It's dark in the amazon

It's dark in the amazon

Hello everyone. My name is Theo, or Dr. Gregory.

I was born in Florida and gained lifelong interest in the natural world ever since I visited the everglades when I was a kid. I went to college, and when I graduated my career started. I am a botanist and biologist that specializes in flora and fauna of tropical rainforests. I've been to many places around the world. New Guinea, Congo, Australia, Borneo, and more.

I have seen creatures and plants that people could never see in America. Recently my team and I went on an expedition deep into the Amazon rainforest. I am the only one who came back.

Now, there's quite a bit that common folk don't know about the Amazon. There used to be cities in it, but they've disappeared without a trace. There is a boiling river. There's quicksand. Constant floods from rainfall.

River rats, pirates that sail through the vast river. 70% of the plants that are used to treat cancer grow there. The canopy is so dense it takes 10 minutes for rain to hit the forest floor.

On top of all that, the Amazon is dark, really dark. It is due to the thick canopy, 99% of the sun is choked out, practically making the forest a perpetual midnight. You can't see anything in the dark, but what's in the dark can see you.

There's only one thing nobody knows except me, until now. Something more deadly than any of the animals and plants. The thing, or things, that took out the rest of my team. The things that remain hunting in the pitch black forest floor and among the tallest of shadows.

Today I tell a story of slaughter.

"Dr. Gregory here. Yesterday we delved deep into the Amazon rainforest. Me and my team are traveling by a large speedboat down the river. 800 miles in. We have a local who's driving the boat.

We departed at 4:00 am. Only Dr. Wilson speaks the language. Our goal for this expedition is to discover new species of plants and animals and map uncharted land. I'm refraining from talking like a scientist, but I'm afraid I may falter. I would like to publish these entries to the public.

The rest of my team is taking photos of the river and forest that surrounds us. It's beautiful, it really is. No doubt there are undiscovered animals and botanical specimens. We can see primates and the occasional bird and snake among the tree branches. One of my colleagues spotted a few pink river dolphins.

A very interesting cetacean indeed. It's one of few mammalian species we have observed today. It is very hot out here, and we're already exhausted by the heat. We have water, but we can't unpack all our supplies until we hit the 3,000 mile mark. Going from there we will go into the amazon rainforest on foot for around 1,000 miles on foot as a 4 month journey.

At least they have a grill on the boat. I can't imagine how difficult this journey is going to be, but if anything I refuse to give up."

We should have given up.

"1,500 miles in. I see that I may not be able to journal every day. We encountered some things that have stalled us, but we are all ok. The guide who is driving the boat is starting to get antsy. I don't blame him, we've had to refuel the tank several times and the amount of rain increases as we get deeper, even for a local.

Not many tribes inhabit this area, they've been driven farther or simply killed and their villages burned by organized criminal loggers. The first 500 miles reeked of poachers. Foul beasts are what I consider them, instead of men. I sincerely hope many of them have perished a terrible death. Many endangered and threatened species have gone extinct because of them.

Few live among the ruins of their once beautiful home. The lucky ones find food and other territories farther into the forest where even the river rats and loggers won't go, and they go far. We have occasionally settled on the riverbank to give money and extra food to the river rats so they don't end up robbing us, or worse. I personally think the logger based mafia in this forest is the most dangerous thing we know is out here so far, although the pirates get more aggressive the farther down we get. A few months ago another team dropped off supplies for us at our destination, but they didn't stay long.

They seemed in a panic and never told me or my team what happened. I'm sure they got spooked by the large predators in the area. I'm not worried. Our team is prepared. Although, it isn't ideal that Dr. Johnson is getting sea sick, or more like river sick. He does not appreciate that joke at this time."

I remember the trip was very long making our way through the river. You’ll hear about it soon, but around the 2,700 mile mark is when we started discovering new things such as undiscovered species of flora and fauna. After that, things started getting less than ideal.

"It's been a few days now. We've reached the 2,700 mile mark. Our guide seems uneasy, panicked even. I feel remorse for him, considering my team has been very dismissive of his current mental condition. "Dr Wilson?" I asked at one point.

"What is he so panicked about?" "He keeps saying that the real danger isn't the animals or people. We should never have gone this far and we should go back before it's too late." Dr. Wilson replied. "Is this perhaps a local superstition? He looks terrified." I asked.

Dr. Wilson's name is Adam. I will be referring to him as that now. "He wouldn't tell me. He wouldn't dare speak of it. I'm assuming there's a few legends and folklore the locals grew up with. After all, the Amazon is almost as unexplored as the ocean." Adam replied. He gave me a small smile. He had a very excited spark in his eye, like a boy in a new tree house. I just hope the lights don't attract aquatic predators as the sun starts to set."

Remembering what happened makes me want to keep my back against a wall as I lay tightly under the covers of my bed, watching the dark as I tremble and pray nothing watches me back, even though I'm home now. I almost feel foolish, finding comfort and safety in wrapping myself in a mountain of blankets and pillows, but after what I experienced my behavior is completely founded. My eyes are starting to tear up from the fear and my stomach is pulling into a churning knot. I wanted so badly to think I was going insane. Those few weeks I actually ended up spending in that forest, I thought that I was just hallucinating from heatstroke or the many sleepless nights I spent in that forest.

Needless to say, by the end of the voyage I retired early as soon as I made it home. I remain terrified. I am scared.

"Our guide has left us at our destination. He was hysterical, pale as a sheet and shaking like a leaf in the wind. Adam and the others seem annoyed. Perhaps they're less informed than I thought. My team had to hurry to unload the things we had on the boat, but Samson quickly found the cargo boxes filled with supplies.

We're just outside the forest on the bank and the sun is fully up, but as we look farther from the border, it gets darker. The entomologist of our team is really excited. "GUYS GUYS!!! A NEW SPECIES OF STAG BEETLE!!" Robin screeched, his face full of excitement and wonder that I envied immensely. Adam, me, Natalia, Johnson, Francis, Lydia, all of us scurried towards Robin. We were all amazed.

The beetle was indeed an unknown species. It was black with an iridescent exoskeleton, the eyes a deep metallic blue and the legs tinted emerald green. "GET A JAR DAMN IT!!" Adam yelled at us while Robin was muttering a name for the beetle. "Lucanus robins" he called it, also known as Robin's stag. How humble.

I shouldn't be too hard on him. I must admit I do feel a tinge of jealousy. We've only been here for a few hours, after all. "Where did you find that?" Natalia asked. She's our marine biologist, but she had a liking for endearing creatures of all types.

"Over there." Robin points. We all follow his eyes, leading to a large tree bearing strange fruits and a hole in the middle of the tree. We ran to it giddily. "Wait...guys what the hell could have made that hole?!" Alex asked. Griff narrowed his eyes.

He's our wilderness survivalist and tracker. "Those are claw marks." He growled, backing away. "There's ain't no way that's from any animal." Griff said. "Any known animal." I said."

I recall how large those clawmarks were. Easily three feet long, yet no tracks. As the leader of my team I just brushed it off. What a fucking fool I was. We started our adventure from there, taking our first steps into the unknown.

"We have found many new plants and small animals so far. Poison dart frogs the size of my fist, for example. Before we went fully into the forest I saw the largest anaconda I've ever seen slinking around into the river. It had to be around 50 feet long. It didn't even spare us more than a glance.

As we go further we all have helmets with headlights. It's like midnight here, and the air is so humid our hair is covered in dew drops. Milo found something very disturbing. There was a dead capybara, and out of it sprouted a huge unknown species of cordyceps fungi. It had to be at least 8 feet tall, a very vibrant orange.

Of course, as a mycologist Milo was ecstatic. However, it unsettled me. "How did it get infected? Was it airborne spores?" I asked him. "I can't say for sure, but I think we should wear masks just in case." Milo replied. We walked further and further.

We found a plant that resembled a rafflesia and a Titan arum. It smelled like a corpse. Like a human corpse with its sickly sweet scent. Like bittersweet death. Everything either seemed bigger or smaller.

We came across a large pond at one point. Natalia cautioned us. It was too dark to see anything, but we did get heat signatures when we wore night goggles. The pond was hot. Almost near the boiling point.

Yet the hottest signature wasn't the water. It was what was in the water. "Umm...Theo? Does that...are those-" Milo stammered, backing away from the water. Natalia puts on the goggles. "...Everyone get away from the water." She whispered to us.

"What?" Another member asked. "Get the fuck away from the water, NOW." Natalia growled in a whisper. A rumbling growl was heard, emerging from the water. Out of the water emerged a huge crocodile, easily as wide as a truck and around 40 feet long. "Don't. Move. A muscle." I whispered.

It was calm, retreating back into the water. Milo was closest when it happened. Out of nowhere the croc leaped out of the water and clamped its jaws around Milo's legs, doing the signature death roll. "RUN!!! FUCKING RUN!!!" I screamed. We ran as fast as we could, Milo's screams quickly fading to the crunching of bone and gurgling of blood in his mouth.'"

It wasn't just paranormal things you'll hear about that killed my team. It was the forest itself too. The animals, the terrain, the plants and the weather, picked off the first 7 of us. I can't remember most of the names anymore, but I do remember how they died. Most of all, I remember them begging me to save them, to rescue them from brutal deaths.

But I couldn't. I was their last hope and all I did was run, hide, or just stare as they screamed at me to help them.

I only escaped because the monsters stalking us hated light, and I made it just in time.

"We ran as far as we could but we ended up dropping quite a bit of gear, including most of our food. We can't tell if it is night or not, but it must have been because we were ravenous and hadn't eaten all day. Our botanist got an idea, an idea that ended up killing 2 more of our team. She had found a fruit tree, one that was undiscovered. They resembled the shape of a kidney bean, except they had the scent and size of a mango yet was in a mottled pattern of an array of dark purples and light pinks.

"Don't eat that. We don't know what it is." I said. "Get over yourself Theo, I'm the botanist here." Clementine snapped. "We are hungry and we have little food." She continued. "Look at the leaves. They look similar to the leaves of Datura stromonium." Adam said. "Of course you'd know that, considering your history of taking drugs." Lydia sneered.

"Shut the fuck up Lydia." Natalia hissed. "KNOCK IT OFF!! Our lives are in danger right now!! All of you just stop fighting NOW!!!" I yelled. Immediately everyone fell silent. "Now, don't-" I was interrupted by a wet dripping sound and soft biting. I turned around to find Clementine EATING the mystery fruit.

"I told you. It's really good. Tastes like mango and pineapple." She says, mocking us. "Let me try." Lydia says. She picked the fruit and chomped right into it. "How-how do you feel?" Natalia asked. "I feel fi-" Clementine suddenly goes silent, following by her falling to the ground, thick foamy saliva covering the ends of her lips.

She shook and twitched, throwing up blood. Lydia tried to scream, but she ended up the same way as Clementine. They stopped moving soon after, their faces in a pool of blood and spit around their heads. Griff checks their pulse. "Theo! Fuck mate...they're dead." he says solemnly.

"We fucking warned them!!" Natalia screams angrily, tears running down her face. "3 of us are dead. Who knows who may be next?" Griff said. "We are going back to the river bank and send a SOS. Let's go." I said. Alex stopped me. "Theo, we can't go anywhere if we are hungry and tired. We have to find something to eat and set up the tents we have left." He said."

I wish we had just ran back after Milo was killed. Maybe the rest of us could have lived if we did. The forest had other plans for us though.

"I tried to stay calm and come up with a plan. To be honest I wasn't sure if we would find or catch anything. "We have plenty of wood and flint and steel to create a fire to cook and scare away animals. If we can find any recognizable fruit we should be able to eat it, but one of us has to try it first." I said. The group looked at me then at eachother. "I'll do it." Natalia said.

I was surprised by this. "Y'all know you are risking your life by doing all this, yeah?" Griff asked. Natalia nodded. "I'll go with you. I can see if they're spoiled by bugs." Robin said. "Right, I'll go too. I'm taller and stronger than the both of you and I can retrace our steps. Griff said in his strong cowboy esk aussie accent.

I hesitated, but said ok. To be honest I was so sure they would never come back. While they left me, Adam, and Alex set up the tents while the others gathered wood for the fire. I was worried it was going to rain tonight, or was it day? At this point it doesn't matter.

All I wanted was to get out of here with my team, alive and well. But that is already out of reach. Natalia, Griff, and Robin came back after around an hour. In their arms, ironically enough, were several lemons, pineapples and a large snake body pierced on a makeshift spear, gutted and missing the head and tip of the tail. It looked like a giant rattlesnake.

"Before you ask, I already tried the meat. It's good, and so is the pineapple. We'll be ok." Griff said. "I brought some banana leaves." Robin added. "We can cook it by wrapping chunks into banana leaves and putting them in the fire." Natalia said. "That's great, thank you. Do we have to skin the snake?" Alex asked. "Yes we do. Thankfully I have a knife for skinning these critters so I'll make quick work of it, don't you worry. Griff said.

I watched as Griff and a few others skinned and chopped up the snake. It had to be 20 feet long and around a foot and a half thick at the most. "How did you kill it?" I asked. "It was just laying there around the mango tree and it had a huge lump in it. I reckon it was digesting for a while and couldn't do much because of it. I just took my hatchet and split its head open. A really nasty thing was in its stomach. I don't even know what it was. It looked like a huge hammerhead bat, except it was black and had visible canines poking out of its mouth and giant ears. Must have been around the size of a young capybara." Griff said. Natalia and Robin winced.

"God, the smell was awful. Stomach acid and rotting meat." Natalia said. "Not a good scent, that's for sure." Robin added. Natalia wrapped the chunks of salt and pepper sprinkled meat that was spritzed with lemon juice with the banana leaves and put them in the fire. The smell was amazing and made my mouth water. Robin chopped up the pineapple and mangos. It was some of the best fruit I've ever had."

I miss Griff and Natalia the most. They were so kind and helpful to me. I wish they had survived with me, I really do.

"The meat was delicious. It was just like roasted lemon pepper salted chicken, juicy and savory with a bit of sweet and sour. The fire gave it a smoky taste and the salt enhanced the flavors. My team was very happy, given the circumstances. Our remaining team of 9, me included, feasted on fresh fruit and snake meat.

We still had a ton of water in our bags and we'd gone through 3 water bottles per person that day. We have about enough water and fruit for a few days. If I'm going to be honest, a bad part of myself hopes the people on my team I don't know would die. Then we'd have enough food and water to make it back and give us an extra few days. I hate how awful of a hope that is.

Adam, Alex, Natalia, Griff, and Robin are the only ones I know well and in turn, care about the most."

It's funny how they were the ones to go after the last few strangers. I really wish they could have gotten out of there with me. That forest took away the only friends I've had, I've known them since I was 20 in college. I'm 36 now. The expedition happened 2 years ago.

My parents have been dead for 3 years and I have no siblings. I don't know my extended family. They were all I had left. After I finish this story, I'm going to take the gun that's in my desk and kill myself. I know where to shoot so I know it will be successful.

Don’t worry, I wanted this. I simply just have nothing left to live for. No friends or family, no partner, no passion for my career anymore. I'm not going to try anymore. And that's okay.

"I haven't felt this hopeless since my parents died. I was there, you know, when it happened. I watched them die. The only reason why I survived is because I was reaching down to grab my phone before the metal pipe from that truck went straight through my mother's head. I didn't even know she was dead at first because the pipe pinned her body upright.

If it weren't for the blood she'd have almost looked peaceful. Dad went through the window. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt. He looked like a Mr potato head toy with how his limbs were everywhere. No head, no arms, no legs, in half.

No clean cuts, only messy, mangled and ragged flesh. I can draw it in detail with how vivid the memory is. This hopelessness is getting mixed with guilt now. "We're lost, aren't we?" Natalia asked. I hesitated before nodding.

"Can you do anything about it, Griff?" Robin asked. "No. There's nothing we can do." Griff said. "We're going to die here." Adam says, his voice showing he's resigned to his fate. "The discoveries are no longer exciting. It's over." Adam weeps softly. "Is there really no way out?" One of my team asked.

"Well, there might be. I doubt we'll make it though." I said. The shadows danced from the fire, all of us staring into it with lifeless eyes."

I didn't see them coming. Now that I think about it, there were signs. Signs I ignored. Now my only friends are dead because I couldn't muster up the belief that this planet is more than scientific reasoning, that there is more than just animals walking among us as living beings. Although, maybe the term living is a stretch, because living means you can bleed and die.

Immortality is just existing, that's not a proper life. So I suppose they just existed. Those things didn't shed a single drop of blood nor give a last breath. There was no blood we could've spilled. There was no life to take.

"We have been driven farther by creatures we cannot see. They hide in the shadows. They have no need to come during the night only. This whole place is blanketed by shadows. It is always night here.

It's forever dark. We are not safe. I haven't written in days, we've been so busy running. Always. just. Running.

A few more of us have been picked off. I couldn't even care to remember who they were. The only remnants of these people is the memory of their violent shrieks for help and flecks of blood that sprayed onto our faces as they were dragged into the canopy. We couldn't save them. I don't even know what attacked us, yet deep down I just know my team blames me.

I can feel it in my blood and my bones, they hate me. They fucking hate me and somehow it's all my fault that these people fucking died. They hate me. THEY HATE ME!!!"

This is the part where I really started losing it. I can still feel all the rage, anxiety, fatigue, and fear when I reread these entries on the bloodstained screen of a cracked laptop. No part of me can bring myself to clean and fix it. Why would I? I wasn't able to clean or fix what happened.

"They came again. They took the last two that didn't mean anything to me. I should feel guilty, but there's no room for guilt, or perhaps all I feel is anger. Maybe I just don't fucking care. Why should I?

It wasn't my fault, right? RIGHT?! Fucking hell. Those creatures really got messy this time. We've found footprints and clawmarks from the little light we have left in our flashlights.

They were big, with long clawed fingers, five of them. Like a human. I got a closer look, there were skin imprints. It was similar to elephant hide and the scales on a bird's foot. I supposed they were handprints, the footprints had shorter claws and were longer and bigger, but they still resembled hands.

Seeing the distance between them, it's about 8 feet long with long arms and legs. Jesus Christ, what type of animal is this thing?! It's like an ape or a monkey, but no primate has long curved claws like that. Almost feline, or perhaps bear like. The footprints aren't deep enough to be a heavier creature, so it's lean, packed with muscle and judging by the speed of attacks, they're fast and built for both running and climbing.

We are so fucked."

You couldn't even see them. They were one with all that is dark and shadows, all that leaves us blind. You never hear them coming, only when they're leaving with the taste of viscera in their mouths. The only warning we got was the smell. They smelled like cigarettes and aged urine.

They smelled of rotten fish and something that died a few days ago, fermenting on their skin like wine made of rancid milk, blood and roadkill. The smell was strong, but it only ever gave us at most a minute to hide, though it all turned out pointless in the end. Every attack ended with another one of us lost.

"We have been running and running. We're heading the right direction but they got Robin. I was finally able to see one of their shadows. They're tall and humanlike, running on all fours, hands for feet and hands for hands. Their mouths are full of large teeth and the head resembles a slightly elongated human head with no ears or nose.

Their eyes give off a yellow glow in low light. That's how we managed to escape while Robin was being torn to shreds. They took his arms first. They didn't even eat one of them, Griff was hit in the back of the head by Robin's dismembered arm and slipped on his friend's blood. He broke his leg, so we're currently binding his leg with a tourniquet that Natalia brought.

Adam is talking of suicide and has been actively seeking Datura stromonium (Angel's trumpet) so he can trip balls while he takes a whole bottle of pills. I can't even blame him and at this point I don't think I have a right to stop him. Alex is having a panic attack so Adam is holding him in his arms, rocking him slowly. It's the sweetest thing to do in this situation. Only me, Griff, Alex, Adam, and Natalia remain.

I did one thing that I'd never done. I prayed to Jesus, I prayed to God and the holy spirit. I prayed to a god I don't believe in because a miracle of heaven is the only thing that can save us now. For now we can only hide right now because these things won't let us run, not far at least."

I wish praying would've worked. But It didn't. Perhaps this was all a punishment for not believing. Maybe it's because I couldn't save my parents. Either way, it's already done.

I have already lost the last few people I loved.

"They hide in the trees. Even in light they're so black you can't see what they really look like. "Y'all should go. They can smell the blood. I'm a gonn'a, mate." Griff said to me. "Shut up! We're all making it out of here!" I snapped."

I think they knew I was lying. They all knew I was. We all knew we were going to die.

"Have faith." Alex said. "Don't talk to us about faith. More than half of our team have been killed and we're being hunted by who fucking knows?!” Natalia snarled. "They're called shadow men." Adam said. All of us went silent. "Shadow men?" I asked."

It's dark in the Amazon.

"That's what the locals call them. It's said they are vengeful spirits of those who have tried to save the rainforest but were killed by the mafia and pirates who destroy it. They say that they've come back to kill every human that they find to protect the forest and the spirits of the animals who were killed for sport. They only become good spirits once they've killed 100 people who dare go this far into the Amazon. The few white men that have survived call them "The dark of the Amazon."

It's dark in the Amazon.

"They are immortal, and in a group of people that come here they kill everyone except one, so they can spread the word that those who dare enter will be slaughtered." Adam whispered. "That's bullshit!" Alex caws and stands up. Natalia kicks him down. "Shut the hell up." She hissed. So we ran.

We ran and ran and one by one they were killed. Griff was torn apart, multiple shadow men feigning for his heart. The taste of pennies decayed in my throat as the humid air sent the smell and metallic flavor of blood and all that is the evil of the devour. Then went Alex and Adam, ripped in half as easily as pulled pork in the trees. Their organs fell onto me and Natalia like rain from hell itself.

The essence of death soaked into my skin, it coated my tongue and stained my hands with cruor. In the end, only I remained."

goodbye, everyonIT'S DARK IN THE AMAZON IT'S DARK IN THE AMAZON IT'S DARK IN THE AMAZON IT'S DARK IN THE AMAZON IT'S DARK IN THE AMAZON IT'S DARK IN THE AMAZON IT'S DARK IN THE AMAZON IT'S DARK IN THE AMAZON IT'S DARK IN THE AMAZON IT'S DARK IN THE AMAZON