by Marion Myles
Liam fell asleep almost instantly. Rebecca couldn’t get comfortable. Her body ached…her shoulder throbbed…and she was chilled to the bone. She shifted again, bunching some of the clothes along her side in an attempt to support the injured areas. When the shivering became uncontrollable, she whispered Liam’s name to see if he was awake.
He snored quietly, and realizing he was dead to the world, she pressed up against him. After a while, she could feel some warmth seeping into her body. She tucked her head as far down into the sleeping bag as she could and slowly, but surely her body began to relax. For a moment, she tried to imagine what it would have been like doing this alone.
“Thank you, universe, for convincing him to come with me,” she said quietly into the night.
* * * * *
Rebecca surfaced quickly and for a moment couldn’t remember where she was. Beside her, Liam muttered and twisted under his blankets. He turned over, facing her, and his arm swung wildly and hit hard against her good shoulder. His breath sobbed out, and he said something that sounded like, “Gutter.”
“Liam, shush. You’re okay.” She patted his shoulder. “Wake up. It’s just a dream.”
He moaned and turned again then sat up. When his head brushed against the tarp, the tarp made a crinkling sound. “Marisa?”
“It’s Rebecca,” she said. “You’re safe.”
Blinking rapidly, he gazed around their tent. The fog lifted from his eyes. He cleared his throat. “It’s almost light. We should get started.”
“Are you all right?”
“I’m good.” He reached for his duffel bag. “I guess we should have a protein drink. Another long day of walking ahead. You sure you’re up for it?”
“Other than feeling like a popsicle, I’m fine.”
The day was overcast, which Rebecca didn’t mind, and windy, which she did. It wasn’t long before the skin on her face was stiff with cold. The sock mitt was no match for the wind. During the first rest break, she added several more pairs until her hand looked like an oven mitt.
The terrain became more challenging with a much steeper descent, and several times they lost their footing, tumbling and sliding before stopping abruptly against a rock. Rebecca lost count of how many times she screamed uncontrollably after landing on her collar bone.
“Hey. You’ll be okay. Just breathe,” Liam said, cradling her against his chest after yet another slide down the mountain.
“Okay,” she said, leaning into him and exhaling slowly. “My shoulder’s calming down. I’m all right.”
“I think we should go back.”
“What? No. We have to keep going. It’s the only way we’ll live.”
“You mean until we go tumbling right over a ledge and land head first on a big pile of rocks?”
“We’ve been walking for almost two days. I guarantee it’ll take longer to go back up than it did coming down. And then what? You think we should sit inside a smashed up plane until we starve to death?”
He hissed out a breath before releasing her and getting to his feet. “I don’t know, okay. Except we’ll probably die either way, right? Given a choice, I guess the plane sounds like a better way to go.”
Hanging her head, she realized she was too tired and demoralized to continue arguing. “I’m gonna keep going.”
She struggled to stand then began pushing through the snow.
He stood there for several minutes battling against his fear. Everything in him demanded he turn around and get back to the plane, but he couldn’t bear to leave her. She was so brave and tough and pretty much amazing on every level. Sending up a prayer to St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, he caught up to her and once again took over the lead.
They stopped before the sun had fully set. It was hard enough trekking down this part of the mountain in broad daylight, but as soon as the shadows began to lengthen, it became even more nerve-wracking.
“How about over there?” Rebecca pointed to an undulating patch of ground.
“It might work,” Liam agreed.
This time there weren’t any handy rocks around to secure the tarp, so he dug out a few screw eyes from the small container of supplies he’d salvaged back at the crash site. He managed to twist them into the ice and tie the tarp down. It wasn’t as windproof as he’d have liked, but it was the best they could do.
Rebecca spread the clothing out on the ground tarp and put a blanket on each side. “I think we should unzip the sleeping bag and lay it flat over us like a duvet. It’ll be warmer if we sleep together.”
The idea of lying right next to her was thrilling. “I never say no to sleeping with a beautiful woman.”
When he grinned at her, she couldn’t help smiling back. “No funny stuff. This is strictly survival.”
Pretending to take offense, he crossed his arms over his chest and lifted his nose in the air. “Wow. That’s harsh and judgmental. Not all men are hound dogs.”
“I know. But we’re talking about Liam Connors here.”
“Wait. Are we joking around now? I don’t think we’ve ever done that before.”
“Well, desperate times call for desperate measures,” she said darkly. “Here, eat your Smarties. We need to get some fuel in our bodies.”
He helped her take off her running shoes—which were wet—and replaced her sodden socks with some dry ones from his duffel bag. “I don’t know how your feet haven’t broken right off,” he said.
“They go numb after a while. When they start to warm up, like now, that’s the painful part.”
Liam sat beside her and eased her feet over until they rested on his thighs. He began massaging them through the layers of socks.
“This should help,” he said, lifting his gaze to hers.
“Oh, it does.” She sighed then narrowed her eyes at him. “Why are you being so nice to me? It’s making me nervous.”
“You had a rough day. Honestly, I don’t know how you got through it.”
“It was hard for both of us,” she said. “Wait, are you buttering me up so you can tell me you’re heading back to the plane in the morning?”
“I haven’t decided. I’m taking it an hour at a time and, right now, all I want to do is sleep.”
He patted her feet and carefully swung them around to her side of the bed. They each drank a couple of containers of water and ate the Smarties. When Liam went out to relieve himself, he filled the containers again so they could melt overnight.
This time, Rebecca had no trouble falling asleep. It was so much warmer lying next to Liam than it had been the previous night while on her own in the sleeping bag. She only woke once during the night, and when she did, found herself pressed up against Liam’s back.
It had been almost a year since she’d had a man in her bed. Although this situation was entirely different, the physical contact was soothing. She sniffed the back of his neck. He smelled earthy and of stale sweat, but she didn’t mind. Sighing, she nestled in between his shoulder blades and drifted back to sleep.
Chapter Twenty-one
“I think we should give it another day,” Liam said the next morning. “If we don’t make some decent headway down the mountain, I want to talk about going back.”
Her heart sank. “Okay. You ready?”
They packed up their camp and started out with the sun rising at their back, casting long, stretched-out silhouettes of their bodies. The wind was calmer, but it somehow seemed colder to Rebecca.
“Are you sure we’re not heading north?” she asked.
“Pretty sure,” Liam said, pointing to the shadows. “I’d say we’re going in a decidedly westerly direction.”
The terrain continued to be treacherous for most of the morning, but after they’d had a longer rest around noon and fueled up on trail mix, it suddenly improved. The slope became more gradual, and the snow was densely packed, which made walking that much easier.
“I told you this would work,” Rebecca said, trying not to sound smug. “We’re almost t
o the tree line which means tomorrow night we can maybe have a fire.”
“That sounds like heaven,” Liam said.
“I haven’t really asked, but how are you feeling? Being without alcohol and drugs, I mean.”
“Okay, I guess. I’ll admit, the first couple of days were brutal. But now, with everything going on, I feel so cold and crummy most of the time, the not having alcohol part barely registers.”
“Hey, maybe this is an even better idea than staying at the cabin,” she said. “I could call it extreme wilderness rehab.”
“Yeah. I don’t see you getting a lot of takers on that one.”
“Just you wait. The world will marvel at your recovery, and I’ll be swamped with clients.”
“I don’t get the feeling you’d like doing this for a living.”
“What? Almost dying in a plane crash and then hiking who knows how long in the dead of winter to get to safety? You couldn’t be more wrong. I’m loving every minute of it.”
“Not that, the dealing with drunks and addicts.”
“Why would you say that? I’m a nurse. I want to be a doctor. I obviously have a strong need to help people.”
He paused, cursing himself for taking her down this rabbit hole. But then he thought, What the hell, might as well speak the truth.
“Only people you think are worthy,” he said. “I’ve seen the contempt in your eyes and felt the loathing you had for me during parts of the filming.”
She lifted her gaze and stared at the back of his head. “I’m sorry. It’s not you. It’s…” she blew out a breath. “I have a lot of baggage when it comes to drugs and alcohol. You’re right, I’m probably not the person who should be helping addicts.”
He glanced back over his shoulder. “Hey, no judgment here. We all have our tender areas.”
“It’s close to sunset. We should start looking for a place to spend the night.”
They were in an open area with no real possibility of shelter, so they turned left and continued walking south. The terrain became more jagged, and the snowpack was deeper and more granular which meant they started sinking to their knees again.
“I’m going to try over there,” Rebecca said, pointing toward a jut of something that might have been snow-covered rocks.
“Okay, I’ll walk on and see what’s ahead.”
She pushed through the snow, climbing slightly, and carefully picked her way over what was most definitely a rocky outcropping. If that flat area she’d spotted on the far side was decent, it would be a perfect place to bed down. The large boulder could serve as a wind block and provide a spot to anchor one of the tarps. Stepping across, she trampled the snow and found it to be suitably flat.
The sun had only just set and left behind a sky painted magenta and gold. Turning, she lifted her gaze and took it all in. A smile of joy spread across her face, and she exhaled slowly. It was so easy to become immune to the beauty of this planet, but tonight, after tramping through the wilderness for two days, she was happy to bear witness to the glory of the Earth.
Deciding she wanted to fully steep herself, she journeyed across the open area and climbed a rise to get an even better view. Liam came into sight, retracing his footsteps back to where he’d parted from her.
“I might have something,” he yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth to help his voice carry.
“Me too. But first, you need to stop and look at this,” she shouted, pointing to the sky, now gone scarlet.
He walked toward her, nodding his head. “It’s something. Hey, what are you standing on? Be careful, okay?”
“I’m fine. Come on up.”
She stepped back to show him there was plenty of space. But all at once the ground heaved and disappeared. Her good arm windmilled out, trying to find something to grab. It was hopeless because she was already tumbling and falling. The snow sucked her along as it raced to the bottom of the crevice.
Her face smashed against something hard and unforgiving. Brilliant bursts of light flashed against her eyelids and her mouth filled with blood, warm and salty. She blinked her eyes open, and all she could see was a wall of white. When her food slammed down, her ankle exploded in pain.
“Rebecca. Come on. Say something. Anything. Please, Rebecca.”
She grunted, coughed, and discovered she couldn’t move her arms or legs. Panic shot through her. “What happened?” she managed, coughing again, and opening her eyes.
“Holy fucking shit. Are you okay?”
“My face hurts.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it in a moment. We have to get you out of here first.”
She realized she was stuck way down in a hollow between the rocks. Liam must have dug his way to her. He worked to clear more of the snow from her left arm. As soon as there was enough space, she wriggled and pushed it up until her hand was free.
“Okay. That’s good,” he said. “I’m going to try and pull you. It might hurt your collar bone.”
“Do it,” she said, clenching her teeth. He widened his stance. Stepping across the opening, he braced his foot against a rocky ledge on one side and dug into the snow on the other. Bending low, his eyes met hers, and he nodded and grabbed her hand.
“One, two, three,” he said and pulled hard.
Her body began to lift. The pain was blinding, and when she screamed, Liam immediately stopped.
“Keeping going,” she sobbed out. “Even if I’m screaming.”
He began again, and they gained a few inches. She tried to kick with her leg hoping to find purchase. As he slowly hauled her up, she felt something solid under her right foot. She pushed against it and propelled herself up. Liam was halfway upright by now, and she kicked out again and again until she found another foothold.
“Stop,” she said. “I need a break.”
Her supporting leg shook, and it was hard to draw in a full breath. She closed her eyes and rested the side of her head against the snow.
“You’re almost there,” Liam said.
“Okay.” She exhaled. “Let’s go again.”
She bent her knee and tried to spring up while Liam yanked, his other hand coming around her elbow. Up she went until she stood pressed against his body on the ledge. Above him, it was maybe another fifteen or so feet to the top.
He hugged her while she shook and whimpered in pain. “I’ve got you,” he said over and over again. Finally, he sighed and patted her head. “I have a plan. You stay right here. I’ll climb the rest of the way and tie the tarps together into a sort of chair to haul you up.”
She coughed. “Sounds good.”
“You sure you’ll be okay if I leave you?”
“I think so, but please hurry.”
He scrambled up and disappeared from sight, and she leaned against the side and took as much weight as she could off her throbbing left leg. Please don’t let it be broken, she silently prayed.
“Rebecca, you still there?”
“Yes. I’m fine.”
“Hang on a minute. I’ve got the tarps. I just have to figure out the best way to rig this thing up.”
Warm liquid trickled down the back of her throat, and she coughed and spat, staining the snow crimson with her blood. Her face felt hot and tight. She couldn’t breathe through her nose.
“Here we go,” Liam called, and his head peeked over the top.
He began lowering a tarp tied to a second tarp all connected to the bags and the bag straps. It reached her with a couple of inches to spare. The bottom of the tarp had been fashioned into a large loop and double knotted. She slipped it over her head and pulled down until it fit under her butt.
“I’m set,” she called up.
“It’d be easy to slip off, so make sure you use your good arm to hold on above the knot. Are you ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
The tarp pulled taut, and she began to ascend, all the while praying everything held. She’d had that blue nylon bag forever. What if the stitching was weak? But i
t apparently wasn’t, and slowly, inch by inch, she made it to the top. When Liam pulled her over the lip and out onto the flat ground, he screamed, “Yes,” and threw his fists in the air.
She lay there panting, hurting, worried she was going to break apart into a million pieces.
He crouched over her. “Is anything super urgent?”
She carefully shook her head, her face throbbing. “I don’t think so.”
“Okay. I figure the best thing I can do right now is make us shelter, and then we’ll work on you.”
“Sounds good.” She hissed through her teeth, the pain from her shoulder, ribs, and ankle intensifying.
He removed the tarp and laid the sleeping bag over her before hurrying across to the area she’d found earlier. She lay back and closed her eyes. Slowing her breathing, she recited the elements of the periodic table forward, backward, and then skipping every second element. It helped distance her from the pain and stopped her from thinking.
“All done.”
Liam’s voice was near. She blinked up at him and wondered why his face was going squiggly around the edges. Her vision narrowed until all she could see were his blue-green eyes. She was floating, and then she was gone.
“Jesus. Wake up. Come on, Rebecca. Open your eyes. Don’t you dare leave me alone here. Wake the hell up.”
The words tumbled through her mind like jigsaw pieces. None of them fit together. Why did he sound so worried? She opened her eyes.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
His breath sobbed out, and he rubbed a hand over his face. “I’m fine,” he said at last. “You’re the one who’s hurt.”
“What happened?”
“You fell down a crevice. Don’t you remember?”
She tried to sit up, but the pain had teeth and claws and breathed fire all over her. “I remember,” she said, exhaling slowly.
“Where do you hurt?”
“Everywhere,” she blurted out. “My nose. My left ankle. It hurts when I take a deep breath. I have a wicked headache.”
“Um…where should I…how…” He looked at her helplessly.