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“Did it have a steel frame that looked like metal strips on an angle, forming diamond shapes and—”
“Yeah, yeah! That’s it!”
I let go of him as a rush of adrenaline flooded through me. A smile curled its way across my mouth, big and bright.
“It’s a radio tower!” I said, turning and smacking Boone in the chest.
My excitement must’ve been infectious because suddenly he was smiling too. “Could we use it to boost the signal?” he asked excitedly. “Does it have an antenna or something?”
“You don’t understand,” I grinned. “The whole thing is an antenna!”
I let out a sigh of exultation, then turned to look over my shoulder. The big ugly box of the ham radio was still there, staring back at me. Daring me to lug it all the way outside, and into the snowstorm.
For several long moments, no one spoke.
“Ummm…” Jeremy began meekly. “Does this mean no peaches?”
Forty-Six
MORGAN
“I’m going,” said Shane. “I’m the one with the best chance of survival, so…”
“And how do you figure that?” Boone asked, crossing his arms.
Shane looked at me for help. “Did you not tell him of the amazing snow shelter? Of how I dug you out of that avalanche and—”
“Your hand.”
He looked down into his palm. So did the rest of us. Though the makeshift bandage looked clean enough, the skin around it was an angry red.
“You can’t dig a snow shelter with an injured hand,” I said. “You can’t hook the radio up to the tower, either.”
Shane’s face twisted into a mask of displeasure. He looked like he wanted to kick his hand’s ass.
“I’ll go,” said Jeremy. “I’ve already been to the tower. I know the way.”
“You only know the way because I led the way,” said Shane. “In fact—”
“We’ll all go.”
Everyone turned to look at me. I shrugged.
“I need to go for the radio. Shane needs to lead. No use in Boone and Jeremy staying behind, especially with Shane’s bad hand. And we’ll need to take turns carrying the radio anyway, it’s kinda heavy.”
It made too much sense to argue. There wasn’t a single word of protest.
“We can’t leave now,” said Shane. “It takes three or four hours to reach the tower, and today is already shot.”
“That was three or four hours two days ago,” Boone pointed out. “Who knows how much snow has fallen since then.”
“Fine,” I said. “Then we leave first thing in the morning. As soon as it gets light.”
Once again, silence signaled their agreement. It was pretty strange, really. These three big strong guys had been running things the whole time we’d been here, and now all of I sudden I’d just sort of taken charge.
“Tomorrow then,” said Boone. “Dawn.”
Shane nodded. Jeremy pulled at the end of his goatee.
