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Julie and the Jungle Girl, chapter 6

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Kimi was impatient. Or getting impatient.

As the sun set on the jungle and Julie typed away on her Tumblr blog, the Nisei/Sansei read Julie’s copy of The Sorcerer’s Stone with scrunched lips and furrowed brows. Julie’s incessant typing, along with the equally-incessant sounds of the insects outside, only heightened Kimi’s annoyance. Those bugs were kept from entering the house by some screens they closed during the evening and some safe bug repellent outside. It seems a little contradictory, but remember that you can take the girl out of civilization, but you can’t take the civilization out of the girl—SHOT

Julie closed her laptop and stood up to walk over to the window. “It’s a pretty sunset,” she said. “Why don’t you take a look?”

“I’m okay,” said Kimi.

“You sure?” Julie asked, turning around. “You don’t look happy.”

“I’m fine,” Kimi insisted.

“Okaaayyyyy,” Julie said in a sing-song. She looked outside again. “Hmph. I wonder where Kaitan is.”

“What?” Kimi asked.

“Nothing,” said Julie. She walked over to the HAM radio and sat down. She twisted the knobs until she found the frequency she was looking for. “Tribe Family, this is Jungle Girl, come in Tribe Family.”

“Tribe family?” Kimi asked.

“The Teo adopted my boyfriend,” said Julie. “If it wasn’t for them, he’d be dead. And they adopted me, too.” She showed Kimi the tattoo (should’ve mentioned that earlier) on her arm. “I am an official member of the Teo Tribe. I’ve gone native!” Her voice was filled with infectious giddiness and glee.

“Will I be adopted?” Kimi asked.

“Maybe,” said Julie. “It’s not like this was easy, though.”

Jungle Girl, this is Tribe Family,” Tim’s voice crackled over the radio. “What is it, Julie?

“Hey Tim,” said Julie. “You know where Kaitan is? And yes, I mean Karza?”

He just left,,” said Tim. “The Pele trading caravan got attacked, and—

“Waitwaitwaitwaitwait!” Julie sputtered, “Slow down! Whaddaya mean, ‘attacked’?”

I mean those Teo fakers attacked the caravan on their way here!” said Tim.

“You gotta be kidding me,” Julie groaned. “Not again.”

Should I tell you the details?” Tim asked.

“No, it’s fine,” said Julie. “I’ll ask Kaitan when he gets back.”

Got it. Tribe Family out.

“Jungle Girl out,” she said before leaning back in the chair and releasing a frustrated sigh.

“What were you talking about?” Kimi asked.

“We’ve been monitoring the activity of a cult for about two months now,” said Julie. “Look at this here.” She handed a notepad to Kimi. The scribblings on the paper noted each attack and the date. In May, there was an attack on a Pele trading post just inside Teo territory. The attackers appeared to be Teo, but witnesses described several men who appeared to be “palemen”. Kimi obviously didn’t understand that reference, so Julie pointed out what it means. Another note, this one from June, was about the capture of a paleman, who committed suicide before they could get answers out of him.

“We think they’re a cult,” Julie mused. She looked up at the map of the island. Teo territory was filled out in orange streaks, Pele in blue. What WAS the territory of the Paea in the east was labelled as “power vacuum”. A note, attached to the map, noted Queen Orangta, the woman behind the slaughter of the main Paea village and by extension, the chief.

A series of “X’s” denoted the location of suspected cult attacks. “No pattern,” said Julie. “Can’t say I’m surprised. Get a good look?”

“Yeah,” Kimi replied as she walked away from the map.

A Tarzan-like cry cut through the jungle and the evening. Julie smiled and turned to the windows. Kaitan landed on the porch, carrying a bag and a few other things. “Juuuullliiiiieee, I’m hooooommmme!” he called with a laugh.

“You couldn’t resist, could you?” she asked.

“Not after what happened earlier,” he said.

“I heard from Tim,” said Julie. “Can you give me the details?”

Katain walked over to the map to point at the spot just south of the Pele trading post. Julie sighed. “So what now?”

“We keep monitoring—”

“OI! What about me!?” Kimi interrupted.

This made Julie turn around and give her a dirty look. Kimi backed down, but only a little bit.

They ate dinner quietly. Kaitan looked up from his deer meat and mango dinner every now and then to see how Julie and Kimi were doing. Neither of them were really talking to each other. The frustrated Jungle Dude facepalmed and shook his head while doing so. He got a peek at Julie, noticing that she was trying to put on the appearance of a “mature adult”, but her movements were like that of the current petulant teenager sitting to her right. This made the Jungle Dude sigh and shake his head again. What the hell happened? he thought to himself.

“So… how’d training go?” he asked. Kimi refused to answer. Julie just looked at him with the dirtiest glare he’d ever seen. “So I guess it went well,” he quipped.

This continued on through the night. As he and Julie went to bed, and Kimi went to the tent outside to get some shut-eye, he could see that SOMETHING was bothering her. She sat up in their primitive bed, with her arms and legs crossed, muttering something about how petulant Kimi was being. That was enough for him.

He sat down next to her naked form (they always slept au naturale, which by the way, is not dirty, and not sexual in of itself) and put his hand on her shoulder. “It’s Kimi,” he said. “What’d she do?”

“She’s being a brat,” said the Jungle Girl.

“Why?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” she said whilst laying down and covering her body up with the light covers. Kaitan groaned in frustration and also pulled the covers over himself.

“You know,” he said, showing he wasn’t about to give up, “You were doing a really good job with her, eh? I think you really wanted her to succeed. Maybe that’s why you’re so upset.” The Jungle Girl groaned as Kaitan blew out the candle.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Julie and Kimi went out again the next morning. They packed some deer meat, fresh and freeze-dried fruit, nuts and water bottles on their day-long trek.

Julie led Kimi to the northwest on a trail that from the looks of it, had been cleared out for some time. It must have been Julie’s instructions, because she could see evidence of a LOT of wear and tear in the ground. Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was a dirt path surrounded on both sides by lush vegetation. In fact, Julie told her that this was used a lot by the Teo for years for… she forgot why.

But neither of them said anything. Julie focused on the path ahead. Kimi looked around, listening for the sounds of the jungle—which were sparse—and watching for things that could stick themselves into her bare feet and hurt like a bitch for weeks. Luckily, there was nothing to worry about. Although, Julie was effortlessly walking and skipping along the trail, making Kimi frown in envy.

After a while, Julie led Kimi off the trail. She led Kimi up to another tree and gestured to her to climb up. Almost reluctantly, Kimi grabbed onto the trunk. Using a couple hand and footholds, she pushed herself up the tree trunk. Julie followed behind on the other side, so she didn’t have to look up Kimi’s skirt and make her feel uncomfortable. Which, to be honest, Julie had her own issues with her standard-issue gear that we’ll get into in a second. Her effort was… effortless, but slower, so as to allow Kimi to climb the tree until she reached the first branch they came to. Kimi doubled over, panting, while Julie smoothly pulled herself up.

“It’s not that tall,” Julie said as she looked down.

“Whatever,” said Kimi. “Why’d you—“

“Climb up the other side of the trunk?” Julie finished. “Simple. I didn’t want to make things awkward for you and look up your skirt. That’s the problem with the standard-issue stuff. This wide one here doesn’t come with—”

“Stop! Stop! TMI!” Kimi said with a blush.

“Oops! Sorry!” Julie laughed. To be honest, Julie was wearing something under that loincloth, but that’s not a topic we’ll be covering.

She watched Kimi try to regain her balance. The Nisei/Sansei girl held her hands out, gingerly stepped on the branch and almost lost her balance but she recovered before falling off and Julie sighed, letting go of her hair. “Concentrate!” the Jungle Girl said in an attempt to calm her down. But her tone inadvertently sounded harsh and critical. It made Kimi snarl subtly and mutter to herself.

Julie jumped up, grabbed the branch above her, and carefully climbed over to Kimi’s side. She sat down once she pulled herself up onto the branch to watch Kimi working on her balance. She watched Kimi turn around and give it another go, this time going in the opposite direction. But the Jungle Girl’s gaze made it hard for Kimi, and she almost slipped again. Julie’s exasperated sigh didn’t help matters much.

Julie’s presence and stern eye was distracting to Kimi. Her mind swirled with annoyed thoughts about the Jungle Girl’s stare, watching as she almost fell off the branch again and again. And all the while, she made no effort to get off her arse and do something. It was getting annoying. And all the while, her balance did not get better, but worse. And she almost fell a number of times until she finally jumped onto another branch. But here, her distractions were almost her downfall.

She slipped. She botched the landing, her foot did not land on the branch and she could not get a foothold. She began to fall over backwards, grabbing at the nearest vine to stop her fall. But her efforts were fruitless, and she began to plummet. She didn’t know how far she’d fallen, only that her sense of time must have slowed down in the surprise and shock of what had just occurred, and it almost caused her to accept her inevitable demise. At least she would die far away from her foster family and—

Julie grabbed her wrist. “HANG ON!” she called out. The Jungle Girl was dragged down onto the branch by Kimi’s weight. She struggled to pull Kimi up, her face getting red from the strain. But here, she could see that her muscles were not just for show, even if Julie was trying with all her might to pull Kimi up. “Grab onto something!” she pleaded. Kimi instantly reached up and grabbed the branch. And now that she was able to do that, Julie was able to stand up and pull Kimi back up onto the branch and to safety. To say Kimi was stunned was an understatement. But she also didn’t expect Julie’s next reaction.

“WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?” the Jungle Girl screamed. “I TOLD YOU TO CONCENTRATE! AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED! YOU ALMOST GOT YOURSELF KILLED! AGAIN! THAT’S IT!!! GET OUT!!! I’M SENDING YOU BACK TO MELBOURNE!!!”

And now it was time for Kimi to snap. “FUCK YOU!!!!” she screamed. “YOU’VE BEEN DOING NOTHING BUT CRITICIZE ME ALL DAY, AND I’M FUCKING TIRED OF IT!!!! YOU’RE WORSE THAN MY FOSTER MOM!!!!”

“Huh?” Julie asked.

“I DON’T WANT TO BE YELLED AT! I’M NOT SOME PUNCHING BAG FOR YOU ANYMORE, HENRY!!!”

“Henry?”

“YOU’RE NOT MY DAD! AND I DON’T CARE IF IT’S JUST A FANTASY, I WANT TO BE WILD AND FREE LIKE JULIE, AND—” Something happened. Kimi began to hyperventilate and shrank down to a pseudo-fetal position on the branch. Julie quickly grabbed Kimi.

“Kimi! KIMI!” Julie pleaded. “Calm down!”

“I can’t—I can’t go back there! I don’t want to go back!”

“Go back to what?” Julie asked.

“LEAVE ME ALONE!!!” Kimi shouted. “I DON’T—”

Julie reached out and hugged Kimi as tight as she could and gently shushed her whilst stroking her back and hair. “Calm down,” she said gently. “You’re safe. They’re not going to get you.”

She kept doing this for several minutes, urging Kimi to calm down and breathe deeply. After a while, Kimi’s breathing became less ragged and more stable. Julie could also feel her heartbeat slowing down until it was at the normal pace. When Kimi finally sighed, Julie could tell it was over.

When she let go of her, she sat the Australian girl against the trunk. The American turned to Kimi to hand her some nuts, deer jerky and water while reaching out to gently grab her shoulder. “Hey,” she said gently and friendly. “What’s wrong?”

Kimi did eat the jerky and nuts, but pulled herself into another fetal position. “Whenever you want,” said Julie.

It took her a couple minutes before Kimi was finally ready to talk. She sniffed and gulped, wiping the tears from her eyes and then saying, “My foster family.”

“Foster?” Julie asked. Kimi nodded.

“My mum was killed in a car crash after we were leaving a Melbourne FC match,” said Kimi. “And da’ is a veggie now. Victoria’s Department of Human Services found a foster family for me.”

“Victoria?”

“The state Melbourne is located in,” said Kimi.

“Oh, okay,” said Julie. “Kaitan once told me he’d visited Victoria, but I guess he meant Victoria, British Columbia. Whatever, keep going.”

“But… my foster family treats me like dirt,” said Kimi. “They insult me, they yell at me, they hit me—”

“Hit you!?” Julie spat. Kimi nodded.

“It was just so horrible, I—” she sniffed. “I wanted to get away. And they’d tell me that I was to blame for my parents’ death. And they’d always put on a show for DHS, that’s why I couldn’t get out. And they’d blame me for the treatment I got—They’re right, I’m horrible!”

“That’s bullshit!” Julie interrupted. “You are NOT at fault for the abuse you had to put up with. It’s their fault because they’re the ones who did it.”

“You mean it?”

“Absolutely!” said Julie. “But this is why you looked up to me so much, isn’t it?”

Kimi nodded. “I just remember reading that article where you looked so proud of yourself. I wanted to be just like you. But they always told me that I’d never be like you. I thought that if I met you, you’d be much nicer to me.”

“I am being nicer,” said Julie. “Kimi, you’re not the only person who’s ever had to put up with child abuse. There are millions of kids all over the world. And many of them are able to escape that abuse. Just like you did!”

“Well, actually…” Kimi said.

“What?”

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Kimi frantically shoved her key card into the card slot until the green light appeared. Then she dashed into her stateroom, got changed and hid under the bed. Henry would be here soon, and her best hope was to stay right here and still. Her heart was pounding and she was covered in sweat from running all through the cruise ship just to get to her stateroom.

It wasn’t long before the door slammed open and she could see Henry’s feet. “KIMI!!!” he screamed. “YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE BRAT!!!!” His feet stomped into the room before stopping. “Come out, Kimi! You can’t go anywhere! You’re literally surrounded by water, we’ll find you eventually. Oh forget it. Come on out, I’m not mad. But I am disappointed in your behavior, making me the bad guy! We took you in and this is how you repay us? By making a mockery—wait, wait, wrong idea.”

He was so obviously trying to cover his tracks that she didn’t believe him a bit. The ship suddenly rocked and she held on for dear life and she watched his feet stumble.

“HENRY!” his wife’s voice shouted. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to find Kimi!” he said.

“Oh, of course,” said his wife. “Come on Kimi, we know you’re in here.”

“We won’t hurt you,” said Henry. “Honest!”

Kimi didn’t believe it one bit.

Another rock caused Kimi to roll over a bit and hit her head against the bottom of the bedframe. It didn’t hurt too much, but it definitely hurt. And against her own wishes, she gasped in pain.

It was loud enough for Henry and his wife to hear. “I wonder where she could be,” he said in an innocent sing-song. Kimi backed further under the bed. Henry and his wife’s feet gathered near the foot of that bed. Kimi was trapped like a rat.

But you know what they say about cornered rats.

Henry’s patience eventually ran out. He ran to the side of the bed and reached under, grabbing Kimi by the wrist. But Kimi frantically and desperately whacked at his hand. She succeeded at keeping him at bay while slinking into the back of the bed. But Henry finally got his grip on her and yanked her out from under the bed and slammed her against the closet door. She cried out in pain as her back and the back of her head collided with the wood.

“DON’T HIT ME!” he roared.

But that moment of surprise and shock didn’t last long. She began to hit at Henry again, this time getting his jaw and making him drop her.

At the same time, the storm Capt. Turan had warned them about, bared down on the ship, sending waves crashing against it. And as Capt. Turan and his crew bravely kept the ship afloat, Kimi fought for her life against the foster family that had abused her for years. Unfortunately, Henry was bigger than her and made it hard for her to fight back. And in one moment, he pushed her against the door. She didn’t know how it happened, but the door opened, and some of the rain fell into the room.

“You want to leave us?” Henry asked. “After everything we’ve done for you? You won’t survive out there! You’ll die on the street!”

Kimi screamed and lunged at Henry, who grabbed her by the collar. The next thing that happened was a blur, but here third-person omniscient comes in handy.

Kimi bit him on the wrist. He screamed and tossed her. As she stumbled backwards, a large-enough wave struck the port side of the ship, tilting it to the starboard side. In the bridge, the crew kept the ship afloat. In her starboard-side stateroom, Kimi slipped and flipped over the railing as Henry frantically reached to stop her from falling over. But it was no use, as she fell overboard, and splashed into the water. The waves and current swept her away. And though she resurfaced, she was out cold.

She arrived on Greystoke Island the following morning.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Kimi finished at the part where Henry threw her, but Julie got the idea. And she had her hands cupped over her lips and her eyes wide in shock and horror at what this poor girl just went through. “I am so, so, SO, SORRY,” she choked out.

“THEN WHY WEREN’T YOU THERE TO SAVE ME!?” Kimi shouted back before realizing what she’d just said. “I’m sorry. I-I don’t know what came over—“

“Kimi, calm down!” Julie said, grabbing the younger girl by her shoulder again. “I get it, you’re frustrated. But I’m just one person. And I live here. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I saw it, and yes, I do feel guilty that I couldn’t do anything. But Kimi, it’s not your fault. And, I’m going to sound crazy, but, I think you should stay, at least until a better home is found for you.”

Though Kimi wanted to ask the Jungle Girl why until, she didn’t press the matter. “And to be honest, I did kind of want you to leave the island,” the Jungle Girl continued. “I mean, the warnings were pretty obvious. And, I wanted to make it hard for you, but I guess I was subconsciously rooting for you. I’m sorry for being such a bitch.”

“Do you regret staying here?” Kimi asked.

Julie genuinely smiled and said, “No, I’m happy here.” But then her expression turned sadder and she looked away towards the rest of the jungle. “But, at the same time…”

“You miss your friends?” Kimi asked. Julie nodded.

“But then again…” Julie said. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Her words were honest. And so was her smile. “Come on, I wanted to show you something.”

After another half-hour of walking, they came across what Julie was looking for. They emerged, after having been walking in primal stances, into what appeared to be a campsite. Julie examined some items littered about, while Kimi prowled around on all fours. “Want me to tell you what happened?” Julie asked.

“I can guess,” said Kimi.

The remains of civilization were all around. And the still-fresh camp made it obvious that whomever had been here before had only “left” recently. She could see cans of baked beans, Spam, coffee and vegetables scattered about the site, cast aside like a cheap scarf. Several burnt logs were also strewn about, and even the remains of a fire pit. She got up on her knees and looked up. Clothes, guns, tents and more were all around her. As she turned around, she saw Julie sitting down next to the remains of the fire pit.

The tents were still in good shape, and looking through their openings, she could see the sleeping bags still in them. A few books, one of which had a golden man carrying the world on his shoulders, titled “Atlas Shrugged”, apparently left there as if someone wanted her to find it. But upon turning to Julie, she saw the Jungle Girl make a disgusted expression at that book, and came to another conclusion. Maybe this book had something to do with the camp’s demise.

She turned around to see two flags. One the obvious Stars and Stripes of the American flag, and another. It was yellow, and upon closer inspection, had a snake coiled up and ready to strike with the words “Don’t tread on me” stitched in under it. Julie cleared her throat again, and Kimi turned around. Julie pointed to a notebook she’d grabbed and handed it to Kimi.

While reading it, she noticed it was by some Yank named Ralph. She read how he came to the island with some of his militia friends—that’s what they called themselves, anyways—to escape America’s crushing liberalism, which made her laugh. The pages were filled with disorganized and incoherent ramblings of a mad man who, as the entries went on, became more and more paranoid by the day. He seemed to believe that his comrades were hindering their progress and he had to do everything, including hunt, himself.

Finally, the journal entries stopped. Kimi looked up at Julie. “Finished?” she asked. Kimi nodded. “So?”

“He went crazy?” she asked.

“Some right-wing militia fanatics thought it would be easy to play survivalist out here,” she said. “But they were so fixated on their ideology that they didn’t want any help, even though they had to work together to survive. Really, that’s their biggest mistake. Their other biggest mistake is that they underestimated nature. Now most of them are dead.”

Kimi gulped. Now she realized why Julie wanted to take her here.

“Now, originally, I was doing this to scare you into going home,” said Julie. “But, let this be a warning, anyways. Do not underestimate nature, and do not overestimate yourself. If you do, you will not survive. Take the jungle girl life seriously. I don’t mean too serious, but you get what I’m trying to say, right?”

“Right,” said Kimi. “Thanks for showing me.”

“You’re welcome,” said Julie. She stood up and wrapped her arm around Kimi’s shoulder and led her away from the camp. “Now then, what do you want to learn next?”
And so, Kimi's backstory and how she got to the island is revealed. Yeah, child abuse isn't pretty, folks. I wanted to make this as accurate as I could with regards to child abuse and even panic attacks (which Kimi suffers), so I did some research into it. I also drew on influences from other forms of media, like "Tangled", "Harry Potter", "Michiko and Hatchin" and others.

Also, the right-wing militia camp is from one idea that I had which never materialized. The plot involved Julie dealing with some John Galt wannabes, thinking that being Tarzan would be easy. As you can see, it turned out to be more Lord of the Flies than Tarzan. Whatever your politics are, it doesn't matter. Nature is harsh and unforgiving. Kimi needed to see that. 

Chapter 5
Chapter 6 (You are here)
Chapter 7
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