paludal
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Two dozen people stood at the edge of the marsh. And it was an edge. There was no lead up to it, no warning. On one side of the boarder was normal grassland. On the other, a vast, fetid marsh. The people arranged there were preparing to venture into the unappealing place. Some readied equipment of science. Scanners, recording equipment and sampling tools were all stuffed into backpacks and clipped to unworn belts. Others prepared tools of war. Guns, grenades and knives were checked and rechecked.
To any outsiders, it would have looked like overkill. Why bring such dangerous objects to a mission of science? One of the soldiers whispered that very question. He was overheard by one of the members of the science team.
“Because of all the stories of this place.” The man said. “How much do you know about this place?”
“Not a lot, doc. All I know is that we’re here to shoot anything that looks like it’ll attack.”
“Well, if the stories and our preliminary tests are anything to go by, you’re going to be doing a lot of shooting. The locals have started calling it the Gluttonous Marsh. They say everything, and I do mean everything, wants to eat you. Not just the big animals either. Smaller animals that would normally be prey, the insects, the plants. Supposedly even the marsh itself, although most of us are skeptical about that.”
“So pack a lot of bug spray, don’t get near big plants and shoot everything that isn’t us, got it.” The soldier said.
“I’m not sure you do.” The scientist said. “When we were first told about this place, we thought the same as you. Just avoid the big things and we’d be fine. The people we sent in all died. To a man. Do you want to know how?”
“How?” The soldier asked nervously.
“Eaten. One was swarmed by insects the likes of which nobody has ever seen. Another was tangled up in vines that seemed almost sentient. Another vanished into the water. Nobody knows what ate him, but the next day the marsh had grown a millimeter all around. The big things? The ones we the team was on the lookout for? They picked through what was left after the little things ate their fill.”
The soldier looked at the marsh and gulped. “So, uh, do we get some kind of, I don’t know, like a HAZMAT suit or something?”
“Yes, actually. It’s required equipment going in.”
He pointed to a tent set up nearby. Nobody seemed to want to go in, but as they watched a person in a full HAZMAT suit emerged. The solider rushed off to get his, followed closely by a few others who were within earshot. The scientist nodded his approval. That they took his words seriously was encouraging. At least they were more likely to survive the expedition. He just hoped the rest of the soldiers would do the same. He looked at the sticking water and rotting plants within the deceptively calm marsh. And he hoped that any of them would be able to come back out.
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I'm sure they'll be fine.
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