AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Turning back to the group, Josie said, “We need a plan. Not just for getting off this mountain—which is going to be next to impossible in this weather—but for how to spend the next day or potentially two or three days.”
“Two or three days?” Taryn blurted out. “You want us to spend two or three more days up here with a dead body?”
Alice shuddered silently.
Josie said, “There is a very good chance that no rescue efforts will begin until the snow has stopped. It may be too dangerous. Also, we don’t know what kind of equipment will be needed to reach us and how long it will take county officials to amass it and bring it here. So yes, we need to prepare ourselves for the reality that we could be here until Sunday or Monday—or even later. That means we need to conserve whatever supplies are on hand. Food, wood, and fuel for the generator.”
“You mean generators,” said Brian.
“No,” Josie said. “One generator. What makes the most sense is for us to pool all of our supplies and stay here together in the main house.”
“What? Like sleep here together?” Nicola said.
Alice slid her feet out of her boots and tucked them up under her. “Josie’s right. We should gather all the wood from our individual cabins and bring it here. We can try to find something to siphon out the fuel from the other generators so we can use it here. That way we all benefit from it.”
Taryn scratched again at her throat and glanced at Sandrine, who offered no objections. “Someone should catalog the food supply so we can start to ration it out. We should eat the fresh food first, then go to the nonperishables.”
“What about sleeping arrangements?” Brian asked. “We all just sleep in here?”
Alice said, “We’ll just have to grab our blankets and pillows from our cabins. Maybe when the snow lets up, if we’re able, we can work together to move mattresses from the cabins to here.”
“We can split up and sleep in the breakout rooms if you prefer that,” said Sandrine.
The breakout rooms were on either side of the great room. One of them was where Josie had had her first private session with Sandrine—the one with all the taxidermied animals. The other room had been fashioned like a game room with an air hockey table in the middle of it, dartboards on the walls and some cornhole kits stacked in one corner. Cornhole was a game that had gained a lot of popularity in Pennsylvania the last several years. Each kit contained a wooden goal board which was raised and angled and had one small hole along its surface. The object was to throw small bean bags into the holes for points. Cooper and Sandrine had moved the kits and the air hockey table aside so they could use the room for yoga, guided meditation, and sound baths.
In spite of the extra warmth coming from the wood-burning stove now that it was restocked, Alice shivered. “I think we should all sleep here, in this big room together.”
“Why?” Nicola said, brows scrunched.
Alice shrugged. “So we can look out for each other. If any one of us had noticed Meg leave her cabin last night, we wouldn’t be in this position. If we’re all together—”
Brian narrowed his eyes. “You want to keep an eye on all of us.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“But it’s what you meant,” Brian insisted. “Why else would you want us all to sleep in the same room?”
Before the conversation could devolve further, Josie cleared her throat and said, “We can worry about sleeping arrangements later. Our first priority should be trying to get in touch with someone to make sure help is on the way.”
“I agree,” said Sandrine, the smile on her face now strained.
Taryn glanced toward the windows as a strong gust of wind shook the house. “Help must be on the way. Cooper is probably trying to find help as we speak. He has the SAT phone! Why else didn’t he return to camp last night?”
Nicola held her palms out toward the stove to warm them. “For all we know, Cooper could be dead, too. We don’t have any proof that he made it all the way down the mountain.”
Brian said, “Cooper didn’t come back because he was sick of listening to a bunch of whiny losers. He manages this property year-round. I’m sure he’s used to bad weather. No way is he dead.”
Josie tried to get them back on track. “Regardless, it won’t hurt if one of us got in touch with emergency services and let them know that we’re stuck up here and that one member of our party is deceased. Even if Cooper did have some sort of accident and used the SAT phone, he wouldn’t have known about Meg, so that’s not something that he would have reported to authorities. They might prioritize the call differently if they know someone on the retreat died. We should do it before the weather gets any worse—while we can still move out there.”
Taryn returned her hand to her lap. Two pink slashes were visible at the hollow of her throat where she’d been scratching. “How will we get in touch with anyone?”
Josie pushed her hands out of her sleeves and gestured toward Brian. “We’ve got two phones. We split up. One group goes toward the summit and the other group goes down the path. That gives us a better chance of reaching someone. Then we meet back here.”
Sandrine interjected, “Why don’t we all get our blankets, pillows, and any personal items and bring them here first. That should only take a few minutes.”
“Yes,” Josie agreed. “We should do that first. Then try to make some calls.”
As everyone pulled on their winter wear and trudged toward the door, she considered the possibility that someone in the room might be the killer and whether it was wise to split up. Ultimately, she decided that as long as they stayed in groups, they would be fine. Once everyone had brought their things to the main house, three could go up the slope and three down the slope as far as they could manage. The snow was coming down so furiously, they only had a small window of time during which they could attempt to make contact with the outside world. Josie’s gut told her that if Meg’s killer was among them, he or she would not be likely to try to overpower two other retreat members in order to kill them as well. They had to take their chances.
