Tom Simpson - Sink

“Come on boy. Follow me. We’ll go where we’ll be safe. You’re such a good doggie. You saved my life. I’m going to cook you a big steak dinner when this is over. If this ever, gets over.”

Steve Sidel touched the attractive brunette on the shoulder and began to speak softly to her when, she raised her tear streaked face and looked him directly in the eyes. He was about to ask her if she was all right and that they should go and see if they could help the other people in the resort when he forgot what he was about to say and just stared back into her brown eyes. He could see tiny flecks of green in her very dark eyes and he became tongue tied for a moment. He regained his composure slowly and instead of laying out a rescue plan he put his hand under her chin and said.

“This might be the wrong time and the wrong place but, I think you are gorgeous. Forgive me. I’m usually not so straight forward like that and I really apologize if I embarrassed you but, I guess I couldn’t help it.”

“Apology accepted.” Kathy Santos replied in a quiet voice. The blush in her cheeks quite apparent. “I appreciate the compliment but, you’re right we have to go and see what we can do to help the others.”

Her look of acceptance of him was a definite chemical reaction and he was pleased with himself that he was able to make her feel even half of what he had churning in his heart. When this is over, he thought to himself, I have to see more of this lovely lady. Well, true love can wait, he thought and then realized he had actually fallen in love at first sight. He had heard of that happening but not to the tough Steve Sidel, mister no emotion, too involved in his work to worry about his love life. Sure a date here and there. A marriage that didn’t work. He thought he was destined for lonely ville and now his heart was tipsy turvey. Oh well. You never know. It just takes a simple little disaster like a hurricane or maybe even a sinkhole, for his true emotions to blossom. He didn’t know what would happen in the future but, as soon as this mess was cleared up he was bound and determined to see what he could do to change his lonely lifestyle.

Kathy Santos had a warm feeling in the bottom of her stomach that she had never before experienced. Man that guy is handsome and I really think he likes me. I really hope that when this is over he’ll still be as serious acting as he is now. I can just see us together, walking down the beach, eating a quiet meal in a quaint little restaurant, making love all night long. Gosh, I’m going off the deep end she thought. I’d better cool it and just help him try to rescue some people.

Steve and Kathy walked rapidly across the courtyard, went around the large hole in the ground where the lobby use to be and went across the parking lot to where a small crowd was standing and asked the twin boys standing there what they could do to help.

Connie Littlefield was awakened by the sudden jolting of the van. She sat up and looked through the tattered curtains barely covering the rear windows. The duct tape wrapped around her wrists and ankles prevented her from much movement but, she could still see out enough to know that the ground wasn’t horizontal to the rest of the vehicle. In reality, the back end of the van was teetering on the edge of a very large chasm and it was gently rocking back and forth barely maintaining its balance. Her first thoughts were of survival so, she swung herself away from the rear of the van and headed in a slight hopping motion toward the side door. Pushing down on the inside handle she managed to unlatch the door and then throw her weight at the still closed door. Her momentum pushed open the door and she followed it out landing painfully on her left shoulder. The minute she hit the asphalt, she rolled away from the body of the van and watched spellbound as it rocked one final time backwards and plunged end over end into to the dark hole.

Praying to her self, she began chewing on the duct tape wound tightly around her now swollen wrists. She managed to rip through the top layer and began unraveling the tape with her teeth. She put all thoughts of pain out of her head as she quickly spit out the remaining strip of tape and began rubbing her sore wrists. The needle and pins affect on her hands began to diminish so she reached down and began peeling the tape off her equally numb feet.

Free from her bounds, Connie looked around her and saw a small group of people gathering in the front parking lot. They all seemed to be looking down at another large hole perhaps one hundred yards away from where she sat. She got slowly to her feet, still dazed from her adrenaline rush away from the van and began walking toward the small crowd hoping she would not encounter that monster Frankie or his weird sidekick Carrie. A pretty young brunette looked up as she approached and said something to an attractive redhead standing next to her. Both girls began hurrying toward the Indian girl with sincere compassion on their faces.

“Oh miss.” Soothed the brunette. “You look all banged up. Come over here and we’ll see what we can do to help you.”

Beverly Forham gently put her arm around Connie’s shoulders and lowered her arm to the middle of her back when, she noticed how Connie winced where she touched her. Sally Backlin led the two of them over to the nearest royal palm and helped Beverly carefully lower her down so her back could rest against the trunk.

“What happened here?” Connie managed to squeeze out between the now beginning sobs. “Why are there big holes in the ground? What’s going on?”

The pushed aside pain began assaulting her like artillery attacks and she wrapped herself in a semi fetal position pushing herself backwards toward the base of the tree. The sobbing became full-time as the redhead began to try and sooth her.

“We don’t really know. It must be some kind of sinkhole or something. The only thing important right now is that you seem to be okay. We have to leave you now to help the boys try to rescue the other people. Just sit here where you’ll be safe and we’ll come back and help you as soon as we can.”

Sally and Beverly turning away from the shivering Indian girl, rushed back to the edge of the hole where the twins were tying the yellow ropes to the other trees surrounding the hole and throwing the ends down toward the collapsed building. The screams of the trapped people were turning into more moans than calls for help and the plantiful cry of the baby had seized altogether.

The man made mountain was a miracle of modern technology. The one hundred and twenty-foot majestic waterfall was completely computer controlled, from the rate of descent to the precise amount of back splash in the lagoon. This sparkling spectacle was engineered to please even the most diehard nature lover with its realism. The surrounding rain forest, the tops of the trees swaying in a simulation of a soft island breeze, even emitted jungle sounds that would fool a real South American hunting guide. The power plant, completely hidden from public view deep in the bowels of the mountain, was soundless on the surface and contained innovations completely new to the self-producing energy field. The entire project, solely designed by Datafuture was a closely guarded secret and other companies had even tried to infiltrate spies in order to learn the processes that would upscale many of the world’s great amusement parks. The security, heavily financed by Tankinato, was completely effective and the other companies could only hope for a disgruntled employee to show up on their doorstep one day.