No (Wo)man's Land by Fear359 (f/m, qs, grim) "Nicole what in the world is wrong with you, why don't you ever listen to anything that I tell you?" "Steve, what ever do you mean?" "You know damn good an well what I'm talking about! You're planning on going to Dead Man's Plateau. Why?" "Because Steve, I am a big girl, and I can take care of myself, and to tell you the truth I am getting sick, and tired of you always trying to protect me all the time." "Nicole, you don't understand! No one has ever made it to Dead Man's Plateau and come back to tell about it. The natives say that there is a curse around that mountain!" "Well, I don't believe it and I'm going, and you can't stop me, so don't even try!" "Fine, Nicole. You know I love you, but if you want to be stupid about this D.M.P. thing then go ahead. I know that I can't stop you, just please be careful!" "Oh God! You see? There you go again! You think that just because I am a woman that I can't take care of myself. Well, let me tell you something Mr. I was doing just fine without you, and I will be fine again on my own. You got that?" "Yeah, I got it. So, when are you leaving?" "What's it to you? If I tell you when I'm leaving all you'll try to do is stop me. Let's just say it will be soon!" "Nicole, I won't try and stop you, because I couldn't even if I wanted to. You have a mind of your own, and will do what you want. So I'll see you later, I hope!" "God! Men! You think that you're the only ones that can explore. Well, I'm just as good as you, and I'm about to prove it to you." And with that Nicole walks down the hall, and begins to pack her bags for the trip to Dead Man's Plateau! D.M.P. is a mountain in the jungles of Mexico, and it is said that no man, or woman has ever climbed it. That is because all that have gone in have never come out. The Natives say that a bad sprit lives at the base of the mountain, killing all intruders that come in to its domain. No one has tried to go there in over 10 years, but today is different. Nicole Boone wants to climb it, to prove to the world, that a woman can do anything a man can. Her boyfriend Steve knows that she can do it, but all who have tried to climb it have died including his parents, and their bodies were never found only because the natives and guides were all too afraid to go near the place. So, there you have it, and Nicole is finishing up her packing. "Steve, I'm going now, and I'll see you when I get back." "Nicole ... Never mind." "No! What were you gonna say? Let me guess: Be careful? Take Care? Which one Steve? Oh, hell! Never mind. I'm leaving!" Nicole jumps in her jeep, and heads for D.M.P, and when she gets to the village, she will hire a guide and be the first person to climb D.M.P. and live to tell about it. The trip to the village takes about an hour, but Nicole does not have time to go slow. She has the jeep flying about 60 miles an hour over the jungle terrain, and she pulls into the village in about 35 minutes later. "Good day. Is there something that we can do for you today?" "Yes. I am looking for a guide to take me to Dead Man's Plateau!" "No guide take you there. Bad place, bad sprits there. No one take you!" "Come on there has got to be someone in this damn village, that isn't afraid of some stupid legend!" "Bad, bad place! No one go there, come home, so no one go anymore. You go home. You go there you not come home!" "Bullshit! I'm gonna climb that damn mountain, no matter what!" "No! No! You must not go bad place!" "Shut up! If no one will be my guide then I'll go myself!" And Nicole speeds out of the village headed for the jungle, and Dead Man's Plateau. From the stories that she has heard, the mountain can be seen about 15 miles from the village, and then it's another 6 miles through dense and dangerous jungle, but right now she doesn't care how dangerous it might be. All Nicole knows is that she has to climb that Plateau, no matter what. "13 miles into the jungle, and I still don't see this thing. It should be coming up soon, I hope. God! What, if I took the wrong road? What, if I ... Oh my God! There it is! There it is!" Nicole slams on the brakes, and just sits in the jeep staring at this mountain in front of her, and she starts to think that maybe she bites off a little more than she could chew. But that thought was soon cast away as she jumped out of the jeep and got her things together. With a little luck she should be at the base of the mountain in 2 hours, depending on how bad the jungle in front of her was. "Well, time to change into something that matches my surroundings." Nicole puts on a pair of long pants, long sleeve shirt, and a pair of hiking boots to protect her feet from the ruff and rugged ground. After she changed she takes off, headed straight for her destiny. "God! This jungle is thick! I hope that I don't run into any wild animals out here. Not that I couldn't handle it, it's just that I don't like to kill. Man, I feel like I've been walking for hours, but I'm almost there! Looks like another 20 or 30 minutes, and I'll be there." As Nicole comes out of the dense jungle, she finds that there is a river in front of her, and knowing what might be in there, she stops and thinks about what she is going to do. "Hmm, river, crocs, anacondas, piranhas who knows what could be in there, and I haven't come this far to get eaten by something. There has got to be a way around this river. Hell all I have to do is look for one." As Nicole searches for a way around the river, she sees a low spot in the river, where the water is only about a foot deep. Looking both ways, and making sure the bottom is not quicksand, she very slowly walks out into the shallow river stream, and gets to the other side with no problem. "Great! I made it! And now the next stop: D.M.P. It must be my imagination, because this jungle didn't look that dense from the other side of the river. Must be thirsty. Better drink some water, and press on." 20 minutes later Nicole is pushing through the last of the jungle, and is about 300 yards from D.M.P. Hot, tired, and sweaty Nicole takes another drink of water, and decides that the best way to start this climb is to be comfortable, so she kicks off her boots, and takes off her pants, and reaches into her bags, and pulls out a pair of shorts. After putting her boots back on she looks up, and the mountain, and says, "Prepare to be conquered today, D.M.P." Nicole noticed that there were no trees of any kind near the mountain, but that just meant that nothing would get in her way. The only thing that she saw was, that the open area was muddy, but that had to do with the rain running off the mountain, and at the very worse she might get a little muddy, nothing more, nothing less. "Oh, if Steve could only see me now. He would see that I'm not some silly little girl who needs a man to protect her all the time. And this will prove it to him." The ground underneath Nicole feet is getting softer, but she has her mind on getting to the mountain, so that she doesn't realize it until ... "Hey! Hey! What the hell is this? What's going on! Oh, shit! I can't get my feet out of this damn mud! Maybe if I pull hard enough I can break the hold of this damn mud!" As Nicole pulls as hard and she can, she can see the mud pull her in to her ankles. "Oh, shit! No, no, NO QUICKSAND! I'VE WALKED RIGHT INTO QUICKSAND! GOT TO GET OUT NOW OR IT WILL BE TOO LATE!" Nicole, begins to pump her legs for all they are worth, but all that does is loosen the quicksand up, as she slides into it up to her knees. And the harder she struggles, the deeper she sinks. She puts her hands on her left leg, and begins to pull as hard as she can. But the quicksand has her right where it wants her, and she is doing all the things that you aren't supposed to do in quicksand. "HELP ME, PLEASE! SOMEBODY! I'M TRAPPED IN QUICKSAND, AND I'M SINKING! PLEASE SOMEBODY! ANYBODY! STEVE! GOD, PLEASE, STEVE! I'M SINKING! QUICKSAND, TRAPPED! HELP ME!" Nicole has sunk up to her waist, and she will not stop struggling. And she doesn't feel it, but the quicksand has put pressure on her feet, and they are pointed straight down, so the quicksand can take her quickly now. Nicole makes the second worse mistake of her life: She plunged her arms into the quicksand to try and free her legs. But when she couldn't she found, that her arms were now stuck in the sticky death trap. And now there is really no hope of escape. "Someone, please help me! I'm sinking in quicksand! Help me!" Nicole is up to her chest, and now she realizes, why no one has ever made it back from D.M.P: It's because they never made it to the mountain. The quicksand had swallowed everyone that came here, and now she would be the next victim! If only she would have listened to Steve for once in her life! If only she would not have been so stupid! Steve knew what he was talking about: The dangers of this trip! Why didn't she listen? "Please, God help me! Please! I don't want to die like this! Not in quicksand! SOMEBODY! HELP ME, PLEASE!" The quicksand has hold of Nicole's neck now, and she has started to panic again, and tries desperately to escape, but to no avail. As she tilts her head back it is now only a matter of time until the quicksand takes all of Nicole's body to join the others who tried to climb a mountain called Dead Man's Plateau. With one final push Nicole feels the quicksand roll into her ears and up the sides of her, face, and then as the quicksand moves to her eyes. She closes them, knowing what is coming next. And then it is very still, just like nothing was ever there. Steve will search for her. He will not find her, and he will know that that mountain has claimed another person that he has loved!