Inktober 2026 - 11 - Rescue

One wrong step. That’s all it would take for him to go tumbling down to his death at the bottom of this crevice. That’s probably all it had taken for the person he was coming to get to find themselves there. The fact that they had even survived such a fall was nothing short of miraculous, but that was not a mystery for him to solve. No, his job was to get down there and bring them back up, not to ask questions.

In fact, his least favourite part of his job was seeing the family and friends of the people he brought back hound them about what had happened, asking them whether they hadn’t been careful enough, or whose fault it was that they had found themselves in their predicament despite taking all the necessary precautions. He was aware that this was just a very human way of dealing with overwhelming relief at the safe return of a loved one, but it still annoyed him.

His descent was slow but it could not be helped. This deep fault had opened up overnight, so he knew the terrain even less than in other parts of the mountains. The rocks did feel steady enough under his feet, but he did not take any risk by rushing. The last thing he ever wanted was to need rescuing himself. That was the very first rule: secure yourself before you can secure anyone else. As selfish as that could sound, he had never seen any good come from breaking that rule. Actually, in his experience, it had only ever made things worse for everyone involved.

Finally, he reached his destination. The victim was lying flat on their back, unconscious. He could not be sure how long they had been there for, and he had no way of telling whether this was how they had fallen, or they had been conscious right after their plunge and had managed to turn themselves over. The answer to these questions would not change his actions, so he put them out of his mind.

Without unhooking his harness, he knelt on the gravelly floor next to the stranger he could now see was a woman. She had cuts and bruises on her face and hands, which meant all of her exposed skin, but she otherwise did not seem that much worse for wear. Her clothing was not as torn as he would have expected either, and none of her limbs appeared out of alignment. She was one lucky lady. Maybe she hadn’t fallen from as far up as initially estimated by his colleagues? He brought his ear to her mouth to make sure she was breathing, and then gently patted her down all along her body, from her shoulders to her ankles, to make sure she had no wounds he could not see. Taking off his backpack, he took his medical kit out of it, and began securing her neck for transport.

“It’s all right,” he whispered to her as he worked. “Don’t worry, I’ll get us out of here.”