[ Walking through the swamplands can be very tricky. There are water moccasins, alligators, and numerous insects both seen and unseen that could really put a hurting on you. ]

Walking through the swamplands can be very tricky. There are water moccasins, alligators, and numerous insects both seen and unseen that could really put a hurting on you.

Stanley Cordbridge was keenly aware of all of these things, and yet he ventured forward. As he adjusted his pea green backpack tighter to his shoulders, he took in his surroundings.

Straight ahead the trees loomed over the landscape like humongous soldiers, each guarding their own trunks. The limbs reached down ominously, ready to scoop up any unsuspecting intruders. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, and staring at the muck he stood in, Stanley shivered in his too small combat boots.

Stanley Cordbridge was a rail thin shell of a man. His balding head belied his 32 years, and his face was narrow. His pants were tucked tightly into his boots, and looked as though he was heading on a safari. Double rimmed, and double paned glasses sat upon his bulbous red nose, and his chest sunk in while at rest.

He was an uncertain man, with uncertain courage. This was what this trip was all about after all. He would spend an entire weekend in this hellhole, even if it killed him.

If he didn't find dry land soon, he might just end up that way. He had trudged through this muck for hours, and had yet to find dry land. Nothing but muck and mud, for Stanley Cordbridge. He laughed at the metaphor of his life, and moved ahead.

Every direction was filled with a darkness that consumed the sun, and Stanley shuddered at the thought of spending the night in this place. Off in the distance, a twelve foot alligator slid silently into the water, and disappeared below the surface. To his left a large bird of some kind cawed it's disapproval of his being here.

Lost in his thoughts and self contempt, Stanley never saw the hand popping out of the mud. It grabbed his bony leg and yanked him down into the muck of the swamp floor.