Sam's first sensation was discomfort radiating through her body with a stabbing pain centered on her left knee. The second thing to hit her was the horrendous smell of vomit mingled with shit and blood. It was a smell she associated with violent deaths. Her pain and the smell kicked in a fight or flight adrenaline release. Sam tensed and listened for any sound, hearing a few soft moans but nothing insidious. When she opened her eyes just enough to view her surroundings, she saw soft white fluffy clouds drifting above her. She turned her head to the right, quietly gasping when faced with a pair of dead eyes staring at her. Sam closed her eyes and recentered herself, thinking back on the calming clouds above. She slowly turned her head to the opposite direction and peeked through her lashes, finding more bodies. She lifted her head and looked down at her left leg, where her pain was centered. Two bodies were laying over the lower half of her body. Sam tried to twist her left leg, but it felt like lightning radiating up to her hip. She dropped her head back down as pain gripped her. As her head landed, she realized she was laying on something soft and bumpy, not the hard ground. Once she had her nausea under control she twisted and looked under herself, seeing exactly what she expected, more dead bodies. Sam shivered in disgust as bile tried to crawl up her throat again.
Sam pressed against the body below her and forced herself to sit up just enough to survey around herself a bit better. As her head slowly swiveled, she realized she was in a pit filled with bodies. It was a mass grave. A tremor passed through her body as this realization sunk into her soul. As she scooted back the bodies below her shifted and her leg screamed in agony. Sam forced herself to push past it all. She had no idea where the murderers were or when they would return. She had to get out of this pit before her survival was discovered. She pulled more forcefully on her leg, but it only shifted slightly, and the pain was enough to make her vision go dim.
Sam took several quick breaths, not wanting to breathe in the odor any more than necessary but needing a moment to think through how to free herself. She leaned forward and grabbed the shirt of the woman laying on her left leg. Sam tugged the back of her shirt, moving the body as far to the left as possible. Sam swallowed and tugged two more times before the woman's body rolled off her leg. Sam turned her attention to the body covering her other leg. Thankfully, it was a bit easier to shove that body off of her. Now that she was free, she concentrated on her left leg, which was turned in a rather unnatural position.
Sam ran her hand from her hip to her knee, where the twist in her leg was the most grotesque. It was probably a dislocation instead of a break, but neither was something she could fix in this pit. She rubbed her knee, pushing the patella back and forth, hoping that would be enough to realign everything but all it did was cause immense pain. She pulled her hand back and pressed her palms against her eyes as she stifled her scream. Once her discomfort lessened enough for her to see clearly again Sam checked both sides of the pit and decided the edge behind her was the closest to her. It disgusted her but she had to use the bodies below her as anchor points to pull herself to the edge. The bodies were soft and gave under her as she moved. Each twist of a body under her, every whiff of death, and all the squelches reminded Sam of the horror around her. She quietly sobbed as she used the arms and legs of those below her to move towards the edge. It felt heartless and callous, but she had to escape. She had to get back to her ship and crew.
When she got to the edge, she wedged her good leg on the side of the pit. The dirt crumbled under her foot as she pushed up until she could use her nails to grasp a rock. She repeated the pushing and grasping as she made agonizingly slow progress towards the top of the pit. Sam stopped when she got an arm above the ledge, taking a few minutes to rest while she checked her surroundings. She didn't see anyone or hear any movement so she shoved with her good leg one more time, until her waist was higher than the edge. She flopped onto the solid ground. She used her arms for the last few pulls and rolled away from the perimeter of the pit. She lay flat on the ground until she caught her breath, letting a breeze cool some of the sweat off her. If she had closed her eyes, she could have slept from pure exhaustion, but she knew she wasn't safe.
Sam rolled to her side and scooted along the ground, still pushing with her good leg, until she got to a tree. She propped herself against it, determined to do a better evaluation of her condition. Sam ran her hands along her body, confirming she was without a weapon or a means of communication. She scanned her surroundings again, wondering why it was so quiet and how long she'd been in that pit. She remembered being in a prisoner camp, the backbreaking work of digging the pit, and the realization of what the pit must be for. Sam rolled her neck. She was in one of the last groups that was marched back out to the pit as the camp was cleared. That was probably part of what saved her life. If she had been in one of the first groups, she would have been at the bottom.
She needed to get away, but she wasn't going to be able to walk as long as her knee was dislocated. She was also beginning to worry about blood flow to her foot. Sam took off her shirt. She tied one arm around a thin but sturdy tree stump and tied the other arm around her injured leg. This was going to hurt like hell, but she didn't have much choice. She found a stick and placed it between her teeth. Screaming wouldn't help her situation. She rolled to her side, anchoring her good leg under her in a bent position. She took a couple deep breaths through her nose before pushing off on her good leg like a sprinter at the starting block. Her shirt went taut and her injured leg jerked, sending jarring pain through her entire body. She slumped to the ground, giving herself a moment to force back her agony before checking her leg. It was still unnaturally bent. Tears welled up in Sam's eyes as a feeling of defeat swamped her.
Sam pounded the ground, releasing her frustration and channeling some of her pain. She couldn't give up; it wasn't in her nature and her crew was depending on her. Sam lifted her head and looked around. She crawled towards some low hanging branches at the edge of her reach, and wrapped her hands around them. She again bent her good leg under herself but this time when she pushed off she also used her upper arm strength to pull against the tree. The combination of pushing with her leg and pulling did the trick. She felt and heard her leg snap back into alignment. The pain however was more than she anticipated, and she passed out with her arms twisted in the branches and her leg tied to a tree.
