One
As he dodged a skull-splitting kickto his temple, Gideon Landry wondered again if this side hustle was going to pan out. His legs ached from fighting the current, and the cold water sapped his strength like a leech on an open wound.
Isn’t being an Air Force SERE instructor enough for you, Gid?No, he had to go and set himself up to teach civilian classes during his precious leave time.
In a backwater nowhere of northern Washington.
During torrential rains. With most of his class bailing out at the last minute.
Why hadn’t he just canceled the whole thing like a sane person?
Because his service days were numbered, and that was the exit strategy he’d come up with for a variety of reasons. Why should he let a weather calamity put the kibosh on his early preparations? Man against nature. He always thought he’d win. Probably why his brothers never wanted to go camping with him.
Another splash of bone-chilling river water renewed his resolve.
Suck it up, buttercup.
Gideon continued to tread water, ignoring the pain pulsing in his shoulder as he tried to formulate a rescue plan for the drowning young doe. The animal had flipped from stomach to back, its frantic hooves batting the spray, eyes rolling in terror.
On the muddy bank, the only student who’d actually followed through and shown up for his survival skills class looked, in a word, terrified. Rain coursed from Roger’s yellow hat as he watched Gideon struggling with the deer, who’d been trapped in a tangle of branches in the bloated river.
The water on the rugged eastern flank of the Cascades was freezing at the end of February. Of course. Puffs of snow stacked the peaks ringing the town. He and his brothers had camped beside this very river when they were kids, and he’d relished these acres in all their summer glory. This was definitelynotsummer.
But leave was leave, and even a handful of students would be enough to provide glowing testimonials for the website he was planning.
The torrent beat against Gideon as he circled and splashed his way to a better angle to free the drowning deer, whose panicked bleating was growing fainter as it succumbed. Behind Roger, the bushes parted and Gideon’s heart sank as a full-grown male deer stepped out.
He yelled to Roger over the roar as he pulled out his knife and sawed through the intertwined branches.
“Huh?” Roger yelled back from his place atop the bank, his cell phone capturing the action.
Unbelievable.
“The buck, behind you!” Gideon shouted at a volume he rarely attained. Yelling generally indicated a complete inability to deal with a situation, which was exactly where things were headed. He stifled the litany of bad words scrolling through his mind and continued to hack away.
The buck, agitated about his mate’s situation, was about to mow down the clueless Roger. Gideon’s one and only client was close to having his clock cleaned by a two-hundred-pound deer. That’d look swell on the Yelp reviews. A testimonial would definitely be out of the question. He should give up on the doe.
Go save your client.
But the doe’s terrified eyes locked on his, the water millimeters from inundating her quivering nostrils. She had no hope except for him. Her death was certain.
He shouted again to Roger without taking his attention off the knife. He continued to work the blade across the entangling branches, focused so he didn’t cut off his fingers with the weapon he kept sharp enough to split atoms.
He didn’t think Roger had heeded his command, but he couldn’t spare a look. Since the class had only just begun when he spotted the entangled animal, they hadn’t yet covered the “be mindful of your surroundings” topic, and clearly Roger had zero prior knowledge on the subject. The man was probably still trying to video the moment for his social media instead of looking for a way to help.This is real life, he wanted to shout.Fix it, don’t film it.
With a snap, the last branch finally gave way. He sheathedthe knife, grabbed the deer around the neck, ignoring the hooves that battered his stomach, and hauled her to the shore against the pummeling current.
In the shallows, braced in the mud, he shoved at her flanks until she got her wobbly legs situated. It took one last heave from Gideon to propel the exhausted creature far enough onto terra firma for her to find traction. The buck was there immediately, nosing the female away from the water and Gideon before they disappeared into the woods. Mission accomplished. Doe saved.
With all his remaining energy, he hauled himself through the mud and up the bank. His weak shoulder complained every inch of the way. As usual, he ignored it. He expected to see Roger in a crumpled heap when he finally pulled his way clear. No Roger.
He shook the water out of his eyes.
Still no Roger, but someone else was there.
Gideon stood upright, water running down his freezing limbs as he tried to shake away the hallucination. He must be hypothermic, seeing things. But even that made no sense, none at all. Why would he hallucinate the woman he had no desire ever to clap eyes on again? He swiped the moisture from his face, but she was still there.
And Roger wasn’t.
