Cliffhanger Short Story Competition - Runner Up

The brakes squealed and the world spun around me. There was a shuddering crash, all visibility was cut with a bang as the airbag slapped into my face, and then, still spinning, the back smashed into something that collapsed noisily behind us. We stopped moving with a jerk. The engine stalled, rocks stopped rattling away and everything went quiet, apart from the sound of the storm outside.
‘Jess? Are you OK?’
My voice was muffled by the airbag and I reached up to push it away. It bounced back. And the car moved, rocked, gravel pattered away, something groaned and I froze.
‘Stay still,’ she said.
‘You’re not hurt?’ I said.
‘No, but my car is and I'm looking for someone to blame.’
That meant me for getting us lost. Her reticence was frightening. Jess liked her car. If she
considered I was in anyway responsible for this, and I had a faint feeling that I was for getting us lost and directing her along a steep and icy road, then I was in big trouble.
The wind rocked us again. That worried me. The Lake District is no place for a car to be in a position where it might rock. There is a good selection of drops; down cliffs, into rivers, into lakes. Even onto train tracks.
I could hear Jess fumbling with something, and then a minute later there was a hiss. Then another as my airbag deflated away from my face. There was light in front of us, asymmetric, but it was diffused and unclear. Was I concussed? There was water coming from somewhere, of cold air against my face. Neither seemed right inside the car. Jess flicked the interior light went on. The windscreen was crazed and cracked in front of me, explaining my weird vision at least. I might not die yet. It had pulled away completely at the top, explaining the cold air and rain coming in. Only one headlight still seemed to be working, helped by a full moon that shone intermittently through the clouds. Together they lit up the small cliff we had rebounded from. Bits of Jess’s car, were around it. But the cliff seemed intact. At least we had not damaged a National Park.
I looked around at Jess. She was not looking at me, but out of her window at her wing mirror. I started to say something.
‘Shut up,’ she said.
I did. It was usually best to be quiet if Jess said to be. She was normally the sweetest of women, but all her emotions were full on. I listened to the wind. It was my fault that we were here at all. Jess had not been keen on taking me to a reunion in a remote village pub in the depths of winter, and had not really been keen on her going to the reunion at all. You will just drink too much and talk about things I have never heard of, she had said. And I bet I will be the only female there, she had added. I had pointed out there had been girls on my geology course, hurriedly corrected the g- word to women, and that apparently they were coming according to Woody, who had organised the whole thing. Plus other people would bring girlfriends who she could talk to about how useless geologists were as boyfriends, always away, and so on. This last had seemed to sway her in favour of coming. Or was it the mention of Woody? She had met Woody once, a couple of years back and he was approved of, having turned up with his guitar and made her gently weep by singing softly after the three of us had spent far too long in a pub. Unfair really, because if I made her gently weep, or even tried to play my guitar, I was generally savagely criticised.
I looked in my wing mirror, as this seemed to be an approved thing to do. The moon chose that moment to give a little more light and I saw what Jess was looking at so carefully. We seemed to have smashed backwards through a drystone wall, which had collapsed away from us. Beyond it I could see only a slope away into blackness, a steep one, blackness that twinkled. Water.
The car moved again as the wind gusted against it. I looked at Jess. She looked back. ‘If we get out, the car is going to go over isn’t it?’
‘I expect so.’ She seemed quite cool about it. ‘And if we don’t then it might go over as well, so we can’t just sit here. And it will be hours before help comes, if we even knew where we were. Not that we can call for it,’ she said holding up her phone. ‘No reception. Unless you have any?’
I groped for my phone, which was what had been really responsible for our navigation error, but the screen was broken and unresponsive. I held it up.
‘It has paid for getting us into this,’ I said.
She eyed me with contempt.
‘You have heard the line about a bad workman blaming his tools? And if someone had sensible mates who had chosen somewhere with a railway station to hand, we might not be here now.’
I did not answer. She went on. ‘Open your door, carefully, and I will do the same. Then we can both jump out together.’
‘OK,’ I said. It was always easier to do what Jess said.
I opened my door. It did not open quite all the way, but near enough. I undid my seatbelt, tensed
and looked round at Jess. She was pushing at her door, but it had only opened about an inch or two. She pushed harder. The car rocked again, and there was a grating noise. The back dipped slightly and my pulse increased. Jess stopped pushing and carefully closed it again.
‘Door’s stuck,’ she said briefly. I stared at her.
‘What do you mean stuck?’
She rolled her eyes. ‘It won’t open. There’s something jamming it outside. Or it's buckled or something. I don’t know.’
‘Well, we’ll have to sit here then. Someone will be along eventually.’
‘Yes, and they will probably come round the corner and smash straight into us.’
‘Good point.’
‘You get out and hold down the door. That should give me enough time to slide over to your side
and get out.’
‘No,’ I said. ‘Even if I am the most useless navigator in the world, I do know that I weigh about twice what you do, and if I get out the car is going to slide away with you in it.’
‘Yes, but you’ll be out,’ she said quietly.
‘Without you I don’t want to get out,’ I said, suddenly realising that it was the absolute truth. I could not imagine life without Jess. But that had sounded too serious. ‘You would somehow escape anyway and go on and on that I had abandoned you in a falling car.’
‘True,’ said Jess thoughtfully. ‘You would have to be penitent for ever. I like it.’ ‘Seriously, crawl over me and get out. I’ll be straight out after you.’
She thought for a minute and then nodded. The car rocked again in another gust.
She undid her seatbelt and very carefully crawled over onto my side. The car made another grating noise. She froze. I gently pulled her onto my lap. Almost there. Now to push her out and jump out afterwards.
A glare of headlights, a squeal of brakes, the headlights almost stopping, but just nudging us and we were starting to slide in earnest. I wrapped myself over and around Jess and threw myself sideways. Something metal and hard smashed into my arms, and then something even harder hit my head and I saw a great shower of white sparks, before darkness over came me.
I was only out for a few seconds, I think. I opened my eyes to see a bearded man. I panicked instantly.
‘Where’s Jess? Jess!’
I tried to claw myself to my feet.
‘No need to shout.’
Jess appeared from behind the man.
‘You’re OK!’
‘Of course. Well almost. Some idiot rolled me out of a car and bruised my arm, but I guess he
thought he was being a hero.’
Between them they helped me up. Nothing seemed too damaged.
‘What about the car?’
‘Gone to a watery tomb, methinks.’ Jess liked dramatic phrases.
The man shook his head.
‘No, water’s no more than five feet deep there. I can see her top poking out. I’ll pull her out for
you with t’ tractor in the morning. Not that she’ll be much good, mind.’
Jess, to give her credit, shrugged.
‘I think she was on more or less her last legs anyway. Poor thing. I hope your car was not too damaged?’
We all looked at the old Land Rover. There did not seem to be any damage that looked new. ‘She's all right,’ said the man. ‘No harm done there,’
Jess shivered and clutched her oversized jacket round her as the wind gusted again.
The man noticed.
‘Should get you somewhere warm and dry. Where were you off too anyway?’
I named the village and the pub.
‘We were supposed to be meeting up with a group of friends, but we got a bit lost.’
‘He got a bit lost,’ Jess clarified.
‘Well, there’s not many that come down this old road, but the pub's just down there round the crag. Half a mile at the most.’
It was a big moment in my life. Almost a triumph. I met Jess’s eyes calmly, and said nothing. I did not need to. But she had the last word, of course. ‘You didn't know that.’
The man laughed.
‘Come on, I’ll give you a lift.’