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“I can’t remember a winter where it hasn’t snowed. I guess growing up in the Shenandoah Mountains, I’m used to it.”
“Crap.” I heard him mutter as I felt the truck start to slow.
“How bad is it?”
“Bad.”
“Are we going to make it?”
“I don’t know,” he simply replied. The tension in his voice was palpable. Hearing his worry, I knew it was bad.
“It was barely snowing when we left town, but now, it’s like the sky just opened up. I can hardly see the road.”
“How far up the mountain are we?”
“About halfway, why?”
“Have we passed the large boulder with the painted eagle on it?”
“Yeah. A few minutes ago, why?”
“Slow down,” I said, sitting up straighter in my seat. “If I’m right, you are about to come up on a curve.”
“That’s right.”
“Right past the curve is an old logging trail. It’s not used anymore, but that logging trail will take us directly to my property. It runs behind my house. We can hole up there for the night until the storm breaks.”
“And mine,” Scribe said. “How could I have forgotten about it? It also runs right in front of Pyro’s place.”
“You mean that ugly triangular cabin?”
Scribe laughed. “Wait till I tell Pyro you said that. That place was a bitch to build. Pyro kept changing his mind, but Skylar loves the house. There’s the road now.”
I felt the truck damn near come to a complete stop as Scribe slowly turned right onto the old logging road, shifting his truck into four-wheel drive. A lot of the old logging roads were nothing but dirt and gravel, which made traveling on them treacherous. While the old road wasn’t as smooth as the primary route up the mountain, it was a straight shot to the cabins, and I was up for anything that got us out of the truck and to safety fast. But I also knew that this logging road had one teeny-tiny issue. “Uh, Scribe, be careful up ahead, there is a...”
CRUNCH!
The grinding of metal coupled with the sudden dip of the driver’s side front end, quickly followed by Scribe’s colorful epitaph, let me know I was too late with my warning.
“Stay in the truck,” he growled, as I heard him unbuckle his seat belt and quickly jump out into the storm. He wasn’t gone long before I heard the door open again. The wind was howling something fierce outside, and the bitter cold, coupled with the wet snow let me know the storm wasn’t going to end anytime soon.
“I broke the axel. We’re stuck.” I heard him say, as he ruffled around for something, only to hear moments later. “And I have no cell service. Just great.”
“Scribe, I’m really sorry.”
“Why are you sorry, Princess? You didn’t put a fucking boulder the size of Texas in our path.”
“No, but I knew about it. That’s why the town closed this section of the logging road. Why all of us that live on this side of the mountain have to take the long way around. The town didn’t have the resources to get up here until spring.”
“Well, we’ve got two choices. Stay here and freeze our asses off or walk the rest of the way.”
“And still freeze our asses off.”
“Yep, either way, we’re going to be freezing soon.”
“Pyro’s cabin is the closest,” I whispered. “His cabin faces the cliff.”
“Henley, it’s still a walk. The storm is getting worse and it’s dark out. The safest bet would be to stay put. Getting lost on the mountain during a blizzard is not a joke. Frostbite and hypothermia can set in quickly.”
