Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 106092 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106092 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
More trembling from the ground has me falling to my ass in the muck. Kellen takes hold of my arm, yanking me back to my feet with a grunt. The ground continues to shake as more holes open up around us.
One gaping maw is not ten feet away from us and at least thirty feet in diameter. I can’t see how deep it goes, nor do I want to find out.
A piercing howl makes my skin crawl. I follow the sound to where Judy seems to be struggling near the mouth of one of these sinkholes. Dan and Wayne are almost to them, both of them trudging as fast as they can. Me and Kellen are too far away to make a difference, but we keep making our way to them anyway.
Dan reaches Judy first and barely grabs her arm before she disappears from sight. He almost plummets with her if not for Wayne snagging hold of his backpack.
“We have to get to them,” Kellen grunts, racing ahead of me as fast as one can in knee-high mud with sinkholes appearing all around. To them, he yells, “Hang on!”
By the time Kellen reaches them, Dan is chest deep in muck and Wayne is up to his waist. Kellen hooks an arm around Wayne’s impressive gut, anchoring him in place. I’m not far behind and manage to grab Kellen’s backpack.
“Hang on, honey,” Dan barks out. “Just don’t let go.”
I can hear Silas’s sobs interrupted by coughing fits and Judy’s frantic screams. Though I can’t see exactly what’s going on, I can paint a picture in my head. They’re dangling over a deep sinkhole and could drop at any second.
Twisting, I check to make sure the rest of our group is okay. In the distance, I can see Aaron, Hope, Jesse, and Hailey all crawling out of the muck. They’re near the road. At least they’re safe.
The ground starts to rumble again and I feel Kellen jerk forward. I hang on, doing my damnedest to keep from moving deeper into the mud.
“Can he get her out?” I bark to Kellen. “What’s happening?”
“I can’t see,” he hisses back.
“Goddammit, it’s deep,” Dan yells frantically to Wayne. “At least a hundred-foot drop.”
My stomach roils painfully. I don’t know much about the terrain around here, but there appears to be underground caverns or something and we’re traipsing along the roof of sand that’s quickly draining away.
“I have rope in my pack,” I grunt out, remembering the bundle I threw in when searching vehicles. “I’m going to have to let go.”
“I’ve got Wayne,” Kellen assures me. “Make it quick.”
I quickly release Kellen, pausing only a second to make sure he doesn’t disappear before my eyes, and then start rummaging in my bag. I find it under my dirty clothes I’d collected after my shower last night. Once I zip my bag back up and shoulder it again, I begin unravelling the rope.
“I’m going to make a bowline knot,” I say as I get to work. “Feed it down to Judy. I’ll put the other end around me.”
As soon as I’ve fixed up both ends, I pull the rope around my middle. Kellen is already sending the other end of the rope down toward the others.
The muck has crept higher and I’m starting to worry that none of us will get out of this.
“Do not let go of him, Judy,” Dan barks out. “Try to get this rope around you, but whatever you do, don’t let go—”
His words are silenced as the earth trembles again, vibrating every bone in my body. I sink deeper into the cold mud. We’re all going to die out here.
“Mommmyyyyyy!”
Silas’s yell drags on for what feels like an eternity and then it’s immediately silenced. Judy’s inhuman wail follows and I know. I fucking know what just happened.
He’s gone.
That sweet, quiet little kid is gone.
I choke on bile as tears well in my eyes. I’m reminded of Jesse when he was a little guy. It’s gutting to know we lost another person—this time the youngest in our group.
Dan starts bellowing. It sounds like he’s begging, pleading, sobbing. Judy, on the other hand, is hysterical.
“Let me go!” she wails. “Let me fucking go!”
Dan curses in pain and then he’s screaming in horror. “Judy!”
We all stumble back a bit now that we’ve lost some weight. An adult and small child’s worth of weight.
I’m going to be sick.
This time, I do throw up, barely turning my head in time to save Kellen from wearing it. He and Wayne are all but dragging Dan away from the sinkhole. The man is sobbing, red-faced, with snot running down his lips.
He’s lost his wife and son.
I can’t imagine the pain he’s in.
We hear honking approaching. I twist around to see a small, older model Toyota truck barreling across the land along the edges of the area we’re sinking into. When it gets close enough but not so close it gets sucked in, Jesse jumps out of the back. He ties a rope to the bed of the truck and then charges for us. As he nears, he tosses the end of the rope to me.