Drop.Zone.01.Drop.Zone.2010 by McNab Andy

Author:McNab, Andy [McNab, Andy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

17

He didn’t have time to think about how bad everything was. What he had to do was get the hell out of the deep shit he found himself in. The thought that in saving Kat’s life he could soon be ending his own really pissed him off.

Get a grip, he told himself. Focus.

Unable to reach the ripcord for his main canopy, he was now reliant on his reserve. There were two ways to activate that: use his good arm, the one still keeping him stable, to pull the toggle and release the reserve; or do nothing and trust the AAD to do its stuff. If he reached over to pull the toggle, he’d spin and lose control. The spin could cause the lines to twist and that would be it – bounce time. But if he did nothing and the AAD failed, he was dead anyway.

The altimeter pinged again – he’d just passed 2,000.

He didn’t like leaving things up to fate and his equipment. He gritted his teeth and went for the toggle. But, as expected, the movement of his good arm spun him violently to the right, straining his neck. He tried again and again, but each time he came within inches of the toggle, then spun again.

Ethan heard his altimeter ping. He’d zipped past 1,000 feet. Everything was now down to the AAD.

Ethan closed his eyes . . .

. . . and felt himself yanked from 120 to 10 mph in seconds. His knackered arm flapped around, then smacked him hard in the face. The sensation stung. He didn’t mind though. It meant he was alive.

As Ethan glided gently to the ground, in the silence underneath his reserve canopy, he screamed. It was all he could do. He’d saved someone’s life, nearly killed himself in the process, but survived none the less. It was definitely something to scream about.

When he landed, he was still screaming. The reserve, not being very manoeuvrable, had placed him a few hundred metres away from the DZ, so he just lay there for a few moments, trying to take it all in. He’d never been so close to death. It wasn’t something he ever wanted to experience again. But now that he had, now that he’d been seconds away from oblivion, he felt that something monumental had changed for him. OK, so the skydiving had given him a chance to see what he was capable of, to realize that there was more to life than worrying about exams and his dad. But what he’d just done – saving Kat, saving himself – had made him feel more alive than ever before. In fact, it was as though he’d been asleep his whole life and had only now fully woken up. He took a deep breath, held it, breathed out. He felt absolutely and completely aware of every part of his body, like every single bit of who he was buzzed with life. Everything around him looked clearer, the colours brighter, the air fresher. He knew then that skydiving wasn’t just a part of his life, it was his life.

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