Time Spent Read Online Free PDF

time: north, then northeast,
then east, then southeast, and so on, all the way around the
compass. When his voice grew hoarse, he'd drink from the canteen.
Each time at the cabin, he would make sure and refill it.
    By late afternoon, his feet hurt terribly.
He was afraid to look at them for fear of seeing how bad the
blisters had become.
    "Beth..." he called weakly. His voice was
degrading into a croak by this point, but he wouldn't stop. He
couldn't stop.
    I'm going to f- his foot kicked
something white, causing it to skitter across the ground in front
of him.
    Brandon looked down, wiping sweat out of his
eyes.
    It was a cell phone. Beth's cell
phone!
    He picked it up of the ground. The screen
was cracked, and the battery apparently dead, but he recognized it:
it was her phone, all right.
    "Beth! BETH!!! BEEETTHHH!!" he shouted in
all directions, looking wildly back and forth.
    Then he heard it, just barely:
"Brandon...?"
    He burst forward in the direction of the
voice, and found behind a copse of trees a crevice. It widened out
into a ravine nearby, but Beth's voice was coming from the tightest
place in the crack, somewhere deep below the ground.
    "Beth! I'm coming!" he called.
    He searched until the ravine widened enough
to fit inside, then he took off his backpack and lowered himself
down. It was tight, but he crept slowly down until he could find
footing at the bottom. He edged in her direction, and finally, he
saw her dimly, in a sliver of light that made its way down from
above. She was lying at the base of the crack, and had apparently
dislodged a large stone during her fall. It lay across her
feet.
    "Brandon? I can't move," she said.
    "It's okay! It's okay. I got you. I'm here."
He knelt down over here and removed the canteen strap from around
his neck. He unscrewed the top and held it out for her.
    "Here. Water."
    She sipped at it thirstily. "Oh. That's
good."
    Her glasses were gone, probably during the
fall, and there was a terrible scrape on her right cheek, with
flaps of skin hanging off.
    "I've got a first aid kid in my pack up top.
We just need to get you out of here."
    "I can't move my legs," she said.
    Brandon set the canteen down beside her and
put his hands on the rock. It was very large, and impossibly
heavy.
    "Okay, I'm gonna try to move this. It's
probably gonna hurt. A lot."
    "Okay."
    Brandon got his arms around the stone and
braced his feet. He pulled as hard as he could, but couldn't move
it.
    "Damn. This thing is heavy."
    "Yeah," she said. "I shouldn't have come
walking out here by myself. Stupid."
    "Shh. Stop that. You're going to be okay."
He braced himself again, and pulled at the rock. He strained and
strained. The stone did not budge.
    "You have to go get help, Brandon."
    "I'm not leaving you here," Brandon
said.
    "It's okay. Go get help."
    He grabbed the stone again, braced himself,
and pulled with all his might.
    "GRAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
    Nothing.
    Brandon sagged against the rock wall,
breathing heavily.
    "I'll be okay, just go get help."
    Brandon looked up at the declining light.
"Okay. Okay, but I'm leaving the water here for you, okay?"
    "Okay."
    "I'll be back."
    "I know you will."
    Brandon ran a hand gently through her
hair.
    "You found me," she said. "You're a hero,
Brandon. You're my hero."
    He leaned down, and placed on her lips one
soft kiss.
    "Take that Captain Picard," he said.
    She laughed. "Meh. He's bald anyway."
    Brandon smiled. "Okay, I'll be back." He
climbed back up out of the crevice, and looked back once, though he
could not see her face from above. Then he grabbed his pack and ran
in the direction of the cabin.
     
    It was dark by the time Brandon returned
with the police and rescue teams. They had big searchlights though,
that illuminated the forest quite well.
    "She's here," he said, showing them the
crevice. "Beth! We're here!"
    "Okay," one of the rescue workers said.
"Stand back, we'll take care of it."
    "You have to go down over here," Brandon
said.
    "I've got it, sir, it's