Blaze of Glory by Rory Michaels Mandy M. Roth

had been a mentor to her back at school and it was disheartening to watch his metamorphosis. Something was certainly off. What? She wasn’t sure.
    Kim swatted a bug on her neck and inwardly cursed about how damned edible she seemed to be to insects as of late. She was an all you can eat buffet, traipsing around, sweaty and barely covered.
    Standing near the roots of a Kapok tree, Kim lifted a leg, swatting yet another bug from her. She couldn’t help but stop and admire the sheer size of the tree. A grown man could lay on the ground, stretching his arms and legs as far as he could and still not come close to the width of the trunk. It didn’t matter how many Kapoks they passed on their expedition, each one amazed her.
    Vic walked up beside her and tapped her arm lightly. “Here.” He held a bottle of bug spray out to her. His sandy blond hair flopped over into his green eyes and his lips twitched as if he were trying not to laugh at her. “ You’re going to be miserable later.”
    “ I so have bug guts smeared on my forehead right now, don’t I?” She returned his slightly flirtatious look with one of her own. He was handsome and she’d had a dry spell in the way of relationships for the last few months.
    Vic simply stared at her. Something about the expression on his face made her breath catch. “ No. You’re perfect.”
    “ Uh, thanks,” she said, taking the bottle from him and misting her face, arms and torso. The spray was supposed to have a fresh, clean scent. She begged to differ with the manufacturers.
    She went to hand the bug repellant back but Vic shook his head.
    “Nah, hang onto it. I’ll get it back from you later tonight.” He grinned. “Besides, I kind of think the bugs only have a taste for you.”
    “It’s because I’m so sweet,” she said, before rolling her eyes at her own lameness.
    Vic let out a soft laugh as he stared around. “Kim?”
    “Yes?”
    “Something’s wrong.”
    She sensed it too. Vic pulled her close to him and turned in a slow circle before letting her go and motioning for her to stay put. She wasn’t keen on being left alone but nodded all the same. She glanced around, trying to figure out what had caused her inner alarms to go off.
    The telltale sounds of the jungle came to a grinding halt. It was a noisy place. To have it all come to a stop wasn’t natural. The tension in the air carried with it the threat of danger. At first, she assumed a larger predator was near them, stalking them. It wouldn’t have been the first time on their expedition that they had found themselves near a large animal.
    There was a loud thud followed by a groan from somewhere behind her. She glanced around, unsure what was going on and found the professor watching an area off to their right. It took a moment for Kim to register what she was seeing but when she came to her senses, she screamed. Vic was there, face first on the floor of the jungle, a dart sticking out from his upper left shoulder.
    “ Ohmygod, Professor Krauss, Vic is hurt!” She looked to her left and found another of her fellow students lying on the ground, unconscious. “So is Brad!”
    Kim turned and yet another classmate was fallen. Confused, her gaze snapped to the professor. For a split second, it appeared as if Krauss was smiling. Something sharp pinched her neck and she swatted at it assuming it was a bug.
    Coming away with a tiny dart, Kim shook her head as her body began to feel heavy. Her vision blurred and she staggered. She reached out for the professor, screaming once more, as blackness swallowed her whole.
    * * *
    Wilson Rousseau lifted his head and pain radiated throughout his body. His vision blurred and for a moment, he could have sworn he heard the cry of a female. One who needed help—one who needed him.
    A distant, yet constant, low-grade sound emitted from something his captors liked to refer to as the “scrambler”. He knew enough about the shit Krauss and his band of insane followers were