Chapter 1 – The Rescue
1074 Words
Andrew Morrow trudged along Lake Pleasant, upset that he had failed an interview at the Phoenix Children's Hospital. I've studied to be a doctor for five years, but I still couldn't become a doctor, he thought to himself. Am I doomed to practice family medicine?
Andrew had come to Lake Pleasant to clear his head and had already been here long enough that the sun had set. The shores along Lake Pleasant were rocky, and the water was calm with moonlight that danced across its surface. It could be said that the scenery was picturesque, but Andrew only felt despair and even considered throwing himself into the water and ending his life. Something, however, caught his eye.
At a distance, a woman was struggling in the river. The way she thrashed about indicated that she was drowning.
Andrew was raised to be a decent man, so he didn't hesitate to run closer to the woman and remove his clothes. He then jumped head-first into the river and swam towards the drowning woman.
Despite being well-rounded, Andrew wasn't the best of swimmers, and he underestimated how difficult it would be to rescue someone who was drowning. The woman desperately grabbed at his arms and legs, and as a result, Andrew began to sink below the surface. With his mouth full of water, he began to lose consciousness and couldn't feel his limbs.
Now I'm done for, he mused sadly. There is no one around to save us, and no one saw how heroic I was.
Just before Andrew passed out, he suddenly heard a strange robotic voice say, “Host has been found... Binding... Host is drowning, a plank of wood offered.”
Completely believing that this was a hallucination, Andrew didn't take it seriously until he felt something in his hand. The next thing he knew, he broke the surface and was able to breathe again. He gasped for air in between ragged coughs and knew that he had been saved.
Still confused about where the voice came from, Andrew discovered that both he and the woman were on top of a large plank of wood that prevented them from going under. Where the hell did this come from? He thought to himself.
Andrew's attention turned to the woman, who had passed out. He marveled at her beautiful yet delicate features, and he found himself entranced. He didn't regret risking his life to save such a stunning woman.
Andrew came back to his senses and started to paddle the both of them to shore. Although he was captivated by the woman's appearance, he didn't forget that they were both still in danger. He found he was quickly fatigued with the effort, and it took him a long time before they were out of the water and up onto the rocky edge.
With a glance back at where he thought he had jumped in, Andrew worried about the clothes and cell phone he had left behind and wanted to retrieve them as soon as possible. He knew that his first priority was saving the woman; otherwise, his belongings would have been lost for nothing.
Task: Rescue the drowning woman. Reward: a small bottle of salt, a pair of scissors, a lighter, and two thousand dollars.
The robotic voice from earlier startled Andrew once again. “Who is saying that? What task, and what reward? What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded out loud.
But, no one answered his questions, and he rubbed his forehead in confusion. Am I hallucinating again? He wondered. Oh well, that doesn't matter. I'm saving this woman regardless.
The woman had passed out due to lack of oxygen, and as a doctor-to-be who just graduated from a medical school, Andrew knew how to handle it: with chest compressions and artificial respiration. He intertwined his fingers together and began to press down on her chest before he gently opened her mouth to breathe into her.
Andrew started to count in his head, and every so often, he would ask the woman to wake up and breathe. Eventually, his efforts were rewarded when the woman finally sputtered and coughed up a lot of water. He quickly turned her on to her side so that the water didn't go back into her lungs.
After the woman stopped coughing up water, her breathing became steady, but her eyes remained closed. Andrew resumed CPR once more, and the moment his lips touched hers, her eyes flashed open, and the next second, she screamed.
The woman slapped Andrew across the face, but her arms were weak. Since he had already anticipated that her reaction was a possibility, Andrew was calm and gave her a smile. “You were drowning in the river, and I dove in to save you. I was just administering CPR because you were unconscious.”
After a moment's thought, the woman remembered what happened, and she took stock of herself. Her clothes had become disheveled during the whole ordeal, and she realized that her bra was exposed. She immediately covered her chest with her arms and blushed deeply.
Andrew tried not to smile too much. “I've already seen it, so it's too late,” he informed her. Still, he respectfully looked away as she buttoned her shirt back up.
The woman narrowed her eyes as she scrutinized the man before her, who wore nothing but an undershirt and boxers. “Why did you save me?” she eventually asked. “It took a lot of courage for me to end my life.”
Andrew was dumbfounded. He thought that the woman fell into the river by accident, but it turned out that she was trying to drown herself. He snuck a glance at her and saw that she had no wedding ring on her finger. Andrew wondered why she wanted to kill herself and figured that it might have something to do with a man.
“No matter what he has done to you, ending your life isn't the answer. You should report him for his crimes and send him to prison,” Andrew guessed.
The woman frowned. “I wasn't... assaulted. If that's what you think.”
Andrew pressed his lips together. “Then why did you want to kill yourself? I mean, from my point of view, it couldn't be from unrequited love.”
The woman looked away. “It's none of your business,” she snapped.
- Writer
