I slipped down over the torn carcass of the machine that had brought me here to land in the warm water with a small splash. Breathing hard and in general overall pain I slogged my way toward the shore.
I had no wish to be lasered to death. To say subsurface relations were hostile was putting it mildly.
Almost as shocking as my survival was the knowledge that despite the strength of our numbers and gadgetry of equipment that I now only had myself to look at as a remnant of this descent through paradigms. I didn't know what the purpose of it all was, but right now I just wanted to get away from this beach and survive.
Getting close to the beach I started to run for it. The surf crashing about me was deafening.
My foot landed in a hole halfway up the beach and I went tumbling forward into the sand. Suddenly there was crashing beyond that of the surf and looking up I saw trees falling every which way as bolts of laser intensity crisscrossed back and forth across the upper plain of the beach that I was upon.
With a scream of fright I crawled forward out of the crashing down path of a severed behemoth of the forest. The ground shook and I fairly bounced up to my feet from the impact of the large tree with the sand beneath me.
I ran straight into the jungle then for all I was worth. The pack on my back hampered my flight, and I was on the verge of throwing it aside when in my hysteria I became aware of the fact that there were no signs of disturbance taking place around me.
Breathing hard I looked about my lush surroundings and tried to listen for anything out of place. By all accounts it seemed that I was the only thing out of place.
Slowly reason took hold again. I could not afford to be out of place or I would stand out even more than I already did and my chance at survival would be practically nothing.
To survive I needed to become as unnoticeable as possible. Kneeling down to the damp forest floor I ran my hands through a puddle of damp mud. For the first time I realized that I no longer held the briefcase.
Looking back over my shoulder towards the beach I debated over the merits of going back to get the case. Shaking my head I turned back to the puddle and brought my muddy fingers up to my face to wipe across the exposed skin of my neck and arms. Whatever the case had contained it was beyond the reach of sanity right now and what was more was that there was no expedition left to sabotage anyway.