Lady Anaconda

Jess Weimar stepped out of the wreckage. Parts of the airplane still burned. Judging by the vegetation, she suspected they were deep in the Amazon.

“Can you help?” someone shouted.

Jess found him. It was Billman, from the home office.

“Are you a doctor?” he asked.

“No, I’m Jess. We met in Rio. I’m a corporate headhunter.”

“That’s too bad,” he said, and he died.

She searched around, but found no other survivors. She wrapped herself in a blanket and got afraid.

The Jipitos came in the night. Jess woke to find them standing over her, thirty of them. They were naked and carried long spears.

Jess stood up. She should have been scared, but she wasn’t. The Jipitos grinned, revealing rows of sharpened teeth. Jess grinned too, already becoming something new. She would spend the next four years learning just how satisfying headhunting could be.

*** first place winner - Sacramento News & Review 2010 Flash Fiction contest ***

Illustration by Jason Crosby