//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8: Jumping  
// Story: The Conversion Bureau: New Tactics Part III 
// by no sh*t sherlock 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 8: Jumping


When Hudd said he wanted to leave early, he meant it. Matt was woken up at a little past 4 o' clock in the morning. It had taken them about another hour and half to eat and prepare to move. Finally, at around 6:00am, 400 hundred people started heading into the woods. That left the remaining 300 to watch the base. 


The 400 had been spilt into many groups consisting of 15-20 people. Each group had one or two leaders and they were given a small radio to communicate with Hudd and the others. The groups divided across the field, but all stayed within tens of each other. 


Matt found himself in a group with Jacob, Hudd, Rebbeca and eleven others. His group was the first to enter the Everfree Forest. 


One thing that became immediately apparent was the darkness. Even with the sun coming up, it was nearly impossible to see anything. And it became worse the farther they went. After 15 minutes, the thick canopy blocked out almost 100% of the sunlight. At this point they were lucky that a few in the group had flashlights and put them to good use. 

Maneuvering through the forest was difficult, even more so doing in the dark. Stepping over gnarled roots and ducking under low hanging branches slowed their progress. But they were unaware of just how slow things could get. 

Hudd stepped quickly, he was eager to get to the patch of sunlight that wasn't to far away. However when he got close, he froze. 
The ground beneath his feet squished. Hudd looked down to his boots to find that they had sunk about an inch into the saturated earth. He looked ahead to an area where the forest seemed to stop. 

In this area, trees stuck out of disgusting looking, greenish brown water that had bubbles from who knows what that popped with a horrendous sound. Mosquitoes and others small insects flew in the hundreds around in every direction through the wet, sticky air. Small creatures skirted across the water, with some being plucked from the surface by what Matt hoped were fish or frogs. 

"You never mentioned a swamp." Hudd said sounding very disappointed. 

"I don't know." Matt said shaking his head. "I don't remember this being here."

Jacob pulled out a compass. " We're still going north." He shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. "Ponyville should still be past this. So what now?"

"No idea." Matt admitted. "It could go around for miles."

Hudd thought for a moment before stepping forward. He sank to his ankles and shuddered at the feeling. "We go through it." He said. "If the water comes past the waist, then I say we turn back and go around."

"Sounds fine to me." Rebecca said as she stepped into the swamp.

"Great!" a man said sarcastically. " Now we get to go through a swamp!" The guys name was Josh and he had been complaining ever since they left. So far everyone was doing a good job of ignoring him. "Thanks for the heads up on this, Matt." He said. 

Matt didn't respond. He was disappointed that he hadn't remembered this, but it wasn't proving much of a problem, which relieved him. The water was only just above their ankles. 

Ten minutes later, things were different. The water had risen to a couple of inches below his waist. By now lots of people voiced their complaints, but Josh still led the pack. He was a few yards in front of everyone else and now he decided to recap everything he'd just said. 

"It's hot as hell out here, I'm getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, there's probably a hundred parasites in this water just waitin' to crawl up my ass and-" Josh stopped and coughed into his hands. "And I'm also-" He tried to speak again, but every time he breathed in, he could not continue. Soon he had bent over and began coughing violently into his arm.

"Whoa, Josh." Jacob said concerned. "You alright?"

He was still coughing, but waved his hand backward like he was okay. He hobbled over to a greenish brown tree trunk that stuck straight up through water. But when he tried to lean on it, something was wrong. 

Matt's group noticed that the tree wobbled slightly like it was made of Jell-O.
Josh must've felt something was wrong with the texture of it because he pushed away from it almost immediately. All of them followed the "trunk" to his highest point. And when they looked to the top something looked back at them.

It looked like a giant snakehead with green catlike eyes and forked tongue that hung outside its wide triangular mouth. Its eyes were focused directly below at Josh. "Ah, Oh shit!" He jumped back a screamed. He tried to start running back but the snake was faster. It struck down as soon as Josh moved. 

It seemed to strike the water directly behind Josh, but then he cried out in pain. The snake had his left leg in his mouth with josh still attached to it. He was lifted a few yards above the water and was frantically kicking the snake in its eye with his other leg.

Before they could react, the water exploded and three more snakes rose to Josh's level. They surrounded Josh with open mouths and ran their tongues over him.

"Kill it!" Josh shouted.

Matt's group lit the snakes up with gun fire, but had to avoid shooting the one holding Josh in the head for fear of hitting him. A moment later, it dropped him back into the water. All four turned to face their attackers and roared loudly. Their tongues wiggled rapidly and each of them had four fangs, each one twice as big a banana.

"Get clear!" Hudd shouted from behind Matt. On his shoulder was an RPG. He aimed towards the open mouthed creature and fired. 

The projectile hit where it was intended and when the smoke cleared they could see the aftermath. One had the entire top half of its head blown off and another the right side of another was wide open and had blood and other fluid leaking from it. Strangely all four fell back into the water.

Matt and Jacob rushed forward to help Josh who was slowly trying to push through the water. 

"Fuck man!" He said in pain. His leg had deep puncture wounds. Jacob desperately tried to wrap his leg, but he was still losing a lot of blood. 

"We got to get him back to the base!" Matt shouted they were starting to carry him over when the ground started shaking.

"Shit." Hudd said loading another rocket." What now?" 

Mud starting flying everywhere as something began to rise from beneath the water. Jacob and Matt hurried to get Josh back, but stumbled as a new creature finally unearthed from behind them.

"Oh my god." Rebecca said looking at the creature. Now six of the snake-like creatures were attached to a large dinosaur-esque body. "They're not snakes. It's a...a Hydra?"

Matt turned around and saw what was behind him. Two of them were coming right for him. "Move!" Jacob shouted. Matt let go and dove to the right. Jacob had pulled Josh and himself the opposite direction- right where
They'd struck.
However when the heads pulled back up, it was not Jacob in their months. 

Josh again found he in one of their mouths. Only this time he could not fight back. Two fangs found their way through his chest. The head shook his lifeless body around until another took one half in its mouth and pulled him in two.
Jacob scrambled over to Matt and quickly helped him up. Three of the hydra's
Heads took notice and the two giant legs began moving the creature awkwardly in their direction.

"Come on!" The two ran to the right as the hydra weren't after them. It now disregarded the gunfire on its side. There were a few others who also caught in the Hydra's path and ran with Matt and Jacob. The group kept running, but the Hydra focused in and closed the gap between them. 

Looking up ahead, Matt’s heart sank. The ground only continued for a few dozen more yards before it dropped off into a steep cliff. 

"You see that?!" Someone shouted. "What do we do?" 

Jacob looked behind him. "Well I'm not going back! He shouted as he sped up towards the chasm. 

Matt's slid to a stop just inches before the drop. A few people had already weighed their options and taken the jump, but Matt hesitated. He took one look over the edge and turned to Jacob. "No way!" He shouted shaking his head. "There is no way we do this and live." 

Jacob put his hand on Matt's head turned it towards the Hydra that was at most only a dozen yards behind them. "Better than that!" He said. "We'll make it!" With that he took a running start and jumped off the cliff. Matt watched him flail his arms on his long way down. 

Matt took another look behind him. The hydra was upon him. Two of its heads were already reared back for a strike. "Leap of faith then!" He said to himself as he ran forward and jumped.