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Shock caused her to kick her legs and down she went lower, the sand co the lower half of her body She’d slipped further down in the hour she’d been trapped

Don’t panic, she told herself, even as she flailed again, and the flailing just pulled her down deeper, faster

Coet control This won’t be pleasant No need to rush blindly into this Try at least to savor your last hour of life

The realization that she was trapped and unable to free herself finally hit hoht left her No reason to hurry death along And she wasn’t sinking anyone, but her ar

A big so

Now all she had to do was stay relaxed and think

Think

There’s got to be a way out

But turning her head, she could see nothing to grab, nothing secure to hold No way to pull herself out

She drew a deep breath and felt the sand give and she slipped, not far, just a couple inches, but that was far enough

To die in quicksand

No one died in quicksand People couldn’t die in quicksand And desert quicksand? Didn’t exist That was just movie stuff

And yet she was trapped and it was sand

Tally felt the slow slip of sand and knew she was sinking again, still slowly, steadily, sliding though to where? What lay beneath the sand? A hole? More ground? A cave? Why had the sand beneath her given way?

Tally shuddered i sand Orher faster now but she continued to drop, lower,hot and hard against her lungs

Her pulse quickened and adrenaline coursed through her Hell, hell, hell

She didn’t want to go this way Didn’t want to go at all, but certainly not this way And the more she knew she didn’t want to suffocate in sand, the harder she thrashed the lower she slipped

God, don’t let me die this way!

“Stop fighting,” a familiar voice said from behind her

“Tair?” Hot tears surged to her eyes Relief flooded through her She tried to turn to see him and just sank deeper

“You’ve got to stoparound the side of the sandpit, keeping a careful distance between them

The sand was up to her aret me out?”