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CHAPTER12
Just when Drakethought the truck would collapse under the pressure of the landslide consuming it, the slope leveled out. Their descent slowed until they shuddered to a stop. Dust swam in the air inside the cab, but the rocks and gravel hadn’t crushed the windows and filled the truck like grain pumped into a grain elevator.
The roar dissipated with residual rumbles. Compared to what it had been, it was now eerily quiet.
Drake glanced over at Cassie. “Are you all right?”
“Yes.” She coughed and pulled the collar of her blouse over her nose. “Now what?”
“We get out of here before it gets dark and before another landslide finishes us off.” He fished his cell phone out of his pocket and checked the reception bars.
“We never have reception in this area,” she said.
“We won’t be able to call for help.” He slipped his phone back into his pocket.
“All the more reason to get out of here and back up to the highway before dark. I told my brother and Sheriff Barron where we were going and when we expected to get back. Hopefully, they’ll come looking for us when we don’t return in time. And if they find out there was an avalanche, they might get out here even sooner.”
“Good thinking,” Drake said. “My guys got the same briefing. Between all of them, someone should come looking for us.”
“It might take them a while when they have to go around the mountain to get to us.” She frowned and unbuckled her seatbelt. “Not to be a downer, but we also need to be watching for bears. It would be best if we don’t have to stay the night in the open.”
“No pressure,” Drake said, feeling the pressure of their situation like the crushed side panels of his truck.
He pressed the button to lower the windows. They shimmied but didn’t go down, probably due to being blocked by the crushed side panels.
He dug in the console for the emergency escape tool he’d never expected to use but had been smart enough to equip his truck with anyway. The tiny, pointy hammer didn’t seem like it could do much. He placed the point against the window, and then smacked it sharply.
The window cracked where the point hit but didn’t shatter as it had in the demonstration videos.
Then he remembered. “These don’t work on tempered glass.”
“I take it your window is tempered glass?” Cassie shook her head and pressed the button to lower her window. It went down halfway.
“I think I can get out.” She looked at Drake and back at the narrow gap. “Sweetie, you’re not getting through that.”
His eyes narrowed, and his jaw firmed. “Watch me.”
He had Cassie climb into the back seat. Then he sat on the console and kicked the slightly lowered window with both feet.
The first kick cracked the window slightly. The second expanded the crack.
Knowing they had little spare time to get back up the hill and go for help, he channeled all his energy into one more kick. When his booted heels hit the window, the tempered glass cracked at the bottom and flopped over as one cracked but intact piece.
Drake crawled through first, planted his feet firmly in the gravel and reached through the window for Cassie.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and let him pull her free of the truck.
His feet slipped in the loose gravel, and they both fell and slid further down the hill before they could get their feet beneath them.
“We need to get off the loose stuff,” Drake said. “We don’t want to get caught in it if it starts sliding again.” He grabbed her hand and walked, slipped and skidded across the rocks and loose gravel until they reached a side where the avalanche hadn’t spread over the landscape.
Cassie glanced up and whistled. “Wow. That’s a long way up, and it’s super steep.”
Drake nodded. “I’d say stay here until I can get help, but I can’t leave you to another moving hillside or killer bears.” Still holding her hand, he started up the steep incline, grabbing saplings and tree roots to steady himself and pull himself and Cassie up the steepest areas.
Halfway up, his muscles and lungs burned from the effort. With the sun slipping quickly behind the highest mountain peak, they didn’t have time to stop for a break.
He pushed upward, not wanting to be caught on the steep slope in the dark. If one or both of them fell, they could be injured, and no one would find them until the morning, if at all.
