My senses reeled as I awoke in a swamp. I felt well rested as if a full eight hours had passed. It hadn’t helped my mood any, but my muscles were recharged. I took note of my surroundings. It was humid, dank and muddy. There was vegetation everywhere I looked and that particular rotting musty smell common in swamps pervaded my senses.

It made me want to breath through my mouth, but for the thought of all the fungal spores, so I kept my mouth firmly closed, and put up with the smell. The last thing I wanted was some weird alien fungus sprouting inside me and controlling my muscles and nerves. I looked around for some idea, some clue on what I was supposed to do, but it seemed like I would have to wander around until some beastie decided I was lunch.

Closing my eyes, I squeezed the bridge of my nose. I was tired of these games and really hoped my life wasn’t going to be like this indefinitely. Through my closed lids I noticed a blinking light. It was to my north. As I turned, the light changed position in my head and I realized it was some kind of compass, probably indicating a direction they wanted me to go. Stubbornly I gritted my teeth. These damn aliens could go to hell. I turned westwards as my stubborn streak dug in. They could put me in their sims and feed me to their beasts, but I definitely didn’t have to follow their orders. I would find my own way around this place. besides I had a few skills in survival. It was time I put them to use.

After a short while traipsing through the mud and mangroves, slipping and squelching through the fetid swamp, I finally found what I was looking for. A small tree with lots of young branches extending up. I broke them off and shaped the green twigs into makeshift snowshoes. Tying them off with bark strips.

I reasoned that they would help me slip-slide my way through the muddy terrain and lessen the risk of sinking into the quagmire. I also chose some choice sticks with sharpish ends as stabbing sticks. A longer one was great for a spear and I just started thinking about the useful staff I had had in the last simulation when it suddenly appeared in my hand. Startled, I dropped it. Then retrieved it from the mud. I had played a few games in my retirement. Particularly Call of Glory which allowed the characters to call forth different weapons as needed from an inventory. I guessed this was no different. I was in a simulation but its mechanics were game-like. It certainly had monsters. I had yet to meet any in this one though. Probably they were all waiting along the route I was supposed to take. I chuckled maliciously thinking I had thwarted the aliens.

I really couldn’t believe this was a computer simulation though. Well, I could believe it, because what else could it be, but the realism was breathtaking. To simulate smells, sounds of birds, insects, trickling water, each and every leaf, not to mention all the physical mechanics like gravity, wind, sunlight, and textures like bark, and then to portray the layers within the plants after stripping the bark was phenomenal. It would most likely require a computer on the quantum scale. If nothing else had convinced me that the aliens were technologically advanced, then this certainly did.

I fashioned a makeshift belt and slid the sharp stakes into it. Then set about covering myself in mud. I knew from experience that it would keep off the biting bugs like mosquitoes and flies, which due to the realism in this sim were following me around with relish. Setting off again I was feeling much better prepared for whatever was to come, with a spring in my step I set forth to face the unknown.

Half an hour passed and the drudgery and sameness of the sim began to wear on me. I had been strung out from the moment I arrived, expecting the worst but now as I grew fatigued and slid my way around this mud and mosquito infested place I felt bereft and hopeless. I knew there must be creatures here, or some kind of challenge. My thoughts began to drift as I lazily scratched my scrotum. It had been getting progressively itchy down there and the mud caking the area was getting dry and flaking off. At least the mosquitoes couldn’t bite me, but they kept trying. It was then that I felt something slither. It slithered over my scratching hand and I looked down in horror.

From beneath my loincloth a large black slug looking creature slipped from the mud of my nether regions, over my hand and plopped into the mud at my feet. A shiver of absolute revulsion shook me as I realized what it was. A leech had been gorging on my junk. OMG! No! The absolute disgust I felt was a visceral thing and I immediately hopped from one foot to the other in agitation as I began to inspect myself. I should have considered this sooner I admonished myself, as I searched my body frantically for more of the repulsive creatures.

On the other hand I was grateful that they weren’t giant sized leeches or I would be a dried out husk by now. While I pranced around inspecting for leeches, a silence settled over the jungle. All the insects stopped their chittering and even the birds grew silent. My body search forgotten, I took stock of my surroundings once more. Only the wind rustling the leaves in the canopy and the constant drip of water could be heard. When the environment warned you that a predator was near, it was best to take note.

I crouched down, picking up my discarded gear and looked about warily. Whatever had disturbed them, it wasn’t me. In fact the creatures of this place had paid me no mind whatsoever, so it had to be something else that was stalking around, and to have any chance of facing it, I had to notice it before it noticed me. When the silence persisted and nothing materialized, I began to relax. Perhaps it had moved on, I thought more hopefully than certain.

A shout suddenly broke the silence and my attention was drawn to an area through the trees. It was a human shout and it was angry. The shout surprisingly enough was also feminine. Deciding she very definitely needed help, I made my way forward as fast as my snowshoes sliding through mud would allow. By now the shoes had clogged with mud and were more of a hindrance than a help, but I doggedly persisted.

Eventually I broke through the vegetation surrounding the area of the commotion and came upon a sight that left my mind stunned in consternation. After everything that had happened to me, the abduction, the shock treatment, the subsequent bug dismemberment and now an entire morning of being siphoned by mosquitoes and leeches I thought very little could surprise me, but this caught my attention and I stood mouth agape.

In an open area, quite devoid of trees, divided by a mudbank and a deep stretch of water, was a struggling woman. Upon her ankle was a very nasty looking alligator and it had a firm grip. It was thrashing its tail trying to wrench her off the mudbank and into the water.

The woman, yes most definitely a woman, was clad only in a loincloth and was using her foot to try dislodge the alligator as she lay sprawled in the mud. While on the opposite side of her, a very large feline beast had her forearm between its long, yellow teeth. It held on despite her best attempts to swat it away. The jaguar was dragging her in opposition to the alligator. Its feline face scrunched in fury, tawny fur speckled with rosettes. Its forelegs were scrabbling desperately for purchase and hind legs thrust deeply forward into the mud, back hunched, tail twiching in feline agitation as it fought for control of its prize.

The tug-of-war between these top predators was the only reason the woman was still alive, but not for long, and knowing this was just a sim, and hoping it wasn’t my last chance to live, I swished over the mud and thwacked the alligator on the head as hard as I could with my trusty staff. Immediately a box appeared in my vision and I willed it away. I needed to focus on the fight, not some damn notification.

My blow had been as hard as I could generate under the circumstances, but it seemed to have had little or no effect on the scaly alligator. It’s eye was damaged though and there seemed to be blood leaking out. This gave me my next idea and I sidled up to it and tried desperately to jab the smaller end of my staff into the eye.

The first few attempts missed and all I got was the creature to writhe more and struggle to wrench the lady harder. She was grimacing and shouting and kicking for all she was worth. The cat snarled, and hissed through its mouthful as it pulled with greater force, wrenching her arm. I wasn’t sure I was doing any good. On about the fifth try I finally managed to get the narrow end of the staff against the half-closed eye-lid and I pushed as hard as I could. It resisted my shove, but then suddenly the staff slid into the eye and the substance inside oozed out like toothpaste. I then felt the staff break through the thin skull plate behind the eye as it slid all the way into the alligators brain. It released the woman immediately, arching back, my staff still stuck through its eye, and began to spasm in death throes. I wasn’t getting that staff back anytime soon.

Relief flooded through me that something had finally worked and I turned now to face the second and more pressing threat of the jaguar. The woman was trying to pry the jaguars jaws open. The pressure must have been excruciating. Her terror stricken face looked forlornly at me as the cat now had the leverage to pull her successfully towards the trees and away from the mudbank clearing.

I grabbed the two stabbing sticks from my belt and charged. In for a penny, in for a pound. My next brave action was completely unexpected as I face-planted deep into the muck. The muddy snowshoes had reached their breaking point and stuck fast. I only had time to take a breath as I fell face-first into the mud. Both sticks stabbing deep into the useless stinking bog. Spluttering and spitting out the foul soup, I sat up gasping. I couldn’t just sit here, the woman was going to be killed. I cleaned the muck from my eyes and to my surprise saw the cat had released the woman and was now spitting and coughing and most importantly retreating.

When I fell, the huge splash of mud and water had hit the feline directly in the face. Some must have gotten into its airway and eyes. I got to my feet and charged again, waving my arms and trying to look as intimidating as possible. It was already retreating, but my charge seemed to hurry it along. I moved forward to the woman. The jaguar meanwhile scampered off into the trees, injured pride and all, and left me standing panting alongside the extremely irate woman.

She was cradling her injured arm and it appeared to be broken from the jaguar's bite. Her leg was also twisted and swollen with deep gouges all along the calf and ankle. She was bleeding, but not too badly. Although it was hard to tell with everything covered in mud. I knelt next to her and asked,

“Are you all right?”

“No, you asshole, I am not all right!” her reply was full of pain and hurt. “God! What is going on!” she shouted, “and who the fuck are you?”

I tried to help her calm down, but frankly, I had no answer for her.

“What’s your name?” I asked to distract her from her plight.

Between her panting and wincing, she replied, “Sarah Wilson. Yours?”

I smiled, “I’m Petros Arkansas.”