Vineyard Misadventure: Long Crawl Out

In 2017, Noah Messenger is a teenager working in the lush and luxurious environs of the Maryhill Winery in Washington State. One late sunny afternoon, while happy guests sip the local produce, Noah takes a stroll after his shift. A single misstep changes everything. Within moments he’ll be semi-paralysed, with no phone, no food and no water. All his hopes of survival rest on his colleagues coming to look for him. But as the hours slip by, is help even on its way?… A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. Written by Heléna Lewis | Produced by Ed Baranski | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound Supervisor: Matt Peaty | Sound design by Jacob Booth | Assembly edit by Rob Plummer | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cian Ryan-Morgan. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  At Edward Jones, we believe rich is about taking care of what gives your life meaning. That's why your financial advisor personalizes your plan to help you preserve your progress and create something that lasts. Let's find your rich. Edward Jones. Member SIPC.

• 0:18John Hopkins?

  It's around noon on Tuesday, the 16th of May, 2017. In Northwest America, Maryhill Winery perches in dusty, ochre-colored hills overlooking the mighty Columbia River, which marks the border between Washington State and Oregon.

• 0:34John Hopkins?

  Acres of orchards and vineyards encircle the winery, the luscious ranks of leafy green plants bright as emeralds against the parched and rugged landscape.

• 0:45John Hopkins?

  On the terrace of the bistro and tasting room, visitors soak up the sunshine and sip the local produce as they gaze out at the panoramic views. Below them, the grapevines and fruit trees sprawl outwards towards a rocky cliffside, where the land suddenly falls away towards the river below.

• 1:05John Hopkins?

  And here, caught in the crags at the top of the precipice, is a mobile phone. At first glance, there is no sign of its owner. But then, a hoarse, pained shout echoes off the rock face. About 50 feet below, 18-year-old Noah Messenger lies stranded on a steep, scree-laden slope. His body is battered, his legs leaden and unresponsive. He can barely move. Pain scintillates along his synapses as he takes a deep breath and bellows another desperate call for help.

• 1:43John Hopkins?

  The sound reverberates across the landscape, but there is no answer.

• 1:48Speaker 02

  I was just yelling, listening, yelling, listening. And then, as the hours drag on, it got less and less hopeful.

• 1:58John Hopkins?

  Despite being so close to the winery, nobody can hear Noah's shouts. Help is torturously near at hand, but remains just out of his reach.

• 2:09John Hopkins?

  And as time passes, a niggling sense of unease builds into a dread-inducing certainty. No one is trying to find him. And if rescue isn't going to come to him, he will have to go to it. But stranded, injured, and unable to move his legs, that looks like an impossible task.

• 2:30Speaker 02

  There's no way that people have been looking for me and haven't heard me screaming at the top of my lungs. By this time, it's setting in to me. This is potentially a life-and-death situation. Not just potentially, this is likely a life-and-death situation.

• 2:53John Hopkins?

  Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations, people suddenly forced to fight for their lives.

• 3:14John Hopkins?

  In this episode, we meet Noah Messenger. In 2017, the 18-year-old vineyard employee is just like many other young adults, making the most of his newfound independence and looking forward to a bright future. But then, one single misstep changes everything. A simple twist of fate with devastating consequences.

• 3:35Speaker 02

  I consciously knew it was going to be bad. I was like, okay, this is definitely breaking bones. I felt my back just like snap first. It was just intense alarm. I could just feel the immediate snap.

• 3:50John Hopkins?

  Instantly semi-paralyzed and caught on a rocky escarpment with no phone, no food, and no water, all his hopes of survival rest on his colleagues coming to look for him. But as the hours slip by with no sign of rescue, it becomes increasingly clear that Noah's only remaining option is to try to drag himself to safety, one slow, painful inch at a time.

• 4:14Speaker 02

  I was accepting of the fact that I was going to die. It was an inevitability. I was pretty much just going through the motions of trying to do something instead of just laying there and dying. At that point, it seemed to me I expected death.

• 4:31John Hopkins?

  I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Real Survival Stories.

• 5:01John Hopkins?

  It's just after 5:00 PM on Monday, the 15th of May, 2017, near the Oregon-Washington State border.

• 5:08John Hopkins?

  Nestled against a backdrop of scrub-covered hills, the prestigious Maryhill Winery occupies a prime spot with sweeping views of the Columbia River and surrounding vineyards. With guests dotted around the winery's bar and open terrace, last orders are being taken before the staff can begin closing down to head home for the night.

• 5:29John Hopkins?

  But out in the grounds, 18-year-old Noah Messenger has just finished his shift. With summer approaching, his responsibilities and work patterns have recently changed, and he's switched from working in the cellars to doing landscaping and other outdoor jobs. Though he now finishes a little earlier than many of his colleagues, Noah can't leave yet. He is carpooling with his housemates, who also work at the winery, and they won't be done for another hour. Whilst he waits, Noah decides to go for a quick walk to the nearby cliffs.

• 6:00Speaker 02

  There's this excellent viewpoint. You have to just go through the orchards, and it's overlooking like some orchards down on the bottom of the cliffs and then the Columbia River, which is a huge river. Yeah, it's a canyon, and it's just a beautiful area. So that's where I decided to go, just kind of kill some time.

• 6:20John Hopkins?

  Before setting off, Noah informs one of his colleagues about his plan.

• 6:25Speaker 02

  I went into the winery and I told one of the coworkers that I was carpooling with that I would be down on the orchards and I potentially might fall asleep, so make sure to yell if they don't see me by the cars when they leave. I have a very clear memory that he took his earphone out, he listened, he seemingly understood, he nodded, and went back to work.

• 6:49John Hopkins?

  After that, Noah heads into the orchards, making for the familiar lookout spot on the cliffs.

• 6:55John Hopkins?

  Though he's only worked at the winery for a matter of months, he's taken to it quickly. With some money in his pocket, Noah is enjoying a degree of freedom and independence for the first time in his life. It's something he values highly. After growing up with nine siblings in what he describes as an extremely conservative Christian household, we was homeschooled.

• 7:16Speaker 02

  There's definitely positive aspects to homeschooling. You can work at your own pace. There's potential for even greater learning in a shorter period. For me, my family did it through strictly religious reasons, which I found extremely frustrating, especially throughout my teenage years. There wasn't a lot that I can like look back on and be like, that was something that I did that was like a nice escape throughout that time. You know, there was fun days, perhaps, sometimes with friends, but it was a difficult time for me growing up in that environment. I never saw eye to eye with family, so I was kind of always a little bit ostracized.

• 7:54John Hopkins?

  Relations with his stepfather were particularly strained.

• 7:59Speaker 02

  He increasingly took control and just kind of delved us into a very ultra-extreme conservative household, was very, very comfortable with physical punishments. He was very inclined to make me tough, to put it simply. And I've been very comfortable with discomfort throughout my life, or grown to be very comfortable with discomfort, just through exposure.

• 8:32John Hopkins?

  Desperate to gain his independence, at the age of just 17, Noah took the plunge and moved out, cutting ties with most of his family.

• 8:40Speaker 02

  I very much was itching to be an adult throughout my childhood and teenage years. I literally packed up my stuff and just put it in my car and left. I mean, not the best for me, but I've grown a lot from it, and I think it's shaped me a lot as a person in a lot of positive ways.

• 9:03John Hopkins?

  Less than a year after moving out, Noah has made the most of his newfound freedom by securing a job at the winery and building a thriving social life.

• 9:12Speaker 02

  Life was fun at that point. I was able to finally live freely in a way that I had never been able to experience throughout, essentially, my life before. I was just a 17- and 18-year-old enjoying myself finally, living a little bit more freely than you'd ever been able to.

• 9:34John Hopkins?

  It's around 5:30 PM. Upon reaching the edge of the cliffs, Noah scrambles down a narrow path leading to a small ledge three or four feet below. Here, he pauses to take in the stunning view. The cliffs fall away sharply towards a steep slope covered in shale and scree. At its base lie various vineyards and orchards, and on the other side of them, the serpentine splendor of the Columbia River, winking in the sunlight.

• 10:03Speaker 02

  There's this cool little outlay that you could just like sit and look over the cliff. And I'd grown up climbing trees, being very comfortable with danger, I suppose. And it was unwise of me. Obviously, looking back, it's like it's not like I'm making an excuse for being so close to the cliffside, but more of a clear picture of the mindset that might have led up to that.

• 10:29John Hopkins?

  After a few minutes, Noah reaches into his pockets and checks his phone. Though there's no signal out here, it indicates he still has half an hour before he needs to be back for the carpool. Plenty of time for a little more exploring. He scans the crags ahead, his eyes lighting on another vantage point he hasn't yet investigated.

• 10:50John Hopkins?

  Slipping his phone back into his shorts, Noah sets out across a narrow shale-strewn path, the loose rocks crunching beneath his feet.

• 10:59John Hopkins?

  In the skies above, a hawk screeches.

• 11:04John Hopkins?

  Confident in his abilities, he picks his way along the sloping path, eyes fixed firmly on the way ahead. And then, his foot lands just a fraction too close to the edge. It's a tiny movement in the wrong direction, but it has enormous consequences.

• 11:24Speaker 02

  My foot just slipped, and you know, it was a simple list of slips, nothing dramatic or anything, but I was in a dumb spot and I slipped and my foot fell backwards and it was like everything went into slow motion. There was nothing I could do. I knew I was falling.

• 11:43John Hopkins?

  This October, on the Noiser Podcast Network, Real Dictators returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea, and a man is struck blind, all alone, at the very top of the world. In Jane Austen stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' short stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in The Sign of Four.

• 12:26John Hopkins?

  Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.

• 12:35John Hopkins?

  In a split second, Noah is in freefall, grasping desperately at the empty air as he hurtles towards the ground. Seconds later, his tailbone smashes into the rock of the cliff face, the impact instantly catapulting him backwards into a second-longer fall.

• 12:52Speaker 02

  I consciously knew it was going to be bad. I was like, okay, this is definitely breaking bones. But I was able to tuck my head in and kind of like let myself somewhat relax. I knew not to like tense up, so I kind of tucked my head in and relaxed. And I think that may have saved my life because if my head would have slapped back, it almost certainly would have killed me.

• 13:19John Hopkins?

  The sky above Noah spirals as he plummets earthwards, powerless to stop what's coming. He slams into the ground with a sickening, bone-splintering crash.

• 13:32Speaker 02

  I felt my back just like snap first. I was on so much adrenaline, I wouldn't have called it pain, but it was just like intense alarm. I could just feel the, you know, immediate snap.

• 13:46John Hopkins?

  Dazed, Noah gasps for breath, heart banging against his rib cage, his senses reeling from the force of the collision. Slowly, the initial shock of impact fades, and he starts to process his surroundings.

• 14:02John Hopkins?

  He has landed about 50 feet below his starting point, partway down the steep, rocky slope at the base of the cliffs. One wrong move, and he could end up sliding all the way to the orchards and vineyards at the bottom. But there is a much greater concern. Noah can't move his legs. He stares down towards them, taking in their awkward, unnatural angles.

• 14:27Speaker 02

  My legs were all like to the side. I didn't feel like they were there and it shocked me. So immediately, I kind of had this like burst of adrenaline and I was like trying to move my legs into a more straight position because that was like alarming to me, seeing them like that.

• 14:43John Hopkins?

  Driven by shock and adrenaline, Noah struggles into a semi-seated position so he can reach towards his legs, pain radiating through his body.

• 14:53Speaker 02

  I've dealt with so much pain throughout my life. You know, the pain wasn't making me unable to function in the same way it may for other people.

• 15:05John Hopkins?

  Noah grimaces as he maneuvers his legs. He is relieved to find that even though he cannot move them independently, he can at least still vaguely feel his hands upon them.

• 15:18John Hopkins?

  After straightening them out as much as possible, he sinks backwards, exhausted by the effort.

• 15:25John Hopkins?

  It's obvious he has sustained some major injuries in the fall. Although he has no way of knowing exactly how severe they are at this stage, trying to move anywhere would be folly.

• 15:36Speaker 02

  Immediately after, I mean, I knew not to try to move. I knew not to try to do anything other than just wait for help. I reminded myself that I told that coworker that I would be down on the cliffside. So I was like, okay, we're good. They're not going to go home without me. They know I'm down here. He's going to mention it. I made sure to tell him that. So all I have to do is wait here for maybe half an hour or so, and they'll be coming down here to look for me.

• 16:04John Hopkins?

  Confident that help is near at hand, Noah waits, watching the color of the sky change as sunset approaches. There is nothing else he can do. Despite the relative proximity of the winery, he's still too far away for anyone to hear him shouting. Plus, at some point during his fall, his phone fell out of his pocket, meaning he has absolutely no way of contacting help.

• 16:30Speaker 02

  I do look back on the time and wonder if I would have just searched around for the phone. That would have been probably so much better than my situation that I ended up in. Because you can still make an emergency call on a phone that doesn't have service. I wish in hindsight that I would have just spent that initial effort, maybe crawling around the top of the cliff, looking for where my phone would have landed.

• 16:54John Hopkins?

  For now, all Noah can do is wait for his coworkers to find him.

• 16:59Speaker 02

  It was scary, yes, but it wasn't like writhing in pain or anything like that. Although I knew the situation was horrible, I was comfortable with the fact that my coworkers would be there soon. I was safe. I wasn't afraid for my life at that point or anything like that. You know, I was like, okay, I'm going to be found. I just need to wait for someone to pass by.

• 17:24John Hopkins?

  Occasionally, he yells out, hoping to attract the attention of anyone searching the nearby cliffs. The rest of the time, he waits, straining his ears for any indication of footsteps or voices. The half-hour mark comes and goes, and there is no sign of rescue.

• 17:43John Hopkins?

  As time passes, Noah's yells become more urgent, and dread grows in his gut.

• 17:50Speaker 02

  Maybe an hour and a half or so later, I realized, okay, they're not looking for me. They had to have gone home by now. They must have assumed I got a ride or something like that. If they were looking for me in that general area, they would have heard me or I would have hurt them.

• 18:06John Hopkins?

  It's a sickening realization. With the sky beginning to grow dark, Noah resolves to take matters into his own hands. Carefully, he shuffles onto his stomach, eyes fixed on the steep, scree-covered slope leading towards the top of the cliffs.

• 18:26Speaker 02

  I mean, I was in a probably delirious state of mind. That's probably why. But I attempted to try to crawl up that slope to try to get to the top of the cliff. Because I was like, okay, maybe if I can get to the top of the cliff and if I'm there, I'll be much more likely to be heard and found by people, maybe potentially in that orchard looking for me.

• 18:49John Hopkins?

  gritting his teeth, Noah starts hauling himself up the slope, using his hands and forearms to pull his body weight forwards.

• 18:58John Hopkins?

  His legs drag behind him and shards of broken rock dig into his skin.

• 19:04John Hopkins?

  He gains a foot or two of ground and then another. For a few moments, it seems his plan might just work. But then, as he crawls, his limp legs suddenly slip beneath him, and he loses control.

• 19:18Speaker 02

  I start rolling down the hill. And that was honestly probably the scariest point of the whole ordeal. I was actively falling with no control of my fall, because I had no control of my legs and my legs were just flipping out ahead of me. And I'm trying to grab at the rocks to stable myself. It was the first time I had felt that lack of control from my body and my body working against me.

• 19:46John Hopkins?

  Noah cries out as he tumbles down the slope, his vision blurring into a kaleidoscope of shapes and colors. He claws at the ground, grasping for anything to arrest his fall. Suddenly, his hands close around a large rock, and his momentum is brought to a jarring halt.

• 20:05John Hopkins?

  Clinging to the rock, he tries to calm his racing heart, fear cascading through his veins.

• 20:14Speaker 02

  As soon as that happened, that scared me and I started yelling like crazy. And I was like, you know, yelling for help when I was scared. I was yelling for like another fifteen to thirty minutes. At that point, it was like really starting to get dark. And I was like, okay, I mean, it's definitive now. I'm at least gonna be out here through the night. And I calmed myself down. I was like, okay, you just, you just gotta wait till the morning.

• 20:40John Hopkins?

  Already, the temperature is dropping fast. Noah's attempts to pull himself up the cliff have had the unintended consequence of dragging his shorts off. In his injured state, he finds it impossible to pull them back on. Now clad only in a t-shirt, he's in for a long, cold night. And the forecast is for rain.

• 21:05John Hopkins?

  In the gloom, he scans the slope and spots a large bush about fifteen or twenty feet away. It's not much, but it should at least give him a modicum of shelter. Cautiously, Noah drags himself towards the bush. He struggles to crawl beneath it and settles instead for curling into a ball besides it, attempting to conserve as much body heat as possible.

• 21:30John Hopkins?

  As the last vestiges of light fade, it isn't long before the rain arrives.

• 21:36John Hopkins?

  Noah's one consolation is the prospect of being rescued tomorrow, when surely his housemates and colleagues will realize something is wrong and come looking for him.

• 21:47Speaker 02

  The first night wasn't as scary as you might think. I was still sure, I was still reminding myself, I'm sure, you know, I'm doing okay right now. Obviously, I'm not in a good condition, but I'm doing okay. And they're definitely gonna find me tomorrow morning. I was just like, okay, just gotta, you know, tough it out through the night. Keep reminding yourself, everything's gonna be fine. So yeah, the first night, a lot on my mind. You know, there's a lot I was thinking about, but it wasn't like I was hopeless by any means or even preparing for the idea of death. It was like, okay, this is just a horrible experience I'm having currently that I will be out of as soon as they find me.

• 22:28John Hopkins?

  This October on the Noiser Podcast Network, Real Dictators returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea, and a man is struck blind all alone at the very top of the world.

• 22:59John Hopkins?

  In Jane Austen stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes short stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in The Sign of Four. Get all of these shows and more early and ad free on Noiser Plus.

• 23:23John Hopkins?

  It's early morning the following day.

• 23:26John Hopkins?

  Curled up beside the bush, Noah watches as the first rays of light pierce the sky, which thankfully is now free of rain clouds.

• 23:35John Hopkins?

  Unsurprisingly, sleep has proved impossible.

• 23:39John Hopkins?

  At some point in the long, dark hours, Noah lost all feeling in his legs, though this could just be the effect of the cold night air. Now, his only priority is to make himself as visible as possible to any rescue party.

• 23:55John Hopkins?

  He shuffles away from the bush to a more exposed spot.

• 23:59Speaker 02

  Where I felt like they would be able to see me and I was able to be heard. And I just, you know, started yelling. Yeah, I was just yelling, listening, yelling, listening.

• 24:11Speaker 02

  And then, as the hours drag on, it got less and less hopeful. It was actually dawning on me that nobody was actually trying to find me.

• 24:22John Hopkins?

  It's several hours later, around noon.

• 24:26John Hopkins?

  Horse with screaming, Noah can't deny the grim truth any longer. If anyone were out there looking for him, they would have found him by now.

• 24:36Speaker 02

  By this time, it's setting into me, this is potentially a life and death situation. Not just potentially, this is likely a life and death situation. That made me so angry. That was the most angry I had been through the whole experience because I was depending on that coworker that I had told. I was, I was reminding myself throughout the night, throughout the morning and throughout, you know, the entire ordeal that I told him specifically where I'd be. It's completely unfair to have any of that put on him. But during this time, I hated. He was what I was depending on. And I was like, I'm gonna die now because you didn't, you know, take me seriously.

• 25:17John Hopkins?

  Noah's anger bubbles over and his lungs strain as he screams with fury and desperation, the cries reverberating off the cliff face. But still, nobody comes.

• 25:29John Hopkins?

  Eventually, the rage is replaced by sheer exhaustion and resignation.

• 25:36John Hopkins?

  Now, early afternoon, it's nearly twenty-four hours since Noah's catastrophic fall. If nobody has come to look for him so far, the chances are they're not going to. And that leaves only two choices. He can either lie here and wait for the inevitable end, or he can try to save himself.

• 25:56John Hopkins?

  Crawling back up the cliffs is obviously out of the question. But further down the slope, on the opposite side of the orchard, there is a small glimmer of hope.

• 26:07John Hopkins?

  In the near distance, a train track runs parallel to the river.

• 26:12John Hopkins?

  Noah estimates it's about two hundred yards away. In his current condition, that seems brutally far. In another cruel twist, construction crews have been working on the tracks all day. But try as he might, Noah has been unable to get their attention.

• 26:27Speaker 02

  All of them are on tractors and have their headphones on and stuff. So I'm yelling at them and I'm trying to get their attention from up on the cliffside. But the whole, the whole day that nobody sees me.

• 26:40John Hopkins?

  There is only one thing left for it.

• 26:42Speaker 02

  I knew I had to crawl at this point. I had to start getting down the hill further to get in through the other orchards at the bottom and by that train track. That was the only goal that I could see as something that could save me at that point.

• 27:04John Hopkins?

  With painstaking caution, Noah starts inching his way down the slope, doing his best to avoid an uncontrolled slide all the way to the bottom. It's tough going. The loose screed digs into his skin. However, there is one advantage to the terrain.

• 27:20Speaker 02

  I went onto my back and I kind of just like angel, like snow angel down the hill as carefully as possible. And because of the loose rocks, they were cutting me up. But in a way, it was helpful to have because they would kind of make little slides, little land slides that I was able to slowly move my way down the hill with.

• 27:41John Hopkins?

  For the rest of the afternoon, Noah slithers down the shale-strewn slope, gaining cuts and abrasions with every foot of ground he covers.

• 27:51John Hopkins?

  It's punishing work, particularly when already weakened by lack of food and water.

• 27:57John Hopkins?

  By the time he makes it to the bottom, where the harsh rocky ground gives way to the softer soil of the vineyards and orchards, the sky is growing dark and he is exhausted.

• 28:08John Hopkins?

  Though Noah has successfully overcome the first stretch of his journey, he is now faced with another problem, a stone wall two or three feet high, which borders the orchards. Under normal circumstances, it would be child's play. But in his current state, it's a major hurdle.

• 28:27John Hopkins?

  Noah tries pulling himself up and over the barrier, but he simply can't. His only remaining option then is to go through it. He reaches for the rocks, grunting with effort as he attempts to dislodge them from the wall.

• 28:44Speaker 02

  At this point, I was digging out the rock, just using my hands like a shovel. There was no being careful at that point. I needed to find help. I was losing energy. I was losing vitality. I needed to find someone, so I needed to get through this rock barrier. And so I sat myself up and I held myself up with one hand and then just dug the rock out with another hand. And while I was sitting up, the specific thought I had was I felt like a bobblehead on my own body, like it was like, there was no structure to just like trying to sit up, which is a horrible thought as to how much more damage it could have caused to my spine.

• 29:23John Hopkins?

  Noah works as darkness falls around him, ignoring the pain throbbing in his lacerated hands.

• 29:30John Hopkins?

  Eventually, he has dismantled enough of the wall to create a small hole, just wide enough to fit his head and shoulders through.

• 29:37John Hopkins?

  He squeezes his upper body through the gap and starts pulling himself to the other side, chest heaving with the effort.

• 29:45John Hopkins?

  But then, something halts his progress. One of his legs appears to be caught on the rocks, preventing him from moving further forward. Gingerly, Noah tries to wriggle free, but it's no use. He is trapped, wedged halfway through the wall.

• 30:05Speaker 02

  I have no functional numerals and I can't reach my legs to reposition them to get them caught off the rock. So essentially, at that point, I had to just pull myself through and I almost cut out my kneecap at that point. I cut very, very deep under my kneecap. And I had to just push myself through to get to the other side. And as soon as I did, I passed out and that was the first time I passed out, just lost consciousness.

• 30:40John Hopkins?

  When Noah comes round, he discovers the sky is pitch black. He must have been out for several hours.

• 30:46Speaker 02

  I knew I was dying at that point. It felt like I was losing my ability to stay conscious. So even though it was night, I attempted as much as possible to crawl myself inch by inch further towards the train track.

• 31:03John Hopkins?

  The muscles in Noah's arms burn as he drags his battered body forwards. But even as he inches his way deeper into the orchard, his progress is slowing, his movements growing weaker. And even more worryingly, he finds he is lapsing with increasing frequency into unconsciousness. His body is shutting down.

• 31:26Speaker 02

  I'm crawling throughout the night, losing energy as I go. And at this point, I didn't even think I would make it to the train tracks. And I was accepting of the fact that I was going to die. It was an inevitability that I just, you know, I was pretty much just going through the motions of trying to do something instead of just laying there and dying.

• 31:56John Hopkins?

  It's a few hours later and still dark. With painfully slow movements, Noah tries to drag himself through the orchard, but it's a losing battle. His head is fuzzy and he's unable to stay conscious for any prolonged period of time.

• 32:13John Hopkins?

  Even during his more lucid moments, he's too weak to cover any serious distance.

• 32:20Speaker 02

  At that point, it seemed to me like I expected death and that was sad, you know, but that was interesting too. You know, I mentioned growing up in a Christian conservative household and never seeing eye to eye on stuff like that, but that was something interesting to me at the time was it was always instilled in you. Well, at least when you're close to death, you're going to be so afraid of hell and all this stuff that you're going to definitely turn to God and try to repent for all your ways and stuff. Through this time, it was like God or the religious version of God was no more real to me than he'd ever been. And hell was no more scary to me than it'd ever been, just because I was about to die. That was an interesting thing to process at the time.

• 33:05Speaker 02

  I was accepting death and it wasn't scary to me. It was honestly, it was sad. I was sad I was never going to see my family again. I was sad I was never going to see my future. It felt very disheartening to be in that situation, but it wasn't scary. It was either going to be nothing or I was about to experience something on the other side and I was intrigued by that, honestly.

• 33:29John Hopkins?

  Dizzy with exhaustion, lack of food and severe dehydration, it isn't long before Noah's final reserves of strength are running dry. As the night wears on, it becomes clear he is too weak to continue any further. The blackness of night closes in. He loses consciousness once again and he collapses into the earth.

• 33:57John Hopkins?

  This October on the Noiser Podcast Network, Real Dictators returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea and a man is struck blind all alone at the very top of the world.

• 34:28John Hopkins?

  In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes Short Stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in the Sign of Four. Get all of these shows and more early and ad free on Noiser Plus.

• 34:49John Hopkins?

  It's early morning on Wednesday, the 17th of May.

• 34:53John Hopkins?

  Noah lies sprawled in the orchard, eyes closed. His breath is shallow, barely perceptible. At first sight, he appears lifeless.

• 35:04John Hopkins?

  But then his eyelids twitch as something pulls him from the depths. A faint, droning hum.

• 35:14Speaker 02

  I woke up to the sound of a mower and I was barely conscious. I was like pushing my consciousness to the front, you could say, kind of like pushing my eyes awake, like, oh my gosh, there's somebody around me.

• 35:28John Hopkins?

  Clearerly, Noah turns his head towards the sound. There he spots a man on a ride on lawnmower, just a couple of orchard rows over. Noah tries to shout, but all that comes out is a weak, strangled croak.

• 35:45John Hopkins?

  In desperation, he grabs some small stones and hurls them towards the mower, trying to make the man turn and look at him, but it's no use.

• 35:53Speaker 02

  Essentially, I just have to watch him mow the whole orchard beside me while I'm like trying to get his attention, but I just knew, okay, well, I can't get his attention, right? It's not working. He has his headphones in, he's focused on his job and I can barely make any noise at this point. So I just laid there and kind of watched him, made myself stay conscious and just kind of watched him mow the orchard.

• 36:18John Hopkins?

  It's an agonizing wait, but eventually the driver turns his lawnmower down the avenue where Noah is lying.

• 36:25Speaker 02

  He sees me and he's obviously alarmed. I'm half naked out there. I think I was pretty bloody, but I definitely wasn't nearly as bloody in my back as it was in my front. So I think he assumed maybe I was drunk or something like that because he didn't seem to fully grasp the gravity of like, I'm dying here.

• 36:49John Hopkins?

  In a cracked voice, little more than a whisper, Noah tries to explain that he is in desperate need of water and help. However, it quickly becomes clear that English is not this man's first language. He is struggling to understand what Noah is telling him.

• 37:05Speaker 02

  So I was like, I need help, call for help. I need help. I broke my back. Get me help. And he responded with, where's your clothes?

• 37:14John Hopkins?

  With increasing frustration and desperation, Noah tries again to explain the only thing that matters right now. He needs urgent medical attention.

• 37:24John Hopkins?

  The man frowns at him for a few seconds, then turns, jumps back onto his mower and drives away.

• 37:32John Hopkins?

  Noah stares in disbelief at his retreating form.

• 37:37Speaker 02

  I was terrified. I was like, okay, I finally found someone. Why is he leaving? Does he not understand the gravity of the situation? Like what, you know, what the heck's going on?

• 37:46John Hopkins?

  It seems once again that help is so close and yet so far.

• 37:52John Hopkins?

  Noah's breathing is shallow as he lies on the earth, helpless. But then, a few minutes later, the man returns.

• 38:02John Hopkins?

  He holds a big bottle of water in his hand and in broken English tells Noah that help is on the way.

• 38:09John Hopkins?

  Noah's rescuer had no mobile signal down in the orchards, so he just went further up the hill to make a call to the emergency services. The relief is immense.

• 38:20John Hopkins?

  The man hands over the water and after drinking his fill, Noah blacks out again, too exhausted and delirious to fight any longer.

• 38:29John Hopkins?

  When he comes to, he finds himself surrounded by medical professionals.

• 38:33Speaker 02

  That's when the relaxation finally hit. I was like, okay, now I'm saved. And honestly, my consciousness kind of just like dissipates at that point for a few days. I mean, I have little inklings of on the helicopter, little inklings of like getting to the hospital and the initial surgeries and stuff like that. And that was, my God, that was terrifying, the tube down my throat and the intense pain that I was finally able to feel because the adrenaline was wearing off, but I was saved. You know, I had prepared for death and I was saved. So even though I was in intense pain, I was excited actually to be still alive.

• 39:17John Hopkins?

  In hospital, the true severity of Noah's injuries is revealed.

• 39:23John Hopkins?

  His fall shattered his T12 vertebra, a crucial juncture between the upper and lower parts of the spine. Though his desperate two-day crawl to reach help undoubtedly saved his life, it also exacerbated the injury. He is told the physical trauma to his spinal column will cause long-term mobility impairment.

• 39:43Speaker 02

  Through the hospital visit, it became very detrimental to keep hearing how this was something I was going to be dealing with for life. So that was a gigantic blow, for sure.

• 39:54John Hopkins?

  In addition to this, Noah struggles with other aspects of his hospital stay.

• 39:59Speaker 02

  I appreciate everyone that's come and visited me and tried to help me, or has helped me throughout my experience. But during this time, instead of my being able to invite my friends and just people my age that were wanting to come visit, my family kind of made it all about them. They turned the situation into the family situation. So the entire church community kept coming into my hospital room over and over and over. And I was infuriated by hearing constantly how lucky and fortunate I was and protected I was by supernatural forces because I survived.

• 40:44John Hopkins?

  However, faced with a long road to recovery and a significant change in his way of life, Noah comes to the conclusion that he will need support. Having moved out of the family home at 17, less than a year later, he finds himself back once again, a decision he says he now regrets.

• 41:03Speaker 02

  I was given, essentially, without directly it being laid out in words, it was essentially given an ultimatum to have to choose between family and that social life I had built. And at the time, I chose family, which, I mean, it's not a bad thing to choose family, but for me, it was a very bad decision. It just ended up setting me back years.

• 41:32John Hopkins?

  On top of these emotional struggles, Noah must also learn how to live in a very different body. He uses a wheelchair as well as other mobility aids such as walkers and leg braces.

• 41:43Speaker 02

  It's a difficult, more than difficult, being, losing agency of your body feels wrong, it feels unnatural, you know, you're supposed to be able to function. And then I deal with pain, especially through the first years, I dealt with very chronic pain. I went from an extreme independence that was more than important to me to extreme dependence.

• 42:11John Hopkins?

  In time, however, Noah does begin to adapt and find things to look forward to. Several years after the accident, he moves out into his own place once again and finally regains his independence.

• 42:23Speaker 02

  Cut ties with that family. I miss a lot of them, but essentially had to just cut ties to keep my sanity. So I cut ties a couple of years ago when I was able to finally get my own place. And my life changed like after that, like my emotional state is immeasurably different.

• 42:45John Hopkins?

  During his recovery, Noah learns that the coworker he'd told about his planned walk to the cliffs ended up leaving work early and calling in sick the following day. Because nobody else knew where Noah had gone, they didn't know where to look for him.

• 43:01John Hopkins?

  Noah's story is one of remarkable perseverance and fortitude in the most arduous of circumstances. His courage and willpower have enabled him to forge a new path after the devastation of the accident. He says he is now determined to embrace a rich and rewarding life, wherever it may lead him.

• 43:18Speaker 02

  I certainly am fortunate to have survived, and I do see serendipity within the world and within reality. I even see my experiences as very positive, although very difficult. I know I'm the person I am today because of the experiences I've had. So figuring some stuff out, but otherwise, I'm excited, you know, to live. Honestly, I would truly say my current state of mind is happier than most people in much better conditions than me. Looking forward to my future. That's the other cool thing that I finally have learned over time is, you know, I always had to have a clear view of exactly what my future looked like. And that's something I've grown out of, finally, just be able to appreciate the present moment

• 44:00Speaker 02

  and be excited for the possibilities of the future. I'm excited to live life.

• 44:20John Hopkins?

  Next time on Real Survival Stories, a young fuel technician is called into action when the USA is threatened with nuclear disaster.

• 44:28John Hopkins?

  In September 1980, 21-year-old Greg Devlin is a member of the US Air Force. One night, Greg receives an emergency call from his commanding officer informing him of a potentially catastrophic fuel leak at a nuclear missile silo near the small town of Damascus, Arkansas.

• 44:45John Hopkins?

  Greg and his colleagues will head to the silo to try to contain the leak. The stakes could not be higher.

• 44:52John Hopkins?

  If the fuel spilling out of the missile ignites, it could conceivably cause the W-53 warhead inside to detonate, triggering a nuclear explosion right in the very heart of the USA.

• 45:03Speaker 03

  The small side of that W-53 had the power of Hiroshima, but the black part on the back end made it 600 times as powerful, or three times more powerful than every bomb dropped in World War II.

• 45:20John Hopkins?

  That's next time on Real Survival Stories.

• 45:24John Hopkins?

  Listen right now without ads and without waiting by joining Noiser Plus.

• 45:29John Hopkins?

  This October on the Noiser Podcast Network, Real Dictators returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea, and a man is struck blind all alone at the very top of the world. In Jane Austen's stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' short stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in The Sign of Four.

• 46:11John Hopkins?

  Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.