Page 140 of Valley Girls
“All right.” She flipped her Grigri closed. “Double-check me.”
Rilla and Petra silently studied the setup. Knots. Rope. Everything closed. Knot at the end of the rope.
“Check me,” Petra said, offering her belay setup to Rilla and Adeena.
Again they checked.
They were tired. Worn down. The simplest mistake would be easy to make and could be completely catastrophic.
Adeena headed down, leaving Petra and Rilla to look over the edge, trying to figure out what was going on.
The afternoon sun burned her face and Rilla reached into her bag to smear more sunscreen on. “Want some?” she asked Petra.
“That’s okay.”
“I don’t blame you. Feels kind of useless right now,” Rilla said.
The radio crackled and Adeena’s voice came through. “Come down.”
Rilla and Petra looked at each other. Did she mean for them to go down there?
“It’s another group across from them. Leader fell. He’s unconscious. They called—” The radio cut out.
Rilla looked at Petra. For a split second it was totally still—the intensity of everything overwhelming. Then they sprang into action. Petra started setting up the rappels. Rilla dug through the pig for the bottom—finding their phone. The emergency number for Yosemite was taped on the back.
Rilla stuffed the phone into her pocket and checked Petra’s rappel. Even after they both checked, they stood there, unable to start the descent. The fear felt like a viscous thing, a wall keeping them from moving.
“We’re good,” Rilla said.
“Check again,” Petra said.
“Knot,” Rilla said, pointing and going through it out loud. Petra nodded and took a deep breath. She did the same for Rilla.
“One. Two. Three.”
Simultaneously, they lowered, leaving their gear fixed to the rock.
Below, the group and Adeena were starting their way across. “It’s the boys,” Adeena shouted, eyes wild. “I see Hico’s socks. Rilla, I think it’s Walker.”
Rilla had never felt such a panic and terror and hatred of climbing as she did just then. That he was only a few feet away, but she was stuck, on this rock, in her harness. That they couldn’t call 911 and immediately get him to a hospital. She swallowed and forced her fear into a ball. Putting it aside so she could move, she handed the phone to Petra. “You call. Let’s go.”
Rigging a line and managing to traverse across the face, they found the boys. Walker lay on a portaledge, in his harness, and limp. He looked asleep. Except for the blood. His helmet was cracked.
“Fuck, Rilla. I’m so sorry. Caroline is going to kill me,” Hico said.
“He’s alive?” Rilla asked Hico.
He nodded, lips tight. “His breathing is shallow, but he’s breathing. He fell but it was from rock fall. Just a little ...” Hico made a ball with his hands. “Knocked him right out.”
They could hear Petra talking behind them.
Everyone stared at the portaledge soberly.
Blood covered his face—from his mouth and nose, Rilla thought. And his arm was folded onto his chest looking wrong and unnaturally white. The feel of his fingers against her skin flashed into her mind and she swallowed a sob.
“They’re going to send the chopper for a short haul,” Adeena said.
Everyone took a breath.
