Higher Ground by Becky Black (notion reading list txt) 📗

“Adam, I love you too. All the things I said the other night, they were nonsense. And I…I won’t say I don’t mind whatever you did with Glyn, because I do, but I—”

“We kissed. Nothing else. But Glyn is no longer an issue.”

Zach frowned. Speaking of Glyn, shouldn’t he be down here? Zach didn’t want him here, he only wanted Adam, but Glyn was the medic. Adam had Glyn’s medical kit, Zach realized. What had happened? Had Glyn been hurt during the quake and rock slide? Zach didn’t ask. He’d find out later, he expected.

“Adam, it really is best if you go on without me.”

“Don’t start that again. The folks up top are building a stretcher to haul you out of here and to carry you the rest of the way up the mountain. That’s what’s going to happen. You aren’t the only one who can make predictions, you know.” He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, then looked at Zach with anguish in his eyes. “I’m going to have to set your leg before I can splint it. It’s not going to be pleasant.”

“I know. The painkiller is quite effective, though.”

“Do you still have Ann’s hiking pole?” He looked around. “If I can break it in half, it will make a good splint.”

“I think I lost it.”

“Oh, she’s gonna be mad. Maybe I should leave you here after all.”

Adam took a deep breath and moved down to Zach’s legs. He got busy with his knife again and split the pants leg open on the injured leg. Zach heard his breathing speed up.

“Zach, I’ve only ever set a couple of arms, never a leg.” His voice sounded quiet and scared, very different than usual.

“I trust you,” Zach said. “I’m ready.”

He could never be ready for the pain that smashed into his mind and sent him spinning back into the darkness.

* * * *

Only the need to stay calm and reassure Zach kept Adam from throwing up when he realigned Zach’s broken leg and Zach screamed. He never wanted to hear that sound again the rest of his life. He didn’t look at Zach, knowing the sight of his face would unman him, as he quickly stabilized the leg with a splint made from tent poles and torn clothes he’d taken from Zach’s gear. The break wasn’t compounded, which he thanked God for, because if Zach had been bleeding as well…

He could be bleeding—inside. Even if he didn’t notice any pain from it yet. Adam would have to keep checking his abdomen, see if it felt rigid, filling with blood. And what could he do about it if it did? Nothing, that’s what. Watch him weaken. Watch him die.

When he heard Zach stirring, he banished the horrible thoughts and turned to him—once he felt sure he had his face under control and could put on a half-convincing, reassuring smile. Zach was deathly pale, and the pain showed in the lines around his eyes, but he seemed to be controlling himself as hard as Adam. He smiled back, and Adam had to wonder if his own smile was also a ghastly rictus.

“Wasn’t so bad,” Zach gasped out.

“Liar.” Zach looked up suddenly, and Adam followed his gaze to see the improvised stretcher being lowered down, Simon rappelling down beside it. “Here comes your ride.”

“Figured you’d need help getting him into it,” Simon said when he arrived. He looked at Zach, hiding his worry behind a smile. “Hi, tough guy. Let’s get you out of here, huh?”

He made Adam take Zach’s shoulders for the lift while he took the feet to keep Adam from having to see the pain on Zach’s face. Zach moaned and cried out when they moved him, and by the time they’d set him in the stretcher, he was panting and weeping with pain. Adam dropped to his knees and took Zach’s hand, kissed it.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m sorry we had to hurt you.”

“Adam,” Simon said. “If you want, you can go back up first, and I’ll bring him up.”

Adam stared at him. “No, God, no. I have to be with him.”

“Okay. Give him another shot, and we’ll get moving.” He passed instructions to the people up top with his walkie-talkie while Adam gave Zach a stronger painkiller, knowing the ascent would be agony for him. He lay unmoving when they strapped him into the cradlelike stretcher made from hiking poles, tent poles, rope, and tent fabric. Adam and Simon lifted it experimentally a few inches off the ground, and it took Zach’s weight, so Adam felt confident it would hold.

They started up slowly. Adam and Simon were pulled up on each end of the stretcher where they could maneuver it around obstacles. One side of it had backpacks filled with sleeping bags strapped to it. They acted as a buffer to keep it from banging hard into the cliff.

“Whoever designed this stretcher is getting a big wet kiss from me,” Adam said as they neared the top. Simon chuckled.

“I won’t tell you who did, then, since his wife will get jealous if she hears about it. Watch that bit there.”

As Adam maneuvered his end of the stretcher around a piece of sheared-off rock, Simon radioed to the people up top.

“Get ready to take the stretcher first. Ease off on Adam and me in another two meters.”

They did as he ordered. The pull on Adam’s and Simon’s ropes stopped, while the stretcher kept moving up, a meter from the top. Adam and Simon steadied it from below, until it rose out of their hands and disappeared, to the accompaniment of a lot of shouting and orders.

A moment later, someone looked over the cliff. “Okay, we’ve got him.” A woman’s voice. Adam frowned, squinting up at the dark shape, but the light was behind her, making her a silhouette and dazzling him. Funny, she sounded like… “Are you two ready?”

“We’re not hanging around here for our health,” Simon called back.

“Take Simon first,” Adam called.