TCHS Part Five

Agan awoke to a commotion coming from outside of his tent. He looked at his watch, and saw that it was already 10AM

"What the hell?", he wondered. "Why did I sleep so late, what is going on out there?" He quickly threw on some clothes, and made his way outside.

"What the hell's with all of the noise?", he asked.

"It's Hailey, and John, sir", replied Eric. Agan looked at him with a combination of both worry, and confusion.

"What are you talking about?", asked Agan.

"They're missing sir," replied Eric. "We haven't seen them since last night."

"What?", exclaimed Agan, as his heart began to race. "Hailey is missing? I mean Hailey, and John are missing? What happened last night?"

"After we were done swimming," Eric began. "We decided to call it a night, and headed back to our tents. John walked Hailey back to her tent, because she was afraid to walk alone. Although I think he had ulterior motives."

Eric's words began to anger Agan. If he knew that John had ulterior motives towards Hailey, why didn't he try and intervene. Agan could kick himself for not staying with her last night. What was he thinking? He was just so angry because of there time together being interrupted, he never considered any possible consequences.

What if he raped her? Thought Agan. Or what if she willingly made love to him? What if they're dead?

"Look, there are fourteen of us," said Agan. "If we split up into groups, we can look for them."

"Forget it, señor!", exclaimed one of the tour guides. "My men, and I, are leaving! We tried to warn you about the Naga King. But neither you, nor our government would listen. Now it is too late. If the legends of the Naga king are true, then the pretty señorita is still alive. The male who is missing, not so much. If we don't leave now, we are all dead. Either way the girl is now his, and the other is dead. It is too late to save either one of them. We need to leave now! Before it's too late, before he comes for the rest of us."

"This is crazy!", argued Agan. "How many times do I have to tell you? There are no such things as Naga's let alone a king!"

"You've been away from your home land for far too long," replied the tour guide. "You have forgotten about what dangerous mysteries exist in the rainforest. My men, and I, are not going to just sit around here. We are not going to be sitting ducks just waiting for the king, and his army of snakes, to come and kill us with his bare hands. We're leaving. I suggest you forget about the missing students, and come with us."

"Look!", exclaimed Agan, "I am responsible for the lives, and safety of ten students. Right now, two of them are missing. I'm not leaving without them!"

"Have it your way, señor.", replied the tour guide. He and the other guides headed back towards the Jeep.

"Wait!", cried Agan. "You can't just leave us here! How are we supposed to get back?"

"That's your problem," replied the tour guide, "Not mine! If any of the rest of you want to come back with us, you are more than welcome."

Agan turned around, and looked at the rest of his students. Eric looked at him, and crossed his arms.

"We came together, we leave together.", said Eric. The other students nodded in agreement, as Agan looked at them and smiled.

"Fine.", said the tour guide. "But it's your funerals." With that, they got into their Jeep, and drove away. Leaving the group to fend for themselves.

"Cowards!", cried Agan. To say he was livid didn't even come close to the anger he felt at that moment. Even after they did find Hailey, how were they ever going to get back?

As the tour guides drove away, there was a collective feeling of guilt among them. How could they just leave a group of helpless individuals to fend for themselves. Even if they did find the missing members. They had no way of getting out of the rainforest alive without some sort of guide, even without a Naga king around. Then again the college professor was originally from this area, maybe he could figure it out on his own. Oh well, it wasn't like they didn’t try and convince them to leave. They should have listened.

"You know, maybe we should-", one of the other tour guides began.

"Don't!", exclaimed the one driving. "Just because they're foolish enough to die, doesn't mean we are. I'm not going to wait around like a hapless fool for some half snake man wishing to kill me. Maybe they have sealed their fate, but we haven't."

All of a sudden the Jeep broke down, and they were stopped dead in they're tracks.

"Oh great!", cried the driver, "This is not what we needed right now."

He then turned to the man sitting next to him, in the passenger's seat.

"Go open the hood, and check out what is going on.", he ordered.

"Fine." He sighed in disgust. As he began to open the hood, he heard a strange noise, almost like a hissing sound. When the hood was completely open, a giant snake popped out at him. Before he even had time to react, the slithering beast clamped his jaws down on the helpless victim's cheek.

In one fell swoop, the snake immediately ripped off the man's face. Horrified by what they saw the other two leaped from the Jeep, and tried to runaway. However they didn't get very far. A chorus of hissing snakes surrounded them. Thousands of snakes encompassed themselves around their hapless prey. One in particular began grow, and became more erect.

"My master is very displeased with you," said the giant snake. "You should know better than to bring others here, or even to enter his kingdom yourselves. Although he is pleased that you brought him the girl. He's waited a long time for the perfect queen."

"Please," said the main tour guide, "forgive me. I tried to warn them. I tried to even warn the Peruvian government, but no one would listen to me. Spare us, and we won't bring ourselves, or anyone here ever again. As you said, we did bring him the girl. Surely he can me merciful, and grateful for that."

"Hmm," replied the snake. "I suppose he can."

A look of relief appeared upon the tour guides face. With that the snake began to laugh.

"On the other hand, he won't."

At that moment the two men screamed in horror as the group of snakes, flung themselves at the fearful pair of mice.

The two men were continuously having venomous fangs sinking into their bodies. Screams of pain, and fear cried out from the unfortunate victims. After awhile two lifeless bodies, covered in welts, and fang marks fell to the ground. The snakes then slithered under all three now dead men, as they lifted the bodies off of the ground.

"Take them back to the temple!", ordered the giant snake, as he smiled. "We shall have quite the feast at the wedding celebration this evening. Our soon to be queen is beautiful, our master is very lucky. It's too bad that she was the only female of the group. I would have liked my own pretty human lamia to play with. There's just something about watching a human females belly swell up with a den of young ones growing within her womb. It doesn't matter, we will get our turn. As soon as the new queen provides us with our own lamias to breed. Then we will eventually breed with human females as well. It is a shame that we are not half human like our naga master, but at least our children will be."

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