"Run Tom, run!"
Lieutenant Thomas Murdoch, formerly of the 3rd Royal Australian Regiment Commandos, plunged head first into the wilderness, running for his life. Branches smacked against his rifle, tore at his armour, scraping the sides of his helmet. He ignored these things as the unimportant irritations they were and focused on the bigger problems: Get Away!
He crashed through a clearing and spun around, dropping to one knee and raising his Austeyr F88 rifle into position as two soldiers rushed onwards, firing 3 shots into their pursuers before following them. He heard com chatter in his helmet's headset.
"They're everywhere!" "11 o'clock, fire fire!" Bursts from more F88s. "More ahead, keep moving!" "Where the hell's Jackson?" "He's down, Jackson's down!"
Tom kept moving, reaching a clearing where Sergeant Liam Oxley and private Robert "Niner" Hinds were poised, their rifles raised in his direction. He sat down on a log, exhausted, removing his helmet for a brief respite, the hot jungle air washing over his face.
"That was a trap...we've been double crossed." said Hinds, easing off his own helmet, dropping down to sit on a rock near Oxley, who nudged him with his foot.
"They were in the fucking trees Niner...of COURSE it was a trap." Niner took a large gulp from his water bottle and gave him a withering look -- an effect that was lost on Oxley, who still had his expressionless helmet on and just stared right back.
"Ox, Niner, cut it out, we have bigger problems, we have to get moving, this jungle's crawling with soldiers and God knows what else. Let's call it in." He lifted his helmet up to place it back on his head when he heard a twig snap. Instantly all 3 commandos had their guns trained on a spot in the jungle, 4 metres from the edge of the clearing.
Niner looked at Tom. "What is it?" he mouthed, when another noise was heard from the left, then behind them. They spun around, trying to get a bead on it, when suddenly...
"AAAAHHHHHH!" A flash of black, brown and orange and Niner was gone.
Tom and Ox spun around again, back to back, hearing strange growls and dragging sounds all around them. Ox raised his rifle to his left but he was too slow and they were both bowled over. Tom rolled to his right and raised himself up, aiming his rifle at Ox, to find him wrestling with the strangest sight he had ever seen.
Ox was being pinned and dragged out towards the edge of the clearing by what appeared to be a panther, but it wasn't a panther. It had a black tail and legs, but the colour stopped around the animal's bottom, which was rosy pink. The colour continued down the creatures sides and arms, but the back of the neck, face and belly were all flesh pink. It was a girl, and she was naked to boot. As he ran forwards, another one appeared, brown with white stripes down her back, grabbing his arm and biting it hard, drawing blood through the uniform as the first one tugged at his legs, or so Tom thought. Are they pulling off his pants???
As Tom reached Ox, a third girl leapt out at him, pushing him onto his back, his rifle firing several shots as he went down and it flew out of his hand. He rolled over and pushed the thing off of him, which got up and with a snarl launched itself into the jungle. Tom turned around to grab his weapon and saw it had completely disappeared. So had Ox, and the girls dragging him and, he could only guess, Niner as well. He reached for his helmet where he had dropped it...it was gone too.
