Pieter looked up the huge, steep hill they’d just slid down. “We’ll never make it back up there. Not in this weather.”
“Agreed. That leaves the river.”
“The river?” Pieter said, aghast. He could hear the sound of the water rushing, which was even louder than the wind. “We’ll freeze. Or drown. Or both.”
Eva shook her head. “It’s our best option. Let the river carry us to a more sheltered spot where we can rest for the night.”
Pieter looked around for anything closer that might serve as shelter for the night, but all he saw were giant boulders, hideously exposed to the driving rain and gale-force winds. “I think we should stay here and wait for help. Maybe the storm will die down soon.”
“It’s forecast to last until the early hours of the morning. If we stay here, we’ll get hypothermia.”
“We’ll get hypothermia throwing ourselves into the river!”
Eva shook her head again. “We’ll be in and out quickly. It’s moving fast enough that this will work.”
“Sergeant Bailey, I amnotjumping in that river.”
“Trust me,” she said. “I’ve done this before.”
“What?!”
“I’ve done wilderness survival training here before. Well, not exactly here, but I know this area, and I know the river. As part of our training, they made us jump in the river and get safely back to shore. We can do this.”
She looked so serious, so confident that this would work, that Pieter found himself nodding. “Okay, fine. But you’ll have to tell me what to do.”
“Right. I’m going to jump in first. You count to sixty and then jump in after me. I’ll scan the riverbed for a place we can shelter. Watch for me, and make your way over to me. I’ll be waiting to help you out.”
“You make it sound like a piece of cake.”
“You can do this, Pete.”
Pieter gave a single nod, wanting to show her he had faith in her and trusted that she knew what she was doing. He tried not to look as worried as he felt.
Eva started to walk towards the river, visibly struggling against the force of the wind. Pieter followed her, slipping and nearly falling on the wet rocks, but they persevered, and a few minutes later, Eva gave him the thumbs-up.
“Count to sixty!” she yelled, and then she jumped in the river.
Pieter started counting out loud, watching for her head to pop up above the surface of the brown, churning water. He’d counted to twenty before he saw her, much further downstream than he’d guessed she would be in such a short span of time. Panicking slightly, he decided not to count to sixty, worried that if he waited, he’d lose sight of Eva for good.
Pieter threw himself into the water, which rushed up to meet him like the icy fingers of a sea creature trying to drag him under. His body spun once, his legs coming up over his head as he told himself to be strong, to pull himself up above the surface of the river. But the river fought back, holding him under, threatening to never let him surface.
With a huge, choking gasp, he lifted his head up and ferociously blinked water out of his eyes. He scanned the riverbanks in vain, disoriented and unable to see Eva. All he could see were huge boulders, and he had no idea where she was.
And then he heard the muffled sound of Eva calling to him. “Billings! Over here!” she called over the sound of the wind.
He saw her lying on her stomach on a flat rock ledge, holding out a tree branch for him to grab onto. She was close, so close that he was sure he wouldn’t be able to get to her before being carried downstream and away from her.
Pieter cupped his hands in the icy water and began to swim across the river towards her. When he looked at the angle of distance between them, he was sure it was physically impossible to cut an almost perfectly horizontal swathe towards her. But, somehow, he found a level of strength he didn’t realize he had, and he swam towards her.
He grabbed the end of the branch Eva held out to him with his left hand and then with his right. He swung his body underneath it, trying to find purchase on the riverbank — something solid enough so that he could get a foothold — but his legs just swung like pendulums made of Jell-O. Eva grabbed the back of his shirt and, with one mighty show of strength, hoisted Pieter up out of the water.
He landed like a huge, beached fish on the rock shelf. He flipped over onto his back, panting.
“You didn’t count to sixty,” Eva admonished him. “I almost didn’t have time to get you.”
“You saved me,” Pieter said, taking huge choking breaths in between each word. He reached a shaky hand towards her face, wanting to show her how grateful he was that she’d rescued him.
But instead of turning into the tender moment he’d imagined, Eva grabbed his forearm and pressed her fingers to his wrist, checking his pulse.
