Chapter Ten
Sara sat up and squeezed the water from her hair, straining her ears to make sure she had heard what she thought she just heard.
"Hurry up! I'm stuck!"
Yep, it was Ecklie all right.
"Hey, Sara! Did you hear that?" Greg shouted, trudging through the water with Matt trailing behind him.
"Yeah, I did." Sara stood and immediately felt the heat and humidity wash over her. Suppressing a groan, she raised Lauren out of the water and placed her on her hip, debating whether Ecklie was really the one calling them, and what possible trouble he could be in that he actually had to call them for help.
Greg and Matt walked onto shore and Sara followed them, trying to ignore the fact that her soaked clothes were weighing her down as she padded through the sand. Catherine left the dolphins in the water and trod up to the others at shoreline. The group stood and listened for a long, tense minute, before Catherine said, "He's that way," and pointed off in the direction towards the cave.
The group followed her finger towards the forest edge, and then once there, they stopped and listened again. Further ahead. They reached the pathway between the cave and papaya trees. Towards the trees. Follow.
"Help!" The calls were louder, and was that fear?
Catherine took the lead, pushing away foliage and carefully making her way down the muddy slope. Past the trees, and cries growing louder still. Beyond a row of bushes Sara partially recognized as the place she had fallen after catching Ecklie finishing up his business. Further than those, left, right, zigzagging through more trees and further yet.
"Help me!" This time, Ecklie's voice was so near the group halted in their tracks and glanced around frantically.
"Ecklie?" Greg called, cupping his hands to his mouth. "Where are you?"
"I'm right here!"
Straight ahead.
They almost trotted towards a small stack of felled trees. Greg was first now, Catherine and Sara hanging back slightly, contemplating what had happened. Was he maybe underneath the trees? No, that didn't seem right. These trees weren't fresh.
Greg approached the pile, looking straight ahead and right when he prepared to hop over them, a sudden cry stopped him abruptly.
"STOP!"
Greg looked down, and there was Ecklie, up to his armpits in quicksand. His balding head was covered with flecks of it and his hands clinging tightly to a few vines hanging from a nearby tree. Greg stifled a laugh and moved off the logs.
"Found him."
Sara, Catherine, Lauren, and Matt stepped up behind Greg and peered down at Ecklie, still clutching desperately to the vines. Both women CSI's experienced the same difficulty in not bursting out with laughter at this anything but comical situation.
"Will you get me out of here please? I'm surprised you found me at all."
"How are we going to do that?" Sara asked, her lips tightly pursed to avoid bursting.
"Well, I would like it if you could give me a stick or something to pull me out with!"
He continued to slowly sink.
"HURRY!" There was actually fear in his eyes and the others' smirks died away instantly.
"Okay, umm…well, he's holding onto those vines. Umm…but they're too far away for us to use them to pull him out." Catherine muttered quickly, running her hands through her hair.
"What about one of these logs?" Greg offered.
Sara shook her head. "No way, they're rotted. We don't know how well they'll hold."
"We could use them as a fulcrum." Catherine stated. "All we'd have to do is find something strong enough that we could use as a lever."
"That might work."
"Help!" Ecklie was up to the base of his neck.
"Like what?" Greg asked, glancing nervously at the panicked Ecklie who was pulling himself further out by the vines.
"We don't have anything already made. Looking for something would take too long." Sara said, swallowing as Ecklie sunk back in to his neck after pulling himself partially out.
"Sara I think we're going to have to trust in the logs," Catherine said, though she sounded nervous.
Sara stared at the total of three logs, thinking hard for any other solution. Nothing.
"All right…" she said slowly. She put Lauren on the ground and with the help of Catherine and Greg, turned the top log so that the dead leaves at the end were facing them, and the roots dangled close to Ecklie's face.
"Ecklie, try to grab on!" Catherine cried. "Pull yourself a little further out and reach for it!"
Ecklie tugged on the vines, coming slowly out of the pond of muck. He was now only in to his armpits. He tightened his grip with his right hand, and reached out towards the log.
"Try and get it out further!" he yelled after reaching as far as he could. His left hand snapped back to the vines.
Balancing the log on the others, the three pushed it further out.
"That's as far as we can get it without losing control Ecklie!" Greg shouted. "Try again!"
Ecklie did so, retightening his grip and reaching out. And then he managed to get his left hand on the end of it. He used it to pull himself further out, so the muck was up to his chest. His right hand still held the vines, which were beginning to strain.
Ecklie turned his face to the other adults, fear still in them despite their usual coldness.
"Can I trust you?" he asked calmly, swallowing and taking in a shuddering breath.
The others' mouths opened and their eyebrows rose. Then after sharing a brief confirmative glance, they nodded.
"You can trust us Ecklie." Catherine said softly.
And that was when the vine snapped. Ecklie flailed, desperately supporting himself with his left as his right released the vines and grasped the end of the log.
"Are you all right?" Sara called, holding hard to the log.
Ecklie nodded breathing in quickly through his nose and holding tightly to the log.
"All right Cath…time to use that lever idea. Quicksand is all about suction, right?" Greg said. "All right, on the count of three, we'll push down and Ecklie should come out of the sand. Right?"
Nods all around.
"Okay…1…2…3…Push!"
And they did; all three pushed down on the end of the log and with a loud squelching sound, Ecklie was pulled completely out of the quicksand's clutches other than his feet a couple of inches in it.
"All right, now just shimmy down the trunk," Sara grunted, struggling to keep the log balanced.
Ecklie took in a few deep breaths then attempted to swing one leg over the log. Fail. Again, he tried, and again he failed. Furrowing his brow, he tried one more time and just barely managed to get his foot over the log. Soon the rest of the leg made its way over as well. Now, he just had to turn around. He did so carefully, his forehead creased in concentration as he put both legs on the same side, and then moved his right leg to the other side so he faced the group struggling to keep the log balanced.
"Careful…" Sara said under her breath when the log wobbled as Ecklie first began his descent. He came closer, slowly, carefully, steadily, and very aware of every finger he lifted and the pace at which he pulled himself closer to drier land. Halfway down the log and four feet from the rest of the group, Ecklie stopped.
"Ecklie! What are you doing?" Catherine cried, still putting her weight on the end of the log.
"Do you feel that?" he asked, sounding nervous.
They turned their attention to the wood beneath their palms. It seemed to be rumbling beneath their hands and the next second a creaking noise reached their ears.
"Ecklie! Jump!" Greg shouted, realizing what was about to happen.
"What? Are you—" But just then, the log snapped in half, and Ecklie plunged into the sand again. Sara, Catherine, and Greg tumbled backwards. Catherine slammed into the ground, Sara falling next to her and Greg landing on both of them. They scrambled up and rushed to the edge of the sinking pit.
Ecklie was up to his waist in the wet sand.
"Don't move!" Greg said, looking around for something to help them. Nothing caught his eye. Then with a deep breath, Greg planted his feet firmly beneath the two logs, and bent over so his waist was over them, and reached as far as he could out towards Ecklie. "Just take my hand and we'll get you the rest of the way out."
Ecklie reached slowly out to Greg and clamped his hand around his wrist. Greg did the same.
"Sara, Cath, I need your help." Greg said, beginning to bend upwards with difficulty. Catherine pulled on Greg to help him pull Ecklie out, and when he was close enough, Sara grabbed his other hand. With a deep breath, and a giant heave, Ecklie slithered out of the sand for a second time, and this time, he stumbled over the two logs and fell onto the muddy ground.
Ecklie lay there panting slightly, while the others stood around him, also panting.
"You're all dirty." Lauren said simply, bending down next to Ecklie's side. "Daddy said you're not supposed to play in the mud."
Ecklie glanced exhaustedly at Lauren, rolled his eyes, and then closed them with a sigh.
"You should get out of those clothes." Catherine said, sweeping over and lifting Lauren up. "And we need to get back into ours."
Ecklie waved her off, his eyes still closed.
"That hurt like hell getting pulled out of there," he mumbled.
"Do you think you'll be covered in a giant hickey?" Greg asked. "That'd be hilarious."
"Don't start Sanders."
Greg shrugged then ruffled Matt's hair, who stood anxiously next to Greg's side, one finger through a belt-loop.
"How did you manage to get stuck that far in there anyway?" Sara asked, wiping sweat from her forehead. "If Greg had stepped over those logs he wouldn't have been that far in and could have pulled himself out."
"You won't believe me." Ecklie muttered, putting a hand over his eyes.
"Try me."
Ecklie pursed his lips, then sat up and leaned back on his hands.
"You don't give up, do you Sara?"
"Well I'd kind of like to know why we just had to pull you out of quicksand."
Ecklie sighed than lay back down.
"I thought I was being chased by something," he grumbled quietly. "Like a boar or something…"
"Okay. Thank you." Sara said.
Catherine was walking off through the trees with Lauren on her hip.
"Greg, I'm going to go follow Catherine. Matt, do you want to come with? We could put your shirt back on."
Matt nodded quietly and with a look at Greg, he let go and followed Sara.
"I'm going to stay back with Ecklie to protect him from anymore 'boars'." Greg said pointedly, sitting down on the broken log.
"That's great Greg."
Matt slipped his hand through Sara's and they ventured through the brush after Catherine and Lauren.
"Oh no..." Catherine said aloud as they made their way up the hill towards the cave. The papaya trees were empty, their fruits on the ground, splattered into a muddy mush.
"No!" Sara groaned, leaving Matt standing next to Catherine, stepping up to them and bending down to examine. "Every one…smashed."
"Uh-oh." Lauren said. "It's yucky."
Sara ran her fingers over a particular smashed fruit and then her hand stopped.
"That person did it…the person that shot the boar…" she said softly, disbelievingly. "Their shoeprint, in the smashed food."
Catherine appeared next to her, and looked at the print Sara was talking about. It was there, clear as day, outlined by traces of dirt in the yellow-orange fruit.
"Sara, come on. We should check on everything else."
Sara stood up, and took a long look at the fruit.
"I think you were right Catherine."
"About what?" Catherine raised an eyebrow.
"About them not being friendly…"
Catherine stared at Sara, as if taking her in, then turned and continued walking up the hill.
"The boar is gone!" she suddenly shouted from the top of the slope.
Sara climbed up the knoll and stepped up next to Catherine. They stared ahead at the shallow imprint of where the boar had been, but there was nothing there except for some more footprints.
"Catherine," Sara nudged her in the ribs. When Catherine looked at her, Sara pointed into the darkness of the cave. But that was it. It was dark, their fire had gone out.
"That was lit only a little while ago and I'm sure that Greg put more wood on it when he got the torch."
Catherine nodded and headed into the darkened cave, Lauren clutching to her shoulder.
"Do you hear that?" she asked Sara who stayed outside with Matt by her side.
"What?"
"Exactly," She sounded nervous. "The spring's stopped."
"I'll go to our bonfire to get a torch so we can see."
"And I'll go get Greg and Ecklie." Catherine said lightly.
"All right, so you're saying that the papayas are smashed and that the spring has been stopped up and that the boar is gone?" Greg repeated after Catherine told them the situation.
Catherine nodded. "Yes Greg and it was the person who shot the boar that did it. We saw their footprints."
"Hmm…Well—"
"You guys!"
It was Sara.
"Oh great, not again." Greg muttered, "What happens now, somebody's fallen and can't get up?"
"You guys have to see this!"
"Greg, cut it out. She sounds concerned." Catherine sped up, Greg and Ecklie following her. When they reached the cave entrance, Sara was standing at the back of it, a torch held high in her hand, Matt holding her other hand, both turned to the wall.
"Sara, what is it?" Catherine asked, stepping into the cave but she was stopped in her tracks when she caught sight of a word written in scarlet across the cave wall.
PIG
"Oooh boy…" Catherine said slowly. "Is that—"
"Blood." Sara finished.
A/N: Sorry, it's been awhile huh? Well, if you except excuses school started a couple days ago and I haven't really been getting that "Eureka!" feeling. Well, the ending is getting close, but it's not going to be here in less than 3 chapters and not going to take longer than 5. At least that's what I'm estimating. I could be wrong. I had difficulty with this chapter, so if you feel that it's not one of my better chapters, it's probably because it isn't. XP