Carpathian 23 - Dark Storm

sun had faded,
     bringing shadows into the rain forest, changing the appearance of plants to monstrous
     shapes. Riley could see the effects of the incessant buzzing in everyone’s head. For
     her, the sound was faded and far into the background, but even her mother began to
     mumble a protest.
    Perhaps because of the danger to someone she loved, Riley’s senses seemed to increase
     with every step she took, along with awareness of her surroundings. She found herself
     seeing things she’d never noticed before. Individual leaves. The way the moss and
     fern grew and the flowers wound their way up trunks to the skies. For the first time
     in her life, she was wholly fascinated by the growth of the plants. She could hear
     the life force of the earth, a pounding beat that nearly drove out those soft meaningless
     whispers trying to invade her mind. For a few moments, as darkness began to drop its
     shroud, the surrounding plant life had seemed frightening; now it was exquisitely
     beautiful and even comforting.
    The colors in the rain forest seemed far more vivid, even as night began to fall,
     flowers creeping up trunks and bursting across the ground. Moisture dripped, the sound
     musical rather than annoying. Riley felt as if the land she walked on recognized her
     for the very first time and was signaling acceptance of her presence. The hostility
     she felt was from an outside source, some subtle force she couldn’t yet identify,
     but felt weaving through the forest like a disease.
    Behind her, the porter Capa muttered in his own language under his breath, hacking
     at the tangle of vines and flowers springing up as Annabel walked. Riley was careful
     to step close to her mother, covering her tracks, so the porter couldn’t tell the
     plants pushing through the thick vegetation hadn’t already been there.
    Her mother glanced over her shoulder, back at Riley, looking exhausted. She sent her
     daughter a small smile and mouthed, “I love you.”
    Riley felt a flood of love for her mother, streaming strong. She blew her a kiss.
    Overhead, monkeys suddenly shrieked, so that the rain forest erupted into a cacophony
     of noise. The monkeys followed their every movement, running along the tree branches
     overhead throwing twigs and leaves. Some brandished branches threateningly and displayed
     teeth—another new phenomenon for Riley. In her experience, the monkeys and wildlife
     kept their distance.
    Without warning, something landed on her back, driving her straight to the ground.
     Sharp claws gripped her shoulders, raking at her pack. She was hit again and again
     as more monkeys sprang from the trees, their combined weight knocking her backward.
     She heard Annabel scream and Jubal curse. The sound of Capa’s chanting grew loud above
     the shrieking of the monkeys.
    “Hän kalma, emni hän ku köd alte. Tappatak naman. Tappatak naman.”
    Frantic, screaming for Gary and Jubal, Riley fought to throw off the monkeys and pull
     out the Glock at the same time.

5
    R iley twisted out from beneath the pile of woolly monkeys, coming up on one knee, using
     a two-fisted grip to steady the gun. She couldn’t see anything. There were dozens
     of gray and olive, red-brown and black monkeys between her and Annabel. The ones leaping
     on her mother had driven her back into the dense brush, and all Riley could see were
     the furry bodies in some kind of shrieking frenzy. She didn’t dare shoot at them for
     fear of hitting Annabel.
    Her mother screamed again, the sound terrified, reverberating through Riley’s head.
     She scrambled to her feet, only to have another wave of primates slam her back to
     the ground. Each woolly monkey weighed close to seventeen pounds, and they dropped
     hard from the branches overhead, using their weight and sheer numbers to crush the
     humans under them.
    The buzzing in her head, that awful chant, swelled in volume—in command. Hän kalma, emni hän ku köd alte. Tappatak naman. Tappatak naman.
    She could hear the words echoing through her mind, over and over, a guttural, deep-throated
     chant, almost like the monks she’d heard in Tibet when throat-chanting. The sound
     disturbed on the most elemental level, raising the hair on her body, making her skull
     ache, flashing through her nervous system until she wanted to shriek like the monkeys.
    Riley tried to roll away from the attacking creatures, but they stuck like glue, attaching
     themselves to her hair and clothing and pack,