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Cleithrophobia: The fear of being trapped.
It had been a pretty normal day, or it had been so far in Zack's opinion. Hanging out with his friends while trying to keep their after-school journey to Milo's house get completely derailed by Murphy's Law. But, as he was quickly reminded, that wasn't something you could entirely prevent.
Had they been intending to go through the woods? No. But a few busted fire hydrants that blocked off the road forced their hands. None of them were in the mood to get blasted by that much water. At least the portion of the woods they were passing through was as safe as possible. The wolves were on the opposite side, having already performed their seasonal move. It made Zack feel much better about this improvised trek of theirs.
The forest was actually quite peaceful, Zack allowed himself to think, when he didn't have to run for his life. Even if the ground was still damp and squishy from the rain and caused him to keep slipping. All of the trees were perfectly green, and the breeze was pleasantly cool. Everything was even more beautiful with the dapples of sunlight that managed to slip past the leaves, leaving patterns on everything. He could just relax and talk to his friends without having to yell or panic.
Though, he was trailing behind the two of them.
Milo was leading the way for the most part. He was the one who knew the landmarks they needed to pass by before getting back into the city where they wanted. Some of the shortcuts were a bit more precarious, Milo not knowing them the best, but the ones near his house were ones he had to go through all the time.
Melissa also knew the way, so Milo didn't have to lead, but she was hanging back with Zack, who had no idea where to go and definitely needed someone with him if they got separated. Zack didn't mind though. He was perfectly content with their current situation, even if he didn't know where to go. His friends were there with him. Besides, he'd memorize the way after being through it a few times. Every time the three of them went out he got better at finding his way without them. Which was a very good thing since that happened pretty often.
One of the last things they needed to pass by this day was a pretty large ravine. It was mostly dry, because of how late it was in spring; the small creak was barely a trickle. Once summer hit, it would dry up completely unless they got a lot of rain. The storm they'd gotten recently had bolstered it slightly, but not by a significant amount. Zack was perfectly fine with climbing down and up its trench, but he was just hoping that none of them would fall in. It was still enough to get you wet.
Not far from the ravine was a hill that they'd walk beside. Surprisingly, it only became visible from the trees when you were right next to it. It wasn't that tall, but it was enough to give you a view of the treetops. Milo was commenting on how him and Sara had liked to do that occasionally when she snuck him out of the house as kids.
That was when the ground started to rumble; almost imperceptibly at first, but quickly growing stronger.
Despite that, all of them had noticed. Milo had been through enough that his sense of danger was much more highly tuned than a normal person's would be. It was second nature to him to notice when something was on the verge of collapsing or breaking. And Melissa had known Milo for most of her life, she'd had a lot of first hand experience helping Milo out, and learning exactly what to watch out for. Zack, though he'd known Milo for less than a year, was a quick learner. Plus, with how quickly the shaking started there wasn't really enough time to react before it became very noticeable.
The hillside next to them started to shift and slide, the grass rippling and breaking apart into jagged brown streaks. Before Zack could even yell in surprise, let alone take a step back, the mud was on top of them. Melissa had been lucky enough to stand far enough away she wasn't caught up in it. Zack and Milo, on the other hand, were directly in its path. It was strange, having his body get pushed along without any say in where it was going. It was also quite nerve-wracking, as it slowly pushed them toward the ravine where they'd surely be buried.
"Grab that branch," Milo shouted from behind him, alerting Zack of the particularly low hanging limb with just enough time for him to pull his arms from the mud and grasp it.
He clung onto it as tightly as he could, feeling the dirt and rocks scrape against his clothes, still trying to drag him with them. Several times his grip nearly broke. The wet matter would have succeeded had he not been able to throw his arms around several additional branches.
But as Zack turned around, Milo's hand snagged a different branch, and it snapped off at the tree's base.
"Milo!" He couldn't keep himself from calling out to his friend, even though a simple shout wouldn't do anything to help him.
Hearing Milo shout back, "I'll be fine, stay there!" as the loose conglomeration of mud, rocks, and sticks carried him down the hillside wasn't very reassuring. But there wasn't anything else he could do. It wouldn't help Milo if he let go and got himself stuck as well.
Zack clung to the tree until the ground stopped moving and settled beneath his feet. He didn't start moving until he saw Melissa racing down the slope, knowing that she'd be a better judge on if it was safe or not. As much as he hated it, in his mind he was preparing for the worst. With how fast he'd lost sight of Milo, there was no telling what sort of state they'd find him in. Or if they would find him at all. Images relentlessly crept into Zack's mind of Milo completely buried, trapped under the earth with no chance of escaping on his own, or himself and Melissa frantically trying to dig their friend out before the lack of oxygen turned fatal. Something he'd rather not have to think about at the age of 13.
Yet, when they reached the flat ground of the creek bed Zack's shoulders sagged in relief when he spotted Milo. He was conscious, and from his calm demeanor he looked fine. If you counted being mostly buried under a landslide as fine. The only parts of him sticking out of the mound other than his head were his left shoulder and arm.
"Are you okay in there, Milo?" Melissa asked quickly, poking around at the dirt while trying to figure out what to do.
"I'm good," Milo replied quickly. "I don't feel hurt at all, and I can still breathe pretty well. I just can't really move. At all."
"Yeah, that's not surprising. There's a lot of this stuff on top of you, buddy."
Zack took a few steps to the side to see if it looked better from the other direction, but it didn't. Milo was basically at the bottom of another hill. The pile of shorter on top of him than it was at the side of the ravine, but it was still almost up to their stomachs.
He turned to Melissa and spread his hands in front of him. "How are we going to dig him out?" he asked.
"I have some unfoldable shovels in my backpack," Milo chimed in from the ground. After a few moments of silence he seemed to realize exactly what that wouldn't work. "Wait…"
"If we could get to them, we would use them," Melissa responded, leaning down to pat his exposed hand.
Zack sighed. "So, since we don't have anything else, are we going to start digging with our hands, then?"
"Of course not, that would be dangerous with all the debris in there. We'd probably hurt ourselves more than we'd help him out." Melissa folded her arms, looking at him like that was the worst suggestion possible. "I'm going to run over to Milo's house, get the shovels I know are in the shed, and then come back so we can dig him out."
"You're just going to leave?"
"Sure. Milo's not going anywhere, right?"
"I'll stay put if you need me too," he joked, sounding as cheery as he always was.
But Zack could catch him saying, a bit quieter to the point where Melissa, who'd already started climbing out, probably couldn't hear, "It's not like I have a choice anyway."
"And you'll be with him," Melissa continued, standing at the top already.
Zack frowned in silence for a few moments before nodding. "Get back as fast as possible, alright?"
She was already on her way. "You know I will!"
He watched the forest as he left, getting quieter and quieter until he couldn't hear her at all. It was not the best feeling considering that he wasn't the most confident in his ability to take charge if something else started going wrong. Sure, he was a lot better at thinking on his feet than he'd been at the start of the school year, but when things started to spiral out of control he always looked to Milo. Milo, who was currently unable to help him do anything due to being trapped under a lot of mud. Zack couldn't stop the anxious feeling bubbling in his chest from appearing as his adrenaline faded away.
It wasn't a feeling he liked. He didn't like this situation either. From Milo's slightly quieter and almost strained voice, Zack could tell that he felt the same. About what was happening, at least.
"I should have taken the other route," Milo muttered near his feet.
"Why didn't you?"
"That hill has been stable through much worse storm seasons," he explained, making limited gestures with his exposed arm. The range of motion still wasn't the best with his positioning face down. "Plus, this way would have gotten us out faster. I figured you'd prefer that, being nervous about that wolves still."
Zack nodded reluctantly in agreement. "Yeah, you were right about that. Sorry."
"Hey, if I'm not allowed to say sorry about everything, you aren't either."
He bit his lip to keep from saying sorry again. "Fair."
Zack was still too anxious to sit down next to Milo, as much as he wanted to get back to roughly being eye level with him. He walked back and forth around the pile a few times, patting it or pressing it occasionally since he didn't know what else to do while they waited. He was already dirty enough. At this rate his mom was going to hose him down in the backyard before letting him inside. But hey, his phone was still working since his backpack had kept it dry.
The mudslide had really solidified nicely, it wasn't really budging that much now that it had stopped flowing. Would it even be called a mudslide? Sure it was damp, but it had thickened up so much. Landslide would probably work too. If it hadn't been so solid he would have tried to start prying Milo out anyway. But unfortunately there was too much of it for that to have a chance at working. What even was the difference between a mudslide and a landslide?
Milo probably knew, he knew a lot of assorted facts like that about natural phenomena, and plants, and animals, and architecture. Life pretty much required him to be a jack of all trades to survive, so he had learned a lot of stuff most people would think is useless.
He hadn't said anything in a bit, not since Melissa had left. Zack partially blamed himself for that since he hadn't started talking either. So, he tried to finally break the tension that he felt was looming over himself. Milo was probably just fine.
"So, Milo, would this be a landslide or a mudslide? Is there a difference?"
Despite waiting for several moments, Milo didn't say anything in response. He didn't even give an indication that he'd heard Zack, an acknowledgement or even a hum. The silence started setting off alarms in Zack's head.
"Milo?"
When he still didn't get a response, Zack crouched to get a better look at his friend. Milo was looking off to the side, probably lost in thought. Zack didn't really want to disturb him if he was thinking about something important, but making sure that his friend was okay took priority.
He reached over and gently shook his exposed shoulder. "Milo, are you okay?"
Milo's wide eyes darted over to him instantly. Now, Milo normally looked a little owl eyed, it was part of his incredibly likeable charm that was part of what made him feel so open. But this was a couple of degrees past his usual to the point where Zack could see the whites of his eyes above and under his irises. Zack even thought that he might have felt Milo flinch when he'd first grabbed his arm, but it had been so faint that he couldn't tell if it was just a normal movement or not.
"I'm fine," he said immediately. A bit too immediately.
"Are you sure?" Zack questioned. "You looked just as spacey there as Melissa did before we got her on Greased Thunder."
"Yeah."
"Is something wrong? Did you just realize that you're actually hurt under there? Do I need to call Melissa, or an ambulance, or something?"
"No, no, I'm not hurt," Milo said quickly, trying to calm Zack as he kept talking and his voice rose in pitch. "I was just," he paused for a few seconds, which didn't help Zack feel any better, "thinking."
"Thinking about what…" Zack replied, trailing off slightly while trying to figure out what that had to do with Milo's odd behavior.
"Just, whatever comes to mind, really." He did a movement which could have been an attempted shrug. "It's not like I can do much else down here, you know?"
"Definitely."
Zack looked away, a little bit uncomfortable with how Milo was trying to twist his neck to look up at him, and tried to think of a conversation topic. There had to be something for them to do until Melissa got back, and with the circumstances that was limited to talking. He just had no idea what he was possibly supposed to talk about with Milo trapped like he was. It almost felt like his mind was scrambling while trying to keep flipping back and forth between his worry about getting Milo out and trying to figure out what to talk about.
But he didn't have much time to continue stewing in his thoughts, because Milo started talking again first.
"If the wolves do come back they'll probably leave you alone. Most wild animals don't want to mess with humans unless they have to, so if you're quiet and don't run you'll probably be fine."
Zack nodded slowly at the, a bit out of left field of relevance, information. "Yeah, I remember you mentioning that when we first met."
"And bees too," he continued, "as long as you're not wearing some sort of strong floral perfume, or banana.
"If it starts raining it'll be best to get to higher ground so just get out of the ravine and go on the opposite side of the hill."
At his continued talking, Zack glanced back over at his friend. Milo still had the side of his head lying against the ground, better than smashing his face into the dirt, but with the strain in his neck it looked like he was pressing his head into the ground. His arm was no longer limp, his fingers digging into the soft soil beneath them. Instead of being stretched open like they were earlier, it almost looked like Milo was squinting. When his speaking paused, Zack thought that he could hear the soft rasp of his breathing. Quick breathing for someone who wasn't moving a lot.
"Milo," Zack said, interrupting the next sentence he was forming and waving a hand in front of Milo's face to make sure he had his full attention, "what's going on?"
"What do you mean?"
"You don't normally go into the various what-if this much. At least, not unless someone else brings a situation up first and you're replying to them. So why are you doing it so much now?"
"I just, I just want you to know what to do if something starts happening."
Zack tilted his head slightly in confusion. "Wouldn't you just be able to tell me what do you when it's happening. Like what always happens."
Milo twisted to look at him, blinking in discomfort as he tried to look out of the tops of his eyes for an extended period. "Zack, I can't do anything. If something happens before Melissa gets back I want you to get out of here."
"What?" Zack's jaw nearly dropped from the audacity of the suggestion. "Milo there is no way I'm just leaving you here."
"Yes you will."
"Don't be ridiculous, Milo. Neither Melissa or I would ever just abandon you like that-"
"I'm stuck, Zack," Milo almost yelled, cutting him off.
It caught Zack off guard. Milo rarely ever raised his voice, even when he was really upset about something. The maddest he'd ever seen Milo before was when Victor had tried to destroy the clock tower. And even then he'd just looked mad, he hadn't sounded particularly mad either. So hearing him like this was more than a bit of a shock.
Milo continued. "I'm stuck here, I can't get to my backpack, you can't get me out, and if something happens you won't be able to do anything to help me, so I want you to get out of here and leave me so you don't get hurt!"
Zack felt completely helpless as Milo let his head sink back to the ground, looking away from him. His exposed shoulder and back seemed to tremble as his rapid breathing . It took him embarrassingly long to realize that Milo was starting to cry. From above he could see the dirt on his face was already starting to run in streaks toward the earth, pooling on the side of his nose facing up.
It was something that he had no idea what to do about. His mom was always the one who took care of his brothers when they were upset. Before Milo could try and sputter out another sentence through his gasping, Zack sat down as close as he could to Milo. Zack tried to pull Milo's head into his lap, but he wasn't off the ground high enough, and couldn't bend his back far enough, to successfully do that. Instead, Zack just let Milo press his face into the side of his thigh, running his hand over that back of Milo's neck to try and calm him some.
"It's okay, Milo. Everything is going to be fine." When it looked like he was going to protest he quickly reached down and tapped his forehead. "And I know it's going to be fine. Melissa is going to be back soon enough, and then we're going to dig you out and she can hose the two of us down as soon as we get to your house. And we'll all be fine."
"I don't want to be stuck here," Milo whispered. "Please get me out."
"I know. I know. I'm going to." Hearing his friend so upset, so deeply scared, tore Zack up inside. "I'm going to make sure that you're okay."
Milo had said it himself that Murphy's Law wasn't always easy to deal with, and it had taken him a long time to get as used to it as he was. Usually in response to Zack feeling bad about Milo needing to help him out. Even as he tried to soothe Milo, Zack couldn't stop his thoughts from spiraling.
When had been the first time that Milo had gotten stuck like this? Immobilized, at the mercy of whatever the world decided to throw at him. How old had he been, hurt, afraid, not knowing how long it would take for someone to find him and free him? Wondering how long it would take for him to get home? If he would ever get home.
Now that he thought of it, it wasn't the first time that he'd noticed Milo getting nervous and particularly agitated over parts of him being trapped. Back when they'd taken him to Lardworld for the first time, he'd learned that Milo was afraid of Chinese finger traps. Before he'd known how to get them off himself. And when he didn't have his backpack he just just as nervous, if not more. If his hands were caught up in something, he wouldn't be able to get to his backpack anyway. Was that what had happened to make him afraid of them in the first place?
Zack had barely shifted, his hips protesting the angle he was holding the top of his body at, but Milo's arm quickly came up and wrapped around his torso.
"I'm not going anywhere, Milo," he murmured. "I'm staying right here."
He didn't make any move to remove Milo's arm, though. If it made Milo feel better, less nervous, less alone, then he could hold onto him as much as he wanted to. Zack would sit there for as long as it took for Milo to feel safe again. As safe as he could feel. Until Melissa got back and they could get him out of there together.
"By the way," Milo whispered, sniffing slightly, almost too quiet for Zack to hear, "landslide are different from mudslides. Landslides are just solid stuff, dirt and rocks. Mudslides are watery. This was definitely a mudslide."
Zack smiled, making a slight adjustment to ruffle Milo's hair. He'd be fine. Zack would do everything he could to make sure of it until Melissa got back, and then they could excavate him make sure he was okay together. Hopefully she wouldn't be long.