Black Market Merchant

Chapter 115: On Top
Lisa reached the top in around fifteen minutes without that much difficulty. She could have gone up much faster, but she had to find the best and safest route to take for the others. Reaching the top, she took of her coffin and crate and left them next to a fallen log. Returning to the edge she waved down at everyone below, signaling for them to start climbing.

Wayne returned the wave and then nervously grasped a rock hold in one hand. Then taking a deep breath he spoke to the others while pulling himself up higher, ”Alright guys, let’s do this.”

The rusted chain was rather long, so it provided enough space in between everyone for them to climb freely. They had gotten to the point where all five were now off the ground and nothing had gone wrong yet. Gillian, however, still remained watchful from below. Occasionally he called out suggestions and support. It almost looked like a worried father cheering on his kids.

Watching everything from above was boring, so Lisa decided to come down and help alongside them. Instead of climbing down she had another idea. The cliff was not exactly straight up and down the entire way, but rather it sloped slightly forward ten or twenty degrees at various points. This actually made it much easier for climbing and wasn’t as tiring as a completely vertical cliff. Her idea was to slide down slowly onto a boulder that stuck out halfway down to the bottom. It wasn’t directly above the climbers so falling rocks wouldn’t be an issue.

Nathan was still watching alone from below and was now sitting on a thigh high rock. He really didn’t have much to do, maybe except more paperwork with Anthony. That was out of the question though. He could definitely use this as an excuse to put it off for a while longer. He had been watching the volunteers until he saw Lisa moving down the cliff and she drew his attention. The way she was traveling was definitely very odd.

Lisa was looking downward while sliding on her side and her right arm was above and behind her, grasping the cliff rocks to slow her descent, while also using her boots as breaks. Dozens of small rocks bounced alongside her as she went and a plum of dust drifted lazily away from the commotion. At first, he though she was falling, but then saw the calm expression on her face and realized the sliding was intended.

When she reached the intended rock Lisa finally stopped skidding. By now the climbers were just reaching a patch of the cliff that Lisa recalled was a bit hard to grasp at the handholds. Wayne and Willis were already passing through this point. While the other three were still working their way up.

Everyone seemed to be doing well. Occasionally a rock would break off and tumble down, but they communicated well, and no one was hit. No one was rushing either. They were doing an excellent job working together. This was good news for Lisa. This meant that once they got working on the dam parts, she would be content knowing that they could potentially work alone without her supervision. Or if something unexpected and dangerous came up, they would be alright.

Just as she thought this, Wayne grabbed onto a long thin crack that ran horizontally and upward to the right. The crack suddenly made a funny crumbling sound and broke off into a large square slab. The slab was nearly as big as he was, and it was going tumble right for the others!

”Look out! Move!” Wayne shouted in a panic, as he could do nothing else.

The slab bounced right in front of Willis and went spinning over both him and Tayvon. The other two were not as lucky. They were on a spot that stuck out further than the other climbers. The slab was going right for Henry’s right hand and Ava was right below him on that same side. Hearing the warning Henry looked up and seeing the fast-approaching danger, reflexively let go and swung out of the way in a fright. Just as he did, the slab smashed into the very spot his hand was at and split in two.

Ava heard the warning too, but when she looked up the wind blew her long brown bangs into her vision and she couldn’t see the slab right away. Only when the slab nearly struck Henry did she see it, but by then it was too late!

The smaller half of the slab struck her right shoulder and backpack, resulting in her being knocked off the cliff! For one second time froze and everyone thought she was going to keep falling. The look on her face was pure disbelief. Then the chain jerked tightly and stopped her from falling further. However, the danger was far from over.

When she was stopped by the chain, the force and weight of her falling was too much for Henry to hold onto with one hand. He was already off balance from dodging and his grip slipped! Then both he and Ava started to free fall! Tayvon was watching all this happen and grabbed onto the cliffside as hard as he could.

”Twang!”

Tayvon could feel the ridiculous weight of his two falling friends suddenly jerk at his waistline. There was a loud ripping sound and he started to slip out from his grip, but he held on just barely! His legs, arms and fingers strained under the pressure of all this weight.

”Quick, Willis and Wayne climb upward to tighten the chain and help Tayvon hold up the others!” Lisa shouted. She was already scurrying across the cliffside towards the two helpless climbers dangling in midair. Ava was swinging back and forth in wide arcs clinging to the chain with one hand, while Henry was trying fervently to grab the cliff wall, yet it was just out of reach.

Willis and Wayne quickly climbed higher and tightened the chain, giving much needed help to Tayvon. Tayvon feeling the stress lessen, was able to readjust his grip and have a firmer hold. Sweat pored profusely down his face but he showed no signs of giving up.

Lisa climbed to right over Henry and grabbed the chain. Then she pulled it towards the cliff with one hand in a swinging motion, letting Henry reach the cliff. He was still only able to hold on with his hands, as Ava was pulling his lower half away from the rocks due to the cliffs angle.

”Now climb up, Henry!” Lisa shouted. ”Everyone else move up to the next spot in the count of three. Ready?”

”Ready!” The three men called from above.

”One, two, three, climb!” Lisa shouted. The chain in her hand lifted and she too pulled upward. Henry was now able to reach the cliff with his feet and he started to climb.

After passing Lisa, Henry stopped to catch his breath. ”T-that was too close!” He panted while using a shaky hand to wipe his brow.

”Yes, it was, but keep going. It’s not over yet!” Lisa replied. ”Same thing, on the count of three. Ready, go!”

Everyone repeated the action until Ava was within reach of Lisa. Lisa grabbed Ava’s outstretched left hand and yanked her up to where Lisa could hold her by the waist.

”Got you!” Lisa said to the terrified young lady. ”Everyone catch your breath for a moment. I can hold onto her now.”

”P-please get me off of here! I don’t want to fall again.” Ava said clinging onto Lisa’s shoulder.

”Shh, I got you. I’ll carry you the rest of the way up. Just get on my back and hold on. Is your shoulder ok?” Lisa asked.

”I-I don’t know.” Ava replied shaking her head. ”It happened so fast! I couldn’t do a thing.”

”Ok, we will look at it up on top. Now if you can wrap your arms over my shoulders, but not around my neck. Then get your legs over my hips.” Lisa instructed as Ava did them. Lisa could feel Ava’s whole-body quivering, but she still had the strength to stay on. ”Now hold on, we are nearly done. You’re doing a good job.”

Lisa climbed up to Henry, who seemed to have regained his composure, and she stopped for a moment to encourage everyone. ”Good job keeping everyone on the cliff. Let’s keep going upwards. The last bit is much easier.”

Henry nodded and started to climb again. Lisa followed alongside him until they reached Tayvon. Tayvon was looking tired and worn out. He had just used so much strength to hold the others up that his fingers were trembling, and knuckles were turning white. All the while he was sweating profusely and there seemed no end to the beads of sweat rolled down his darkly toned arms, face, and neck.

”Now that was an impressive display Tayvon!” Lisa said to him. ”You were wonderful just then. Feel proud about that. Now come on, just a few meters left.”

Tayvon took a deep breath and reached shakily up to the next hand hold. Lisa couldn’t go higher due to the chain on Ava, so she stayed next to Tayvon the rest of the way. By now Wayne had reached the lowest of the tree roots. He had found a thick strong root and was now moving up much faster. After a few laborious minutes everyone was safely at the top.

”Whew! Now wasn’t that an interesting experience.” Lisa said looking at the five exhausted people lying flat on the ground under the forests shade. ”I haven’t felt that kind of excitement in a while. Don’t worry we will definitely not do that again!”

”I hope not!” Willis replied look up at her from the ground.

”Me either. My shoulder is starting to ache now.” Ava said touching the spot tenderly.

”Let’s have look at it.” Lisa replied. She took off Ava’s backpack carefully and pulled back her shirt collar. There was a fist sized scratched red mark showing on her shoulder. Tenderly she poked at it and Ava flinched. ”Hmm, it will leave a bruise, but nothing is broken or bleeding. Looks like your backpack was what mainly got hit. Very lucky and no harm done.”

“It feels like I got punched.” Ava replied rolling her shoulder and wincing at the numbing pain.

“I’d imagine it would.” Lisa replied. “Now that that is over with, I won’t be having you guys do anything unordinary like that again.”

…

Gillian and Nathan were nervously watching everything and everyone on the cliff. When the slab fell and the two started to fall, they couldn’t do a thing and felt so helpless.

”I want to get up there and help so bad!” Gillian said frustrated. ”I knew this was a silly idea. Do we really think that we can trust her after seeing this?”

”I am not sure.” Nathan replied not taking his eyes off the cliff. ”She did come back to help and carry Ava. So, she did try to fix the issues.”

”Well, they should have just taken the boat and avoided this all together.” Gillian retorted. ”I hope she doesn’t do this kind of reckless behavior often. Otherwise, we should take them back from her. She seems to talk about being trustworthy, but this isn’t helping her case.”

”Perhaps.” Nathan replied as he watched Henry crawling over the top edge to safety. ”Let’s just see how things go for now and give her the benefit of the doubt. Look she’s planting the flag poles now.”

The two then watched as Lisa started planting the flag poles into the ground and securing the markers into place. She then waved down at them and gave two thumbs up. They took it as everyone was alright.

”Fine. We will wait.” Gillian grumbled. “But I’ll be sure to give her a prompt talking too when I meet up with them tomorrow.”