by R. T. Martin
Katrina rolled the window down, and only then did CJ realize the van was still running, even while smashed up against a tree.
“Help!” she yelled.
“Are you hurt?” CJ yelled back.
Katrina looked around for a second. “No . . . no, I don’t think so.”
“I’ll get her,” Leo said.
“No, hold on!” CJ said. “Even if you make it to her, you’d have no way of getting back up here.”
“Well, how do we get her then?”
CJ had never seen Leo panic like this. He was always the calm one, cracking jokes even when tensions were running high. Now, she could see pure fear in his eyes.
“I’ve got an idea,” Alex said. He grabbed a small tree by the edge of the drop-off and shook it, testing its strength. “I’ll hold on to this tree and lower Leo down. You can grab onto one of his hands, he can lower you down, and maybe you can reach Katrina.”
CJ didn’t like the sound of the plan. It was risky, and it meant she would be dangling down the steep slope. One mistake, and she’d be falling. But, she realized as she gritted her teeth, there aren’t really any other options. “Okay,” she said.
“Stay there and stay still,” Alex called to Katrina. “We’re coming to get you!”
He gripped the tree. He adjusted his hold on it a few times and tested the strength of the trunk once more. Alex grabbed Leo’s hand, and CJ grabbed Leo’s.
Slowly but surely, they started sliding their way down the drop-off.
“You got us?” Leo asked when Alex was fully stretched out, lowering the two of them as far as he could.
“Yeah,” he said, although he sounded strained. “I’ve got you.”
Leo lowered CJ down as far as he could. She was closer to the van than she thought she’d be, easily within reach of Katrina. The thought of all their stuff—their money, their IDs, their cell phone chargers, their extra clothes—in the van’s trunk flashed through her mind. Assuming they could get Katrina to safety, they should probably also try to recover their gear.
“You ready?” CJ said. She was close enough that she didn’t have to shout over the wind.
Katrina nodded and unclipped her seatbelt.
“Okay, pop the trunk and cut the engine, and then come on out,” CJ said. If they left the engine running, the van might be completely out of gas by the time they could call a tow service to retrieve it. CJ felt strangely calm as these thoughts came to her, as if part of her brain had switched off her fear and started logically thinking ahead.
Katrina did as she was told. Once she got the door open, she shifted in the seat until her foot was against the center console. She pushed up, grabbed CJ’s hand, and hoisted herself out of the van.
CJ pulled her up with all of her might. Her feet dug into the snow for traction, and her arm strained as Katrina leaned all her weight into CJ.
“Okay,” CJ shouted. “Help us up!”
She heard both Leo and Alex grunt and strain. Finally, with a lot of pulling and getting as much traction as they could against the hill, they made it back to the road, safe and sound . . . At least for the time being, CJ thought.
They all looked down at the van. It hadn’t moved an inch, even with Katrina shifting inside it.
CJ turned to Alex and Leo. “How many more times do you think you can do that?”
Within a half hour, they had gotten their stuff out of the back of the van using the same method they had used to rescue Katrina. One suitcase, pair of skis, and snowboard at a time, they retrieved everything they’d brought with them.
Once it was all done, CJ felt a swell of pride. Not only had she confronted her fear of falling, she had done it multiple times by choice.
“Which way do we go?” Leo asked the group.
They were all a little out of breath. They’d been successful in getting their stuff back, but lowering themselves and coming back up over and over again had been tiring.
Leo turned to Katrina. “How far are we from the cabin?”
She looked around for a second. “I can’t really tell in this storm.”
“If you had to guess,” Leo urged. “Are we closer to the cabin or town?”
After thinking for a second, she replied, “The cabin . . . I think.”
“You think?” Alex said harshly. “You think or you know?”
“I think, Alex.”
“I would have made it the rest of the way if you hadn’t driven it off a cliff.” Alex was getting louder.
“Give it more gas!” Katrina shouted at him, mimicking his voice. “Does that sound familiar?”
“I didn’t mean give it so much that you shoot over the edge, you—”
“Shut up!” CJ screamed. “Both of you, shut up! If you two had gotten over your stupid argument, none of us would be in this situation. I don’t care whose fault it is! In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve got much bigger problems right now. We’re stuck on a mountain, and unless you want to freeze to death up here, we need to make decisions quickly.”
Alex and Katrina both looked down at their boots.
“Once we’re safe and warm, you two can blame each other, scream at each other, or tear each other’s throats out for all I care,” she continued. “Until then, shut up!”
There was a beat of silence. Alex and Katrina continued staring at the ground, and Leo gave her an impressed look.
“Katrina thinks we’re closer to the cabin, so we go up the mountain,” CJ said firmly. “Grab your stuff. Put on as many layers as you can. She unzipped her suitcase. “And then we need to move.”
They all quickly put on their heavy-duty snowboarding or ski boots and snow pants. They layered sweaters and sweatshirts underneath their jackets and stuffed their hands into their thick gloves.
Each of them had a strap attached to their snowboards or skis to make them easier to carry. They hooked the gear over their backs, leaving their hands free so they could drag their wheeled suitcases behind them. The trek wouldn’t be easy, but at least they were taking action.
The four of them, still unsure of how far from the cabin they truly were, began the trek up the mountain road.
Chapter
8
CJ couldn’t stop thinking about how many TV shows she’d watched in which one of the characters said, “At least things can’t get any worse.” That meant things were about to get worse—usually a lot worse. She felt that way about the blizzard. She’d thought it many times during the drive, and the storm always proved her wrong. She made the fatal mistake of thinking it just before they started walking, and once again, the storm was proving her dreadfully wrong.
The wind sliced at every inch of exposed skin. Every time a blast of cold wind blew into her face, she felt like her breath was caught. Even swallowing was difficult. Frost had formed around the mouth of her ski mask, which was doing next to nothing in these conditions. Her coat and snow gear were warm but heavy, so her legs quickly began to ache as they trudged through the snow. And dragging their bags with them didn’t make the hike any easier.
They’d only been walking for forty-five minutes.
Even if the road had been clear, the walk probably would have been difficult due to the constant incline. While CJ had been proud of her ability to conquer her fear and get their belongings from the trunk, now she almost regretted it. The bags were a burden, maybe an unnecessary one.
“Should we just leave our suitcases?” she asked the group.
Leo, leading the trail, and Alex, just behind him, turned around. “What?” she heard Leo yell through the wind.
She repeated her question. “We can’t,” Katrina said from behind her. “If we make it to the cabin, we might be there for a while, especially if this storm doesn’t let up. We’ll need clothes and stuff.”
“What?” Leo shouted again, unable to hear anyone over the howling wind. Alex turned back toward him and repeated what CJ had asked.
Leo turned back to her and shouted, “We’ll want the spare clothes and s
tuff when we get to the cabin.”
She rolled her eyes. “I got that. Okay, we’ll keep the suitcases.” Still, she fished her wallet out of her suitcase and zipped it up in her coat pocket with her currently useless phone. That way if she had to abandon the suitcase later, she’d still have her money and ID with her.
They continued on.
The longer they walked, the slower their progress became. The snow covered most of their legs, and moving through it was like trying to walk through a pool filled with packing peanuts.
CJ forced herself to put one foot in front of the other as they made their way up the road. With each turn they rounded, she hoped the cabin’s mailbox would be right in front of them, but it never was. Besides the occasional tree, all she could see in any direction was pure white.
She began to doubt their ability to make it there at all. If the storm continued like this, it would only be an hour, maybe two, before they were all too tired to keep moving. They would be stuck with no shelter, no warmth, and no hope. She started considering the possibility that she, Leo, Katrina, and Alex would die on this mountain.
The wind was arguably worse than the snow. When it whipped up into a strong gust, the four were forced to hunker down as much as they could because it was simply unbearable.
Leo stopped. Alex, looking at the ground to keep the wind out of his face, bumped right into him. They leaned their heads together so they could hear one another talk. CJ and Katrina, who were trailing behind them, waded through the snow to join them. The four of them pressed together in a tight circle for warmth.
Leo looked at CJ and said, “Alex wants to keep going, but I don’t know.”
“We can’t be far,” Alex said.
“Do you know for sure?” CJ asked.
She looked at Katrina as Alex shook his head. “It could be around the next corner or a mile farther,” Katrina said. “Without being able to see the landmarks, I can’t say for certain.”
“Do we have a choice anymore?” Alex asked. “Going back down will be just as slow and definitely farther than the cabin.”
“I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” Leo said.
“Alex is right, though,” CJ said. “Even if we had cell reception, I don’t think anyone could get to us right now.”
“Maybe we should camp out somewhere and try to stick it out,” Leo suggested.
“There’s no way we’d survive this, Leo!” CJ said. “If we stay out here much longer, we could get really sick—or worse.”
“Well, maybe we go back to the van! At least we’d be a little warmer in there.”
“It was teetering on a cliff!” Katrina said.
“Teetering, not falling,” he pointed out.
“And you’re assuming we’d be able to find it again,” Katrina continued as if Leo hadn’t said anything. “At the rate the snow’s coming down, it’s got to be buried already, and that’s not even counting the time it would take us to get back there.”
The wind picked up, and the four of them closed in together even more to form a little pod. When they were huddled up like this, it wasn’t so bad. The wind whipped at their backs, but it couldn’t reach their faces or their hands tucked into their chests.
Before they could continue their debate, CJ heard a rumbling sound. Thunder, she thought. It started as a dull roar, but it got stronger and stronger until she could actually feel it shaking the ground beneath her. I didn’t know blizzards could produce thunder.
Alex popped his head up from the huddle and seemed to be looking around. Suddenly, he started pushing all three of them. “Run!” he shouted.
CJ and the others practically tripped over themselves as Alex shoved them forward. He grabbed Katrina and Leo’s arms in each hand and started dragging them behind him. Leo reached to link hands with CJ as she trailed behind.
CJ didn’t know what they were running from until the thunder grew louder behind them, and something clicked into place in her mind.
Avalanche!
Chapter
9
The wall of snow dropped down the mountain from above them, knocking them all off their feet and burying them in an instant.
CJ felt herself getting tossed and turned. She lost any sense of direction. The concept of up became meaningless as the snow jostled her around. Snow poured down the neck of her coat, completely filled her boots, and even got in her tightly cinched gloves.
When she stopped moving, everything was dark and cold. Snow pressed against her face. She tried to move her right arm, but it wouldn’t budge. The left was stuck in place as well. Her suitcase was gone. It had flown out of her hand the moment the avalanche hit her. The snowboard, it seemed, was still strapped to her back.
She started breathing heavily, her body going into panic mode. I’m going to die right here, stuck in place like a dinosaur trapped in a tar pit, she thought.
She tried to calm herself down. Breathe. Just breathe for a couple minutes. Each breath she took was cold, and some of what she inhaled was snow. Start with your fingers.
She wiggled her fingers and found that they could move. It wasn’t much, but it was something. She wriggled and spun them around, making a little cavity in the snow. Soon she was able to move her wrist, then her forearm, and she started waving it around as much as she could, loosening the snow that was keeping her in place. She set to work digging a cavity out of the snow surrounding her face.
CJ was breathing so heavily that she kept breathing in snow by accident. Growing frustrated, she spat it out of her mouth. It flew in front of her and dropped to the left. CJ realized that this must be the work of gravity and that up must be to her right.
She swung her arm, loosening more snow to her right until she felt the wind catching on her gloved hand. She’d broken through the snow. She began waving her hand around hoping that Leo, Katrina, or Alex would see it and help her get out. When no one did, she started clearing the snow from above her head. Once her head and most of her torso were free, she was able to pull herself out of the massive snow pile.
She looked around, and fear gripped her harder than the cold. She didn’t see anyone. No Leo. No Alex. No Katrina. Everything was pure white, and with all the snow that had just fallen in the avalanche, she couldn’t even see the road . . . or wherever the road used to be. It was all one giant snow bank.
She heard a strange rapping sound coming from behind her. As she turned around, she saw a figure in the distance. After a moment she realized the person was frantically digging in the snow. She started moving toward the person, stumbling twice in snow that was up to her chest.
“Leo?” she called out.
The person quickly whipped their head around before returning to continue digging. “Help me!” they shouted back.
It was Alex’s voice. As she got closer, CJ realized he was trying to dig someone out. CJ made it over to him and started digging where he was. Before long, they uncovered a hat, and Katrina snapped her head around, taking a deep breath as she did so.
“Get me out of here!” she shouted.
Alex and CJ dug as hard as they could. Eventually, Katrina was able to get herself free from the snow.
“Where’s Leo?” CJ asked.
“I haven’t seen him,” Alex said, panting. “I crawled out, and the first thing I saw was Katrina’s hand sticking out of the snow.”
“Oh my god,” CJ breathed, feeling her stomach drop. She tried not to let herself think of the worst.
Katrina started shouting Leo’s name. CJ and Alex did the same.
They called and called, but nothing came back. Leo was nowhere to be seen. As the wind died down, CJ caught sight of the drop-off. It wasn’t that far away from them. She took a sharp breath inward. He fell, she thought. The avalanche knocked him over the side.
She felt her legs go weak and would have fallen to her knees if the deep snow wasn’t preventing her from doing so. Alex and Katrina were still calling out, but with each time the call wasn’t returned, CJ felt mor
e and more hopeless. He was gone.
Alex gave up first, shuffling his way over to CJ and hugging her. Shortly after, Katrina stopped shouting. She stood in the snow looking toward the drop-off without moving, and CJ figured she had realized what happened. CJ felt tears welling up in her eyes.
“Hey!” It was Leo’s voice.
Chapter
10
CJ’s head snapped around, frantically scanning the area, but she couldn’t see Leo.
“Hey!” he shouted again. “Help!”
Katrina seemed to know where the voice was coming from. She pushed her way through the snow, with CJ and Alex coming up behind her.
Somehow, Leo had managed to land on a ledge about six feet down into the drop-off. The ledge had stayed mostly free of snow, but it was so narrow that he was struggling to stay on top of it in the wind. He crouched low, one hand clinging to the rock face beside him and the other gripping the side of the ledge.
“I’m coming!” CJ said, moving to slide down the drop-off.
“Wait.” Alex grabbed her shoulder. He tested the strength of a tree at the edge of the drop-off near where they were standing. “We’ve done this before.” He gripped the tree tightly and held his other hand out for CJ to take.
It was harder this time. CJ had to push snow out of the way with her feet and free hand, but gradually she slid her way down to Leo. She dislodged some snow that fell straight onto his face. Leo flinched as it happened, but he kept his grip.
“I’ve got you,” she said, grabbing his wrist and bringing his arm around her waist. Leo stood on shaky legs.
“If this were on TV,” he said, “I’ll bet the episode would end here.”
CJ stared at him.
“You know . . . on a cliff-hanger.”
She was too stressed to laugh. “You’re the worst. You ready?” He nodded and lifted his other hand up for Alex and Katrina to grab along with CJ’s.
“Okay,” CJ called up to them, “pull!”
As Katrina and Alex lifted them, CJ and Leo started walking their feet up the rock face to help. CJ’s muscles burned and felt like they were about to tear at any moment, but they were slowly coming up. After a couple difficult minutes, they climbed over the edge to solid ground.