Escape, a New Life Read Online Free PDF Page B

annoyed.  “Well, that’s just…”
    She held her finger over her lips. “Do you hear that?”
    He listened and heard nothing. 
    She walked up to the rock wall and closed her eyes to concentrate.  She moved to the left side and smiled, motioning him closer. “Listen.”
    This time he heard it and smiled.  They could hear the faint trickle of water.  It must be running down the left side of the rock.  They just could not see it past the drop off on the side of their path.  “I say we go straight up.  If there’s water running down the side, there’s got to be some up there.”
    “Perfect,” Abby said . “Give me a boost.”
    He looked up . “How about I climb up there and lower a branch or something to help you scale this thing?”
    She protested . “I’m sure I can climb this just as easy as you.”
    “Really?” he asked.  Smiling, he turned to the wall, and scaled the entire face in twenty seconds flat.  Looking back down , he announced, “We had a rock wall at my summer camp growing up.  I’ve had years of practice, sweetie.  Sit tight for a minute. Let me find something to help you up.”  With that, he disappeared from view.
    Abby studied the path he had taken.  He had stuck his foot in the crack right in front of her.  After that he grabbed the small tree about eight feet up, and used the other cracks above that to pull himself up.  She could do this.
    She stuck her right foot into a crack in the wall that was just a little lower than her hip.  She threw her small body upwards, grabbing at the small tree that was growing out of the wall.  Missing it with near comic timing, she fell straight down, landing flat on her back.
    She grunted and let out a little cry of pain.  Her right shoulder had struck a fist size rock, and absorbed the full weight of her body on impact.  She rolled over and stood up.  With a groan, she flexed her shoulder, moving it around.  Nothing was broken, but she was in serious pain.  She stood looking straight up to the top of the wall.  I can do this.   She firmly wedged her right foot into the same crack and counted to three before once again throwing herself upward.  She didn’t even have a chance to miss grabbing onto the small tree this time.  As soon as her arm tried to extend over her head, pain shot through her shoulder and her arm went no further. 
    She hung in the air for a brief moment, but was unable to maintain balance with only one foot stuck in the wall and her other three limbs floundering in the air.  She fell backwards again, this time twisting her body in an effort to avoid the small rock she had struck before.  In a poorly considered plan, Abby managed to avoid the rock by tumbling left, toward the sharp drop off on the side of the path. 
    Tumbling down the incline toward the drop off she let out a yelp each time she rolled onto her right shoulder.  On the third roll she reached out with her left hand and grabbed a sapling that was sticking out of the ground, barely eighteen inches tall.  The bottom half of her body continued to slide on the fallen leaves and loose earth, toward the drop off, as the roots of the tiny tree strained to hold her weight. 
    She stopped sliding just as her feet had found their way over the edge.  Abby hung there in space, her legs dangling in mid-air from the knees down.  She lay like this, perfectly still on her stomach, with her left hand gripping the young tree that had saved her life.  Slowly she shuffled forward on her stomach.  Standing up only once she was sure that both feet were on solid ground.
    Walking back to the rock wall, she sat down at the base and leaned against it while she waited for her breathing to return to normal.  She reluctantly decided to wait for Eric’s return before making another attempt at scaling the wall.  He returned about fifteen minutes later and lowered a strong vine to help her up.  She wrapped the vine around her right arm so that if her shoulder gave out