Chapter Forty
As icy river water rushed over my head, I grabbed hold of a branch protruding from the base of the log. Beth’s dark hair swirled around her face as she struggled to free herself. I placed my hand on her shoulder, needing her to hold still so I could see where she was hung up.
She stared at me, her brown eyes bulging with panic as bubbles escaped her mouth.
I lifted the small blade in front of her face.
She pointed to her shoulder. Then I saw it—a branch had caught the sleeve of her oversize T-shirt.
I tugged at the fabric, trying to free her shirt from the branch, but it was pulled tight from the weight of Beth’s body being forced downstream by the current.
More bubbles escaped Beth’s lips as her eyes closed.
I stuck my knife beneath her sleeve and thrust the blade upward, but there wasn’t enough tension on her shirt for the blade to cut through the fabric.
I released the branch so I could pull her sleeve tight with my other hand, fighting to stay under the log, knowing I wouldn’t have long before the current carried me downriver, away from Beth.
I grasped her sleeve and jerked the knife upward and back.
It sliced through her shirt, releasing Beth from the branch.
The knife jabbed my hand between my thumb and forefinger while Beth was immediately pulled downriver.
I dropped the knife as my blood clouded the water around my hand, allowing the current to carry me downstream.
My lungs burned for air as I fought to reach the surface.
When I did, I gulped in a deep breath. Beth surfaced a few feet away, coughing and sputtering. Relief washed over me. She’s alive.
My arms were numb from the cold. I swam toward her with slow strokes.
As soon as I could touch the bottom, I helped Beth stand on the uneven riverbed.
We moved together, shivering as the frigid current swept sideways against our legs.
When we reached the shore, we collapsed beside each other on the rocks.
“You’re bleeding.” She pointed to my hand.
“I’m fine.” I rolled onto my back, laying my bloody hand atop my chest. It was too numb to feel any pain from the cut. “For a second, I thought you were dead. That it was too late when I cut you loose.”
“Thank you.” Beth plopped her cold, wet arm onto mine. “You saved me.”
I stared at the patchy sky, shivering while catching my breath. When I turned to Beth, her eyes were closed.
“I found her.”
Beth’s eyes snapped open. “You did? Where? Is she okay?”
I sat up and told Beth about fighting with Courtney after finding her in the woods. Beth sat up too. She stared pensively at the river while I recounted my cougar encounter and how I left Courtney alone to be ravaged by the beast without so much as warning her.
“And that’s when I found you,” I concluded. “I never should’ve left her.” I was filled with too much shame to meet Beth’s gaze. “We have to go back. What if we can still save her? We have to at least try.”
Although if I had stayed to help Courtney, I thought, Beth would’ve drowned. We might all three be dead.
“No.” Beth’s tone was firm.
I turned to her in surprise.
“We’ve both almost died already.”
I swiped a stray piece of wet hair from my face. Blood dripped onto my leg from my hand.
“Look at us.” Beth gestured to my cut. “We need to join the others. Then we’ll find the van and call for help.”
I gazed upriver in the direction of where I’d left Courtney. “And leave Courtney?”
“If that cougar attacked her, then she’s already gone. It could very well attack us, too, if we go back—we have nothing to defend ourselves with. If we stay out here, we could all die,” Beth added. “It’s too dangerous.”
I stared at the river, thinking of my pocketknife at the bottom.
Beth got to her feet and held out her palm. “The best thing we can do for Courtney is call for help—professional, emergency help—as soon as we can.”
I bit my lip, studying Beth while debating what to do.
Her dark waves hung flat against her face.
Water dripped from her clothes onto my legs.
The image of Beth closing her eyes under the log while the remaining air escaped her lungs was seared in my mind.
She was lucky to be alive. A shudder passed through my upper body as I recalled the cougar’s snarl. And so am I.
“Okay, fine.” I took Beth’s hand and looked behind me after I stood, not knowing how much this decision would haunt me for the rest of my life.