“But this is the easy part,” Eli argued. “Are you really going to backtrack through the entire course instead? Because I think that’s your only other option.”
“We’re, like, one hundred feet up here. You can’t seriously expect me to careen down that thing.” My pulse quickened and I could feel the sweat forming on my palms.
“You kind of have to,” Eli said, fighting exasperation.
A sharp pain in my chest caused me to grab at my heart and press firmly down.
“I feel trapped,” I whispered as black dots lined my vision, and I resisted the urge to sit down.
Eli moved closer as if worried he might have to catch me. “Hey, just breathe. This is the last step. You just have to cruise on down this and you’re done.”
I felt stuck in place from my lack of options. He was right. I should just fasten my harness onto the thing and get it over with.
“I can’t,” I said.
Eli hesitantly placed a hand on my shoulder. It felt nice, like it was tethering me to the present. “We’ve got this, okay? We’ll be side by side on this thing. You can look at me the whole way down, and it’ll be over before you know it.”
Despite my lightheadedness, I moved closer to the edge of the platform. Eli wordlessly stepped in beside me, grabbed the hook on my harness, and secured it onto the zip line. He tugged a few times to make sure I was connected.
“Don’t forget about your glove.” Eli pointed to my right hand. “Remember what Robert said. Let yourself go with your feet up, but if you really need to slow down, use the glove—and only the glove—to press down lightly on your rope.”
I vaguely remembered some of these instructions from the quick safety briefing earlier, but I had barely been paying attention to it. All of my concentration had been taken up by the fact that Arnie had chosen Rachel and now I was with Eli.
“Did you get all that?” Eli asked.
Blinking rapidly, I tried to remember everything he’d said. Pull down to go slower. Cross my ankles.
I opened my mouth to speak, but my chest tightened and no words came out.
Eli scrutinized me closely. “We’ll be at the bottom in a few seconds and it’ll be over.”
My brain felt incapable of comprehension at the moment, so I just gave a jerky nod.
Eli looked down toward the zip line and then back at me, appearing uncertain. “Let’s just get down, okay? Just close your eyes if you have to and breathe. I’ll be right next to you.”
He moved away from me reluctantly and clipped himself onto the other line. “We just have to take a few steps forward now and step off the platform. Can you do that?”
My body felt completely immobilized. My feet might as well have been trapped in lead.
“Shit,” Eli said under his breath. Something in the back of my mind told me he likely regretted selecting me as a partner.
“I’m going to hold your hand and tug you forward,” he instructed.
I felt his strong grip on my hand. It grounded me slightly as he pulled me toward the edge. My heartbeat raced faster the closer we got.
“Three. Two. One.” Eli counted down slowly as he tugged me toward the edge. Suddenly, I was free-falling.
Wind zipped past my face and I could barely take in my surroundings. My vision blurred again.
Too fast. This was way too fast. I panicked and reached up to press down on the rope. I tried to grip it in my haste to slow down, but a sharp burning sensation set my hand on fire as soon as I made contact.
I screamed and withdrew my hand. The pain caused the rest of my body’s senses to finally simmer down as all my focus moved to my throbbing hand.
The ground rushed closer and closer. I lifted my feet up like Eli had told me to as we approached the end. Workers and the crew were there to meet us. Someone caught me and helped me unstrap.
Eli arrived a moment behind me.
“Are you okay?” he asked, panicked. “Why did you scream like that?”
