by Jerry Cole
"I don't know where we are," Asher gasped. "But it's getting dark. It's going to be awhile before anyone finds us. And I don't want to wait around and see if this punctures something important the minute I move wrong. Okay?"
Daniel took a deep breath, forcing his nerves to steady.
"Okay," he said, though he could hear his pulse pounding in his ears. "Okay. We can do this. What do I need to do?"
"There's a first aid kit in my bag there," Asher tipped his head to indicate the battered, waterlogged packs that must have washed up with them, "Get the gauze, bandages, and disinfectant ready."
"You don't think a puncture like that is going to need stitches?" Daniel asked, eyeing the branch uneasily. It was thicker than his thumb.
"You know how to suture a wound?" Asher asked, blinking as his vision unfocused. Daniel could tell he wasn't going to stay conscious much longer. "Yeah, it needs stitches. But I'm really hoping we'll make it back to a hospital before it becomes critical. For now, gauze and bandages."
Daniel nodded and began digging through Asher's soaked bag, surprised to find the man hadn't waterproofed things better considering they were going rafting. Daniel had secured everything he brought with him in a double layer of plastic bags, predicting a dunk in the river as inevitable. He'd been more right than he could have ever anticipated.
Fortunately, the case the first aid kit was in was watertight and he opened it to find the bandages still clean and dry. He brought the kit over to Asher, stomach churning as he looked at that wound again.
"This is going to suck," he said, and Asher snorted.
"You're telling me."
Daniel took a deep breath, already resigned to this and past the point of being afraid of it. This had to happen and he was the only one who could do it. Daniel wrapped his hands around the end of the branch and looked at Asher for confirmation that he was doing the right thing. Asher, white as a sheet, licked his lips, braced himself against the rock, and nodded. Daniel pulled.
The branch slid free with a distressingly wet sound and a howl of pain from Asher. Daniel cast it away, not wanting to look at how much of the length was covered in Asher's blood. The trail guide swooned, groaning, and slumped towards the ground.
"Hey, hey!" Daniel caught the larger man, lowering him down more easily. "Don't pass out! Stay with me!"
But Asher was already gone, overwhelmed by the pain. Daniel cursed, his attention pulled back to the now open, gushing wound. He didn't have time to wait on Asher to regain consciousness. He'd just have to do what seemed right. He poured disinfectant over the injury, hoping there weren't any splinters still embedded in there, and then packed the hole with gauze, shuddering as it soaked through almost at once. He secured the packed gauze with bandages, wrapping them tightly and hoping the pressure would help keep Asher from bleeding out too fast. When he was done, he sat back, covered in the trail guide's blood, and wondered what he was supposed to do next.
He looked down at himself, taking a mental inventory. His left ankle was swollen and throbbing. Sprained at least, if not fractured. He had a feeling he had more than one fracture to worry about. His entire body felt bruised. Worst of all were the ankle, his shoulder, and his head where he'd hit it on the rock. There was blood crusted in his hair there, which made him shudder in disgust. He contemplated going to try and wash, but he didn't want to leave Asher alone for even a minute right now. Instead he wiped the other man's blood off his hands onto his shirt the best he could and dug into his pack for something to eat.
He watched Asher anxiously as he chewed on a granola bar, hoping the trail guide woke soon. He'd never thought he could be so desperate for the company of such an irritating person, but the concept of being alone out here was terrifying. He'd take Asher's grating presence a million times over being stranded here by himself. He'd probably be dead if the trail guide hadn't hauled him out of the river, and that was something he didn’t really want to think about. If he’d hit that rock just a little harder they would both be dead.
Daniel shivered and looked out through the limited shelter of the pine branches. They must still be fairly high up, he thought, because the forest outside was all evergreen from what he could see. The firs trembled in the chill evening wind, shaking fragrant needles at the bruise colored sky. An owl was calling in the distance, the sound soft and velvet. Daniel cocked his head to hear it better, wondering where it was, and what other animals might be in the area.
The sun was sinking lower all the time, casting bars of gold through the black pine branches and illuminating the deep carpet of red needles, and the temperature was dropping with it. He was no wilderness expert, but he was smart enough to know that being in these soaking wet clothes at night out here was a death sentence. He finished his granola bar quickly and then dug through both packs. He found a rechargeable emergency lamp and set it up against the rock, illuminating their miserable little lean-to against the coming night. He had brought a change of clothes, safely bagged and dry, and he found one of those emergency foil blankets in Asher's bag. Asher had also brought a sleeping bag, rolled up at the top of his pack and thankfully still sealed in its watertight packaging from the store. He also found fire starting equipment, which was soaked, and which Daniel didn't begin to know how to use. He left it aside to dry out and started pulling off his wet clothing instead. As he awkwardly attempted to get his shirt off without further agitating his incredibly painful shoulder, he heard Asher shift behind him.
"If you're trying to cheer me up with a strip tease, kid," Asher joked, his voice weak with pain and exhaustion, "I appreciate the gesture, but I'm not really in the mood."
Daniel didn't dignify that with an answer, just continued struggling with his damp shirt.
"Thanks for not letting me bleed out," Asher continued, and he sounded sincerer than Daniel would have expected from him.
"Can you move enough to get your own clothes off?" Daniel asked through chattering teeth as he cast his shirt aside. "We need to get dry or we're going to freeze."
"Please tell me you're going to warm me with your naked body. That's hilarious."
"Freeze then!" Daniel snapped in irritation, struggling with his belt while he shivered. "Don't you think this situation is awful enough without your bullshit on top of it?"
"Relax," Asher sighed, and Daniel heard his voice waver with his own shudders of burgeoning hypothermia. "Just trying to lighten the mood."
"You could try helping instead," Daniel grumbled. "You're supposed to be the expert. I don't even know how to start a fire."
"You're doing fine," Asher sounded surprisingly reassuring, despite the pause to shiver in his words. "You're right about the clothes. But moving isn't really something I can do right now..."
He trailed off as Daniel, victorious over his stubborn belt, began removing his pants, his back to Asher as he slid them carefully over his injured ankle, hissing at the pain. All that was left was his underwear, as soaked to his skin as everything else. He turned to glare over his shoulder at Asher.
"Don't look." he said pointedly and the trail guide, still lying on his back against the rock, held up his hands in innocence and turned his face away. Daniel peeled off the wet underwear and cast them aside with his other wet things. He'd had a small microfiber towel with his clothes, not much bigger than a washcloth, but he dried off with it as best he could, then pulled on the dry underwear from his spare clothes. He wondered if he shouldn't put on the entire outfit, but he didn't want to get them damp from what he couldn't dry off, and Asher had a point about person-to-person warming. Wasn't skin to skin supposed to be the best way to warm up? Did that still work when both people were wet and cold?
Putting off deciding, he turned, mostly naked, back to Asher, who was watching him with a smile on his face.
"I told you not to look," Daniel hissed, but Asher just shrugged. "Whatever. We need to get the wet clothes off of you."
"Be my guest," Asher offered, shivering even as he gestured down at himself like h
e was welcoming Daniel to an all you can eat buffet. Daniel rolled his eyes in irritation and, moving carefully as much due to his own injuries as to Asher's, he began removing the trail guide's clothing, trying not to focus on the other man's eyes watching him while he peeled away the damp flannel of his shirt. Daniel hesitated as he reached Asher's pants.
"Don't get shy now," Asher teased. But Daniel could see how hard the other man was shaking in spite of his playful grin. The blood loss must be making his temperature drop even faster than Daniel's. They needed to move quicker. If Daniel could yank a branch out of this man's side, he could take off his pants. He fumbled with Asher's belt for a moment, then began tugging his jeans down, doing his best not to jostle the other man. Still, he heard the hisses of pain Asher struggled to hide, raising his forearm to his mouth and biting down to muffle the noise.
Eventually, he succeeded in getting the wet pants removed, guilt eating at him from the pale, strained look on Asher’s face. All that was left was his underwear, unfortunately tight clinging white boxer-briefs, which Daniel decided not to remove, as he had nothing to replace them with. He patted Asher down with the towel as much as he could, then dragged the foil thermal blanket and the unzipped sleeping bag over the other man. He even threw the sweater from his dry clothes on top just for every extra degree of heat he could get. Asher was staring into space, close to passing out again. Daniel, with only a moment's trepidation, started to lie down next to him.
"Wait."
Daniel jumped as he felt a cold hand on the small of his back.
"There's no point if we're lying on the ground," Asher mumbled, his words a bit slurred from cold and exhaustion. "It'll leach all the heat."
Daniel hummed anxiously, but it made sense. He considered his options for a moment before taking the sleeping bag and spreading it on the ground.
"Do you think you can move enough to lay over here?" Daniel asked, though Asher's eyes were closed, his shivering weaker now.
Accepting that the other man was helpless, Daniel shifted closer to put his arms around Asher, swallowing hard with nerves as he wrapped himself around Asher's muscular, tattooed chest. As carefully as he could, he shifted the trail guide over, off of the ground and onto the warm fleece lining of the sleeping bag. Asher didn't respond except to groan in pain at the movement. Daniel propped the other man up on his side where his injury would hopefully be in the least danger of being rolled on in the night. Finally, Daniel lay down, his back to Asher's chest, and pulled the foil thermal blanket over them.
Asher's skin was cold against Daniel's, clammy with lingering moisture. He could feel the other man shivering and knew he was as well. Daniel hoped he was doing this right. It could kill them both if he wasn't.
"Asher?" he whispered as the night sounds outside their inefficient little shelter echoed around them. "Please don't die."
Asher didn't answer. Daniel, feeling small and afraid, huddled against the other man and tried to sleep.
Chapter Nine
Exhaustion and injury were powerful combatants against the fear and anxiety that tried to keep Daniel awake. Soon he was sleeping hard, dreaming of being back in that river, sinking into fathomless cold depths alone. He reached for the surface, but it was always beyond him, and he couldn’t swim fast enough to reach it. Sometimes he would get close enough to the shimmering silver underside to see people above the water, moving somewhere beyond him. He tried to call out to them, but water flooded his lungs. Someone was staring down at him, but they wouldn’t reach out. He strained for the surface desperately, the shifting shattered silver mirror reflected light just beyond his fingers, and found it solid as glass. He was under ice and there was no way out. Slowly, realizing the truth, he stopped moving. He sank slowly into the darkness, unresisting. The figure on the other side of the glass watched him, silent and unmoving.
He woke early, the light of morning still gray, the sun not fully risen from behind the horizon. He felt cold and stiff and his injuries ached, but he was alive and warm.
He realized with abrupt embarrassment that he could feel every inch of Asher's body pressed against him. The larger man was all but molded to Daniel's back, an arm around Daniel’s waist. Daniel could feel Asher's breath against his scalp, the trail guide's face buried in his hair. They were as close as lovers, though no lover Daniel had ever had. As he stirred, trying to figure out how he could get out of this embrace before Asher woke up, he felt the other man's arm tighten around his waist, squeezing him closer. Asher sighed, breath warm against the back of Daniel's neck.
"Would you look at that?" Asher yawned, holding Daniel no less tightly. "We're still alive."
"We're probably not in danger of freezing anymore," Daniel replied, hunching his shoulders. "So if you could let go of me..."
"I don't know. This is kinda comfy."
Daniel struggled, squirming, until Asher released him, laughing. Daniel sat up, injuries complaining loudly, and regretted it as soon as the blanket slid off of him, shivering hard in the early morning chill. There was frost on the pine needles of their lean-to, and Daniel's breath fogged before him as he scrambled for his dry clothes, pulling them on as quickly as he could. He'd laid out their wet things the night before, but when he touched them he found them still damp, unsurprisingly.
"Here." Daniel threw his sweater at Asher, figuring he could get by better on the shirt and undershirt he'd packed than Asher could get by naked. Asher, still lying down, probably trying not to disturb his injury, caught it and gave Daniel a grateful nod. Daniel watched the other man struggle to put it on as he gathered up the wet things.
"Stay there and rest," Daniel said. "I'm going to hang these clothes up somewhere the sun will reach them and see if I can't figure out where we are."
"Take your time," Asher's voice was strained as he finished putting on the sweater and lay back down again. "I'm not going anywhere."
Outside, a chill autumn morning was spreading slowly over the mountains. Silver mist made a slow, stately procession through the pines, just black cutout silhouettes in early morning obfuscation. The dawn lights gilded the eastern faces of the distant peaks in gold and dripped down into the valleys, running in the flashing currents of the river. Birdsong and the scent of sap and wet stone rode the breeze to Daniel's ears and nose, but there was no trace of any man made thing. No shout of voices or roar of car engines. No sign that there was any other human being on the planet but Daniel and the injured trail guide behind him. Daniel frowned at the splendor of nature, worry turning his stomach. He hung the clothes over a low branch where they could dry, hoping it wouldn't take long.
"See anything?" Asher asked as Daniel returned. Daniel, shaking his head, dug a granola bar and a water bottle out of the bags instead, handing them to Asher before taking the last granola bar for himself.
"That definitely isn't the Roaring River, though," Daniel said, sitting down. "That would have dumped us right in the middle of the camping area. Even if we were only part of the way down it, we should be able to see Lawn Lake trail. So we must be somewhere else. Does Roaring River have any tributaries we could have been washed down?"
"I don't think so," Asher squinted, trying to remember. "I mean, I think there's a river near Lawn Lake that cuts through Black Canyon, but if we'd gone through Black Canyon I'm pretty sure we'd be dead. The river through Black Canyon drops 35 feet per mile. It's one of the steepest drops in America."
Daniel frowned, remembering the brochures he'd read to prepare for the trip. "Wait," he said, "Isn't that Black Canyon in Gunnison National Park? I thought the Black Canyon here was a different Black Canyon?"
Asher looked bewildered. "Aren't they the same thing?"
"How should I know? You're the trail guide!"
"Well why the hell would there be two Black Canyons in Colorado? That's intentionally confusing people!"
"Don't yell at me, I didn't name them!"
"Whatever!" Asher threw his hands up, struggling to sit up so he could eat their paltry
breakfast. "I'm eighty percent sure we didn't go through a canyon."
"Then where did we go?" Daniel asked, rubbing his suddenly tired eyes. "If we were in the Roaring River, we can't have just magically teleported into a different one."
"Well then, the most obvious answer must be that we're still on the Roaring River," Asher suggested. "And we're just in some weird little obscure bend. If we follow it a mile in either direction we'll probably find the trail."
"I don't think we can walk a mile right now," Daniel observed, thinking of his own twisted ankle, not to mention the hole in Asher's side.
"No, and we're not going to," Asher shook his head, leaning against the rock as he opened his water bottle. "It just means it shouldn't take the search party long to find us. So we're going to stay put and wait."
Daniel nodded, agreeing that seemed like the best course of action. Even if they'd somehow ended up in the Fall River or anything else, if they were by a major body of water like this, they'd be easier to find.
Asher continued to rest lying down, and Daniel took it easy near him, not wanting to strain his sprained ankle more. But he felt too restless to hold still for long. Soon the sun was up properly, melting the frost and turning the day more pleasantly cool. Daniel felt grimy, the blood crusted in his hair making his skin crawl every time he felt it. Eventually, with a huff of irritation, he gave in to his need to get up and do something, taking the empty water bottles and limping out of their little shelter to check on the clothes.
The river was calmer here than it had been up at Lawn Lake. Which is why they'd washed up instead of being swept further on, Daniel assumed. It ran cheerfully down over the stones, heading deeper into a valley between the distant peaks, swallowed by forest. Daniel refilled the water bottles first, then ran his hands over the clothes, smiling when he saw they were mostly dry now, wool smelling of sunlight and pine.
