All things considered, you figure that your chances to get out are better than Tom's and that it is more likely that you will both get out of this situation alive, if you just concentrate on freeing yourself for now. You figure that the greenery you are holding onto, should be able to support your weight and allow you to pull yourself out of this mess. So, with both arms on the moss you start to pull yourself up and forward. You manage to get out of the peat to your chest before your support collapses. That is better than what Tom is able to do. He is almost down to his shoulders and just barely managing to prevent himself from going deeper. But even so, you will have to do much better than that to get free. So you try again but more slowly and carefully than last time. Again you reach out onto the floating green mattress. You get farther this time, and you can feel your breasts leaving the bog's embrace and being pressed against its edge. There is nothing really solid for you to hold on and your feet instinctively look for something to push against to give you more leverage, but you know there is nothing even remotely solid down there. Somehow you succeed in heaving a little more of your body up anyway until you are to your ribs in the bog. Then the edge gives way underneath your weight again and you start sinking back down. You give it another try. The outcome is the same as before though. Meanwhile Tom is still at about to his shoulders, but the plantlife in his vicinity is getting increasingly sparse as he destroys and pushes under more and more of it with each attempt to pull himself out. You decide to try something slightly different this time. You again pull yourself up to your ribs, but then you simply put part of your weight on the moss and grass in front of you and wait. You wait for the rest of your body to reach bouyancy and float upwards, now that it is lighter. It seems to work. While you rest with your head and arms on the bog's edge, you feel your body slowly moving upwards through the mud. You also watch Tom, who is now to his neck in the boghole and struggling to find something to hold on to that does not fall apart a second after he touches it. You try to explain to him what you are doing, but he is rather preoccupied with his struggles to keep from drowning at the moment. You resist the urge to speed up your extrication, knowing it would very likely have the opposite effect. Your cheek comes in contact with the peat again. Your green pillow is gradually disappearing into the muck while you are resting on it, but it is also still intact and part of the larger body of moss and earth that is floating all around. Your boyfriend has sunken to his chin and without anything to hold onto, he is now going down quicker than before. There is little time left to save him and so you make your move. Your body from your ribs downward is now suspended at an angle of at about 45 degrees in the soft muck. You begin dragging yourself forward once more. Slowly but steadily you reach as far ahead as you can and pull. You are not rising out of the muck, but you feel the submerged part of the moss underneath you and keep going. The moss and grass feels firmer then farther you advance. You complete your own extrication, but you do not have time to rest. Tom is thrashing around desperately by now fighting the bog that is about to swallow his face. Quickly you look for the spot closest to him, from where you can rescue your boyfriend. He has done a thorough job in demolishing the plantlife within his arms' reach all around him, so you cannot really get as near as you would like. Even worse, the closer you are the deeper the depression you make in the moss. "Grab my hand" you call as you reach for him. He notices it just in time before his eyes get covered by the muck, and though blind now, he grabs your hand. You are lying near the edge while you pull him closer to you. Again, you cannot act as quickly as you would like to, or you might easily end up sliding into the boghole yourself again. It seems like an eternity though it actually takes only a few seconds until you have him close and help him up until his face breaks the surface. "Say... wasn't I supposed to be the rescuer here?" Tom remarks. "Yes, but you didn't take the job seriously enough." you counter with a smirk. You think he is smiling too, but it hard to tell while he is wiping mud from his face with one hand. The other hand is still holding yours to keep him afloat.
(wake up)