Rise of a Valkyrie

Part 53

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"Can you see the next bolt above you, across that slope?" Corporal Rudaski asked from her belay position, pointing to the gleam of metal against the dull grey of the cliff.

Kayla ignored her as she stared at the abyss below. Distant boulders were scattered like grains of sand across a scree slope that ran down to a shimmering blue lake. Today, she was climbing with a rope, and therefore invincible. The platoon had spent the previous week training in mountain warfare, and Kayla was beginning to feel like a real super-woman.

"Kenya!" Kes snapped.

Kayla's head span around. "Yes, Corporal?"

"Where's the bolt?"

Kayla pointed. "Right there."

The squad leader eyed her suspiciously. "Alright. This technique is called slab climbing. You need to step across that slope slowly and carefully, without slipping."

Kayla examined the steep slope of rock. Just past the section Kes wanted her to creep across was a thin handhold, which she could probably reach with a good jump. It'd make for a much more exciting traverse, and impress her new squad mates, who were still ascending the mountain face below. She was, after all, a very good climber.

"What I want you to think about," Kes continued, "is keeping your body pressed against the wall—"

With a grunt of exertion, Kayla launched herself into the air, arms reaching desperately for the inches-wide ledge. Her fingertips brushed against rock, but the handhold was horizontal, while her momentum was still carrying her sideways. She had jumped too hard, and her body continued its flight across the wall, pulling her away from the handhold, down onto the smooth slope below. She gasped as she slid painfully fast across the rock and fell below an outcropping. The rope pulled taut, and she let out a yelp as she smacked into the cliff face with a sickening jolt.

Kayla hung in space a few feet from the cliff, coughing and gasping as she tried to suck air back into her lungs. Her arm was numb, and she saw that most of the skin from her biceps to her wrist had been ripped off from the slide. She clenched her jaw, fighting back tears as pain flared across her body. To distract herself, she watched in horrified fascination as her skin cells began slowly restitching themselves around the arm wound. It was a miraculously fast process, though she was still facing several painful days before it fully healed.

"Barnes?" Kes called from above.

Kayla struggled to speak. "Yes, Corporal?" she gasped, after a bout of wheezing. The rope crossed the overhang, leaving her swinging a few feet away from the wall. With her damaged arm, she'd need Kes's help to get back up.

"Are you dead?"

"No, Corporal."

"Very well." Kes was silent for a moment. "That was an incorrect technique that you applied to the problem. I'll push the rest of the squad through, and then we'll see if you're ready to give it another go. Sit tight and wait."

"Yes, Corporal." Kayla swallowed as she hung over the gut-wrenching drop, her enthusiasm for the day suddenly gone.

"I'll get to you in good time, but first I'll put the others onto a new rope, and make sure they move on to the next section. Tasha?"

"Yes, Corporal?" Thandi replied in a shaky voice.

"Are you interested in the slab climbing technique, or would you prefer to explore the cliff with your friend?"