Lost

April stopped,  grasping hold of the thick vine running down from the jungle canopy for support.  The steaming ,  cloying heat enveloping this endless jungle made even walking exhausting.  And that was after managing to swim to shore when the raft upset,  with all the gear, and her companions.  She had managed to fetch up on a small sandbar,  pulling herself up on the bank.  Clad only in her shorts, and the thin top knotted under her breasts.  Her boots even had been lost,  in the swirling current,  making picking her way through the jungle floor a slow,  careful chore.   The blazing sun burned down,  glimpsed through gaps in the trees and vines,  making endless patches of mist and warm fog drifting around her.  And concealing things.  Only minutes before, she had had to detour around an area of swamp and bog,    that appeared endless.   But she had to keep going.  The brief glimpses of large snakes and other animal signs,  proved she dare not remain here long.  The game trail here was barely a path through the dense jungle growth,  but the choling vegetation allowed no other path.  She pushed ahead, the vine swaying beihind her, brushing her shoulder. Already,  her exposed skin was streaked with green and brown,and some small scrapes from the clinging plants. Even her bare midriff was streaked with a green brushstroke,  where a mass of clinging vines had tried to tangle her.  
The enveloping heat was relentless,  causing her to sweat freely,  soaking her clothes and her long hair,  clinging to her neck and back.  And her top and shorts were suffering as well,  the materiel strained and slightly ripped in places.  Especially the top,  which had a rip across the right shoulder to breast from a branch.   Already-exposed bare feet were aching,  but luckily the ground underfoot was relatively soft and damp.  Although,  that may have not been as good a thing as one thought.  The geology here made for many swamps. And bogs. And who knew what else.  Some native tales spoke of impassible areas,  and 'demon earth' that would gorge on the unwary.    It was not the place to blunder about blindly.      
Trudging on,  sweat trickling down her face and neck,  the path gradually grew narrower,  and shorter.  Her head now brushed the dangling vines and plants from above,  making her draw her head down reflexively,  flinching from the contact.   After what must have been at least a kilometer,  she had to stop.  The path ended. Leaving just a narrow opening through the jungle,  which was barely large enough for he body,  but she would have to crawl through it.   Stopping ,  and breathing heavily she looked about.  There was no other path, and going back would lead nowhere.  Dropping to her knees, she then got positioned on all fours.  Inching forward,  the vines and plant matter brushed against her hair and neck causing her to shiver in reaction.  The light was more green as she crawled slowly deeper, into the narrow tunnel.  The feeling of plants tugging on her hair and clothing was constant,  with each movement.  Until finally,  the passage began to widen, then open up as she came out into a wider ,  flatter area.  The jungle still surrounded, but the vegetation was shorter more and more,   ferns and softer plants.   Taking stop of herself,  she was stained worse with green and brown from the clinging tunnel. And he shorts now had a tear up the right leg nearly to the hip. While her top had also suffered,  the right strap dangling limply.  The only fortunate thing, was that the sweat-soaked materiel clung to her body like a second skin.  
She stood erect,  muscles aching,  in spite of the clinging wet heat.  There was no real path here, just the tunnel ending and opening wider and wider, to the range ofher vision in the hazy air.  Ferns and plants mixes with creepers and the low clinging mist which prevailed all through this jungle.   Slowly starting to walk,  the ground underfoot felt gradually firmer,  and more and more covered with a greenish moss and fungus.   The softer ground was almost soothing on her bare feet, with the gradually shorter vegetation and ferns brushed at her thighs, and then calves. Bare areas grew more frequent,  dotted with some mounds and areas where the ground looked clumped up in places, with scattered patches of brush and bush growing on them.  
Slowly picking her way through the soft mossy undergrowth,  she made progress gradually finding the canopy opening slightly,  making things brighter, but no less steamy from the brillliant sunlight.   The jungle sounds still echoed around her but seemed more distant here.   Several mounds seemed piled up , almost like a plow , or avalanche had swept across the landscape.  Clambering up and over them,  she stopped briefly,  sitting and resting on them.  The green mossy had coloured her legs and thighs in places, and she could feel the softness of the ground through her still-wet shorts.    It felt almost slippery in places here, the moss fine under her fingers.   Wiping her hands on shorts,  she stood again and began down the slight slope.  Picking carefully,  she could feel it unsteady underfoot.   A sound from behind her, made her look,  back toward the way she had come,  a crunch or something like wood.  The brief distraction caused her to slip, losing her balance with a short cry as she tumbled down the slope ,  landing several feet out from the bottom in a shallow depression.  Pushing herself upright again,  she felt the soft ground grow even softer,  shifting under her bare feet, and then seeming to rise up her calves,  clinging stickily.  Stretching her arms out for balance,  she felt her feet slipping deeper, as  the green moss exposed a grey-black mass underneath,  clinging to her thickly.   Pulling on her legs,  the muck murmured and hissed,  sounds of suction coming forth as one leg, then the other, sank deeper,   up to her knees.    Taking hold of her right leg with her hands, she pulled hard,  gaining an inch,  but then losing three as it sank deeper.  And fighting for balance,  her other leg soon joined it.   Fear began to take hold,  as her breathing grew faster,  and sweat ran freely down her face and chest.  Eyes wide,  she tried pumping her legs, twisting them back and forth. Fighting the suction,  but each thrust and twist only made her sink deeper into the mire,  now up to her thighs, quivvering from the strain.  The surface also undulated with her struggles and movements up and down,  the entire depression pulling on her.  Twisting her hips and legs,  trying to turn and face the slope,  was only partially successful,  at the cost of her body sinking deeper,  up to her hips and buttocks,  and sinking even more as her arms flailed for balance,  nearly falling on her back.  Half-turned, she could see a patch of bush near the edge.  Stretching frantically,  her hand fell short.  Trying again,  resulted in the same, although this time her hand slapped against the quivvering surface ,  startling her with the realization that she was sinking steadily,  now up over waist and feeling it sliding up her exposed midsection.
Thinking frantically,  she tugged an pulled at the knotted top,  undoing it as fast as possible,  tearing some of it in panic, and pulling over head leaving her naked and exposed there.  CTaking hold of it, she began to swing it at the area of bushes.  It might just be long enough to snag them.  Gasping and panting from the exertion,  and now rib-deep in the mire,  movement was becoming harder.  Except for down.
One throw.  And another, and another,   finally snagging hold of the branch.  Breasts now resting on the clinging muck that was encasing her, she fought to pull on the strip of wet cloth hooked onto solid ground.   Feeling it stretching ,  she twisted slightly, trying to loosen the grip of the bog on her raising up an inch.  The sliding back more. As the short branches slipped loose and tore free, leaving her still trapped and sinking deeper,  now up to breasts.  Soaked in sweat and spattered with muck,  she tried pawing at the mire with her arms, and hands,  but made no progress,  the grip of the muck relentless and pulling her deeper.  making breathing harder.   Crying out for help only echoed around the jungle with no answer,  not even animals.   Spreading arms and pushing,  down with hands open wide,  straining,  made some progress.  Feeling the sludge sliding across naked skin,  as slowly,  slowly rose up, arms sinking under but seeming to be breaking free.    Until with a shock, and scream,  plunging back down in, up to armpits only now with both arms trapped embedded deeply.   Eyes wide ,  she tried moving them,  twisting shoulders back and forth, to no avail.   Just sinking in deeper ,   shoulders slowly sucked under with murmors and thick sounds of suction on her body.  Circling the base of neck,  wet hair spread on the surface,  and coated thickly with the muck.    Her chin felt the kiss of the gooey surface,  shocking her, and prompting another helpless struggle and series of trying to twist free,  only sinking deeper ,  gasping and moaning now as the mire licked at her ears and lips,  giving her the taste of it.   Struggling frantically,  tilting head up to keep away from the goo, feeling ears filling and hearing the thick sucking gurgles of the bog,  mixed with her gasps and pounding of heart.   And sinking deeper, the slow descent worse now since there was less to spare.  Now sliding up cheeks and beginning to cover forehead.  Across trembing lips as eyes grew wide and nostrils flared madly.  Before could think further, she had to shut eyes as the mire swallowed her face, covering eyes and nose as it closed over her
Heart pounding madly,  lips compressed tight struggling not to draw a breath.  Nose plugged ,  eyes shut tight,  blackness,  shot with growing numbers of sparks and dots as she began to grow short of air.  The horror of suffocation fighting with the horror of the cloying mire ready to fill her throat and lungs.   Unable to even scream now,  but desperate.   Until things abruptly went blank.....