CHAPTER 49
Riggs
“What now?”
My satellite phone is ringing with a call from Top. We left him and Rhonda only three hours ago and have been blazing a trail up the steep side of this mountain. “Hello,” I huff, nearly out of breath.
“Rhonda broke her leg. It’s bad. How fast can you get back here?”
He’s yelling in full-panic mode. “Slow down. It’s going to be okay.”
“It’s not okay. You need to get back here. I don’t know what to do.”
I try to make my voice as calm as possible. “Tell me what happened.” Ash is a few yards behind me, so I hold up a fist signaling him to stop.
“We stopped to take a break, and she slipped on some rocks and fell. I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Where is she now? Can I talk to her?”
“She’s on the ground. Hold on.”
“Hi,” Rhonda says, her voice strained. “Yeah, my leg is broken, but I’m more worried about Top. I think he might be going into shock. How soon can you get back here?”
“At least an hour, but if we drop our gear, maybe forty-five minutes. How bad is it?”
“You should probably drop your gear. I don’t think I’ll be much use if he loses it.”
“Will do.”
Ash has joined me, and I fill him in. “Rhonda broke her leg, and Top might be going into shock. See if you can get a medevac to them.”
He pulls out his SAT phone. “I don’t know if a helicopter can get to this elevation.”
I was thinking the same thing. “We’re probably going to have to transport you in the ATV,” I tell Rhonda. “Where is the break?”
“Below the knee. It’s not the femur, thank goodness.”
“You sound like you’re in some pain.”
“I’m not going to lie, it hurts, but I’ll manage.” She pauses and I hear yelling in the background. “Top is losing his mind. I don’t know what I can do for him.”
Ash taps my shoulder, shaking his head. “Rhonda, a medevac is a no-go. We’ll have to get you to a lower elevation before the helicopter can get to you. We’ll be there as fast as we can. Call me if anything changes.”
“Just hurry, please.”
“We will. Hang in there.”
I drop my gear and gesture for Ash to do the same. “We’ll be able to move faster this way.”
Ash’s gear flies off. We have our canteens and phones, but nothing else to weigh us down. The good news is, it’s downhill the whole way. We just need to make sure we’re careful in this rocky terrain. One wrong step and one of us will be injured too.
We make it back to the camp in thirty-five minutes and I immediately see why Top is in bad shape.
Rhonda is sitting on the ground part-way down the rocky embankment.
Her leg below the knee is bent at a ninety-degree angle, and a sharp bone is sticking through her bloody pant leg.
Her skin tone looks good, so it doesn’t appear that she’s lost too much blood. At least we have that going for us.
Top, sitting beside her, stares blankly at us, completely white, like he doesn’t have a drop of blood left in him.
“Come with me,” Ash says, pulling Top to his feet. “Riggs can handle this.”
As Ash leads Top away, I assess the situation. There’s not a lot I can do but bandage her up the best I can, then drive her out of here. As Ash takes Top for a walk, I retrieve the first-aid kit from the ATV and go to work.
It takes a little effort, but Ash and I manage to get Rhonda back to the ATV.
When we have her strapped onto a padded bench in the back, her leg immobilized as much as possible, I wrap a blanket around her to keep her warm.
It also has the added benefit of hiding her mangled leg from Top.
There’s some color back in his face, but he’s not in great shape by any means as he sits on the floor holding Rhonda’s hand with a blank look in his eyes.
With those two situated, I take the driver’s seat as Ash hops in the passenger seat and checks the GPS. “I talked to the medevac people. They can meet us here. Should take us about an hour.” He holds the screen up so I can see where we’re going. Under the circumstances, an hour seems doable.
I throw the gearshift into drive and step on the gas. Ash lets the medevac people know we’re on our way, then squeezes between the seats to get to the back. I tilt my rearview mirror to see he’s unpacking the extra GoPros that we always have on standby.
“Good idea,” I call back.
He attaches one to a body harness and puts it on Top so that the camera rests on his chest. Then he attaches another one to a head strap and slips it on Rhonda.
“I should have thought of this,” she says with a weak smile.
“Nonsense,” Ash tells her. “I wouldn’t have if I were in your situation.”
“Liar.” She looks over at Top. “You should put a head camera on him too.”
“Good idea.”
Top doesn’t say anything as Ash slips a head strap with a second GoPro on him. I think he might still be in shock.
“You still have your camera on,” Rhonda says. Riggs and I have our usual cameras mounted on our chests. “Has it been on this whole time?”
“Hope you don’t mind.”
“I’m going to be on the show?”
Ash laughs. “Sweetheart, you’re going to be the star of the whole season.”
“You called me sweetheart.” She looks at Top, who’s still holding her hand, but doesn’t appear to be registering what’s going on. “I’m sorry I wasn’t the one to tell you.”
Ash brushes a strand of hair out of her face. “You didn’t need to. We both knew it was time to move on. But we’ll always be friends, right?”
She nods. “Always.”
We ride in silence for the rest of the trip, and when I steer around a bend, the helicopter appears in a clearing to our right, its rotors turning, ready to go.
I park the ATV, then Ash and I hop out, intending to help the medics, but we quickly see that it’s best to get out of the way and let them do their job.
I don’t have to tell them Top needs attention too.
After a quick assessment they load him in the helicopter with Rhonda, then take off.
“Well, the network should be pleased with this ending,” I say.
Ash has his hand over his eyes to block out the sun as he watches the helicopter disappear over the horizon. “I’m sure those jerkwads will get a hard-on when they see the footage. We should tell them it was Top’s idea to film everything.”
“Good idea. He said he needed a win. I think he just got it.”
“So, what now?” he asks.
“I think we’re done. Let’s go home.”
“What about the ATV and all the equipment?”
“You mean the network’s equipment?”
He laughs. “Good point. They can come get their own damn equipment. Let’s get off this mountain. We have a presentation to make.”