Higher Ground by Becky Black (most read books of all time .txt) 📕

many of them had seen Zach fall? How many were simply terrified by the worst quake they’d experienced so far and had yet to realize they’d lost their leader? Simon’s head dropped onto Adam’s chest, and he sighed with relief for the end of the quake, then looked up.

“Adam, I’m so sorry.”

Adam wasted no time arguing about it. Zach is alive. He scrambled out of Simon’s arms and crawled to the edge of the new cliff. The slope had partly collapsed, forming a new ravine.

“Zach!” Adam called. “Zach, can you hear me?” He searched desperately and then gasped. “There! There he is!”

Zach lay on a piece of flat rock perhaps twenty meters down. It might be the very piece of mountain he’d been lying on up here. Simon came up beside Adam, also on hands and knees, cautious of the edge.

“That’s a long way down.”

Did he mean too far for Zach to have survived? The stricken look he had suggested that. But Adam refused to think that way. Zach is alive.

“I have a long rope.”

“Adam, that would be—”

Adam looked at him, and he shut up. Perhaps he could read the question in Adam’s eyes. What if it was Visha or Amina down there? He’d be looking for the rope already.

They moved back from the edge, Adam hating not being able to see Zach anymore. But he had to get at his pack to get his climbing rope out. He could rappel down there easily enough. He’d need a few of the strapping fellows up here to play the rope out for him. They had the muscle and the numbers to haul Zach out of there.

“Is he…okay?” Jan asked. People stared at Adam, shocked and frightened. Glyn was busy bandaging a guy with a nasty cut to the head. A few others were nursing minor injuries.

“I can see him, He’s about twenty meters down. I’m going to climb down to him while the rest of you get to work on a stretcher. First to hoist him up, then to carry him. Use hiking poles, tent canvas. Use whatever you have to.” He knelt by his pack and rummaged in it for his rope.

“Um, is he definitely alive?” someone asked. He heard the disbelief in their voice, and his back stiffened. He stood, holding the coil of rope.

“I don’t know until I get to him. Glyn, I’m going to need you down there too.”

“What?” Glyn shot to his feet and stared at Adam. “Are you joking?”

“Joking? Of course I’m not joking. He’s probably hurt—”

“He’s probably dead. Hell, he is dead or soon will be.”

“It’s your job to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“We’ll all be dead if we stop to pull him out of there. And do you know how slow we’ll go carrying him? We’ll never stay ahead of the water.”

“Not if we don’t hurry up and get on with it.” Adam started fashioning a harness with the rope. He’d need his gloves, or he’d burn his hands. “I’ll go down first. If he’s… If I don’t need you, you don’t need to come down.”

“Are you listening to me? I’m not going down there.”

Adam froze as everything Glyn said finally sank in, delayed as it was behind his single-minded determination to get down there and get to Zach. He simply couldn’t conceive of anything else happening.

“What did you say?”

“I’m not waiting here for you to go down there either. I’m going on, before there’s another quake like the last one and we all fall down the mountain.” He turned to the group. “Anyone smart will come with me.”

“You can’t go.” Adam couldn’t believe it. “You’re a medic, and you have a patient who needs you.”

“He’s already dead.” Glyn looked around at the group again. “You’re all thinking the same thing.”

“We should find out first,” Simon said. “We owe him.”

“He saved your lives,” Adam shouted, suddenly terrified because he could see some of the group were nodding when Glyn spoke, agreeing with him. “You can’t just leave him.”

“If we don’t, then we’ll all die, and he’ll have failed,” Glyn said. He put on—definitely put on, definitely fake—a pitying expression. “Your loyalty is admirable, Adam, but you know I’m right.”

“Shut up, you bastard. I’ve had enough of you trying to play me.” The group stirred. Glyn adopted another fake expression, wounded and unjustifiably berated for telling the truth. It didn’t fool Adam. “The rest of you know he’d climb down for any one of you if the situation was reversed. Show some gratitude to the man who saved your lives by saving his.”

The appeal didn’t work. Sick with horror and disgust, he saw some people start to drift across to stand with Glyn. None of them would look at Adam, none of them said anything, but their actions spoke for them. They thought Zach was dead. Or they didn’t think there was enough time to retrieve him. Only Glyn would meet Adam’s eyes, and his expression was more triumphant than sheepish. More wolfish.

“Okay, fine,” Adam said, unable to control the sneering anger in his voice. Would enough people stay to haul Zach out? Please let them stay. “Fine. Good riddance to you. Glyn, give me your medical kit and go.”

“What? You want my kit?”

“If I’m going to have to treat him myself, I’ll need the kit. You’re not leaving with it.”

Glyn snorted. “I’d like to see you try to stop me.” He turned his back to Adam, addressing the group who hadn’t yet come to his side. “You guys sure you won’t come?”

Adam dropped to one knee and started searching his pack. Where is it? Where is it? I put it in here somewhere. Ah!

“You know this is a fool’s—”

“Glyn, give me the med kit now.” Adam straightened up, turning to Glyn. He heard Simon mutter a curse beside him. A woman shrieked. Glyn turned to Adam and froze.

Adam was pointing Torres’s pistol at him.

For when things get ugly. This counted.

“Are you insane?” Glyn’s voice barely rose above a whisper.

“Give me the kit, or