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Depositing Delaney in one of the chairs, I take off my backpack and move over to try and get a fire going, just as the sun finally sets and the cabin plunges into darkness. Even though my backpack is mainly to carry food while I’m at work, I have a couple of other things in there, including a first aid kit.
Once the fire is going, I leave the door to the stove open to give us more light and take the steel pot outside and fill it with snow, before returning it to the stove to heat up. I then move over to the bed, grabbing the thin mattress and the musty old blanket that lies on top.
They are old and dirty and covered in dust and god knows what else, but right now I don’t give a shit. I need to get us warm and dry and this is the only way I know how.
Dropping the mattress to the floor in front of the fire, I stick another log on as I try to figure out if we have enough wood to get us through the night. It’s now pitch-black outside, the two grime-covered windows are still clear enough to see the stars in the darkened sky.
Then I turn and walk over to Delaney.
“Laney, I need you to stand up for me,” I say as I take off my jacket and hang it on the other chair. She doesn’t move, just sits there, her eyes closed, her arms wrapped around herself as she shivers. “Laney, I need to get you warm.” She still doesn’t move, even as I unclip my boots and kick them off. The zipper to my ski pants is next and as I push them down, I shiver as the cold air hits my skin, before hanging them and the long-sleeve thermal I was wearing under my jacket, up to dry.
When I’m standing in nothing but my socks and underwear, shivering because it’s fucking freezing, I pull Delaney up. She doesn’t protest as I slide her gloves and beanie off, hanging them over the chair she was just sitting in. Doesn’t say a word as I unclip her boots and pull them off, leaving them next to mine.
When my fingers move to the zipper of her suit, I expect some kind of reaction, but I get nothing as Delaney stands in front of me, her teeth chattering with the cold and her whole body shivering. Without thinking, I unzip her suit, pushing the whole thing off her before I hang it up beside my clothes on the drying rack above the table.
She’s standing in nothing but her socks, underwear and a tight tank, her arms wrapped tightly around her body. I pull her close, wrapping her in my arms for a second, as I say, “We need to get warm. I need you to come with me.”
She still doesn’t say anything and I turn and walk us over to the fire, which is now pushing out a solid wall of heat. Pulling her down onto the mattress with me, I sit her between my legs, wrapping my body around hers and then the musty blanket around both of us.
I can see the steam slowly rising from the pot on the stove as the water starts to heat and I tighten my arms, Delaney’s body now enclosed in mine.
“Laney,” I whisper, my mouth at her ear.
She lets out a small murmur as she burrows in closer to me, her shaking finally starting to slow down. I hold her tightly, desperately trying to get her warm as we sit here in silence. Eventually, I hear my name, the whispered, “Alex,” that falls from her lips.
I glance down to find her looking up at me, her face a mix of fear and worry. I give her a small smile as I lean in and press a kiss to her forehead. “Do you remember what happened?”
“Ye— yeah,” she chokes out.
“Are you okay?” I ask. “Does anything hurt?”
Delaney shakes her head even as she says, “My head, it’s…it’s bleeding.”
“It’s stopped now,” I tell her, brushing her hair back. “I’ll clean it up for you in a minute, but we need to get warm first.”
I feel her hands grip my forearms, her fingers digging in tightly. “Alex, what are we going to do? What—”
I tighten my hold on her, pulling her even closer as a spike of fear lances through me at the reality of our situation. We got taken by an avalanche. No one knows where we are. I lost my beacon and my phone, we have limited supplies and no form of communication. And we were thrown god knows how far off the mountain when we got hit.
Exhaling, I force myself to stay calm as I whisper, “I’ve got you, Laney. I’ve got you.”
2
DELANEY
Ican’t seem to stop shaking, my body is trembling so hard that every single inch of it aches, and I start to wonder if this is all a dream. It feels fake, like there’s no way I’m sitting in an old hunting cabin out in the wilderness. But more so than that, it feels like it can’t possibly be real because that would mean Alex and I survived an avalanche.
I’ve been skiing almost my entire life and I’ve never once seen an avalanche happen at Badger Creek. How did this happen to us? How are we still alive and where the fuck are we? We’re going to die out here. And it’s with this thought that the tears come.
I don’t have my avalanche beacon and I can’t even bring myself to ask Alex if he has his. I wasn’t even supposed to be on the mountain in that remote part, the far off side that’s reserved for the best skiers. I was meeting Zoey after she got off work to go for a ski and then have dinner. Alex and I had been arguing and I was angry at him, so instead of trying to talk it out, I wore the sexy neon pink ski suit with a plan to make him jealous. I was going to flaunt myself in front of him when he came into the lounge after his shift. But then Elissa asked me to help clear the mountain as the storm rolled in.
It's all so fucking stupid now.
All I had on underneath were a pair of hot shorts and a tank, and now I’m here trembling in front of this fire, practically naked. Alex has wrapped a musty smelling blanket around us as I sit between his legs and the wool feels sharp and scratchy against my bare skin. It feels like every nerve in my body is on fire and this blanket is doing nothing to help that. I shove it off my shoulders and I hear Alex protest, but I don’t acknowledge it.
I stand up, every movement has my body screaming at me to sit the fuck back down, but I can’t. I walk around the small cabin, taking it in. Opening a closet, I find some old clothes: a few flannel shirts, a hunting parka, several pairs of men’s boots and a shotgun.
I stare at the gun, wondering if there will come a time when we’ll need to use it and when I glance up on the shelf above the hanging items, I see a couple of boxes of shotgun shells. I’ve never fired a gun in my life and I hope I never have to. But judging by our current situation, I have no idea what the future holds.
