Mission Survival 8 by Bear Grylls

Author:Bear Grylls
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448157655
Publisher: RHCP

Chapter 26

The rain lasted for another hour. They passed the time by soaking some instant noodles in a cup of water and eating them cold. After that, they could only wait.

Beck sat in the cave entrance and watched the rain slowly clear. James clasped his arms around his knees, hugging himself, gazing gloomily at nothing. The red pandas watched sullenly from the back of the cave, waiting for the two big hairless apes to get out of their home.

Even when the rain stopped, the air was still full of moisture. Somewhere above the clouds, the tropical sun was beating down and turning the rain below into a steam bath. By mid-afternoon the waters had receded and the pair could think about climbing down again.

Beck peered over the edge. ‘Hasn’t got any less steep.’

James stirred. Beck noted the effort he had to make to get moving, and suddenly realized what had happened. He had allowed James to slide down into depression, and had done nothing about it. Idiot! he told himself furiously.

Ian’s death still hung in the air. Beck had left James sitting there for an hour with nothing to do but think about it. He had to get James moving – not just physically, but mentally as well. A good mental attitude was just as important to survival as a healthy body.

James looked down the cliff. ‘Well, we climbed up,’ he said dully.

‘Yeah, we did,’ Beck agreed. And the effort had been enough to make his leg shriek with pain. He really wasn’t confident about being able to climb down again. ‘We’ll have to use the rope.’

James shook his head. ‘Not enough, and nothing up here to tie it to. And can you abseil, with that leg?’

‘Didn’t say we were abseiling. I just said we’ll use the rope.’

James was absolutely right. Even with two good legs, the rope wasn’t long enough for abseiling – it needed to double up so they could pull it down after them.

Beck got the rope out of the bergen and tied one end in a large loop. ‘Come here . . . sit down . . .’

James paused for a moment, then shrugged and sat down where Beck had indicated. Beck wrapped the rope loop around his shoulders and threw the other end out of the cave. The single strand just about reached the ground.

‘You’re going to have to hold my weight,’ Beck told James. ‘I’ll climb down with the rope. Then you chuck it down and climb down on your own. Think you can do that?’

He thought back to a couple of days ago, when he had talked James down the rock face one step at a time, with a lethal drop beneath them. This should be easy, if James remembered what Beck had told him . . .

James flashed a very brief, reluctant smile. ‘Yeah, I think so.’

‘Cool. Sit with your back against the wall here, and push your legs against the other side . . .’

James did as he was told, with slightly more enthusiasm.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.