Five Little Words

Part 1

The final part of the course was a five metre plank that extended out from the edge of the building, and the boys would reattach their wires at the beginning of this platform, before they had to jump off the edge of it and plummet down to the ground on the zip wire.

At the sound of the klaxon, Ant and Dec set off on the terrifying course - both keen (for very different reasons) to get this over with and get back to the safety of the ground.

Everything looked to be going well to start off with: the wind had died down a little, and Ant quickly pushed ahead (being much more comfortable with heights than Dec, who hesitated and stumbled a few times before he found his feet properly). 

Confidently surging ahead, Ant reached the final platform in just under a minute and a half, and he made short work of removing and then reattaching his caribeena before setting off on the zip wire just as Dec made it to the start of the platform.

The plank on Ant's side had been slightly more sheltered from the rain, and therefore had remained a bit drier than Dec's. Unfortunately, Dec didn't notice this little detail until it was almost too late.

As his shaking hands unclasped his caribeena from the first wire and reattached it to the final wire, the wind put up an extra strong gust and he found himself struggling to keep his feet on the narrow platform.

Grabbing instinctively onto the wire above his head, harsh gasps and pants misted in front of his face in the cold air, and he gave himself a few seconds to steady himself before he finished tightening the caribeena.

Turning slowly around, he finally caught sight of the sight below.

Just get to the ground. You're almost done. You can do this, he kept repeating to himself, trying to calm his racing heart.

"Come on Dec!" The encouraging shouts from the crowd below settled his nerves a little, and he took a deep breath and finally pushed away from the side of the building.

Remembering the army instructor's words about it would be better to take the leap at a run, Dec let his feet increase their pace as he focused all of his attention on just getting this over with.

By now, Ant was already almost at the ground, so he knew he wouldn't win the challenge. But he didn't care: he just wanted to get to the ground now, get back to safety.

He started to run faster. The end of the platform was now only a few steps away.

And this was where things went horribly wrong.

With his vision tunneled on the leap ahead, Dec didn't realise that he'd run out of platform until he felt his foot slip over the edge. Now this might have been fine on its own, but the rope holding him to the zip wire had accidentally been left a bit too long, so as his foot slipped out from under him, his whole body went backwards and he slammed into the hard edge of the platform, hearing an ominous crack as a bone made contact with the unforgiving wood and pain exploded in his neck.

Vision graying, Dec felt his whole body go limp - as if all of his muscles had suddenly gone on strike. He tried to grab hold of the rope as he began the descent, but his arms just wouldn't cooperate; they just flopped uselessly at his sides.

He was about halfway down now, and he was really starting to struggle to stay conscious. His vision was darkening at the edges and he could feel his head lolling on his shoulders. The excruciating pain at the back of his neck was the only thing in his body he could feel - and that thought would have terrified him if he hadn't been so close to passing out.

Finally, after a drop that felt like it took forever, Dec managed to make it back to the ground, and the audience's cheers rang out from the assembled crowd. Reaching the end of the zip wire, he collapsed onto the thick safety mats that had been put out for them.