Quicksand 1

"Ohhhhhhh, crap," Shauna said slowly. "Where's the tour guide?"

Vicki looked around, craning her neck to try to get just a slightly better view. It didn't help; the thick jungle foliage crowded out everything around them except for the view up and down the trail, and that was unnervingly devoid of tour guides, tour groups, or anything except more jungle. "I thought you said we were only a couple of minutes behind them!"

Shauna reminded herself, for the fifth time in three minutes, that she was not going to use the words 'This is all your fault,' when talking to Vicki about this. Just because Vicki was yelling at her did not mean she should yell back at Vicki, even though she had better cause. Instead, she forced herself to sound reasonable as she said, "We are. I mean, maybe three or four, but it couldn't be any more than that. There must be a fork in the trail or something up ahead, that's all."

Vicki ran back to the sharp curve they'd just gone around, and skidded to a stop. "Or one back there. I didn't notice anything, but I wasn't really looking; I figured this was the only trail. Do you really think there's more than one?"

"I don't know," Shauna said with a trace of irritation in her voice. "I'm not the tour guide." The tour guide that they could have just followed along behind, if not for the fact that Vicki got distracted examining a flower she spotted, and Shauna didn't want to leave her all by herself. "Let's just keep walking. Sooner or later, these trails are bound to come out somewhere, even if it's not back at the bus. It's not like they took us that deep into the jungle or anything. This is just one of those 'tourist adventure' things, not a nature expedition." Silently, she vowed that she wouldn't even leave the hotel on her next trip to Brazil, no matter what her friend suggested.

"Yeah," Vicki said nervously. "You're probably right." She turned around, and started heading back towards Shauna at a brisk pace. Once she'd caught up, Shauna began to walk as well. "I really am sorry," Vicki said. "Only I don't get much chance to see tropical plants in their native habitat, and they look so different than they do in a greenhouse or a lab. I promise, I'll make it up to you when we get back. I'll buy you dinner, I'll find you a cute hunk to take back to the hotel room..."

Shauna rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help smiling just a little. "Most people say it with flowers, you know."

"I'm a third-year botany student," Vicki replied. "I've already said it with flowers. I'm moving up to cabana boys." The two of them giggled, their laughter ringing through the thick, humid silence of the jungle.

"Come on, scatterbrain," Shauna said, kicking her own pace up to a light jog. "If we hurry, I bet we beat the tour group back to--" She stopped so abruptly that Vicki almost ran into her back. "Hey, what have we here?" She pointed. "A fork in the trail, just as I thought!"

Vicki let out a long sigh of relief. "I am so glad I'm with you," she said. "Honestly, I would have totally missed that!" She brushed aside a frond of creepers and ducked under a small branch. "When we get back, let's complain, okay? Whoever maintains these trails does a crappy job."

"It's probably a full-time career," Shauna said as she followed her friend down the side trail. "Seriously, it looks like if you walk away for fifteen minutes, something grows up behind you."

"You're not too far off," Vicki said. "The vegetation grows fast around here, and the light gets bad quick because of the dense canopy." She jogged down the trail quickly. "I would not want to try to find my way around here after dark. Thank God you spotted this path."

"Just call me Eagle Eye," Shauna said modestly. In actuality, she genuinely was a little bit proud of herself. The turn really would be easy to miss if you weren't looking for it.

After a few minutes, though, pride turned to worry. They still hadn't run into anyone. Shauna wiped the sweat off her forehead and frowned. It wasn't like a tour group would be moving quickly; they hadn't even gone past a walking pace the entire time Shauna and Vicki had been with them. Surely if they had gone down this way, they'd have to run into them pretty quick, right?

"I'm not sure if this is the right path," Vicki said after a while, echoing Shauna's worries. She looked up at the sky, barely even visible behind a thick overhang of interlacing leaves and branches. "God, I wish cell phones worked out here."

Shauna couldn't help letting out a little giggle. "'Hello, OnStar?'" she said. "'Yeah, I'm lost in the jungle, could you come find me?'" Then she thought about the actual words she'd just said. 'Lost in the jungle.' Suddenly it didn't seem so funny anymore.

Vicki kept looking up at the canopy. Was it Shauna's imagination, or did it already seem darker out here? "I, um, I don't want to worry you, Shauna," she said, fear evident in her own voice, "but I really think we want to find our way out of here soon. This trail isn't so good that I think we can follow it in the dark."

Shauna nodded quickly. "Okay, let's not panic," she said. "We just need to keep moving. Trails don't last long in the jungle if you don't maintain them, right?" Vicki nodded. "So this must go somewhere."

"But where?" Vicki replied, tension thick in her voice. "Hang on, I'm going to climb a tree. Maybe with a little height, I can at least see what direction the tour bus is in." She stepped off the path, heading towards a thick tree with glutinous trails of sap down its sides.

"Careful!" Shauna said. It was probably irrational of her, but she felt like stepping off the trail would lead to some dire fate within moments. Like wild animals were just waiting for them out there beyond the edge of the path. It didn't make sense, she knew, but she still tensed up as Vicki left the symbolic safety of the beaten track.

"Don't worry," Vicki replied, walking quickly towards the tree. "It won't take me a moment to--" Her voice trailed off in a sudden shriek of surprise as she stepped onto a seemingly-solid patch of dark, muddy soil and sank in up to her armpits.

"Vicki!" Shauna cried out, darting off the path and racing over to her friend. Vicki was splashing wildly, thick mud coating her as she flailed out in an effort to get back to solid ground, but to no avail. Every time she reached for a handhold, it just slid thickly into the loose slurry of black goop. All she was managing to do was get herself covered in the stuff. "Vicki, calm down! Just try to float, I'll find something for you to grab!"

Spluttering, Vicki nodded. "It's quicksand," she gasped out, spitting black mud out of her mouth. "Don't worry, though, I won't sink. I saw it on 'Mythbusters'!"

Something about the utter incongruity of those words made Shauna start to laugh as she looked for a branch or a loose vine. It just seemed so absurd that she couldn't help giggling. They were lost in the middle of the Brazilian rainforest, her best friend had fallen into quicksand, and she was quoting 'Mythbusters'! It all just seemed so silly. She was dimly aware that her laughter had gotten louder and harsher, almost like a sob, but somehow that just seemed funny too. Everything was just one big joke, right down to the fact that they were probably going to die out here--

"Shauna!" Vicki cried out. "Snap the fuck out of it and help me!" With an effort, Shauna forced herself to stop laughing. She'd been hysterical, she realized. She'd just been standing there, not even trying to look for a way to help her friend, laughing away like a hyena until Vicki had gotten her back to her senses. Shauna shivered. She'd always thought of herself as the level-headed one...

"It's okay," she said shakily, reaching over to a tree and yanking at a branch. It didn't come loose, but one of the creepers draped around it pulled free in her hands. "I'm alright now. Just...kind of got to me for a second." She headed back over to the pit of quicksand, careful to keep well away from where Vicki had sunk in.

Vicki said, "I know. I'm scared too. Just...pull me out of here, and we'll start booking down those trails." Her voice was strained with the effort of remaining calm.

Shauna nodded, and tossed the vine out to her friend. Vicki caught it on the second try, and Shauna gently tugged her over to solid ground. She managed to climb out without help, which was good, because she was covered head to toe in thick, sticky muck. "Oh, God," Vicki moaned, "I look like I've been dipped in tar." She tried to brush some of the slime away, but it clung to her like wet cement.

"You can take an hour-long bath while I'm in bed with that cabana boy," Shauna said, running back to the path. "Come on, let's just go."

"Yeah," Vicki said. "Good idea." The two of them started to run as fast as they could down the trail.

Which still wasn't that fast. The trail wasn't badly overgrown, but enough roots criss-crossed the packed dirt that they couldn't get up to a full sprint. The shadows grew longer and denser, and Shauna felt like her whole body was soaked with sweat after a few minutes in the oppressive heat.

"Ugh," Vicki said behind her, "this stuff is gross!" Shauna wanted to tell her to save her breath for running, but she was too busy saving her breath for running. "It's sticky!"

"Mud usually is," Shauna said shortly.

"No, I mean really sticky!" Vicki replied. "Like, stretchy! Ewww! That was a rubber tree I was trying to climb; it must have had roots that led down into the quicksand or something, and some of the sap must have mixed with the mud." She moaned despairingly. "Oh, this is never coming out of my hair..."

"Yes, it sucks," Shauna snapped out. "Run now, complain later." She expected a snarky retort, but there was only silence behind her.

After another twenty minutes, they couldn't keep up their running pace. Not because of exhaustion--Shauna was on the women's basketball team, and Vicki ran track and field. It was just too dark to see the trail clearly. They had to move slowly, straining to pick out the details of the path against the matted leaves of the jungle floor.

Vicki hadn't spoken in a while, and Shauna was starting to feel kind of guilty. "I'm sorry I yelled at you," Shauna said. Vicki still didn't reply.

Great,

Shauna thought.

Hell of a time to get sulky.

But she kept herself calm, knowing that losing her own temper wouldn't help matters. "I'm scared, but I know I shouldn't have taken it out on you. Forgive?"

When Vicki did speak, it was with a strange tone in her voice that made Shauna stop dead in her tracks. "S'not that..." she said, her voice slightly slurred. "Feel...funny, somehow. Feels..." Her voice trailed off, as if speaking was an effort. "Weird."

Shauna turned around. Vicki was a few steps behind her now, walking a little slower than Shauna had been. Her mouth hung open, and her eyes looked glassy and unfocused in the dim light. What was weirdest, though, was the mud. Instead of drying out, it looked as glossy as it had when she'd pulled herself out of it, almost like she was coated with a thin sheen of black paint. It had coated her almost completely from head to toe, leaving only her eyes, nostrils and mouth free of the substance. And...

Shauna blinked and looked closer as Vicki approached, not quite sure if she could believe what she was seeing. It looked as though Vicki's clothing had somehow vanished. Like whatever was in the mud had dissolved it away, leaving nothing between Vicki's skin and the coating of rubbery goo. "Vicki?" she said hesitantly. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Vicki replied dazedly as she came to a stop, her lips curling into a faint smile. "Just feel...weird. Sort of...sort of..." She trailed off again. A trickle of drool hung from the corner of her mouth.

Shauna looked at her eyes, trying to tell whether the dilation she saw was from the poor light, or something more. "Are you in any pain?" she asked, trying to speak the words slowly and clearly just in case Vicki was having any trouble understanding them. Panicked thoughts flew through her brain; if the mud was somehow acidic, if it had eaten through Vicki's clothes...

Vicki shook her head slowly, as though moving through water. "No," she said distantly. "Feels...good..." Her smile widened, and her eyes fluttered as though she was having a hot daydream.

Shauna bit her lip. This was bad, this was very very bad, this was... With an effort, she calmed herself. She'd already had one hysterical outbreak today, and that was plenty. "Come on, Vicki," she said. "I need you to keep moving. We have to find someplace we can get that stuff off of you."

"Oh," Vicki said, with what sounded almost like disappointment in her voice. "Okay." She started to put one foot in front of the other again, but without any real purpose or direction. Shauna winced nervously as she reached out, but she knew that the other girl would need to be guided if they wanted to make any kind of real progress. And that meant touching the...the goop, whatever it was. She took Vicki's hand, expecting it to feel slimy against her skin.

Instead, it felt dry, almost rubbery. Like Vicki was wearing latex gloves or something. With a tiny sigh of relief, Shauna gave her a little pull to set her going as the two of them started off again.

The path stayed mostly straight, which felt like a minor miracle to Shauna by now. Vicki felt almost like dead weight behind her, walking as slow as she could without letting go of Shauna's hand--she probably would have let go by now, if Shauna hadn't held her in a deathgrip. Shauna wanted to look back and check to see if she was any worse, but she couldn't turn any of her attention away from finding their way in this light. Occasionally, Shauna heard her let out a little whimper or a moan, but Shauna couldn't tell if it was pain or pleasure. What the fuck was

in

that stuff? She didn't do drugs--she valued her basketball scholarship too much to screw it up--but she was pre-med. She knew what they did. And this was not like any psycho-active chemical she'd even heard of.

Another twenty minutes, and she was practically guessing where the path was. Vicki hadn't said a word in all that time unless prompted, and even then, she tended to trail off mid-sentence. Shauna called out behind her, "Doing okay back there, Vicks?" She knew how much her friend hated to be called 'Vicks', but anything that kept her mentally engaged with the here and now couldn't be bad.

"Yes, Mistress," Vicki replied.

Shauna stopped dead again. "What?" she blurted out, unable to think of anything else to say. She turned around to look at Vicki again.

It was hard to see her; the black latex blended in with the darkness, leaving only a highlight here, a gleam there in the dim shadows of the late afternoon. But she seemed...different, somehow. Her body seemed sleeker, softer...she moved differently, in a way that Shauna couldn't quite explain even to herself. As though she was being led, instead of following. "Yes, Mistress," Vicki repeated, her voice almost totally emotionless.

Shauna stared at her, wishing she could see her better. She reached out and cupped Vicki's chin, tilting her head up so her eyes caught the light. Vicki just sagged into her touch, mewling slightly as she swayed gently where she stood. "Vicki, can you...understand me?"

"Yes, Mistress," Vicki replied. "I understand and obey." Shauna shuddered as she realized that the little hint of emotion she heard in Vicki's voice was lust. The drug didn't just blank out her brain, it made her want this. It made her love it. Jesus fuck. She started moving again, as fast as she could now, dragging Vicki behind her, gambling that the trail would stay straight until it came out. She couldn't take much more of this weirdness.

They lucked out. Another twenty minutes and the trees stopped being a random profusion of jungle, instead becoming orderly rows of regular plantings. The canopy thinned out, allowing the waning daylight to spread through to the two of them. And after a few more minutes of (Shauna admitted) slightly panicky running, they thinned out altogether to reveal a few buildings up ahead.

"Oh, thank God," Shauna whimpered. "Oh thank God oh thank God oh thank God..." She turned around and hugged her friend, her vision blurred with tears.

Vicki sighed in obvious bliss, leaning into the hug and rubbing her body obscenely against Shauna's. Shauna pulled back abruptly, then gasped at what she saw.

Now that she had a clear look at Vicki, Shauna saw that Vicki's clothes had in fact dissolved. She could clearly see every inch of Vicki's anatomy outlined in latex. It contoured itself around Vicki's vulva as if it were body paint, and allowed Vicki's nipples to stand out clearly--and they were standing straight out, as stiff as pencil erasers. And they'd grown, too. Her whole body had changed, becoming rounder in some places, flatter in others; before, Vicki had the skinny body of a track star, but now she had the curves of a porn star. Her pupils were dilated almost all the way out to the very edge of the iris, leaving just a tiny band of blue between the black and the white. "...the fuck?" Shauna whispered, as much to herself as to Vicki.

But Vicki heard. "Yes, Mistress," she replied. "We will fuck now." She leaned in again before Shauna could stop her and kissed Shauna passionately. Her arms embraced Shauna, pulling at clothes in order to find skin to touch.

"Mmmph," Shauna mumbled, trying to disengage herself from the embrace. She felt Vicki rubbing her chest against Shauna's, her nipples hard like pebbles through Shauna's clothing. "Mmmmmuh!" She pulled free enough to speak. Vicki continued to rub her pussy against Shauna's thigh, whimpering softly as she did so. "Vicki, stop!"

Instantly, Vicki stepped away. "I am sorry, Mistress," she said. "I obey."

Shauna felt her whole body shaking with terror...and a little bit of arousal, she admitted to herself. She wasn't into girls, stereotypes about women basketball players notwithstanding, but that kiss had felt...intense. As though Vicki put her whole heart and soul into it.

Which she probably had. Shauna couldn't even recognize anything of her friend in there anymore. She was just so...blank. "Come on," she said. "Let's see if there's anyone in here."

"I obey, Mistress," Vicki said, following her towards the buildings.

It didn't take them long to find a side door, and thankfully, it wasn't locked. Probably not much need for locks this deep in the jungle. They found themselves in some sort of refinery, on a catwalk above a second level sunk into the ground. Below them, vats of thick, black liquid bubbled away as giant mechanical beaters stirred the rubbery goop. It looked almost entirely automated, but Shauna saw a few men here and there. Some instinct told her that it would not be a good idea to go ask them for help.

Instead, she pulled Vicki along behind her, hoping to find an office or a phone or something. The chill in her gut got worse and worse with every passing second as she saw the goop pour out through clear plastic pipes, looking creepily familiar as it did so. She moved as fast as she dared.

The first two doors Shauna found just led into more rooms full of machinery, but the third led into a small office. She raced over to the phone on the desk, picking it up and dialing rapidly. Thank God that '911' meant the same thing in Brazil that it did in America--

"You can't get an outside line from here," a voice said behind her. She spun around to see a man standing behind her, wearing an immaculately-tailored gray suit. His hair was bleached blond, in contrast to his dark skin, and he spoke with an accent that suggested he'd been educated abroad. "It's just a precaution. We prefer to oversee our own security."