Chapter 123
How long do they have to get Karin out of the hole?
Minutes. If she suffers cold shock, even less time.
Daniel pulls off his belt and pushes it into his pocket to use as a rescue line. Then he lies down on his stomach and begins to wriggle closer, with the utmost caution.
Hanna has caught up and realizes what he is doing. She lies down too.
This is the only way to save Karin from certain death. The emergency services won’t get here until it is too late.
The ice creaks beneath them, an unpleasant, ominous sound that makes Daniel shudder.
“Be careful,” Hanna calls out from behind him. “You can’t risk falling in too.”
Daniel shuffles forward, a few inches at a time. Karin’s cries are growing fainter. She is trying to heave her upper body onto the ice, but keeps slipping back as it breaks.
Daniel can hear distant voices from the shore, other people have seen the drama playing out on the lake. But it will be over before they can help.
They don’t have many minutes left if Karin is to survive.
“Take my belt,” Hanna shouts. She throws it forward and he catches it. Supporting himself on his elbows, he ties the two belts together to form one longer line. It still measures no more than just over six feet.
It’s not enough.
Daniel shrugs off his jacket and ties one sleeve around a belt buckle. That gives him an extra four to five feet.
Please let that be enough.
The cold snatches his breath away as he resumes his crawl, with only a sweater between his skin and the ice and snow.
He is so close that he can see the muscles twitching in Karin’s terrified face.
Only ten yards to go.
“Keep fighting,” he shouts. “We’re nearly there!”
“I can’t,” she gasps, her voice weak and failing.
“You have to!”
The ice creaks again, and Daniel stiffens. He daren’t move.
How far away is he now?
Will the improvised rescue line reach?
Another creak. Waiting is not an option. He hurls the line in Karin’s direction. She holds herself up with her left hand and tries to catch it, but it is too short and lands several feet away from her.
She looks as if she is on the point of giving up. Her strength is fading; her lips are blue.
If she sinks back beneath the surface, she will die.
“Take my jacket,” Hanna gasps.
Daniel ties it to the sleeve of his own jacket. His fingers are clumsy with the cold, but at last he manages it, and their makeshift rope is a few feet longer.
He edges forward a few inches. Please let it work this time.
It has to.
“Here goes!” he shouts.
“Karin!” Hanna yells. “Throw yourself forward as far as you can, and you’ll catch it.”
It flies through the air. Daniel hardly dares look in case it is still too short, but as it comes toward her, Karin manages to heave herself over the edge just a tiny bit.
She stretches her arm, her fingers reach out, and against all odds she manages to grab the belt that forms the first section of the line.
She’s got it!
“Hold on as tightly as you can!” Daniel encourages her.
“I’ll crawl backward; then you can follow me,” Hanna says.
“Just be careful.” All Daniel’s attention is focused on Karin’s ashen face. “We can’t lose her again.”
Hanna grabs onto his legs as she begins to shuffle away from the hole. At the same time Daniel pulls on the line to haul Karin out.
Slowly, slowly her chest appears as she tries to help. For a second it looks as if the ice is going to break, but then Karin manages to heave herself a little farther. She kicks out with her legs—at last she is out of the water.
“No violent movements,” Daniel says to Hanna over his shoulder. “We have to get away from the thin part before we’re safe.”
He is so cold his whole body is shaking, but there is nothing to be done about that.
They wriggle back ten yards from the hole, then twenty, at a snail’s pace. Daniel’s arms are aching with the strain. It is hard work both crawling and taking Karin along with him, especially as her strength is almost gone. She can barely move; he is virtually dragging her across the ice.
It is harder moving backward than forward, but at least the ice isn’t creaking anymore.
Soon they will be safe.
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees several scooters speeding across the ice from Kall.
Help is on the way.