Falling

Survival

"Shh, get low, don't make lots of noise, and keep your head on a swivel, there could be more of them."  These were the words of the captain, who had been leading two other men to find food.  They had seen what they thought was the biggest tiger in the world.  All they had to defend themselves were three knives, one for each of them.  This happening the day after the plane had crashed.  They were about a mile from the camp, just at the end of their journey, they had gathered some small birds and rodents but that was about it.  They planned on skinning them and cooking them over the fire.  If they could get back.

The tiger was out in a little patch of ferns in front of them, they were hiding behind some large bushes.  And then, the tiger let a giant roar and took off after something.  The men quickly hurried back to the camp.  When they got there, they found that everything looked like had been ransacked and the rest of the survivors were nowhere to be found.  

Then they heard a rustling behind them, one of the women rushed out and told them what had happened.  She said that they had heard something loud barreling toward them, and then it stopped, and someome shouted something in a language no one in the group had ever heard before.  One of the women found a good hiding place off to the side under some large shrubs.  Her and everyone else quickly darted under cover and went silent.

Then, a large group of men, and a few boys, burst through the tree line.  They were tattooed up and down their skin, piercings everywhere, long hair, and the most menacing thing about them, was the large knives and other weapons they carried.  Everyone but the young children knew immediately that it was a native tribe.

They were talking loudly; obviously not wanting to be stealthy; and searching the camp.  The small amounts of food that were in the camp, they took.  When they were done, they quickly left the way they had come.  The camp looked like a tornado had gone through.  Everything was knocked over, trash was littered on the ground, and they had even taken some of the supplies.  Everyone who was at the camp stayed in hiding.  Then they heard another rustling, but it was only the men, so they came out.

All the survivors started putting things back together, when one of the women suggested, "Why don't we hide our supplies, they know where we are, so they might come back for more things?"  So the men started digging holes and searching for hiding places.  The women hung up the hammocks, and the children were picking things up, when one of the women found that the tribe had taken the whole jug of water they had.  That created a huge problem because that was the only drinking water the group had at that point in time.  No one in the group had even seen a water source, let alone know if they could actually drink it.

And then arguments broke out everywhere, people were getting annoyed just because of the situation they were in, but the biggest argument was if someone needed to go find drinking water then.  

Then, the second youngest child in the group; Billy Martinez; started screaming for help.  He was sinking into the mud, his mother realized it the second she saw him, "QUICKSAND!"  she yelled.  Quickly the men tried pulling a long stick off of the trees next to them but it wouldn't come down.  Everyone else was trying to reach a hand to Billy and pull him out, but the quicksands range was to wide, and no one could reach him without slipping in.  Right when it looked like Billy would be gone forever, the branch came down off the tree, the men rushed over and reached it out to Billy.  Billy had slipped off his shoes, trying to do everything he could to make him self lighter.  Every one of the survivors was pulling on the branch, Billy was holding on for dear life.  He wasn't sinking anymore but they couldn't get him out.  After a few more desperate pulls, Billy was finally pulled out.  His mother grasped him with and iron grip and wouldn't let go.  The captain set the branch down in front of the quicksand as a marker.  The group had now made it through two close ones, but how long would their luck keep going?