I pulled my hand back like it had landed on something hot.
The skittering thing stopped and started waving a series of antennae around. I looked at the thing, and some part of my brain was trying to place it. After a second I knew what it reminded me of: a coconut crab, those big Pacific Island monsters that could grow a meter long and were smart enough to crack open coconuts by dropping them from trees.
Except you’re uglier, I thought to the thing. By a lot.
The thing swiveled all its antennae to me like it could hear my thoughts.
“Fuck,” I said, out loud.
It chittered, making a sound like a dove being strangled mid-coo.
“Fuck,” I said again.
From around the tree, several other of the things skittered into view.
“Fuck!” It was time to go back to the elevator. I turned just as the first of the things leapt to me, hooking onto my suit.
I tried to brush it off and failed, looked up, and saw that nearly every tree was now festooned with the things, all of them looking at me run, or so it seemed.
I tripped, because of course I did. I was immediately swarmed, because of course I was. I looked up into my plastic visor and saw one of the creatures opening an orifice and something both serrated and spiky shoot out, hitting the visor. Where it hit, some sort of liquid spattered out. I was reasonably sure it was a venom. I heard but did not feel other similar attacks as the spiky tongues made zzzzip sounds across the fabric of my suit. It seemed inevitable that sooner or later one of those would get through.
I tried to get up, but couldn’t see to look where to run. The creatures were swarming around me now, making it hard to find a place to put my hand to prop myself up. I began to hyperventilate. I was definitely going to be dying now.
Someone reached down and yanked me up off the jungle floor, and started grabbing the creatures off of me and hurling them away. It was Tagaq, obviously.
“Hold still,” she said, snatching the creatures and hurling them away as if they were nothing. Most of the creatures ran off at this point; a few tried a second attack, launching at me. Tagaq kicked away most of them and caught one mid-leap, punching it in the air, which I would have thought very cool, were I not presently wetting myself, and had she not been the one who had put me out there to be attacked in the first place.
In a few minutes, we were all alone, standing on the jungle floor.
“You are fine,” Tagaq said to me.
I screamed at her.
“You are fine,” she repeated. She poked my suit. “Quilted carbon fiber. They would have poked at it for years and never gotten through it.”
“You could have told me that!”
“I could have,” she agreed. “But I needed you to feel this in your heart. What you’re feeling now.”
I was about to yell at her again, but stopped. “Okay, one, fuck you,” I said. “This is a super-shitty way to do this.” Tagaq said nothing to this, waiting. “Two, fuck you, you’re right, I get it now.”
“Good,” Tagaq said. “Because here is another thing. The tree crabs that attacked you just now are the least dangerous things you’re going to find here on the jungle floor. Much worse will be things that feed on the tree crabs, of which there are many. Much worse than them are the things that feed on them. And worst of all are the kaiju parasites.”
“Not the kaiju?”
Tagaq shook her head. “We are beneath their consideration. Their parasites, however, are very interested in us.”
I started to ask something and stopped. I looked at Tagaq and looked around. “Why aren’t we being attacked?”
Tagaq pulled something out of the pocket of her jumpsuit and showed it to me. “Ultrasonic,” she said. “The tree crabs hate it.”
“And the things that eat the tree crabs? And the things that eat them?”
“We have other things for them. I’ll show you.” Tagaq looked around. “I know you’ve been told to chaperone tourists. They always want to see the jungle up close. They want to feel they’ve seen the true world here. If we showed them the true world here, they would all be dead. And do you know why?”
“Because they don’t feel it in their hearts,” I said.
“And we don’t have the time to make them feel it.” Tagaq motioned to where we are. “So, we bring them here, to this spot, and we lie to them that this is the true face of this world. They should be glad we do it, and that we make them believe it.” She pointed to me. “But don’t you believe it. Ever. Because you’ll walk other places in this world. And it will take you before you can scream. Understand?”