Page 12 of Swept for Forever
I paused, swaying slightly, and my breath stuttered.
“Shit. Don’t be an idiot.”
But I could hear it now. Water. And not just a trickle. It was moving water. My throat ached just imagining it.
I scanned below. Trees, brush, and flashes of silver through the green.
I can make it.
I grabbed the next trunk, then the next. My boots skidded, but I kept going. Down, down, faster now. Then came a jolt.
Dammit! My pack had caught on a low branch.
A bird shot from the limbs above.
Then came the crack.
It was violent. And too close.
“No—no, no!”
The tree groaned, and its base tore free.
The next thing I knew, it fell. Not on me, but my pack was still tangled in it.
And there I went.
As I rolled, something gave inside my shoulder, a deep, wrong kind of slide, and then the pain was everywhere, howling down my arm.
“Oh, God…”
The tree didn’t stop. It kept dragging. The slope dropped again, and this time there was nothing but air beneath.
If it rolled off that next ledge, I’d be gone with it.
I clawed at my pack, but the waist strap held tight. I fumbled with my good hand, my fingers shaking, fighting the clip, my teeth gritting through the pain.
“Come on.Come on. Don’t you dare die on a buckle!”
The strap finally gave. I shoved myself sideways, the tree lurching again behind me. It scraped downhill through dirt and rocks, then vanished over the drop.
I wasn’t tumbling, but gravity still had me. Bit by bit, the slope dragged me away from the trail toward god-knows-where.
My boots kicked, my legs scrambled, and my hands clawed for roots, rocks, anything. But nothing held. The ground kept pulling, until something jerked me to a stop.
White-hot pain ripped through my leg.
Something had punctured my calf. Blood started pooling, mixing with the mud. I couldn’t tell what had pierced me, only that it had gone in deep and wasn’t letting go.
I choked on a sob and tried to move, but my right shoulder gave a sickening pulse of protest. There was no strength there. No use.
The irony wasn’t lost on me. Whatever jagged thing had stabbed my leg was also keeping me from sliding further.
My head swam. I tried lifting my leg just enough to see if I could pull it free, but the pain surged so hard that it almost blacked me out. I collapsed back, my vision tunneling.
Time stretched, unchanging. Then came the sound of snuffling. Something moved.
It took effort, but I got my eyes open.
