To add to my horror, silken strands of viscous water moved over my arms, feeling like fingers that were pulling me further and further down.
Sinking.
I screamed as the pain rushed up the sides of my head again. It was a useless sound, muffled and very weak, and it didn’t even come close to countering the relentless searing pain that had me curling in on myself. And then with a sharp jolt I’d hoped never to feel again, it was gone, and I knew I was dying.
Dreamy thoughts flitted through my mind.
Mom; Dad; Luke; Josh; home; air.
Air!
Warm air was forced into my lungs.
Strong hands holding my face.
Water rushing past me.
Lips clamped firmly over mine forcing air into my starved lungs.
I must have passed out because the next thing I was conscious of was rough rock pressing into my aching back and hands smoothing the hair from my face, and an urgent voice in my ear begging.
“Wake up; please wake up!”
I concentrated on opening my eyes, pushing my eyelids up with effort.
A halo of light surrounded him.
I focused on his mouth which was still moving in muttered petition as his hands continued to smooth my hair, his eyes raking my face.
I dragged another breath into my lungs and closed my eyes so that I could concentrate. My thoughts moved sluggishly as I mentally ticked off sensations.
Toes still moving – check
Sensation in my legs – check
Back… sore but not excruciating.
Fingers – check
Face – check
Breathing…
Breathing was difficult, as though my lungs were still compressed by the weight of the water.
A stab of alarm pierced my dreamy thoughts breathing shouldn’t be this difficult. Something was squashing my lungs.
I lifted my arm with effort as I tried to find whatever it was that was holding me down. My hand found his bare chest which I pushed slightly.
He moved off me quickly, muttering apologies. I curled onto my side as the aches from my fall began to register. I was still focused on him, feeling strangely detached from my body as my logical mind told me that I must be dead or at the very least dreaming.
I watched him settle next to me on the rock, trying to force my confused brain to give me comforting answers.
This – boy?… Man? I couldn’t decide how old he was – had saved my life.
I clung to that thought.
Where had he come from? I’d never seen him before and was sure I’d have noticed other hikers.
His forehead was creased in obvious anxiety as he continued to touch my face.
He looked up suddenly the light of the sun behind him momentarily blinding me.
He took my face in his hands and lightly brushed a kiss on my cheek before whispering, “Be careful, Alexandra.”
And then he was gone.
The explosion of a gun going off, angry animal noises, and Luke and Josh yelling obscenities at the baboons, preceded the echoed pounding of their feet and eventually Luke’s anxious voice.
“Alex.” His voice ricocheted off the rock surrounding me.
I took stock of my surroundings for the first time. I was on the edge of an enormous sunken rock pool. Smooth rounded rock walls scooped skywards and then curled in on themselves. On the opposite end of the pool from where I lay the rocks formed a solid ceiling, the water inky beneath the canopy.
“Alex!” Luke and Josh shouted, their voices strained.
I could see them crouching on what must appear to them to be solid ground, but from my perspective was only a half-metre worth of rock above the cave roof, as they searched the water below them.
“Over here, Luke.” My voice sounded weak even to me, and I wondered if they could hear me.
“Alex!” Josh yelled again.
I summoned the last of my strength and yelled as loudly as I could. “Here!”
“Are you OK?” Luke shouted, his voice worried.
I thought about my answer for a few seconds. Was I OK? I knew I’d almost drowned, and I knew that someone had saved me, but I couldn’t see him anywhere, which made me question whether he had, in fact, saved me or whether I’d imagined him altogether.
My gaze swept the pool, the rocks and then up to where the boys were edging forward on their bellies to the edge of the rock ledge trying to see me. It was obvious from the freshly exposed earth and floating clumps of grass beneath it that I’d fallen into the pool on that side. I swivelled my now aching head to my right, a dark hulk behind me startling me until I realised it was my backpack.
I stared at the backpack stupidly as my brain clicked laboriously through everything I’d seen so far. His existence solidified in my mind. There was no way I would be on this side of the pool having fallen from that height, landing as I had, with my backpack on and then having to have swum all the way across the pool, in sodden heavy clothes and with the pack’s weight strapped to me.
My analysis, although frustratingly sluggish to me, had only taken a few seconds to work through.
“Yes, I’m OK,” I answered Luke.
“We can’t see you, Alex, can you see us?” Josh yelled.
I sat up watching spots dance in front of my eyes and edged forward to the edge of the boulder. I waved my hand out over the water and yelled, “I’m on the opposite end to you on a rock.”
The simple action exhausted me, so I moved back from the water and lay down again, breathing deeply and closing my eyes against the nausea and dizziness that threatened to overwhelm me.
“OK, we’re going to try to figure out how to get you out of there,” Luke yelled back.
It was only with Luke’s statement that I realised my dilemma. From this angle, the pool seemed completely encased in rock, the angle of the walls impossible to climb without proper equipment.
So where had my saviour gone? There were no ropes hanging from the sides of the hollow and Luke and Josh would’ve seen him if he’d scrambled out of the pool. I stared at the inky ominous water that lapped gently beneath the rocky overhang.
It wasn’t possible, I told myself sternly as I connected the very obvious dots that led to a completely irrational answer. The only other way for him to have left would have been to go into the cave somehow.
I stared at the obsidian water. No light suggested that it was an exit from the relentless rock that held the water, and me, within its grasp.
My dazed mind wandered towards a ridiculous conclusion. Unless he’d swum, there didn’t seem to be an obvious route out of the pool.
I could hear Luke and Josh walking carefully around the perimeter of the pool, little shards of rock plopping into the water marking their progress.
Eventually, Luke’s face appeared on the opposite side of the pool to where I was sitting.
“How you doing, Al?” he asked again. I propped myself up on my elbow and shrugged, tears welling in my eyes as relief flooded through me.
Luke’s forehead