Recoil - Andy McNab [76]
Her hand was torn from mine.
We each had to fight our own battle now.
She stared at me, eyes wide with fear. Both of us kicked and thrashed to keep afloat and make some progress towards the opposite bank, but the surge was dragging me under.
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I kicked back up to the surface, forcing myself to breathe in through my nose, only to choke as I took down yet more gritty water.
I got a glimpse of her, kicking and trying to keep her head up, but only for a moment, then the water took me under again. As I came up, fighting for air, I heard her somewhere in front of me.
‘Nick! Nick!’
I looked, but saw nothing in the torrent.
I was dragged back down and inhaled more river, but this time, as I scrabbled my way to the surface, the current had carried me almost to the far bank. It wasn’t dying, though. The river curved to the left there, and I was on the outside of the bend, where the force of the water was at its fiercest. An eddy caught me and threw me against the bank. I flung out my hands, trying to grasp at anything I could.
I forced my eyes open again but they stung too much. Thrashing around blindly, my left hand connected with something solid. I made a grab, but whatever it was gave way. The next thing I knew, my right arm had hooked into a root. The current swung me round and pressed me against the bank, and my feet touched the riverbed. I clung to the root and took a series of deep breaths. Downstream of me nothing moved except severed branches and debris caught in the flow.
‘Silky! Silky!’
I struggled against the weight of water until I could reach out with my free hand and grab another root higher up the bank. I hauled myself up until only my legs were left in the water.
Suddenly I was lying on the bank, chest heaving. As soon as some strength returned to my limbs, I rolled on to all fours, then staggered to my feet.
I followed the bend in the river and more dead ground came into view with each step. Just a hundred metres on from the bend, a massive deadfall from my side of the bank had all but spanned the river.
At the far end of it Silky was clinging to a branch on the downstream side, just metres from safety.
I fought the urge to run straight to her. All she had to do was hang on. I moved back into the canopy, lying down about twenty metres short for one last look. The contact group might have patrolled this far or even used the tree to cross. It would be a natural point for them to check, in case we knew about it too.
It was a new fall, not a dead one, hit by the lightning. The trunk had been split and a metre of it was still sticking out of the ground on my side, its core clean and bright against the scorch-marks of the strike. I would have to swim the first five or so metres.
One last look, then I ran and dived into the water, hoping I’d make the five metres, or that the current would swing me into the trunk.
Arms milling like a lunatic, I kept pushing forward as the water took me. I banged into the trunk at its fracture point and held on, fighting the flood as it tried to take my legs with it. Gulping for air, I heaved myself up and climbed on to the trunk. No time to rest. I crawled as quickly as I could towards the far bank.
I grabbed a branch with both hands and pulled down with all my weight. I twisted and pulled, and finally it snapped away from the trunk. I didn’t bother stripping it.
She didn’t say a word, just stared at me with huge, pleading eyes. This was not a good day out.
I straddled the trunk and pulled off my OGs.
‘Take it with your teeth!’ I had to holler above the roar of the water as I used the branch to pass down the end of one OG leg, knotted to help her grip. I’d knotted the end of the other leg too. ‘Listen to me, OK?’
She shook the water and hair from her face. Her eyes kept flicking towards the OG leg that was her lifeline.
I kept hold of my end as I dangled the other above her head.