Spiral (The Salzburg Saga Book One)

by D. U. OKONKWO

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  When, by tacit agreement, they decided they had gone far enough, they all scanned the area. Everyone’s chests heaved with exertion, tempers long since frayed, and mouths were unsmiling.

  The area they found themselves in now looked the same as what she’d seen all afternoon: miles of flat snow-covered land with tall dark mountains in the backdrop. The only difference now was they’d lost light; the sky a darker blue; the clouds bunched together as if seeking warmth from one another and the unnerving silence of isolation. She estimated that they’d walked for the forty-five minutes Jake had predicted, and since Shayna had finished feeding Luke and they had set off, Nina could no longer feel her toes.

  Jake shot a look at Neil. “What do you think? I don’t think will get better than this.”

  Neil rolled his shoulders tentatively, his face a mask of pain and weariness. “You’re better informed about these things than any of us. You’ve traveled here before.”

  Jake shook his head. “I’ve flown over it. Not the same thing.”

  Lethargic and drawn, Parker sank awkwardly to his knees, the sling that Emily had set his left arm in a rested against his chest while his gloved right hand rested on the snow beneath him . “We’re nowhere near my chalet, are we?”

  “No.” Jake’s reply was flat.

  Parker’s eyes were hollow. “I suppose we can be grateful we all made it out safely.”

  Nina shot a glance at Jake and saw his eyes flash fire at the older man. Emily closed her eyes. “Not quite, Drayton.” Jake’s voice was colder than the current temperature around them.

  “Jake–” Neil began.

  “What do you mean?” Parker frowned.

  “What do you think I mean?” Jake’s arm slashed at the air with anger, then he winced at the pain the abrupt movement caused. “Take your head out of your backside for a minute and look around. Not everyone made it out. Someone’s missing.”

  If Parker found Jake’s words insulting, he didn’t show it, his gaze moving around the group. “I don’t…” he began, and then sucked in a shocked breath. “The copilot?” he asked in disbelief, looking back at Jake. “He’s not here.”

  “Ben Denny,” Jake bit out. "He had a name."

  “He’s gone.” Emily’s voice hitched. For a moment, she and Jake just looked at each other, each with similar expressions of grief and disbelief. “I couldn’t undo his seatbelt.” Confusion flooded Emily’s expression. “Why couldn’t I undo it? Why wouldn’t it come undone?”

  Jake just shook his head, eyes tormented. “Em…”

  “He died because of that.” She covered her face with hands that trembled. “Too much smoke. He inhaled too much smoke. If I’d managed to undo his seatbelt he would’ve had a chance like the rest of us. I–"

  “No.” Jake’s curt denial stopped Emily. “That brat Drayton is responsible for that. He knocked Ben unconscious. Ben didn’t have a chance to get his seatbelt off because he was out of it.” Jake gave her a gentle shake as it to ensure the truth got through to her. “I was still struggling with Hugh when the jet crashed. And when the jet landed everything was dark and all over the place. I couldn’t see anything, couldn’t’ hear anything. Everything was covered in smoke and soot, nothing looked or sounded familiar. Everything was in disarray.” His voice broke at the memory of it, and he had to take a moment to gather himself bedsore continuing. Emily stared at him, her mouth trembling as he went on. “I knew there were three of us in that cockpit: me, Ben and….Drayton.

  “It was too dark to see which of the two I was closest to, so when I got my seatbelt undone I just started dragging out the body closest to me.” He closed his eyes and shuddered. “It was Drayton I’d pulled out, Drayton whom I’d helped save. Not Ben.” He opened his eyes and looked directly at Emily. “Then you were there, asking me about Ben, about how he was still in there. And I realized what had happened. That Ben was still in there. I’m sorry, Em.” He lowered his head to Emily’s shoulder in disbelief, and she rests her chin on top of his head.

  Silence had fallen over the group. Heart in her throat, Nina stared at him and Emily. Finally she knew what had happened in that cockpit.

  “But in the cockpit I couldn’t get his seatbelt off,” Emily whispered, her hand on the back of Jake’s head, offering comfort even as she seemed unable to take any for herself. “It was dark and the smoke had gotten worse. You and Neil were trying to rescue Nina too.” Emily’s gaze shifted to Nina. “The crash turned your seat upside down. Do you remember any of that?”

  All eyes turned to Nina.

  Horrified, she could only shake her head no, and was glad it was true. She’d been turned upside down?

  Parker looked over at Hugh who’d yet to wake fully. Wetting his lips, Parker looked back at Jake and Emily. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

  Jake’s head jerked from Emily’s shoulder, his eyes stone cold. “It’s your son who should be apologizing.” Disgusted, he shot another bitter glance at Hugh.

  “Yes –he…he ambushed the cockpit. I…” Parker trailed off, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I don’t know what got into him. I understand how you must feel.”

  “You understand nothing.” Jake’s words whipped out like a lash. “Ben didn’t get a chance to survive the crash because your son knocked him out. He came at Ben from behind like the coward he is. Ben wasn’t able to defend himself. When the jet crashed, it was too dark for me to even see what I was doing, whom, I was helping. But it was your son whom I saved and not the man I call friend. I have to live with that for the rest of my life, and so does Em.”

  Nina could only listen helplessly with the others, all of them shocked into grim silence.

  Parker looked ill. “I wish there was something I could do. Where…where is Ben now?” He eyed their surroundings warily.

  “Where do you think?” Jake hissed; the words were as jagged as the mountain peaks around them. ”We had to leave him behind in the jet, trapped to his chair.”

  When Parker squeezed his eyes shut, Jake turned away, disgusted all over again.

  Nina pressed her fist to her mouth. Angela puffed on her inhaler, while Emily remained glassy eyed. Neil sat with his arm around Shayna’s shoulder, his eyes down and resting on Luke. Justin fiddled with his fingers.

  Jake stalked a few feet away from the rest of them as if the sight of them made him sick.

  Taking a deep breath, Nina looked at Neil. “We need a place to sleep tonight.”

  “We’ll have to build a snow cave,” Justin announced, and then bristled when everyone stared at him in surprise. “What?” he asked, his voice testy.

  Jake retraced his steps back to them. “Know how to build one of those, do you, Drayton?”

  Justin gave a brief nod. “It’ll take a few hours, but if we all pitch in, it’ll make it easier. We need a small slope or a bank of snow.” When Jake arched a brow but said nothing, Justin continued. “We need to build one with enough sleeping platforms for everyone.”

  Parker’s eyes had widened in surprise at his son. “You’ve never mentioned knowing anything about all this, Justin.”

  “I’m not completely useless.”

  “I never meant–”

  “Forget it.”

  “A snow cave?” Shayna wondered out loud. “I’ve never heard of that.”

  “It’s the most logical step,” Jake said simply. “It’ll keep everyone warm and sheltered.” Squatting down, he yanked at the stiff zipper of his rucksack. “It’s either that or frostbite and hypothermia, which I know none of us wants.” He patted the snow beside him, thick and unyielding under his gloved hand. “We’ll need depth for it, several feet at least.”

  Neil left Shayna and Luke with Emily while he and Angela began to make room for the cave. Ahead of them, Jake moved further out to a bank of snow to scout the area and Justin reluctantly followed him.

  Disliking standing around doing nothing, Nina moved toward Jake and Justin. “What can I do to help?”


  Jake shook his head without looking up at her. “Conserve your energy, you were on that jet for longer than the rest of us and inhaled a lot of smoke. Plus, there’s no food.”

  She rolled her eyes with impatience. “I know all that.”

  He looked up at her then, his mouth tight with annoyance. “Then rest.”

  She remained where she stood. “None of us are here because we want to be, but if building this cave takes a few hours, like Justin said, then we all need to help.” She glanced over at Neil and Angela. The strain on their faces made it clear they were in pain too, but they were doing what needed to be done. And so would she.

  Jake considered her unyielding expression. “You telling me that you’re not in pain?”

  Of course she was in pain. She ached, but she managed a stiff shrug. “Who isn’t? But that doesn’t change anything. We need to survive. To do that we all need to pull our weight.”

  With a shrug Jake turned to Justin. “We have to be mindful for rocks. You know that?”

  Justin’s mouth tightened. “I know that.”

  “Why check for rocks?” Nina asked in confusion.

  “We can’t build a snow cave on rocks,” Justin explained. “The slope needs to be clear and even underneath for us to build the snow.”

  Nina frowned. “I’ve heard that probes are best to check for that.”

  He arched an impatient brow. “You see any probes anywhere?”

  She stared at his retreating back as he walked away. With that sobering reminder of their predicament, she began testing the ground with her gloved hands, digging out chunks to search for any offended rocks. Grateful to have her mind focused on something beside her aching body, she worked slowly and steadily with the others.

  “How’s it going?” Jake called out to her a short while later.

  “No rocks here,” she shouted back.

  He crunched his way through the snow toward her. “Ready to rest now?” She detected a smile in his voice but his expression remained bland.

  Yes, she wanted to rest. “Yeah, thanks.” She looked over to where Angela was already lying down beside Shayna and the baby.

  Neil came up to her. “Go and join Ange for a rest,” he said. “You’ve both been troopers.”

  “She’s waking up again,” was the first thing Nina heard when she awoke a while later. She’d fallen asleep soon after stretching out beside Ange, and she blinked up at the indigo sky above her. She sat up with effort. “What time is it?” .

  Angela sighed. “Don’t know. Don’t want to know. I’d say you’ve only been sleeping for about two hours, though.”

  Nina’s gaze moved to Parker who leaned over Hugh, and she realized it was him who’d she’d heard upon awakening. He was talking about Hugh.

  Glancing across at Emily, Parker gestured toward Jake’s rucksack. “Is there nothing else in there we can give him?”

  Nina gaped at him. He had to be joking, right?

  Emily’s eyes were empty sockets in her lifeless face. “I don’t know, Parker.”

  Justin staggered over to them, collapsing with a loud groan on the edge of the large mat.

  Hugh’s eyes were open and blinking rapidly up at his father.

  Parker leaned over him, gently tapping at Hugh’s cheeks. “Hugh, can you hear me?”

  Justin eyed Emily as he slowly sat up. “You’re angry that my brother survived when your pilot friend didn’t, right?” he asked softly. His face was grim.

  Parker looked up, beginning to berate him, but stopped when Emily only shook her head. “It’s okay,” she said. Her eyes hardened on Justin’s. “Ben wasn’t just a pilot, friend, or a colleague, he was my husband. And the only family I had.”

  Nina sucked in a breath, Angela groaned, Justin looked away and Parker squeezed his eyes shut.

  “Emily, I’m so sorry,” Nina whispered. Reaching for Emily’s hand, she squeezed it gently.

  Emily swallowed, making an obvious effort to continue as Shayna put her arm across her shoulders. “I’ll never see him again.” Her voice fractured. ”I have to try and accept that.”

  Justin stared at the ground.

  “Emily–” Parker began in a whisper.

  But she only shook her head, hunching her shoulders forward, her gaze still on Justin. “You’ll have to forgive me if I’m not concerned about your brother.”

  “I didn’t mean anything by it. I–”

  “Justin,” Neil called out impatiently. He stood beside Jake, both of them eyeing Justin. “You can’t take a break yet; we haven’t finished.”

  With a groan, Justin rose and staggered back to join them.

  “We’re ready to build the cave,” Jake told Justin when Justin joined him and Neil.

  Justin squinted down into the dark hole in front of them. “You’re sure it’s several meters deep?”

  Jake didn’t bother replying. “We need shovels,” he said instead. “You have any?” His gaze was challenging on the younger man.

  Justin’s gaze jerked up, his eyes confused. “Shovels?”

  “To dig out blocks for the individual rooms,” Jake enunciated each word slowly as if speaking to a dim-witted child. “I thought you said you knew how to build a snow cave?”

  Justin bristled. “I do.”

  “Right, so you know that using shovels will make this part a heck of a lot easier than using our bare hands.”

  “Of course I know that,” Justin snapped. “But where the hell am I going to magically come up with shovels?” He flung his arms out to indicate his lack of belongings on his person. “Inside my ski boots?”

  Jake’s smile was as warm as the snow under their boots. “Not quite the Boy Scout after all, huh?”

  Justin moved to stand nose to nose with him. “Listen, you arrogant bas–”

  “Stop it.” Moving between them, Neil placed a hand on Justin’s shoulders, shoving him back a step. “We don’t have time for a boxing match.”

  Jake bared his teeth in a feral snarl. “We can make time.” He stepped forward.

  Neil elbowed him back. “I’m serious.”

  Justin’s nostrils flared. “If a fight’s what he wants, I’ll give him one.”

  “We need somewhere to sleep tonight, remember?” Neil reminded them with barely strained patience. “Let’s put our leftover energy into that.”

  “You’re right,” Jake muttered. He could pummel the twerp another time. They had several rooms to make, and no shovel, which would have made this job easier.

  “You guys need help?” Angela called.

  “I’ll start building the front rooms,” Justin muttered and stalked to the other side of the deep hole.

  Angela peered down into the dark hole, eyes wide. “What do you need us to do?”

  “You can start building the corridors,” Jake replied. “I’ll show you how. The corridor will make it possible for us all to move around the cave. I’ll help, along with building the sleeping platforms. You okay to do the roof, Neil?”

  “Sure but you’ll need to show me how; I’ve never done this before.”

  Under different circumstances, this could have been almost cathartic, Nina decided as she and Angela began scooping up large armfuls of snow. As it was, with bodily aches and pains and not as much as a sniff of any potential food, it was tough and muscle numbing work. Nina worked on autopilot, hardly taking note of what she did, simply doing as Jake instructed. She couldn’t help grunting as she lifted each armful of snow. Beside her, Angela panted as she worked, her eyes semi-closed against the cold damp wind battering them.

  “Think Hazel will get anxious when you don’t call tonight?” Angela suddenly asked.

  Nina paused with an armful of snow and met Angela’s gaze. “I don’t know.” She tossed the snow aside, watched it land beside their feet and meld into the snow already covering the ground. She let out a slow breath. “But then what?” She took a deep breath. “What about your Derek?” She searched Angela’s tense face. “Will he suspect anything out of th
e ordinary when you don’t call him?”

  Angela bit down on her lower lip as she punched out a ledge of snow. “Unlikely. I’ve taken a trusted private jet with my biggest client. He’ll no doubt think I’m just too busy working and have forgotten to call.”

  Nina grimaced at the truth of that.

  “Plus,” Angela continued, “Des has a big presentation coming up in New York in a week.” Her voice hitched, became a fierce whisper, and Nina reached out to squeeze her arm in comfort. “I’ve got to get back in time to look after Jessica.”

  Thinking of Angela’s five-year-old daughter made Nina’s heart ache.

  “Des can’t look after her and go to New York, too.” Angela began to weep softly then.

  “Ssh, it’s okay.” Miserable, Nina drew Angela into a loose embrace, mindful of both their bruises. “It’s okay; we’ll be out of here by then.” She willed herself to believe it, even as her conscious mind told her that there were no guarantees. “We’ll get a signal and be able to call everyone,” she insisted, wanting to comfort them both.

  “There’s no phone signal here, Neen.” Angela’s voice was muffled against Nina’s cheek.

  “Is she all right?” Neil called out. Dumping the truckload of snow he carried, he moved toward them with Jake following him. Neil placed a comforting hand on Ange’s shoulder.

  “She’s worried about Jessie,” Nina told Neil.

  He nodded grimly. “Jessie is her young daughter,” he explained to Jake.

  Jake winced.

  Several feet away, Justin sent Angela a quick look before continuing to dig without comment.

  Jake slid a glance back to where Hugh was now sitting up, leaning heavily on Parker.

  With a deep sigh, Angela pulled away from Nina, wiped her eyes, and visibly pulled herself together. “You’re right, Neen. We’ll get out of here. We’ll get through this.”

  Nina smiled as the fight came back into her friend. “Definitely.”

  Angela gave a wobbly smile. “When have we ever been wrong about anything?”