He rushed to his wife. Audrianna fell off the cliff, and seconds later Viktor saw Lincoln falling right behind her. Viktor rushed forward and looked over the side of the bluff. He did not see them.
* * *
The ravine was pitch black and Lincoln thought it was sheer luck that he had managed to hook Audrianna securely with one arm and grab a protruding branch with the other. They were surrounded by forest, and it was too dark to see how many feet were left before they would hit the ground; or stream, for that matter.
Lincoln felt the branch he held onto bend, then crack, under the pressure of their combined weight. His hand slipped on the wet, thin bark, which bit into his hand, breaking the skin. He steeled his courage to brace for the fall before he willingly let go of the branch.
Lincoln jumped, hugging Audrianna to him, his hand cupping the back of her head. He fell seventy-five feet and landed squarely on dry ground. His bionic legs strained with the impact, his knees bent and almost buckled withstanding the velocity of the intense fall. His feet smashed the earth with a loud 'wham.' The earth was cracked.
Lincoln attempted to straighten out his artificial limbs. The fall had knocked the wind from his lungs. He had never put such an unequal burden on his bionic limbs. His knee cranked up like an oversized, rusty rivet being was forced to turn on command. The effect was polarizing- his will to move was fighting against his legs' need to remain still and recoup their equilibrium. Lincoln pushed on his legs, forcing himself to walk forward, slowly.
Two feet, three feet, four feet later, he started to walk normally, with Audrianna unconscious in his arms. Lincoln made his way out of the dark ravine, following the path beside the stream to a gravel roadway. Hailing a local taxi in the form of a Toyota Corolla, he paid the taxi driver extra fare to take him off route to the local hospital.