He pulled her along as he scanned for the orange tape on the walls. A few pieces were missing or covered in dust from the rock falls, and he cursed every time he had to search for a marker.
Ruth yelped behind him and yanked against his arm. When he turned around, the sight of blood running from a cut on her forehead stopped him.
“Can you keep going?”
“Yes,” she yelled over the din of rocks falling.
The entire world flew apart around them.
It had taken him nearly an hour to get into the cavern. No way did they have that much time to make the return trip. They would be crushed and buried long before then, at the rate this place was crumbling.
Orange tape, orange tape. He stumbled on the heaving floor and endured impacts by rocks raining down. Keep going.
Endless side passages presented themselves. He kept searching for the proverbial trail of breadcrumbs as he maintained a grip on Ruth’s wrist. She grunted every so often when she would trip or hit the wall. He knew rocks struck her, but he had no choice. They either had to get out of here as fast as possible or die. There was no middle ground.
The rumbling deafened him until his world boiled down to the roar of the mountain collapsing on them, the flashlight shadowing the passage, and Ruth’s hand in his.
Faster. Go faster.
He had to get Ruth to safety. She had risked everything to help him fulfill his plan. He refused to let her perish because of her efforts.
Fresh rock fall blocked the passage, and he skidded to a stop.
“Oh God,” she said.
When she panted, puffs of vapor came out in the cold air. She clutched at her arm, staunching a wound, but blood oozed through her fingers.
“Can we go another way?” she asked.
He spied a small orange tape about a foot away from the rubble.
“No. We have to go through it.”
Frantically, he began digging through the pile as Ruth held the flashlight. His hands were bleeding, but he no longer cared. All he wanted was to be out of this tomb.
More rocks fell behind Ruth and the rumbling increased in intensity.
“Odie!” she screamed.
“Come on.”
He shoved her through the small opening he created in the pile of rocks. Continuing up the tunnel, they dodged more falling stone. With a crash, the entire passage right behind them exploded in a blast of dust. Too close.
Keep following the orange tape.
Refusing to let go of her hand, he dragged her along the passage. She was his lifeline to sanity. He was her lifeline to escape this tomb.
Suddenly the ground gave way and they sank up to their knees.
In snow.
In snow?
They were out!
His ears rang in the open air. He heard the faint sounds of rocks falling back in the passage.
And then silence in the bone-chilling night.
The snowy weather from when he entered the passage hours earlier had given way to a cold, clear starlit night on the mountain.
Ruth shivered in her torn red gown. The flashlight beam caught snow settling in her dust-covered hair. Trails of blood dried on her arms and face. She never looked so beautiful.
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her hard, loving how their skin had cooled to normal temperatures.
“We made it. Mon dieu, we made it!” He whooped.
“Oh my God,” she said. “Is it real?”
“No more slavery as an Indebted. No longer will we be forced to do things no person should have to do.”
She sagged in his arms, and he held her until her shivering got his attention.
“You need to get warm.”
He pulled gear out of the large backpack stashed nearby. A pair of boots, snow pants, and a sweater for her. Hats and gloves for both of them. The extra pair of snowshoes. She wouldn’t be completely outfitted, but it would to be enough to get them off the mountain.
“What’s that?” Ruth asked as she tucked her dress into the waistband of the insulated pants. The lumpy fabric and her dirty face made for an endearingly sweet mess.
“What’s what?”
Concentrating, he heard it. A rumble in the distance, steadily growing louder and deeper. The ground shifted beneath his feet.
Mount Shasta was a snow-covered dormant volcano, housing the portal to hell.
They had just torpedoed the portal to hell.
Inside a dormant volcano.
Covered in snow.
“Let’s go. Now!” he yelled.
“What?”
“The mountain’s going to blow!”
“What—”
He cut her off with a slash of his hand, shoved boots on her feet, and strapped on the snowshoes. Cramming a toboggan on her head, he turned downhill and shined the flashlight into the darkness that had fallen.
“What?” she yelled.
“Something bad is coming. Run!”
They ran awkwardly in the gear, both of them tripping a few times until they got the hang of the movement. He could have used that Indebted strength and endurance right about now. Damn, how his thigh muscles screamed as he paused to use the GPS to retrace his steps to the main meadow.
Upon arriving at the open meadow, a recent avalanche of snow and torn-up trees had settled across the expanse. He motioned for her to follow him as he traversed below the worst of the slide. Too long, they were wasting precious time. Although he struggled for oxygen at this altitude, he didn’t dare stop moving.
The sounds of disaster continued all around them. Some rumbles were close by, some on the distant peak high above them. When he looked back up the mountain, an eerie glow emanated from its moonlit tip.
Glow? What would glow on the mountain?
Not a mountain. A volcano.
Lava.
Mon dieu.
Lava plus snow.
A deadly combination.
Jerahmeel’s death had woken the sleeping mountain at the worst possible time.
“Ruth, go faster. You have to move faster.”
“I’m trying.” She panted, her quick puffs of vapor punctuating the cold air.
She galloped along in the snowshoes, off balance as she stepped into a soft snowdrift, then moving faster on packed snow. The glow behind him had changed. Sparks flew off the mountaintop behind him.
Sparks?
Not sparks. At this distance of a vertical mile below the summit, those were actually car-sized chunks of molten lava ejecting from the bowels of Mount Shasta.
What happened when superheated tons of rock met massive amounts of snow?
They had just run out of time.
Gasping, they struggled down the mountain. The GPS signal put them very close to where he had parked the car, but could he find it in the darkness?
He scanned the snowy landscape, frantic to find the vehicle.
Damn it, where was the parking area?
Distant detonations evoked images of a Vulcan hell rupturing behind him. It no longer paid to look; survival hinged on getting out of here.
Ruth stumbled and landed on her face with a hard oof. As he turned to pull her back to her feet, the sight behind her turned his blood colder than the snow beneath his feet.
The entire top of the mountain slid in slow motion toward them.
Clouds of glowing ash poured out. Foreboding orange light illuminated the slowly moving wall of ... everything.
That mass of destruction might be a mile away, but it was picking up speed, coming right down a natural alley carved into the mountain.
The alley ended below where the car was parked.
“Go! Go!” he shouted.
He left her behind as he sprinted straight down the snow-covered road until he saw a glint in the darkness. The car, parked right where he’d left it, right in the path of liquefied molten death.
Reaching the car, he flung open the back door, threw his pack inside and kicked off his snowshoes. He dug around the front floor mat un
til he heard a clink. As he grabbed the keys, another rumble sounded, this time very close.
When he looked back, Ruth clambered across the snowy parking lot, awkward in the snowshoes. Right behind her, a wall of snow piled behind the forest service gate began to move.
Hot lava contacted the icy rocks, causing surreal pops of boulders bursting. Massive tree trunks snapped under the weight of ice, lava, rock, and mud. A wall of liquefied debris headed right toward them.
She kept a few feet ahead of the steaming mountainside, her face the picture of terror with death literally nipping at her heels.
“Mon dieu, come on, come on! Get in!”
He reached over, opened the passenger side door, and turned the key in the ignition.
Click.
True panic, more than anything he had felt before now, fisted his heart in a grip that took his breath away.
Sweat prickled his forehead.
“Start,” he whispered.
Click.
Damn it.
It wouldn’t matter if she made it to the car; they were about to be buried alive inside of it.
He pumped the gas pedal a few times, trying something, anything, to help.
The image in the rearview mirror reflected a giant moving wall of darkness closing in.
He turned the key and sent up a prayer.
The vehicle turned over, almost begrudgingly.
It finally caught, and then purred.
Ruth dove into the front seat.
“Go, Odie!”
Before she could get her feet properly in the car and the door closed, he took off down the mountain. He grabbed her coat and hauled her back into the vehicle when the snow yanked off her snowshoe. Half lying on the seat, she heaved her one remaining snowshoe-clad foot into the passenger side. She slammed the door closed and shot him a wild-eyed look of terror the likes of which he had never seen.
In the red illumination of the brake lights, the snow moved in a muddy, piping-hot wall behind him. He was barely staying a few feet away from the leading edge.
If the lava caught so much as a back wheel, they were dead.
Pushing the woefully inadequate car to go faster, he sped down the treacherous switchback road.
Ice rimed the windshield, rendering wipers useless. He could see nothing.
“Put your seat belt on,” he said between gritted teeth.
Of course the seat belt wouldn’t matter if the lava and snow engulfed them. But if he somehow avoided the avalanche of mud and debris sliding down the mountain, he didn’t want her injured by something silly like a vehicle crash. Mortal danger. Something he hadn’t thought about in over 250 years.
“You too.”
“No time. Do me a favor. Hold this.”
He unclenched one hand from the steering wheel, fished in his coat pocket, and handed her the GPS. Gripping the wheel again, he skidded down the road. Unfortunately, the rock fall was so bad that he continued to dodge large chunks of mountainside that littered the pavement.
One good collision and the car would be destroyed. He struggled to avoid the largest boulders and winced at every jolt as they plowed over smaller rocks. The worst of the flow had diverted down a chute on the mountain to his left, though some of the slushy death still flowed in his direction.
Damn this horrible windshield. He was driving blind, going too fast for what little visibility he did have. Veering around a hairpin turn, the downhill front wheel slipped off the road. With force of will, he pulled the car back onto the pavement and hit the accelerator once more.
Rolling down the window, he stuck his head out. The ice-cold air stung, but he could at least see where he was going.
“Ok,” he yelled. “There’s an area to our right that makes another natural gulch for water and avalanches to flow down the mountain. Can you see it?”
“Yes.”
“Can you follow it on the map all the way to the bottom of the mountain?”
“Yes.”
“We have to outrun anything coming down that gulley. I’m sure that mess is picking up steam. This road crosses that gulch a few more times. At the bottom of this road, near town, there are side roads we can use to get out of the lava flow path. Can you find them?”
“I’ll try.”
She tapped on the screen while he continued to drive as fast as he dared. The road snaked to the right around the front of the mountain and then zigzagged down the face. The switchbacks might be dangerous, but it was at the bottom of the hill where death would collide with them.
At the base of the mountain, the road had been built over a chute where the folds of the mountain naturally funneled water. That was the alley he desperately wanted to reach before the avalanche did. On one switchback, he glanced up the mountainside only to see glowing mud, entire trees, and hot ash rushing directly toward them.
He had to go faster. Speeding up, he fishtailed down more switchbacks, at times only mere feet away from the roaring flow and inches away from a sheer drop-off.
The right back tire lifted as the leading edge of the liquefied mountainside caught the wheel.
Ruth. After everything she had sacrificed, he had to get her down this mountain alive. He couldn’t fail.
How could he come this close to having a normal mortal life with a woman he loved and not survive?
Loved?
Damn it. No time to contemplate that conclusion.
He needed more time with her. Their lives couldn’t end like this, buried on Mount Shasta.
The defroster finally caught up with the ice on the windshield, and he flipped on the wipers. Recklessly, he applied brakes and accelerator, nearly running them off the road as they careened around yet another corner. How many turns were on this road? Ridiculous.
In the valley, he saw the brighter lights of the town below. Almost there. The terrain had relaxed into a long, rolling stretch of road. Maybe they would make it after all.
“We just passed McBride Springs campground,” he called out. “You see it on the map?”
“Yes. Get ready to make a right turn.”
A wall of ice and debris coursed next to the road. Everything was funneling to the same point. He had to get there first. He accelerated through a dip in the road, only to see the molten mountainside cross behind him as the two chutes merged, cutting off the road up the mountain. One more gully to avoid.
“Turn right—now!” she yelled.
He slammed on the brakes and skidded the car onto a gravel road.
“Oh God,” Ruth whispered, her voice barely audible above the destruction only feet away.
She pointed. A house’s light flickered and went out. He cringed, hoping no one was in the structure as it had been either buried or pulverized.
They jolted down the gravel road. Unfortunately, the road angled directly into the path of the flow.
“We’re getting close,” he warned her.
“I see that.”
Tap, tap on the screen.
“Can you go faster?” she said.
“I can, but the car might not make it.”
“You should probably try.” Her voice was much too calm.
The sweat on his damp skin turned to ice.
He accelerated, and the car bottomed out, scraping the oil pan against a rock. Not caring how badly he jarred them, he sped up again. Twice, he caught air as they sped downhill. The mixture of liquefied mountainside and ice rushed next to them, now only about ten feet away and quickly closing the gap.
“We’re too close, Ruth. Get us out of here.”
“Ok, there should be pavement soon. When you hit it, go faster and turn right onto the next road.”
She studied the illuminated GPS. The bumping ride abruptly smoothed out, though the sludge now licked at the left side of the vehicle, lifting the back tire.
“Right turn, now!”
He swerved, almost missing the turn. After a dogleg through a residential area, she navigated them to a final right-hand turn onto a frontage road that
led them uphill and out of the path of destruction.
He exhaled and eased off the gas pedal.
Braking at a turnout several miles up the road, far away from any ice flows, Odie slammed the car into park. The tapping, spent engine, their sharp gulps of air, and the muffled rumble in the distance met his ears. His arms shook as he forced cramped hands to let go of the wheel.
Silence settled over them.
“You’re alive. We’re alive!”
He pulled her across the seat to him, kissing her lips, forehead, and cheeks. Her whole body quaked, so hard did she tremble. He tasted salt and pulled away.
“Tears, chère?”
“We almost—”
He clutched her to him, unwilling to let go. From start to finish, they had cheated death in the most improbable way. Only fitting, since death cheated them so many years ago.
She startled as fire engines with sirens blaring sped past them down the frontage road, toward the destruction.
“The people back there? That avalanche, the volcano ...”
“I know. I’m sure people were hurt and possibly died. Mon dieu, those poor people. Family members lost. I know how that feels, without a doubt. But what we did saved so many more people from centuries of pain, death, and suffering. Jerahmeel’s dead. We just rid the world of that evil. And we survived.”
“I can’t believe it’s really over.” She sniffed.
Easing back into her seat, she unbuckled the remaining snowshoe. He walked around the car and opened her door. At his offered hand, she stepped into his arms and clung to him. He pressed his lips to her forehead, inhaling her sweet lavender and mint smell, now combined with a scent of sweat and dust. She was so very alive.
He turned so they could both see the spectacle occurring on the mountain. The top of the massive peak flickered as lava ejected thousands of feet into the air. The ground still moved beneath their feet, though much less at this distance.
“Wow,” she said.
“You’ve got that right.”
“All of our loved ones ...”
He tightened his arm around her shoulders. “You know what? As Jerahmeel was exploding, all I could see were the faces of my dear Ada and Vivienne smiling at me. Now, some day when my natural life ends, I might see my lovely daughters again.”
“Of course you will. You were a wonderful father.”
Flame Unleashed (Hell to Pay) Page 20