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“Thanks. It’s my feet that are the coldest though.” I crack the glove warmers and stuff them inside. “Turns out that two pairs of wool socks might not be enough.”
Some of the numbness in my fingers fades as my hands warm up. Patrick kneels down beside the sled, digging through the supplies until he finds a couple more packs.
“It’s getting cold out here and the snow is coming down harder.” He tosses me two more packs.
I crack them and stuff them down into my boots. “I know. We’re going to have to call it quits soon, aren’t we?”
Patrick looks to the sky, the falling snow coating the reflective purple goggles. “Yeah. I don’t know how much longer we’re going to be able to search. It looks like we’re going to get a lot more snow than the forecast was calling for.”
“How far do you think we are from the top?”
Patrick pulls the map out of his back pocket and unfolds it. He takes a moment to look at the map and the surrounding area before stabbing his finger at a location.
“We’re a little over halfway to the top. I think we should veer off this way though.” Patrick traces another route on the map with his finger. “If they went missing just before this snow started, they might have been looking for somewhere to shelter.”
“There’s some caves there, aren’t there?” I try to commit the map to memory. If this snow gets much worse, there won’t be enough visibility to read the map.
Patrick nods and folds the map. “There are. These people seemed like avid hikers. If they thought there was a storm rolling in, I think we can count on them heading for the caves.”
“Alright, well, let’s head for the caves then.”
We trudge through the snow, fat flakes falling faster. The sky darkens the deeper into the trees we get. The whistling of the wind chills me to the bone as the cold seeps through my jacket.
Though the weather isn’t bad enough to turn back yet, it’s going to be that bad soon.
We have to find the hikers and get them back to the Barn as soon as possible.
And then I have to figure out how to apologize to Jessie for walking off when she was trying to fix things with me. It was immature, and I should have spoken to her. I should have said something to let her know that we were going to be okay and we could talk about everything later.
Instead, I walked off into the woods like a petulant child and only tried to turn back once it was too late.
She is a distraction for me, but I would give up everything for her if I had to.
Though, Jessie would never ask that of me. It’s one of the things I like the most about her. She’s as ambitious as I am. I don’t have to worry about coming home and hearing her tell me that she can’t do this anymore.
She’s not going to say that my dreams are too much for her.
I’m going to support Jessie in her dreams.
Once we both get back to the Barn, I’m going to propose a fresh start. A new place for us to start the rest of our lives from.
Because that’s what I want to share with her. The rest of my life. Even if it scares the hell out of both of us. I want to be scared together. I want to work through that fear together.
I want everything with Jessie, and I’m not going to settle for anything less. Not if she’s willing to want everything with me.
Patrick stops and crouches near a patch of mud that isn’t quite covered by snow yet. He sweeps away the white powder and looks at the mud beneath it, tracing something with his finger.
“It looks like there are some tracks here. I think the hikers might have been here recently. Only one though. And the tracks are headed away from us.” Patrick leans closer to the ground, facing me and searching for more tracks.
“Do you think one of them went back down the mountain to go for help?”
He stands and wipes the mud from his gloves onto his pants. “They might have. We’ll keep going this way though. These tracks are fresh, and we might be able to figure out where they came from.”
I stuff my hands deep in my pockets and tuck my chin to my chest. Patrick leads the way through the snow as I follow along behind him. Though I know there are caves out here, I haven’t been to them yet.
If Patrick says they would be a good place to find shelter, then I believe him.
Hopefully those hikers are there.
