Letting Go by Cat Clarke

Author:Cat Clarke
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781129050
Publisher: Barrington Stoke

5.56 p.m.

“This is all my fault,” Ellie says. “It’s all my fault … What are we going to do? What are we going to do? What if … Oh God, it’s all my fault.”

Ellie has been saying these words or some variation of them for the past five minutes. I can’t hear myself think, but I can’t tell her to shut up. She needs to get this out of her system.

“What network is Steve on?” I ask.

“What? What …?” Ellie says, her eyes glassy.

“His phone. Is it the same network as yours?”

Ellie shakes her head as if a fly is buzzing round her face. “I don’t … I don’t … How should I know?”

I try to be patient and say, “The two of us are on the same network, right? If Steve’s on a different one, there’s a chance he might get coverage here. OK, here’s what I need you to do. I need you to keep trying your phone. We might just be in a black spot, so move around a bit. We just need one bar to connect to the emergency services.”

Ellie clutches at my coat sleeve. “I don’t want to leave you,” she says.

“You’re not leaving me. I’m not going anywhere. I just … I need you to try, OK? Don’t go far, and for Christ’s sake watch where you’re going. I can’t be doing with you falling off the mountain too.” I smile, and it seems to reassure her. “OK, El?”

“OK.” She squeezes my arm and moves away.

I’m not holding out much hope. Our best hope, I think, would be to climb back up to the top. There has to be a better chance of getting a signal up there. But that’s a guess, based on … well, based on nothing, really. Anyway, we can’t risk it. If anything, the conditions are even worse than they were when we started to make our way down.

I check that Ellie’s OK. She’s shuffling around and holding her phone up to the sky. At least it’s stopping her from panicking.

I turn back to the edge and shout, “Steve? What phone network are you on?”

There’s no answer. So I shout the question as loud as I can. Still no answer. I lie flat on the ground and peer over the edge, and even lying like this the vertigo hits me. What if I fall too? My brain knows it’s not possible, but that doesn’t seem to matter.

I can see Steve properly now. Lying on a rocky outcropping. His trousers are black, but I see something white just below his left knee. Bone.

“STEVE!” I shout. “Can you hear me?!”

His right arm moves slightly. It’s hanging over the edge. His walking pole dangles from the strap around his wrist. Maybe it was just the wind buffeting the pole that made his arm move and he’s actually unconscious.

One last try, and I give it all I’ve got. “STEEEEEVE!”

This time, I close my eyes to listen. I hear the wind. I hear Ellie trudging around behind me.

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