Chapter 9
Out of the Water
The sound of crickets met her ears, and Serenity tried to remember what had happened. The image of Cora’s purple hair and shocked expression as she clung to the raft made Serenity sit up abruptly, and immediately she regretted it. There was a pounding in her head and her body felt stiff from cold.
An arm wrapped around her and pulled her back down. “Not a good idea. My apologies for the situation, but your body temperature dropped too rapidly and there aren’t a lot of options out here.”
Serenity tensed up and looked to the side. Ryland was looking at her with a serious expression. The next thing she noticed was that he was not wearing a shirt. Her eyes immediately moved to her body and she saw that she wasn’t wearing a shirt either. He pulled a light blanket over her as she realized exactly what kind of situation she was in. His bare skin was pressed against hers, and her face immediately flushed. A small part of her mind noticed the increase in her body temperature, but she quickly pushed the thought aside as she tried to wrap her head around the situation.
Her initial response was to pull away, but she was able to quickly understand what Ryland meant after processing the stiffness and cold that she felt. Instead of moving away from him, she turned her back and pressed into him. “Thank you.”
“No, you don’t need to thank me. You should be furious. I should have been there to keep you from going over.”
“You were trying to help with Cora. I can’t blame you for that. I should have gotten a better grip on the raft. That was an incredibly pathetic display on my part.”
“With the speed of the water and the way the raft was moving, it was not the kind of situation that anyone should have expected a novice to be able to handle. I should have realized that and stayed close.”
“Obviously, you got me out of the water, so don’t worry about it.”
“I'm sorry,” he murmured, almost as if he hadn’t heard her. His arms wrapped around her, pulling her to him a little more tightly. The warmth from his body was unreal, almost as if he was unaffected by the cold that still felt biting to her.
Serenity sighed and stared in front of her. They were silent for a bit when she couldn’t take it anymore. “You know most of what we know about hypothermia was learned from terrible human experimentation by the Germans. Well, the Nazis. Without their unethical work, we wouldn’t know nearly so much today.”
“That’s not true. They may not have had scientific terms for it, but the natives were quite aware of how to take care of someone who had fallen into cold water, as well as what signs to look for to act to save their lives.”
“Really?” She turned her head slightly. “Still, that’s not quite the same thing. Science can help find the right solution.”
“When it comes down to it, do you want me to be able to tell you why you are dying as you die? Or would you prefer that I be able to react and help you without you losing some appendages waiting for science to figure out how far gone you are?”
“Obviously, I prefer to be helped, but–”
“Sometimes intuition and tribal knowledge are better than anything an egghead can come up with.”
“I’m one of those eggheads.”
“Yes, I know. It’s not meant to be an insult. It’s just that when the time comes, action is what matters. I’ve known too many people who talked themselves out of doing what their intuition told them to do, and it is almost never a good thing.”
“I wasn’t saying that you should ignore intuition. I was just trying to say that the science of hypothermia is only understood because of–”
“That I understand. I prefer the action and lack of science that saved lives to the scientific findings that relied on killing people.”
Serenity didn’t know how to respond to that, so she focused on the point that was bothering her. “It doesn’t mean that you should completely disregard science.”
“I am not disregarding science, but it really only helps for long-term solutions and when you have time for analysis. When it comes to being out in the wild, intuition is your best tool.”
Since she did not have much experience being in the wild, Serenity felt it was best to remain silent. Ryland clearly felt certain of his belief in intuition, and she did not want to argue with him. Her instincts were not well honed, and in the past they had not served her well. Then again, living in cities was nothing like living in nature.
After a few minutes, Ryland spoke again, “I know you are probably still very uncomfortable and cold, but we need to check you out.”
“You mean like moving my fingers and stuff?”
“That’s part of it. You struck several rocks. My initial assessment suggested nothing was broken, but I didn’t check too closely because your body temperature was too low. Trying to identify broken bones was not as important as keeping you alive, so I prioritized warming you over anything else.”
Serenity gave a little nod of understanding.
“Are you feeling warm enough?”
She moved a little, shifting the light blanket that was over them. “I think I’ll be alright. At least my teeth aren’t chattering now. ”
“Okay. I’m going to wrap the blanket around you and check your arms first. That means we’ll need to wrap the blanket around your torso.”
She nodded.
“Okay. I’m slipping out from under the blanket now. Let me know if you get too cold.” The warmth at her back disappeared and was quickly replaced by something being tucked under her. A pair of strong hands gently rolled her over. “I apologize for touching you, but I will need to move down your body after checking your arms.”
“Stop apologizing. I’m not going to argue with you since it seems like you know what you are doing.”
“I don’t have any medical training, if that is what you mean. Well, not a traditional type of medical training.” His hands were feeling along her arm. “I’m going to bend your elbows. Let me know if anything hurts.”
“Okay.” She watched Ryland as he focused on checking her arms. He periodically looked up at her, and she shook her head as he bent her elbows. When he bent her left wrist, pain shot up her arm. Ryland stopped at her obvious pain.
“It appears to be a sprain. Hold on.” He moved out of her field of vision, and she finally began to look around her. They were in a small confined area, and it seemed like a very small cave. A small fire was a slight distance away from her, but she couldn’t make out much in the dim light it created. When Ryland returned to her side, he had gauze. For a moment she wondered where he had gotten the supplies, but that was hardly her focus as he wrapped up her wrist and explained what was coming next.
“Now try to move each of your fingers. One at a time.”
She did as she was told. “No pain. And I can feel them, although they are still a bit cold.”
He gripped her hands for a moment, his large hands easily holding both of hers. Bringing them to his mouth, Ryland blew into a gap between his hands, then started to rub her hands. Serenity could feel the circulation, and her fingers tingled a bit. Wiggling them a little, she smiled. Ryland let go of her hands. “We will work on them a bit more after making sure you are alright.” She nodded. His hands went to her shoulders. “I am sorry about this, but do let me know if you feel any discomfort or pain.” His hands lifted one arm, then the other. “You’ve already sat up and I checked to make sure there aren’t any broken vertebrae in your neck, but we need to find any source of pain indicating anything else that could be a less obvious injury. Let me know if there is any pain or discomfort because we will need to be careful if there is any damage.” He then began to slowly move her head, turning it in several different directions after feeling along the back and sides.
When she said that there wasn’t any severe pain, he paused. “I’m really sorry about this.” His hands moved down to her breasts and felt along the ribs under them. “I can’t apply a lot of pressure here in case any of them are broken, so if you feel any discomfort, speak up immediately.”
Her heart racing, Serenity couldn't do any more than nod once. He kept his eyes on the progress of his hands as they worked around to the sides, then back around, testing each rib. Hoping that he wasn’t able to feel her heart, she tried to hold her breath.
“Did that hurt?” His hands froze.
“No, not at all. Just starting to feel cold.”
“I’m sorry I'm not any faster. I will get this done as quickly as possible and then if you need I can warm you up again.”
Serenity did not trust herself to respond to that. Attempting to breathe normally, she watched him work his way down her body. He went through a similar spiel before pressing on her stomach and asking about pain.
Finally he sat back a bit. “It seems like all of that checks out. Would you like me to warm you up, or just keep going?”
“Go ahead and finish. I'm alright.”
With a curt nod, he worked down her right leg, bending her leg at the hip, then at the knee, then moving the ankle. She wiggled her toes to end it. He repeated the process on her left leg, and she flinched when he bent the knee.
“I was afraid of that. It isn’t broken, but your knee slammed into a rock before I could get you away from the rapids. We’ll need to be careful because I don’t have anything that will keep it from moving much. It will slow us down, but we aren’t going to be able to move quickly anyway.”
There was something in the way he said it that suggested her injuries were not their only concern. “Can’t we call for help?” As she asked, she thought about the program she and Alaric had been working on. This was exactly the kind of situation where it would be invaluable.
“We don’t have any working phones. I couldn’t find one on you.” Serenity realized that she had left it in her bag in the car because Cora had told her that she wouldn’t want her phone on the trip. Ryland continued, “And mine is water-logged. There is no way to call anyone right now.”
“Oh. Right.” Suddenly she was grateful to Cora for the suggestion to leave the phone behind. Serenity didn’t have the money to get another one right now – having it now would have served no real purpose, even if she had gotten the program working before leaving that morning.
“It’s been dark for a bit, so we should probably stay here. It’s going to be a long night because we don’t have much to eat. I hope you like fish and berries.”
Serenity shivered a little. “That’s fine. I’m not terribly hungry.”
“What you need right now is a good meal and warm bed. I will do what I can to accommodate, but we’ll need to get you to the hospital as soon as possible.”
“I feel okay.”
“You are still in shock. There doesn’t seem to be any internal bleeding, but your body is really bruised. And you need to be warmed up a lot more than I can offer at the moment.” He looked at her for a moment. “There is one thing… never mind. It wouldn’t work.”
Serenity frowned, “What? Did you find a camp or something and you were thinking of stealing from it to keep me warm?”
He blinked at her. “I did find a camp, but I wasn’t debating stealing from it. That is already done.”
“Wait, what?” Her shock caused her to sit up quickly, and her head immediately started hurting.
Ryland moved by her side and put an arm around her, pushing her to the ground. Pulling the blanket away from her, he slipped in and pressed against her. “Don’t worry, they deserve it.”
“How can you say that? What if they need their supplies?”
“You were in need, and they… I have no reason to feel bad stealing from them.”
“Well, I do.”
“I–” Ryland seemed to be fighting something back. “I tell you what, I will slip the supplies back tomorrow when we leave. Okay?”
Serenity frowned, but nodded. “Alright. Did you steal their food, too?”
“No.” He looked a little offended. “There is no way I would take what they have because that would be worse than unethical.”
Something about the way he said it caused her to pause, but she was beginning to feel too tired to fight.
“I think I want to go back to sleep.”
“Eat first.” He rubbed her arm with his hand. “You need to stay awake long enough to eat, but first we need to get you a little warmer.”
“Won’t eating help with that?”
“I–” Ryland paused. “Alright. Hold on.” The warmth again disappeared and the blanket was tucked under her again. She turned to watch him moving around the fire, but Serenity couldn’t see what he was doing.
After a minute or so, he returned. When she tried to sit up, he quickly stopped her. “No, conserve your energy.” Gently, he pulled her upper body towards him and rested her against him. Carefully, he fed her, though she knew that he must be uncomfortable. It wasn’t like the angle was an easy one, but he didn’t complain or say anything about his own discomfort.
“Okay. I’m satisfied that you have eaten enough.” He slid her carefully from his lap. “If you want to sleep now…”
She gave a nod as her eyelids began to droop. The last thing Serenity remembered was the feel of his body pressing against her as Ryland slipped back under the covers. He rested her head on his arm and cradled it as she fell asleep.