Buckle up everyone it is the last prompt of the week. Are you ready to face it? I’m about fifty fifty myself actually. Woke up with notes for the manuscript I am working on and after jotting them down I fin it hard to set it aside. But for you, I will try. Fifteen minute on the timer please.
I am kind of surprised this has nothing to do with what I was working on before. I’m not sure where it is going, but it is interesting that I may come back at some point.
Friday, May 24th: They climbed down carefully.
They climbed down carefully. The slope was steep and no one wanted to go tumbling. Below them was ample evidence of the results of a slip. No one needed to be told to use caution. Each step caused loose scree to slip and slide. Jake and Mark eased themselves down carefully. At the top of the ridge he could hear Jason, Alex and Kevin arguing about the idiocy of going down.
‘I just hope the ropes hold,’ Mark thought trying to block out the complaints. There was a soft thump ass Jake landed on flat ground. A moment later, Mark too was standing on solid ground. He unhooked himself from the ropes and joined Jake in moving towards the figures on the ground. He approached the first one and was clearly dead, the head and neck at an angle that immediately gave away the cause of death.
‘Broken neck,’ he thought as he bent and checked for a pulse to be sure. The body was cold no pulse evident. ‘At least it was quick,’ he thought. Mark stood and looked to Jake. Jake was by the second figure. He stood and shook his head. That one was gone too. Walking past he could see a lot of blood. He saw the tor flesh and the jagged rocks that caused it. It was clear what happened. He doubted that one had been quick. The blood was still wet on the rocks.
‘Not long ago,’ he thought as he and Jake went towards the third body. He could see the chest rise and fall. ‘Alive.’ They hurried forward. The man saw them and smiled. There was blood on his lips.
“Thank you,” he said. His voice was faint. “I thought I would die alone out here.”
“We’re going to get you help, just hold still,” Jake said.
“Thank you,” the man said. He reached out a hand and Mark took it. “Thank yo…” His voice faded out on the you and his last breath came out in a low rattle. Mark remembered the sound from when his grandfather passed. ‘The death rattle.’ He thought it was a a general term until he heard it when sitting by the old man’s bed side. Then he heard it. He heard it here now. The man’s eyes went glassy. His fingers let go of Mark’s. Mark slipped a hand to his pulse point, feeling around. Nothing. There was a lot of blood on the rocks. As Mark set the man’s hand down gently he realized that he was only alive because an artery hadn’t been hit. He bled out slowly from multiple wounds.
“Are you two done playing hero,” Jason called down. “Some of us would like to get off this mountain tonight. I at least have something to get back to.”
Mark was certain that was a dig at him. Jason had been giving them the entire trip, reminding him that his ex was now dating Jason. As he and Cheryl broke up more than a decade prior, he though it was pointless but Jason was Jason. Personally Mark thought Jason and Cheryl suited each other.
“There is nothing we can do except report it in,” Jake said. “Might as well climb back up.”
Ten til Midnight 