The family and I were driving down a busy highway, with a trailer hitched to the Jeep, and all of our stuff piled in the back. The area surrounding the roads was mostly thick, green jungle, and we could see just about every sort of wild animal running, jumping, swinging, etc., on the side of the road. Kiddo was in the back seat talking our ears off about rhinos or something, and my husband was freaking out because he thought the car behind us was following us.
We pulled up to our new house, which was actually just our same apartment building, now tucked into a dark, lush corner of the jungle. The building was dark and empty, and I don’t think any of my neighbors were living there anymore. Our apartment was exactly the same on the inside, and despite having all of our stuff packed up in the trailer and in the Jeep, and was also fully furnished already.
Husband went off to work or something, and kiddo and I were left alone in the apartment. I was sitting on the couch on my laptop when he started complaining about hearing strange noises and scratching in the walls. We went investigating in the kitchen and found evidence of mice, birds, bats, and all sorts of other small critters that don’t belong inside the building.
I tried to call my landlord, but my phone wasn’t working, so I started cleaning up the mess that the animals left behind. Kiddo said something about a snake, and I turned around just in time to see a huge python slithering down from a hole in the ceiling toward him. I grabbed the snake and held him tightly, deciding that that was a prime opportunity to teach kiddo about snake anatomy, and he was excited to see it.
While I was showing kiddo the python, some commotion outside the kitchen window caught my eye, and through the partially opened blinds, I could see a very large, condor-like bird on our porch, which was stalking the nests of some smaller birds that were scattered around the porch by our back door. The bird was massive and resembled some sort of vulture. It was jet black all over, except for its bright, neon yellow head and sharp beak. I tried to move the blinds to get a picture of it with my phone, but there was so much crap and debris piled up on the kitchen table blocking the window, and I couldn’t get a clear shot of it.
Still holding the massive python, I went into the living room and tried to look through those windows. I opened the blinds and could see two more of the massive birds outside, perched on a dead log in the yard. One of them was a juvenile, and sitting on a boulder beside them was a ginormous nest filled with blackish-gray eggs, each the size of my head. They were beautiful but pretty terrifying.
I took out my phone and tried a few more times to call anyone who could come and help us with the animal situation, but I couldn’t call out.
I remember hearing someone come in through the front door of the building, and hollering out in the hallway looking for one of my neighbors…
And then I woke up.
My Life as Jan 