Layla didn't seem to be taking the disappearance as personally, and was already re-fastening her pendant, and throwing her pack over her shoulders. "It doesn't matter. Forget about him," she said, through a still slightly anxious tone, "he probably just went back to rat us out to Ruiz or whatever."
"Like I even give a shit," Becca mumbled, through clenched teeth, "fine, whatever... let's go already!"
The trek back to the rest point proved far easier than expected, as the combination of shattered nerves and raw motivation to meet back up with the rest of their team override any array of discomfort they'd experienced before. Neither one of them spoke. What was there to say. Other than, it will all be okay, once we get back, it will all be okay. But as they parted the leaves and vines into the open area they'd ventured out from, neither one of them could have anticipated what they saw.
Dr. Ruiz was nowhere in sight. Neither was James. And what's more, Ruiz's meticulously cared for pack had been ripped to shreds, the majority of its contents scattered across the now vacant clearing. And blood, deep red blood stained the leaves and branches, and the forest floor they'd left behind, not a short time ago.
"What the bloody hell happened here?!" Becca exclaimed.
Layla was beyond the point of shock as well, as she knelt down to pick up a blood-spattered cherry red University of New Mexico hat. Letting out a startled noise, she dropped it quickly to the ground, as if it were alive and slithering. Her gaze slowly panned back up, and as she did, she hesitantly grazed a hand over the crimson-splattered trunk of a nearby tree, where four distinct claw marks could be clearly seen gouged into the wood. "It looks like some sort of animal attack."
"What kind of animal does all this?!"
Layla didn't bother with an answer, as it seemed clear to her that any further discussion would have only led to Becca becoming more hysterical than she already was. Instead, she remained laser-focused on what the two of them had to do to avoid the same fate. "Look, whatever it was, it's clearly gone now. Let's try to look through Ruiz's things, see if we can find the sat phone, or if it's even still working. Maybe a map? I don't know, something we can use to get the hell out of this damn jungle!"
The two girls proceeded to gather whatever they could find. There were notebooks, filled with indecipherable scribbled text, aerial photos, and Lidar imagery, none of which either of them felt competent enough to decipher on their own. They were also able to find a series of hand-drawn maps of the area, and a large red "X" drawn over the location Ruiz must have suspected the ruins of Chi Ubah Kan resided. Or where the next drop off what scheduled for. They couldn't say exactly which.
And that's when they both saw it, amid the carnage, and all of the chaotic clutter. It was the sat phone alright--their only means of calling out for help--dashed against a rock at the clearing's perimeter. Layla reached a trembling hand down to pick it up, and her heart sank as she traced a hand over the smashed screen, a back web of cracks that refused to illuminate, no matter how many times she tried to power it on.
"Well... we're well and truly screwed now, aren't we?" Becca laughed sarcastically.
"Don't say that! We're gonna be okay." Even as Layla was saying the words, she had dropped the phone back into the dirt and was instead fishing Ruiz's handheld GPS unit out of a nearby low hanging branch. She turned it over to check it and was pleased to see that it had not seen a similar fate as the sat phone. As she turned it on and began scrolling through the last used map data, Layla gave a weak smile in Becca's direction, for the first time since all of this had happened. "I... I think I know how we're at least going to get out of here."
"I'm all ears!" Becca replied, picking up and testing the sharpness of Ruiz's machete, which had been lying on the ground amid the rest of his possessions. She carefully wrapped the sharp blade in the remains of a partially shredded bandana, before sliding it into her pack.
Layla nodded in approval, before proceeding to divulge her plan, all the while flipping through Ruiz's notes to confirm. "So, the way I figure it, Alejandro's set to make his supply run for us tomorrow morning, right?" she pulled out the map with the big red X on it, "I think this X here is where Ruiz told him we're going to be. See... And the GPS coordinates he has scribbled here? They correspond to the ones in his handheld Garmin," She flashed the screen of the tiny device to Becca, who seemed impatiently less interested in the details, and more just ready to get on with it. Layla was unphased, and continued anyway, "So, if we can survive the night out here, alone, and if we can make it to this point on the map by tomorrow morning, then there's our ride!" Layla smiled, through gritted teeth, "And we can get the hell out of this goddamn jungle!"
The late afternoon sunlight was beginning to wane and shine in golds and oranges through the thick canopy. The two girls walked on through an unforgivingly hot and treacherous jungle. Knowing that they had no choice. Knowing that reaching the X on that map was their only
