“I was getting ready to steam some green beans, and pan-grill a couple of steaks.” Adele smiled, trying to forget about her mother. “I know that considering the circumstances it might be an extravagance, but would you open a bottle of red wine for us? I know I sure could use a drink!” Her thoughts flicked back to Kyle for a moment and she shuddered.
***
“I didn’t realize how hungry I was,” Jeff said after finishing his dinner. “That was great, Adele. You mentioned about eating your food before taking any from the resort. Can I ask how much you have?”
“Keep in mind that I had plans right from the start to stay the winter. I enjoy cooking, Jeff, and I had intentions of keeping a low profile, for reasons you’re now aware of, and so I stocked up.” Adele thought again of her violent ex-husband now buried under tons of snow. She took Jeff by the hand and opened the freezer, then the refrigerator, and then each storage cupboard, one at a time.
Jeff was speechless.
“By my calculations, this would last me four or five months at the rate I normally eat,” she smiled. “I can eat a lot,” she said with a chuckle. “By rationing, I think this could last the two of us the same amount of time… but we might run out of wine.”
***
“This has been an overwhelming day,” Adele said.
“It certainly has,” Jeff agreed. “I, for one, am really tired, especially after such a big meal.”
“We skipped lunch, remember?”
Neither one wanted to approach the hovering situation.
“True. Umm, I can… uh, sleep on the couch, and keep the fire going,” Jeff offered, somewhat embarrassed.
“Jeff, I meant it when I said that us being together was inevitable. I know I felt an attraction from the start. Didn’t you?” She delicately stroked his cheek.
“Yeah, I have to admit I sure did,” he replied, looking into her deep blue eyes; eyes made darker by the building desire they hid.
“Put a couple of logs on the fire. I’ll turn out the lights. It will be much warmer if we share the bed.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Jeff woke to something warm pressing against his back. He blinked a few times and remembered the pleasures of the previous night. He turned to find Adele’s back snuggled against his, and he rolled over to hold her. Content, he drifted off to sleep again.
***
Adele roused to find Jeff’s arms wrapped around her, and for the first time it didn’t feel confining or suffocating. She stayed in that early morning pre-awake dreamy state for a few more minutes and then carefully slipped out of the warm bed. It was cold and dark; the darkness came from the dome windows being buried in snow, reminding her of their peril.
Adele restarted the fire and set some water to heat on the camp stove for coffee. She frowned, thinking she should have gotten the three burner model instead of the two burner, and then wondered how long the dozen small bottles of propane would last. Hindsight was always twenty-twenty.
Jeff shuffled out of the bedroom pulling on his shirt. He smiled when he saw Adele making coffee and hugged her from behind.
“About last night…”
“Yeah, it was pretty incredible, wasn’t it?” she answered with a lopsided grin.
“It sure was.”
She turned within the circle of his arms and kissed him.
“Careful,” he grinned, “that could lead to something else and we have a lot to do today.” Adele laughed and handed him a cup of coffee.
“What’s first on the agenda?” she asked.
“I think getting into the offices. I need more clothes, these are going to start stinking soon,” he wrinkled his nose. “And of course we need to get at the food. I don’t know how much the guys were able to move yesterday.”
“Jeff? Adele?” someone called out and pounded high on the door.
Jeff opened the steel clad door to find Aaron looking down at him. Behind him, Jeff could hear activity.
“Come on in,” he said. “What’s going on out there?”
“Matt and Chet are digging you out. Our dome only had the backside buried, thankfully, so getting in and out isn’t a problem for us,” Aaron said. “We thought we would get you freed so we could all work on getting back into the main structure.”
“Hi, Aaron,” Adele greeted him. “Have you guys had breakfast yet? I’ve got some frozen waffles I was going to fix for us.”
“Chet made us pancakes this morning. He had packed a little bit of everything on the first sled and made it to the door as the avalanche hit.”
“We’ll have a quick bite to eat and join you in a couple of minutes,” Jeff said.
***
Adele slogged gracefully in her snowshoes, with Jeff by her side.
“You’ve done this before,” he stated, admiring the ease with which she walked over the crusty mounds.
“I told you, my mom lives in Upper Michigan and I spent many years there with her. At times, snowshoeing was the only means of getting around in the winter.” They reached a section that seemed smoother than the rest, and began the descent, emerging on the hidden side of the other condo. Adele unbuckled her shoes and stuck them in the snow by the door, next to several other pairs. Jeff tapped on the door and opened it.
“Come on in by the fire,” Beth said, from her place on the couch next to Aaron.
“Jeff, I wanted to ask you earlier if you have any idea how the avalanche started,” Aaron questioned. “Or was it merely a loose snowpack?”
Jeff and Adele both relayed the arrival of Kyle, leaving out all the details concerning her art.
“He really was going to kill you?” Beth gasped.
Before either of them could answer, pounding started on the front door.
“Anyone in there? I need help!” Gwen Swanson screamed. They all rushed to see what the problem was. Jeff was secretly embarrassed he had forgotten about the last of his guests.
“What’s wrong, Gwen?” he asked.
“It’s Lane,” she sobbed. “He won’t wake up! I think he’s… dead!”
***
The small group filtered into the private dome that the Swansons were staying in, and circled the couch where Lane lay peacefully.
Chet pressed his fingers to Lane’s neck, and then picked up his hand, gently setting it back down quickly. “No pulse and his skin is cold already. I’d say he died several hours ago, in his sleep.” He looked at a distraught Gwen, “When did you first notice he wasn’t sleeping?”
“Only a short time ago,” she whimpered. “I’ve been busy packing. Jeff, we were going to ask you to take us into town today. Lane said he wasn’t feeling well and we thought it better to be near a doctor.”
“Did he have any medical conditions?” Chet asked.
“He had a pacemaker. The battery was replaced two months ago, so that wasn’t it,” she answered. “Otherwise he was in good health, other than being near seventy.”
Jeff and Aaron passed a knowing look between them.
“Gwen, this EMP we’ve been hit with, killed electronics. All electronics. It’s a good chance that Lane’s pacemaker wasn’t working anymore,” Jeff said as gently as he could.
“We should have gone sooner, with the others!” Gwen wailed.
“It wouldn’t have mattered, Gwen.” Adele put her hand on the crying woman’s shoulder. “That pacemaker stopped on Thanksgiving night, at the same time our power went out.”
***
After Beth had taken Gwen back to the communal condo for a cup of hot tea, the others had a conference.
“Now what?” Matt asked. “We can’t just leave him here.”
“Why not? It’s cold and the body is protected. We can’t bury him anyhow, not until spring,” Jeff pointed out. “Gwen can’t stay by herself though.”
“She should move in with us
,” Chet offered. “That second bedroom is big enough to fit another twin bed.” When Jeff raised his eyebrows, Chet said, “Look, I’m not suggesting anything kinky. Our unit is much more exposed then yours, Jeff, and we might need the extra security. Your place right now has only one way in, so it’s easily defended.”
“Defended? Do you think we’re in danger up here?” Adele asked.
“We could be, that’s all I’m saying.” Chet took the blanket partially covering Lane Swanson and pulled it up over his face.
“Forgive me, Chet,” Adele said, “you seem quite adept with this for a chef. Can I ask what your background is?”
“I was a medic in the Army for eight years,” he sighed. “I took my college money and went to culinary school. I figured being a cook was less dangerous than being a paramedic.” He looked around and laughed at the irony.
“We still need to deal with the food issue,” Jeff said, bringing the discussion back to the plans of the day. “And that means getting into the hotel. Let’s go.”
Jeff, Adele, Matt, Aaron, and Chet, donned their snowshoes and took shovels to look for a way into the buried domes. Jeff walked ahead, stopping occasionally to look around or back, trying to orient where the hotel domes were.
“Why are we looking for the hotel domes, Jeff? I thought we needed the restaurant,” Adele asked.
“The hotel portion was furthest from the snow slide so will have less for us to dig through. And since they are all connected, we get into one, we get into all.”
Matt had ventured ahead and around. “Hey, Jeff!” he called out. “Come and look at this. We might have caught a break.”
When Jeff reached the area Matt was standing, he turned a slow circle and stopped when a glint of something shiny caught his attention. He inched closer, being careful of the loose snow under his feet.
“Stay back, Matt, in case this lets go,” Jeff ordered. He climbed the slope upward to the reflection and brushed at it with his heavily gloved hand, exposing a cracked window. “Excellent! Matt, call the others down here.” Jeff used his shovel to carefully scrape away more and more snow. With the others now shoveling too, soon they had a four-foot section cleared.
“I suppose we could break the window to get in, but I’d rather not do that. It would leave everything exposed to the elements,” Jeff said. “This is the northwest wing, which means the exit door is to the right three more feet,” he pointed.
It took two hours of continuous digging to completely uncover the exterior door of the thick, hard packed snow and ice. Chet was the first to try opening the dented door.
“It’s locked,” he snorted. “We may have to break that window anyway.”
Jeff reached into his parka pocket and produced a bundle of keys, selecting the master key that fit all the exterior doors.
The group stepped into the room that was lit only by the muted daylight from the window.
“It sure is dark in here, and it’s bound to be even darker the deeper we go,” Aaron said, stating the obvious.
Jeff looked at Adele.
“I’ll go get it,” she said, handing him her flashlight and heading back to their shared condo.
“Until Adele comes back with a bigger light, I think we should check these units for damage. As the snow melts, we’ll have to board up anything broken to keep out the weather and critters.”
“Well, crap,” Chet said after venturing toward the main body of the hotel. “We might as well forget any other damage until we can clear this mess.” The men gathered around the first fire door.
“Yeah,” Jeff said, looking at the mound of snow that had pushed the door in and filled the hallway. “Let’s grab our shovels, guys.”
***
Adele kicked off her snowshoes next to the front door and pushed her way into the gloom. “Damn, this cooled off quick,” she said to herself. She put several pieces of wood in the woodstove and left the door slightly ajar to give the dwindling fire a kick-start.
In her bedroom, she fumbled in the dark until she located the other working flashlight. In the closet was the lantern that Jeff would want. Although Adele was sure he was referring to the kerosene lamps she had, she knew he would prefer this one. She put an extra bottle of propane in a knapsack along with a box of matches and the lantern, thinking two bottles of fuel should be enough for now.
Passing the bathroom she lamented not having her morning shower, and thought of a solution. In the kitchen, she got out the largest cooking pot, added a bottle of water, and then filled it with snow. She set it on the woodstove to warm and closed the stove doors for a slow burn. Outside, Adele slipped into her snowshoes again, pulled the knapsack onto her shoulders, and set out for the buried hotel.
***
Matt and Aaron were taking their hand at digging, piling the snow in the hallway temporarily. The main objective was to get enough snow out of the way to close the door and make the hallway passable. The going was slow, with barely enough light coming from the one window and open door to see by.
Adele stepped into the room and out of the increasing wind. After removing the useless table lamp, she set the fifteen-inch tall lantern on the nightstand and made sure the propane bottle was tight. Jeff walked into the room as she was striking a match. The lantern blazed brightly and she adjusted the fuel flow for a steady bright glow.
“I thought you were bringing one of those kerosene lamps back,” Jeff said smiling at her.
“This is much more practical for what we have to do. Come on, let’s get this taken care of.”
“Good lord, girl, where did you get that?” Aaron said with obvious delight when they stepped into the dark hallway.
“Blame my mother,” she replied.
The group wandered down the quiet hotel with Jeff leading the way with the lantern. At the entrance to the restaurant, Chet came forward.
“I want to remind everyone that because of the power outage, I couldn’t do my usual clean up.”
“Don’t worry about it Chet,” Jeff reassured him. “What is going on now is new to all of us.” He pushed open the doors to the cavernous room. The light from the lantern seemed to diminish as it reached out to the far shadows in the corners.
“You said you have lots of candles,” Adele said to Jeff. “Maybe we should set some up on the tables so we’re not bumping into things. That’s something I can do while you four are loading up what you need to.”
Matt set a large box on the nearest table and began unloading candles and holders. “Hey, there are even a couple boxes of eight-hour emergency candles.”
Adele kept herself busy setting up taper candles on a few of the tables, and then took two boxes of the eight hour candles and a pile of saucers and left the room.
***
It took them an hour to fill three of the serving carts with perishable food and water, sorting things as they went. When the four men wheeled the carts out into the hall, they were surprised to find the area lit enough to see where they were going. Every ten feet there was a saucer on the floor with a long-lasting candle to show the way back to their exit.
“Adele?” Jeff called out, concerned until he heard her answer.
“I see you found my contribution,” she grinned, stepping into the dark hall.
“This is ingenious,” Aaron commented. “Manual emergency floor lighting.”
“While you guys were busy, I went to get the sled,” Adele added. “Too bad there’s only one. Unless Jeff has got another one hidden somewhere?”
“Not that I recall,” Aaron answered. “However, we have skis and plastic totes: I can make more sleds. In fact, it might be easier on us with smaller loads.” He looked to Jeff with the question in his dark eyes.
“Go to it, my man!” Jeff answered, and Aaron took off down the hall in the opposite direction, commandeering Adele’s working flashlight.
They p
ushed and rolled the three heavy carts into the access room, where Adele had left the sled.
“If we fill the sled and try to pull it up that slope, someone is going to have a heart attack and I don’t want it to be me,” Chet said, crossing his arms.
“Why don’t we anchor the sled at the top, and form a ‘bucket brigade,’ handing one box up at a time? There are enough of us it should work,” Matt suggested.
Jeff grinned. “I’ve got the best crew ever. Let’s see how much we can move in one sled.” Within fifteen minutes, the sled was filled with water, and Adele looped the rope around her trim waist and trudged off toward the first dome. The guys continued to hand up the boxes, making a stockpile for when the sled came back.
“That was quick,” Jeff said when Adele returned.
“I unloaded and told the girls it was their job to get it in the house. I figure the faster the turnaround we have, the sooner we’re done. Besides, everyone needs to be doing something.”
***
It took most of the remaining day to move all of the water to the first dome, with a sled full going to Adele and Jeff’s place. A few more hours and the fresh produce had been dealt with too by using the two new sleds Aaron made.
“I say we have a celebration tonight,” Jeff announced. “Chet what can you cook up for this hungry and deserving crew?”
He looked over the meats that had made it in the last load. “How does chicken marsala on linguini with asparagus and a salad sound? We’ll have to use up the fresh stuff first, like the lettuce and vegetables, so there’s as little waste as possible.”
EMPulse Page 8