by Terry Spear
“I’m getting Nick’s climbing equipment from his pack, and I’m taking the same path that I just went on,” Ted said, sounding a little winded as he hurried through the snow to reach Aidan. He was being careful too in case the snowbridge—an arc across the crevasse—stretched out to where he had already walked and he had just been lucky that it hadn’t caved in on him.
Aidan woofed at him in acknowledgment.
Mike had returned to where Ted had dropped the camping equipment and was trying to drag the backpack with his teeth, but it was too heavy and sank into the snow too much.
“I’ll get it, Mike,” Ted said. “Did both Holly and Nick fall in?”
Aidan woofed an affirmative. He saw Greg running back to join them, but Aidan barked at him to take it slow and watch for crevasses. They couldn’t afford another dangerous accident on their hands if Greg should fall through the snow and ice.
Aidan looked back down at Nick and Holly, surveying the long way down and the darkness below them that appeared to be a bottomless pit. He was damn glad they’d landed on the ice bridge and that it was holding their weight. From here, he couldn’t tell if either of them was injured. Both were panting, looking straight up at him, willing him to come rescue them.
He heard Greg getting closer and woofed at him to stop where he was. He felt like they were on a minefield. One false step and the snow would give way to their deaths if they weren’t as lucky as Holly and Nick.
Then he heard Ted and Mike coming up from behind him, and he turned to watch them, still on his belly, concerned that even where he was lying could be just a thin shelf of snow.
Ted must have assumed the same thing, because he set the pack down in the snow and quickly began unpacking it. He soon had spread all Nick’s clothes out. Aidan inched back from the crevasse and then got up and ran over to the pack. He shifted, which caused his muscles to warm while he was exchanging his wolf body for his human form. The cold quickly slammed into him as he started jerking on clothes. Greg was inching toward Aidan, so Aidan quickly said, “I need you to be a lookout in case we have any other trouble—that wolf pack or elk, grizzlies, anything. We’ll be concentrating on getting your sister and Nick out. You have to watch for other trouble.”
Greg woofed, sounding eager to be the guard wolf.
Mike was waiting for his mission.
“Mike, I need you to shift and dress. I’ll see if either Holly or Nick is injured. I’ll take a bundle of clothes so they can shift and dress, and we’ll bring them up that way. If either are injured, we may have to take the injured one up as a wolf.”
“Okay,” Ted said, getting a rope and an ice ax ready. Then he began bundling enough clothes for both Holly and Nick. “He only has one more pair of boots.”
“They’re too big for Holly. She can wear socks and shift, as long as she hasn’t been injured. And he’ll need the parka.” Aidan pulled a pair of ice cleats over the boots.
Ted took off the other parka. “For Holly.”
Aidan pulled the parka on so he’d warm it up while he climbed down to reach them. He took the bundle of clothing and shoved it into a lightweight hiking backpack, then added laser ice screws, an ice ax, and two ice picks, then pulled the backpack on. After securing the only helmet Nick had on his head, Aidan turned on the lantern. Holding on to the rope and carrying the ice ax and one of the ice picks, he moved low toward the edge of the crevasse while Ted and Mike held the other end of the rope farther away from the opening.
“Coming,” Aidan called to Holly and Nick.
Holly woofed at him. He worried about Nick because he’d been quiet the whole time.
Aidan had nearly reached the edge when half a foot of snow collapsed in front of him. His heart thundering in his ears, he stopped dead in his tracks. Now he was at the edge. He remained still, not wanting to send another avalanche of snow on top of them.
He peered down at them. They were both covered in snow, but they didn’t dare shake it off. Their double coat of fur would keep the snow from melting onto their skin and chilling them.
“I’m coming down.”
Ted moved cautiously toward where Aidan was, and then Aidan moved around to climb into the crevasse, noting that as soon as he was using the cleats and ice ax and pick to descend, he could see he’d been lying on a shelf about a foot thick that went back toward Ted about three feet. “Snowbridge a foot thick, three feet in your direction, Ted.”
“Gotcha. Watch yourself. You know Rafe would fire us if he knew you went down into the crevasse and we stayed up here.”
“I’m counting on you and Mike helping to pull everyone up.” Aidan continued to work his way down to them slowly, digging the ice ax in. The snow and ice gave way, and he slid a few feet, his heart taking a dive.
“You okay?” Ted asked, worried.
“Yeah. Be down to them in a few.”
“Good. It’s starting to snow.”
Great.
Aidan’s breath came out in a frosty mist as he continued making his way down. Seeing the deep, never-ending chasm on either side of their ledge, he felt his blood turn to ice. He was afraid one misstep by either of them while they attempted to shift and dress could mean their demise.
“If we have to, we can call for a helicopter rescue,” Ted said.
“Not while any of us are wolves, we can’t.” Aidan looked down: another fifteen feet or so to go. He wasn’t sure he could stand on the ledge with them, or if Holly or Nick would have the strength to climb up, even with the aid of the rope. Had she ever climbed an ice mountain before?
Nick had the gear, so he probably knew how to climb, but could he? Aidan noticed the way Nick was holding his front paw. He was clearly hurt.
Aidan moved carefully down a few more feet, shaking more snow loose. He was sweating despite the cold. When he finally reached them, they tried to make room for him. Snow fell from their wolf coats and showered down into the dark abyss.
He didn’t want them to move an inch, yet there was barely any room for him too, and the extra weight on the shelf concerned him. He tried to cling partly to the snow wall behind him and began to remove the pack, holding on to the ice pick stuck in the ice at the same time. Everything was a struggle. He kept worrying he’d lose the pack and then somehow he’d have to carry them up using the rope. He couldn’t think like that. Only positive thoughts.
Holly shifted. He hadn’t wanted her to shift yet. But she took up less space in her human form, and she could help him with the pack. She took hold of it and set it at her feet, then began pulling out clothes to wear. “Are you injured?” Aidan asked Nick.
He nodded.
“Holly?”
Holly yanked on one of Nick’s long sweaters. “I’m fine, scrapes and bruises, but otherwise okay.”
“Good.” Aidan managed to carefully maneuver onto the ice ledge, the cleats keeping him from slipping, but Holly would be in socks, the cold hard on her feet.
He reached her, pulled her into his arms, and gave her a kiss. “God, you scared the hell out of me. Both of you.” He pulled off the parka, then helped her into it. “I need you to go up first. Can you climb?”
“I watched you come down.”
Which meant the only training she had was his one demonstration. He couldn’t risk her going up by herself. It would be too dangerous. “Okay, Nick, can you climb up with an injured wrist?” Aidan asked.
He nodded.
“I’ll help you get dressed.” Aidan had wanted Holly to get on her way so he’d have more room to help Nick. He was worried one of them would bump into one of the others and they’d all fall off the ledge, not to mention he wasn’t sure how sturdy it was with all their weight on it.
“I read about this scientist who fell seventy feet into a crevasse. He was alone, big mistake. He’d broken his arm and several ribs,” Aidan said, wanting to share a survival story with them t
o assure them they weren’t as bad off and could do this.
Nick shifted, and Aidan examined his wrist. It looked swollen and slightly discolored. He began to help him dress.
“Is this an inspirational story, Doc?” Nick shivered, his heart thumping wildly.
Aidan smiled. “Yeah. He managed to get out. If some nerdy scientist can do it, Santa Claus, who normally climbs into and out of chimneys, should be able to, right?”
Nick gave him a wry smile. “I just need a little magic.”
“What happened to the scientist?” Holly sat down and pulled on a pair of sweats. And then the socks.
“Not only did he have a broken arm, right arm too, but also a dislocated shoulder and several bad cuts and bruises from hitting all that ice on the way down. Did I mention he went solo? There was no one to rescue him. No one to know he was even in dire straits. The only way he was going to get out of there was on his own. But he did have enough presence of mind to call for help.”
“He was alone,” Holly reminded him.
“Yep, but he had service and Facebook messaged his friends, calling for help. Amazing, isn’t it? He knew no one would find him in the crevasse in time, so he had to make the climb out. He thought about that other guy who had to cut off his arm to free himself when he fell into a crevasse and was wedged between rocks.”
“Don’t mention it,” Holly said.
“Yeah, made me think of that too. It took him five hours of climbing with the ice ax, but despite all his injuries, he managed to make it out.”
“All on his own. I hear ya, Doc. And I suppose you still want my blood after all this.”
Aidan helped Nick on with his boots and cleats. “Yeah, I sure as hell do. In return, you’ll have the best steak dinner you’ve ever had the good fortune to enjoy.”
Nick smiled. “You’re all right, you know?”
“Thanks. You are too. Let’s get out of here so we can have that meal.” Aidan gave him the helmet and helped him with the chin strap. “You’re right-handed, correct?”
“Yeah. This should be a piece of cake. I’ve been doing this sort of thing for years.”
“Falling down crevasses?”
Nick laughed and shook his head. “Not the falling into them, just the mountain climbing.” He took hold of the rope. “Coming up!”
Aidan held the rope below him as Nick made the climb using the ice ax and ice pick, though he was having trouble using the ice pick in his left hand. Still, he worked through the pain to get where he needed to go.
“I can do what he’s doing,” Holly said with assurance.
“You could, if you had boots and cleats.” Aidan didn’t think she’d have the upper body strength to pull herself up and out of the crevasse. It was tough going for a strong male. Nick would have trouble pulling himself over the shelf when he got to that point. Any guy would. But being older and having a sprained or broken wrist, he would have a harder time. Aidan hoped Ted could help pull him out.
“I can do it. There’s a lot of snow. I can dig my sock-covered feet into the snow and get some purchase. As long as I do what Nick is doing, making sure the ax is secure before I pull myself up farther, I can do it.” Holly was so adamant that Aidan wished he could say yes.
“We can’t risk it.” He wasn’t about to let her try. One false move and she could fall to her death.
She folded her arms. “Then what? Don’t tell me you’re going to try to carry me out of here.”
“As soon as Nick is over the top, yes.” He pulled her close while he held the rope so he could share his body heat with her as they watched Nick climbing. He had made it about ten feet, and the going was slow. He had to keep pausing to catch his breath. Aidan hoped he hadn’t injured his ribs or anything else. “You’re doing great, Nick. You’re getting close.”
Nick looked up. “Yeah.” He was nearly out of breath when he said the word.
“You’ll make it. Just keep going, keep resting, and then keep going.”
“You’re going to make it, Nick. It’s me that has to be carried out of here like a sack of potatoes.” Holly wrapped her arm around Aidan’s waist and held him tight.
She was shivering, and he wished they had something more for her to wear on her feet. They had to be cold. Maybe she should have stayed in her wolf coat until he was ready to climb up. “You know we’re going to have to start dating.”
She gave him a half-frozen smile. “You don’t count this as one? Didn’t you say you wanted to do wildly exciting things?”
He kissed her cold nose. “This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”
“When we get out of here, I’m going to be so much more careful when running over the snowfields and watch out for pitfalls like this. Until it happens to you, you really don’t realize how dangerous the area can be.”
“I know. I was so busy watching the elk and wolves. After they turned and ran in a different direction, I’d seen Ted and Greg running. When the two of you had disappeared, I was certain my worst nightmare had come true.”
Holly snuggled closer to him. “Believe me, it was mine too.”
“You know we’re going to have to get serious about this business”—Aidan squeezed her arm—“between us.”
She looked up at him. “You mean we might have to get together when you’re not rescuing me, Nick, or Joey?”
Aidan kissed her forehead. “That’s just what I mean.”
“Keep going,” Ted said to Nick.
They both looked up to watch Nick’s progress again.
“I’m going,” Nick said, breathing out. He slipped and dug his ice ax into the ice, stopping his fall.
Aidan held his breath, tightening his hold on the rope, Holly clinging to him as they both continued to observe Nick’s progress.
“A…little…setback.” Nick tried again and slowly made his way up a few more feet.
“You’re halfway there,” Ted said.
“Over halfway there,” Aidan corrected him. Nick wasn’t, but Aidan wanted to encourage him.
“Yeah, that’s what I meant to say,” Ted said.
“Right,” Nick grunted as though he knew better, but at least he wasn’t looking down, just in the direction he needed to head. Forward was what was important, not where he’d been.
The light in the opening as the snow fell through was a welcoming beacon: freedom to the outside world. Aidan didn’t even want to think about how far a body could fall into the crevasse, or how, if someone fell into a narrower opening, they could get stuck. He was glad they had his bodyguards here to help. If it hadn’t been for them being here, he wasn’t sure both Nick and Holly would have made it out safely.
“How are you doing, Holly?”
“My feet are freezing, but the parka is keeping me warm. You guys have to be cold without parkas.”
“I’m fine. Can you stand on my boots, so you can keep your sock-covered feet off the ice?”
“I could, but I’m afraid we wouldn’t be as stable with me standing on your feet. I wouldn’t have the right balance either.”
“I’ll warm your feet when we get back to the cabin.”
“Oh really.”
“Yeah, that’s a promise.”
“Hmm, well, come to think of it, I might be cold in a few other places.”
He smiled. “I’ll be sure to warm those other places up too.”
“Why, Dr. Aidan Denali, you’re a real charmer.”
“Not anything like my brother, and in fact, I’m sure no one believes I have a romantic bone in my body. It all has to do with meeting the right she-wolf.”
“I have to agree with you there. I mean, for me. I’m not into hugging guys I don’t know unless…” She shrugged.
“They’re me.”
She laughed.
He was glad he could make her laugh in a time of crisi
s. She got his mind off their dire situation too.
She shivered again. “Maybe I should have left my wolf coat on until Nick made his way out of here.”
“I was thinking the same thing. Did you want to—”
“No. I’m not undressing and shifting. This ledge is too narrow to move around much.”
“Nearly to the top, Nick!” Ted said.
He only had about ten feet to go, having made better progress nearer the top. But the remaining part of the snowbridge was going to be a son of a bitch to navigate, first underneath and then over the lip and pulling himself up. Ted would help, but Nick wouldn’t have anything but air below him, no way to use his feet to climb up at that point. And if the part that he clung to broke off?
Nobody could talk Nick through it though. It was just something he had to work out for himself as he made his way to that point, feeling whether there were any solid holds to keep him safe. Neither Ted nor Aidan and Holly could tell from where they were.
Nick’s age worked against him. If he tried to use his ice ax on the snowbridge and it gave way, he could be in real trouble. He kept at it, trying to find more solidly packed snow or ice, but every strike brought down more snow and chunks of ice.
Aidan wanted to ask him how his wrist was doing, but he knew it had to be killing him the way he kept stopping and squeezing his left hand into a fist.
Ted was knocking some of the soft, loose snow off the top of the snowbridge so he could reach for Nick when he started the climb underneath the bridge.
The snow showered down from the light above to the dark below.
It took forever for Nick to climb the ten feet, but when he reached the underside of the bridge, he really needed that reserve strength to make it. Aidan wasn’t sure he could make it while carrying Holly.
Ted pushed more snow off the top, while Nick moved under the bridge, his feet tight against the wall of ice, the cleats holding. He reached over and above the bridge with the ice ax, trying to dig in. The ax plowed through the soft snow and slid back to him, bringing another snow shower with it. He tried again. This time, the ax caught, but when he tried to use it to hold his weight, it slipped out again. Ted couldn’t reach him yet.
