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)
Aaron, face pale, allows Tyler and Hope to sit him down. I watch intently as Tyler unearths supplies from his pack. Hope whispers assurances to Aaron while stroking her fingers through his filthy hair.
They’re definitely an item. It’s crazy to me you can still find time and energy to be attracted to and care for someone even when the world is literally falling apart around you. I know I certainly have.
Hope helps Aaron take off his shirt. It’s cold as fuck and he shivers uncontrollably. Tyler inspects a bloody mess on his left arm. Everyone is quiet as he starts cleaning it, ignoring the hisses of pain from his brother. Judy thrusts a bottle of water at me.
“I filled them up at the hotel. Drink.”
Grateful for the water, I gulp it down. Well, almost. I save half of it for Tyler.
“Thanks,” I whisper, voice raw from smoke and exertion.
As Judy hobbles around, doting on the group, spending extra time with her kids and Jesse, I focus back on Tyler.
“I don’t think the bullet’s lodged in there,” Tyler states, relief in his tone. “I could push around to see—”
“Hell no,” Aaron grits out. “It’s a graze. Just glue it closed and wrap it up.”
Hope fishes out our dwindling supply of ibuprofen and pushes them into Aaron’s mouth. He gratefully accepts. Judy is there in time to pass a water bottle to him.
Maybe we can sit here for a bit and rest.
I consider erecting my tent but decide against it, instead lying back on the extremely soft ground for a quick nap.
And it must be lightning quick because in what feels like a couple of seconds later, I hear Tyler shouting at me—again—to get the fuck up.
We’re sinking.
Tyler
I hadn’t noticed it at first, but when I get up to stretch my legs after dressing Aaron’s wound, I can hardly get my boots unstuck. Everyone is in various states of sinking into the marshy ground.
At first, I’d chalked it up to the storms softening the earth, but then I get a sinking feeling—no pun intended.
Something’s not right.
It takes some effort, but with Jesse’s help, I’m able to pull Kellen out of the mud. His entire backside is completely covered. The longer we stand around, the more we sink.
“Keep moving,” I instruct to everyone. “We need to wind our way back over to a road and get out of this muck before we have problems.”
Wayne, the heaviest in our group, moves the slowest because he sinks down past his ankles with every step. Dan sticks by him, though, offering his arm to help tug him anytime he has trouble.
“Veer away from that,” I shout, gesturing toward a soupy, bubbling area of the earth. “I don’t like this one bit.”
We all continue to move as quickly as we can. What little energy we had left is completely drained as we physically exert ourselves just to walk. After my shower with Kellen last night, I was too amped up to sleep and ended up keeping Aaron company until we saw the people heading our way. Now I feel like my adrenaline is nothing but fumes at this point, and I’m quickly fading.
Stay focused, man.
Kellen rummages in his pack as we walk and then pulls out a granola bar. He rips it open, tears it in two, and then hands me one half. “Eat, Ty.”
I wolf down the meager meal in one bite, barely chewing. My mouth waters for more, but time is of the essence.
Dan and Wayne fall farther and farther back while Hope and Aaron trek way ahead. Judy and Silas aren’t far from Dan and Wayne. Jesse, Hailey, and Pretzel are somewhere in the middle, closer to Hope and Aaron. I’m lost in my thoughts of what could be waiting for us in St. George, Utah—our next destination according to Kellen—when I hear Judy’s panicked yelling.
“Dan! Wayne! I need help!”
Me and Kellen both swivel around, sinking past our ankles to see Judy tugging at Silas’s arm. He’s nearly waist-deep in the muck.
Vibrations rattle through me and it takes me a second to realize we’re having an earthquake. For fuck’s sake. Again?
Kellen grunts, struggling to make his way over to Judy and Silas. The ground around us is jiggling like pudding in a bowl. I think about an old movie I saw when I was a kid where the hero nearly dies in quicksand.
Is that what this is?
The ground rumbles again and toward the soupier area of the park, it starts to sink—like shit being sucked through a half-clogged toilet drain. Within seconds, I can see a huge sinkhole has formed.
“There’s a parking lot that way,” Jesse calls out. “I’m going to see if I can get any of the vehicles going. I can see a road near it too. We just need to get over to it.”