"What about high-altitude climbing?"the man asked."Do you do any of that, or mostly just indoor stuff?"
"I do outdoor climbing as well," Lisa said.She took another sip from her water bottle, suddenly aware of how thirsty she was.The workout had dehydrated her more than usual."I’m planning a trip to Yosemite next month to climb El Capitan."
"That sounds incredible," the man said."How do you train for something like that?The altitude alone must be challenging."
Lisa explained her training regimen, taking another long drink from her water bottle as she spoke.The man listened attentively, but Lisa noticed her words were starting to feel strange in her mouth.Her tongue felt thick, and her thoughts seemed to move through molasses.
"Are you okay?"the man asked.
Lisa blinked and tried to focus on his face, but the edges of her vision had started to blur.The parking lot seemed to tilt slightly beneath her feet, and she reached out to steady herself against her car.
"I feel dizzy," she said.Her voice sounded distant to her own ears.She smiled lazily and said, “Maybe I just pushed it too hard tonight.”
"Oh, no, I don't think that's it at all," the man said, stepping forward very quickly."I think it's because I closed your water bottle about an hour ago while you were climbing."His tone remained conversational, almost friendly."I'm actually impressed it took this long to wear you down.You must have an incredibly efficient metabolism."
Lisa's legs gave out before she could process what he had said.She felt herself falling and tried to catch herself, but her arms would not respond properly.Jesus, what did he drug me with?She wondered, her thoughts like syrup.This shit came on fast…
The man stepped forward quickly and caught her before she hit the ground, supporting her weight with surprising ease.
"Don’t worry," he said quietly."It will be over soon."
Lisa tried to speak, tried to scream, but the darkness was already closing in around her.The last thing she saw was the man's face looking down at her with what might have been sympathy or satisfaction.She couldn’t tell which.
Then there was nothing.Just darkness.
***
The cold shocked Lisa back to consciousness.
Wind tore at her face and hair, and her stomach lurched with the sensation of movement.For a terrifying moment, she had no idea where she was or what was happening.Her vision swam as she tried to focus, and nausea rolled through her gut.An almost gentle-sounding wind passed by her face, calming and somehow terrifying all at once.
Then she looked down and her entire body went rigid with fear.
The ground was falling away beneath her.Buildings and streets grew smaller by the second, their details dissolving into patterns of light and shadow.She was suspended in the air by some kind of harness around her torso, and she was rising fast.The wind roared in her ears as she gained altitude, and the cold bit through her thin tank top and shorts.
Lisa twisted in the harness, trying to understand what was holding her.She looked up and saw...God, what the hellwas that?Not just one thing, but several…balloons?Were those reallyballoons?The absurdity of it seemed to jolt her brain into action and she knew right away what she was looking at.Weather balloons.Dozens of them, maybe more, all connected to her harness by thin ropes.They pulled her upward with relentless force, lifting her higher and higher into the night sky.
"No," she gasped.The word came out as barely a whisper, stolen by the wind.
She looked down again and saw the man standing in a nondescript parking lot far below.He was still close enough that she could barely make out his face, and what she saw there made her blood run cold.Disappointment.He looked disappointed, like she had somehow failed to meet his expectations.Like whatever messed up prank or exhibition he was playing on her wasn’t meeting his fucked up expectations.
Lisa's thoughts crashed together in panicked confusion.He’d mentioned a sedative in her water…and then how he thought it had taken much longer than he thought to hit her.So, by that measure, it must have worn off faster than he had planned, too.Her metabolism had processed the drug more quickly than he had anticipated, and she had woken up too soon.That was why he looked disappointed.He had wanted her to sleep through the entire ascent.
She struggled against the harness, pulling at the straps and trying to find a release mechanism.But her fingers were clumsy from the lingering effects of the drug, and the harness had been secured too tightly.She could not free herself, and every second carried her higher into the air.
The ground continued to recede.The parking lot became a small square of light among larger patterns of streets and buildings, all dark and grimy-looking from this height.To her right, there was a strange tower of some kind, maybe a radio tower or a cell tower, with red and white stripes.Beyond that, Lisa could see the sprawl of Los Angeles spreading out in all directions, millions of lights creating a glowing map of the city.The beauty of it meant nothing compared to the terror clawing at her chest.
She was going to die.The thought arrived with horrible clarity.At this height, a fall would kill her instantly.Her body would hit the ground at terminal velocity, and there would be nothing left of her but a broken mess on the pavement.She’d die, but she honestly didn’t think she’d feel it.How high did these things get up, anyway?Tens of thousands of feet, she was sure.
But then she saw something to the west that gave her a small reason to believe that she might make it out of this: water.A dark expanse of it, reflecting the city lights like a mirror.She was drifting toward what looked like a reservoir, maybe half a mile away at her current trajectory.The balloons were carrying her in that direction, pushed by winds she couldn’t feel from the ground as she was also lifted further up.
Lisa's training kicked in through the fog of panic.She was a climber.She knew how to assess risk and make split-second decisions on rock faces where a single mistake meant death.This was no different.The water was her only chance.Even then, she might die, but at least it was something.
Of course, she would have to break the balloon strings herself.
Lisa craned her neck back and looked up at the ropes connecting her harness to the balloons.They were thin but strong, probably nylon or some similar material.She couldn’t reach them with her hands, but she could reach them with her teeth.
The risk was enormous.If she broke too many strings at once, she would fall too fast and hit the water with enough force to kill her.But if she didn’t break enough, she would drift past the reservoir and end up over solid ground again.And she’d probably hit pretty damned hard.She had to time it perfectly, had to gauge the exact moment when she was over the deepest part of the water.
