Jason isn’t enjoying his first interplanetary research trip.

A branch snaps, and he whirls around.  Nothing there.  Just a dull blur of greenery he recognizes from space exploration documentaries and the bruised purples of fallen leaves.  Could one of those stealthy alien predators be stalking him?  Something no human could sense in time, an imperceptible huff of breath against the skin of his neck before the looming fangs strike.

Another sound makes him jump, but it’s only laughter.  Familiar laughter.  

“What?” Jason snaps, glaring down some monstrous combination of the plant from Little Shop of Horrors and the skeleton of a megalodon.  He’s worried it’ll spring to life once he looks away.

When he dares a glance, Charlie looks like something straight from an adventure novel: khaki shorts, cargo vest, the whole shebang.  She shakes her head with a smile, infuriatingly relaxed as she strides between a knot of roots raised higher than her head.  “You’re totally freaking out,” she says, amused.  “Haven’t you ever seen a jungle before?”

Do urban jungles count?  “Obviously, I have,” he says instead.  “But nothing like this!  I don’t even think we have those things on earth!”  He gestures toward the monstrous jaws of the plant-life looming above his head, and the interlocking spikes which look like teeth sense his hand and quiver, a low rumble rising from the throat-like stem.  Jason shouts and flinches back into Charlie.

She laughs and steadies his shoulders.  “Relax, dude!  Things here aren’t always as they seem.  Those are gentle giants; they wouldn’t hurt a fly.  Besides, we definitely don’t have these on Earth last time I checked, so no worries about running into one back home.”

“Uh-huh,” Jason says, staring into the jaws of the beast.  “Whatever you say.”

She throws an arm around his shoulder, dragging him into the wilderness.  “You think these are scary?  Wait until we go deeper.  We’re a while out from the research station.”

He’s had enough near-death experiences for one day, and what she’s describing sounds like another.  Jason struggles against her hold, but she hauls him forward with an iron grip.  

“What?” she teases, “Wanna hang here alone without your guide’s protection?”

Suddenly, he’s eager to follow.

The jungle grows deeper, darker.  The sparse daylight filtering through the canopy grows dim as the plants themselves stretch higher into the atmosphere, the leaves fanning wide and thick with the planet’s high levels of carbon dioxide.  Humidity presses in around them.  Jason passes a fern twice the length of his body and swears the speckles on the waxy surface are tracking his movements as he walks, swiveling eyes without their sockets.  A shiver zips down his spine.

How much farther could the path go?  How much higher could the trees reach?  It feels too late to turn back now, so he keeps dragging his boots through the muddied path behind Charlie, hearing the shrill caw of birds fade into something low and deafening, a sound that seems to rumble through the ground itself.  Jason finds himself looking over his shoulder more often than forward, shrinking into himself beneath the shadows.

“How, uh…” he starts, watching a quivering vine on the path behind them.  “How much farther are we going, exactly?  I thought we wouldn’t be here long.”

Overhead, the massive loops of vine coil around a tree trunk, slow and deliberate, a constrictor snake.  The thinnest section sits as wide as his body, and he gulps at the thought of some unseen jaws unfurling from the leaves, waiting to swallow him whole.  

“Charlie?” he calls, unable to tear his eyes away.  

No mocking response comes.  Only silence.  Jason wrings the bottom of his shirt and risks a glance further along the path.  Nothing.  He turns completely now, eyes wide and frantic as he combs through the dappled shadows of the forest floor, searching for the familiar tan of her khaki shorts, the leather of her boots.  Instead, to his mounting horror, there is nothing.

Only Jason and the wilderness.

No.  She wouldn’t leave him.  Charlie might poke fun at him, but she wouldn’t leave him here to die.  Another low growl trembles through the intricate root system of the jungle floor and he feels it traveling through himself, reverberating through his chest like the rumble of a speaker.  

“Charlie?” he calls, tentative and afraid.  He whirls around to find the vine snaking itself down the trunk of the massive tree to stalk towards him, and his heart jumps.

In his peripheral vision, a speck of green dangles inches above his scalp.

Jason doesn’t dare move.  Doesn’t dare breathe.  He tilts his head up, slow and careful, weighted with dread as details come into view.  The bright green of fresh plant growth, the twisting, coiling length of tendrils outstretched towards him, poised mere inches from his face.  It’s reaching for him, or worse, opening it’s mouth nice and wide, a twisted, starving smile.

A scream tears up his throat and scrabbles onto the path, smacking against the wall of roots on the opposite side.  How is he supposed to escape?  How is he supposed to find her?  “Charlie!” he shouts, gasping for breath.  “Charlie, this isn’t funny!”

“What isn’t funny?” she calls from ahead.

She’s alive, and the plant doesn’t immediately lunge for his throat.  Jason heaves a sigh of relief, sagging against the roots.  Charlie might be an asshole for ditching him, but at least he’s not gonna die.  He catches a glimpse of tan khaki peaking around the corner and shakes his head.  “Don’t scare me like that!  I can’t be alone out here, alright?”

Leaves crunch as she approaches him, slow and deliberate, like he’s a frightened deer she might scare off.  She hums in agreement, low and deep.  “Don’t worry.  I won’t leave you alone again.”

He hesitates, examining her expression.  “Where the hell were you?”

“Just further ahead on the path.”  She flashes a smile as she approaches, quick and casual, not quite reaching the shine of her eyes. He risks another glance at the vine from earlier, and finds the creature has retreated back into the canopy.  He sighs with relief and closes his eyes.

Charlie steps right up to him, radiating a heat so intense he feels it through the thick humidity of the jungle floor, and he freezes.  

Another hum rumbles from her chest, deeper and growling.  The same sound from the monstrous jaws of the plant earlier, a faint quivering of shifting teeth he can feel trembling through the jungle floor, through his very bones.  It’s coming from her.  His hands tremble where he clenches them at his sides, and he doesn’t dare open his eyes.  It would make this real.

“Charlie?” he whispers, small and doubtful.

She laughs and the forest echoes with each shake of her shoulders, each intake of breath. “Don’t worry,” Charlie’s voice reassures him, comforting, genuine.  “You won’t have to be alone much longer.  You can stay with me.  With us.”

Before he can ask, the voices of the forest rise in answer: the faint hum of insects raises to a deafening roar, winged aliens screech like cicadas from their perches in the trees above, and the jungle itself bellows deep and violent as a thunderclap, overwhelming his thoughts with the primal instinct to run, escape, go clawing down the path with his eyes squeezed shut.

Instead, he opens his eyes.

He doesn’t have time to scream before the forest swallows him whole.