The Artifact: Natasha Burrows Series Book One

by Phillips, Michelle

  “Ah, the Goliath Bird Eating Spider” he said, rejoicing almost like a child on Christmas morning. “These fearsome spiders catch birds to feed on, not flies.”

  “Ugh, it's horrible” Tasha cringed.

  “Well, today I’m giving the birds a break. I’m going to eat it” said her uncle proudly “they have been promising to catch me one to try, apparently it takes a little like shrimp.”

  “Good god” said Tasha “are you being serious?”

  “Yes,” he said seriously, “they prepare it by singeing off the urticating hairs and roasting it in banana leaves.”

  “I’m very glad I won’t be around to see that” said Tasha, her stomach-turning somersaults at the bulbous size of its abdomen and the sight of its thick hairy legs made her want to dry reach. On second hand, they could catch and kill all the spiders they liked, as long as they didn’t crawl over her face in the middle of the night! She secretly wondered if we were like the spider to the aliens.

  Her stomach made a loud rumbling noise as she grabbed up her backpack and went to find Xavier to tell him they were ready to go. She was a vegetarian but right about now she felt like she could down a whole cow, or even just a dozen or so burgers would do.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Rumble in the Jungle

  So; this is how she found herself standing behind the American Bush Boss, a regular Tarzan with abs to match. An intelligent, but aggravating man with an extraordinary sense of adventure, and the ability to act like a complete imbecile when he had a few drinks in him.

  As she stood behind him panting, she couldn’t help but wonder if she shouldn’t have added some cardio into her fitness regime.

  He really was right about standing still. One of the things she had quickly learned in the South American jungle, is that you never stand still for more than just a few seconds. Otherwise, a steady line of ants, mites and other meat-eating critters will find their way to you, crawl up your legs, either inside or outside of your pants, they weren’t picky, and then go to work on you. Also, never brush up against the bushes, as long as you could help it, or you would end up covered in fire ants. Man, those things stung like crazy!

  She had plenty of mite bites already from the camp. They hurt and itched and were just generally starting to drive her demented, they were really giving her Hail Columbia. The whole jungle was crawling with primordial life. Every square inch seemed to have some creature that was starving to take a good bite out of them. It was an ongoing parade of horribles.

  She looked at him, she had caught up with him and was alongside him now. She marveled at how easily he seemed to be taking the harsh conditions. His tanned bronze skin glistening with sweat, his muscles rippling with every swing of his machete. Like Bear Grylls, he was built for adventure, and he looked pretty damn good doing it too.

  Xavier winced a little, the hangover from last night was really taking its toll on his pounding head. He tried not to think about how stupidly he had acted last night, and instead he was fervently thinking of how to find a way of digging himself out of that gigantic hole he had put himself in.

  “Look, last night… I acted like an idiot” he said sheepishly avoiding her eyes. “I wouldn’t normally have hit on you, it's just that I was really drunk.”

  “So what are you saying?” she asked crossly, “you would only hit on me if you were drunk?”

  “Christs sakes woman” he cried frustrated looking heavenwards. “I’m trying to apologise here.”

  “First you hit one me” she complained “and then you tell me you wouldn’t hit on me unless you were blind drunk.”

  “Christ on a cracker. So what is it that you want?” he exclaimed “do you want me to tell you my balls get inflamed every time I see you, that I madly want to make love to you?” he avoided looking at her when he said that, in case it was coming too close to the truth.

  “You know, you’re not exactly my ideal of the perfect man, you’re not exactly…. my type” she scoffed, trying to avoid looking at his rippling muscles underneath his shirt and the masculine cut of his jaw.

  He shook his head. He had absolutely no idea how women thought, that was pretty clear to him now. “Oh, trust me you already made that perfectly clear last night, with the never, ever, ever sleep with you line. So what is your type then? What do stuck-up types like? Oh wait, don’t tell me, you’ve probably written a list of the attributes you would like to have in your perfect man.”

  She blushed, “well, I can tell you what wouldn’t be first on my list” she said glaring at him. “Someone who refers to me as a blood sucking vampire leech queen.” He hung his head, he knew that was going to come up at some stage, he guessed now was better than later.

  “I’m not sure I used all those adjectives…..”

  “Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with having a list” she chuffed. “That’s how I got Biggles.”

  “Biggles, sounds like the guy has no balls. Is he one of those decaf, soy, no foam latte guys, or is he more like a chai tea latte, skim milk, lite water, no foam kinda guy?”

  “Oh, he’s got balls” she said ignoring his banter, “plus, he’s dependable, cuddly, always there when I need him. You know” she said narrowing her eyes “I think I know what your problem is, you’ve never been rejected by a woman before have you? Always used to them swooning over you, the dashing adventurer with his daredevil ways, flashy cars, and.. and perfectly built body.”

  He chuckled “was that supposed to be an insult?”

  Her face flushed red, embarrassed “You enjoy mocking me don’t you…” she grumbled as she trudged ahead. He suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, grabbing her by the arm, pulling her back by brute force. “Let go of me!” she groused trying to pry her arm loose with her free hand.

  He pulled her even tighter to him, wrapping his arms around her and placing his hand over her mouth. He felt the warmth of his body behind her, the length and size of his manhood against back, his hips and thighs pushing against her as his hand enveloped her mouth.

  There was a loud crashing noise in the jungle, just a short distance from where they were standing.

  “Shh” he whispered, his lips softly against her ear. She felt the warmth of his breath against her cheek and his rugged stubble tickled her neck. She felt like any second the creature was going to come smashing in on them.

  They waited a few minutes in silence, unbearably close, his body pressed against hers, arm around her waist and hand over her mouth with his lips so incredibly close to hers. And then in what seemed like an instant, he let her go, and she was standing alone again, no longer able to feel the beating of his heart and the draw of his breath against her back.

  “What.. what was that?” she asked, her stomach fluttering with butterflies.

  “I’m not sure, it was either a wild boar or a big cat. It’s gone now.” She nodded relieved.

  “How did you know it was there?” she asked curiously.

  “I listen - to the sounds of the jungle, for the change in the sounds of birds and insects up ahead.”

  She looked at him, her eyes widening with a newfound appreciation. “Even when we were…. well fighting?” she asked.

  “Yes” he nodded “even then.” His eyes were so dark and dreamy she had to look away.

  “Look” she hesitated “I don’t want to fight with you anymore, I think we should remain focused. There’s too many things out here trying to kill us. Lets just keep this professional from now on in. Truce?” she asked extending her hand.

  He looked at her, his eyes burning with an insatiable machismo that made her want to slap him in the face and wrap her legs around him at the same time, except she couldn’t pick which one first.

  “You’re right” he said “truce….” He didn’t get to finish his sentence for what sounded like a bus coming headlong through the jungle, directly towards them. He looked to her “Run!” he shouted, grabbing her hand. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, the jungle ravaging and molesting her all alon
g the way with its restless fingers that never seemed to cease roaming.

  “What the hell was that?” she cried, panting as they came to a stop.

  “African Killer bees” he said puffing and bending over, placing his hands on his knees to rest “they must have been disturbed by that animal. They get very aggressive when they are defending their hive, even a minor disturbance as far away as one hundred feet can set them off.”

  “Ouch” she said rubbing her arms where she had been bitten several times.

  He looked at her sympathetically “don’t worry,” he said “we’ll be ok, we weren’t bitten too many times. We were pretty lucky you know.”

  “Lucky?” she repeated not feeling all that lucky. “You just called those things killer bees. In fact, I thought I just heard you call them African Killer bees, so what the hell are they doing out here in the Amazon?”

  “Sorry, the correct term is Africanized Killer Bees and trust me, they can be, killers that is. When they swarm they can surround you in their multitudes, hundreds, maybe thousands of them, swooping and stinging and injecting venom into your flesh. They might go for your eyes, or fill up your mouth, nostrils and ears. The worst of it is, you can’t even jump into water to escape them, they will wait at the surface for their victim to come up for air.”

  “Are you serious?” she said trying to find some soothing cream in her backpack. “That’s a bit stalky for my taste.”

  He chuckled. “Deadly serious. It doesn’t take much for them to be disturbed and their natural alarm systems to be activated. The only way to get out alive in our situation is do do what we did - run. We are lucky we had a head start, that animal actually did us a favour disturbing them like that, or we would have been heading straight into them.

  She let that all sink in, starting to think she had lost count of the things which could have killed them by now. The problem was it was only just the beginning. They had literally only been trekking through the jungle for a couple of hours now. The jungle had become so dark, so dense that Tasha could not even tell what time of day it was, it was dim and greenish, with only scattered flecks of direct sun.

  The only benefit of the burgeoning canopy above, was that the undergrowth below had thinned out, deprived of the necessary light to flourish by the massive canopies that towered up to one-hundred and fifty feet above them engaged in an endless phototropic race, making the going below a little easier.

  “The good news, is that we are still on track.” Xavier had whipped out his compass to make a perfunctory check. She felt like sitting and crying, but she knew that would be a bad idea. Everything about this was a bad idea.

  “Do you mind me asking, what were you and your uncle talking about?”

  She looked at him briefly, unsure how much she actually wanted to say without her uncle really seeming like an old coot that had gone crazy. “He was showing me the map and… explaining what he thought it might lead to.”

  Xavier raised his eyebrows “gold, diamonds, treasure beyond your wildest dreams?”

  She chortled “I could only wish. That fantasy went South, along with your dignity last night,” she muttered.

  He ignored her jab. “Ok, now you have to explain” he chuckled. “We still have a few more hours to go through this jungle and by the looks of it, it's getting denser as we go. I’m game for a good story, it will help keep my mind off these damn vines” he said hacking away at them his muscles bulging against the strain.

  “If I tell you” Tasha said “you will probably want to turn back around and go home.”

  “No way” he said “I’m always up for an adventure” he looked at her noticing some blood trickling down her arm.

  “Here” he said stopping, “let me see to that before it gets infected.” He leant down and went into his backpack looking for some salve to stop the bleeding.

  “I.. I scratched myself on the branches trying to get away from those killer bees” she said softly. “I’ll put my jacket on once you’ve finished.” He looked her in the eyes, his eyes burning into hers making her heart skip a beat, as he gently put salve on her wounds.

  “There” he said finishing “now you can continue with your story.”

  “I.. I don’t know exactly where to start, except for the fact that it is very odd for an Egyptian map to be found in France, and for that map to lead to a place in the Amazon. It is also extraordinary that such a map even exists, given the distance between the continents and man’s ability to write maps at that time. It in effect, appears to be ahead of its time.”

  Xavier turned back to look at her a strange look coming across his face. “So you are saying that this map…. This map theoretically with everything you know as an archaeologist, should not exist.”

  She was amazed at how quickly he had understood “Yes.”

  “And you knew this before you came?” he asked.

  “Well...yes, I guess so. More like I was confused, intrigued by it.”

  He nodded “then you can understand, when something confuses and intrigues you?” he looked at her pointedly and she blushed.

  “So does he know what it leads to?” asked Xavier.

  “No, that part he doesn’t know, it is a true mystery.”

  “Well come on then” he started moving faster through the forest, “let’s lift our pace.” She looked at him and smiled weakly, her body was feeling drained from lack of sleep, stress and some kind of bug she had managed to pick up that made her stomach ache.

  Xavier looked back at Tasha. He was truly amazed by her resilience. When he first met her in the club, he had his doubts. But to his amazement she had continued on and was standing right behind him, step for step keeping his pace through the thickest of jungle. She looked extremely fit and he could not help but notice the muscular curves of her long legs, the way her hips swayed when she walked.

  He was also constantly amazed at how beautiful she was, when he had first met her, he thought her face was like a Michelangelo masterpiece, perfectly formed in elegant features of wonderful grace and beauty. If it was even possible, in the midst of this dank, dark, dense rainforest, she looked even more beautiful, her body covered in sweat, her hair tousled and her cheeks a faint pink to match her cupid’s bow lips.

  She didn’t realise it, but when she got angry her hazel eyes flashed a darker grey, and moved to mottled tones of green when she was happy. Sometimes he had admitted to himself, over the past few days, he had deliberately provoked her, just to see that passion, that fire ignite and burn in her eyes. He admired her fierceness and her strength, but he could see she was incapable of seeing it herself.

  She heard the sudden clap of thunder, and realised that it was starting to rain. From the sound of it she could tell that it was a heavy downpour, but by the time it had come beating down onto the top canopy of trees and reached the lower level of the rainforest, it had been turned into a fine rain accompanied by sheets of water streaming down the tree trunks.

  “Ugh” she said looking up to the canopies towering above them, “that’s going to do wonders for the humidity.” There was an extremely loud noise, like a gunshot going off, a large cracking sound and the following noise of rustling leaves and branches crashing against each other. On hearing the noise, she practically leapt into his arms, trembling, expecting the worse. He grinned at her, placing his arms around her.

  “What?” she looked at him expectantly, confused, her eyes practically on stalks. He looked her in the eyes, with an intensity that would make the polar ice caps melt.

  “That’s a common event in a tropical rainforest. The fall of an emergent tree, usually during a tropical thunderstorm.”

  “That… that noise was a tree falling?” she asked, relieved. “Not a jaguar, or a wild boar or more killer bees?” She felt like she needed a check list, to check off the amount of things that wanted to eat them right at that very moment.

  “Yes, that was a tree. It happens all the time. Surprised we haven’t heard one until now.”

&n
bsp; She looked at him “do you mind?” she asked looking down at his hands around her waist.

  He laughed, lingering there a little longer. “Not at all.” She pulled herself away, feigning anger when she really wanted to stay, feeling safe in the confines of his strong grip, his heart beating intensely against her chest.”

  Xavier stopped suddenly. “Shhh,” he cocked his head to one side.

  She stopped alongside him “what is it?” she asked nervously “what do you hear?” She stood silently beside him, not wishing to repeat her past performance of lunging herself into his arms, but ready to go into panic mode at the drop of a hat.

  He stood silently for a minute before answering “nothing” he replied.

  “Nothing?” she was confused.

  “Yes, and that's the problem” he said. “Normally you should be able to hear troops of red howler monkeys, or the croaking calls of toucans hopping around the branches, I hear nothing.” He looked around silently. “We are being watched.”

  Tashas heart froze in her chest. “By what?” she whispered her legs feeling like jelly.

  “You mean, by whom. Its natives, the Yanomami.”

  “The Yanomami?” she asked surprised “they followed us?” She looked around furtively thinking one might jump out from behind a bush at any second.

  “No not the tribespeople from the camp. These are Moxateteu, uncontacted Yanomami. There are still some tribes here that have not had contact with outsiders.”

  “How can that be? Are they going to hurt us?” she asked nervously “what are they going to do to us?”

  “I don’t know, probably nothing if we don’t bother them. Lets just continue on our way carefully, they are probably just watching us for now.”

  She followed behind him, walking tentatively, wanting to clutch at him for dear life.

  “I didn’t know there were, you know, native tribes here.”

  He looked at her trying not to burst out laughing “what did you think they were then?”