Mads: Expedition

I received a call from the US government saying they wanted my services to help them classify some new species of bird down in the Brazilian rain forest. Seeing as how I'd tired of being a university professor, I decided to go.

The trip was a disaster from the start. I was one of two scientists, the other being an Iranian ex-pat zoologist living in LA named Abdul Karim, who left much of his professional equipment behind in order to carry more Persian caviar. He was extremely pissed one night when he caught me getting into it.

We were escourted into the woods by four Marines, considered the best at what they did, which was escourting scientists into dangerous rain forests.

I should've thought something was up when on the third morning of the expedition, we found one of Marines hanging upside-down from a tree, dead. But I didn't, and we trudged on.

Two days later I was shaving, and noticed three dots on my face in a triangular formation. I tried popping them, only to find the dots on my fingers. They were from a laser sight. Everything was still, as I pondered my next move. Based on the angle of the dots, he had to be right on top of me in the tree above. That's when I heard a scarlet ibis move near the tree, and the dots suddenly left my face. I dove to the other side of the tree, just out of the way of some kind of missle, which exploded on the ground where I'd been standing.

I saw some distortion in the tree that leaped down and landed in front of me. Without thinking, I jumped on its back, and got it in a rear naked choke. Its cloaking then disabled, and suddenly this humanoid shape appeared under me in my hold. It was a Predator.

But even being a Predator, it knew the score: I had that choke in deep, and the only way he was getting out would be to tap out or go to sleep, and surprisingly he took the former. When I felt the hand tap three times on my arm, I let go.

Our troubles were just beginning, though. That Predator was nice enough to warn me that two others were still out there, and they'd be looking for me, especially once they heard I'd bested him. I thanked him, and went to find the others.