The Fifth Severance
Chapter 18

We walk around the giant room until we find a small passage which has been created in the wall. I help Alex to crouch under and go to the other side before I do with Whitford following behind.

“What do we do now?” Dr. Whitford asks after getting off the floor and rubbing himself off.

“Let’s see where this leads to then we’ll figure out our next move,” I say then he nods his head in reply. We keep walking forward and just revel in the deafening silence.

Once we come out of the small tunnel, we see a small hill that terminates in some fog at the bottom and looks like it’s quite the drop. We really don’t feel like dropping down anything right now for obvious reasons so we spot a small clearing between some bushes and decide to sit down here to rest up a bit to clear our minds.

“Darn bushes, they tickle everywhere,” I say as I swat a clump of leaves away from behind my ears. I spot Dr. Whitford staring at me and smiling.

“What?” I ask sternly and he immediately stops smiling.

“Oh nothing,” he says. “I was just, wondering how is it that you guys don’t find any of this strange?” He waves his hands around wildly and I think he’s having a stroke or seizure.

“What is this?” I ask as I facsimile his gesture.

“Don’t you find it strange?” he does it again and Alexandria starts observing the leaves on the plant before taking some pictures with her communicator. Oh, he must be talking about this place.

“What’s strange about it?” I ask while swatting a fly away from my ears.

“Are you kidding me?” he asks with disbelief plastered all across his face.

“What are you going on about?” Alex asks him.

“This place,” he says as he widens his hands around himself again. “It has growing vegetation everywhere and a breathable atmosphere...”

“How do you know the air is breathable?” Alex says as she suddenly cuts him off.

“Ummm, I think it is,” he takes off his hood. “I don’t even need to wear this anymore.”

“Is that even safe?” I ask.

“The air is breathable so why not?”

“You’re going to die,” Alex says as her eyes begin to wander around the place.

“Anyways, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted,” he says as he looks sharply at Alex who isn’t even paying attention to him, “I was just saying that all this, the air, the vegetation and all of it should be impossible. Don’t you find any of it strange?”

“Well I guess when you put it that way yes a bit but at this moment I think we should...”

“Guys look!” Alex suddenly says as she cuts me off and points to a spot on the ground.

“What, what is it?” I ask.

“Look at that, on the floor,” she says as she continues to point frantically at something but we see nothing but soil.

“I don’t see anything,” I say.

“Are you blind? Look at it right there!” She continues to point at that spot but I still see nothing so I stare at Dr. Whitford and he gives me the ‘she’s lost it’ look back and I nod slowly in agreement.

“Stop calling me crazy!” she yells. “I know what I’m talking about!”

“Sure you do,” I say in a mocking tone.

She gets up and grabs both of our arms and drags us to the point where she supposedly saw something.

She points to the dirt again. “Look, right there,” she says and we stare at the soil and eventually I see a faint red trail in the dirt.

“Blood?” I ask.

“Duh,” she says. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you guys all this time.”

She goes back to where we were all sitting to fetch her gear bag and when I realise that she is thinking about to jump off the edge of the cliff, I run after her and catch her just in time as we almost go over the edge together. I manage to sort my footing out just in time.

“What’s the bright idea?” she asks as she wrestles her arm away from me.

“What do you think you are doing?” I ask her.

“I’m going down there,” she says as she shapes to jump again but I grab her in time. “Aren’t you guys coming?”

I forcibly drag her to the top of the hill but she wrestles herself from me.

“Look Alex,” I say. “I know you think that blood there may have been left by him but there is no guarantee. It may be from a deer or some other creature that got trapped in the thorn bush and bled all over the place so I think we should just...”

“Or it could be from Alfie,” she interjects. “It could be from Alfie who is probably down there bleeding to death and wondering why I’m not by his side. I’ve gotta get down there!”

She starts to run toward the cliff again but I’m faster than her so I grab her just in time again and pull her back to safety.

“Yes there is a possibility that he’s down there but what are the the odds? I suggest we re...hey wait!”

Before I can react, she manages to wriggle away from me and she leaps over the edge of the cliff before I can grab her. She disappears into the fog below while shrieking in delight.

“Come on Whitford,” I say as I rush back up the hill, grab my gear bag and sling it around my shoulders.

“Where are we going?” he says as he also grabs his bag and puts it around his shoulders.

“We’re going after her before she does something stupid,” I say as we approach the bottom of the hill.

I could sense that he wanted to say something in protest but I just shove him off the edge of the cliff before he has the chance. As he falls, he hurls many random swear words in my direction. As I also jump into the unknown void below, I close my eyes tightly and hold my breath when the fog approaches just in case it isn’t fog at all but poisoned gas. Once I cut through the thick cloud of fog, I open my eyes but it’s too late for me to react when I realise that what we are falling into is a large body of water. As a result, I end up hitting the water, belly first. Ouch!

“Look who finally decided to join us.” I hear Alexandria’s voice but can’t really pinpoint exactly where she is due to the thick fog.

“Where are you guys, I need a...”

Before I can finish my sentence, I feel a small flick behind my ear but when I turn in that direction, I see nothing or no one that did it.

“Ha ha, very funny guys,” I say as I feel another flick and continue looking around for them. “Cut it out!”

“Cut what out?” she says as she suddenly appears before me from out of the water. I feel another flick behind my ear and turn to see nothing again.

“That,” I say in outrage. “Quit it!”

“What?

“Stop flicking me!”

“It wasn’t me!” she says. “I’m standing right in front of you!”

“Then who’s flicking me?” I say. “Dr. Whitford if this is your idea of a joke it’s not funny!” I wait for a response but there is nothing but silence. “I wonder where he is.”

I turn back suddenly when I feel another flick expecting to see him right behind me but I see nothing and turn back.

“Right here,” he says as he appears out off the water from nowhere and almost gives me a heart attack.

“Quit it!” I say as I feel another flick behind my ear.

“Quit what?” he asks while feigning innocence as I feel yet another flick behind my ear.

“That flicking, it’s incredibly annoying!”

“That wasn’t me! I’m standing right here.”

I look over to Alex and she says, “It wasn’t me either.”

“Wait, so if it wasn’t you or you,” I say as I point to them both. “Then...”

I feel behind my left ear and instead of feeling bone as I normally do, I grab something between my fingers that feels soft and squishy. It’s also throbbing violently; it feels like a living cist. I turn my head back to them.

“Guys,” I say as I show them behind my ear. “What the heck is this?”

“Oooo,” they both say simultaneously.

“That’s a bad one,” Alex says.

“What is? What’s a bad one?”

“Ummm, I don’t really know how to say this without freaking you out but...there is a GIANT leech behind your ear and judging by its size, it must have been there for a while.”

At first, the words don’t run home properly so I just stand there looking into their faces with a puzzled look. Once the idea clicks in my mind, I immediately start to panic and begin tugging violently at the leech behind my ear.

“Stop that Dr. Blay, don’t pull it! You could kill yourself,” Alex says. “If you pull it off by force, it will vomit some really nasty micro organisms back into your system,” she says and I immediately release my grip on the leech. “We have to find a way to let it release its grip.”

“I think I know what to do. I used to be a boy scout you know?” Dr. Whitford says with a smug look on his face.

“Whatever,” Alex says under her breath with an eye roll.

I just might have laughed...IF THERE WASN’T A GIANT LEECH BEHIND MY EAR! I’M FREAKING OUT!

“From what I know,” Dr. Whitford says as they help me to the riverbank. “I know that leeches will usually drop off after filling up on blood so we could just let it suck until...”

“No!” I say as I cut him off not wanting to contemplate that option.

“No?” he asks. “Okay, well I also know of a fingernail technique that works wonders in situations like these.”

“Well what are you waiting for, an invitation? Do the technique!”

“Come on Dr. Blay,” Alex says. “We are planning our strategy.”

“Hurry up!” I say. “A darn leech is sucking me dry over here!”

“Be patient,” Alex says.

“Okay, the first thing I have to do is locate the sucker of the leech then I will have to slide my fingernail under it. Then I will...”

“I don’t need the running commentary! Just do it!”

“Fine, pushy much,” he says and I glare at him.

After he does his little technique, the thing releases its grip briefly but tries to reattach to me. Luckily he is fast enough to flick it off in time and it falls to the ground. I feel immense relief when Dr. Whitford picks it up and tosses it back into the river from whence it came. I wipe the blood off the back of my ear and take a moment to catch my breath. I feel very light-headed from all the blood I just lost to that disgusting bloodsucker.

“Why isn’t the blood stopping?” I ask as I feel behind my ear again.

“Leeches have an anti-clotting hormone in their mouths so that your blood doesn’t clot until it gets full. That sore could bleed like that for a few hours, maybe even a day,” he says.

“Can someone please get me something to clean all this blood?”

“Here you go,” Alex says as she hands me a roll of paper towels from the first aid box in her bag.

“Thanks,” I say as I wipe the steadily flowing blood from behind my ear.

“Are you okay now?” she asks me.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

“Are you sure you feel okay?” Alex asks again.

“Yes, I’m good. Let’s move.”

“So, where do we go now?” Dr. Whitford says as we slow down before a pile of shrubs blocking a passage into another part of this place.

“I guess we still try to find Dr. Alfred,” I say as I scratch behind my ear, wipe the blood off my fingers and continue scratching.

“What’s wrong with your ear?” Alex asks as I continue to scratch behind my ear.

“I don’t know; suddenly itches like hell.”

“It must be the leech bite,” Dr. Whitford says.

“Ya think?” I say sarcastically as I continue to scratch.

“Well stop scratching it. You could infect the sore. Just keep the tissue over it,” he says.

“Can’t help it man; too itchy,” I say as I keep scratching and Alex holds my arm in place.

“Hmmm, well anyways, I think we should keep moving.”

“Yeah good idea,” Alex says as she keeps my hand away from my sore.

We push through the shrubs blocking the passage and as we pass through it, we obviously expect to see another giant room with only a few shrubs and bushes here and there but what we see stops us dead in our tracks. Alex nudges me to make me look up from my scratching and I have the same reaction as they have as my mouth drops and hangs in the air.

“What, what is all this?” I ask as I scratch my head in sheer disbelief.

“I don’t know,” Alex says with obvious confusion in her voice.

“Who put all this here?” Dr. Whitford asks. That sounded so fake.

“No idea,” I say.

“Who cares who put it here? Let’s enjoy this!” she says as she runs from where we are all standing and rolls down a small grassy hill.

I just stand there unable to move or speak as these images enter my eyes and refuse to register in my brain as plausible. I stare at the beautiful grass carpeting the ground, the waterfall providing a lovely jungle ambience as it splashes at the bottom of the hill and the numerous lush flowers and trees make this a paradise, in the simplest possible terms.

This just isn’t possible.

“How, how is this possible?” I ask Dr. Whitford who is still standing beside me.

“I have no idea Dr. Blay but, like she just said, ‘who cares’? Let’s enjoy this!” he says as he does what Alex just did and slide down the grassy hill.

I’m not about to stand here and look like a wet blanket while they all throw their cares away and live so while swallowing all my bewilderment, I do what they just did and also slide, well roll down the side of the grassy hill. Unfortunately for them, they hadn’t moved yet so as I arrived at the bottom with full force, I crash straight into them and we all lie on the grass and laugh heartily afterwards.

Those small shrubs and bushes we kept seeing along the way here were out of the ordinary for sure but all this is just, unfeasible. All it tells me is that I finally know for sure that what we have done so far, all those we have lost, all the tears we have shed, it’s all worth it because, the earth has hope.

The only question that still burns through my mind, and undoubtedly the minds of my two teammates is, how? How did all this get here? Even though the questions which are burning a hole in my skull are legitimate, I’m almost certain that they will go unanswered so I decide to keep them tucked away...for now.

“This is nothing short of a miracle Alexandria,” I say as I sit up on the grass. “Where did all this come from?”

“Don’t call me Alexandria,” she says austerely and I laugh. “I honestly have no idea but as I said before, who cares? Do you know how long I’ve waited to lie down in grass again?” She gets to her feet and takes off her boots to feel the grass between her tiny toes.

She begins running toward the riverbank at top speed and I get up and follow her because this is just the kind of place that makes you want to skip and prance about just like a little child.

Alex unfortunately trips on a small rock concealed in the grass and lands heavily on the soft, luscious grass but she doesn’t seem to mind since she is laughing heartily while lying on the grass. I join her on the grass to and feel the soft vegetation below me embrace me.

“This place is just amazing,” she says. “The only thing that would make this place perfect is if Alfie were here.”

“Did I hear someone call me?” a familiar voice asks.

We all look up from the grass and look in incredulity as we spot Dr. Alfred sitting on the grass on the other side of the field smiling at us as we continue to stare at him in confusion.

We each take a moment to ponder what just transpired and when it all finally clicks in our brains, we all bounce off the grass, run toward him and dog pile him.

“What the heck are you doing here? We thought you were dead!” Alex says.

“Me, dead? I don’t think so,” he says as we all get off him.

“So where did you disappear to?” I ask as we sit on the grass by him.

“Well, when you people went out to see the wreckage, I got a bit bored so I decided to explore on my own for a bit. I left a trail of red berry blast on the ground so that you could find me,” he says as he holds up the soft drink and takes a sip from it.

“We thought that was blood!” Alex says.

“Blood? This isn’t thick enough to be blood,” he says as he examines the red liquid in the bottle. “Quite sticky though.”

“So why didn’t you come back?” I ask this time.

“Oh, well, when I discovered this, incredible place, I just couldn’t bring myself to leave it and come back so I just hoped that you would find my trail and follow it. Good thing you did,” he says as he drinks the last of the drink and tosses the bottle into the river.

“Yeah, good thing,” I say.

“So, where are the others?” he asks with wide eyes.

I look to the others not knowing what to say and see their eyes wander, leaving me face to face with Dr. Alfred with this incredibly delicate question hanging in the air.

“Why what’s wrong?” he asks with concern on his face.

“I just don’t know how to say this Dr. Alfred but...they didn’t make it.”

“Huh? Make what? Did they decide to stay back at the camp? Those chickens,” he says and begins to laugh but the glum look on my face stops that almost as soon as it started.

“They didn’t make the fall,” I say softly as I feel the grass.

“Didn’t make the fall? What fall? What are you trying to say Dr. Blay? Just spit it out.”

“They are dead Dr. Alfred! They are dead!” I just spit it out. “The cave collapsed and they got buried under a huge pile of rubble! I’m so sorry,” I look into his eyes for a brief second then quickly look away.

I was expecting at least a word but he doesn’t answer but instead looks pensively out onto the rushing river. I know what he’s thinking when I see him take off his glasses and wipe his eye.

“Are you okay Dr. Alfred?” I say. This is so awkward.

“Yea...yes; I just need a moment...alone, to think,” he says and I signal to the others that we should leave him.

“That was really mean of you guys,” I say once we are a considerable distance away from him.

“What was?” Dr. Whitford asks as if he doesn’t know what I’m talking about.

“Don’t play dumb. You guys intentionally left me to break the tragic news to him.”

“Yeah, but it was only fair that you do it,” Alex says.

“How is that fair? He’s your brother for Christ’s sakes.”

“That isn’t a valid point.”

“How isn’t that a valid point?” I ask in outrage. “That’s like saying gravity isn’t a valid point when asking if you should jump off a cliff.”

“Stop bringing gravity into this,” she says.

“I will bring as much gravity into this as I want to!” I say with the worst comeback in human history.

“Okay guys, that’s enough,” Dr. Whitford says as he turns peacemaker. “I think we should do something more constructive with our energy.”

“Like what?” I ask.

“I suggest that we go and explore this place. It’s highly unlikely that this is the only place with, incredible things like what we see here. Think of the incredible things we could discover.”

“Now that is a valid point, unlike gravity,” she says in a bid to annoy me. “Let’s do it.”

I was about to respond to that hardly thinly-veiled insult but I just realise that it would be of no use to anyone so I just forget about it and move on.

“Alright, let’s go,” I say.

“Wait!” Alex says as we begin to climb the grassy hill.

“What?”

She doesn’t answer me but instead brings out her communicator and snaps a few selfies of herself in the place then rejoins us.

“Was that necessary?” I ask as we continue ascending the hill.

“Of course,” she says. “If you don’t remember, we have a mission to do and this is something we badly need to document.” She puts her communicator back in her bag.

“Hmmm, good work,” I say and feel those as words leave a bad taste in my mouth when she grins smugly toward me

As we walk around this paradisic place quite aimlessly, we stumble onto another passage that leads to the outside of the cave and go through it. We come outside through it and realise that the air out here is indeed breathable so we decide to remove our hoods and breathe in the fresh mountain air that is swirling proudly all around us.

As it turns out, the place we were in all this time was just a cave carved into the side of a really tall mountain. That explains the waterfall, the numerous falls from heights and all the other strange things we saw.

There is a precarious looking cliff in the distance and we walk toward it to see how far the distance to the ground is and after seeing that we are above some clouds, we take steps back and instead enjoy the warm, refreshing radiation of the sunlight hit our now exposed faces.

“Aaah, fresh air and sunlight, I have missed you so much,” Alex says as she closes her eyes and soaks up the morning sun’s rays.

While she does this with her eyes closed and totally off-guard, I spot an opportunity to gain a well-deserved revenge on her for our earlier argument about gravity.

I sneak up behind her with the intention to give her a small fright by pushing her as if to toss her down the cliff but then drag her back just in time. Her mini heart attack will definitely be worth the stick I’ll receive afterwards.

In one swift movement, I grab the back of her suit, which is hard considering how tight it is (cough cough) and push her out slightly as she screams her head off and hurls insults at me. The first part of the prank went absolutely swimmingly but when the time came to pull her back in, her suit reacts with the sweat on my palm and slips out of my grasp. She is sent tumbling down the cliff at an incredible speed. Once she disappears through the clouds, I realise what is actually going on and begin to panic.

“Oh God did I just do? What do I do?” I ask frantically as I look around for some sort of solution.

“Go after her you idiot!” Dr. Whitford says.

“Why didn’t you stop me from doing that?” I ask him.

“Stop asking me stupid questions and get down there!”

He might have just insulted me, twice, but I can’t really argue since there isn’t any valid point to dispute the fact that I am an idiot. I just pushed someone I really care about off the edge of a cliff! Who does something like that? Well, me I guess.

I take a few steps back and I swallow saliva in a bid to curb my fear of heights and after a few moments of silently pumping myself up, I dive off the edge of the cliff and make sure to keep my body as streamlined as possible to increase my chances of reaching her.

Once I burst through the clouds, I spot Alex tumbling below me plummeting rapidly to her doom. The mountain is really really high, I’m talking Snoop Dogg high, but the ground is also approaching fast so I better act fast.

I don’t really know what to do to in order to reach her so I start thrusting my arms and legs in a random manner and somehow I begin moving faster so I keep doing that until I finally reach Alex who has passed out due to the thinness of the oxygen. I take her in my arms and place her hood over her head to get some oxygen in her lungs. I begin to think of something to do because the weather is getting warmer and warmer the faster we descend.

All of a sudden as we keep falling, she wakes up and gives me a dirty slap then she tries to wriggle out of my grasp but I hold her tight.

“What was that for?” I ask in surprise as I hold my cheek in pain.

“Why? Why! You threw me off a cliff you, you!” she says as she tries to slap me again but I manage to dodge it and squeeze her tighter as we descend.

“Stop that, it was an accident! Sorry,” I say.

“Well your accident is going to get both of us killed!” she says as she tries to slap me again but I grab her hand in time.

“For Pete’s sake stop that! We aren’t going to die, look,” I say as I point down to some bluish thing is beginning to take form below us as the ground draws closer. “Let’s just hope that it’s water.”

“By some remote chance that we do manage to survive this, you are dead!” she says as I squeeze her harder and conceal her under me as we prepare to make contact with what I am now sure is water below us.

“What are you doing?” she asks as she tries to wriggle away again but I’m too strong for her.

“I’m concealing you, be quiet,” I say.

“What are you going on about? Concealing me from what?” she asks with panic in her voice.

“At the force we are coming in with, you definitely won’t survive the impact with the water but I might so just keep your head down...and hold your breath when I tell you to!”

She doesn’t say a word but instead settles down as we brace ourselves for the impact with the water. A bird flies past us as we fall and it almost gets burnt to a crisp because the air around me is getting really hot. This is going to be an incredibly painful collision.

“Okay here it comes! Prepare to hold it...now!” I say as I flip over so that she faces up and me with my back to the water. I also hold my breath too.

I tuck my head in as we are about to make contact with the water. I have become so hot that as we hit the water’s surface, my body sizzles loudly and we make an incredible splash but all in all, I’m pretty sure I’m still alive. The smoke must have been because of the speed with which we entered the atmosphere but maybe it’s also because of how hot I am. Who knows?

Oh and by the way, OUCH!

When I get out of the water, I look around for Alex and it seems that she is fine too because she is just floating peacefully in the water. Wait, is she supposed to be facedown like that?

I swim over to her as fast as I can, which is very hard due to the impact with the water’s surface which felt like colliding with a truck, and flip her over, put her over my shoulder and swim to shore.

Once on the shore, I lay her down and start to pump her chest repeatedly but nothing happens. I guess I am forced to administer CPR. Woo hoo! Erm, cough, cough, I’m not excited. Someone is dying over here for Christ’s sakes.

I open her mouth and breathe into it then pump her chest to get the water out of her lungs. I repeat this technique about four times before she finally coughs up all the water she inhaled on impact with the water and sits up. When I’m sure she’s fine, I also collapse back onto the beach sand beside her, exhausted beyond measure. As I lie there, staring at the soothing blue sky, I feel an arm smack me.

“I, can’t, believe, you, threw me off a cliff,” she says while almost out of breath as she also stares at the sky.

“You’re welcome,” I say, obviously alluding to me saving her life and obviously not to me throwing her off a cliff.

We lay there silently, mostly bidding our time to come to terms with what just happened and also to catch our breaths after such a high octane moment. My back hurts so much even the soft sand on it stings like a thousand fire ant bites. After a while, Alex suddenly gets off the ground, wipes the sand off her suit and starts to walk toward the numerous trees behind us.

“Where are you going?” I ask as I sit up in the sand.

“I don’t know about you but I think trying to find a way to get back to the others would be a better use of my time than just lying on the beach and staring at the sky,” she says as she continues walking.

“Wait,” I say while I get off the ground and grab my gear bag. “I’m coming with you; you know to protect you and stuff.”

“Suit yourself, but I don’t need any protection. I can handle myself,” she says when I catch up with her.

“Oh please, you wouldn’t last a day out there without me.”

“Well I wouldn’t last a day out there with you either, especially if there is a cliff you can toss me off,” she says and I pause my walking due to my ire.

“Oh come on; don’t tell me we are still hung up on this cliff thing, excuse the pun. I did say I’m sorry, didn’t I?”

“Yeah and I heard you,” she says and continues walking toward the trees.

I run a bit while trying to catch up with her since she has pulled ahead of me and as a result, I almost end up tripping over an exposed root on the jungle floor. We have walked right into a forest and a creepy one at that with no clear directions to tell us which way to go. We just basically keep walking and hope that something useful will reveal itself to us.

“You know, that doesn’t really mean that you’ve forgiven me,” I say when we reach a small clearing in the midst of all the trees.

“What doesn’t?”

“Saying that you heard me but you never did say, apology accepted.”

“Yeah, that’s because it hasn’t been accepted.”

“What? Why? What else do you want me to do?” I ask as I pause in my walking.

“I don’t know.”

“Do you want me to throw myself off a cliff?” I ask and she just looks at me weirdly. “What about that?” I ask and I point into the distance to a small drop that looks somewhat like a cliff.

“Sure, and if you do manage to survive, you are forgiven.”

“Good,” I say as I take a few steps back.

Before she can figure out what I’m about to do, I sprint past her and toward the supposed cliff which is probably like a two metre drop. Once she realises what I’m doing, she runs after me and tries to stop me by vehemently claiming that she was just kidding but I just ignore her and focus on my objective, shutting out all thought and fear; just doing it.

I build up quite a considerable amount of speed once I get about ten feet to the edge of the cliff and when I launch myself off it, I feel adrenaline pump through my veins and feel like a bird as I vault off the cliff expecting to see a small clearing below for me to drop into. The moment the ground of the cliff disappears from below me, I quickly notice that instead of a two metre drop as I had initially thought, it actually turns out to be at least a hundred metre drop down into some raging waters with some really pointy rocks intertwined in all that mess. Yup, I’m dead.

Immediately, all the thoughts and fears I was trying so hard to dismiss flood into my brain. I manage to reverse my momentum and grab the edge of the cliff but the grass and dirt really aren’t that easy to grip so my fingers are slipping, fast.

“Alex help, I’m slipping!” I say as my fingers claw desperately into the soil in a bid to keep myself up.

I try my best to hold on to the cliff but my fingers are really starting to hurt and holding up my considerable weight isn’t getting any easier. I think I may have to let go.

“I’m coming Dr. Blay! Hold on!” she says.

I hear the crushing of twigs and sticks under her boots as she moves swiftly across the the forest floor to reach me but by the time she gets to me and stretches out her hand, my grip fails and my fingers only graze her outstretched palm as I plummet down to my inevitable doom.

Almost as if time is moving in slow motion, I look deep into her beautiful green eyes as she trembles with fear and screams my name but I just relax and allow the air to blanket me because I’m completely helpless to stop my plummeting down to my sad and painful death.

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