Page 21 of Alluring Adventure

“I’m sorry, Keeley.” I realise I haven’t said that yet.

“What for?” I can’t see her and I don’t dare turn my head, but her voice sounds confused.

“For putting you… at risk.” I never thought talking could be so exhausting. I sincerely hope it’s just the pain that’s tiring and not the severity of any injuries.

“Pish posh. You didn’t know this would happen. Although next time I think I’ll stick to canyoning,” she tries to joke. It doesn’t help to eliminate my guilt. How did I miss the signs that we had drifted into that air vortex?

We are quiet for a while. I’ve lost track of how long I’ve been lying here, but it’s slowly getting darker. Keeley’s hand is gently squeezing mine. For a brief second, I see a future with her and then I remind myself that she is leaving Fellside in a few days and is a bit of a nomad. But whatever happens I promise myself to at least stay friends with her. I felt sad when she told me about losing her friends and feeling lonely.

A sudden spasm hits the muscles in my back and I cry out.

“What is it?” Keeley asks alarmed.

“Spasm,” I manage to formulate that one word between groans. Keeley positions herself above me and gently holds my head stable.

“Take a deep breath for me, Ols. Breathe through the pain,” she says in a calming voice.

“Fuck,” is my only reply.Fuck breathing and fuck this pain.

“Come on Oliver, breathe with me.” She inhales loudly and I try to copy her.

“And out,” she instructs, “And in… and out.” The pain is searing but slowly ebbing away as the muscles relax again.

“That’s it.” When I’ve calmed down, Keeley moves back to sit next to me.

“How do you know so… much about first aid?” I ask.

“When I started with my blog I travelled to some pretty wild places. So, I did a trauma first aid course.”

“Definitely not a damsel in distress.”

“Nope. I was never one to—” She stops talking before getting to her feet.

“I think I hear a helicopter,” she whispers. I want to tell her that doesn’t mean anything. There are always helicopters in the air around here, but then I hear it too. And it seems to move towards us.

“They won’t see us down here.” The panic in her voice is plain.

“Keeley there’s nothing you can do… they might have picked up the phone signal, or someone saw us going down. But they also have thermal cameras. FMR know what they’re doing… If they are here for us they’ll find us.” I try to reassure her.

“Who are FMR?”

“Fellside Mountain Rescue.”

She drops to the floor next to me and we are quiet. We are both listening intently hoping to hear someone approaching. In reality even if they know we’re here it’ll take them a while to get to us. The trees are too dense for a rescuer to be lowered from the HELO where we are. They might try higher up, closer to the mountain, where there should be less trees, but it depends on the wind.

If that’s not possible the HELO would have to drop them on the ridge above the rock face for them to abseil down. The rock face looked at least three hundred feet high. They have to set an anchor halfway down before they can reach the slope we’re on.

And then they have to get me up there. I’m not looking forward to that.

“What’s the first thing you’ll do when we get out of here?” I try to pull Keeley from her thoughts. The helicopter noise is constant and doesn’t sound too far away. That gives me hope.

“Go to the hospital to find out what is happening with you.”

“You don’t have–”

“Don’t be an idiot, Ols. I need to know you are okay.” She bends over me so I can look in her eyes. “I know we are not having arelationshiprelationship, but I care about you.” She presses a soft kiss on my lips.

I don’t know what to say to that. These last couple of days have been crazy and completely unpredictable so I shouldn’t really be surprised by her comment.

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