12.53am…
The clear moonlit night was a vision to lovers everywhere, but not to Jason. He had been woken up by the sudden change in temperature and the whoosh of air that now buffeted him.
As he felt the wind rush all over his body, Jason wished that it would last forever. At least, he was in no hurry for the source of the gale force wind to be shut off. He wanted it to go on and on, as it was helping to lessen the terrible pains he felt in his body.
Tried as much as he could, he could not get the horrible images of what happened to Scott out of his mind and he wondered how long it would take before time would help file them to the deepest part of his memory, and thus help with the healing process. Gingerly, and with terrible pains shooting throughout his body with each minuscule movement, he reached out with his fingers to explore the unfamiliar bed he was lying on.
With eyes half-closed by the pain coursing through his body, he saw, but his brain failed to make sense of what they were seeing. The bedframe seemed to be made of nailed planks but where was the mattress?! And just what were these straps for, his mind enquired, as he desperately hoped he wasn’t on the set of some deviant filmshoot.
Groggily, he tried to stand but his action shifted the delicate balance of the centre of mass of the bed, causing it to sharply tilt, and with both hands spinning furiously as he tried to regain his balance, he fell of the egde.
And into space.
As he dropped, hitting terminal velocity in 13 seconds, he still had time to marvel at the view unfolding above him. What he thought was a bed was in fact, a huge wooden pallet and the straps were actually the suspension lines linked to the now deployed parachute, which were fulfilling their function, guiding the pallet to the ground on a gentle descent. The hows and whys he had been sleeping on pallet destined to be dropped from an aircraft were lost in the confusion of thoughts racing through his mind. The one thought that pierced through the mess of his mind with laser-like clarity was one he’d heard a long time ago.
When you fall from a great height, it’s not the falling that kills you. It’s the stopping.
12.55am…
Impact.
