Higher Ground

by Becky Black

  “That’s a long way down.”

  Did he mean too far for Zach to have survived? The stricken look he had suggested that. But Adam refused to think that way. Zach is alive.

  “I have a long rope.”

  “Adam, that would be—”

  Adam looked at him, and he shut up. Perhaps he could read the question in Adam’s eyes. What if it was Visha or Amina down there? He’d be looking for the rope already.

  They moved back from the edge, Adam hating not being able to see Zach anymore. But he had to get at his pack to get his climbing rope out. He could rappel down there easily enough. He’d need a few of the strapping fellows up here to play the rope out for him. They had the muscle and the numbers to haul Zach out of there.

  “Is he…okay?” Jan asked. People stared at Adam, shocked and frightened. Glyn was busy bandaging a guy with a nasty cut to the head. A few others were nursing minor injuries.

  “I can see him, He’s about twenty meters down. I’m going to climb down to him while the rest of you get to work on a stretcher. First to hoist him up, then to carry him. Use hiking poles, tent canvas. Use whatever you have to.” He knelt by his pack and rummaged in it for his rope.

  “Um, is he definitely alive?” someone asked. He heard the disbelief in their voice, and his back stiffened. He stood, holding the coil of rope.

  “I don’t know until I get to him. Glyn, I’m going to need you down there too.”

  “What?” Glyn shot to his feet and stared at Adam. “Are you joking?”

  “Joking? Of course I’m not joking. He’s probably hurt—”

  “He’s probably dead. Hell, he is dead or soon will be.”

  “It’s your job to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

  “We’ll all be dead if we stop to pull him out of there. And do you know how slow we’ll go carrying him? We’ll never stay ahead of the water.”

  “Not if we don’t hurry up and get on with it.” Adam started fashioning a harness with the rope. He’d need his gloves, or he’d burn his hands. “I’ll go down first. If he’s… If I don’t need you, you don’t need to come down.”

  “Are you listening to me? I’m not going down there.”

  Adam froze as everything Glyn said finally sank in, delayed as it was behind his single-minded determination to get down there and get to Zach. He simply couldn’t conceive of anything else happening.

  “What did you say?”

  “I’m not waiting here for you to go down there either. I’m going on, before there’s another quake like the last one and we all fall down the mountain.” He turned to the group. “Anyone smart will come with me.”

  “You can’t go.” Adam couldn’t believe it. “You’re a medic, and you have a patient who needs you.”

  “He’s already dead.” Glyn looked around at the group again. “You’re all thinking the same thing.”

  “We should find out first,” Simon said. “We owe him.”

  “He saved your lives,” Adam shouted, suddenly terrified because he could see some of the group were nodding when Glyn spoke, agreeing with him. “You can’t just leave him.”

  “If we don’t, then we’ll all die, and he’ll have failed,” Glyn said. He put on—definitely put on, definitely fake—a pitying expression. “Your loyalty is admirable, Adam, but you know I’m right.”

  “Shut up, you bastard. I’ve had enough of you trying to play me.” The group stirred. Glyn adopted another fake expression, wounded and unjustifiably berated for telling the truth. It didn’t fool Adam. “The rest of you know he’d climb down for any one of you if the situation was reversed. Show some gratitude to the man who saved your lives by saving his.”

  The appeal didn’t work. Sick with horror and disgust, he saw some people start to drift across to stand with Glyn. None of them would look at Adam, none of them said anything, but their actions spoke for them. They thought Zach was dead. Or they didn’t think there was enough time to retrieve him. Only Glyn would meet Adam’s eyes, and his expression was more triumphant than sheepish. More wolfish.

  “Okay, fine,” Adam said, unable to control the sneering anger in his voice. Would enough people stay to haul Zach out? Please let them stay. “Fine. Good riddance to you. Glyn, give me your medical kit and go.”

  “What? You want my kit?”

  “If I’m going to have to treat him myself, I’ll need the kit. You’re not leaving with it.”

  Glyn snorted. “I’d like to see you try to stop me.” He turned his back to Adam, addressing the group who hadn’t yet come to his side. “You guys sure you won’t come?”

  Adam dropped to one knee and started searching his pack. Where is it? Where is it? I put it in here somewhere. Ah!

  “You know this is a fool’s—”

  “Glyn, give me the med kit now.” Adam straightened up, turning to Glyn. He heard Simon mutter a curse beside him. A woman shrieked. Glyn turned to Adam and froze.

  Adam was pointing Torres’s pistol at him.

  For when things get ugly. This counted.

  “Are you insane?” Glyn’s voice barely rose above a whisper.

  “Give me the kit, or you’re dead.” Did he mean it? Would he shoot? He hadn’t even been in a fight since school. Killing a man lay far beyond the realms of inconceivable. But for Zach…

  Glyn slipped the medical kit off his shoulder, moving nothing apart from his arm, as if the gun pinned him in place. He held the kit out at arm’s length.

  “Simon, take it, please,” Adam said.

  Keeping well out of the line of fire, Simon grabbed the kit and ducked back behind Adam.

  “Thank you,” Adam said to Simon, never taking his eyes from Glyn, even as he lowered the gun. “You can go.”

  “You’ll regret this.” Glyn pointed at him. His finger made Adam want to laugh. It seemed like such a pathetic echo of the gun. “I’ll see you in court for this.”

  Adam batted the pointing hand aside. “Yeah, fine. See you at the top of the mountain.”

  He turned away and took the medical kit from Simon. Behind him, he heard Glyn snapping at the people who’d decided to follow him to hurry up. And some arguments that sounded like a few had changed their minds.

  “Where the hell did you get that?” Simon asked as he helped Adam finish making the rope harness and get into it.

  “It’s Barbara’s. She deputized me before she left.” With luck, that at least might keep him out of jail.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “Zach, can you hear me?”

  Zach could hear him. Adam’s voice coming from above. He had to open his eyes and answer. No, answering meant he had to open his mouth. The eyes were optional. He took the option anyway. Though the daylight seemed painfully bright, he opened his eyes and looked up. Adam was descending toward him out of the sky. How strange and wonderful. Like an angel.

  No. Not literally. In a few seconds, Zach made out the rope supporting Adam, who pushed himself away from the side of the cliff and descended again, coming closer.

  “Talk to me, Zach.”

  “Adam.” His voice appeared unsatisfactory, cracked and whispery. He cleared his throat, but that turned into a cough, and the movement made awful pain shoot up from his leg, and he fell back into a semiconscious doze.

  He woke to the scuff of boots on rock and opened his eyes. Boots filled his vision, right by his face. Familiar boots. Adam’s boots. Legs, knees, Adam kneeling at his side. Adam’s face. His beautiful face all strained and pale.

  “I’m here, Zach. You’re going to be okay. I’m getting you out of here.”

  “My leg is broken,” Zach croaked out.

  “Which one? No hang on, I see.”

  Good, because Zach didn’t think he could tell left from right at the moment. He knew which leg hurt. He could point at it. But with his brain so dulled with pain, he couldn’t tell if it was the left or the right.

  “Anything else? What about your head? Did you hit it? Did anything else hit it?” As he spoke, Ad
am gently ran his hands over Zach’s skull.

  “Don’t think so. Head doesn’t hurt.”

  He remembered the fall with total clarity. The rock he’d been clinging to had surfed down the rockslide. He might even have been uninjured, except for the other rocks—make that boulders—bouncing past and hitting him.

  “I’ve got a painkiller here,” Adam said. Zach felt the whoosh against the skin of his neck even as Adam spoke. “Lie still while I check you over.”

  Pain retreated to a distance, though it didn’t vanish entirely. This cleared Zach’s mind enough to allow him to raise his head and to speak more coherently.

  “Adam, my leg is broken.”

  “I know. I’ll get it sorted in a minute.” He ran his hand under Zach’s shirt, checking his ribs. “I’ve set a bone or two in my time. You’ll be fine.”

  “No, listen to me. I can’t walk. I can’t climb. You have to leave me. That’s the only smart thing to do.”

  “Call me an idiot, then, because you must be smart enough to know I’d never do that.”

  “The others—”

  “Do you think I got down here on my own?”

  “Oh.” Zach frowned. “I won’t let you all risk your lives for me.”

  “It’s a good thing you’re not in charge anymore, then.” Adam withdrew his hand and pulled Zach’s shirt back down into place. “Your ribs seem okay. I’m going to have to turn you on your back so I can set your leg. I’ll have to get your pack off first. Don’t try to move, okay? Let me position you.”

  “I’m in your hands.”

  He’d done what he could, given Adam permission to go on without him. He could do nothing else but let Adam take care of him. Adam took out his knife and moved behind Zach.

  “I’m going to cut through the straps.” In a second, Zach heard the sound of ripping fabric.

  “Are you only doing this because it’s me?” Zach said.

  “Yeah, sure,” Adam said. “If it was Simon down here, I’d happily leave him to die.”

  “There’s no call for sarcasm.” Zach supposed it was a silly question. Adam would do this for any of the group.

  “If you mean am I doing this because I love you, then no.” Adam paused. In the silence, Zach heard the ripping again. The strap fell away from his right shoulder. “No, I’m not doing it because I love you. I’d do it whether I loved you or not.” He started sawing at the other strap. “The fact I do love you has no bearing on my choice at all.”

  Despite the pain, Zach grinned.

  “Thank you,” he said and heard Adam chuckle. The other strap fell away. The pack was free but still keeping Zach upright on his side.

  “Here we go,” Adam said. “Relax and trust me.” He moved the pack away but supported Zach with his arm. He fussed around with something, then carefully lowered Zach down onto his back. Not onto bare rock. There was something underneath him. Clothes perhaps.

  Zach cried out as the movement jarred his broken leg, and he heard Adam groan. Once Zach was on his back, Adam leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. “I’m sorry.”

  “Adam, I love you too. All the things I said the other night, they were nonsense. And I…I won’t say I don’t mind whatever you did with Glyn, because I do, but I—”

  “We kissed. Nothing else. But Glyn is no longer an issue.”

  Zach frowned. Speaking of Glyn, shouldn’t he be down here? Zach didn’t want him here, he only wanted Adam, but Glyn was the medic. Adam had Glyn’s medical kit, Zach realized. What had happened? Had Glyn been hurt during the quake and rock slide? Zach didn’t ask. He’d find out later, he expected.

  “Adam, it really is best if you go on without me.”

  “Don’t start that again. The folks up top are building a stretcher to haul you out of here and to carry you the rest of the way up the mountain. That’s what’s going to happen. You aren’t the only one who can make predictions, you know.” He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, then looked at Zach with anguish in his eyes. “I’m going to have to set your leg before I can splint it. It’s not going to be pleasant.”

  “I know. The painkiller is quite effective, though.”

  “Do you still have Ann’s hiking pole?” He looked around. “If I can break it in half, it will make a good splint.”

  “I think I lost it.”

  “Oh, she’s gonna be mad. Maybe I should leave you here after all.”

  Adam took a deep breath and moved down to Zach’s legs. He got busy with his knife again and split the pants leg open on the injured leg. Zach heard his breathing speed up.

  “Zach, I’ve only ever set a couple of arms, never a leg.” His voice sounded quiet and scared, very different than usual.

  “I trust you,” Zach said. “I’m ready.”

  He could never be ready for the pain that smashed into his mind and sent him spinning back into the darkness.

  * * * *

  Only the need to stay calm and reassure Zach kept Adam from throwing up when he realigned Zach’s broken leg and Zach screamed. He never wanted to hear that sound again the rest of his life. He didn’t look at Zach, knowing the sight of his face would unman him, as he quickly stabilized the leg with a splint made from tent poles and torn clothes he’d taken from Zach’s gear. The break wasn’t compounded, which he thanked God for, because if Zach had been bleeding as well…

  He could be bleeding—inside. Even if he didn’t notice any pain from it yet. Adam would have to keep checking his abdomen, see if it felt rigid, filling with blood. And what could he do about it if it did? Nothing, that’s what. Watch him weaken. Watch him die.

  When he heard Zach stirring, he banished the horrible thoughts and turned to him—once he felt sure he had his face under control and could put on a half-convincing, reassuring smile. Zach was deathly pale, and the pain showed in the lines around his eyes, but he seemed to be controlling himself as hard as Adam. He smiled back, and Adam had to wonder if his own smile was also a ghastly rictus.

  “Wasn’t so bad,” Zach gasped out.

  “Liar.” Zach looked up suddenly, and Adam followed his gaze to see the improvised stretcher being lowered down, Simon rappelling down beside it. “Here comes your ride.”

  “Figured you’d need help getting him into it,” Simon said when he arrived. He looked at Zach, hiding his worry behind a smile. “Hi, tough guy. Let’s get you out of here, huh?”

  He made Adam take Zach’s shoulders for the lift while he took the feet to keep Adam from having to see the pain on Zach’s face. Zach moaned and cried out when they moved him, and by the time they’d set him in the stretcher, he was panting and weeping with pain. Adam dropped to his knees and took Zach’s hand, kissed it.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m sorry we had to hurt you.”

  “Adam,” Simon said. “If you want, you can go back up first, and I’ll bring him up.”

  Adam stared at him. “No, God, no. I have to be with him.”

  “Okay. Give him another shot, and we’ll get moving.” He passed instructions to the people up top with his walkie-talkie while Adam gave Zach a stronger painkiller, knowing the ascent would be agony for him. He lay unmoving when they strapped him into the cradlelike stretcher made from hiking poles, tent poles, rope, and tent fabric. Adam and Simon lifted it experimentally a few inches off the ground, and it took Zach’s weight, so Adam felt confident it would hold.

  They started up slowly. Adam and Simon were pulled up on each end of the stretcher where they could maneuver it around obstacles. One side of it had backpacks filled with sleeping bags strapped to it. They acted as a buffer to keep it from banging hard into the cliff.

  “Whoever designed this stretcher is getting a big wet kiss from me,” Adam said as they neared the top. Simon chuckled.

  “I won’t tell you who did, then, since his wife will get jealous if she hears about it. Watch that bit there.”

  As Adam maneuvered his end of the stretcher around a piece of sheared-off rock, Simon radioed to th
e people up top.

  “Get ready to take the stretcher first. Ease off on Adam and me in another two meters.”

  They did as he ordered. The pull on Adam’s and Simon’s ropes stopped, while the stretcher kept moving up, a meter from the top. Adam and Simon steadied it from below, until it rose out of their hands and disappeared, to the accompaniment of a lot of shouting and orders.

  A moment later, someone looked over the cliff. “Okay, we’ve got him.” A woman’s voice. Adam frowned, squinting up at the dark shape, but the light was behind her, making her a silhouette and dazzling him. Funny, she sounded like… “Are you two ready?”

  “We’re not hanging around here for our health,” Simon called back.

  “Take Simon first,” Adam called. Shouts up top and Simon began to move, fending off the cliff with his feet. Adam clung to his rope, swinging gently in the improvised harness. He wanted to be up there at Zach’s side as soon as possible, but with Zach hurt, the leadership fell to Adam, and the leader always had to make sure his people were safe first before finding safety himself. Where had he gotten that idea from? Read it, he supposed. He’d certainly never been in a leadership position before, or even been trained to be. It felt odd. Did the gun give him more authority than he’d have without it?

  Simon vanished from sight at the top. Someone called down to Adam. “Ready?”

  “Ready.” He started to rise slowly. When he swung too close to the cliff, he pushed himself off with his feet, but not too hard in case he jarred the people above. He didn’t want them to lose their grip on the rope and drop him. One injured man in the party was enough.

  He reached the top and scrambled over the edge, people grabbing on to him and heaving him up. Someone reached down a hand to help him to his feet. He grabbed the hand and gasped when he saw who it belonged to.

  “Barbara!”

  “Hello, Deputy.” She grinned at him and pulled him well away from the edge. Once they were several meters away, he grabbed her into a bear hug.

  “You caught up.” No wonder they’d had plenty of people to haul on the ropes. Torres’s party numbered at least twenty-five, he estimated, looking around.