Sink or Swim by Tash McAdam

Author:Tash McAdam [McAdam, Tash]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781459828537
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2021-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Rosie starts to scream just before she slams into Bass. Her skull thuds into his outstretched arm. Her shoulder slams him in the center of his chest. It knocks the wind right out of him and sends him sprawling. They land in a heap with a horrible, wet, cracking noise. Rosie takes a deep breath and screams again. The noise is animal-like, violent.

“Oh god oh god oh god, Rosie. Rosie!” Bass frantically tries to move her off him and onto the smooth slope of rock so he can help.

She takes a deep, choking breath. “My leg, my leg!” she shrieks.

“Rosie, I’m right here. It’s okay. You’re okay.” Bass tries to keep his voice calm and level as he gently wriggles out from under her. Rosie’s crying now, huge, heaving sobs that shake her whole body.

As soon as he can sit up, he sees. Her lower leg is clearly broken. It’s resting awkwardly on a rock, the ankle at an angle it shouldn’t be. Halfway up her shin the bone is sticking out through the skin. There’s blood oozing out, black and wet against the paler skin of her calf.

“Oh shit, oh shit, Rosie.” Bass flaps his hands uselessly, trying to decide what to do. His whole brain is frozen—he can’t think.

“Bass,” she sobs. “It hurts. Oh fuck, it hurts so much.”

“Okay, you’re going to be okay. Your leg is broken, that’s why it hurts, but that’s okay!” From somewhere inside him, a calm, cooler person takes over. “Take some deep breaths for me, in and out. I’m going to move your leg. It’s going to hurt a hell of a lot, but it needs to be level, okay?” Inside he’s white noise and silence. Someone confident moves his hands. “On three, all right? One…” He wraps his fingers gently around her calf. “Two…” He takes hold of her foot with his other hand. “Three.” As fast as he can, he moves her leg down off the rock.

Rosie moans in pain, and when he looks up at her face, her eyes are closed. She’s passed out. Good. That’s good. It must hurt unbearably. It’s better if she’s unconscious. Then he remembers. Rosie was climbing to save them. They’re trapped here. Alone. No boat. No food. Only rainwater to drink. No fire. Rosie’s skin is freezing, and her face is sweaty and pale.

Fuck.

Okay, first things first. The new, confident inner voice is taking over. Look at her leg. Reluctantly he does so. When he moved her foot down to straighten the leg, the bone withdrew into the wound. Her ankle and knee are in line now. Great! That’s awesome. You don’t have to pull her leg straight. Next you need to find something to bandage the cut. The wound is deep. Bass can see the blood still welling out of it. Bandages. Okay. What do we have? Life jacket? Too hard to rip. T-shirt? Maybe. Tape! Bass feels thunderstruck. He has tape. Trans tape. The six-inch-wide sticky stuff is a lot like an adhesive bandage.

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