Chapter 45 #2
Each step was painful, but I kept walking, this time with my eyes on the trail.
I only had another two miles to go, and there was a place where I could set up camp, refill my waters, and wrap my ankle.
I could do two miles, that was…. “For every mile, I multiply it by one point six, so it is three point two one kilometers, approximately. Give or take. I can do this. I’m strong and capable and totally able to walk another nine days on a sprain.
Why not? I mean, in comparison to everything else I’ve been through, that should be a fucking piece of cake,” I rambled as I hobbled along.
As if on cue, the waterworks started. The stupid tears that never wanted to stop fell as my mind decided to torture me with all the things that I never wanted to look at too closely because they were painful.
Moving with my head held high was easier than analyzing them to death.
I glanced up as something squeaked at me.
“Dude give me a break here,” I grumbled, at the large, grey squirrell that looked totally pissed off I was passing near it’s tree.
By the time I heard the sound of the waterfall, which announced my cut-off to camp, my ankle was screaming at me.
Every step was arduous, and my stride was shorter.
I really needed to rest, get my leg elevated, and wrap the crap out of my ankle.
It felt like I was throbbing with a perma-headache in the wrong body part.
I’d never broken a bone before or even sprained anything, and I now had a lot more empathy for people I saw going along with crutches and a cast.
The path that led down to the water’s edge was nothing, but the extra pressure put on my ankle had me squeezing the walking stick tight and swearing with every stride.
I was puffing like an old freight train as I reached the bottom and wiped the sweat off my forehead.
I looked up at the sky and sighed. That took far longer than it should’ve.
Maybe I could get to the next little town and call Lizzy.
She might be able to get me now that I wouldn’t be anywhere near the academy property. Plan B: always have a backup plan.
I dropped my pack to the ground and pulled out my water bottle. I badly needed a drink, but there was less than a mouthful left. I was hoping to set up camp first, but it was going to need to wait. I’d had very little water over the last few hours, and dehydration was way too easy in the winter.
The waterfall was loud, drowning out all other sounds as I looked for a safe way to get closer to the fast-moving water.
Why was everything so difficult? The melting snow had made the water rise, which would’ve been great if it hadn’t pushed it to the point that now the only way to get to it was to travel further than I could see to get to a lower step onto rocks and crawl my way to the edge before leaning over.
Closing my eyes, I forced down all the what-ifs and why-me questions that were running rampant in my head. There was no place for self-doubt out on the trail. I was completely bagged, and this was only day three. If I was going to make it, I needed to buck the fuck up.
Balling my fists, I grabbed my two water bottles and stuffed them in my jacket pockets before using the stick to help get me down the steepest part.
Each step had to be analyzed before I dared put my foot on it.
A smile ticked up the corner of my mouth as I reached the final large rock.
Needing to get down and crawl, I turned around to lay my stick down and screamed as my boot slipped on the damp rock.
Normally, I’d be able to catch myself, but as I put my injured leg down, it crumbled under the jerking motion, and the icy fear that raced through my bones hit a second before the even colder water swallowed me under the rushing surface.
My entire body jerked. The temperature was barely above freezing, and it took a second to register that I needed to reach the shore.
There wasn’t time to panic as I clawed for the surface, wishing that I’d learned to swim.
My clothes felt like a million pounds trying to drag me further away from the light.
I knew I was moving fast, the current was incredibly strong.
All the air was pushed from my lungs as I slammed into something hard and realized it was a massive rock.
There were sharp edges, and it took all my strength to fight the current and pull my head up and out of the water.
I gasped in a deep breath, my body shaking.
My fingers were quickly going numb. With a hard heave, I was able to look over the rock, and it seemed like the river slowed and got shallower a little further up.
I had to get out of the water, and there was no other way than to let go. “Oh, dear God, please. Mum, if you’re listening, please help me.”
Taking another deep breath, I pushed away from the rock and fought with everything I had to keep from being sucked down into the dark.
My feet hit something hard, but I was so cold I didn’t register the pain, and a few seconds later, they were dragging along the riverbed of the still swiftly moving current.
Paddling like a dog and pushing off the bottom when I could, I worked my way over to the snowy bank. The river got shallower, and I crawled my way through the water, which was still trying to drag me away until my fingers dug into the frozen ground.
“Ah,” I yelled as I pulled my body out and shook, lying there.
My body was urging me to just lay there.
Everything hurt so badly, and I was so cold that all I could think about was curling up into a ball to try and get warm.
That wouldn’t work, and the warning flags in my mind were loud enough that I balled my hands into fists and slowly pushed myself up to my knees before stumbling to my feet.
I couldn’t feel them or my ankle. I looked down to see if they were still attached and found that my jeans were ripped open, and blood was dripping down my leg from a cut, but my legs were still attached to my body.
Lifting my head, I couldn’t see my bright yellow pack anymore, and the waterfall looked like a tiny dot.
Wrapping my arms around myself, I took a tiny step and then another.
I knew I didn’t have long if I couldn’t get warm, an hour to ninety minutes at the most. My eyes stung from the cold but also tears as I thought about Lizzy, Myles, Blake, Ivy, Chantry, and shockingly Theo, Liam, and even that asshole Nash.
No one would know what happened to me until some hiker found my body, which would be scavenged by animals by that point.
I didn’t want to die out here.