“Charlie's up there!” Ben wrenched free.
Bear was suddenly beside him, reaching for the snowmobile.
“Then we're going, too?—”
“No one is going anywhere!” The CDOT supervisor stepped between them and the machine. “That mountain is still moving. You go up there now, you'll get caught in a secondary slide. You'll die up there.”
Ben looked the CDOT supervisor in the eye.
“Then I die.”
Ben gunned the engine. He shot forward before anyone could stop him.
He left chaos behind him. Shane shouting. The CDOT supervisor calling for backup. Bear and the others scrambling for the Snowcat.
Ben didn't look back.
He raced up the trail, following snow mobile tracks. His heart hammered against his ribs.Charlie.I have to get to Charlie.
The grade grew steeper. Ben's headlight cut through the blowing snow. Ben pushed the machine as fast as he dared, maybe faster. Snow flew up from the treads.
Come on. Come on.
The avalanche had stopped. The mountain had gone silent. But secondary slides could come at any moment. The whole slope was unstable.
Ben didn't care.
The trail got harder to follow. Fresh avalanche debris covered everything. The original snowmobile tracks disappeared under feet of new snow. Ben's headlight swept across the staging area.
Gone. All of it.
Just a massive field of churned snow and debris. The work lights they'd set up—buried. The snowmobiles—gone. No markers. No reference points.
Nothing.
Ben killed the engine and jumped off. “Charlie!”
The silence was absolute. Just wind and the settling squeak and creak of snow.
He ran to where he thought the center of the staging area had been and dropped to his knees. Started digging with his bare hands, throwing snow aside.
“Charlie! Can you hear me?Charlie!”
Nothing.
Three feet down. That's what they always said. Most avalanche victims were buried three feet down.
But three feet of avalanche snow and debris was like digging through concrete. The snow had been compressed by the force of the slide, packed so tightly his fingers could barely penetrate it.
He clawed at it anyway. Threw handfuls aside. Moved two feet to the left and dug again.
Nothing.
“Charlie!” His voice cracked. “Princess, please?—”
He moved again. Dug. Found nothing but more snow.
His hands were already numb. His chest heaving. Tears froze on his face before he could wipe them away.
