chapter 109
WHEN JAKE REGAINED consciousness, he couldn’t feel his broken leg and he was shivering uncontrollably. The water inside the tube was now around his waist. He desperately tried kicking with his right leg, to force mud and debris down the pipe, and then, realizing that his body was also blocking the flow of water, he strained to wiggle and twist. Jake fought through the pain, knowing that his life depended on it. For the moment, the water level appeared to recede.
Jake quit moving when he realized that he wasn’t holding the flashlight. He had dropped it when he passed out. Rocking back and forth as he squatted into the water, he was able to reach the light, but doing so was costly.
He was completely soaked and knew that his core body temperature would be dropping like a stone. The higher cost, however, was that all his movements jarred the pipe, causing mud from the beaver dam to loosen and erode, allowing more water to rush into the pipe. The greater the water flow into the pipe, the farther down it sucked Jake. It was a vicious and rapidly escalating circle.
“Shit! I gotta fight this. I gotta figure a way out for my girls,” he said aloud.
Jake looked up and shined the light out of the pipe into the misty fog and in desperation screamed, “Help me! Can anybody hear me! Help!”
Jake Crosby was exhausted and growing drowsy from the onset of hypothermia and, unbeknownst to him, blood being forced into his legs by the suction of the current. He’d been defeated, and the realization was settling in. He leaned his head back against the pipe and slowly closed his eyes in silent prayer.