Marcy Hail, a budding young Astrobiologist from England, gathered a selection of equipment and essential supplies, packing them into her rucksack before slipping on her hiking boots.
She tucked the bottoms of her dark blue high-waist stretch jeans into her boots and laced them up. Heading to the door of her tent, she grabbed her rucksack and threw it over her back, taking a moment to neaten the short sleeves of her purple top after getting ruffled up by her bag.
Marcy sighed contently, stepping outside onto the forest floor, greeted by a wall of humidity upon leaving the tent. She unclipped her camcorder and switched it on, holding it close as she began walking Southeast.
"My name is Marcy Hail, and this is my research log beginning at 08:23 am. The date is April 14th, 2034. I've been sent to investigate and document a recent meteorite impact in the Pantanal, around 20 miles from the border of Bolivia on the Parque Nacional MΓ©danos Del Chaco."
"I'm heading out early to do some preliminary checks around the impact sight. The rest of the team won't be here for another eight hours. Might as well save us all some trouble. It's not like I've got anything else to do yet. I'll check in once I'm close to the impact sight." Said Marcy, clipping her camcorder back onto the back as she set off on her trek towards the impact sight.
It wasn't far, thankfully, only about two miles or so from their camp. Much of the land she'd have to cross was dense forest leading out to wetlands. But she was confident she could navigate it safely.
With the impact sight pinpointed on her GPS, she knew exactly which direction to head.
As she trekked, sweat gradually began forming on her forehead and back, her jeans retaining most of the heat she was absorbing from her surroundings. Nevertheless, she pushed on, wiping the sweat away and taking calm, steady breaths.
As she approached the wetlands, she noticed something in the canopy up ahead, signs of charring on the trees and bushes, as well as faint steam or some smoke rising from the ground ahead.
Marcy unclipped her camcorder and began documenting her approach.
"I think I've just found a second impact sight. There's an area just ahead of me where it looks like something came through the canopy, burning a load of trees on its way through. As well as most of its surroundings, the bushes are all burnt, and the ground has been heavily disturbed." She said, cautiously approaching.
"Yep. There's a crater, about ten, maybe fifteen meters across. I'm climbing it now, just to see how deep it is." She grunted, scaling the steep but short muddy bank of the crater.
"Bloody hell. It is hot out here. Note to self... Marcy, whatever you do, for the love of god, don't wear jeans next time. Please." She sighed, reaching the top of the crater, teetering on its edge.
"Oh, wow! Would you look at that." She gasped, groaning uncomfortably as she paused the camera to undo the top of her jeans, preventing them from rubbing into her waist any further, quickly checking to see if they'd cut her at all, as it felt like something sharp had broken the skin.
Upon checking, she found nothing but a band of reddened skin made sore by her sweat and the slightly abrasive denim.
Turning her attention back to her discovery, she caught a brief glimpse of what was inside before the ground gave way beneath her, sending her tumbling down into the seemingly shallow crater.
Squealing as she fell, Marcy landed with a heavy splat in a thick muddy pool of quicksand that lined the entire crater. The moment she landed, the pool began shifting like stiff jelly, bubbling as most of her body settled beneath the surface.
Marcy groaned in disgust. "Eww! For fuck's sake." She grumbled, flicking the large clumps of gloopy warm sludge off her hands so she could clean off her face.
Her gorgeous red locks were now splattered with lumps of runny gunk dripping onto her partially exposed top. She glanced up at where the ground gave way, seeing the path she'd taken on her fall, spotting her camcorder sitting on the edge of the pool of sludge.
Marcy grunted as she tried to heave herself up but found her bag was stuck beneath her and was the only thing keeping her chest out of the mud.
Instead, she tried to move her legs, groaning uncomfortably as the weight of the marshy sludge was too much to pull against. Every time she tried wriggling her legs, they only sank further into the horrible warm sludge.
All around her, the pool of marshy slurry shifted randomly, seemingly getting closer to her every time she moved. Suddenly she gasped as she swore something moved beneath her, brushing past her legs briefly.
"What the fuck? What was that?!" She cried, starting to panic as she slowly sank further into the sludge.
In a desperate attempt to escape, she slid off her rucksack and heaved herself up, almost managing to stand upright until she sank drastically, ending up buried up to her boobs in thick sludge.