part0033

Hatch leaned over the edge. Looking down, she saw an unexpected sight. Lankowski's jacket was twisted and hooked along a jagged bit of root, effectively latching him to the wall of the crevasse. Gripping tightly to his leather belt was the giant Grizz. The oversized belt buckle seemed to be holding it all together. Lankowski was desperately holding onto the branch.

"I’m going to rip your arms off and feed 'em to you when I get out of this!" Grizz told his counterpart.

Hatch stood with her hands on her hips and looked down at giant, literally hanging by a thread. "I don’t think you’re getting out."

He growled. It was almost comical, the huge man hanging off Lankowski’s toothpick-like frame. Grizz’s weight was pulling them both down as he tried to climb up.

"You're gonna pull me off the branch! Stop!" Lankowski yelled. Grizz didn’t stop. Lankowski did something she didn’t expect to see. He pulled a folding knife from his back pocket.

"What are you doing?" Grizz boomed.

"I know I told you I'd follow you anywhere. But this ain't happening! I'm not dying for you!"

Grizz's eyes flashed with anger. He made a desperate attempt to pull his girth up, as he clung to Lankowski's leather belt. The man who'd just been used as a human shield was now being used as a ladder.

Lankowski sawed his leather belt. It was a race for survival, and there could be only one winner.

In the instant the knife severed the final bit of leather, Grizz's eyes went from unadulterated hatred to pure fear as he fell backwards into the dark, deep crevasse, still holding onto the belt.

Hatch never heard him hit the ground. She kept her focus on the remaining man. "Drop the knife."

Lankowski snarled "Help me up." He was stuck ten feet below the ground where Hatch and MacIntosh stood.

"I think you’re good right there," Hatch said.

"What? You're just gonna leave me here?"

"That’s the idea," Hatch said. "It'll give you time to reflect about your Way of life."

"You can’t just leave me here!"

"Don’t worry, I know somebody who’s really good about getting people out of situations like yours." Hatch thought of Babiarz.

Lankowski released his right arm from its death grip. Using his knife like an ice axe, he shoved it into the side of the crag to anchor himself and tried to pull himself up.

Lankowski's clothes were still twisted in the tree root. Wriggling wildly and cursing profusely, he continued his endless stream of murderous threats he intended to make good on should he got topside. He seemed to grow less fearful and more angry by the second. He tore at his clothes. The right pocket of his jacket was the only thing still holding him back.

Hatch readied herself to subdue him should he make the climb out. But one hard jerk of his jacket removed any need. Lankowski freed himself from the tree, but in the process he also freed the only thing keeping him anchored. His knife.

Lankowski's shrill cry reverberated off the dirt walls as he disappeared into darkness. Wind drowned out the whine of Lankowski's last words.

Hatch turned to MacIntosh. "You know, you can run now. Disappear. I can tell them whatever you need. I can tell them, that you died saving me. This can be a fresh start for you. Last chance to reconsider."

MacIntosh looked at her. "I don’t think so."

She felt the question on her face.

"It’s not who I am,” he said. “I face everything head-on and if I run now, I'll be running the rest of my life. I prefer to take whatever's coming to me. Good, bad, or somewhere in between, whatever I have coming to me, I’ve earned. And I’ll take the licks knowing that I did the right thing, even if I went about it in the wrong way."

Hatch surveyed their options of getting across the recently opened trench in the direction of their final destination and help. Only one thing came to mind. "How are you with heights?"