My Husband Gave Her My Parachute Chapter 03

“Ryan, check the navigation. Look at it. Now.”

I shouted into the microphone inside my helmet. The wind tore every word apart, and my chest tightened painfully.

The channel went quiet for a second.

Then Ryan’s impatient voice came through.

“Claire, stop throwing a fit on the open channel. If there’s an alarm, follow emergency procedures: cut away the main and deploy the reserve. Do I really have to teach you that?”

He cut me off as I tried to continue.

“Mia’s right beside me. If you scare her into making a mistake deploying her chute, I’ll hold you responsible.”

Mia came in right after him, her voice deliberately soft.

“Claire, it was just a prank. You take everything so seriously, and I just wanted everyone to relax. Fine, if you’re really that angry, I’ll apologize when we land. Stop yelling at Ryan, okay?”

Gray rock rushed up toward me.

1,000 meters.

800 meters.

I could already make out the dry shrubs and enormous boulders.

Stone pillars rose from the canyon floor, their tops sharp.

I was out of time.

The reserve’s release mechanism was locked solid. I couldn’t undo it by hand with only a few hundred meters left.

I let go of the severed cords. Then I held down the emergency backup button on my chest-mounted action camera.

The red light stayed on as the camera prioritized uploading the footage it had already recorded.

“Ryan.”

The wind split the corners of my mouth. I tasted blood on my tongue.

“I’m not going to land in the sea. Check the navigation: this is Black Hawk Canyon, and there’s nothing below but loose rock. Mia cut my parachute lines. When you took my rig, you took my chance to survive.”

I paused.

“I hope you two stay together forever. And I hope you never get another night’s sleep.”

The channel suddenly fell silent.

Then Ryan’s voice changed. He shouted so hard it cracked.

“Claire? What do you mean, loose rock? What sector are you in? Pull your reserve! Claire, deploy your reserve! Answer me!”

500 meters.

200 meters.

Near the ground, the wind suddenly shifted. It shoved me toward a black rock jutting out deeper in the canyon.

I closed my eyes.

All I could hear was the wind.

Then came a dull impact.

The crack of breaking bones echoed across the canyon floor. A few vultures flapped away from their roosts in the rock crevices.

Blood ran down the black rock and soaked into the pale gray sand.

The action camera landed among the loose stones. Half the lens was cracked, but the red light still blinked slowly.

Static crackled from the radio inside my helmet.

Ryan’s shouts rang out again and again through the empty canyon.

“Claire! Say something! Claire!”