Story from a while back

[Fred588]

Here is a story I did quite a while back.

Version 31b – Build 6
Copyright 2003 by Fred588

It was a cold, drizzly morning when Alice pulled into the Psychic World parking lot. Normally she worked at Corporate headquarters, 200 miles away in St. Louis , but today she would pull a shift as an entrance portal monitor. She was the director of a team developing a major software upgrade for the system, and today it would be installed and tested for the first time, and she would be there to observe the result.

“Good morning, welcome to Psychic World Jungle Land ,” chirped Maria, the night monitor. “Can I help you set up an exciting adventure?”

“Hello, Maria,” said Alice , reading the girl’s name tag. “I’m Alice , from Psychic World Corporate…. I’m here to install some new software.”

“Oh, sorry,” said Maria. “I forgot you were coming this morning.”

“No problem, Maria.” said Alice in a business-like tone. “You greeted me quite properly…. company policy by the book.”

As Maria closed the door, Alice eagerly took off her half-soaked jacket and draped it over the back of a chair. She was elegantly dressed in a blue satin blouse and darker blue skirt, both far more conservative than the extremely short skirt and halter top worn by Maria. Both were, of course, in conformance with company regulations, and reflected the very different operational roles each played on a day to day basis. For the setting of the entrance portal and the theme park itself, it was Maria who was most properly attired.

“The installation will take half an hour,” Alice said, opening a case with several disks. “Are there any appointments scheduled in the next half hour?”

“None,” Maria answered immediately. “But the wet weather outside could bring in a lot of drop-in traffic.”

“Let’s get started then,” said Alice . “The installation won’t affect any adventures already in progress, but we can’t start any new ones until it’s done.”

Alice entered a few special codes into the computer, typed in her administrator’s user name and password, and slipped the first disk into the drive. Version 31b – Build 6 began its installation.

“What is the new enhancement?” asked Maria. “Anything you can tell me about?”

“Oh, its no secret,” answered Alice . The enhancement will allow you, as entrance monitor, to observe events taking place inside, as though through the eyes of any of the customers.”

“Oh, cool!” exclaimed Maria. “That’s not considered a privacy invasion problem?”

“No, we have a new procedure for that,” Alice explained. “You will inform each customer that their adventure a\can be observed in that way… If anyone objects then you will disable the function for that individual…. In any case, you are to use it only to check on the quality of their experiences, and you are never to actually record what is observed.”

“Sounds fair enough,” said Maria.

Half an hour and six disks later the installation was finished.

“There,” said Alice . “Its done.”

“I can’t wait to see it work,” Maria said enthusiastically.

“Well, perhaps we won’t have to wait,” said Alice . “If you have any Psychic World personnel inside we can look at their viewpoint right away… We won’t have to go through the informed consent stuff.”

“Cool,” exclaimed Maria, reaching for, and then scanning her log book. “Yeah, we have several staff inside…. two guiding new clients, one hosting a game, and one installing an icon for a scavenger hunt this afternoon.”

“Excellent,” exclaimed Alice . That ought to give us a good test…. much better than I expected… Here, sit here at the console and I’ll show you how to use the new functions.”

Maria moved to where Alice had been sitting and Alice stood where she could observe the screen over Maria’s shoulder.

“On your ‘home’ screen you’ll see a new icon in the lower left corner that looks like an eye” Alice began. “Click on that…. You’ll see a window with a thumbnail for each person inside.”

Maria clicked on the new icon, and the new window popped up instantly. “Yup!” she exclaimed. “Seems to work.

“Now,” Alice continued. “The thumbnail is the person’s face. That’s to help find the one you want…. Notice there is a black bar across everyone except the employees. That’s because there is no informed consent in the computer. But click on the thumbnail, assuming no black bar, and you’ll get two new windows, one is the usual view of the scene you’ve always had, and the other shows that person’s point of view…. exactly what they are seeing.”

“Really neat,” said Maria. “Is it ok to try it?”

“That’s really what I’m here for…. to see how well it works,” answered Alice . “Click on the first one.”

“OK,” said Maria as she clicked the mouse. “That is Debbie, she’s setting up for the scavenger hunt this afternoon.”

Maria and Alice both pulled closer to the screen. The general scene viewed showed a young woman, very lightly dressed in a halter top and ultra short shorts, precariously climbing about eight feet up in a tree. She was inching out onto a horizontal branch, holding a small, shiny object on a chain in one hand.

“That metal thing in her hand is the main objective in the scavenger hunt this afternoon,” said Maria. “It will be next to impossible to retrieve in the game.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” said Alice . “But that looks for all the world like a pit of quicksand under that branch she’s on.”

“Oh yes, it certainly is,” answered Maria. “That’s why it’s so hard to retrieve the icon….if you do it’s an automatic win, but nearly everyone who tries ends up falling into the quicksand.”

“It looks hard enough just getting the thing onto the branch, never mind retrieving it,” said Alice , noticing that Debbie seemed to be frightened and having balance problems. “It looks like Debbie could quite easily fall in herself.

“Oh, she will almost certainly fall in,” answered Maria with a slight giggle. “And she doesn’t like sinking one bit…. I’d say she ought to fall any second now.”

Alice tried to sound businesslike, but there was more than a hint of excitement in her voice, “This will make a good system test then,” she said. “Let’s switch over to watch Debbie’s view.”

Maria clicked the mouse and the screen changed. Her hands could be seen wrapped around the branch beneath her. Below, the surface of the mire waited, absolutely flat and still except for an occasional large bubble that lifted the surface and then broke. Debbie was attempting to move backwards along the branch, but was moving very slowly. Her labored breathing gave an indication of how hard she was working.

“Oh my, it has sound too,” exclaimed Maria. “This could be downright embarrassing; Debbie can use some very colorful language sometimes when she gets excited.”

Alice and Maria watched intently as the scene progressed.

Debbie seemed unable to move backward along the branch. “Shit!” she cursed. “I’m snagged…. I don’t think I’m going to make it.”

Debbie’s breathing grew heavier over the next fifteen seconds as she struggled to get past the snag. She kept moving forward and back along the branch, but made no overall progress. Suddenly the view through Debbie’s eyes shifted. The branch seemed to move ninety degrees and both her hands appeared wrapped around the branch in the same direction. “Oh shit, no,” She gasped. “Damn!”

A split second later the branch rotated and then receded sharpely as the sky appeared in the background. There was a loud Splat, as her body plunged into the thick mud, and globs of muck flew in all directions.

“Ooooooo shit!,…… Oooooooh shit!, NO!” she kept repeating.

“She’s in for it now!” Alice gasped.

“Yeah, and she doesn’t like the quicksand,” added Maria. “She’s worked here for several months and she’s gone under a dozen times but she’s still scared shitless of it.”

“I can see why,” Alice went on. “You won’t see me going in there.”

“No?” said Maria, noticing Alice ’s elevated breathing rate, and her clawed hand just an inch from her own breast. “I’ll bet a dollar to a donut you go in before your shift is over.”

“No chance,” answered Alice .

“And if you do go in, I’ll bet ten dollars to a donut that you walk straight into the first quicksand pit you find….. deliberately!” Maria predicted.

The two women’s attention returned to the Debbie’s predicament. She was struggling valiantly but it was cleared the struggle would not last much longer. She twisted her torso back and forth, seeking an avenue of escape, but she was almost shoulder deep already. She kept trying to find something to grasp, a branch, a vine, anything that might float or provide support. She knew from experience there was nothing that could help, but she could not help herself from struggling frantically.

“Help!...... Help me!” she cried. “I’m going under….. Ugggh!..... Noooooo!”

Debbie kept thrashing from side to side, reaching out through the thick mud, trying to find something to grab. She was now up to her neck. In thirty seconds she would be up to her mouth and she would be under in a minute. She knew her wild struggling made her sink even faster but she just could not stop.

“Please, no…. Somebody help me!” she shouted. “Oh….. Oh, no, no, noooo!”

The mire was now closing in around her face. She could no longer move her head more than an inch or two to either side. Her face was actually below the natural surface, at the bottom of a shallow depression made by the downward movement of her body. She could see the mud rising in a ring all around her.

“Heeellp!” she gasped one last time. Her voice was much weaker, either because of the pressure from the weight of the mire or because her ears were now well below the surface.

The mud suddenly covered Debbie’s mouth. She spat it out and gasped for breath. Mud poured into her mouth. She spat again but the air merely bubbled to the surface without clearing out the mud. She could not breathe. She twisted to the right, back to the left, and to the right again. Her right eye was covered. She twisted one more time and her left eye was covered.

“No more victim’s eye view,” Maria giggled, changing the monitor. “That was really cooooool.”

The monitor instantly switched to the general scene view of the older system. The top of Debbie’s head disappeared down into the thick mud, leaving only her arms, clawing hopelessly at the mud. In twenty seconds Debbie was completely under and the surface was still.

Alice was staring at the screen, her mouth slightly open in awe. Her right hand was across her belly, the fingers spread wide and pressing very slightly upward against her breasts.

“Sexy, wasn’t it?” Maria asked, knowingly.

“What?” Alice answered after an awkward delay. “What did you say?”

“You found it pretty sexy, didn’t you?” Maria asked again with a sly grin. “I certainly did.”

“It got my attention,” Alice answered. “Scared me to death…. I certainly don’t want to do it myself…. Any more than Debbie did.”

“You don’t get it, do you?” Maria laughed. “What makes you think Debbie didn’t want to sink.”

“Huh?... You saw it…. You heard her scream…. you told me yourself she hated it,” Alice argued.

“Sure she screams, she struggles, she’s genuinely frightened of it,” Maria explained. “Why doesn’t she quit then?”

Alice ’s jaw dropped. She had no answer.

Maria grabbed Alice ’s arm as if to emphasize she was about to reveal a big secret. “Debbie has worked here for four months…. I told you that before…. And she’s gone under in the quicksand more than a dozen times…. she could quit, but she doesn’t…. Down deep, to make a bad pun, she loves it.”

“Oh,” Alice responded hesitantly. “Yeah, I guess so…. I see…. I guess she isn’t all THAT scared of it, is she?”

“She’s scared all right, but she likes it in a way…. I think it will affect you the same way,” said Maria.

“I don’t know….. you might be right,” Alice responded tentatively. “Let’s see what else is going on out there. Go to your display of park activity”

Maria made a couple of mouse clicks and the screen changed to a tiled display, each of the six windows showing the general scene for one client currently inside. One window was just a black screen, indicating an adventure that had come to an end.

“Well, this is Debbie’s scene, of course,” said Maria, pointing to the blank screen. “Nothing much happening here,” she added, indicating a screen showing a couple walking through a dark jungle area.

“How about that one,” Alice suggested, referring to the fourth window. “Bring that one up to full screen.”

“Oh that should be a good one,” Maria said. “Her name is Jenna, I think. It’s supposed to be a replication of and old movie scene.”

The screen changed to show several people arranged around what was obviously a quicksand pit. A young woman in a leather halter and skirt was on one side of the pit, being held by ropes held by two others, dressed as pirates of some sort, on opposite ends of the pit. The rope was around her upper torso and her hands appeared to be bound behind her back. A third pirate, apparently the leader, seemed to be in some sort of confrontation with a very muscular male a few dozen yards away, appeared to be directing her cohorts to pull the girl into the pit.

“I believe the scene involves her being force into quicksand in order to force some guy named Ursus to surrender without a fight,” explained Maria. “Let’s see what happens.”

Maria and Alice watched as Jenna was pulled forward into the mire. She tried to pull on one rope, and then the other but to no avail.

“Watch, Ursus,” said the lead pirate. “Watch as your precious Jenna goes down into the quicksand.”

“I’ll kill you all for this,” threatened Ursus. “Let her go.

“If you don’t surrender we will let her go, Ursus,” the lead pirate gloated. “We’ll let her go under.”

“Very dramatic,” said Alice , interrupting Maria’s attention. “Let’s see this from Jenna’s point of view.”

The view changed instantly with a single mouse click.

“Very well,” Ursus conceded. “I surrender.”

Ursus held his hands in front of his body and walked slowly forward. One of the pirates came forward, abandoning Jenna for the moment, and bound his hands with another rope. Jenna continued sinking, looking back and forth from Ursus to the other guard still holding a rope, while going down steadily to about her waist.

“Now, get her out of there,” Ursus demanded.

“Come now Ursus, I give the orders here,” said the head pirate evilly.

“You promised if I surrendered you’d let her go free,” Ursus complained.

“No,” said the lead pirate. “I said I’d let her sink if you didn’t surrender… I didn’t say what I’d do if you did surrender.”

The lead pirate grinned evilly at Ursus, then looked down at Jenna before turning to her cohorts. “Let her sink anyway,” she said.

Ursus began to struggle violently but it was too late. Jenna was already almost to her shoulders and even if he got free getting her out would be difficult. Jenna pulled violently on the single rope still held by a pirate, but she quickly let it go, throwing the rope into the mire.

“Help!...... Help me…..Oh!” she cried, sinking rapidly to her shoulders. “Pleeeeeeze!”

All of the pirates were now involved in the struggle with Ursus, and paid no attention to Jenna’s pleas. Continuing to thrash back and forth helplessly, in ten seconds she was neck deep and still sinking. In ten more, her head was tilted back as far as it could go and the mud was at her lips.

“Heeeellghphghl…” she screamed weakly as the mire closed over her mouth. Her eyes remained above the surface, looking back and forth wildly for only a few more seconds.
Alice reached over Maria’s shoulder and changed the scene at this point. Jenna’s arms were still waving about as the top of her head disappeared down into the bog.

“You know, this is getting interesting,” admitted Alice .

“I told you, didn’t I,” Maria chortled.

At that moment the two young women were interrupted as Debbie emerged from the private room that served an entry portal number one. The revealing costume she had worn inside was replaced by an outfit very similar to Maria’s.

“Welcome back to the real world,” Maria greeted her. “Everything ready for the hunt?”

“Oh yeah,” Debbie answered. “I fell in again and went under though…. damn I hate that pit!”

“You love it,” challenged Maria. “And what’s more you know you love it!”

“I do not!” answered Debbie emphatically, but her voice revealed that she knew that she did love it at some level.

“Oh, Debbie… this is Alice …. Alice is a programmer from Corporate headquarters,” Maria said, changing the subject. “ Alice is here to install a software upgrade.”

“Hi, Alice ,” said Debbie in a tone much friendlier than the preceding banter.

“Hi, Debbie,” Alice responded in an equally friendly tone.

“ Alice will be going under in the quicksand later today,” Maria announced.

“What?” Alice retorted. “I never said that.”

“Ah, but you didn’t have to,” said Maria knowingly. “It was written all over your face while we were watching Debbie…. and Jenna especially,… I told you before you wanted to do it, and you admitted I was right!.”

Alice said nothing. It was clear she was confused about her own feelings, and was beginning to realize Maria knew her better than she knew herself.

Debbie stepped between the two and pulled Alice slightly aside. “She’s always right about these things, you know. She tells me I love it. I don’t believe her – I’m scared to death of the quicksand – but I keep going out there over and over.”

“But…” Alice tried to protest.

Debbie cut her off. “If she says you want to do it, you do,” she said. “Go ahead and do it!”

Maria interrupted at this point. “My friends; my shift is over in five minutes, and I feel like going in for a little adventure of my own.” Then, turning to Alice , she added, “Why don’t you come with me. I’ll take you directly to the thickest, sexiest, bubbling clay pit you’ve ever imagined.”

Alice was unable to speak for a second. Half of her consciousness wanted to run for her car and the other half was fixated on the quicksand.

“Come on…. you can just turn around and come back if you don’t like what you see,” Maria continued.

“You might as well,” said Debbie. “If you leave now you’ll just drive for an hour and then turn around and come back…. The stuff is irresistible, ... I ought to know,”

“Well, okay,” said Alice , finally crossing the line of her emotional confusion. “We’ll just go look at it.”

“Good,” said Debbie. “I want to watch from this new point of view thing.”

Fifteen minutes later, Alice and Maria were wired up and lay down on the beds in their respective entrance portal rooms. A minute later they stood on a small stone patio just outside the building they had been in a few minutes before. In front of them was a clearing with some fruit trees and flowers, and beyond that was the jungle.

“The adventure really begins here,” said Maria as they reached the thick foliage that marked the jungle. The first quicksand pit is just a few yards in, but its not the best….But jump in if you like.”

“Gotta admit, I am kinda curious,” said Alice . “But let’s look around a bit first.”

Less than a minute later they entered a small clearing. The ground was very flat and there were no plants or bushes, but no hint of anything wet.

“This is the quagmire right here, this whole area,” Maria explained. “It doesn’t look like much but this area can be extremely treacherous. Get in up to both knees and you’re done for without help… it’s extremely deep.”

“I’m following your lead,” said Alice . “And my heart is pounding like crazy…. I’m scared to death.”

“We can go back if you want,” Alice offered.

“No,” Alice answered. “I’ll be all right…. Its very exciting.”

With Maria in the lead they two women moved cautiously around the pit, staying in the clearing but as close to the surrounding foliage as possible. Once past the pit they moved rapidly along a well-marked jungle trail for several hundred yards. The overhead jungle canopy made it very dark and the whole place had a musty odor resulting from the high humidity and fungal decay of plant life.

“There’s another very large pit around this corner,” said Maria as they came to a more open area. “This isn’t the really great pit either but it isn’t bad. It’s the one where that girl we watched named Jenna was sunk.”

The jungle then opened into another very large clearing, easily a quarter acre in size. Like the first one it was completely flat, but there were several places where it was wet and very obviously a bog.

“That spot over there is where Jenna went under,” Maria whispered, pointing to a disturbed-looking spot near the left edge. “We need to be really quiet here, cause those pirates could be still around…. and they’ll probably sink us if they catch us.”

“Okay,” Alice answered in a barely perceptible whisper.

“The path here goes right across the middle,” Maria went on.

“Okay, I’ll follow you,” said Alice .

“Might not be such a good idea,” Maria giggled softly. “I might just walk right into the mire, just for fun.”

“Oh, yeah, “ Alice answered back. “Well I might just shout at the top of my lungs and get us captured by those pirates.”

“I dare you to do just that,” Maria laughed softly.

The two women made it across the mire and re-entered the jungle. After several hundred yards more they once again came into a clearing, much smaller than the last.

“The clay pit we want is in this clearing,” said Maria, speaking in a normal voice once again. “Right over there.”

The pit could be clearly seen after another twenty yards. It was only about five yards long and perhaps three wide, although it was not certain exactly where the edge was. The surface was very obviously wet but there was no hint of surface water. It was all grayish, thick clay. Every second or so, a fair-sized bubble raised the surface a couple of inches over an area perhaps a foot across; then broke with a blurping noice. That the whole thing was treacherous mire of deadly quicksand was unambiguously demonstrated by the presence, near the far edge, of an upraised forearm and hand, ridigdly clawed in the agony of suffocation.

“You okay?” asked Maria. “You look a little green around the gills.”

“I’m okay,” said Alice . Her voice was slightly weak and hoarse. ”I am a bit light-headed, though….. damn, this is amazing.”

The two women stared at the pit for nearly a minute without speaking, their thoughts unspoken.

Maria finally broke the spell, “Well, do you want to go back?” she said.

“No!” Alice answered emphatically. “I don’t want to go back…. I want to go under.”

“Oh, cool,” giggled Maria. “Want to make a lot of noise and make the pirates come and sink us?”

“Naw!, I want to just walk right in!” Alice responded. “I guess you were quite right.”

“Neat!” said Maria. “OK, you step in, and then I’ll join you.”

There was no further hesitation. Alice simply walked rapidly and boldly straight into the pit, and kept going until she bogged down and could move no further. Maria did exactly the same thing, perhaps two seconds behind and a few feet away. At first they sank rapidly, then more slowly, but they never quite stopped moving inexorably downward. For the first minute or so, until they were well past t heir waists, Alice was like a child in a mud puddle, moving her legs up and down and rubbing the smooth, fluid mud all over herself. Maria was more placid, simply standing in the ooze and letting it draw her down. As the mud rose around her ribs, however, Alice ’s eyes began to grow wid. Anxiety was beginning to grow; beginning to displace the sensual arousal that had dominated her consciousness for the last few minutes. Maria was sensing the same thing, and just as intensely, but her less animated initial reaction made the contrast less noticeable.

“Is it still fun?” asked Maria. “Still want to go under?”

“Its getting a little hard to breathe,” Alice answered. She was several inches deeper than Maria and feeling a correspondingly greater pressure from the weight of the mud. “I don’t know…. I mean yes….. I think…..damn this is scary!”

Maria was not as deep as Alice but was leaning forward awkwardly. She pushed herself into a more normal position but sank to a position about equal with Alice in the process.

“There’s no escaping now,… we’re going under,” said Maria, her voice beginning to reveal similar anxiety. “We don’t have much time.”

“Are you as scared as I am?” Alice cried. She was breathing heavily now, not quite gasping for breath.

“Its always like this….. for me….. anyway, “Maria croaked, breathing just as hard.

The two women continued to struggle, sinking ever deeper and steadily. In twenty seconds the mud was over their shoulders and climbing their necks. In twenty more it was at their chins. Every move was futile and just made them sink more rapidly. It might have been possible to remain motionless if they could stop sinking further but that was impossible. Even if they could suppress the urge to thrash and flail at the engulfing mire, every breath would cause them to sink another millimeter or so. Going and, and soon, was inevitable.

“Sorry I pushed you to come out here,” Maria gasped apologetically. “I didn’t think you’d be this scared….thought you would want this.”

“I’m scared,” Alice gasped. “But I DO want to go under…. I love it.”

A few seconds later the mud covered Maria’s mouth, then her nose. She twisted violently from side to side, and even managed to get mouth high enough for another breath before the mud took her again. Alice watched wide-eyed as Maria thrashed back and forth uselessly for half a minute before her eyes were covered. Then her own breathing was cut off by the rising mire. Then she was twisting and thrashing herself, trying and failing to get another breath. She could still see Maria’s hands projecting above the surface when her own vision was cut off.

“Not bad,” Debbie said to herself, changing the monitor view to show what was left of Alice ’s arms flailing about above the mud. “I might just have to check on that icon during lunch.”







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[DJlurker]

Can't believe no one commented on this yet... This is a decent story for something written a while ago.

[higginshw]

Can't believe no one commented on this yet... This is a decent story for something written a while ago.

You know it. Plus, I'm very impressed of the action.