Page 19 of Mountain Struggle

“You okay?” she gasped. Her half-frozen arm muscles complained but she kept going, knowing if she stopped she’d only be causing him more pain.

“Keep … going,” he begged.

And suddenly, just when she thought she literally couldn’t keep going, that her strength was fading, she felt the bone pop back into its socket.

“Fuck,” he breathed. “That feels amazing.”

“It does?” she asked. She’d never had a dislocated shoulder before.

A small smile played on his lips. “Don’t get the wrong idea. I meant the pain is gone. Now, let’s get going. We’re too exposed out here and we need to warm up.”

Tess looked undecided.

“Trust me. It’s going to be okay.”

“How will your team find us, though? What if it gets dark and—”

She bit her lip to stop herself from sobbing out loud.

“You’re safe now, Tess. Jamie’s with my team—Drake, Hiro and Bailey will protect him with their life. There’s a tracker inside my bag. If I know my team at all, they’ll come for us in a matter of hours.”

He offered her his right hand and helped her up, wrapping the emergency blanket tighter around her.

#

Damien

Damien didn’t like the blue tinge on Tess’s lips, or the way she walked so silently, carefully putting one foot in front of another. He needed to get her out of those wet clothes and warmed up.

She might be going into shock.

Where’s that fucking cave?

Finally, he glimpsed it, just fifty feet further up the slope. He’d been hiking in this area dozens of time, both for work and on his own when he was younger, and knew the small cave would be a good place to wait for help to arrive.

“Just a few feet further,” he said, tightening his hold on her hand.

She nodded faintly but didn’t say anything else—hadn’t said a word since they’d left the clearing by the waterfall.

He left her sitting by the entrance and walked quickly around the cavern to make sure no animal had decided to call it home. It was completely empty.

He took off his backpack and started looking for the things he was going to need. He set the small Bunsen burner going and started heating some water from his water bottle. He dropped some granules of instant tea and sugar into the pot.

While the drink heated, he brought out an extra Mylar blanket, which he placed on the ground, and spread his unzipped Chilkoot sleeping bag on top. He favored his shoulder, which was still sore.

He turned off the Bunsen burner, not wanting to make the drink too hot for her, and poured half a cup into the lid of the water bottle.

He offered the cup to Tess, who took it in shaking hands. He helped her take a couple sips before she put the cup down again.

“Tess, we need to take off your clothes,” he said. She looked at him as he spoke, but her eyes were glassy and her expression didn’t change. “Let me help you,” he said softly.

She whimpered when he took off the Mylar blanket from around her shoulders, but didn’t make any other sound as he started peeling off her wet clothes. He struggled with the zippers, his icy hands not behaving as they should.

“You’re clumsy,” she whispered. “I didn’t think you’d be clumsy in bed—”

“What did you think I’d be like?” he asked, more to keep her talking than anything else. He wasn’t about to take anything she said seriously.

Her body felt cold to the touch, but at least she was still shivering. That hopefully meant the hypothermia was mild. Finally she was in her sports bra and underwear—he tried not to pay attention to the way the black cotton clung to her curves.