Chapter 2 - The Extraction
The deputies did not hesitate when they saw my head protruding from the earth.
Two officers tackled my husband to the grass, securing his wrists in heavy steel handcuffs.
Another officer sprinted onto the porch, pinning his screaming mother against the sliding glass door.
Mara simply dropped to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably as an officer read her her rights.
“Ma’am, can you hear me?” a gentle voice asked, breaking through the chaos.
A female paramedic knelt beside my head, her eyes filled with a mixture of horror and deep empathy.
I blinked slowly, unable to speak because my jaw was locked from the freezing soil.
“We are going to get you out, sweetie,” she promised, waving over two more first responders.
They didn’t use shovels, fearing they might accidentally strike my buried body.
Instead, they used their bare hands and small trowels, digging frantically through the dense, heavy mud.
Every time they removed a layer of dirt, a wave of agonizing pins and needles rushed through my limbs.
“She’s pregnant!” the paramedic yelled over her shoulder.
“Call ahead to the trauma center and get the obstetrics team on standby immediately!”
It took them twenty minutes of frantic digging to free my shoulders and chest.
When the cold air finally hit my skin, my body began to violently convulse with shivers.
I could not feel my legs, and my hands were locked into stiff, painful claws.
The paramedics gently slid a backboard behind me, lifting me carefully from my earthen prison.
As they raised me up, I caught a glimpse of my husband sitting in the back of a squad car.
His arrogant smile was completely gone, replaced by the terrified stare of a cornered animal.
I looked down at the deep, muddy hole that was supposed to be my grave.
At the bottom of the pit, glowing softly through a plastic freezer bag, was my phone.
“Grab that phone,” I whispered, my voice sounding like crushed gravel.
The female paramedic reached down, retrieving the bag and placing it gently on my stretcher.
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“I’ve got it,” she assured me.
“You’re safe now.”
