Holding on for dear life, with only one small point in the center of his boot supporting him, he slid his hands down the cable until he was almost crouching. Now low enough to reach the passenger, he let go of the cable with one hand and reached for the safety harness. He had to work it around the passenger’s chest, beneath his arms.
The ladder was bouncing hard now. Flames began to sear the roof of the Honda, only inches from his head. Rivulets of sweat poured into his eyes, blurring his vision. Adrenaline surged through his limbs. . . .
“Wake up!” he shouted, his voice hoarse with panic and frustration. “You’ve got to help me here!”
The passenger moaned again, his eyes flickering open. It wasn’t enough.
With flames spitting toward him, Taylor grabbed for the man, yanking hard on his arm.
“Help me, damnit!” Taylor screamed.
The man, finally awakened by some flicker of self-preservation, raised his head slightly.
“Put the harness under your arm!”
He didn’t seem to understand, but the new angle of his body presented an opportunity. Taylor immediately worked one end of the harness toward the man’s arm-the one lying across the seat-then slipped it underneath.
One down.
All the while, he kept on screaming, his cries growing even more desperate.
“Help me! Wake up! We’re almost out of time here!”
The flames were gaining strength, and the ladder was bouncing dangerously.
Again the man moved his head-not much, not nearly enough. The man’s other arm, wedged between his body and the steering wheel, looked stuck. Without worrying what might happen now, Taylor shoved the body, the force making him sway. The ladder dipped precariously, as did the car. The nose began pointing toward the river.
Somehow, however, the shove was enough. This time the man opened his eyes and began to struggle out from between the steering wheel and the seat. The car was rocking heavily now. Weakly the passenger freed his other arm, then raised it slightly as he tried to crawl onto the seat. Taylor worked the safety harness around him. His hand sweaty on the cable, he attached the free end of the harness, completing the circle, then cinched it tight.
“We’re gonna pull you out now. We’re almost out of time.”
The man simply rolled his head, suddenly drifting into unconsciousness again, but Taylor could see that the path was finally clear.
“Bring him up!” he screamed. “Passenger is secure!”
Taylor worked his hands up the cable until he was in a standing position. The firefighters slowly began to unwind the cable, careful not to jerk it for fear of the stress it would put on the ladder.
The cable tightened, and the ladder began to groan and shudder. But instead of the passenger coming up, the ladder seemed to be lowering.
Lowering . . .
Oh, crap . . .
Taylor could feel it on the verge of buckling, then they both began to rise.
Up an inch. Then another.
Then, with nightmarish deliberateness, the cable stopped recoiling. Instead the ladder began to descend again. Taylor knew instantly that the ladder couldn’t support both of them.
“Stop!” he shouted. “The ladder’s gonna go!”
He had to get off the cable, and he had to get off the ladder. After making sure once more that the man wouldn’t get snagged, he reached for the ladder rungs above him. Then he carefully removed his foot from the hook, letting his legs dangle free, praying that the additional jostling wouldn’t break the ladder in two.
He decided to go hand over hand across the ladder, like a kid crossing the monkey bars. One rung . . . two . . . three . . . four. The car was no longer beneath him, yet he could still feel the ladder creeping lower.
It was while he was crossing the rungs that the flames ripped into a frenzy, straining with deadly intensity at the gas tanks. He’d seen engine fires numerous times-and this one was seconds away from blowing.
He looked toward the bridge. As if in slow motion, he saw the firemen, his friends, motioning frantically with their arms, screaming at him to hurry, to get off the ladder, to get to safety before the truck exploded. But he knew that there was no way he could make it back to the truck in time and still get the passenger out.
“Pull him out!” Taylor shouted hoarsely. “He’s got to come up now!”
Dangling high above the water, he loosened his grip, then let go completely. In an instant he was swallowed by the evening air.
The river was eighty feet below.
“That was the dumbest, most moronic thing I’ve ever seen you do,” Mitch said matter-of-factly. It was fifteen minutes later, and they were sitting on the banks of the Chowan River. “I mean, I’ve seen some stupid stunts in my life, but that one takes the cake.”
“We got him out, didn’t we?” Taylor said. He was drenched and had lost one boot while kicking for safety. In the aftermath, after the adrenaline drained away, he felt his body retreating into a kind of exhausted lull. He felt as if he hadn’t slept for days, his muscles seemed rubbery, his hands were shaking uncontrollably. Thankfully the accident on the bridge was being tended to by the others-he wouldn’t have had the strength to help. Though the engine had blown, the seals around the main tanks had held and they were able to control the fire relatively easily.
“You didn’t have to let go. You could have made it back.”
Even as he said it, Mitch wasn’t quite sure it was true. Right after Taylor let go, the firemen shook off their shock and began to rewind the cable in earnest. Without Taylor’s weight, the ladder had enough tensile strength to allow the passenger to be lifted through the windshield. As Taylor predicted, he was pulled out without a snag. Once he was free, the ladder swung out, away from the accident, rotating back toward the bridge. Just as the ladder reached the bridge, the engine of the truck blew, churning white-and-yellow flames spewing violently in every direction. The car was tossed free and followed Taylor into the water below. Taylor had had enough sense after hitting the water to make his way beneath the bridge, foreseeing just such an occurrence. As it was, the car had come down close, too close.
After he hit the water, the pressure sucked him under and held him for several seconds, then several more. Taylor was spun and twisted like a rag in a washing machine, but he was finally able to fight his way to the surface, where he drew a gasping breath.
When Taylor had come to the surface the first time, he’d shouted that he was okay. After the car hit the water and he’d narrowly avoided being crushed by the hulking wreckage, he’d shouted it again. But by the time he’d swum to the bank, he was nauseated and dizzy, the events of the past hour finally hitting home. That was when his hands had begun to tremble.
Joe didn’t know whether to be livid because of the jump or relieved that the whole thing had worked out. The passenger, it seemed, was going to be fine, and Joe had sent Mitch down to talk to Taylor.
Mitch had found him sitting in the mud, legs drawn up, hands and head resting on his knees. He hadn’t moved at all since Mitch had sat beside him.
“You shouldn’t have jumped,” Mitch finally said after Taylor hadn’t responded.
Taylor raised his head sluggishly, wiping the water from his face. “It just looked dangerous,” he said flatly.
“That’s because it was dangerous. But I was thinking more about the car that followed you into the water. You could have been crushed.”
I know….
“That’s why I swam under the bridge,” he answered.
“But what if it had fallen sooner? What if the engine had blown twenty seconds earlier? What if you’d hit something submerged in the water, for God’s sake?”
What if?
Then I’d be dead.
Taylor shook his head, numb. He knew he’d have to answer these questions again, when Joe grilled him in earnest. “I didn’t know what else to do,” he said.