Page 101 of Resist

We were supposed to be set up in pairs, but with Edith gone, we split into two and three. Jim and Calista, being my watchdogs, were paired with me while Matias and Wes formed a separate rope team. Jim led as Blondie and I climbed behind him, a safety rope attached to the three of us so that if one of us should fall, the other two would help keep us from dropping to our death.

As much as I hated to admit it, I was so grateful for that stupid climbing wall in the training arena. I appreciated every single pull-up, push-up, bench press, and arm curl I did over thelast several weeks, because I knew at that moment that the hell games were saving my ass. The 250-foot vertical climb consisted of sharp rocks that, had it not been for our reinforced climbing gloves, would have torn through the flesh of our hands. The only good thing was that the jagged wall had plenty of holes and crevices, giving us perfect anchor points to secure our ropes, as well as plenty of grooves that allowed for a secure foothold.

We took our time, always making sure that the piece of rock we were grabbing wouldn’t crumble under our weight before letting go of one secure footing to another. The ocean continued to pound the other side of the wall, and frequently I felt the sea spray hit my face, causing my lenses to blur with drips of ocean water, but I didn’t dare let go. I didn’t dare release my hold to wipe them clean. I just dealt with it, pushing forward to reach the top in one piece.

After what felt like a lifetime of climbing, I saw the top edge of the cliff. My heart leaped at the sight, and I quickly let out a slow breath, steadying myself as I reached for my next hold. My fingers searched for purchase, wrapping around another jagged edge of rock. I tested it, pulling on it vigorously to make sure it wouldn’t give under my weight. When it held strong, I used all the strength in my tiring arms to pull me up as my right foot searched for a crevice to dig itself into.

“We’re almost there. Hold!” Jim shouted down to Calista and me. I gave him a quick nod that I wasn’t sure if he could even see. We waited for Jim to give us the green light. I watched as Jim pulled out one of our three anchors—the three measly pieces of metal that would keep us from certain death if all three of us should fall. He stretched it out as high as he could and secured it to the rock face. Then, he did the same with the second, before moving to shift the third. Stretching, he stuck the anchor in its spot. He looked down to face us and gave a thumbs-up.

With another sigh, I pulled out my anchor and shifted it upward, shoving it into another crevice in the rock. Then I began climbing again. I looked up to find my next handhold, casting a glance up at Jim, who was several feet above me. He reached out his right arm at a diagonal, stretching for a small piece of jutting out rock. It was just out of reach, his fingertips just missing it. I watched him lean more, his fingers skimming the rock, still too far for a firm grasp.

Don’t do it, Jim.

Adrenaline pumped through me as I watched Jim lean over even further, arm stretched out as far as he could. Jim’s fingertips hooked on to the edge of the rock, but it wasn’t enough. I swallowed a silent scream as his right foot slipped out of its hole, sending his body tumbling to the right. Without a decent grasp of the rock he was stretching for, Jim came falling down.

“Jim!” Calista screamed.

His body hit a rock, whipping him into the air, and I watched in slow motion as his body came down to collide with mine. Instinctually, I closed my eyes, digging my fingers into the rock as best as I could to prepare for the blow.

But it never came.

Slowly, I opened my eyes and saw Jim dangling only a foot above my head, his safety anchor supporting the weight of his massive frame.Oh shit.

“Mara! Are you okay?” Matias called.

My breaths were coming in rapid succession as fear toiled within me. I wanted to wipe my brow, to wipe the sweat and water crawling on my skin. But I didn’t dare.

“I’m okay!” I looked back up at Jim as he shifted slowly in his harness.

“Jim,” Calista yelled, “are you okay?”

Jim groaned. “Ugh…yeah. I’m okay.”

I breathed out a sigh of relief, thanking the universe. Jim wrestled again in his harness, pulling himself upright as he searched for holds. I heard it before I saw it—theclinkandsnap. The clangor of an anchor snapping out of place, flying through the air. And then Jim was falling once again, hitting me. This time, I did scream as my fingers lost their grip and I fell backwards. I dropped six feet before my body snapped, my own safety anchor catching my weight as my body slammed against the jagged rock face.

“Mara!” someone screamed as somebody else yelled, “Harper!”

My face hit the rock, scratching one of my lenses as the rock face tore at the flesh of my cheek. “Shit!” I hissed.

My left hand wrapped around the rope attached to my harness while my other hand reached out to steady my swinging. I looked up to see Jim, trying to find a foothold in the rock. His personal anchor had failed, but the other three back-up anchors had just saved his ass.

“Are you guys okay?” Blondie asked.

“Mara? Jim? You all right?” It was Wes this time. I shot my hand out in a thumbs-up, and then quickly worked to get my hands and feet back into a hole in the rock. I hoped that the sound of the crashing waves drowned out my scream, or we were going to have an arrival party ready to greet us at the top. I gripped the wall, feeling the burn and sting on my face as I finally found my footing. With a deep, slow breath, I steadied my heart and looked up at Jim. It looked like he was back in the game, feet firmly planted as he replanted his safety anchor.

“Jim? You good?” I called up to him.

“Yeah. Nothing like a little adrenaline to get the heart pumpin’, eh?”

Perhaps finding yourself constantly in life-or-death situations had a funny way of making you laugh in the face of danger, because that’s exactly what I did. I laughed.

“de la Puente, you going nuts or what?” Harper called down to me.

I chuckled again. “I’m just thinking of how effing crazy a person has to be to volunteer for shit like this on purpose.”

“That makes one of us, Mara. My ass got told to be here, but I get what you mean.” I may not have been able to see his face, but I could hear the humor in it. Because seriously, what else were you going to do? We were at least 200 feet from the sea, relying on some rope and metal to keep us from dying a horrible death. You could laugh or you could cry, and crying wasn’t going to work with my goggles. So laugh it was.

And laugh I did. That is…until the laughter got ripped right out of me.

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