Red ~ TWD (Daryl Dixon)

The Long Road Home

In real-time I fell for maybe three-seconds.  It felt more like three-minutes.  My heart was racing like a trapped bird, desperate to escape, fluttering violently in my chest.  I was struggling to breathe, air rushing by me and whipping my hair around furiously.  In the back of my mind I remembered this was one of those times your life was supposed to flash before your eyes, but that wasn't happening.  I saw nothing, probably because I'd yet to open my eyes.  Despite not seeing a damn thing I felt a whole hell of a lot.

The cool breeze bombarding my body made goosebumps erupt over my exposed flesh.  My heart was pounding.  My head was pounding.  My thoughts were pounding.  My stomach was stuck somewhere in my throat.  I was lost in the sensation of falling, and I had the insane notion that I might fall forever though I knew that wasn't true.  The water below was quickly rushing up to meet me, and I knew all too soon I'd feel its brutal embrace. 

The thought of slamming into the impossible hard, cold water sucked my mind back into the here and now.  I forced my body into the proper entry position.  I straightened my legs, crossing my arms over my chest just like you did when you rode those giant water slides I'd never been on.  Slowly but surely the hysteria abated, years of training hijacking my body and calming my mind. 

I chanced a peek at the water, trying to time my last deep desperate gasp of air.  Even if I somehow manage to enter the water at the perfect angle I could still die.  I had no idea how many feet lay between me and the river bottom.  It could just as easily be 2-feet as 20.  It was a small comfort that if it was the former at least it would be quick.  I wouldn't feel much.  I'd be lucky to feel the water soaking my borrowed clothes before my body imploded. 

I gulped in a deep breath of air, adrenaline pumping in my veins.  My mind was working overtime, trying to calculate the distance to the water.  It was happening simultaneously too fast and too slow.  There was only one thing left to do, hope.

I said a quick prayer to any god listening, body rigid with anticipation and then...I hit.

Entering the water felt more like slamming on to concrete.  I plunged beneath the surface, the water consuming my body one painful inch at a time.  The pitch darkness that swallowed me only added to my increasing terror. 

The cold registered a second later, a debilitating glacial cold that shocked my system into immobility.  Not that it mattered much.  I had no idea which way was up, down, left, or right.  Belatedly, I remembered I should swim though my body rebelled against the notion entirely. Moving was far too excruciating, but my need for air overrode everything else. 

I kicked for the surface, or what I hoped was the surface, but the clunky boots strapped to my feet made it difficult.  This was so typical; I'd survived the fall only to drown in the raging current of the river.  The undertow was like a giant beast clawing at my body from every angles, throwing me one way only to toss me back in the opposite direction a moment later.  My head finally broke the surface, and I was able to suck in one pitifully small gulp of life saving air before the river pulled me under again.

The river drug me further downstream in a dizzying pattern of lefts and rights as the river twisted and turned.  Pain exploded in my thigh when I crashed into a large boulder sitting half obscured like an giant iceberg.  A strangled scream ripped from my lungs, my pain echoing on the tall canyon walls.  Icy water poured in my mouth and down my throat for a few painful seconds until I was once again submerged.

My body was spinning and tumbling, my head occasionally popping up just when I thought I couldn't hold my breath a second longer.  I fought to keep my head above the water line, tilting my head back while trying to expel as much liquid from my lungs as possible.