A quick scan with the flashlight revealed the smashed remains of a red kayak. The stenciled tribal artwork near the back confirmed that it was Thorn’s. “Thorn! Are you in here?” Lewis called out again, yelling towards the rock pile.
A couple of coughs followed by a very weak, “Here,” made Lewis’s heart jump.
He whipped his light towards the sound and spotted Thorn’s tattered red and blue paddle jacket protruding from the rocks. “Help is here, Thorn. We’ll get you out of here,” Lewis said as he hurried over to his friend. It was a miracle that Thorn had survived the rock fall at all, but he wasn’t out of the woods just yet. There were two problems. First, a large rock, weighing at least a ton, had Thorn’s leg pinned under the water. And that compounded the second problem: The small landslide must have partially blocked the outflow of the creek below because the water was rising. Thorn was perhaps 30 minutes from drowning.
Lewis had to get the rock off Thorn’s leg, and fast. He tried to lift it off, which was a natural action, but futile. He needed a jack or at least a lever of some sort, but he had only brought the rope and the flashlight. Lewis pulled the pummeled kayak out from under some smaller rocks and tried using it to pry the boulder from his friend’s leg. It was awkward and ineffective; the rock didn’t budge. The water had risen almost an inch and was now lapping at Thorn’s chin. Half an hour may have been an overestimate; Lewis’s friend appeared to be within a few minutes of going under.
“Stay with me, Thorn,” Lewis pleaded as his friend drifted towards unconsciousness. Lewis was chilled from his short swim, and Thorn had probably been in the frigid water for at least a couple hours. It was a testament to his fortitude that he hadn’t succumbed to hypothermia long ago. Lewis needed his friend to hang on and keep his mouth out of the water, staying alive until a plan could be worked out.
Thorn wasn’t looking good. “I’m not going to make it,” he mumbled. “Tell my wife-”
“Tell her yourself.” Lewis cut him off. “We’re going to get out of this together.” Lewis kept talking, keeping Thorn attentive. “The only thing we have to get you out is this flashlight and rope. Lucky for us, that’s more than we need.” Lewis made sure to keep a positive tone as he continued, “Did I ever tell you about my high school physics teacher, Mr. Anderson?”
Thorn shook his head and spit at the water that was now to his mouth.
“Mr. Anderson believed in learning by doing,” Lewis went on as he frantically tied one end of the rope to the boulder that had Thorn pinned. He then raced across the rocks to the other side of the slide, securing the other end of the rope to the largest boulder he could find, making sure that the span was as tight as possible. Lewis kept talking to Thorn as he worked; trying to sound calm, but the overload of adrenaline was becoming increasingly obvious in his voice. He returned to Thorn just in time to see his friend’s final breath exit his nostrils, which were now under water.
“We’re almost home,” Lewis said with conviction before taking a deep breath and breathing it into his friend’s mouth. Thorn’s ears were still above water, and Lewis fought the urge to yell at his friend, knowing that he needed to remain as calm as possible to conserve oxygen. “I’m going to need your help.” After another round of underwater mouth-to-mouth, Lewis added, “When the rock moves, you’ve got to get out from under it. Okay?”
Thorn nodded, panic obvious in his eyes. He looked like a man who knew he was about to die; and yet, he was going to fight to the end.
“You are going to have to hold your breath for a bit. I’ll give you two more, and then we’re going for it.” Lewis blew a deep breath into Thorn’s mouth, letting his friend slowly exhale, getting ready for a good breath hold. One more large breath and then Lewis jumped up, sprinting to the middle of the outstretched rope. He gripped the rope and began pulling it sideways, working up the rock pile away from the water, as if he was an archer drawing a giant bow. Lewis struggled, using every muscle in his body to pull the center of the rope as far to the side as possible. Bit by bit, he could feel the boulder starting to move. Finally, he heard the sound he had been waiting for — Thorn was coughing as he gasped for air. “Are you clear?” Lewis shouted, unable to see his friend.
“Yes,” came the weak but relieved reply between coughs.
Lewis eased the rope back down and ran to check Thorn’s condition. The leg was badly bruised and most likely broken, but the biggest problem was that Thorn was extremely cold. Lewis helped him get out of the water so he could begin warming up while they figured a way out of the cave. The two huddled together, conserving body heat.
Thorn looked Lewis in the eye and said, “What did your physics teacher have to do with kissing another guy underwater?”
Lewis burst into laughter. “First, that was mouth-to-mouth so don’t be getting any ideas. Second, Mr. Anderson showed us how he could move a pickup by himself using a long rope tied to a tree — if he pulled sideways from the middle rather than tugging on the end. Apparently the principle works on rocks too. It had something to do with vectors, as I recall. We rearranged many a parking lot with that bit of knowledge.” The friends shared another round of laughter, finally interrupted by the thumping of a coil of rope behind them. The rescuers had found them.
It took the rest of the night and into the morning to get Thorn out of the cave and back down to where a helicopter could pick him up. Lewis was exhausted by the time he began walking down Main Street to find his favorite motorcycle: a brand new BMW R 1200 GS Adventure he had purchased just before the Antarctica job. Yesterday’s trip down had been his first chance to ride it since bringing it home. The bike’s excellent on-and off-road capabilities had renewed Lewis’s dreams of touring back roads around the world, and taking the interstate to the race’s start had been painfully mundane.
As Lewis crossed between Adams and Jefferson, he noticed a beat-up Mercedes Benz with tinted windows rolling along about 20 yards behind him. The Benz itself wasn’t really remarkable; it was the driver’s slight jerk to the left when Lewis first glanced back that caught his attention. There was no reason for the car to be going so slow, and Lewis was the only other person on the street in either direction.
A couple of blocks later, the Mercedes was still hanging 20 yards back. Lewis stopped and bent down to re-tie his shoe. A glance to the side revealed the driver quickly jerking the vehicle into an available parking spot a few cars back. Lewis turned his head to wink at the driver then sprang up and bolted down a side alley like a hungry cheetah that had spotted a day-dreaming gazelle. The sound of squealing tires told Lewis that his hunch was right. His muscles ached and Lewis knew he couldn’t make it far, so he sprinted to the first door he saw. Luckily, the door was unlocked and Lewis darted in, finding himself in a bridal boutique swarming with the female half of a wedding party and a dozen saleswomen. Lewis did his best to keep moving forward as he bounced from display to display, trying to get out front as fast as he could. He nearly knocked over the soon-to-be bride but was able to catch her in his arms and offer a quick, “I do,” before continuing.
As soon as he got out front, Lewis ran the final few feet to his motorcycle and jumped on. He threw on his helmet and launched down the street, immediately spotting the persistent Mercedes Benz in his side mirror. Lewis swung the bike across the road towards a narrow set of stairs that climbed the hillside between a pair of aging brick buildings. The bike shot up the stairs with Lewis barely able to hang on, his weakened muscles causing him to twist the throttle back and forth, making the climb bumpier that it needed to be. Thankful to have reached the top of the stairs, Lewis pulled onto the next street and made a few quick turns before heading back for the interstate. He watched the mirrors and, to his relief, didn’t see the Benz again.