by Krista Wolf
That part was endearing to me. That this cute girl I’d almost been buried alive with had opened up to me in ways she didn’t normally. And she was beautiful, inside and out. Soft amber hair, the color of sunset. Full, plump lips I could kiss all day.
And blue-green eyes. Oh, man. Those fucking eyes…
It was those damn eyes that had gotten me where I was. And where I was, right now at least, was fucked.
More like doubly fucked.
I didn’t know whether to kick my own ass or chuckle at my own cleverness.
The wind whistled and I glanced outside. A huge part of me was still very worried. The storm still hadn’t let up, and if anything, it had gotten worse. They’d be looking for us though. They had to be.
Right?
In truth I didn’t know. We were on the ass end of the mountain, on a trail I wasn’t sure was even a trail. I didn’t see a sign, a marker, anything at all. In fact, Jeremy had even laughed at me when I—
“Hey…”
My lover stirred sleepily, her cheek warm against my chest. There was a contented smile on her face. But it was a smile that quickly faded as she glanced around, and realized where we still were.
She bolted upright, “W—Wait. What time is it?”
“Daytime.”
She frowned. “Ha ha.”
“No really,” I shrugged. “I have no fucking clue. The sky is grey, that’s all I know. Bright grey instead of darker grey, which I guess would be morning.”
She peered outside, through the one tiny window of our little hollowed-out space. Everything was white and grey and blowing snow.
“We have to get out there,” she said. “We have to be seen!”
I shook my head. “No one’s gonna see us in this.”
She looked troubled, and a little crease formed between her eyes. It was adorable actually.
“But we can’t stay here,” she said, a little more frantically. She started to separate from me, and realized we were still practically naked. “We… uh…”
“We have to get dressed,” I finished for her, “and make our way down the mountain while we can still see something.”
Morgan nodded rapidly. She looked happy about my plan.
“So let’s uh… get ourselves situated.”
I pulled my boxers back up my legs, and settled my ski pants around my waist. Hers were still shredded in the front; two big tears from hip to ankle, courtesy of whatever rocks she’d happened to skid across during all the craziness. But those rips and tears had sure come in handy last night.
“D—Did you want your jacket back?” she asked, fixing herself.
“Nah.”
She smiled uneasily. “Good.”
Eventually we were face to face again, for the first time since last night. Staring at each other uncertainly.
“Listen uh… Shane?”
“Yes?”
“I’m— I’m not…” She hesitated, turning six different shades of red. “I mean, I don’t usually…”
I watched her squirm a few seconds longer before letting her off the hook. “Fuck the hell out of some perfect stranger after surviving an avalanche?”
She looked shocked by my boldness, but only for a second. “Yeah,” Morgan breathed gratefully. “That.”
“Me neither,” I smiled back. “Usually I wait until we’re rescued, then screw them in the hospital bed.” Her mouth opened and closed silently, so I winked at her. “Much more comfortable.”
She grinned, and somehow it lit up her whole face. Even in our dim little cave.
“You really think we’ll end up in hospital beds?” Morgan asked.
“Screwing?” I asked hopefully.
“No,” she said. “I mean… worse.”
“Not if I can help it,” I told her, as I smashed my way through the ceiling.
Eight
MORGAN
The world outside our little snow shelter was brutally cold, with winds that bit at every surface of exposed skin. I was in pain after only a dozen steps. But in just a few dozen more, I was numb again.
“KEEP MOVING!” Shane shouted over his shoulder. It was shocking how quickly his voice could be swallowed by the wind. “AND NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS… DON’T LOSE ME!”
I was right behind him as we made our way downward, stepping where he stepped, reaching out to touch him reassuringly from time to time. The snow sucked bad, but it was the glare that hurt the most. It blinded me to just about everything.
If you lose him, you’re dead.
The thought was sobering. It made me think of Faith.
Faith made it down the mountain, the little voice in my head told me. She was way ahead of you. The avalanche missed her.
I sure hoped so. But my optimism could’ve been nothing more than wishful thinking.
Focus on yourself Morgan! It’s all you can do right now.
For once I took my own advice. I reached out often, touching Shane’s shoulder or brushing his back with my fingers. I had to keep him at arm’s length. Had to know he was still there.
Even so, I was fearful. I was putting all my trust — my very life — in the hands of this guy I didn’t even know.
You know him now though, don’t you?
Yeah, I supposed I did. Carnally, anyway. But still…
“ARE YOU SURE THIS IS THE WAY?”
If Shane heard me, he didn’t answer. He only kept on going, pushing his way through the snow.
I thought it would get easier, honestly. That as we got further down past the avalanche zone, the snow beneath our feet would become less thick. Instead, it seemed to grow even deeper. We were sinking more often, sometimes up to our waists. Sometimes more.
This is crazy! Maybe we should just stay put.
The second guessing part was the worst — knowing that every decision you made from this point forward could be the one that ultimately saved or killed you. The not having a plan part was the worst for me. I liked plans. Plans were my thing. When it came to winging it, or playing things by ear, I just wasn’t your girl.
Maybe we should just—
Silently I pushed all other thoughts away. I had faith in Shane. He’d kept us alive last night, when the temperatures had probably dropped low enough to freeze us solid. Somehow he’d known what to do. Something told me he had experience.
And strength. Don’t forget that.
Minutes turned into hours, but the sky remained the same. There was no visibility, no way for anyone to find us. I had to wonder if anyone was even looking. The entire day, we didn’t see or hear a single soul. No voices on the wind. No shouts, calling out for us.
Exhaustion set in, and the day came to an end. Our only indication was a darkening of the flat grey sky.
“S—SHOULD WE S—STOP AGAIN?” I asked, my teeth chattering.
Snow turned to sleet, which was transforming everything around us to ice. Swimming our way through the existing accumulation was becoming rapidly impossible.
Shane stopped, slapping his arms to his sides in a gesture of futility. He looked utterly exasperated as he stared up at the sky.
“I GUESS SO.”
The idea of staying another night on the mountain was crushing. Then again, dying seemed worse. I wondered if he had it in him to dig another snow shelter. This time, no matter what, I was going to help. I couldn’t feel my fingers anyway.
“WE HAVE TO BE NEAR THE BOTTOM!” he shouted. He slogged forward another few steps. “WE HAVE TO BE CLOSE TO—”
WHOOSH!
There a blur of silvery powder… and suddenly he was gone! One moment he’d been standing right there. The next…
“SHANE!”
I rushed forward frantically. Where Shane had been standing a moment ago, there was now a dark hole in the snow. A big hole. A hole leading down to—
“I’M ALRIGHT!”
I could see him, thankfully not too far down. He’d fallen about eight or ten feet. Landed on something that looked like… wood?
Droppi
ng to my belly, I stuck my head in the hole. Instantly everything quieted down. The wind was all but gone. The air inside was still.
“WHAT HAPPENED?” I shouted, then suddenly realized I was way too loud. “I mean, where are you? What is this?”
Shane was already back on his feet. He was standing on what looked like an upstairs landing, complete with polished floor and a railing. And looking down beyond that, over the railing…
“It’s a house!”
My voice echoed in the inky darkness. With the light spilling in from our hole, I could see a huge, downstairs area. It was vast. Tremendous.
“Not a house,” Shane said, pointing. Up and down each end of the landing he was standing on, I could see doors set into the wall. “It’s— It’s some kind of hotel!”
I squinted hard, trying to see. He was right though. The landing continued around to another one on the opposite side, all but lost in shadow. And there was a big, sprawling staircase. A double-staircase, leading down to the first floor, where a huge reception desk presided over a giant debris-strewn lobby.
“Holy shit!”
The wind was whipping its way up my jacket — or rather, Shane’s jacket. Suddenly I was envious of him being out of the cold.
“Catch me,” I said. “I’m jumping down.”
Sliding to the edge, I dropped down until I hung from the fingertips of my gloves. I waited until I felt the reassuring feel of Shane’s hands on my hips, then I let go.
It was like falling into oblivion. I could feel the floor beneath my feet as he set me down, but for several long moments I couldn’t see anything… at least until my snow-blind eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness.
“Look at this place!” Shane cried. “It’s… It’s like a hotel from another time. In the middle of nowhere!”
He walked away from me, toward the staircase. Still rubbing my eyes, I ran after him. My ski boots clacked on the smooth oaken floor — not exactly comfortable, but still so much better than trudging through the snow.
“Maybe there’s a phone here!” I heard him say. “Maybe there’s—”
Shane stopped short at the bottom of the staircase, so quickly that I bumped into him. When I regained my balance he was still standing there, staring off into the far end of the hotel’s lobby.
There was a light in the darkness.
A light that was moving.
It swept back and forth, like a flashlight only smaller. And it was getting closer. Moving more quickly, until a voice called out to us.
“Dude?”
Shane’s face went from confusion to shock to a huge, shit-eating grin — all in the span of half a second.
‘DUDE!” he shouted in reply, his voice echoing from the rafters of the hotel lobby.
A moment later I was standing alone, as both men rushed forward to complete the mother of all bro-hugs.
Nine
JEREMY
I had to look three times before my brain would allow it to register. It was that crazy, that unbelievable! But he was here. He’d actually made it.
And somehow, he’d found this place.
Shane crushed me in his arms like I’d just rescued him from a deserted island. Like he hadn’t seen me for a decade, rather than a day.
“WHAT THE FUCK?”
He looked at me bleary-eyed and hugged me again, this time with some raucous back-clapping that nearly knocked me on my ass. And that’s when I noticed her. The girl, standing in the shadows behind him.
“DUDE! Holy shit, I can’t believe you’re HERE!” Shane practically shouted. His voice was so loud, so obnoxious in the silent darkness, I had to shush him with one finger. As we stood there looking at each other by the light of my dying cellphone, tiny bits of snow sifted down from somewhere above us.
“But I left you on the mountain!” Shane replied. “I left you back at the top, over by the main run.”
“Yeah, dumbass” I said. “Without even telling me where you were going!”
“I just…“ he hesitated. “I took one of the back runs. It was spur of the moment. I didn’t think you could do a double-black anyway, what with just learning to snowboard and—”
“And you left me in the dust,” I said, punching him hard in the arm. “I saw you go and I followed you. But holy shit — right away I was in over my head.”
Trying the double-black diamond was definitely stupid. It was my first time snowboarding! I hadn’t even done a single black diamond, much less a double one.
Unlike when we were riding the blue intermediate trails, I’d lost sight of Shane almost immediately. I’d fallen at a half-dozen turns, trying not to go over the edge. And of course I’d been cursing him out. Scared shitless the entire time.
Then, somewhere behind me, the mountain exploded.
And before I knew it it had swallowed me whole.
“I didn’t even know you were behind me,” Shane said, his expression apologetic. “I had no idea!”
“I lost you early,” I told him. “First time snowboarding, remember?”
“But if you were behind me, how did you—”
“Make it?”
He nodded vigorously. I could see the girl behind him edging her way up. She seemed interested to hear the answer as well.
“I got lucky,” I said. “The snow swept me high, and I somehow I rode the surface of the avalanche. Not on my board, obviously,” I added, “that was gone immediately. But on my back. Somehow I just went with it, staring up at the sky. The sound was deafening…”
I shuddered involuntarily, remembering the terror of being flung helplessly down the mountain. Recalling the notion that I was going to be buried at any second, lost beneath several feet and tons of snow.
“Halfway down I got pushed over a cliff,” I said, “and after that I just somehow stayed ahead of everything. Eventually I was flailing with my arms and legs out, riding it down, kinda like…”
“Like you were swimming.”
I turned to the girl who’d just spoken and nodded. “Yes. Exactly like that!”
She nodded back at me, and I couldn’t help but notice she was strikingly beautiful. Long, reddish-gold hair. Amazing eyes, even in the dim light.
She was from the trip, too. I’d seen her before. And for some reason she was wearing Jeremy’s jacket.
“The human body is much denser than snow,” the girl explained. “Staying near the surface of an avalanche is almost like treading water. If you can kick your feet and thrash your arms, you can sort of swim through it.”
Shane whirled on her. “How do you know all that?”
We were both staring at her now, and she seemed suddenly embarrassed. It only made her look cuter.
“What can I say?” she shrugged. “I know lots of stupid things.”
Shane smirked and motioned to her with one arm.
“Jeremy, meet Morgan. She’s—”
“The girl you left me at the top of the mountain for?” I quipped.
“Yeah,” he laughed.
She stepped forward awkwardly and I shook her gloved hand. Thanks to the avalanche, I no longer had the luxury of gloves. At her touch, the skin of my fingers felt like a thousand needles were poking me all at once.
“That’s not a stupid thing to know by the way,” I told her. “That’s a smart thing. It saved my life.”
“So you knew it too?” Shane asked incredulously.
“Not even a little,” I chuckled. “I guess it was just instinct.”
“Instinct my ass,” he smirked. “You got lucky, as always. Morgan this is Jeremy. Just one of my idiot fraternity brothers.”
The girl he’d just introduced looked surprised. I guess it was something he hadn’t mentioned.
“Delta Lambda Mu,” I said by way of explanation.
“Ah,” she said.
I raised an eyebrow at her answer. “Are you in a sorority or—”
“No, no,” she said, probably a little too quickly. “Not at all.”
I stood there for a moment
just taking her in. Wondering how she could seem so radically different from most of the girls I usually went after, yet still be so intriguingly attractive. There was a certain innocence about her, I decided. One that radiated off her in awkward waves, but only made her sexier, and more enticing.
“How’d you make it through the night?” I asked.
“Shane dug a snow shelter,” Morgan said simply. She looked nervous though. Like there was more to it.
“That works?”
“Hell yeah it works,” Shane said smugly. He elbowed his partner. “I built us the best fucking snow shelter ever, didn’t I?”
Morgan nodded her agreement. “He did.”
The two of them stood motionless, taking in the ruins of the hotel lobby. The place was huge and open, all strewn with broken furniture and shattered glass. And in places where the walls had caved in? Entire mini-avalanches of ice and snow.
“I found this place last night,” I said, “just before I froze to death. Some sort of old hotel. I even found a bed! Although it sucks because the mattress is frozen solid.” I shrugged. “Would’ve been the same as sleeping on the floor.”
“How did you not freeze to death,” Morgan asked. She was totally shivering now. Her breath came in little plumes of white smoke. “It’s well below freezing in here!”
“Sleeping bags,” I smiled proudly. “One of the only useful things I found while ransacking this place.”
“Sleeping bags?” Shane asked hopefully.
I nodded. “Eight of them.”
Shane’s expression couldn’t hide his excitement. I even saw Morgan’s shoulders slump with relief. Sleeping bags were a total game-changer.
“The storm’s worse than ever,” I said, pointing backward. “Most of this place is buried, but I came in on the one side still exposed to the outdoors.”
“Well at least we’re safe in here,” Shane declared, rubbing his arms. “Wherever the hell here is.”
Morgan raised her hand timidly, almost like she was in class. We both turned to look at her expectantly.
“I, uh… might actually be able to help out with that.”