Quid Pro Quo Ch. 01

As a soldier I'd never been great at plans. But then it had always seemed to me that whatever you planned to do, was the one thing guaranteed not to happen, so I preferred to work on the fly. Anyway, when I'd got to Alison, my plan was to leave her safe[ish] and unlikely to freeze to death, and then take a look at her friend. Now my plan had expanded a little. If we weren't having a conversation in ten minutes, then I'd leave her here in the bothy bag, get Ali to my tent, and come back here with some food, dry clothes, the blizzard bag, and hot liquid. Ali would be fine and Nic and I would survive an uncomfortable night. The morning could look after itself......

The man was holding the flask to her mouth again and Nic drank eagerly. He wouldn't let her take too much at a time, but the liquid warmed her and suddenly she remembered what it was. Blackcurrant. She was still shivering, and although she felt cold to her core, her skin felt the warmth of the jacket he'd put on her. She could feel some of the tension leaving her body. There was a word she needed - What was it? "Th th th thanks..." as the flask left her lips once more.

"Have you hurt your leg Nicola?" A nod. "Which leg is it? Can I look?" Nic tried to raise her right leg, but the Man - did she know his name? - took her lower leg and placed it across his thigh. He pulled off his gloves, which dangled from his wrists on elastic. Nic thought of her two-year old Nephew and giggled - it came out as a strangled snorting sound, but it got a return smile from the man, as he undid her laces and eased the boot, and sock over her foot.

Her shivering was becoming less violent and she was starting to get more responsive. As I took her boot off, I think she even laughed. At what, I don't know - but a laugh is good. However daft she was to be here, at least she seemed tough. Her ankle was swollen and bruised, and she flinched when I moved it, but I didn't think it was broken - not that I'd know, I'm no medic, but my plan needed her to walk on it, so I would assume it was a sprain and proceed accordingly until it was obvious it wasn't.

My first aid kit is pretty sparse, but by far the most important thing in it is a credit card sized piece of plasic, wrapped around with three metres of duct tape. I pushed her trouser cuff up to her knee and tore off about eighteen inches. Starting on the inside of her leg about six inches above her ankle bone I ran the tape down her leg and under her instep. "This might hurt a bit now Nicola, I'm going to bend your foot a bit. Try to relax. I'll give you something for the pain in a minute, when I've finished." I carefully twisted her ankle outwards and she gasped. Holding it in place, I ran the tape the rest of the way up the outside of her leg. Two more strips running around her leg above her ankle, at right angles to the first, held the support strip in place. It would give her ankle enough rigidity to hobble on - assuming a sprain and not a break, but I was sure a break would have got more of a reaction when I was bending her foot outwards, to take up the slack in the tape. Anyway, as it happened I was right, or lucky, whichever you prefer.

After I got her boot back on, she could hold the flask herself. She seemed to be bouncing back pretty quickly, so I decided to give her the painkillers. I wasn't going to if we weren't going to be walking out, but it looked like we were, and I wanted to give them time to start working.

"These are codeine - do you know if you're allergic?"

"Nnnn no. Nnn Not allergic - Ha ha had them before..."

"OK - I'm going to give you three, they'll make you drowsy, but your ankle will keep you awake. In a few minutes we're going to get up and try to walk down to the path. It isn't far and you can lean on me."

"OK - G-getting fed up with this place anyway. View's shit."

Good bad or indifferent, humour is a good sign. I've seen enough people curl up and give up in tight situations. Soldiers some of them, This girl wasn't giving up. I liked her. I've always said that it takes ten years to make a friend. Ten years or ten very intense minutes. I had a feeling that we could become friends - and I don't have many. Even with two more, I'd still be able to count them on one hand.

Another thing I had was a sachet of glucose gel - Formerly known as Hypostop. Used to treat diabetics whose blood sugar gets dangerously low, it's very quickly absorbed. If Nicola had been unable to keep the juice down, I'd have been rubbing it into her gums. If she'd been unconscious I'd have stuck it up her arse - any any absorptive membrane will do. As it was, I just pulled off the tab at the top and handed it to her. She swallowed the gel, finished the juice and we were ready.

I took the bothy bag off the way I'd put it on, over my head, and then out from under Nicola. I didn't bother repacking it, I just crammed it into my daysack and dropped the flask in on top of it. My first aid kit went in my pocket. I helped Nicola to her feet and handed her my walking axe, slipping her wrist through the leash and tightening it down. I took my shorter climbing axe and led the way down. Nic kept her hand on my shoulder, but that, the Ice axe, the duct tape and the painkillers, were enough to make the pain bearable and we hobbled down together.

Alison was where I'd left her, cold, but not dangerously so. A blizzard bag is a pretty miraculous thing - it's made of mylar film, like a space blanket, but it's layered, and woven through with elastic cord so it hugs the body and traps air - weighs about as much as a T shirt and as warm as a medium weight sleeping bag. Soon it too was crammed into my daysack along with the other flask, and we were moving again. I gave Alison my climbing axe, on the assumption that I was less likely to fall, wearing crampons. We lurched down awkwardly, but without incident until we were on the pony track. Alison fed Nicola some of the dried fruit and chocolate I'd left her with.

From there it was about a half hour walk to the tent. Nicola wasn't much slower than me by this point, so we made it in about forty-five minutes. All the way I'd been thinking about how to divide one sleeping bag and one blizzard bag between three people and I thought I'd come up with a plan. like all good plans it required duct tape; Fortunately that was a thing I carried quite a lot of.

"OK ladies, this is the drill. You get in to the porch and you strip off all your wet clothing. Sit on the rucksack to do it, then get into the sleeping compartment. Alison you go first. When you get in there, unzip the sleeping bag, sit on a mat and wrap yourself in it. Nicola you go next and when you're inside snuggle up to Alison under the sleeping bag ok?"

"We're soaked to the skin - do you want us to strip naked?"

"It would be best, but leave your underwear on if you like, I just want to keep as much wet stuff out of the sleeping area as I can. I have spare clothes, you'll be wearing them in a bit - but not with wet underwear."

"OK - well We'll be wrapped up when you come in anyway - but don't think I do this every time I meet a new guy!"

That got a genuine laugh from me. Soon Alison was sitting on my rucksack in the tent vestibule, stripping off.

"Jesus Christ, this is cold! Fuck!"

"OK - Now get ready to help Nicola. Nicola, time to take the jacket off." I tossed my down parka in to Alison who was wrapped in my sleeping bag.

"Put that on, and give Nic a hand getting in."

With me on one side and Alison on the other, Nic was soon sitting on my rucksack stripping. I closed the vestibule door, partly for the wind, but mostly for privacy.

"Give me a shout when you're wrapped up."

Then it was my turn. My clothes were pretty dry and I'd taken my waterproofs off while waiting, and untied my boots, but I stripped down to my longjohns and joined them in the main compartment. All three of us were shivering.

As I've said - any idiot can be uncomfortable. One luxury item I'd brought with me was a pressure lantern. Runs on unleaded fuel, is heavy, but puts out lots of heat, which was the main reason for bringing it. Sometimes it really does pay to be a gadget freak. Once that was lit, I fired up the stove and filled a pan with ice from my water bag. Finally, I reached into my daysack and pulled out my hip flask, took a swallow and passed it to Alison. Alison drank and then Nic, and I can't deny enjoying the glimpses of young, naked female that I was treated to as the sleeping bag opened as the flask was passed. The tent warmed rapidly, and I took a polythene bag from the corner of the tent and passed it to Alison.

"This is dry clothing. There's a spare set of thermals and a spare shirt and trousers - oh and socks. You get dressed and I'll mind the stove."

I fed chunks of ice into the melting pot, while behind me there were giggles and the rustle of clothing. "As soon as you're decent, can one of you take over here?" I asked. "I need to sort out your bed for the night."

Alison took over stove duties - she'd ended up in my spare thermals and very fetching they were too. In different circumstances I'd have found it difficult indeed to keep my eyes and hands off her, but despite the unusual cicumstances, she was still young enough to be my daughter and we were still strangers.....

So. How to make a double bed using two sleeping mats, a single sleeping bag, and a down parka? Lay two sleeping mats side by side, face down and join top, bottom and middle with duct tape Turn the mats right side up and lay the opened sleeping bag over them. Use strips of duct tape to secure the edges of the bag to the edges of the mat. Finally zip up the down jacket and push the sleeves inside the body. Fold the hood over the neck and secure with duct tape. slide the bottom of the jacket over the bottom of the opened sleeping bag, join jacket, bag and mats with duct tape. Far from perfect, but the two of them together would keep each other warm. Besides I had one more trick. A nalgene waterbottle, filled with boiling water would go in there with them. It wouldn't be the most comfortable night, but we were going to survive it. Always a plus point.....

Hours later, the girls were awake. They were well fed; Nic's ankle had been bandaged and the duct tape saved for tomorrows walk down to the visitor centre. Their new friend was asleep on the other side of the tent. he'd improvised a sleeping mat out of a goretex bivi bag he'd apparently been using as a sleeping bag cover. He'd filled it with everything he could find, including his rucksack and daysack, and now he was sleeping on it in the blizzard bag after downing a handful of painkillers and washing them down with a swallow from the hipflask. "Arthritis girls - don't get old." From time to time the bag would crackle as he moved. Occasionally he'd groan as if in pain.

In the vestibule the pressure lamp still burned. Maybe it was the light, maybe it was the wind outside the tent and the knowledge they were still high on the mountain, but neither girl could do more than doze fitfully. Nic and Ali whispered to each other about the close escape they'd had. Nic found herself reliving the fall, the paralysing cold and the fear she hadn't allowed herself to feel. Suddenly, she was sobbing softly into her friends shoulder. Ali held her and stroked her hair.

"Shh - it's ok now - we're safe" she whispered.

Before turning in for the night they'd filled the flasks and left them within reach and as Ali was reaching for one, a small red notebook caught her eye. She drank from the flask, passed it to Nic and then on a whim, opened the book and started to read.

"What are you reading?" Whispered Nic

"Nothing" She whispered back.

"Is that his diary? You can't read his diary Ali. It's personal!"

"Shhhh... Go to sleep."

"Why are you reading it? That's not like you."

"I'm curious - aren't you? We were all set to die up there and some bloke just wanders along - Don't you want to know something about him?" But she put the book down...

Some time later....

"Hey Ali....?"

"What?"

"Were you scared?"

"I don't know. Yes, I think." A short pause: "I mean I must have been scared, because we were lost on a mountain in the dark, and we were getting wet and cold... I knew how bad all that is, but I never really thought about it until I heard his voice asking if we were OK, and I said "Not really". That's when I should have been relieved, but I wasn't. Once I was covered up and safe from the wind, I couldn't stop thinking how lucky we'd been and how things might have gone. I should have felt relieved, but I was shaking like a leaf, and you know the funny thing? I didn't want you to get back and see me crying because you'd been so brave with your leg and everything."

"Yeah, it's weird. It's like if a wasp's buzzing around, I'm terrified, but when the cloud rolled over us and we started down the hill, and we realised we'd gone the wrong way. I definitely thought "Oh shit, this is bad." But it's like that part of me just shut itself down. I knew I ought to be freaking out, but all I could think of was the next step. Then when I did my ankle, I thought I was finished, but you told me to slide down on my bum and it worked. and you seemed so in control.... After that I was too cold to be scared - I mean even my bones were cold. When he got to me I didn't have a clue what he was saying, honestly. It was like I'd forgotten what language was. That was scary when I remembered how to speak again...."

"You did fine, both of you." A drowsy voice from the other side of the tent.

"Apart from being there in the first place - I never asked, but what the bloody hell were you doing up there with nothing? Do you have a suicide pact or something?"

"No - nothing like. We met a couple of guys who were pretending to be climbers and we asked them to take us up here."

"Yeah - and when they got rumbled by some old guy coming down, we sent them on their way and carried on, so's not to have to talk to them."

"And we thought we might get to the top anyway, it didn't look hard, but then the fog rolled in and we got lost."

"So really it's the boys' fault." finished Nic. "Mostly, anyway."

"Ahh - Boys." Sighed Phil. He paused, and continued, distantly:

"I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven?

We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us."

"God yeah!" Sighed Nic. "You're all bastards - Sometimes I think it would be great to be a dyke."

"So what makes you think a girl wouldn't lie to get into your pants?" countered Phil.

"True, but at least the sex would be worth it." Giggled Ali. "Some boys think foreplay means buying you a drink."

"Yeah - and others think that "horny" is a setting you can tune nipples in to" replied Nic. putting her arm around her friends waist and spooning into her. "What do you say Ali? You feel like changing teams for a bit?"

"Right now? Nahh - We'll melt the snow from under the tent and all get washed away" Giggled Alison. "Maybe when we get back..."

"Well there's a thought to keep me awake nights" Said Phil, reaching for the hip flask. He took a swallow, then another, and passed it across to Nic, who drank and passed it to Ali.

"Night Girls. See you in the morning."

"G'Night."

Nicola closed her eyes and thought of her home in Perth. She pictured the faces of her family; How close she'd come to losing them, and they her. All because of two boys who wanted to impress... But if she was honest, she'd wanted to be impressed, but still - How could they have been so blase, and why didn't they turn round when the boys did? She could feel the alcohol warming her belly and lightening her head. She looked forward to being back in her bed in the cottage. When she got back there she was going to spend a whole day in bed...

Beside her Ali held her friend as she drifted off. She listened to Phil's breathing as it slowed and deepened. As for herself, sleep eluded her. She wasn't cold. The hot water bottle, and the lamp in the vestibule, warming the air between the fly and the sleeping compartment made up for the heat loss from the edges of the bag, as did the warmth of Nicola beside her. Phil had insisted they eat lots before turning in, saying that the best aid to a warm nights sleep was a full belly. She'd had more comfortable nights, but she was far from uncomfortable. Still, she couldn't sleep. She reached for the book again. What she was reading wasn't so much a diary as a mountain journal. It had only been written in when the author was in a tent somewhere. It had been started after the breakdown of a relationship, when he'd headed into the hills seeking some kind of healing. Alison felt a guilty, voyeuristic thrill, which faded as she got further in. It didn't seem to take long to reach the end, and she put it down thoughtfully. Suddenly wanting the contact, she turned to Nicola and put her arm across her body, pulling her close.

"What's up? whispered Nicola. "Are you OK?" when there was no answer. "Did you read his diary?"

"It's not really a diary" whispered Alison softly. Her voice caught, and she hesitated. "It's... Well - It's more of a suicide note."

To be continued...