by Sierra Rose
“Jake!” my voice boomed off the rock walls.
“Jump!” he shouted.
In one fluid movement, I clutched the vine, jumped off, and swung through the air like Tarzan, with cool gusts of wind rushing against my face and whooshing in my ears. The rubbing of the vine and the creaking of the branch from the stress of my weight made me groan. If this thing breaks...
Jake swung next to me just as the boulder tumbled past us and crashed at the bottom with a loud boom.
“What was my mother thinking, putting us out here like this?” I said, hanging on with a death grip as I dangled in the air. “Maybe I can’t do this.”
Sweat dripped from Jake’s brow as he caught his breath. “You can…and you will.”
“You’re right. We can do this.” My voice held more confidence than I actually felt, but I put on a good show. I nodded and started to climb down, hanging on as tightly as I could to the cluster of wet, tangled leaves. The scent of moss and damp earth hung in the thick air all around me. Throwing Jake one last glance, I started to gingerly ease my left foot down, followed by my right. We made our way down the tangle of vines, and I was relieved when I was again standing on solid rock. By the time I reached the bottom, my breath was coming in ragged gasps, and my hands were trembling something awful.
I pulled back my sweaty hair. “Thanks, Jake, for that motivational speech.”
He hugged me tightly and kissed my head. I knew how scared he was, but I was so proud at the brave act he displayed. “Meh, that’s what I’m here for.”
Craving his touch, I leaned into him as he hugged me.
He winced, and I noticed that the boulder had nailed his shoulder, leaving him bleeding profusely. He stripped off one of his layers and wrapped the shirt around his wound.
“Let me help,” I said as I finished tying it off. “You need a doctor. The quicker we get down, the faster we can get to the ER.”
“I’ll be okay,” he said.
I lifted a hand to shield my eyes from the glaring sun. Jake’s brows furrowed above his intense eyes, and the wind whipped through his hair. My own hair was tossed around as well in the violent drafts.
I glanced up at the sky. “It’ll be nighttime soon. We need to find a place to sleep.”
He nodded.
“How’s your shoulder?” I asked, noticing that blood had seeped through the shirt that was tied around it.
He winced as I examined it. “It’s killing me, but I’ll survive.”
Sweat poured from my forehead. Blinking, I studied the cracks, gaps, and holes in the rock. I pointed to a giant, jagged opening. “How about there? It looks like the perfect spot to pitch our tent, right?”
“Right. Good eye, Ashly.”
We set up the tent and laid out our sleeping bags.
“Nobody will ever believe we’ve been stranded on a mountain together,” Jake said.
We were stranded, but we were also lost. I had hoped we’d already be down the mountain to find help, but things had not gone according to plan.
“I feel bad about Albie being out there in the wilderness all alone,” I said. “I wish we could’ve done something…nicer for him.”
Jake gripped my hand and blew out a breath. “Me too.”
A twig snapped, and my heart thundered. Jake looked at me, his gaze intense. All my senses were on high alert. I unzipped the tent door and slowly walked out. Breathing hard, I flattened myself against the rock and peeked out, shining my flashlight.
“See anything?” he asked.
“No.” I reached for a stick, as I was worried a wild animal was prowling around. I clenched my teeth, and the heat began to rise in my cheeks. I aimed a thick stick with steady arms, my legs in a wide stance.
Suddenly, a beautiful, dainty doe bolted into the vegetation.
My shoulders shrugged in relief. “It’s only a deer, but I’m gonna take a quick look around.”
“Okay. Just be careful, babe.”
I flexed and contracted my numb fingers as the cold continued to bite into me. I was sure I couldn’t take another minute in the cold, chilly mountains. It was hot during the day, but now the temperature had dropped when the sun went down. I rubbed my hands together and blew into them. Goosebumps pimpled my skin as ice-cold wind beat across my body. When I didn’t see anything, I headed back into the tent.
Jake’s eyes were closed, and pearls of sweat shimmering on his pale face.
I felt his forehead, only to discover that he was burning up. I sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You’re running a temp.”
“I’ll survive,” he whispered. Shivering, Jake pulled me close and snuggled next to me.
I started to ponder everything, from our circumstances to fate. “Do you believe in happily-ever-after?” I asked.
“Yes, and you’ll get yours, Ashly. If you want, we’ll live in a castle and have ten kids.”
“Ten! What do you think I’m going for, a reality show?”
“How about three then?”
“That’s perfect.”
His strong arms and steady embrace made me feel like everything was going to be okay. I snuggled up into his strong arms and fell asleep.
Chapter 18
I felt somebody shaking my shoulder.
“It’s daylight,” Jake said. “We’ve gotta go.”
I sat up. “How are you feeling? How’s your shoulder?”
“It hurts pretty bad. But how are you?”
“I’m fine.”
We packed up and headed downward, precariously making our way toward the desert floor. The birds were chirping, and I was thankful to see light. I was getting weaker, though, and I was dying of thirst. So I pulled out my canteen from my backpack and took a drink. A wave of dizziness washed over me, and I had to rest against a boulder until it passed. The descent was so steep and covered in thick brush that I felt like we were in some tropical rainforest. As I fought through the leafy foliage, we wandered past steep canyon walls and through the twisting trees and granite boulders. Several times, I stumbled on shattered rocks as my feet caught on big slabs of limestone.
“Hey,” Jake said, “what’s that up ahead?”
I strained my eyes and saw flashes of blue and red. Peering intently, I noticed it was a pitched tent. “Somebody’s camping!”
“Maybe they can help,” he said in a hopeful voice.
“I hope they have a cell phone,” I said. When we neared the tent, I called, “Hello?” but nobody answered.
Jake unzipped the weathered tent. “It’s empty.”
I glanced around and saw a rusted canteen and tin cup. “I don’t think anybody has been here for ages. It looks abandoned.”
Jake called my name from inside the tent. “I found something.”
I stuck my head in, and the musty smell made me gag. “What is it?” I opened the flap of the tent and walked in. I tossed the blankets around and went through the backpacks. I saw canteens, maps, a compass, clothes, shoes, and sunscreen.
“There’s a diary or some kind of journal here,” he said, “but the pages are damp and falling apart.”
I carefully flipped through the book. Some pages were unreadable, but I was able to read enough to know that the man who’d set up camp there was a retired Navy general. I started reading the entries and became more frantic as I flipped each page. The general had been trapped; he’d broken his leg and had been unable to climb out of a giant gorge. “Do you know what this means?” I asked after I read it to Jake.
He nodded grimly. “We’re stuck in the exact same gorge he was.”
I started to slowly spin around, worry flooding my features.
“We’ll be fine, Ashly,” Jake consoled. “We’ll climb back out, hurt or not.”
“Don’t you remember how steep it was? We barely got down here without killing ourselves. Every step we took was a mini-avalanche, and we slid down some huge inclines on our butts. We’ll never get out without ropes and proper equipment.”
I w
atched his eyes shift back and forth and noticed the insecurity starting to show on his face
“How on Earth did we get ourselves trapped in this hellhole?” he whispered.
I started walking around the gorge and glanced at the towering walls all around us. It was as if we were trapped in a huge pit. “How could we have been so stupid?”
“Easy. We don’t know the area,” he said, rubbing the sweat from his face with his arm.
I swallowed hard and straightened up, sudden realization shining in my eyes. “What if we can’t get out of here?”
He squeezed his eyes shut. “Not possible,” Jake said, trying to sound certain.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Maybe the general didn’t make it out alive either.”
“I haven’t seen a body anywhere. Have you?” Jake asked, making a good point. Holding his shoulder, he met my gaze. “Let’s think positive and hope the guy got out. For the time being, I say we get a smoke fire going.” Jake motioned around him. “Let’s start collecting some tinder, twigs, and lots of wood. We’ll make a big, giant, blazing fire.”
I started gathering grass, leaves, twigs, and bark to get our fire started. I wasn’t a Girl Scout or anything, but I’d never missed a season of Survivor, and I had something the competitors on the show didn’t have: kerosene and matches in my backpack. I ducked under the tangle of vegetation and looked for wood and logs. In no time, we had a fire going.
We waited for hours, hoping someone would catch sight of the smoke and flames and come to our rescue, but nothing happened.
I stared at the steep wall. “Hmm. I bet I could climb that, now that I’m looking at it.”
“No, let me try,” Jake said.
“Your shoulder is messed up. I’m sure I can do it.”
“I’m fine,” he insisted.
“Far from it, Macho Man,” I retorted. “Just let me do this.” I lifted my gaze and realized I’d have to climb up a sheer vertical wall that towered hundreds of feet. There was no way either of us could actually accomplish such a climb.
Jake’s gaze swept over the wall. “With the proper equipment, maybe, but without it, it’s a suicide mission. The last time I checked, you weren’t Spiderman.”
“We’ll just have to find another way.” Just as I was about to turn around, a zigzagged crack snaked its way up the granite rock to the top, and I hoped I might be able to use it to my advantage. “I think I can do this, Jake,” I said, trying to sound brave.
“No,” he said.
I started climbing and was easily able to make it one-quarter of the way up. At that point, though, the rock became weak and brittle, and there was chalky-colored lichen growing all over it. As I climbed, I began to kick rocks and could hear them crashing to the bottom. Taking a deep breath, I gathered my courage and kept going. I shimmied and squirmed up a couple steep rock steps, trying to locate a ledge with some trees for shelter. I climbed up, hand over hand, then lost my footing and felt myself falling back; it felt like I plummeted three stories. I sucked in a painful breath and collapsed, and pain shot through my side like a spreading bush fire.
“Ashly!” Jake screamed. “Are you okay?”
“I know I shouldn’t have tried this, but what other choice do we have? I refuse to die down here like that lonely old general!”
“We don’t know that he’s dead, Ashly. Maybe he’s sitting at home, watching TV and drinking coffee.”
“I doubt that,” I said under my breath. “We already know of one dead man on this mountain, there might be another, and we might just be adding two to the body count if we don’t get out of here!” I raged.
“Look, you gotta calm down, baby.” Jake examined me and ordered me to move and wiggle all my extremities.
I hadn’t broken anything; I’d only twisted my ankle and broken a few ribs. After I screamed through the pain and rested, we started to look for another way out. The other towering walls were even steeper.
“How are we gonna get the hell out of here?” I asked Jake, and he had no answer for me.
A pair of squawking birds flew into the trees. As they did, I noticed a pair of feet sticking out from under a nearby bush. As I approached, the smell of death and rot lingered in the breeze. Nausea churned in the pit of my stomach, and I clutched my heart. As I walked closer, I saw him, a dead man, in his sixties, with a strong physique and a U.S. Navy baseball cap lying next to his decaying head. “He’s never made it back to his TV and his coffee, Jake,” I said. Then I froze, as if my mind refused to grasp the terrifying thought. My eyes widened, and my pulse raced out of control. “If a Navy general couldn’t even make it out, how are we gonna—”
Jake pulled me into a comforting embrace, then slowly pushed back and looked at me. “I’m going to check his ID, just to be sure it’s him. His family deserves closure.”
I nodded and looked away. I felt so bad for the man.
After a few minutes, Jake came back over, and there was a terrified look on his face that betrayed the truth he so desperately wanted to hide.
I let out a trembling breath. “Well? Is it him?”
“Yup. General Travis McDonald.”
“Like I said, Jake, if a retired general couldn’t make it out, how will we? He had military experience, maps, and a compass. He knew what he was doing, and he still died down here. We’re just two idiots on a hiking trip!”
He put his arm around me. “If we’re gonna get through this, we’ve gotta stay strong…and sane, Ashly.”
I walked into the thick brush and began collecting wildflowers. Jake helped me gather a beautiful, fragrant bouquet, and we gently laid them across the man’s chest and all around him. We said a few words and prayed for him. It was the best we could do in the situation we were in, but we couldn’t just leave him there without paying our respects. It just wouldn’t have been proper.
After the makeshift memorial service for a fallen hero, I panicked even more. “We can’t just sit here and wait. Obviously no one ever comes down here, or someone woulda found him. Jake, we’ve gotta get out of here, or the same thing’s gonna happen to us.”
Jake swayed and swung out his arm for balance, then leaned up against a huge boulder. His hair was slick with sweat, and droplets dripped down his face. He wore a brave, composed face and I admired that, but I knew he was getting weaker by the minute.
“Rest,” I ordered, seeing how pale he was. “I’ve got this.”
“I’m fine.”
I wanted to believe, but I knew the reality was that he’d lost too much blood and was running a fever. Gasping deeply, I bit my lip hard.
Lowering his gaze, he grasped my hand, giving it a nervous squeeze. “Are you okay?”
“My foot hurts, and my ribs ache when I move or twist my body, or if I breathe too deeply, but I’m fine,” I said.
Jake’s clothes were drenched in sweat, and I knew his fever was getting worse. He wiped sweat from his face and squinted, as if trying to correct blurry vision. Fresh blood started to seep from his shoulder wound. I was no nurse or doctor, but I knew Jake was in no condition to help.
“You need to rest,” I said. “You’re bleeding.”
“No, I have to help you,” he insisted. His brows knitted together as he looked at me. He was determined, and he would not give up until I gave in. When I refused to give my blessing, he took matters into his hands. He started to stand, then crashed to the ground in a heap.
“Jake!” I felt for a pulse and was relieved to discover that it was strong. A shudder tore through my body, and sadness, depression, and guilt tore at me. I collapsed to my knees, tears blinding my vision. All I could feel was a deep, unrelenting pain, one I hadn’t felt since the last time he’d left me, only this time, he wasn’t leaving me on purpose. “No!” I shouted. “No!” I stared up at the sky, refusing to accept what fate had dealt me. “I refuse to believe this!” I screamed. “I’m gonna stop this! Do you hear me? Somehow, I’m gonna stop this from happening. I won’t let him go!” I yelled at the
universe.
Just then, I heard a choppy rumble in the distance. Listening intently, I tried to identify the buzzing sound. “Helicopter!” I said. My eyes widened, stunned beyond belief. I knew if I could get their attention, we might just have a chance. The whirring of the blades echoed in my ear. I craned my neck and squinted across the horizon. I could see the low-flying, black and white helicopter way off in the distance.
“We need another smoke fire!” I yelled. I grabbed dry grass and dead plants, then placed more tinder on top of the pile of kindling. I used the lighter and the kerosene and quickly ignited it without a second thought.
A soft groan carried from my right “Ashly…”
I turned to face Jake. “I hear a chopper. Stay put. I’m gonna try and wave it down.”
His face was solemn as sweat poured from it. “Make the fire as big as you can.”
My breath quickened. “I’m trying.”
His eyes fluttered closed, and I continued to build the signal fire. I grabbed more wood, sticks, and dry logs. I worked through the pain, until I had a roaring fire. It suddenly dawned on me, though, that our smoke signal would do no good unless a helicopter was right on top of us, and I worried that it wouldn’t pass our way.
I stared down at the matches in my hands. No! I’m not gonna be another fatality, even if I have to light this whole damn mountain on fire. Damn it, I’m gonna get someone’s attention, one way or another! I drew in choked breaths and peered around me, a sense of dread settling in the pit of my stomach. I refused to die. For me and for Jake, I had to fight.
I took a step back. “Let’s take it up a notch!” I screamed like some insane, crazed pyromaniac. I grabbed the kerosene and made a trail to the pile of dry, dead, rotting logs. The fire hungrily followed the path and burst into a blazing inferno at the end, and I squirted the entire bottle all over the surrounding trees. I swayed as a wave of dizziness washed over me. Holding my abdomen, I fell down next to Jake as great pain tore through me.