Welcome to the Jungle

When foreigners think of Hell, they think of jagged stone and lakes of fire. But they’re wrong. A sharp rock is a blessing when the other option is quicksand and tangled mangrove roots that try to suck you down beneath the brown sludge. Fire is a blessing when the air is so wet that you drown standing up, its hot soup draining into your lungs with the funk of a thousand rotting plants. Give me the clean kiss of a devil’s lash over the festering rot that eats your toes and eyes, or the flies that burrow through your skin and lay their maggots in your flesh.

No, Hell is a jungle, and those who forget it once won’t live to do so again.

—Shem Ervismor, Eyes in the Dark: My Life in the Expanse