by Vivien Vale
I need to get to her. I shut out everything and try again.
By now, Amelia’s screaming for her life. It’s high-pitched and painful to hear.
And then, I manage to get hold of her hand. With strength I didn’t know I had, I pull her to me.
Now she’s in my arms, I hug her to me tightly, and try to slow down our fall. But nothing seems to be working.
Frantically, I look around for a solution to stop our plummet to certain death.
A tree root sticking out of the ground seems to be my only hope. If I can grab it in time it might stop our fall. Stopping our fall is only the first step. By now, most of the mountain seems to be cascading toward us.
I grab the root and hold my breath.
I need to make this work. As my fingers wrap as tight as they can around the gnarled wood, I feel a rip in my shoulder, and my body is jolted to a sudden stop.
Briefly, I breathe a sigh of relief.
And then I look upwards to see how far we’ve fallen and feel a huge lump in the back of my throat.
Holy shit.
With the amount of rubble and other crap coming toward us, I don’t think we’re going to get out of this predicament alive. I turn my body to shield Amelia as best as I can, and send a silent prayer up to the heavens, having run out of other options.
Chapter 5
Boone
I hurdle over fallen trees, I jump over giant boulders, and I leap over massive ravines to get to where the scream is coming from.
There’s a huge amount of ground to cover, but I’m up for it.
I’ve trained for this type of emergency. My body knows exactly what to do.
In my fire fighting days, I was one of the best. If they needed someone to go inside a burning building, they would get me to do it. Nothing was impossible.
Of course, I would never put my team at risk. And yet, I lost members. The knowledge still haunts me to this day.
It happened during a rescue mission of a burning fifty-six-storey building.
What really grates on my nerves is the entire thing could have been avoided, from the start of the fire to the attempted rescue and subsequent failure. I got out, but I wasn’t able to get my members out with me.
A branch of a low hanging tree smacks me in the face. Tiny droplets of blood trickle down my cheek, but I ignore it.
My feet fly across the ground. The scream is getting louder, I must be getting closer.
Even from my distance, I can see a massive rockslide ahead of me.
Fuck.
Don’t tell me someone’s trapped in that!
Rockslides can be worse than avalanches. While they don’t increase in size the way an avalanche does, they’re lethal. With the speed of the loose rocks, pebbles, and debris ever increasing, if you’re caught in it, you may as well kiss your life good bye.
My eyes scan the grey side of the mountain. The area is particularly unstable as a result of the recent snowmelt.
The snow lingered longer than usual. But now, all of it is gone. Unfortunately, things haven’t hardened up enough to provide much needed stability to the face of the mountain.
Whatever has disturbed the surface, it’s done a good job. It’s so steep here, and not much grows, leaving a very unstable environment. To make matters worse, a bush fire ravaged the area severely a few years ago and destroyed some of the trees.
Those trees provided extra support for the mountain. With the trees gone, so went the support. So far, no one has offered to help replace the dead trees or offer a different solution to stabilize the side of the mountain.
Up here in the wilderness, you realize how small and insignificant we, humans, really are. Nature is wonderful, powerful, and amazing all at the same time.
Something in the middle of the steep slope catches my eye.
It looks like a person.
Camera-like, I zoom in on the point of interest. Definitely human, not very big though. Was it female? Quite likely.
There was something strange about the stature though.
As I process the information I’m picking up, I realize two others things. First, there’s a huge load of shale, rocks, and small boulders heading straight for the poor person. Second, it hits me like a fly hitting a windscreen—the “person” is actually an adult and a small child.
The knowledge that there’s a small child in danger has me doubling my efforts. I increase my stride and pick up my speed.
My brain is working overtime to fine tune my rescue plan. Any rescue requires an excellent plan and perfect execution. Obviously, this rescue just sprung on me, and I haven’t had time to prepare, but I’ve trained out here on my own for the last few years.
I’ve trained for any eventuality.
I may not have trained specifically for a potential woman and child needing to be rescued off the moving mountain face. But I’ve trained to cross a rockslide and drag a bear cub to safety.
Only last year, a wayward baby bear caused his poor mother a ginormous headache when it played too close to the path and tumbled down this very embankment. From memory, there’s a large rock protruding from the ground some distance below where I sought shelter with said baby bear.
By now, I’m running so fast my eyes are watering. I’m now only a few feet away from the edge. As I approach it, I get ready to jump.
I need to make it a good one. I can’t go back and do it again, to catch up with the woman and child. By now, I can see it’s a woman. I must get there as fast as possible.
In my mind, I count one, two, and three and then jump as if I was a ski jumper taking part in the Olympics, and going for gold.
As I fly through the air, I scan the area. The rock I used last year is still there. From where I am, it still looks like my best option. With more shit coming down, the woman and child will be crushed unless I get them into a safer spot. I land feet first slightly to their right and skid, leaning hard into the mountain the rest of the way.
The woman can’t see me; she’s huddled into the child. Looks like a little girl.
By now, the scream has stopped.
For a second, I debate my next move. When a football-sized rock hits my shin, I know it’s time to get a fucking a move on. If I keep standing here, we’ll all be crushed by rocks.
“I’ve got you,” I mumble and grab the two of them.
There’s no resistance. The woman doesn’t even turn around to look at me.
All of her attention is focused on the little girl. I’m assuming it’s a girl because of the pink top, the pink cap with a unicorn on it and the pink hiking boots.
I have to shake my head.
Pink hiking boots are a first. I’m not sure if I approve or not. At least they stick out and draw attention to her position.
The woman isn’t dressed as brightly as the girl and, therefore, harder to spot.
For a micro-second, I hover on the spot. My next move is risky. But it’s really the only viable option I’ve got.
If we stay where we are, we’re going to get crushed for sure. Okay, so I would probably be alright, but I doubt that even I could provide enough shelter and protection to these two from what’s about to come.
I take a deep breath and then join the debris plummeting downward. Precision and timing are now going to be everything. The giant boulder I’m looking for is approaching faster than I had anticipated. It also looks like I’m too far to the right of it.
I need to get us closer. If I don’t, I’ll slide right past and take my two protégés to their certain death. With all the strength I can muster, I start to move sideways. Rocks, slate, and dirt hit my feet. But I’m not deterred.
Like a bulldozer, I plough across the mountain face.
I glance to my left and vow that no lives will be lost here today, at least not while I’m still standing and breathing.
Just when I think I’m going to take these two to safety, I feel my right foot lose its footing. Now, all my weight and that of the woman and her child are supported on
my left foot.
The boulder is so close now. I think I might even be able to touch it if I straighten out my arm and reach for it. But the smooth surface makes it impossible to grab. I’ve not recovered from being unbalanced. I’m dangerously close to falling.
It’s decision time.
I take another deep breath and then shove the woman and the small girl away from me.
Now that I’ve got less weight behind me, I’m able to regain my footing and follow the moving bodies.
Of course, I’ve timed the pushing almost to perfection, and I see the woman and the child huddle behind the large rock, where the surface is a little more stable.
With two large strides I’m behind them, and once again, I wrap my arms around them to keep them protected from loose missile coming over the top.
We stay huddled like this for a long time. It seems like hours, but in reality, I know it’s only about twenty minutes. Around us, the rocks pile up, eventually drowning out some of the sunlight.
Nature has a way of turning disasters off as fast as it turns them on.
When I’m confident it’s safe, I take a step back from the huddled figures. There’s not much room to move. We’re closed in by stones and debris.
“You’re okay now,” I say and try and put some warmth into my voice.
I don’t want to frighten the woman nor the child. Slowly, the figure unfurls, and I feel a lump form in the back of my throat. Those features are familiar.
The minute she starts to turn her head, I hold my breath.
Holy shit.
Fuck.
I can’t believe my eyes.
It just can’t be true. Maybe one of those loose rocks hit me in the head, and now I’m suffering from a hallucination. Because what I’m seeing can’t be what I’m seeing. The woman looks like Margot, and, therefore, I know I’m completely fucked in the head.
As she looks directly at me, our eyes meet.
And as I look at herhair, body, and clothes covered in dust; scrapes, and bruises covering her bare legs, arms, and face, I’m falling in love with her all over again.
Chapter 6
Margot
I clutch Amelia to my chest, holding her tight against me. All I can do is wait for the tumbling rocks to stop, for the world to become still again so that I might be able to get her out of this.
I can feel the stranger’s body towering over the two of us—his hard muscles press against my back, and I can feel his hot breath against my neck in the small gap we’ve carved out for ourselves beneath the boulders.
Our bodies are constantly brushing against each other, the cotton of his clothes stroking against my skin, and I can feel the pounding of his heart through his chest.
My hair stands on its end—I haven’t been this close to a man since…
Since Boone.
Since before Amelia was born.
Since that one fateful night after he saved me, and I wanted him more than anything—anyone else—in the world.
I’ve never wanted to be that close to another man. But standing here beneath this muscled stranger, I feel a familiar feeling of comfort, of safety.
As the rocks finally stop, and everything goes quiet, I dare to turn around and look into the eyes of the man who has saved us.
I feel my jaw drop open, and my heart leaps into my mouth. It stops for a moment, and then begins to beat furiously, pounding loud enough I swear that he must be able to hear it. He’s always noticed the little things about me.
Boone Masters.
In the flesh.
I’d be lying if I said that he hadn’t changed a bit since the last time I saw him in college. He has changed: he’s taller (if that was possible), he’s more muscled, and the beard is a nice touch.
But there’s also something dark about him—in those smoldering eyes, he keeps it hidden, but he’s carrying more than just the weight of these rocks on his shoulders right now.
So, in some ways, I guess he hasn’t changed at all.
What’s he doing here?
I thought that out in the mountains, I’d be miles and miles away from everybody. This place was meant to be remote and isolated, a secluded natural paradise that was untouched by human hands. A place perfect for falling in love with nature, for photography and creating art with my daughter.
I wasn’t supposed to find him out here.
I wasn’t really supposed to find him ever again.
Not because I didn’t want to.
I’d been imagining this moment at least once a day for the last five years—playing every scenario out in my head, trying to guess what we’d say to each other. This is not what I had ever expected at all.
I told myself that I would never see Boone again and that I had to make my peace with it.
It hurt, and I had never really lost those emotions that I felt for him, but I wasn’t given any other choice.
I never expected to see Boone Masters again because my parents didn’t believe that I was safe with him.
My father believed that if we continued to be friends, Boone’s father would use me to get me to manipulate my father. And obviously, my father couldn’t have me being a liability.
All because they were business rivals, and because clearly money was more important to the two of them than knowing that their children were happy.
It broke my heart to lie to Boone back then. Being unable to tell him the real reason I transferred colleges made me feel like I was committing the ultimate betrayal.
I had to let Boone believe that I wanted to leave him behind after he saved my life.
Now he’s here in front of me, and all those emotions that I thought I’d buried come flooding back to the surface.
To make matters worse, I then had his daughter. My beautiful Amelia—the only part of Boone that I was allowed to keep and treasure.
I keep holding her in my arms, between us. My heart is still racing in my chest—my baby, our baby, is unconscious, and it looks as though her leg could be broken. Boone is so close to his daughter, and he doesn’t even know.
Because I couldn’t tell him then.
And now doesn’t feel like a good time either.
“Boone…” I whisper breathlessly.
He’s staring at me, still holding his arms above his head to shield us better from the rocks, but his eyes have never strayed from my face. He knows who I am; he’s recognized me, too. Boone remembers me, he remembers our night together.
He remembers what I did to him.
But I can’t decipher his reaction.
He watches me with those dark eyes, and it feels like he’s staring deep into my soul. But Boone isn’t sharing anything about how he feels with me—there’s nothing to read in his face. His entire body is too focused on protecting me and Amelia for it to reveal anything about him.
“Boone, what are you doing here?” I ask.
There’s no point asking me why I’m here—the camera around my neck is self-explanatory. Boone knew from our college days that I always wanted to be a photographer and that I loved capturing natural beauty.
Boone grunts in response, trying to shift the rocks from his back in a way that it won’t crush us all flat. He’s too busy to really talk to me right now, I understand that.
But I also wouldn’t blame Boone if he never wanted to speak to me again.
Being so close to him sets my skin alight. Everything in my body yearns to throw myself into his arms, to touch him.
A boulder shifts overhead, and I let out a small scream, lifting my hand up to protect Amelia in case it falls. But Boone is already there, his biceps flexing as he strains to keep us both safe.
My fingers brush against his wrist and forearm, tracing along the veins of his arm as I lower my hand back down to my daughter. His golden skin is warm beneath my touch, and I shudder at the sensation. I tear my gaze away from him, forcing my gaze away from those dark eyes into the face of my daughter.
Amelia looks so peaceful, unconscious in my arms.
Her breathing is steady and calm, her chest slowly rising and falling. The sound of her breath is the only sound in the air between us.
She’s blissfully ignorant of the presence of her father—and of the emotional turmoil that her mummy is going through right now.
“Boone, I’m not sure if she can walk,” I say shakily, the reality of the situation hitting me.
Amelia is my world—my pride and joy.
She was the only thing I really had that was mine for so long. My father took Boone from me, him and the college of my dreams. The only thing he didn’t take was my photography and Amelia.
Boone grunts again, and the muscles in his shoulders ripple and tense. The rocks begin to shift overhead, cracking and scraping against each other. I shut my eyes and use my body as a shield.
I trust Boone would never let us get hurt, but sometimes accidents still happen.
“Don’t be afraid, Margot,” Boone says in my ear. His voice is low and serious, almost gravelly. But hearing it sets my mind at ease—I’ve waited nearly five years to hear him speak. “I’ll keep you safe.”
I lift my head up again to look at him. As the boulders shift overhead, the light begins to pour in to our little hidey-hole, revealing details about Boone that I hadn’t notice in the low light before.
The t-shirt he’s wearing is too tight for him and clings to his skin as I begin to notice the sheen of sweat. The effort he must have exerted to save Amelia becomes more obvious the longer I look at him. But still, it seems like he could have held those rocks up for hours if Amelia hadn’t been in trouble.
Boone carves a path out of the rocks. I watch as each muscle in his upper body stretches and flexes as he tosses the boulders from above us. They tumble down the pile and out of sight.
The fresh mountain air fills my lungs, and I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself.
He works in silence. Saying nothing and barely looking at me as he tosses rocks from above and around us. Clearing a space so that we can escape.
Once we’ve stepped out of the rockslide, I look around. The road is entirely blocked, and we’re out in the middle of nowhere, a long way from the path.