Please be close enough to the surface that this will reach, I silently pray.
Just as my muscles begin telling me they’ve had enough, my head starts pounding unbearably, my breathing is beyond labored, and I’m certain I’m going to lose a toe or two, my probe catches on something.
If it’s a stump, I think I’ll lie right here and let the cold consume me. Maybe they’ll bury me on the mountain, destined to spend eternity with the monster that fascinated me until it claimed my life and most likely that of the man I love as well.
But whatever I hit gives just a little.
Just enough to keep me going.
I drop to my knees and dig. I dig and dig and dig, using my curled fingers like a paddle.
The breath is stolen from my lungs as a bright red jacket comes into view with the word PATROL visible.
“STONE!”
If his neck is broken, he’s gone anyway, so I yank upright, trying to get his head out of the snow so he can breathe. Suffocation is a main cause of death in avalanches.
His airbag didn’t keep him on the surface likeit was supposed to, but it seems to have created a pocket of air that I’m hoping like hell was enough to keep him breathing.
I work as hard as I can to dig him out the rest of the way. The small hole I’ve managed to carve out around him is actually helping to block us from the wind and snow still whipping across the surface of the mountain. Using my teeth, I unzip my bookbag and manage to pull out the reflective safety blanket.
Then, using the snow walls like an igloo, I climb behind Stone and pull his unconscious form into my lap.
Once I have him propped against me, I carefully wrap the blanket around us. I can tell his arm is broken, and when I flipped him over, I saw that his shin bone is sticking through the skin. Thankfully, the extreme cold seems to have kept the bleeding to a minimum, and I’m thankful he’s passed out, so he isn’t in pain. His pulse is present but thready. Still, I cling to it with every fiber of my being. Carefully bracketing him with my arms and legs, I try to pour any heat I’m able to generate from my violent shivers into him.
It takes multiple tries to get my radio to beep, signaling that I can speak into it.
“Ha-Hanlon here. I ha-have S-St-Stone. Un-c-conscious. Won’t la-last long. O-ov-over.”
Maybe someone responds; maybe they don’t. When you get this cold, you can’t really trust your brain anymore. We’re still at an elevation of eight thousand feet, so delirium can’t be ruled out. Now that I have Stone back in my arms, my body accepts this as a positive outcome and refuses to budge from this position.
There are so many things I want to say to him, but my vocal cords are paralyzed, so I think them instead as I plant my lips to the helmet he still has on, thankful that it most likely is the only reason his neck didn’t snap in two.
I love you.
I love you like a brother, like a lover, like a best friend.
You’re everything to me.
And then I close my eyes and wait for the mountain to claim us both.
At least we’re together.
Chapter 39
Stone
The first thought I have is that I’m pretty sure I’m alive.
The second is that everything fuckinghurts.
Blinking my eyes open, they land on Logan.
“Hey there, Sunshine,” he says. His voice is too tight to be teasing, and the worry lines on his forehead tell me I may not be dead, but it’s not all good news, either.
My next thought is the most important one.
“H…Han…” I can’t get his name out.Fuck, it hurts to talk.
