rustling emerged in front of us.

Amy Lee raised her hand, signaling us to stop.

We searched for cover and hid behind it.

I lost count of how many times we did this.

It physically and mentally exhausted us.

The hot and humid air made every breath a chore.

And now, we were drenched with sweat and feeling uncomfortable.

Bobby, who was beside me, clenched his fist, grumbled and said, "Damn it. I can't take this anymore; I'd rather fight them than go through this torture."

I motioned for him to calm down.

Took out my water bottle and drank a mouthful.

He took my cue, did the same thing, gave out a huge sigh after relinquishing his thirst, and dousing out his anger.

Firecracker Tan shook his head, took out his phone, I presumed to look at his family photo, to keep himself sane and calm.

Sea Snake Fang scanned the trees carefully for any sight of them.

Finally, the coast was clear.

Amy Lee waved for us to carry on.

Their strategy worked.

Any little movement or noises encountered, we stopped to check if it was them.

In the first hour or so, we could still take the mental pressure.

However, as we moved on, we slowly felt the fatigue and tensing up of our muscles.

Mentally we felt like we had screws slowly tightening in our heads, making us short-tempered and hyper-anxious.

There was no way we could stay sane until we reached our destination.

We had to do something because when nighttime comes it's going to get worse.

As I trudged on, I thought to myself, what would Shifu do in this situation.

His voice then echoed in my mind, "Stay calm, think of the chessboard, who are the chess pieces on the board. What are the possible moves you can take?"

I let my mind wander off, going through all the different scenarios of how to get rid of Clement and his party.

Betrayal and backstabbing—how could someone who had been working with me suddenly decide to kill everyone for the sake of more money?

The thought kept repeating in my mind.

It then struck me; I too could play the same game.

The most cunning predator often disguises itself as prey.

Drastic times call for drastic measures.

I went up to all the others, briefed them on my plan in a whisper.

Everyone was in on the plan.

Soon, it was nightfall.

The fatigue together with the low visibility forced us to stop and set up camp.

I collected twigs and leaves lying all over the ground, gathered them into a pile, then lit them on fire.

"Crack."

Crackling sounds came out of the campfire as we huddled around it.

Our shadows swayed in the backdrop of trees like a Wayang Kulit (Shadow Puppetry) show.

Amy Lee turned in my direction, stared at me, and asked: "Sam, you were close to Kurnawan?"


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
ShinyZebra ShinyZebra

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