Chapter 27

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SEVEN

This had just gone from being an exercise in wilderness emergencies to an actual wilderness emergency. Ella pulled Ashley all the way out of the water. The girl was shivering, which was actually a good sign. It meant that she wasn't hypothermic. At least not yet.

Ella dashed up to their backpacks and grabbed all four, carrying them back down to where Ashley still sat on the shore. She took out a mylar blanket and wrapped it around the girl.

"Stay here. I'm going to help Colton with Marshall."

"H-he—he tried to catch me." Ashley could hardly get the words out around her chattering teeth.

Ella squeezed her shoulder. "Colton will get him."

She prayed that was true. That Colton would be able to reach the boy. That he wouldn't be hit by a panic attack at the cold of the water—that would be understandable, but deadly.

She hoisted her own backpack on one shoulder and Colton's on the other, then ran down the shoreline toward where they had floated.

At first, she ran in silence, but when she could find no sign of them, she began to get a little panicked herself. What if they hadn't made it out ?

"Colton!" She pushed herself to run faster but was careful not to injure herself. A sprained ankle right now might be deadly on multiple levels. "Colton!"

She stopped and attempted to hear past her labored breathing.

"Ella…" It wasn't loud, but she heard it.

"I'm coming!"

She found both Colton and Marshall still partially in the water. Shit. That wasn't good. She dropped down beside Marshall and pulled him the rest of the way onto the shore, knowing Colton wasn't going to let her help him until she helped the boy. She needed to get his wet clothes off him, but she wanted to get Colton out of the water first.

Once she deposited Marshall, she ran back into the river for Colton.

He shook his head as she reached for him. "H-help Marshall."

"I will, as soon as you're out of the water. You want to help him? Then help me get you out."

Colton obviously wanted to try, but he had no strength left. She wasn't going to be able to drag him directly out the way she had Marshall. Colton was too heavy, and she wasn't strong enough.

She would have to use gravity to her advantage. She got behind Colton and hooked her hands under his armpits. Then she threw all her weight backward, landing hard on the ground, for the first time thankful that she had more extra pounds than most women. The maneuver moved Colton much closer to dry land. She did it again, and then again, ignoring the bruising pain on her tailbone from throwing her weight like that. All that mattered was getting Colton out of the water.

By the time she did, she was fighting exhaustion herself, but she knew she couldn't stop yet. They were nowhere close to being out of danger.

"We've got to get you guys out of those wet clothes." She pulled off Colton's shoes and then Marshall's. "Try to take off your shirts."

She pulled off their pants as they worked on their shirts. It was tough getting any of the wet material off their bodies, but they managed. Ella was wet herself, but all the movement was keeping her warm enough to stave off hypothermia. She pulled out one of the mylar blankets and wrapped it around Marshall's narrow shoulders. She started to wrap one around Colton, but he shook his head. Muttering a curse, she wrapped the second blanket around Marshall's legs.

She understood his point, she really did. Colton had a lot more muscle mass on his body than Marshall that would help him to regulate his temperature more easily. But it still didn't mean he was out of danger. She grabbed the final mylar blanket and shot him a pointed look. "You get this one."

He didn't seem too thrilled with the idea but didn't argue as she wrapped it around him.

"Ash—Ashley?" Marshall got out.

"She's okay. I left her a little farther upstream, but she was out of the water and was?—"

"I'm here."

They all looked up and found the girl walking toward them. She was still wrapped in the emergency blanket and carrying the backpack Ella had left with her. Her steps were a little unsteady, but her color looked relatively good.

At least they were all here together.

"Ashley, you come sit here with the guys."

The girl plopped down next to Marshall, and they immediately huddled together.

"I'm going to make a fire." Colton looked like he was going to get up and help, but Ella pointed at the ground and shot him a look. "Don't even think about it. I will handle this."

Because goddamn it, she could handle this. She grabbed the fire flint and knife out of Colton's backpack then scrambled away from shore to find what was needed to start a fire. Thank goodness she'd just had a refresher course over the past day and a half.

She gathered all she needed and set her fire supplies down in neat little stacks—dry grass and moss for the initial stages, then smaller twigs, then a few bigger branches. Once all that was lit and going, she would have time to go get more twigs and logs.

All three of them watching her from where they were huddled in the thin metallic blankets made her feel pretty self-conscious, but she ignored it. Every minute counted. Yeah, they were out of immediate harm's way, but this was the Wyoming wilderness… Things could change at a moment's notice like Lilah had said that morning.

It took Ella a couple of attempts to get the fire started, but once the small tinder caught flame, she knew it would be okay. It was just a matter of building. She did so, slowly and methodically, until there was a large blaze in front of them.

It felt good to see them all scoot closer, some of the tightness in their features easing as they felt the warmth from the flames.

She found some protein bars in the backpacks and opened one for each of them. "Eat. Your body needs the calories to help keep itself warm."

Nobody argued. Ella got one for herself too. They all ate while silently watching the fire. It wasn't until she'd finished her bar that Ella realized Ashley had started crying.

"This is my fault. And Marshall is hurt."

Marshall shook his head. "It was an accident, it's not your fault. I'm sorry I wasn't able to pull you back up."

"Neither of you has anything to be sorry for," Colton said quietly. "You did what you could, you kept a calm head, and we're all going to be fine."

Ella nodded. "Let's finish getting warmed up, dried off, and then we'll head back to the camp."

Colton looked over at Marshall. "Shoulder?"

For the first time, Ella realized that the boy was holding himself at an awkward angle. He was hurt. She'd totally missed that, but Colton hadn't.

"I'll be okay," Marshall muttered, then glanced quickly over at Ashley before meeting eyes with Colton again.

He obviously didn't want to make a big deal out of being hurt in front of Ashley—either to not look weak or to not make her feel bad. Fortunately, Colton realized what Marshall was communicating.

"Fine. But it's going to be pretty standard for us to get checked out by medics when we get back to town. Bear and the team are going to want us to head out tonight."

Marshall looked relieved. If he had some sort of broken bone or dislocation, he'd want to get some painkillers as soon as he could.

It wasn't long before they all felt warm enough to start heading back toward the camp. Colton was quick to take Marshall's backpack so that it wasn't even a question of whether he could carry it or not. Ella smiled as Ashley arranged herself on Marshall's good side and slid her hand into his.

Ella did the same with Colton.

"You were amazing out there," she whispered. "You didn't even hesitate to dive into that icy water. It had to have been hard and brought back some hard memories."

"Only for a split second. There was no way I was going to let either of those kids drown if I could do anything about it—panic be damned."

She squeezed his hand. Maybe he'd turned a corner with panic attacks and they wouldn't torture him so often.

"What you did was just as important, so don't discount that," Colton said. "If you hadn't been able to get us out of that water and warmed up, we would've been in trouble. We make a pretty good team."