Life or Death Decision
“I won’t make it much longer,” he lamented in a crackling voice. He had been hiking on a mountain trail when he fell about one hundred feet, breaking his fall temporarily by a jutting sapling, ending up on a snowy mountain ledge.
Since it had been three weeks now and no one knew his hiking route, he realized he might never be found. He had already consumed his little store of food and only was able to get liquid from the melting snow.
Water was not a problem but he was a meat eater and realized he must get some protein before he starved. Looking downward at his lower leg, he talked to himself, “There is a lot of good muscle on my leg."
Desperate to survive until he could be found, he made a decision. He hesitated, for a moment, as he took out his knife to do what he knew was necessary in order to save his life.
The Demon Inside Me
It's just a bug bite I kept thinking to myself as I scratched away at the bulbous sore that welted on my arm. It was only a week ago I recalled feeling a bite when I toured the magnificent Central American rain forests, marked by some unknown insect whose infectious teeth and saliva burned my very skin for hours. It only got worse afterwards when the bite wound swelled into a gluttonous bulge. Inky black puss bled out of its rotting pores. The pain was unbearable. Like the sore, or something inside, chewed away at the flesh and bones.
After restless nights and relentless pain I finally made my appointment at the nearest clinic. The doctor started the procedure with a small, silver scalpel and wished to slice along radius of my diseased welt. The edges of the blade slowly slid along the axis; but it wasn't the blade that grieved me so much pain rather something sinister slithered deep inside my arm, trying to hide itself through in my body.
The doctor prodded around with a pair of tweezers. Once he finally grasped something he slowly tugged away. So much pain. My screams echoed the room. Whatever it was it fought to remain attached to me. My watery eyes peaked at the monster that I was hosting: an inch-long, pale toothed maggot with spiked spines. It shrieked a devilish squeal when it gasped its first breathe of air.