by Marion Myles
“Can you take off my shoe and socks so we can see what’s going on under there?”
He nodded in relief. “Yes. Absolutely.”
Folding back the layers of blankets, he loosened the shoelace and began prying off the running shoe. She closed her eyes and bit her lip, breathing against the pain.
“How’s it look?” she asked.
“Terrible,” he said.
She opened her eyes. “Help me up.” She raised her good arm toward him, and he took it, his other hand coming to support her back as he lifted her to a sitting position. Sure enough, the ankle was the size of a grapefruit and stained purple and deep red. Her foot had filled as well, and the swelling rose halfway up her calf.
Reaching forward, she felt around the area and wiggled her toes. “I don’t think it’s broken, but the deltoid ligament took a beating. Looks like a sprain to me.”
“A really bad sprain. You can’t walk on that.”
“Let’s not worry about walking right now. I need to ice this down.”
He took the small tarp from the ground beside her. “Okay. I’ll get some snow.”
While he was gone, she probed her face. Her nose and cheeks were definitely swollen. The way her nose canted to the side told her it was likely broken. She sighed. She’d always liked her nose. Opening her mouth wide, she slid her jaw from side to side. That, at least, was okay.
“How do I look?” she asked Liam when he returned.
“Okay,” he said, his eyes sliding away.
“I mean my face.”
“Well.” He licked his lips. “Um…you have two black eyes and your nose is kinda messed up. There are scrapes on your forehead and a cut by your ear over here.” He pointed to her left ear.
She’d missed the cut. Feeling around, she encountered a gash about two inches long but thankfully not too deep. It probably needed stitches, but that wasn’t going to happen any time soon. Scarred for life, she supposed.
He knelt beside her. Carefully laying the snow-filled tarp on her lower leg, he quickly arranged the covers over her again.
“You’ll want some for your face,” he said. “How’s the shoulder, by the way.”
“Oh, it’s still there, crying quietly in the background. My ribs hurt more than they did, which is a bummer.” Her voice sounded nasal as if she had the worst cold of all time.
“All right. Give me a sec, and I’ll figure out how to get more snow on you.”
In the end, he used the blue nylon bag as a container and placed it on her collar bone before draping part of it over her face. Though the cold felt good, it wasn’t long before she was shivering.
Liam unzipped his coat and crawled in beside her carefully draping an arm over her hips. He hugged her close, pulling a portion of his coat across her side for added warmth. They lay quietly, and she found it increasingly difficult to keep her eyes open.
“You need to eat something,” she mumbled. “Keep your strength up.”
When she faded into sleep, her body going slack against his, Liam’s breath stuttered out. Like a broken record, his mind returned again and again to that moment he’d watched the ground swallowed her up. He squeezed his eyes shut, but the tears spilled over anyway and fell off his chin, dripping into her hair.
Chapter Twenty-two
Liam slept fitfully through the night while beside him, Rebecca barely stirred. He was glad. The longer she stayed asleep, the less pain she had to endure. Twice, he went out into the night to replenish the snow packed around her various injuries.
The second time outside, he heard wolves howling, and the hair on the back of his neck stood at attention. Maybe the sound of wolves was a good sign though. It meant they must be close to finally getting off this frozen scape.
He looked for the North Star and imagined all the countless other people who might be staring at it this exact moment. The thought comforted him.
When daylight came, he decided not to rouse Rebecca. It didn’t matter if she slept the day away because they weren’t going anywhere. That was for certain. Her ankle still reminded him of an elephant’s leg, and her face looked worse than it had hours ago.
Quietly, he mixed a protein drink and sat cross-legged beside her with a blanket draped around his shoulders and drank it down in large gulps. His fingers were numb. Even though they’d reached a lower elevation than two days ago, the temperatures had been dropping steadily. They needed a fire.
He pulled his hat lower and zipped his jacket up all the way to his chin. Then he helped himself to three pairs of socks and covered his hands. Since he couldn’t sleep anymore, he might as well go on a scouting mission.
Outside, it was calm and crisp and his breath fogged out in clouds around his face. He started off the direction he’d gone last night. After ten or so minutes, Liam found he was traveling easily and quickly. When it became steeper in places, he welcomed the rapid descent.
Somewhere into the second hour, he came across his first plant. Part of a small shrub poked a few inches through the snow. He knelt beside it, rubbing his fingers over the spikey twigs.
“Take me to your leader,” he said in a mock deep voice.
The farther he went, the more patches of shrubs he saw. Then a few taller bushes and finally a small tree. Never having taken an interest in plants, he couldn’t have come up with the name even if someone pointed a gun to his head. It had short, stubby evergreen type leaves, and the diameter of the trunk was about two inches. Hardly a sacred redwood but he thought it beautiful just the same.
Continuing on, he discovered small groupings of the trees and began breaking branches and shoving them inside his coat. When he had all he could carry, he turned around and retraced his steps back up the mountain. The sun was directly overhead when he pushed in under the tarp of their shelter.
Rebecca was still asleep. He wasn’t sure if he should wake her, so he sat watching closely until he saw she was breathing freely. The snow had mostly melted in the packs. He took the tarp outside and loaded it up with more snow, carefully placing some over her leg and the rest by her ribs and shoulders.
She moaned and turned her head toward him. He tucked the blanket more securely around her body and covered her with the sleeping bag. Sometime while he’d been away exploring, her hat had become dislodged. He stroked his fingertips gently across her head then replaced the cap.
Finally, he began preparing an area for the fire. He dug snow, rolled and braided paper, and went outside to break the branches down further until he had a nice pile of fuel. Back inside, he made the tee-pee of paper logs and balanced five small twiggy branches against it with three thicker ones across the top. Scrunching up a single sheet of paper, he carefully fed it in underneath and set it alight.
He’d feared the branches would be too succulent to burn, but the flames managed to take hold of them, and he fed a few more on the top once everything was established. That small fire was the most glorious thing he’d seen in some time and, smiling, he pushed his hands toward the warmth.
The fire was still hot when Rebecca finally began stirring. Bleeding from the cut near her ear had seeped down onto her neck, making it look like she’d been attacked by a vampire. Her left eye was practically swollen shut and dried blood coated her nostrils.
“You look like you went ten rounds with Muhammad Ali. How do you feel?”
She coughed. “I’ve felt better,” she croaked. “Holy cow, I just realized we have a fire. Where did you get the branches?”
“I hunted them up while you were sleeping. I’m not just a pretty face,” he said with a wink.
“That was mean. Seriously, how close is the tree line?”
“It’s hardly a line, but in about two and a half hours, I found some baby trees. I looked over this ledge though and saw some serious ones a hundred or so feet lower.”
She nodded slowly then winced and carefully patted her nose. “So we could be there sometime tomorrow, which means a fire every night. Being able to get warm will make a huge dif
ference.”
“Not to mention making a better, more wind-proof shelter. But.” He pointed to her leg. “I don’t see you walking anytime soon.”
She sighed. “I’ll just have to, won’t I? Hey, save a couple of those short, sturdy branches. I can use them as a splint.”
“Rebecca, you’re not being reasonable. I was thinking of making a sort of sleigh with the tarps and pulling you down.”
“No, I’ll walk. I was already pretty slow with my shoulder and ribs. This probably won’t be much worse. It’ll be too hard on you hauling me down.”
He sat back on his heels, his face spiking with color. “You know what’s too hard on me? Watching you fight the pain every time you take a step. Hearing you scream when you fall on your shoulder. And worse than that was seeing you disappear right before my eyes. I didn’t think I’d be able to get to you.” He pushed a breath out between his lips. “So don’t tell me what I can and can’t handle where you’re concerned. You need to eat something.”
She sat in silence while he mixed up a protein drink. “I’m sorry. I hate being such a burden,” she said when he passed over the container.
“Well, I guess that’s something you’re going to have to deal with.”
“Liam,” she said hesitantly, sometime later. “I need to go to the bathroom.”
“No problem. Do you want me to put your shoe back on?”
“Yes, please.”
He got her up and supported her left side. She managed to get outside in a series of shuffles and hops. He wrestled her clothes back and held her good hand while she squatted, then tugged up her pants when she was done. She found it unnerving to realize she couldn’t have done any of it on her own.
“Okay. I’ll bet you’re feeling pretty spent. Let’s get you back to bed.”
She slept off and on through the evening and into the night. The fire made everything a million times better, and she was plenty warm. At some point, Liam forced her to eat a Dove bar and drink more water before she drifted away again. She thought she heard him singing a U2 song and, later, muttering to himself.
The next morning, Liam folded the sleeping bag together, filled it with the extra clothes and laid it on the largest tarp. He helped Rebecca into it. Since there was no sturdy frame to lean against, she had to lie flat. He placed the duffel and the blue bag next to her and threaded the straps over her head and carefully worked them down her body.
“We don’t want our supplies making a run for it,” he joked.
“Yeah. That would seriously blow,” she said.
He folded over two corners of the tarp and brought them toward her. “Here, you’re going to have to hold on to these. I’m hoping that will stop you and the sleeping bag from slipping off.”
Liam attached a second tarp to the first and tied that one around his waist to keep his arms free. He started walking slowly forward, and Rebecca and the supplies slid along behind him. She found it bumpy, though tolerable, and decidedly weird lying there staring up at the sky while they eased down the mountain.
She was situated feet first and to begin with, tried to hold her head up so she could see where they were going. It wasn’t long before she gave up and simply lay there. From time to time, she called out to Liam, asking if he was okay. Otherwise, she let her mind drift along.
If they could make it partway into the forest by the end of the day, that would set them up nicely. She tried to visualize where the tree line started. Was it only a quarter of the way down or closer to half? If they could only get off this mountain, they’d surely find a trail or a road or something that would take them to civilization.
The big question being…Were they days or weeks away from getting out of the wilderness? Days would be okay. They had enough food to get them through maybe another week. After that, it was down to slim pickings because the protein powder would be gone and the daily rations reduced to a single chocolate bar and a small handful of nuts and dried fruit.
She gently moved her left foot side to side. Maybe she’d be able to start putting some weight on it by the end of the day. Liam had packed her ankle with snow before they’d started out. It was mostly numb, which was fine with her. The body part that currently hurt the most was her nose. Tonight, she’d have to get serious about icing it.
Liam stopped, and she continued sliding until she ran into his legs.
“We need to hold up,” he said. “This part is steep. I’m afraid you and the tarp might go flying off somewhere.”
“I can walk,” she said, using her good arm to push herself up to sitting position and unzipping the sleeping bag.
“I don’t think so.” He reached down and helped her out. “Can you stand here on your own?”
“Of course I can stand.”
“Okay. I’m going to tie our supplies inside the tarp.” Once he’d secured the bedding and carrier bags, he double-checked the second tarp he’d tied to himself. “Good. That should do it.”
“If you could support my arm, I’m sure I can hobble down,” Rebecca said, eyeing the slope.
“We’re trying to heal you, not put you through another wreck. I’m going to carry you.”
She stared at him. “Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t carry me.”
“They made me train like hell to get in shape for that movie. I’ll bet you don’t weigh much more than a hundred pounds by now. I can do it. The only thing I’m worried about is your ribs.”
“Liam, no.”
“Rebecca, yes. Now stop being such a pain in the ass.” He took her good arm and draped it over his shoulder then grasping her low around the waist, scooped up her legs.
Her breath caught, and she forced herself to exhale slowly. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“That’s because you have no imagination. Okay. Here goes.”
He walked slowly forward. After a dozen steps or so, the tarp pushed by him and more or less led the way.
“Good thing I’m not still sitting on that thing,” Rebecca commented.
“Exactly. With your enormous weight on top, there’s no way I’d have been able to control it.”
“I so want to punch you, but under the circumstances, I guess I won’t,” she said.
Their progress was slow. Although she didn’t complain, Rebecca found the pressure of his arm around her back painful. He stopped several times to adjust the tarp when he was in danger of tripping, and she noticed he took the opportunity to stretch his shoulders.
“Is this too much?” she asked quietly when they started up again after another tarp correction.
He turned his head and looked straight into her eyes. “I’m happy to do it. Besides, we’re a team.”
She studied his face. “You’re different than I thought you were.”
“You obviously mean hotter and more charming?”
“Funnier, that’s one thing. I never noticed you having a sense of humor before.”
He chuckled and shifted his gaze forward again. “That’s because there’s nothing funnier than surviving a plane crash only to be stranded on a mountain in the middle of winter. Makes me laugh every time I think about it.”
Eventually, they reached better ground, and Liam rigged up the toboggan, as he called it, and settled Rebecca into place.
“How long do you think we’ve been going?” she wondered.
“I’d say around two hours. Maybe longer.”
“So where are these magical trees?” she asked turning her head side to side.
“Shouldn’t be long now,” he called back to her.
In fact, it was close to another hour before he dragged her over to the first small shrub. “It’s so beautiful,” she said.
“I know. Come on. It gets better from here.”
Soon they passed through a section of small trees similar to the ones he’d stripped branches from the day before. He continued on until they reached the edge of what could be considered a proper forest. It wasn’t dense, but there were evergreen trees scattered every few
feet.
“Let’s take a break,” he said, untying the tarp from his waist. “I’d say this calls for a celebratory drink.” He paused and grimaced. “Of mountain filtered water.”
She pulled two of the water containers from inside her sleeping bag and handed him one then turned her head and looked back up at the mountain. The cloud cover was low, and she couldn’t see the top.
“Do you think we’re halfway down yet?” she asked.
“Dunno. Maybe.”
“Which means it could take another five days to reach the bottom.”
He shrugged and put his hands on his hips, stretched back. “Hard to say. I hope the going will be better in the woods…but maybe not. There might be more branches and logs to step over. It’ll be hard to see the rocks and holes because it’s sheltered in here and the snow tends to pile up rather than being blown away from things. Plus, there’s your ankle. All in all, it could take us longer.”
She sighed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
They drank the water and because it was a celebration, decided to dip into some of their stash. Liam had a piece of Juicy Fruit gum, and Rebecca figured she couldn’t go wrong with a cherry-flavored cough drop. If nothing else, it might help with her congestion.
When they started up again, Rebecca realized Liam could well be right about their progress. He had to skirt around trees, and she was continually jostled by bumps. There was more moisture in the snow, and the tarp didn’t glide as easily across the top. Downed trees continually forced her off the toboggan, so he could carry it over the obstacle.
Still, Liam continued on doggedly, refusing to stop every time she suggested they call it quits.
“No, I want to get us farther down,” he said. “Let’s make this day count. I’ve still got some energy left.”
“I don’t know how,” she grumbled. “You’re only eating a few hundred calories a day, and you’ve been walking since first thing this morning.”
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”
“I have to. We’re a team, remember?”
It was well into twilight when he finally stopped and untied the tarp from his waist.
