The Rainforest Ruins

By Vihaan Riju

We found it after four months. Four months of trudging through the slimy, ever-dripping Amazon rainforest, under the diffused light that streaked down from the thick canopy above us, among nameless creatures hidden in the shadows and indescribable sounds emanating from the surrounding darkness. It was with a fever we followed devotedly that yellowed, flaking parchment, with a faint inscription of a map upon it, claiming to lead to to the weathered and time-eaten ruins of some undiscovered, ancient civilization, deep in the heart of the Amazon, eons more ancient than Harappa or Mesopotamia, and possibly, much more advanced. 

Many of us doubted the map’s reliability, especially after the fall of no less than seven of our expeditionary force to the multifarious jungle diseases- mainly malaria from the beastly mosquitoes. Many believed that it was of a mythical character, a piece of the foolish and superstitious legendry of that Amazonian tribe from which we acquired it, for which so many labours and efforts were fruitless. I, the leader of the expedition, did not give in to their groans, logical and reasonable though they were, and persisted in plodding forth into the depths of the jungle until we found our prize. We were on the point of mutiny when finally we stumbled across the weathered, vine-infested, slimy walls of the rainforest ruins, under whose shadow we made camp the night ere our exploration into it. 

We have no spent long with this remnant of the unknown past, and the little we have seen was under the meagre light of the setting sun. Yet all of us are unanimous in agreeing that the architecture of this civilization is nothing like we had ever seen before, and this we claimed not so much astounded, but inexplicably horrified. It consisted of strange shapes and angles that had no place in human geometry, and seemed to defy the very laws of mathematics, yet none of us could coherently say why it was so. It seemed- wrong. As if, it wasn’t supposed to be all stacked like that in that grotesque Cyclopean fashion, that it was against the basic laws of physics governed by which the main force of human civilization has achieved such technological feats, and yet it was so and we saw it with our own eyes. Verily, to look at even the shadowy outlines of those crumbling towers gave one a most terrible headache. 

We were even more uneased by our sleepless nights, disturbed by the weirdest and most aberrant sounds. They were beyond description- guttural and yet high pitched, far and yet close, birdlike and yet reptilian. We explained them as the sounds of the jungle creatures, but none of us were consoled. 

So it was disturbed and shaken we awoke the next day, and looked upon the explorations that lay ahead of us with less eagerness than before. There were even murmurings that it was unwise to enter the ruins, that they housed monstrous, barbaric creatures unknown to human science, living remnants of the mysterious age to which the civilization behind the strange ruins belonged, which had been the source of the previous night’s sounds. But I quickly squashed these whispers, calling them cowardly, ungrounded and above all unscientific, and managed to convince the entire force to continue with the operation. 

We had to skirt the edges of the ruins to a considerable distance before we could find any appropriate ingress point. We must have travelled at least a mile or two, and yet were still none the wiser to any shape, design or structure in accordance to which the ancient buildings were constructed, and yet it did not seem unplanned and arbitrary. There was certainly a central pattern of some sort, but it had no place among the architecture of the rest of civilization. 

Eventually we came across an aperture- a gaping cave on the face of the wall, which did not appear to be a constructed entrance, as was indicated by the rubble strewn about the entrance. Obviously some portion of the structure had caved in at some time, which could have been anywhere from a few days to a few centuries ago. This was where we infiltrated the ruins, in two tight ranks, with myself and our Brazilian guide Santos at the fore. 

At once the darkness was impenetrable, though we were barely a few paces past from the entrance. We looked back to see the light from outside strangely restricting itself to the extreme exteriors of the cave, as if going against all laws of science and avoiding deep penetration into the ruins. Uncomfortably, we switched on our powerful torches, casting long beams of light into the unplumbable abyss stretching before us. 

Our entrance emptied into a passageway of considerable width, whose other side was not even visible to us. We went down the right. At first the walls were plain, with only the gaps between the rocks and holes here and there being visible on them. I lifted the torch up to the ceiling many times, but all I could perceive was emptiness, indicating that the ceiling was at a monstrous height. The initial murmurings and exciting whispering among the expedition soon came to a halt, and eerie silence reigned as we ventured deeper and deeper into this relic of an unknown past. 

Occasionally we heard, or fancied we heard, sounds, sounds so strange and distant that we could not tell whether they were real or imaginary. I recollected hearing sharp scrapings across the walls, as if of fork against chalkboard, muffled chittering as if that of bats or vermin, and even muttering voices from beneath the walls. 

As we went deeper, it became strangely cold- a damp and unsettling chill swept over us. Some of us even claimed that a light wind was blowing, and though even I felt this at times, I put it down to the fancy of strained and disturbed minds. 

There seemed to be no end or variation in our current passageway, even after some four or five hours of our progress down it. The only sense of time we had were our pocket watches, which reported to us the swift passing of the afternoon into the eve. Oftentimes we stopped to examine some or the other architectural feature, some interesting brick or slab, and even took some samples. Disappointingly and rather curiously, we encountered no inscriptions that could shed a light on the nature and history of the mysterious civilization behind the construction of the ruins we were walking through. We could not guess for what purpose the structure was meant for, as there were no dwellings, no rooms, no stairways or doorways, but a frustratingly eternal, ever-stretching, unchanging line. 

It is true, however, we did not see the other wall.  A man did venture in that direction, holding a rope whose other end was held by me, but returned when he ran out of rope and was still no nearer to the other side, with it not even being visible. The rope was ten metres long. 

We stopped for the day at around 22:00. Since we had travelled without turning or deviating at all, it was a simple affair to return to our point of origin. There were some discussions on whether we should continue down the passageway, or return to where we started and go down the other route with the hope that it would prove more fruitful. These concluded without any definite decision taken. We settled down for the night- exhausted, dissatisfied, uneased, and frightened. 

I have little recollection of that night. All I remember was that it was disturbed and restless, tainted by strange and unsettling dreams, of which I recall only formless, shapeless, unclear images. I awoke suddenly, dripping with sweat. I am unsure, but I think a scream escaped from my lips just before I regained consciousness. I had no idea whether it was day or night, and all I could see before me was blackness. I cried out for the members of my company, but received only my own echo in reply. I frantically felt around me. I distinctly remember that I slept abreast two people, but neither they nor even their blankets were near me. My knapsack with the map, my torch, my pocket watch, my food and other essentials, which I had used as a pillow, was gone. In fact, there was nothing and nobody around me. All my company, along with all our equipment, had disappeared into thin air! I was left alone in the abyss, empty-handed.

When the realization struck me, I slumped down to my knees to get a hold of my panicking senses. The quiet of the place ensured that it did not take long. Soon I stood up again with a clearer and more phlegmatic mind. Obviously some confusion or misunderstanding had occurred. The expedition must have gone on without me, missing me perhaps in the darkness. But I was their leader, and I had bedded right amongst them…                    

But I pushed those thoughts away when I could think of no other logical explanation. Certainly, that was the only probable answer, though in what circumstances it could have happened I could not say. But that was not important then. The facts were that I was alone in the heart of the ruins of an ancient civilization, without means to survive and separated from the rest of my company. Obviously I could not remain there long. To continue exploring alone would be foolish. The most logical course was to find my way out, which, as had been previously observed, was not difficult. I was in no position to worry about the expeditionary force: they were many and they had resources, so they had a better chance to survive. I, on the other hand, had to get out of there.  

So, I walked in the direction of the wall, knowing it to be precisely ten paces to the right from where I had bedded. However, to my shock, I walked fifteen paces without encountering any obstruction, and then ten desperate more with the same result. After that it could not be denied that the wall was gone! 

That first impression was quickly doubted. No, surely it must be that I had woken up in a position different to that I had laid down the previous night, something I had been oblivious to in the darkness. Perhaps I was not walking in the direction of the walls, but down or up the passage. Maybe even in the direction of the left side. 

Thus the first thing I did was to retrace my steps until I came across an obstruction. I stopped after I had walked for ten minutes without encountering any. Then I turned and proceeded in the direction which I thought was down the passage, but when I bumped against something rough and unsmooth, I knew that it was in fact the wall. I breathed a sigh of relief, and proceeded in the direction of the cave, with my body pressed to the wall, thinking that my escape was attained. 

As I was doing this I felt something obtruding from my waistcoat striking against the uneven features of the wall. I felt it and extracted it- it was a box of matches! I blest my luck, and immediately lit one, though, having found the wall, there was no need. In the end it was good I did, for what I saw lighted by the flickering flame lighted something else, and horrified me beyond measure.              

Firstly, I discovered that the wall I had discovered was not that which we had gone against the previous day. That one had been plain and without inscription, while this…this was not so. I could see brief, incomplete glances of carvings and drawings on the wall, carvings macabre and disturbing beyond description, depicting things I could not even understand or make out, but knew through some gut instinct that they were pagan, against the values of man, and even inhuman. The most common depiction was what I suspect must have been the beings that constituted the civilization, though this assumption sends chills down my spine, knowing that those creatures could have possibly have been capable of the extraordinary feat of constructing these structures and thriving within their secluded walls. I could hardly describe them, I don’t want to. They weren’t fully human, but more apelike and hunched, with deformed and gruesome bodies, or bodies of a horrifically different anatomy. Their faces were the worst. Ugh! A single glance made one nauseous, and even their memory has been subconsciously blurred by me. Among them were carvings of peculiar and grotesque creatures, whose like has never known human science. There were pictures of what must have been the religious figures of the civilization, who were somehow even more revulsive than their worshippers. The sight of one of them, holding in its malformed talons the globe (how did these primordial savages know of the shape of the earth?), with its misshapen mouth hung open, made me vomit on the floor. 

After a while, my curiosity was stayed by horror, and I stopped looking at the walls. Instead I reflected on what was more immediately concerning- that somehow I was in a different passage than that of yesterday. There was no doubt about it, for when I raised my match I could see the edges of a ceiling. I was in a much lower passageway, whose width I could not ascertain. But how was that possible? What could have led to such a transportation, especially when it appeared that there was nothing but a single passage for miles? 

With the carven images beside me burning in my mind, I shuddered. Bursts of all those strange and mysterious sounds that had been heard throughout the course of the expedition played in my mind. The silent disappearance of all my colleagues and all our equipment plagued me, and more so my exclusion from it, but I was at a loss to even conjecture upon the matter. In my tensed, nervous and disturbed state, the dreadful idea even came to me that, perhaps the members of the civilization and some of their unholy demons were still living deep within these lightless vaults? I shook my head at once and dismissed the thought as complete fancy, but I was by no means eased. 

After a while the ridiculousness of my frantic rushing through the passage struck me. I had no idea where it lead. But what else could I do? Surely, eventually, the passage would lead somewhere, and somewhere is better than nowhere. 

I do not know whether it was hours or days I spent running down there. All I remember is a black blur, the pattering of my feet on the stone floor, and my panting breath. Eventually, however, I suddenly came against a wall, almost crashing into it. I stretched my hand out at the sides and felt only emptiness. With trembling fingers I lit a match. I screamed, and dropped it. 

The first thing it had lighted was another grotesque image, of an enormous, barbarous face staring right into me with its lifeless, stone eyes. The second match was directed well away from that. Soon I discovered that the passage had deposited me in another passage, that stretched to my either side. The place was a maze! What hope there was of my ever getting out? Was I doomed to spend the rest of my life aimlessly rushing through passage and passage, desperate for escape? 

All of a sudden, all my thoughts came to a halt, and a fearsome chill ran down my spine that made me shiver as if I was extremely cold, though I sweating and feeling rather hot and suffocated. Instinctively, I turned to my right. 

At first, there seemed to be nothing there but the frustratingly familiar darkness. But then, it strangely struck me that the darkness seemed darker than usual. It seemed to be inkier, and thicker. And then I got the sense it was shifting, or swirling, or moving in some or the other way, as if it was mist. I stepped back with fear, as there was a sound- footsteps. Thunderous footsteps. Not even for a second did I think they belong to my party, that’s how inhuman they were. No sound but those terrible footsteps, hurtling across the stone floor, echoing through the halls. I did not move- I could not move. I was transfixed by such horror and dread as I had never felt before. Then…it leapt out of the darkness. 

That’s the extent of my memory. I remember nothing but something coming out of that darkness, something monstrous and horrible that I could not for the life of me describe. I do not know what happened after that. I must have run, run like mad, but that’s only a guess. All I remember next is waking up in a boat going down the Amazon river, rescued by fishermen who had found my body floating in the water. They knew of no civilization, no map, and had found no signs of the rest of my expeditionary force. 

I gave my account to the university. They rejected claims of any monstrous entities, and claimed that I must have gotten separated from the party and, in flustered madness, had somehow stumbled out through some aperture that opened out onto the Amazon river. 

They even had the audacity to give me a medical check-up to assure themselves of my sanity. It is they who need that test, for now at this moment as I pen down this narrative, they are organising a secondary expedition to continue studies of the civilization and perhaps rescue the primary one- alive, dying or dead. I have protested vehemently against this, but all my words have been in vain. 

Certainly, I admit that it is well within the realm of possibility that perhaps my supposed experiences in those lightless vaults was influenced by my flustered and disturbed state. Perhaps the simple, logical explanation of the university is after all the correct one. But something in me, something beyond the concrete dictates of human reason, tells me that whatever I experienced in those rainforest ruins was absolutely true, and that furthermore there is some hidden, terrible secret in those darksome abysses, a secret that is not even for human curiosity and scientific capability to uncover. It is not in our nature, but we must realise that in certain cases, ignorance is bliss. There are some things which our petty little race is better off not knowing. Sometimes, enlightenment can be too blinding. 

By Vihaan Riju