Jungle Justice 2-Harsh Mistress by PM2K

[PM2K]

Another jungle justice type story...

Jungle Justice 2 - Harsh Mistress

"I can't believe we did it!"
Susan nearly laughs as she and Heather run along the muddy trail which snakes through the thick tangled tropical growth of trees, vines, grasses and ferns.
"The Heart of the Jaguar!" her companion gasps. "Who would have believed it?"
Susan, a blonde clad in tattered cut off denim shorts and a short sleeved khaki safari shirt, its buttons open part way down her chest, and Heather, a redhead in olive green cargo shorts and tight black t-shirt, race down slope through the jungle. Both wear low cut brown leather hiking boots and carry backpacks. Neither can believe their good fortune.

The pair, both former army reservists on the run for various crimes, were hiding out among a tiny cluster of shacks which passed for a port along the muddy river. They survived by doing various odd jobs, and occasional break-ins and muggings of eco-tourists who'd happen by.
It was hearing from the locals of a treasure trove upstream which drove the young pair to seek out their fortune, despite the urgings of all not to venture north.
"That is her land..." they would say. "Her land... taboo..."
"Her" turned out to be a statuesque and stunning platinum blonde woman who introduced herself as Sandra, shortly after the pair reached a small but well kept village in the heart of the forest, located on the shores of the river.
Both Heather and Susan noticed she wasn't wearing much of anything... a small loincloth made of the skin of some spotted animal was all that protected her modesty. An elaborate necklace of long teeth, bones, beads and feathers nestles between her bare breasts, her skin tanned golden and glistened attractively with a slight sheen of sweat.
She also rather bluntly told them to get lost, especially after hearing of their treasure seeking as the reason for arriving in her jungle.
Then Susan's patience ran out, and before anyone knew what was happening, she had grabbed a small child who was passing by, pressed her Browning Hi-Power against the base of his skull, and told the jungle queen there had better BE treasure nearby and she should lead the way to it or there would be consequences.
Heather flinches at the memory. But it did get results. They never would have even heard of this rock if Sandra hadn't let its existence slip out just then...

"Would you have killed that kid?" Heather asks, as the pair rapidly make their way down the jungle trail. Compared to what passed for tracks in this tangled wilderness, this one is as wide and well prepared as a country lane way.
"Huh?" Susan responds, momentarily distracted as she concentrates on maintaining her footing on the steep slope. Her shoulder length dirty blonde hair is plastered to her skin with the sweat which flows freely down her face.
"That native kid... the one you held the gun on..." Heather gasps, as she tries to maintain the pace. Her green eyes flash beneath her red hair, which is tied back from her face in a loose pony tail. "If that jungle woman didn't lead us to the jewel... would you have?"
Susan grasps a nearby tree to steady her progress, then pauses. Her sharp gray eyes lock onto her companion's for an instant.
"What does it matter?" she says, frowning. "That nature girl took us to the temple like she said she would... and the kid's not hurt..."
"But would you have pulled the trigger?" Heather presses. "If Sandra had refused... would you have?"
Susan falls silent. The holstered pistol on her left hip weighs on her like a conscience.
"Let's go..." she says finally. "We got to get to the boat and put as much distance as possible between the temple and us... just in case..."
Heather falls silent, and follows quietly behind Susan. While the redhead was certain she had killed the jungle woman - she had hit her from behind pretty hard with a rock, aiming for the base of her skull - she couldn't be sure as Sandra had fallen off a small cliff into a lagoon, vanishing swiftly beneath the still waters.
That lingering doubt, and the possibility they could be pursued by the local natives, keeps them going.

They were making swift progress when their luck runs out.
The trail, which had been steep, suddenly levels out, then fades as it approaches a short expanse of dark wet earth, perhaps twenty feet across. Clumps of grass and ferns dot its surface, along with a scattering of shallow puddles of murky water.
Still racing down slope, neither woman can slow their forward momentum, and with a screen of branches and leaves obscuring the view ahead, they didn't know what lay ahead.
Then...
Susan and Heather burst through the curtain of branches and leaves and both suddenly plunge crotch deep into a thick wet slurry of mud, sand and dark peat. A loud wet plop accompanies their impact, which causes the whole clearing to shudder.
"What the.... what is this shit?" Susan says, twisting around. Both of her legs are held tight in the warm jelly-like muck, which presses against her groin and ass, following their contours snugly.
Heather struggles to free herself, but finds she is also trapped, held firm by the mud. She looks around at its dark surface, and frowns. The stuff at first glance resembles the peat bogs she and Susan's unit had to work their way around during some exercise a few years back, but underneath...
She cautiously pushes her right hand into it, fighting its intense suction to pull free a fistful of thick muddy ooze, a weird mix of rich brown and dark gray clay, made gritty with sand particles.
"Oh, God..." Heather says. "Oh, crap..."
Susan twists around to look at Heather, a motion which causes her to sink about an inch into the bog. The two women are stuck about four feet apart, just out of reach of each other.
"What's wrong?"
"I think we're in trouble..." Heather says quietly. As if to emphasize this, she feels her hips slip down a little lower, the thick surface of the mud rising a tad up the curves of her hips.
"No shit..." Susan snaps. "If those natives find us stuck like this, we're screwed..."
"We're more that that..." Heather says. 'We're sunk... literally..."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Susan frowns, wiggling her pelvis in an effort to break the mud's grip on her. The ground around her ripples sluggishly in response, and she feels herself settle in deeper.
"Don't you get it?" Heather says, her voice touched with a tinge of anger and fear. "This is quicksand..."
"Quicksand?" Susan starts to laugh. "You're kidding, right? That's something from the movies, isn't it?"
"I wish it were..." Heather responds. The mud has crept over her butt and jiggles just below the belt holding her shorts up.

Susan's smile fades as she sinks a little lower. The muck consumes the rest of her denim shorts and rolls over to surround her lower back and belly, both visible below her shirt which had burst open as the result of her struggles. Her breasts bob free, clear of the shirt which has imprisoned them.
"Hey... I... I can't feel any bottom..." she says, panic flaring in her eyes. "I can't feel anything down there... except more mud..."
Heather's lips thin, sweat beading on her forehead. She also can detect nothing solid beneath her, and looking around, sees neither of them is close enough to the trees to grab anything to haul themselves out.
Trapped air beneath the quicksand's surface bursts forth around Susan, making wet farting sounds as she begins to thrash in place. Heather is about to yell at her to stop moving when she senses her belt buckle slip under, and the thick mire encircle her waist.
"Jesus... oh, Jesus..." Susan gasps, her bare waist and chest becoming splattered with flecks of dark mud. "I'm sinking! I'm sinking! I'm sinking fast!"
"I know! So am I!" Heather says sharply. "Stop moving, you stupid bitch! You're making it worse!"
Susan stops struggling, and glares at Heather, anger flaring through the panic. Heather in turn manages a slight smile and shrugs.
Susan nods, then tries to calm herself. Those past moments of struggling only succeeded in churning up the quicksand into a sloppy thick slime, and driving her past her waist to her lower ribcage.
She takes her shirt off, leaving her naked from the waist up, and twists it into a makeshift rope. Looking at it, she glances over to Heather.
The redhead shakes her head slowly.
"Too short... and we have nothing to secure it to..."
"How about the packs?" Susan says hopefully, then looks behind her to see the rest of her pack sink out of sight. It had slipped off her shoulders unnoticed when she had removed her shirt.
Heather sighs, still feeling the heft of her backpack. She knew she wasn't carrying any rope, which is what they really need to have any chance of getting out.
"Don't worry about it..." she says. "It was a nice idea..."
The pair fall silent as they both try to remain as still as possible, while thinking of ways in which they could get out on their own.
The quicksand didn't seem to care, though, and the women continue to feel themselves sink deeper and deeper into the deadly morass, an agonizing inch at a time.
"Oh, God... we're going to die, aren't we?" Susan says, as the bottoms of her breasts begin to press into the dense quicksand. She lifts her arms up, trying to keep them clear of the muck.
"Don't give up yet..." Heather says, shuddering as the turgid earth reaches her lower chest. "Just... hang in there..."

Sounds of branches snapping brings Heather and Susan's heads sharply around. Both gasp at the sight.
Standing at the edge of the quicksand bog is the tall form of Sandra. Her hair is damp from moisture, and streaked with clotted blood, but her blue eyes remain sharp, and she stares intently at the two, as they struggle to stay afloat in the jungle mire.
"Okay.... you got us..." Susan says, her breasts half sunk in the quicksand. "Just get us out of here, okay? We'll come quietly... surrender to the jungle patrol or the law or whoever..."
Sandra remains silent, her eyes narrowing.
"All right... all right..." Susan pants, then looks at Heather. "Give it to her..."
"What?" she replies. The quicksand is now an inch below the lower curve of her breasts, their shape clearly visible beneath the tight, black fabric.
"The jewel, you idiot..." Susan retorts. "Give her back the Heart of the Jaguar..."
Heather hesitates, then sighs. Moving slowly in an effort ot not speed her sinking, she removes her pack, then unbuckles one of its pockets. Inside, a crimson translucent rock the size of a hen's egg slides out into her hand. Its many facets sparkle as they catch the late afternoon light.
Looking at Sandra, Heather holds up the jewel. Noting the jungle queen's rather grim expression, she pauses.
"You're not going to take that conk on the head personally, are you?" Heather asks.
Sandra cocks an eyebrow, and lifts her right hand to touch the dried blood which had been trickling down her forehead and face. She scowls at her.
"Oh..." Heather says, then with a sigh tosses her the jewel, which the jungle queen catches with ease.
A long silence follows, broken only by the quiet gurgles of the quicksand. Finally, Susan speaks up, even as she settles deeper into it.
"So... are you going to help us? Toss us a vine or something? I mean, we don't have a lot of time left here..."
Sandra says nothing for a time, instead focusing on examining the jewel. Then, after a small eternity had passed, she turns to look at the two women once again, and speaks, her voice a combination of softness and steel.
"First, let me tell you a story..."
"I hope it's a short one..." Heather says, becoming all too aware of how the quicksand is pressing thickly beneath her breasts, the moisture soaking through her shirt.
Susan keeps trying to stay above the gritty slime to reply in kind. Her cleavage barely peeks out of the brownish muck, and she is finding it hard to keep her arms free of it.
Sandra slowly sits down several feet in front of the pair. She leans back into the shade against the nearby tree, holding the crimson jewel in her right hand. She closes her eyes, as if savoring the wet squelching and slurping sounds the hungry bog is making in response to the two women's struggles.

"Many years ago..." she begins, platinum hair shining even in the shade, "...there lived a pair of explorers and their daughter, who was taught to love and respect the land and valley they lived in... and for years, they lived in peace and happiness..."
"Sounds wonderful..." Susan gasps, and continues to attempt to claw her way out of the muddy trap. She digs shallow trenches in the tepid muck, but remains right where she is sinking. "Couldn't the story wait until after you've hauled us out of here?"
Sandra's eyes snap open, and the chill of their blueness silences her. Heather growls at her companion.
"Don't irritate the jungle woman..." she says. "Especially as she is the only one who can get us out of this mess..."

Sandra continues as if the interruption hadn't occurred.
"...they lived in peace and happiness... until one day, they received visitors....
"The men who arrived from outside the valley said they were looking for a lost temple, and wondered since the couple had spent so many years here, perhaps they would help them find it."
"Now, the explorers knew the temple, but also knew it was taboo. The local tribes stayed clear of it, and the people who did live there guarded it jealously."
"They told the men this, appealing to their reason, and letting them know what they sought was unobtainable. And so, they expected them to leave..."
Sandra sighs deeply.
"Alas... their years in the jungle made them forget the darkness which lies in men's hearts..."
Heather and Susan exchange glances. Neither likes the way the story is going....

"The next day, the couple woke up to stare into the guns of their guests. They clearly weren't going to leave, or listen."
"Dragged outside, they saw their beloved daughter being held, and the expedition's leader gave them a choice... the temple, or their lives."
"To make his point, he shot and killed the woman in front of her young daughter... who could only watch as her mother died in her father's arms..."
"When the leader pointed the gun at his only child, the explorer begged him to stop. With a heavy heart, and daughter held close, he reluctantly led the expedition to the temple... and their deaths."
"The men's weapons took many of their attackers, but couldn't overwhelm the strength of the people... and the intruders were all killed to a man... including the explorer, who died saving his young daughter from the rain of arrows and spears."
Sandra pauses, her eyes glittering. Then she blinks away the moisture and resumes speaking.
"In the aftermath, the warriors approached the girl, the sole survivor, weapons ready. She sat beside her fallen father, and stared straight into the warriors' eyes, never flinching, and calmly waited for the final blow. She was prepared to join her family on the other side..."
"But the blow never came. Impressed by the courage of one so young, the warriors instead took the girl to the shaman, who declared her to be sacred.... a gift from the gods... and so she was spared."
"That sign the shaman spotted which had saved her was her hair... so blonde it was almost white in appearance... a gift from her mother..."

Despite the drenching jungle heat, Susan shivers, the motion causing the warm quicksand to quiver in response. Heather bites her lower lip, and the blood drains from her face as the weight of that statement drives home.

"In time, she grew to adulthood, raised lovingly by the tribe to be their divine protector..." Sandra continues. "Remembering her parents' teachings, she become the protector of all the secret jungle and its many peoples... a role she continues to play..."
Sandra leans forward then, and crawls towards the edge of the quicksand with the lithe grace of a panther. Susan and Heather watch her intensely, their gaze locked on the jungle girl, and the jewel she still holds in her right hand.
Resting prone mere inches from the quicksand bog which continues to hungrily suck down its pair of captives, Sandra holds up the jewel and turns it slowly, so it sparkles in the afternoon sun.
"You see..." she continues, "...that young woman made a vow... a vow that she would do everything within her power so others wouldn't have to suffer the way she did because of the greed of others..."

Susan, sunk to the top of her shoulders, sees the coldness in Sandra's eyes and gets a sick, icy feeling slithering inside her stomach. Heather, feeling her breasts slipping under the thick wet muck, tries to fight off the panic rising within her.
"Oh... God, no..." Susan utters. "Oh, please... you can't! You can't just watch us die!"
Heather shakes her head in disbelief.
"You wouldn't... It's inhuman!"
Sandra remains expressionless as the two continue to sink lower and lower, the quicksand making greedy slurping sounds as it relentlessly sucks them down.
Susan, her shoulders slipping under, panics, and starts desperately clawing at the quicksand, seeking any sort of purchase in its muddy surface, but only getting sloppy handfuls of sandy slime.
Her breathing comes in ragged gasps as she sinks rapidly, driven deep by her actions. Heather, settling shoulder deep and feeling the edge of the quicksand creeping steadily upward, stretches out her right arm in an effort to try and grab Susan's flailing arms, but can't quite reach.
"Help me... please... help me..." Susan begs, her face now barely above the quaking surface. She has tilted her head back, her hair spread all around on top of the quicksand, her ears now filled with wet mud.
"Hang on... Susan... please hang on..." she says, knowing how helpless they both are. She turns her head to look Sandra in the eye.
"What kind of jungle protector are you?" Heather says angrily, the quicksand rolling over the top of her shoulders. "I thought you were a hero of some sort... heroes don't do this!"
Sandra's expression hardens, ever so slightly, before she replies.
"Yes, I am a protector..." she says quietly, "I'm protecting this jungle from people like you..."
Susan utters a short whimper before her mouth and nose slip under the churning surface. Her eyes widen as the last of her air sputters wetly in front of her, then the quicksand flows over her forehead as the rest of her head disappears. Her hair follows in a muddy swirl, then her hands, which macabrely clench tightly at the quicksand before vanishing beneath it.
"Oh, God.... Susan... oh, Susan..." Heather says, voice breaking. The quicksand laps at her chin, slopping at her lower lip in thick waves. She stares at the froth of bubbles marking where her friend had submerged, noting how the muck continues to quake and heave.
Panting, her breath hissing through her teeth, Heather stretches her neck in an effort to keep her mouth clear of the rising mire. Her arms, now outstretched across the quicksand bog, are half submerged, yet she still tries to reach something, anything, to grab onto, even though she knows it is hopeless.
Shutting her mouth just as she sinks below it, Heather now stretches her arm out towards Sandra, her green eyes silently pleading for rescue. Her nostrils widen, taking in air, and soft whimpers could be heard underneath the mud.
Heather never breaks eye contact with the jungle queen, even after her nose gets stopped up with wet earth, and her head slowly slides under. Only after the quicksand laps at the base of her eye sockets does she close them, and the rest of her face swiftly sinks from sight. Her hair flashes red before the dark muck covers it, her hand clenches at air and trembles before it too goes under, fingers wriggling, leaving faint swirls in the quicksand's surface...

Sandra watches the twin sets of bubbles softly rise and pop from the shallow dents left in the surface of the gently heaving quicksand, marking where Susan and Heather had slipped under. She feels the heft of the jewel with a certain grim satisfaction.
One of the hard lessons she learned at such an early age is some predators will never stop until given what they want. They just keep returning, following the faintest rumors into her valley, seeking impossible riches, and hurting people in the process. And no manner of reason, or logic, or pleading would deter them from trying.
It didn't seem to matter the treasure they all sought never existed. It was baffling that no one ever thought to ask what possible use gold or jewels would have to a people living in harmony with nature?
But the treasure hunters kept coming. So, she came upon a solution...
The Heart of the Jaguar.
For the most ruthless, the most mercenary of people, already determined to find their fortune no matter the cost, hearing of this most rare gemstone would be the answer to their greedy prayers... and in their search they would find Sandra, queen of the jungle, serving as their guide.
Who would then lure them away from her valley, and into an exhausting trek for the fabled jewel... which would inevitably lead here, to the hungry sands.

"Fools..." Sandra says, shaking her head slowly as the bubbles cease rising, and the dents in the quicksand's surface slowly flatten out. Looking at the sparkling object in her hand, she still finds it amazing how many keep being lured to their doom by a simple hunk of colored glass...

[jack c]

PM2K - another good revenge story. The sinking is very well described and melodramatic. It is also very realistic that these two, weighed down with jungle equipment, boots, etc., would continue sinking and go under. Thanks for posting - I love the Stories section.

[water_bug_62208]

Outstanding story, PM2K!

Loved the plot, the storyline, and the detailed description of the characters involved as well as the entrappment and sinking of Susan and Heather. And, the surprise conclusion of how the gem was simple glass made for an interesting ending.

Again, another amazing story by you where there's more than "plop and sink." This is another story where it's not the quicksand that makes the story... it's the story itself that is self-supporting. The quicksand is simply an instrument of execution.

Thanks for sharing!