Chapter 11 #2
Kyle eventually found two sticks, and he and Michael headed off first. All around them, things hissed, croaked, hopped, splashed, buzzed, and hooted.
It was unsettling. Every step could lead to a foot stuck in the muck or see them tipped into the murky, silty water that teemed with all kinds of life seen and unseen.
There were times when ground that seemed solid and fine turned out not to be.
It happened that they would find solid floating islands of grass, even trees and bushes.
There were often reeds and other water plants holding them in place until an unsuspecting foot stepped on the island, which made it shudder and move.
Things skittered in the long grasses, and even Kyle, who was fond of most animal life, couldn’t shake the feeling that he was not welcome in this place.
This was a wild land. It was home to things that lay in wait, knowing easy prey when they saw it. And to Kyle’s dismay, he knew he and his friends looked a lot like easy pickings.
“I think we’re through the worst of it,” Warren said happily when they’d gone a while without further incident. “I think we might be in the clear.”
And then he stepped forward. In an instant, he was up to his waist in muck. “Help!”
Kyle heard the bubbles bursting around Warren’s form in the slippery, almost watery mud. He lay on his front, reached out his hands, and was assailed by the stench of rotting things. He was too short and couldn’t reach.
“Mike, take my legs,” he called.
He felt the reassuring pressure of his friend holding onto his ankles. Then Kyle reached out farther. Somehow Warren was being pulled downward and to the middle of what looked like a mud pool in the dim light of the night.
Kyle reached out with his stick in the hopes that Warren could reach it. “Grab on!” he cried.
His voice seemed to bounce back at him. Or had that been another voice further away?
“Kyle, we have company,” Michael said a moment later.
Kyle turned and looked behind them. There was light coming from the left.
It flickered and flittered. Torchlight? He wondered if the bandits had found them.
But then the light subsided some, and Kyle realized it was lightning.
He could smell the storm on the air now, even though it was still far enough that he hadn’t heard the rumble of thunder as more than a dull background sound.
He swore under his breath and reached out further, trying to grab Warren.
Warren, in the meantime, had failed to reach the stick and was slipping deeper into the mud.
“Stop moving!” Kyle hissed at him. “Just stay still.”
“Easy for you to say! Something is climbing up my shoulder,” Warren hissed back.
“Just pray it’s nothing venomous or hungry,” Kyle said. “And what you really don’t want is for something to grab at your legs! Now try to grab the stick again.”
Warren tried and missed.
“That’s not working,” Michael said from behind him. “Clearly we have to try something else.”
“What?” Kyle asked.
“Hey! I heard something over this way!” a voice called, and a new kind of light came closer and closer. Yes, definitely torchlight this time.
Kyle held his breath. By the light of the torches, he could see Warren sinking deeper and deeper into the watery mud.
“Are you sure?” another unknown voice asked.
“Yeah, I heard a voice,” the first voice said. “It came from down this way.”
“Couldn’t be; they’d be neck deep in the swamp and probably swallowed by it,” the first voice said. “Like when Uncle Travis got himself stuck in that sucking mud hole.” He laughed. “Served him right.”
“Yeah, it was like that, like a shout,” the other voice said.
There was a moment’s silence in which Kyle didn’t even breathe in case it could be heard over the noise in the swamp.
His heart was beating so fast it might pop right out of his chest. They were so exposed out here.
Sure, there was grass and some other vegetation, but nothing that could hide him and Michael.
Not to mention, if this took any longer, they would lose Warren to the mud hole and whatever lay beneath.
Then the more authoritative voice spoke again. “Listen, Petie. I know you think you heard something, but you have a big imagination. There’s nothing but swamp out there. You probably heard a gator; they make all kinds of weird noises. Or maybe even one of those frogs that screams.”
“Nah, it was a person,” Petie insisted despite the note of uncertainty that had crept into his voice. “I’m sure of it.”
“Yeah, Petie, sure,” the other voice said. “Come on, let’s go check over that way. The rain’s coming in, and we’re gonna get stuck out here if we don’t move.”
“But …”
“Come on!”
The voices and the light soon began to fade.
Kyle let out the breath he’d been holding. That was too close.
And then he looked over at Warren. At where Warren had been. There was nothing but a ripple of water lit by a flash of lightning.
“Here, take the stick!” he hissed at Michael. Turning, he handed one end to his friend. “Don’t let go. I’ll give a tug when I’ve got him and then you pull us out,” he said and, holding the other end, he slid into the mud in search of Warren.
It was an odd sensation, letting the mud suck him down, and it went quickly. He was soon surrounded by the stuff. He forced himself to sink but held tightly to the stick for all he was worth. He prayed that he would see sky again and Alice’s bright smile.
Yes. He would see them both with Warren at his side. He would. He believed the hand of God would guide and protect him. Kyle wouldn’t give up, even when the air began to burn in his lungs.
That was when something grabbed his leg. For a second, he froze in horror, afraid it was one of the darkest creatures in these deeps. Then, when it didn’t drag him under but just patted his knee desperately, he jerked on the stick, and suddenly, he was moving upward again.