Apocalypsis 03 - Exodus

about the defenses they were constructing. So, even though I was a little worried about him thinking I was tracking him down because I liked being with him, I decided to go find Paci anyway, and see what he and his group had been up to.
    ***
    Paci and his group of defenders were working near the area where Peter, Bodo and I had first pulled up in the swamps. I’d wandered a good hour before I was able to track them down, getting various directions from people I stumbled upon along the way.
    Paci was down in a hole banging away on something. I approached the edge and looked down to find him waist-deep in black water, looking dirty and sweaty as hell.
    “What are you doing down there?”
    “Oh … hey, Bryn. Pounding in some stakes. Wanna come join me?” He smiled invitingly.
    I grimaced. “No thanks.” I looked up at Fohi who was standing across from me, handing things down to Paci as he asked for them.
    “Pretty tight, eh?” he asked.
    “If tight means dangerous-looking, then yeah. Tight.”
    He puffed out his chest with pride. “Anyone thinking about showing up here unannounced is going to get a little surprise … a nasty one.”
    I nodded, not sure what to think about this vicious trap. Anyone falling in would instantly become a shish-kabob.
    “Help me out. I’m done here,” said Paci, holding up his hand to Fohi.
    Fohi grabbed it and pulled, but a piece of the ground underneath him near the edge of the hole crumbled, causing him to lose his footing. He let go of Paci and his arms flailed out to the sides as he fell forward, his feet now on solid ground, but his body angling down towards the pit, moving almost in slow motion.
    I saw Paci let go, falling back slightly but able to catch himself on the inner wall of the pit. Fohi, however, had nowhere to go but straight down horizontally. And down he was going.
    I did the only thing I could think to do, not stopping to consider all the outcomes. I leaned over the pit and connected my hands to the top of Fohi’s shoulders, stopping his descent into the hole; unfortunately, now we were both leaning over it, and only the triangle made by our feet on the crumbling edges and our connection at his shoulders over the top of the pit was keeping both of us from being skewered below.
    “Ahh, Bryn!” he yelled in a high voice. “What are you doing?!”
    “Holy, shit, Bryn!” yelled Paci, backing up against the wall as tightly as he could. “What the hell?!” He reached his hands up, but he couldn’t touch either of us.
    “Get someone!” I grunted out. “Pull back on both of us … at the same time.” I could feel my feet slipping.
    “Hurry up!” yelled Fohi, his voice two octaves higher. “Ahhhhhhh!” He was yelling and holding onto my wrists with his hands. His body was shaking with the stress of staying nearly horizontal over the hole. My abs and back muscles were burning from the effort of not collapsing.
    Hands grabbed my waist from behind. “Wait!” I yelled. “Fohi needs to get pulled back at the same time or he’s gonna fall in!” His rescuer wasn’t in position yet. We waited the few precious seconds for him to get there; it was Yokci and he looked majorly stressed at his responsibility. I watched as he positioned his feet on either side of Fohis’.
    I heard Rob’s voice behind me. “On three! Ready? One … two … three!” I felt myself yanked back forcibly, but the ground under my feet started caving in, so Rob was only able to keep me from landing horizontally over the stakes. I fell into the hole, my right leg scraping down the side of one of the sharpened sticks, getting sliced open in the process. I hit bottom but kept my hands up near the top of the hole. Rob grabbed onto them and kept me from falling over sideways onto a spike.
    “Holy fuck! ” I yelled, panting now over the pain in my leg. My wound was being filled with dirty swamp water and bleeding into the pit.
    “Get her out!” yelled Paci, and seconds later several hands grabbed me by the wrists and under the armpits, heaving me upwards. Paci turned around and scrambled out on his own, using one of the stakes to push himself up with. He crawled over to me on hands and knees, staring open-mouthed at my leg.
    I looked down at it with trepidation, expecting to see it filleted open; but it wasn’t bleeding as heavily as I thought it would be, and I couldn’t see much in the way of exposed leg innards, so I was happily relieved. But that didn’t stop the