Chapter 16 — Mist Peak Rescue Team

A gust of wind unprecedented in the entire day swept across the mountainside, strong enough to cause the entire group to stop and crouch down to fight.

"Hold on tight!" Khanh Van shouted, but her warning came a beat slower than what was happening.

Kien, who was supporting a corner of the stretcher on a narrow road along a small slope, was pushed off balance by the wind just as his foot landed on a stone slab covered with wet moss. He slipped, his whole body wobbled, and in a reflex of trying to keep the stretcher from overturning, he let go of a sapling growing along the roadside to keep his balance.

That seedling, with its young roots, could not bear the sudden weight and was uprooted immediately.

"Kien!" Long screamed when he saw him falling towards the slope, his whole body rolling down about three meters before hitting a protruding rock, stopping the slide.

Khanh Van rushed forward immediately, her heart pounding, the familiar fear from two years ago rushing back in an instant - but this time, she did not let it paralyze her actions. She knelt down on the edge of the slope, looked down at where Kien was lying, one hand holding her ankle.

"Kien! Do you hear me?!"

"Hear... hear clearly!" His voice responded, pained but alert. "Ankle, probably badly twisted. Not broken, I think."

"Don't move, I'll be down now!"

Khanh Van quickly attached her seat belt. Even though this slope was not too high to require a complicated lowering system, she still did not skip the most basic step - never approach an area with a risk of slipping without an insurance point, even if just to save a few seconds. She reached Kien in less than a minute, kneeling next to him, immediately examining his ankle through his hiking shoes.

"Can you move your toes?"

Kien frowned and moved slightly. "Okay, but it hurts."

"There were no obvious signs of deformation." Khanh Van breathed a sigh of relief, even if only partially. "It could be a bad sprain, not a break. But I can't walk on that leg anymore today."

Long, following down with the support of the rope Khanh Van had just set up, carrying a first aid bag, began to immobilize Kien's ankle with elastic bandages and a makeshift splint from a straight tree branch he found nearby.

"My bag..." Kien said, his voice a bit panicked as he looked around. "It fell when I fell."

Khanh Van looked around, and just as he said, the extra bag containing part of the spare medical equipment and an additional coil of wire that Kien was carrying had disappeared, perhaps rolling deeper into the darkness down the slope, where the flashlight could not reach.

"Leave it alone," she said firmly. "I don't have time to look back now. Uyen Nhi brought enough medical equipment, and I still have enough rope for the rest of the way."

"But—"

"Kien." She looked straight into his eyes, her voice never wavering. "A bag is not as important as getting the other five people down the mountain safely. Don't let it distract you."

He nodded, although his eyes were still a little guilty. Long finished fixing his ankle, stood up, and looked at Khanh Van. "He can't walk, Ms. Van. We need another person to carry us, but we already have a stretcher for Ms. Bao Anh."

Khanh Van thought quickly, her mind racing through options in a few short seconds. "Kien, you lean on my shoulder, walk on one leg, we move slowly but we can still walk. Long, you turn back to help Tua carry the stretcher, two people instead of three, go slower but still okay."

"Are you sure you can bear my weight the rest of the way?" Kien asked, his voice a bit skeptical about the possibility of the proposal itself.

"I'm sure." Khanh Van placed her shoulder under his arm, helping him stand up with his good leg. "You're much lighter than what I used to carry during physical training sessions, Kien. Don't worry about me, just worry about keeping your balance."

He laughed softly, although that smile was mixed with both pain and a rare bit of shyness. "Okay. Thank you."

The group regrouped in a new formation, moving more slowly than before but still steadfastly moving forward, each person shouldering an additional part of the responsibility that the recent incident had placed on their shoulders.

The first step was the most difficult, when Kien had to learn to coordinate his hopscotch rhythm with Khanh Van's steps. The two staggered a few times before finding a common rhythm. "Sorry," he said, as they both nearly fell for the third time. "I'm heavier than I thought."

"Don't apologize, focus on keeping your balance." Khanh Van tightened her grip on the arm around her shoulder, adjusting her posture to distribute weight more evenly. "We still have a long way to go, I don't want to waste my energy on unnecessary apologies."

They found a suitable rhythm after the first few dozen meters — Kien walked with his good leg, leaning his weight on Khanh Van's shoulder every time his sore leg touched the ground. Both moved at a slow but steady pace, no longer staggering like the first steps. Sweat soaked through Khanh Van's shirt even though it was cold, her shoulders began to get tired after a long journey, but she did not show any signs of complaining.

"Are you okay?" Kien asked, his voice a bit concerned when he felt Khanh Van's breathing begin to get heavier.

"Fine." She replied briefly, focusing all her remaining concentration on each step. "Don't worry about me, just worry about keeping your balance, like I said."

He was silent for a moment, then spoke in a lower voice, barely loud enough for her to hear over the sound of the wind and rain. "Thank you, for everything today. I don't think if I was in charge, everything would go as smoothly as this."

Khanh Van did not respond immediately, just continued walking, but in her heart, that sentence, coming from the person who had openly doubted her bravery, carried a weight that no other words of gratitude could compare to.

Up ahead, Long called out, his voice mixed with excitement mixed with fatigue. "Miss Van! I see a light ahead, it must be Uyen Nhi's support team!"

The whole group looked up, and just as Long said, a small beam of light was moving in the rain and darkness, coming closer from afar. Khanh Van felt a new burst of strength burst into her exhausted body, enough for her to walk a little faster, dragging along Kien who was leaning on her shoulder.

"Almost there," she said, her voice, though hoarse with fatigue and cold, still filled with an unconcealed glimmer of hope. "Hold on a little longer, everyone."

The light in front shook more strongly, as if the other side had also just recognized the silhouette of the group approaching, and just a few seconds later, a call rang out through the sound of wind and rain, a familiar voice that the whole group had been waiting to hear for the past hour.

"Miss Van! I'm here!"

It was Uyen Nhi, and that call, although simple, was enough to make the exhausted group let out a collective sigh, as if the burden they had carried on their shoulders all day long had just been partially shared, even though the journey ahead had not yet ended.

Khanh Van tightened her grip on the arm that was supporting Kien, taking the final steps towards the approaching beam of light. Her heart was filled with a feeling of relief that she had not allowed herself to fully feel since this morning, because she knew that there was still a long medical check-up and travel ahead.

But at least, right now, they are no longer alone in the middle of the storm.

Ahead, Long and Tua continued to carry the stretcher, two people instead of three, walking slower but still maintaining a steady pace. Son walked close to the stretcher, one hand never leaving Bao Anh's side, his eyes constantly glancing back to make sure Khanh Van and Kien were not left too far behind.

"Can I rest for a bit?" Nam asked, his voice clearly exhausted after a long and eventful day.

"Just a minute," Khanh Van replied, even though she also knew that every minute they stopped was a minute the storm behind them had a chance to catch up with them. "Drink some water, then let's continue right away."

The whole group stopped for exactly one minute, enough for each person to take a few sips of water from a thermos, quickly check each other's condition, then continue walking, no one complaining another word even though everyone's body was exhausted after many hours of continuous struggle with the terrain and weather.

The rain fell heavier and heavier, seeping through each layer of clothing, making the cold even more severe. But in the darkness and the cold rain that was falling more and more heavily, the group continued walking, no one letting delays or difficulties shake their determination to bring all six people - three victims, three themselves - to safety.