by R. T. Martin
Leo groaned and flopped back into the snow, and the rest of them joined him as they caught their breath.
It wasn’t until she sat down that CJ noticed Katrina was clutching one bare hand to her chest. A hand that was a deep shade of red. “Katrina,” she said. “Your hand . . .”
“I lost a glove,” Katrina said quietly.
CJ’s breath caught in her throat. If Katrina ended up with frostbite, she could permanently damage her fingers or even lose them entirely.
Alex turned to her worriedly. “Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
“We were trying to find Leo!”
“Here,” CJ said. She dug through her coat pocket to find a wool mitten. “I have an extra. It’s not as good as your ski gloves, but it’s better than nothing.”
Katrina happily took the mitten, tucking her fingers and thumb together into the main pocket to keep them as warm as possible.
“I have to say,” Leo said then. “This trip has not been my favorite ski trip so far.”
Maybe it was the exhaustion, maybe it was how ridiculous every step of this trip had been, but they all cracked up at that.
Then they got up and piled into a big group hug. For a moment, CJ felt happy. But reality quickly set back in. They were still stranded.
“We have to go back down,” Katrina said with a sigh.
She was right, but CJ still hated to hear it out loud. It was so discouraging after what they’d been through to get this far.
Her muscles hurt right down to the bones from the strain of everything that had happened. She was cold and wet from snow that had made its way under her layers and melted. While the storm hadn’t gotten any worse, it wasn’t getting any better either. The wind was still blowing forcefully. Snow continued to pile on top of what had already fallen.
“There’s no other choice,” Alex confirmed, gesturing to where the avalanche had completely covered the road.
It was now impossible for CJ to tell where the road was even supposed to be. It all looked like a giant hill. They’d been lucky. It looked as if only the edge of the avalanche had truly struck them, and that was the only reason they’d been able to dig themselves out. If they’d been even a little farther up the road nearer the cabin, there would have been several feet of snow over their heads rather than the several inches they’d had to dig their ways out of.
“We’ll never make it,” CJ mumbled.
“We have to try, even if it seems impossible,” Leo said. “I didn’t come inches from falling off a cliff just to die in the snow.”
Katrina was the first to start walking. “Let’s go,” she said.
They’d all lost their suitcases when the wall of snow smashed into them, though they still had their ski gear strapped to their backs. Walking was easier without the luggage, and it also helped that they were now headed down a decline rather than up an incline. Unfortunately, the snow had gotten deeper, and moving through it was that much more difficult.
CJ forced herself to push one foot in front of the other. She and Leo led their group with Alex and Katrina not far behind. CJ’s fingers and toes had gone from hurting to numb, even with all the layers she was wearing. Her legs ached with the strain of pushing against several feet of snow. Her back hurt from lugging the snowboard around since they’d left the van. She was breathing deeply, like she’d just run a marathon.
“Because we almost died,” CJ heard Alex say suddenly. “Doesn’t everything seem clearer to you now?”
“It does, actually,” Katrina replied. “But this is not the time to talk about it.”
CJ and Leo turned around. The other couple had stopped in place, right there in the snow.
“When we got hit by that avalanche, all I could think was that I shouldn’t have wasted so much time arguing with you,” Alex said. “Even if we end up going to different schools, we don’t have to break up.”
CJ couldn’t believe what she was hearing. All she wanted to do was to get off the mountain to some place safe and warm, but apparently that was less important to her two friends.
“We don’t have to stay together either,” Katrina said. “We’ve been having this fight for months. It’s not working, Alex.”
“But maybe we can—”
“No,” she cut him off. “We can’t. And even if we could, I don’t think I want to. What I do want is to get off this stupid mountain. Can we just focus on getting home? We can talk about this later.”
Alex quietly nodded, and the group began moving toward the bottom of the mountain again. Katrina sped up, almost like she was trying to outrun Alex, but he was willfully lagging behind.
That was uncomfortable, CJ thought. I wish there were some way to get down the mountain faster—a ski lift or a sled or . . . Of course! she thought. Why didn’t we think of this sooner?
“Wait,” she said. The others turned to her. “I think there is an easier way to get down the mountain. We can ride down it.”
“I thought we’d already established that no car would be able to come pick us up in this,” Leo said.
She shook her head. “Not a car.” She lifted the snowboard over her head and undid the strap before placing the board on the snow.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Alex said. “This is a blizzard! We can’t—”
“Why not?” CJ cut him off. “Is it any less safe than walking at the pace we’re going?”
“We could slide off the edge.”
“We could freeze to death if we don’t make it to town soon,” Leo offered, unstrapping his own board. “I vote that we go for it.”
Katrina was already grabbing her skis and poles. “Honestly, I think it’s safer than what we’re doing right now.”
Alex looked like he wanted to protest more, but then he sighed and grabbed the gear out of his own bag.
They were all hooked into their gear and ready to go. They stood in a line waiting. None of them seemed to want to be the first to take what would certainly be the most dangerous run of their lives.
It was my idea, CJ thought. I should go first. She shifted the board under her feet so it was angled down the road, and she started sliding. “Follow close,” she said over her shoulder to her friends.
She didn’t look back, but she heard them each sliding along the snow behind her.
She weaved her board in sharp turns to prevent it from going too fast. She didn’t want to take any chances by moving too quickly on such unstable snow. Even at what she considered an extremely slow pace for snowboarding, they were still traveling much faster than they would have been on foot.
Within a few minutes, it seemed like the snow was letting up a bit. CJ was able to see farther down the road and anticipate turns. She called directions over her shoulder to her friends following right behind her.
Most of the road looked the same. Everything was white, covered in thick layers of snow. It didn’t take long for them to reach a stretch of road that looked somewhat familiar. There was a rock face to their left and a drop-off to their right. Just down the drop-off, there was a tree with a huge snow-covered lump wrapped around its trunk at the bottom. CJ thought she saw the flash of a taillight on the back of the snow pile as they passed, and she realized how short of a distance they’d actually made it since leaving the van.
Not only was this the most dangerous ride CJ had ever been on, it was also easily the longest. It took nearly an hour and a half of winding, slowing down, speeding up, and hugging the cliff face to avoid the drop-off before the ground began to level off. Only then did CJ realize they were at the bottom of the mountain.
They hadn’t seen a single car or plow. If they’d continued walking up the mountain, there really would have been no one to save them.
The ground completely leveled off, and they were no longer able to ride their gear. But in the distance, CJ could see the lights of town. She breathed a huge sigh of relief. They could walk the rest of the way.
They did so in silence, all of them far too tired to even expre
ss how relieved they were. CJ didn’t know what time it was, but she was sure it was late. Even with the snow coming down on them, the sky seemed dark. When they finally made it to the motel, a bleary-eyed man thumbing through a magazine was obviously surprised to see them. CJ dug her wallet out of her coat and handed him her emergency credit card.
“We need a room.”
“That storm’s pretty rough for hitting the slopes,” the man said, eyeing the gear in their hands.
“Yeah,” CJ said. “It is.”
Chapter
11
CJ grabbed the books she needed for first period and tossed the rest of her stuff in her locker. As she closed the door, she actually felt relieved to be at school. It meant the absolute worst vacation of her life was behind her.
It was also the first day since getting home that CJ was actually feeling better. They’d managed to call their families from the phone in the motel room, and Katrina’s dad had hopped into his SUV to come pick them up. By the time he’d gotten to them the next morning, they all had severe colds, and Katrina had developed frostbite in two of her fingers. They spent the majority of the trip home coughing, sneezing, sniffling, and asking Katrina’s dad to stop for cold medicine.
CJ’s cold had turned into the flu, so she’d spent the rest of winter break in bed. She had heard from Leo regularly, but there was no word from Alex or Katrina.
“May I carry your books for you, Madame?” Leo asked in a terrible British accent as he bowed.
CJ snorted. “I’m good. Thanks though.” She didn’t feel like joking around when she was still worried about their friends. “Have you heard from Katrina or Alex?”
Leo shrugged. “No, but I assume they worked stuff out, right?”
“Maybe,” she said. “Nothing like crashing a car, getting stranded on a mountain and hit by an avalanche, and nearly freezing to death to make your relationship problems seem small.”
CJ certainly felt that way about her own college worries. Though she still hadn’t heard back from any schools she’d applied to, she knew there was plenty of time for acceptance letters to roll in. And no matter what happened, at least she wasn’t buried under six feet of snow in the middle of the wilderness.
“Well, knowing the two of them, I’m sure we’ll get an update eventually.”
CJ spotted Katrina walking down the hall toward them. “Or we can just ask right now. Hey!” she called, waving.
Katrina came over to them. “How are you guys feeling?”
“Better,” CJ said.
“I’m no longer constantly dripping with sweat, so that’s good,” Leo replied. “How are you?”
Katrina held her hand up, revealing two of her fingers held together in bandages. “It still stings, and the doctors said it’ll be another week or so before they stop hurting. Other than that, I’m fine.”
“How’s Alex?” Leo asked.
“He’s good,” Katrina said vaguely. “I think he was planning on coming in today, but I haven’t heard from him in a couple days.”
“Oh, so you have been talking . . .”
She rolled her eyes. “Subtle, Leo. But really, the last thing we talked about was that stupid van. I guess after the plows managed to clear the roads on the mountain, his parents were able to pick up the van. Not that they’ll be able to use it for a while.”
They nodded.
“Seriously, though,” CJ said. “What happened?”
Katrina shrugged. “We talked a lot after we both started feeling better. I told Alex I’m going to go to NYU and that he should go to UCLA. It’s where he really wants to go, and I want him to go there too.”
There was a brief pause.
“And are you two . . .” Leo trailed off.
“We’re through. We figured if even the idea of doing the long-distance thing put that much of a strain on our relationship, we probably shouldn’t be in one. But,” she added, “we’re not mad at each other anymore. We’ll always be friends—long-distance friends—and that’s a lot easier.”
“Oh,” CJ said. “I’m sorry.”
Katrina waved it away. “There’s nothing to be sorry for. It wasn’t working. We both knew that. Now, we’re happy and moving on.” She glanced at a clock on the hallway wall. “American Lit is on the other side of the building, so I’ve got to go, but I’ll catch you two at lunch?”
“Yeah,” CJ said. “See you then.”
Katrina walked off.
“Huh,” Leo said. “Well, that’s probably for the best.”
“Yeah. I’m glad they’re done arguing about it and we can all move on.”
He turned to her with a teasing grin. “So, same trip next year?”
CJ’s eyes narrowed, but she smiled. “Let’s go to the beach next year—without another couple.”
About the Author
R.T. Martin lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. When he is not drinking coffee or writing, he is busy thinking about drinking coffee and writing.