The date is March 15, 1933. In South America, the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay is in full swing, the two countries fighting over contested territory believed to be rich in oil. Vivienne Montgomery, a 25-year-old fashion designer looking for something more...exciting, was hired by a humanitarian charity, the Caduceus Foundation, to join their Special Operations division. Her first assignment was to deliver supplies and personnel to a medical aid camp serving civilians caught up in the war.
The trip to Bolivia was a long one. After meeting her new Caduceus teammates at the company’s warehouses in Red Hook, New York City as the final supplies were loaded into a truck, it was off to the airport. The team boarded a brand new Boeing 247 twin-engine airplane and traveled to Miami; then Caracas, Venezuela; then Lima, Peru; then Asuncion, Paraguay; then finally a short, bumpy flight to an airstrip carved out of the jungle. By the time they arrived Vivienne was sore and lethargic after three full days of travel.
From the airfield it is a day-and-a-half hike to get to the medical camp. The team leader is Dr. Arturo Ursini, a mid-30s Italian man of average height and build. He seemed very preoccupied over the course of the trip and had not made any effort to get to know anyone, mostly keeping to himself and rushing off to use the radio to contact Caduceus HQ at every stop along the way. In contrast is an early 50s-ish male nurse named Sergio Lorenzi, his short stature compensated for by a muscular frame and easy attitude. Over the course of the trip he talked of his service as a medic during the World War and more vaguely of some troubles with criminal elements in New York City which prompted him taking this assignment with Caduceus as a way to get out of town and out of their reach. Two local porters met the group at the airfield, Jesus and Carlos. The pair spoke no English, instead using a local language and just a small smattering of Spanish. They spent most of their time tending to the four mules loaded up with equipment for the camp and seemed pleasant enough.
The jungle was thick with humidity, the flora canopy above covering the trail in shade but also trapping the heat and causing Vivienne's clothes to stick to her uncomfortably. Birds she had only seen in books flew overhead, while monkeys that looked to be perhaps a foot-and-a-half tall screeched from the trees, sometimes following the group's progress for a while. The bugs were a continuous annoyance. The only thing that seemed to keep them at bay is tobacco smoke, though Jesus and Carlos were not as badly affected. Ursini warned her watch out for snakes, as a number of poisonous varieties inhabit this jungle.
The first day and night passed uneventfully. Ursini was anxious to get going early on the second morning, when it was a bit cooler, and said that if the group made good time they should arrive at the camp around midday. Stopping to take a break around 10AM, Vivienne was already sweating profusely from the exertion and rising temperatures. Jesus, Carlos, and Sergio smoked and talked by the mules. Ursini looked to Vivienne and her three teammates and waved for all to follow him a few dozen feet away. He turned with a look of uncertainty. “This is a breach of protocol, but dammit, you deserve to know” he said. He looked at the ground, his jaw clenched. He removed his glasses, wiped them slowly with a cloth, then put them back on. “You shouldn’t have been sent out here until you were brought into the inner circle anyway,” he muttered. Looking up Vivienne was surprised by the newly determined look in his eyes. “Caduceus is more than an aid organization. In fact, that’s not even it’s primary purpose. You were sent out here to…”
Blood sprayed out of the left side of Ursini's head in a fine red mist as it snapped awkwardly to the side. At the same time the crack of a rifle echoed off to Vivienne's right. Monkeys screamed in the trees as the jungle came alive, the mules braying loudly in fear. Ursini’s body crumpled to the ground in front of the group, a pool of sticky dark blood beginning to form around his head and already attracting insects.
Vivienne, Ralph, and Colt stood frozen for a moment, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Maddie, however, reacted quickly, drawing a surprisingly large pistol from under her cloak and diving behind a log. They all turned toward the sound of the shot and saw four Bolivian soldiers, shotguns at the ready. Behind them was an officer who looked up from the sights of his rifle, smoke rising from its barrel, and gave them a grin.
Things happened quickly as gunfire erupted from everywhere at once. Vivienne took out one of the soldiers with a blast from her double-barrel shotgun. Colt and Maddie, both unaccustomed to this kind of violence, fired their weapons but their shots went wide. The soldiers fired back, one of them hitting the prone Maddie and putting pellets into her back and legs as she cried out. Ralph, with surprising calm, walked toward the soldiers, a pistol in each hand, and gunned two of them down as if it was just another day at the office.
Then shots rang out behind them. "Two more back here!" shouted Sergio, who began trading fire with a pair of Bolivians. Jesus and Carlos ran off as one of the mules was shot and collapsed.
The officer threw a metallic spike of some kind at Colt. It struck in him in the shoulder and he fell to the ground, screaming in agony. The officer grinned evilly again, at least until he saw Vivienne running toward him, her shotgun against her shoulder. He began to run but she stopped, fired, and shot him in the back, almost cutting him in two at the waist.
As the officer collapsed, the remaining soldier nearby shook his head as if trying to clear it and looked around in terror. He threw down his shotgun and raised his hands.
"The other two ran off into the jungle!" Sergio shouted from behind them, firing at them one more time to keep them honest.
Ralph approached the surrendering Bolivian. "We've got some questions for you," he said. Maddie, however, had something else in mind. She staggered past Ralph and stabbed the soldier in the chest. He looked at her with startled eyes before falling to his knees and then face-first to the ground.
"Or not," said Ralph.
Colt wrested the object from his shoulder. It was a spike-like metal object engraved with a serpent design. He was surprised how much pain it caused given how little physical damage it did.
They examined the body of the officer. He was carrying a pack that included a compass, a map with some strange writing on it, some type of small flute, and three sticks of dynamite. But what really caught their attention was the skin around the dead man's eyes. It was almost as if he was wearing a mask. A mask made of... human skin. Colt prodded at it with the spike that had been thrown at him, and it became clear that under the human skin were... serpent scales.
"The other four are dead," Sergio said as he walked over. Seeing the body he stepped back in shock. "What is that?" he shouted. "The organs... that's clearly not a man." Sergio was right - the damage from Vivienne's shotgun exposed the internal organs of its abdomen and it looked nothing like that of a human being. Segio shook his head and backed away. "No... no... that's not possible...."
While this was happening, Maddie was tracing circles on the dead officer's hand. She then fell back into a sitting position on the ground, her eyes glassed over as she seemed to enter a trance-like state. Snapping out of it a few moments later, she shared with the group that she had some kind of a vision of a snake person that talked of dreaming and awakening.
Searching Ursini's body, they found a lighter, some cigarettes, his passport and an envelope. Not bothering to look inside the envelope, the collected the items, loaded up the remaining mules, and continued on to the aid camp.
The aid camp was in a clearing that also included a small village. A Caduceus hospital tent stood in the center, with ten smaller tents just to the south of it. A number of modest huts stood in the west of the clearing, along with a well and a cooking fire. A handful of villagers went about their business. To the east side were more huts, two of which were destroyed. A pair of bored looking Bolivian soldiers stood watch.
The party were greeted by a pair of doctors when they entered the village - Rafael Gomez and Anahi Salvatorelli. Nurse Elena was summoned to help Maddie with her wounds, her glassy-eyed expression giving her a vacant look as she escorted Maddie into the tent. Maddie was just on the other side of the tent wall as the team explained to what happened to the increasingly incredulous doctors.
"Don't forget to tell them about the snake man!" Maddie shouted from inside the tent, as she could hear the conversation happening outside. That was immediately followed by the sound of a tray of medical equipment crashing to the floor as Elena looked at Maddie in terror. "You've... you've seen them too...?" she whispered, horror-stricken. The nurse told Maddie that she believed at least two of the Bolivians were in fact snakes wearing the skin of people.
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