There they laid.  Lifeless on the ground.  No eye movement, not breath no twitch of anything.  I looked down at one of the individuals, then the next, then the next.  They all looked like they died differently. There was blood everywhere on them.  It was where the blood was coming from but more so the color. It was black. Dark as the midnight sky.  I thought to what might've made this happen and realized I was the only one who didn’t sample the drinks before we left.  They were in fact the same color as the blood oozing out of these people. They were purposely poisoned. This was a set up.  We were in the middle of nowhere, everyone was dead, even the your guide. I wasn’t going to die out here, i had a family and loved ones to get back to.  This is not the place I am going to die.

Just a couple hours earlier a group of people and I were at the tiki hut ordering tropical drinks before we went on the Amazon excursion.  I was here with a long lost friend from high school. Wyatt was always such a good friend to me from my early years up to this very day. We got separated by college.  He went to the east coast while I went and attended a college in midwest. It was a 12 hour drive to see each other, so we just saw each other during holiday weekends, and honestly sometimes we didn’t even see eachother then.  It was hard, we went from being best friends and seeing each other most days of the week to a couple times a year. This trip to the Amazon was a vacation we decided to take because we were best buddies and havent seen eachother in forever, we needed to catch up bad.  Wyatt didn’t come on this amazon excursion as he and his girlfriend were back at the hotel making a nice dinner for all of us. I was always an extremely adventurous person. In some ways it was a strength but most times it was a weakness. All the people were drinking this dark black looking alcohol that looked grotesque.  I was never a fan of drinking, so I politely declined the free alcohol. I mean if it was free it couldn’t have been that good.

I sit staring at the 12 motionless bodies dropped in an unusual pattern.  I swear I had seen that pattern before. It was familiar, but I don’t remember from what.  Maybe the movie I watched a couple nights ago. I really didn’t know. I crouch down on to my knees in major distress and confusion.  These people were lying is such a familiar pattern and I couldn’t find out why. I tried to reach the part of my brain that would allow me to figure out why everything appeared the way it did.  It was almost as if everything was going against my odds, even my brain. I search the bodies for anything I could use. I hoped that at least one body would have something I could use. A cell phone.  A bottle of clean water. A gun if I was lucky, tho I not quite sure why anyone would have a gun. I search each dead corpse, up and down, side to side, back and front. One man, whom I didn’t know, had a backpack on him. It was a green army colored backpack.  It was larger than anything I had expected to find. In the backpack was helpful items, for now. There was a map and some food and water. I wasn’t interested in the food, rather the map. I needed to get out of here, and honestly the only thing that seemed to be going my way was that the map had a detailed outline of how to get back my hotel.  But I had to think. The deaths of all these people was clearly not a coincidence. I needed to be strategic and safe with all my actions. I couldn’t mess up, I just couldn’t. I refuse to end up like all the others. I was the only one left. I was the only one left to tell the story and seek justice for what had happened to all the others.

I look around me I make sure to stay quite just Incase I’m being watched or looked for.  I see a huge creek and on the other side is land that I less lush than the land I’m on. That too looks familiar, like I had seen something like that.  It was extremely confusing to me why all of the things I was experiencing felt like I had already seen them before.

My stomach aches, pins and needles were a sensation I was feeling too much.  I nevertheless pushed forward, I need to. I cross the warm murky water. It took me what felt like a day to cross the creek.  There was definitely loads of fish and other species in the river. They brushed my ankles but looking back at it it didn’t even cross my mind, I was just focused on surviving.  I finished crossing the river, made it to the other side, which at that time felt like a huge accomplishment. Little did I know that was nearly the beginning.

Trudging out of the mucky water, I look around and scan the area, there was a opening in between the trees miles down, that must’ve meant there was an opening or land that was lived on.  Without wasting energy and having to run, it was best to just walk. The trees in this area weren’t like the ones I was use to. They looked so perfect almost if they were perfectly designed by someone.  Weaving in and out of trees, around spider webs, and watching out for huge puddles I persisted. I figured it was best to watch every step I take as I couldn’t trust anything. The way those innocent people died, I wasn’t going to be the next.  I watched for anything that would appear suspicious and time continued to pass.

It had came down to it, I was nearing the area where I thought it was an opening.  I looked left right and left again examining the area for any action or person that could inflict harm upon me and my venture back home.  I walk out of tree filled swampy terrain and enter a dust filled pathway, more less the equivalent of a dirt road. There it was, the bar where we got drinks before the trip, the people in there were frantically packing up there stuff and I waited for them to be gone.  I’d say no more than ten minutes had went by and they were completely gone without a trace. Assuming it was safe to walk out of the path, I did… hugging the tree line in case I would have to run from anyone or anything.

I continued on my mission to get back home.  Pins and needles still bounced around in my stomach.  I was confused on how I would even get back home. I didn’t have a single damn clue of who I could trust.  Persistence was key I was telling myself. “Keep in pushing through Matt, God is with you,” I thought to myself.  As the walk continued I saw dust that got stirred up behind me gently flow over my head. Instantly turning around, a silky black Hummer speeds down the road as fast as it could, whatever psychotic group of men that killed those innocent people were still after me.  I sprint, my legs moving so fast I wonder if they are even grazing the ground. It’s crazy to me that in a situation like this, it appeared I had so much time to think. I reached the end of the dirt path, where there were a couple people a hundred feet away, I start sprinting towards them screaming and yelling God knows what.  They didn’t turn around. Continuing to run up to these people is when it dawned upon me. Those things weren’t people. They were fake people a set up, I was trapped. The Hummer was about 300 yards away now. I stood there, like a lost sheep. Staring at the vehicle, I prepare for the worst. A tall man, in a black suit was driving the car.  The vehicle abruptly stops, and the man get out running after me. I don’t move, I stand there motionless, like the dead bodies I had seen just hours earlier. He pulls out a gun, a type of gun that looked again so familiar to me. He points it at me and says, “you have….”

There was a beeping noise in the background.  I was breathing frantically, my heartbeat legitimately pounding out of my chest, my skin flashes with waves of intense heat.  My body drenched in sweat. My eyes had opened within milliseconds, and I ironically felt a familiar comfort on my legs. A soft, relaxed material that I had again known all to well.  My bed sheets. “How did I flash back into my bed?” I guess the truth was that I never really left it. Turning over to my other side, I snooze the beeping alarm clock, roll over to my other side, and hope that my next dream is better than this one.