Page 126 of The Island

“Are alive too. We found a cave and water. Don’t speak. Just hold on.”

“No. Heather. Get away.”

They had wrapped wire around his wrists and attached the wire to tent pegs and hammered the pegs into the ground. Same with his ankles.

“Heather…you must go.”

“Save your strength. Don’t say anything. You’re coming with me, Hans,” she said.

“No.”

“I’m going to get you out of here. We’ve got food and water. You’re coming with us.”

“You must go.”

“If I can just get these pegs out.”

“I am a dead man, Heather. A matter of hours…they cut a hole in my belly. I can feel them inside me.”

“I can save you. Don’t try to say anything more! I can do this,” Heather said, gagging as she pulled desperately at the pegs.

“I wouldn’t get…ten meters.”

“I can get you free!”

“And then what?” He looked at her. “Poor Petra is dead…I am dead, but—but you can do two things for me.”

“Tell me.”

“Did you bring your penknife?”

“Yes.”

“First…I need you to…cut my throat.”

“What?”

“You must help me…I am too weak to do it myself.”

She shook her head. “No, please, anything else.”

“I can’t do it, Heather. You…the carotid artery…is on the side of the neck. With your little knife, you can cut it and it will be over for me.”

“I—I—I can’t do that.”

“I need your help. Will you do it?”

“No.”

“I will hold your hand…I will guide you. Can you do it?”

She shook her head. But she knew he was right. Her mouth opened and a tiny “Yes” came out of it.

Hans told her the second thing he wanted her to do. It felt worse than the first. She agreed to do that too.

She took out her knife and opened the blade. She freed his right wrist from the wire. He held her hand and guided it to the carotid artery pulsing weakly on the left side of his neck.

“Here,” he said.