Dead Summit: Containment

by Daniel Loubier

  “I’m sorry I don’t have any tissues with me,” Shelly said.

  “It’s okay.”

  “If you don’t mind my asking, how did Roy die?”

  Grace caught her breath mid-sob and viewed Shelly carefully. This must have been it. The woman had expertly and subtly lulled Grace into thinking she was a kindred spirit when in fact all she wanted was to get some truth out of Grace. Shelly had been damn good, and it almost worked, but Grace saw through her now.

  “I didn’t kill him,” Grace said out of spite. “So you can go tell your boyfriend I--”

  “Oh, no!” Shelly cut her off. “I promise you, that’s not why I’m asking. I just… I need to know. Did he suffer at all?”

  Shelly’s eyes rounded at the corners and Grace saw once again the face of someone who truly cared. Even if this was an amazing performance by someone who ultimately was going to kill her, Grace had nothing to lose or gain by telling Shelly the truth. None of the circumstances surrounding Roy’s death were going to tell them anything of use about Grace.

  “No,” Grace said. “He didn’t.”

  Shelly exhaled loudly.

  “Good. He was much too good a man to go out suffering.”

  “I mean,” Grace added, “he was in some pain, but if it was really bad, he didn’t let me see it.”

  Shelly smiled.

  “Yeah, that sounds like Roy, for sure.”

  The two women regarded each other equally. It was obvious to Grace that she and Shelly shared the same reverence for Roy, and Grace started to question why Shelly was there at all. Perhaps Shelly, like Roy, originally agreed to do what she felt was best, but ultimately determined none of this was right?

  “I want you to know,” Shelly said, “that when you think of Roy—when you think of how decent and pure and genuine he was, you can think of me the same way.”

  Grace was not convinced. Nobody was the same as Roy because his selflessness was not something anyone could simply emulate. His generosity was born from years of empathy and goodness. Who was this woman to think she was half the person Roy was?

  Grace didn’t feel good about what she was about to do, but she had to go on the offensive. She needed to press this woman and she needed to be mean about it. She was about to turn into the aggressor, and she would either catch this woman in a lie, or she would find out Shelly had been truthful the whole time. If she was lying, Grace would be in the same position she was in ten minutes ago. But if Shelly was telling the truth, then Grace was prepared to hand over her trust in full.

  “How can you say that?” Grace asked. She wasn’t ready to completely commit to this woman and her story.

  “What? I--”

  “How can you sit there all sweet and nice and pretend to be who Roy was? How dare you?”

  “I swear, I’m not--”

  “You’ve put on a good show, lady, but we both know you’re just like the others. You want me dead. There’s no hope for me, no escape. I’ll be dead within the hour. And you and the others will go back to the lives you led before, never to speak about this to anyone. Don’t feed me your bullshit. It was a nice portrayal. You almost had me, but you’re fake. You’re shit.”

  Now it was Shelly who was overcome by emotion, but Grace remained firm.

  “Oh, that’s brilliant,” she said. “Good. Cry. Cry a lot. I bet I can guess what they told you: You’re a good crier, Shelly. Show the woman how empathetic you are so you can gain her trust and then-”

  “Fuck you!” Shelly hissed. “The only reason I’m in this room with you right now is because if we can’t figure out a way off this mountain, we’re both dead!”

  Grace was shocked by Shelly’s outburst. She had been extremely compassionate from the moment she entered the room until now, but she was obviously growing tired of Grace’s unwillingness to accept her help.

  “I’m trying to help you!” Shelly seethed. “And I finally made an ally out there. He’s willing to help us both. He’s my Roy. But the three of us need to be in this together for it to work.”

  Grace remained quiet and tried to work it all out in her head. Shelly mentioned someone else: “my Roy.” Who could that be? And why was she telling Grace all of this?

  Grace knew there was only a small handful of men inside the store. Surely they were all formed from the same mold, protectors of the secret. How could this woman be sure she had found an ally among them? And how could Grace put her life in the hands of this woman and some person she had not even met yet?

  “Don’t you have a phone?” Grace asked. “Why can’t you just call someone?”

  “Everybody puts their phones in a safe; it’s part of the protocol. All we have are two-way radios.” Her response had been quick. Too quick, perhaps… but very direct. And Grace could tell she hadn’t said it out of pride for the operation, but more matter-of-factly.

  “What about the store?” Grace said. “There has to be a phone by the register or something?”

  Shelly’s flat expression remained unchanged.

  “All landlines to the mountain are cut off.”

  Grace laughed. “Of course. That’s convenient.”

  “It’s true.”

  “How do I know this is the truth?” Grace asked.

  Shelly’s response was quick and unforced: “Because Robert already ordered your execution.”

  Grace raised an eyebrow.

  “It wasn’t until I made up some bullshit plan of yours that I convinced him not to kill you,” Shelly explained further.

  “You convinced that asshole not to kill me?”

  Shelly nodded.

  “Prove it,” Grace said.

  Shelly leaned close. “I told him I read your diary. I told him that in it, you wrote about somebody who was hidden somewhere on the mountain and was waiting to hear from you.”

  Grace rationalized this information while Shelly continued.

  “If he thought you were the only one left alive outside our group, you would have been killed shortly after you left the hut this morning.”

  Grace thought the two men with the large guns. Tom, the one who nearly killed her; and Kyle, the one who was more even-tempered.

  “They were there waiting for you,” Shelly said, as if reading Grace’s mind. “Trust me, you didn’t give anybody the slip. We were on to you from the moment you left the hut to the moment that asshole clocked you in the head.”

  Tom certainly seemed ready to end her life until Robert’s voice came over the radio, but Grace remained stubborn and said nothing. She waited for Shelly to reveal more.

  “That’s why you’re still alive,” Shelly continued. “That’s why your body isn’t at the hut burning with everything else that was left up there. That’s why you’re talking to me, and why I need you on my side. I realize my mistake now. I should have gotten out a long time ago, but I didn’t, and now I regret it. But maybe I don’t have to regret it if my purpose here was to help you get out alive.”

  Grace was finding it harder and harder not to believe this woman.

  “But hey,” Shelly said, “if you’d rather take a bullet, be my guest. Otherwise I need to know right now, because once Robert kills you, I’ll be his next target.”

  Shelly walked around the table. She squatted low next to Grace and looked up into her eyes. She placed her hands on Grace’s.

  “Do for me what Roy did for you,” Shelly implored. “Save me. I’ve already saved you.”

  Grace stared down into two of the most honest-looking eyes she had ever seen. As much as she wanted to trust this woman, a small part of her still found it difficult to believe Shelly’s plea had been genuine.

  She tried to think of what Charlie would say, what he would tell her to do.

  Help me, babe… tell me what I’m supposed to do.

  Ultimately she heard nothing. No inner voice, no disembodied opinions from Charlie.

  Grace considered the idea a bit longer and soon she realized what was preventing her from putting her faith in this w
oman: herself. Grace simply didn’t want to trust anyone. She’d lost Charlie. Then she lost Roy, the only other person who mattered to her in this place. Maybe it was time to give Shelly a chance. Even if it was a false chance, it was better than no chance at all. And she would no longer be alone.

  You better not be lying to me, lady.

  Chapter 28

  Shelly emerged from the room and closed the door softly behind her. She felt numerous pairs of eyes on her as she walked out into the store. Had any of the others known what she had done, she would have been killed where she stood. The plan had begun, and she needed to muster every bit of confidence within her to continue the charade for not only did she need to convince Robert, she needed to convince all of them

  She looked for Liam and saw he was missing from the group. Must be outside, still, she thought. Then she saw Robert walking toward her. She steeled herself.

  “So?” he asked. “How’d it go?”

  “That woman is damaged,” Shelly said.

  “Yeah, whatever. I don’t care. Did you get it out of her?”

  Shelly regarded him as if he was the devil himself. Then, in a voice loud enough for the others to hear, she said, “You know, Robert, you might want to show at least a little compassion for someone you’re about to murder.”

  “Whoa, easy there, little lady,” Robert’s father said. He stood with the others whose faces revealed shock at Shelly’s outburst. “We do what we do because we have to,” James continued. “We do it for this place. It’s not murder… it’s preservation.”

  She never took her eyes off Robert.

  “Preservation of what, exactly?” The words came out like an agitated fist.

  James made a quick move toward Shelly.

  “All right, now you listen here, you--”

  “Dad, no,” Robert said. He held out an arm to stop his father’s advance. “I’ll take care of this.” Then to Shelly he said, “A word outside? Please?”

  Robert turned without waiting for a response and headed for the front door.

  Shelly followed. From the corner of her eye, she could see James seething, but she ignored his rage and smiled inside as she left the store.

  When Shelly made it outside, Robert was in the parking lot. His back was to her and he stood with his hands on his hips. His silhouetted posture was slackened and appeared much different than he had only a few moments ago. While inside the store he looked sure and confident, now he appeared beaten and defeated.

  She stepped off the porch and the sound of the gravel parking lot crunching under her feet alerted him to her presence.

  “You know,” he began in a tired voice, “if you want us to be over, that’s fine. We’ve probably been done a long time by now.”

  Shelly laughed.

  “Hey,” he spun around, his voice stronger and annoyed. “It’s not like you made any attempt to leave. Okay? You could have left me a long time ago, but you stayed. I think I deserve some credit for being the first to openly recognize this isn’t working anymore.”

  Shelly’s caustic smile disappeared and she nodded.

  “So we’re done, then,” Robert said with finality. “Okay. I can handle that. There are probably some things we need to discuss, but we can’t right now. We still have a job to do. I hope you haven’t forgotten about that.”

  “I haven’t forgotten about anything,” Shelly said.

  “Okay, good. So at least we can agree on something.”

  Shelly didn’t necessarily agree; it was simply the best non-committal response she could deliver.

  “Now,” he said, his voice soft again. “Did she tell you anything useful? Do you really think someone else is here, or are we okay?”

  She wanted to tell him everything she and Grace agreed to tell him, but she could not simply divulge every bit of information like she was pouring it from a bucket. It would feel forced and disingenuous. She couldn’t risk having him catch her in a lie. She would have to provide information in small pieces, just like she did at the hut. And she would have to do it with as much perceived consternation and difficulty as possible.

  “Yes,” she finally said.

  “Yes… what?”

  “Yes, there is someone here.”

  Robert exhaled and Shelly heard the anxiety and frustration come out.

  “Where is he?”

  “He’s at the summit.”

  “Goddammit!”

  “Hey, we both knew this wouldn’t be easy,” she reminded him. “Besides, he wouldn’t have made it down anyway, not right away.”

  “He? So it is her husband?”

  “That’s what it sounds like.”

  “Well, is it or isn’t it?”

  Robert’s tone was demanding and angry, but this didn’t upset Shelly. It was exactly how she wanted him to react to the information. It was her way of enabling Robert to feel like he was forcing the information from her.

  “It is,” she said.

  “Okay. Now why is he at the summit? I thought they split up and were on different parts of the mountain?”

  “That’s what she wanted us to believe, but the truth is he’s injured. She said they were concerned he wouldn’t have the stamina to make it back to the hut so he stayed at the summit to wait until she could come get him. The two of them figured that if she ran into people like us, then that would be their story. And they also thought the woman would be able to convince us to keep her alive long enough to escape and then go back and get him.”

  “So he stayed and she… what… went back to the hut all by herself?”

  Shelly nodded.

  “She said she had a car though? I thought she drove down? What happened with that?”

  “That’s all bullshit,” Shelly lied. “She walked down to the hut.”

  He knitted his brow, as if he didn’t believe it. “That’s risky.”

  She shrugged. “It’s what they planned. Besides, she had a machete at the time.”

  Shelly watched him closely as he took in the new information. He appeared to accept this as the way it went, not doubting anything she told him. “Good idea,” he said. “And what about Roy?”

  “He was already there. Seems he was already in containment mode when she arrived back at the hut.”

  “And what did he say?”

  Shelly bit at her bottom lip.

  “Come on, Shel.”

  “Roy told her everything.”

  “Fuck!”

  “I know,” Shelly said. She placed a hand on his shoulder. “It’s pretty bad. She basically knows everything. About the secret, containment, everything.”

  Robert’s shoulders stooped. He was physically and mentally exhausted, and Shelly could see the toll this new information was taking on him was great.

  “Well, at least it won’t be hard to get the husband.”

  “Uh… I wouldn’t go that far.”

  “Huh? Why not?”

  “She says he has a piece. A pistol he always brings with him whenever they hike.”

  “That’s all?” Robert asked.

  “He also has a rifle, something one of the store employees kept with them inside the office.”

  “He can’t have much ammo, though.”

  “She said he has a few boxes.”

  “Boxes??? Jesus Christ…”

  “I’m telling you, they got a lot of help from Roy. It sounds like this guy’s ready for a war.”

  Robert nodded. Shelly watched his eyes move around and knew he was already working through strategies in his head.

  “He can’t walk, right?”

  “She didn’t say that, she only said he couldn’t make the hike down to the summit. Chances are, he can walk fine, just not for very long.”

  Robert sighed.

  “That’s fine,” he said. “We have numbers. Shouldn’t be hard at all.”

  “Yeah, but if he’s hidden, he will have the advantage.”

  “So?”

  Shelly stared at him, her lower jaw having dropped
open.

  “So… there’s a very good chance he’ll take out some of you before you get him.”

  Robert snorted. “Doubtful.”

  Shelly backed away and folded her arms over her chest.

  “Okay, fine. And if you lose someone up there, I’m sure you’ll have no problem explaining another death to someone’s dad. It was really easy with Ryan’s father, wasn’t it?”

  Robert had no response this time. She knew the last thing Robert wanted to do was put any more of his own men into a deadly situation.

  As he stared at her, she wondered if he was beginning to see through her, or if he was working out the logistics in his head.

  “What do you recommend, then?”

  She did not expect him to ask this. “Uh… me?”

  “Sure. She’s not going to talk to me but she seems perfectly comfortable telling you all of this. So what do you think? How do we get this guy?”

  Part of what he said sounded suggestive, as if there was some specific reason Grace was willing to tell Shelly all of this, but nobody else. She decided to change course.

  “My recommendation is we turn and run, Robert! Let your dad and the others know what’s going on and as soon as they head to the summit, we run.”

  “Oh,” he said and nearly laughed. “Is that it?”

  “Yes, Robert! There’s still time to do the right thing here!”

  He shook his head in doubt. “You and your ‘right thing.’ You think it’s that easy.”

  “It is that easy! We’ll be long gone before they come back.”

  “And what about the girl? I thought you wanted her dead?”

  “I don’t give a shit about the girl!” she barked, and it surprised her. Likely her emotions were steering her words. She certainly had no ill feelings toward Grace. “What happens to her isn’t my problem. And that’s my point!”

  “Yeah, well… it’s off the table. So, what’s your next idea?”

  Shelly’s mind went blank. She had hoped the misdirection would inspire Robert to come up with his own plan. She never expected him to task her with the extraction of a fictional person on the top of the mountain. She tried to think of what Robert, or even James, would say at a moment like this.

  “Um, well… you’ll have to take it slow, of course. Secure every room in every building.”