Micah kept a close eye on Trevor as they walked, watching him for signs that the snakebite symptoms were getting worse.
And what Micah saw wasn’t comforting. Trevor was getting weaker by the minute, it seemed. It wasn’t surprising, since the snake venom was getting pumped through Trevor’s body with every step he took.
Even though Micah would have preferred to stay together, he started to secretly scan the walls of the canyon for any place that might be easier to climb out. If he could go get help for Trevor, then his friend might actually have a chance. At the rate they were going, by the time Trevor started antivenom treatment, his condition would be beyond serious.
Micah knew his plan wasn’t realistic, though. If the climb was easy enough that Micah could climb out with a broken arm, then wouldn’t that mean they could both make it out?
Micah tried to keep talking to distract Trevor from his current situation. They talked about everything from Peyton and homecoming to the chemistry quiz they had skipped out on. But soon the conversation became one-sided as Trevor’s breathing became so rough that he couldn’t spare any breath for talking.
Trevor needed him, and Micah felt powerless to help. He couldn’t help but blame himself for their current situation. If he had noticed that the bolt in the wall was loose, he could have saved himself from falling the first time. Or at least if he had kept the rope from getting dragged over the sharp rock edge, the rope wouldn’t have snapped, the second fall wouldn’t have happened, and he wouldn’t have broken his arm.
Micah knew that it was pointless to blame himself now, but he also knew that if something happened to Trevor he would never forgive himself.
Precious minutes of their two-hour time limit ticked away as they made their way slowly toward the southern end of the canyon. While Micah’s watch at least let them keep track of the time, it didn’t come with GPS like his phone had, and without it, Micah had no idea how far they still had to go. The end of the canyon could have been half a mile away or twenty feet away for all he knew.
But he felt like they had to be getting close. The canyon was narrower here—the walls were pushing so close together that they could only see a thin strip of blue sky above them. They were completely in shadow now. It was a relief to Micah to be out of the blazing desert sun, but he noticed that Trevor continued to pour sweat. His face was flushed and clammy.
Trevor stopped suddenly.
“What is it?” Micah asked.
“I’m hoping I’m not just seeing things because of the snake venom,” Trevor said, “but doesn’t that one section of wall up ahead look really shallow? Maybe we can climb out that way.”
Micah started to protest, but Trevor interrupted him. “I know, I know, I shouldn’t be pushing myself too hard, but this might be our best chance to get out of the canyon now instead of hiking all the way to the end.”
Micah looked at the canyon wall. In other sections, the rock face was straight up and down, but here it was a more gradual slope. If they could find enough handholds and footholds, they might be able to make the climb without ropes or climbing gear.
“I guess,” Micah said. “But I’m not sure I’ll be able to manage with my arm.”
“I’ll go first,” Trevor offered. “That way I can try to find a way up—a handy route that you can handle with only one hand.” He smirked at his own bad joke and Micah rolled his eyes.
“Sure,” Micah said after a second. “It’s not like we have any better options at the moment. It’s worth a shot.”
He could tell that Trevor was feeling weaker than he would like to admit, but Trevor grabbed his climbing helmet from where it had been clipped to the backpack and started the climb up with no hesitation. The wall sloped enough here that Trevor didn’t have to support all his weight by hanging from his fingertips—he could lean against the wall for support as he looked for the next handhold.
Almost immediately, however, Micah began to regret letting Trevor attempt this. Even if Trevor made it to the top and went to go get help, the chances that he would make it more than a mile before he passed out were slim.
As Micah secured his own helmet to his head, he still felt doubtful that he would be able to make it up with his broken arm. As though Trevor had sensed his doubt, he started to climb with only one hand. Micah could see that Trevor was right about the climb being manageable. But he wished Trevor would stop making the climb harder on himself. The last thing he needed was to push his heart rate even higher.
“This is going even better than I thought,” Trevor called back to Micah from halfway up. “Dude, if I can climb this one handed with a snakebite, you totally could too.”
Micah noticed that Trevor’s sentences sounded broken up because he had to pause for breath every few words. Again, Micah wondered if Trevor wasn’t just making the snake venom spread faster. I should have gone up first, he thought.
“Go ahead and start,” Trevor yelled. “Just follow my route, and we’ll be out of here in no time.”
Micah started up the steep incline. The hardest part wasn’t climbing with only one hand, it was balancing when he felt so lopsided. That, and dealing with the agonizing pain that by this point was twisting up through his arm and radiating into his shoulder and across his upper back. But as he caught up to Trevor—who was wheezing from the effort—Micah had to admit that this plan had a surprisingly good chance of working after all.
Trevor reached out to grab onto a rock, but it came loose, then rolled and bounced back down the incline. “Rock!” Trevor called. “Look out!”
Micah had already seen the falling rock, so he was able to duck out of the way in time. The rock missed him before it continued to clatter down the slope to the canyon floor below.
“Sorry about that!” Trevor said. “The rocks are looser up here.”
And just like that, Micah was back to second-guessing his plan again. The slope had looked solid enough from below, but up this far it was more like loose gravel on top of a jumble of larger rocks. Micah’s foot slipped once or twice, and he barely managed to catch himself without landing hard on his injured arm. Even stumbling like this rattled his body enough to send pain cascading down his arm.
He checked their progress. They had come pretty far up the slope, but the climbing conditions were getting worse the higher they went. Micah had nearly caught up to Trevor by this point, and he wasn’t sure that Trevor would have enough strength to make it the rest of the way up. Even though he wasn’t using it to climb, Micah’s broken arm still throbbed painfully.
“I don’t know if this is going to work, Trev!” he called, already starting to look for a way down.
“It’s too late to turn back now!” his friend called back.
Just then, Micah heard a cracking, grinding noise, and the ground beneath them seemed to shift and tremble. The section of canyon wall that they were clinging to suddenly detached and started to slide toward the canyon floor with terrifying speed.