(Features non-con and plants!)
The camping trip wasn't a complete waste, even if it had been raining all night. Katy left the tent, poking her head out to check the weather. The rain had finally relented, although the sky was still overcast and threatened to downpour again. Her boyfriend, Brandon, still sleeping soundly, he had carried most of the gear, he deserved a few more hours of rest as she didn't wake him. She had pulled on her boots and jacket, as she headed out. The clearing they had set up had almost turned into a puddle at this point. They had been lucky that the rainwater hadn't gotten into the tent while they had slept. The camping trip would have to be cut short, the rain had abated for now but it looked like it would start again any minute. After they had managed to set up the tent last night and dried off it hadn't been the worst trip, they couldn't build a fire or do any hiking, but some alone time with Brandon was never a bad thing, just the two of them and the sound of rain falling in the woods.
Katy wouldn't pass up the small window she had to walk along the trails though. Water still dripped from the leaves above her but at least more wasn't actively falling. She walked along as fast as she could while keeping her footing. It was hardly the most pleasant time to be in the woods, they had been promised clear skies, but being alone and off campus was nice enough. With the weather scaring people off it was probably just the two of them for miles around. She headed up one of the steeper trails, moving slower as she went, there was supposed to be an awesome view over the cliffs, and even with the clouds in the sky, she hoped it would be worth the photo.
It took her another ten minutes to reach it, but it at least did turn out to be worth it. Even with the overcast light she could see for miles, with the forest blanketing the ground. Brandon had been trying to convince her to come out on the trip for weeks, maybe he had been right about it after all. Katy pulled out her phone, snapping a quick picture. She moved to take another one, stepping back to get better framing when her foot caught on something and she tumbled backward. Katy tried to catch herself, swinging her arms in a wild attempt to reclaim her balance. It wasn't over the cliff but instead back and down the steep incline that she had just climbed. She let out a yell as she fell, rolling over and over, losing track of her phone what was happening as the forest spun around. Mud splattered against her as her descent slowly stopped, leaving her at the foot of the hill.
Katy pushed herself up slowly off of the ground, spitting out mud and brushing leaves off of her face. "Great. Just great." Now she was stuck like this until they got back to the hotel. For what she could tell she wasn't injured, just some bruises. She sat up, looking around for her phone but she couldn't see it anywhere. It couldn't have landed too far. Katy kicked some of the leaves at her feet, searching for it. Then she heard a branch snap underneath her and the ground gave way. She tried jumping forward and away from the hole that was suddenly forming beneath her, but all she managed to do was grab a root in front of her and slow her sudden descent slightly. With a crack the root gave way and she fell down several feet onto the muddy rock.
She winced at the pain, but it didn't seem like any skin had been broken. Katy looked around, finally on stable ground but also a dozen or so feet below the surface now. Things just kept getting worse. She didn't even have her phone on her now. She looked around where she had landed, she could make out in the darkness what she assumed were roots from the trees above her, it seemed like she had fallen through the roof of a cave. Given how little light from the overcast sky reached her, she couldn't see much, having to use her hands to feel along the roots on the wall. "Brandon!" She shouted as loud as she could. She called a dozen more times, each more desperate than the last, but didn't get any response. She was pretty far from where they had set up camp, she doubted he'd be able to hear her. That left her on her own.
Katy tried climbing out of the hole, but the roots down by her were too thin to hold her weight and broke before she could reach up to the thicker ones. Even trying to jump up she couldn't get high enough to reach any of them. After trying to climb for half an hour she gave up, completely exhausted, she'd have to find another way. She hadn't explored the entire cave she was in, the light from above barely illuminated the area just around her, so she didn't even know how big it was, fortunately, it didn't sound like there were any animals down here. The thought of falling into some den made her even more nervous. Steeling herself she slowly began moving off in a random direction. As she left the hole behind she was left in total darkness, feeling her way along the wall each step of the way with one hand, the other stretched in front of her, making sure she didn't walk into anything. She couldn't even see either of them as she moved deeper in the darkness. Her movements were slow, she was too concerned with falling again or hurting herself to set a faster pace.
It was impossible for her to track how much time was passing, she had no idea how far she had gone or how long she had been walking, but she needed a break. Katy sat down on what felt like a fairly clean rock, not that she could see if it really was. This was supposed to be a nice short romantic trip to the woods. Now she was a muddy mess, had lost her phone, and the rain had ruined everything. Katy didn't even dare think of what would happen if this stopped in some dead end with now where for her to go, there had to be a way out of here. Sitting here wouldn't get her out of the situation though, she had to find a way out on her own.
Pushing herself up she continued further into the cave, slightly less tired than when she had sat down. It was all faceless featureless rock from what her hands could discern, and if she wasn't walking she wouldn't have thought that it was any different than she had encountered ten minutes ago. Just when Katy thought she might be going mad from the oppressive darkness, not even able to see her own nose, she saw something. There was a faint blue glow ahead of her. The first thought that raced through her head was that it could be her phone. It couldn't possibly have gotten into the cave in, but that didn't stop her from surging forward with hope and quickly moving over to it.
Of course, it wasn't her phone, how could it be? It was some sort of plant. Katy thought she remembered something about some plants glowing, algae or something maybe? She wasn't sure, the most experience she had with plants was a small garden in her backyard. The plant was strange looking, she had never seen anything like it, but it couldn't help her so she didn't think much else of it. The glow from it barely didn't cast any light, it was only illuminating itself so it wouldn't help her much. She sat down again, at least it helped break up the void surrounding her, it was the thing to pierce the darkness. Katy had tried staying calm this entire time, but if she didn't get out of her soon she didn't know what she was going to do. She was on the edge of panic. Feeling something brush against her hand had her suddenly jerk it forward. Images of disgusting bugs and animals darted through her mind as she leapt up to her feet, looking at where the touch had come from.
Her heartbeat slowly lowered as she saw that it was just another one of the softly glowing blue plants. She must have just moved against it. Katy sat back down, more on edge than ever and just tried to catch her breath. A long few minutes passed in silence aside from her breathing. She had to keep moving, sitting here wouldn't accomplish anything, maybe she could rip one of the plants out and bring it with her? It would be something to help her keep her sanity. Katy pushed off of the rock, standing up only to trip forward and barely catch herself before she hit the rock beneath her, landing hard on her hands and knees. Katy shook her head, pushing herself back up slowly, looking back to figure out why she had fallen only find one of the blue plants wrapped around her leg. The other one had been a small plant growing out of a gap in the rocks, this one was almost like a vine.
Katy brought her other boot up, kicking it away from her ankle. Instead of being pushed away, it suddenly tightened around her. It wasn't especially painful but it was tightly wrapped around her foot now. Panic rose up in her again as she reached down to pull it off of her. What kind of plant was this? She grabbed it in one hand, trying to pull it away but it seemed to resist her, only tightening further and moving further up her pant leg. Her fear was quickly mounting. She rolled over so she was sitting down and used both her hands to try to pry it off of her. There was finally some success as she managed to unwrap it once from around her shin.
The victory was short lived, however. Even as she managed to slowly pry it off she felt something against her shoulder. Unnoticed by her another vine had dropped down from above her, through a crack in the wall. The vine wrapped around her shoulder, almost slithering along her arm. Katy let out a scream, bringing her hands up to fight off the new plant. The first vine took it's chance, coiling further up her leg, moving to tighten around her thigh. The sound of her scream echoed through the cave as the vines continued along her.