Wolf Storm

by Dee Garretson

  Raine’s hand touched his face and he looked up at her. Her face was wild, tears streaming down her reddened cheeks. “I saw you go under and I thought you were dead! And then I saw your glove.” She broke down, sobbing, and sat down on the ground. He heard a bark and Kep came trotting across the snow toward them.

  “Raine, stop crying.” Stefan tried to speak up enough so she could hear him over the sobs. “I’m okay. You . . . you saved my life. Don’t cry about that.”

  That only made her cry harder.

  “It’s all my fault.” She rocked herself back and forth, her head on her knees. Kep whined and yipped, trying to get her attention.

  “What’s your fault? That I’m alive?” He tried to understand, but his head hurt and his side hurt, and he couldn’t get rid of the trapped feeling. They needed to get away from here, to somewhere warm and safe so he could understand. They’d get Jeremy and they’d leave, even if they had to walk all the way down the mountain. Then it struck him. Raine was by herself.

  “Raine, where’s Jeremy?” He tried to reach her face to make her look at him, but she pulled away. If Raine was safe, Jeremy should be safe too. He had seen her grab the kid’s arm. “Raine, where’s Jeremy?” he repeated.

  She kept her head down and her voice was barely audible. “It’s all my fault! I thought I was going to drop Kep so I let go of Jeremy.”

  Stefan forced himself to sit up, even though the pain stabbed at him every time he moved. He found himself looking at a completely changed landscape, unable to get his bearings and confused by the sight of a twisted bed frame a few feet in front of him. He realized he was facing the parking lot; the mounds were the buried motor homes and semis that had been parked there. A few that had been farthest away were just partially buried. What was showing was so damaged, he wondered what was left underneath the snow. When he turned to find the lodge, he wished he hadn’t. Only part of one wall was standing. The rest was rubble, like a garbage heap of snow and debris mixed with broken pieces of furniture and glass.

  There was no sign of the wolves’ trailer or the spaceship. They had been to the front and the side of the ski lodge, right in the main path of the avalanche.

  He couldn’t see Jeremy anywhere. “Where is he? Why are you just sitting here? Where did you let go of him? We need to try to dig him out!” It was horrible to think of Jeremy slowly suffocating under the snow while they sat and talked.

  She lifted her head and pushed the tangled strands of her hair away from her face. “We can’t. He . . . he went over the cliff at the end of the parking lot. We almost made it away from the avalanche but then the front edge of it caught us. I didn’t stop him.”

  “What about . . . ” Stefan stopped and looked back to where the building should have been. “Did you see Cecil get out?”

  “No,” Raine said. “It’s just us. The wolves ran away. We’re the only ones left.”

  Stefan struggled to his feet, trying to ignore the pain in his chest. “Are you sure about Jeremy? Maybe he just got covered up with the snow like I did.”

  “He looked at me when he fell. He was . . . was reaching his hand out for me, and I couldn’t catch him. His face was so scared.” She bent her head back down to her knees.

  “I need to see,” Stefan insisted. He wasn’t just going to assume Jeremy was dead. Raine pointed but kept her eyes away from his. “It was about right there, near that tree with the top broken off. I don’t want to look,” she said.

  Stefan stumbled over, trying to concentrate on staying on his feet in the mass of debris and snow. From the way the avalanche had come down, he realized he owed his life to the fact that the lodge was slightly to one side of the old ski slope. The central part of the avalanche had hit the lodge on the kitchen side and on the part of the parking lot behind it and extending out from it to the road. Since Raine and Jeremy were behind the lodge, they had had more time to run away when the snow hit; the building had acted like a temporary barrier, even if it had been destroyed in the process. If he hadn’t been on the far side of the lodge, just on the edge of the avalanche, Stefan knew he would have been buried under many feet of snow, too many for Raine to find him. The thought of that mountain of snow covering him made him feel sick.

  If Raine had escaped, Jeremy should have escaped as well. The very back part of the parking lot on the far side of the lodge was practically clear; the avalanche hadn’t reached that far. The skimmers on their trailers were still in place, looking just as they had the night before. Stefan didn’t see Jeremy. Part of the stone wall was showing as well, but if Jeremy had been caught by the avalanche, he would have gone over in the area where the snow had pushed over it.

  Stefan climbed up on the wall closest to the edge of the avalanche snow, trying to ignore his pain. There were still a few feet of ground between the wall and the rim of the cliff, enough room for the tree Raine had pointed to. It was the one he had noticed the day before, but now all that was left of it was a jagged point where the trunk had snapped and a few of the lower branches. Hoping the roots of the tree were still firmly anchored in the ground, Stefan grabbed it and steadied himself. He didn’t know if he really wanted to see over the edge, but if he didn’t look for Jeremy, he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself. Taking as deep a breath as he could manage, he leaned forward.

  Except for jagged pieces of rock jutting out, the cliff face dropped away almost vertically. The sheer drop ended about forty feet down, where the lower part of the mountain met it. He didn’t see any signs of Jeremy in the snow at the bottom of the cliff, or off in the distance as the mountain sloped down in the direction of the village.

  All the snow was smooth and unbroken. Stefan had never thought he was scared of heights, but the drop-off was so much steeper than he’d realized, it made his head spin. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, waiting for the dizziness to pass. When he opened them, he forced himself to take one more look. Jeremy had to be somewhere.

  Stefan shifted over to the other side of the tree. Holding it even tighter in case the dizziness came back, he looked again. Still nothing. He was about to give up when he caught sight of a dark spot against the snow on a small ledge about fifteen feet down the cliff.

  “Raine, I see him!” He leaned out as far as he dared. The dark spot was a boot, and it was attached to a leg.

  Raine came running. “Where? Let me look!”

  “He’s really hard to see. I need you to hold on to my arm. No, wait. If I hold on to you, can you lean out and look right down there?” Stefan pointed at the spot below them. “There’s a ledge and I see his leg, but I can’t see anything else. You aren’t scared of heights, are you?” He thought he was strong enough to hold her if she got dizzy, but he didn’t really want to test it.

  “I’m not scared,” she said. “I love things like rock climbing.”

  “Good.” Stefan braced his foot at the base of the uphill side of the tree. He wrapped his left arm around the trunk and held out his right hand for Raine. His left side ached, but the pain eased a bit when he leaned into the tree. It had to be his ribs. He had cracked one years ago falling off a porch roof he shouldn’t have been on, and even though the pain was worse now, it was in about the same spot.

  Raine took his hand and edged out to the side. Stefan kept his eyes fixed on her feet, ready to pull her back if they showed signs of slipping. Kep came up and went to the edge like he wanted to see what was below, his paws knocking snow loose. If the dog went over and Raine grabbed for him, Stefan knew he wouldn’t be able to hold her. He shouldn’t have worried; Kep was actually smarter than he looked. The dog backed off and went to lie down in the snow a few feet back from the edge, panting as if it were the middle of summer.

  “I see Jeremy!” Raine cried. “Jeremy, Jeremy! Stefan, if we move this way, we can see him better.” Raine picked a spot about three feet away from the tree and then lay down on her stomach. “This is much better.”

  Stefan lay down next to her and pushed himself out just enough to see o
ver the edge. Down below him Jeremy was on his hands and knees crawling along the ledge. “Jeremy! Are you okay?”

  The boy looked up. “What happened?” he asked, a confused look on his face, as if he had just woken up from a deep sleep. Stefan was horrified to see the snow right next to Jeremy fall away down the cliff, leaving one of the boy’s feet sticking out in the air.

  Chapter 13

  The Cliff

  “Stay still! Don’t move!” Stefan screamed, panicked, looking around for a way to get down to the kid. He couldn’t find one. Jeremy seemed dazed, but he stopped moving. Stefan tried to talk fast so he would understand. “You’re on a ledge on the side of the cliff. I don’t know how much of it is snow, and how much is rock. Can you crawl closer to the face of the cliff?”

  Stefan held his breath while Jeremy inched away from the edge. More snow tumbled away with every motion the boy made. When he stopped, they could see only the soles of his boots. The rest of him was blocked from view by an overhang, another section of the cliff that jutted out a few feet below them. Jeremy didn’t make a sound, and Stefan realized there was no sound anywhere. It was as if they really were on an uninhabited planet, the snow erasing any hint they’d even been there.

  “Jeremy, say something!” Stefan called.

  The boots disappeared and then they saw Jeremy’s head on the other side of the jagged edge. “I’m standing up,” he said. “The ledge isn’t very wide but it feels sturdy. What should I do?” Stefan had no idea.

  “Jeremy,” Raine called, “I’m sorry I let go of you. Are you okay?”

  There was silence and then a small voice said, “Yes. Don’t talk to me. Stefan, are you still there? What should I do?”

  “Stay still until we figure something out. Raine, try your cell phone. Maybe they can get a helicopter up here.”

  “I don’t have my cell phone,” she said. “I laid it down in my room when I went to get dressed and I didn’t put in back in my pocket, because I knew I needed to charge it if the power went back on.”

  “Jeremy, do you have yours?” Stefan looked back over the edge. From where he stood, he could see Jeremy clearly.

  “No, I just put my coat on over my pajamas. I was going to get dressed once the wolves came back inside. I’m cold.”

  Stefan wished there was some way to know if anyone was even trying to get to them yet. It seemed like days had passed since they had first woken up, but when he added up the events, he knew it could only be a few hours. People down in the village were probably either still sleeping or just sitting around drinking coffee, waiting for the snow to stop, having no real reason to worry about getting back to the lodge right away. Knowing Heather, his aunt wouldn’t even be awake yet. With the bridge closed, even when they did start to worry, what could they do? Unless he and Raine did something soon, Jeremy would either freeze to death or fall off before anyone came back.

  “One of us should try to go for help,” Stefan said. “I know I saw some houses on this side of the bridge close to the village when we drove up here. We could climb down and walk to one of them.”

  He looked at Raine. She had gotten up and was just standing there looking off in the distance, holding on to her dog.

  “Raine, did you hear me? One of us needs to go for help.”

  “How?” she said, pointing. “Didn’t you see what happened to the road?”

  Stefan moved closer to her and saw what she had been staring at. The road came up to the bottom of the cliff and then disappeared under the snow. The avalanche had filled in the section of the mountain that had been cut away for access to the lodge. It was now filled with snow, so many feet of snow, it would take heavy equipment to clear it.

  “Do you think we can climb down that?” Raine asked.

  To Stefan’s eyes it looked too steep. “No,” he said. “Once we were on it, we might trigger a snowslide and that could turn into a smaller avalanche. I don’t want to take the chance.” He couldn’t stand the thought. There was no other way off the set except straight down the cliff or over the top of the mountains that rose around the plateau where the lodge sat. It would take forever to climb up over the mountains, and there was no way to know if there would be anyone on the other side. They’d have to try something else.

  “We need to find some rope,” he said. “We’ll have to try to pull him up with it.”

  “I don’t blame him for not wanting to talk to me,” Raine said. “I wouldn’t want to talk to me either.”

  “He’ll talk to you once you help him back up. Let’s just get him off that ledge.”

  She hugged Kep closer to her. “This is terrible.”

  “I know, but let’s make it not so terrible. It’s better to do something besides just sitting here. Come on. We’ll be warmer if we’re moving too.”

  “You’re right,” she said. “Where do we find rope?”

  “There was probably rope or cable in some of the semitrailers, if we can get at one that’s not completely buried.” He had no idea what had been in most of them, because he just hadn’t had time to get familiar with everything on set. Still, with the amount of cables and cords the crew kept laying out for the setup of the shots and then rolling back up, they had to have a place to keep it.

  “I can do that!” Raine set Kep down and took off toward them. The dog looked after her but didn’t follow. He looked at Stefan and whined.

  “I’m not picking you up,” Stefan said. “Sorry.” The dog lay down.

  “What’s happening?” Jeremy called.

  “Just hold on. We’re getting some rope to pull you up.”

  “I’m really, really cold.”

  “We’ll hurry.”

  Before he could get to the trailers, Raine was already climbing out of one. “This is a camera storage trailer,” she said. “It’s a total mess in there, and I didn’t find any regular rope, but there are cables and cords everywhere.” She held out two bright orange extension cords. “Would something like these work?”

  Stefan took one from her. It was a heavy-duty outdoor cord wrapped in a coil, so it was thick and strong. Jeremy didn’t weigh very much. “It should,” he said, “We can try make a harness out of this one like rock climbers use, and then we’ll tie the other one on to pull him up.” He carried the cord back over to the edge, thinking about what size loops he needed based on the size of the kid, and trying to remember which kind of knot would hold best. He tried square knots, and then doubled them, hoping they’d be good enough. When he was satisfied with the harness, he held it out to Raine.

  “What do you think?”

  She frowned. “I don’t know. Do you think it’s going to hold? I think you should lower me down so I can help him if it starts to come loose, and then you can pull me back up.”

  “No way. My ribs feel awful, like they’re cracked or broken. I don’t think I could even get Jeremy up without you.”

  “Maybe we should think of something different,” Raine said.

  Stefan didn’t know what that something different would be. They didn’t have any rescue equipment, and bits of wood and stone weren’t going to do them any good. “We need to try this first, okay? Let’s fasten your cord to the front of the harness so we have something to pull with.” She still looked doubtful, but she did tie the two together. Stefan pulled on the knot when she was done and decided it was secure.

  Raine called down, “Jeremy, we’re sending a harness down. Just step into it. Put one leg through each opening.”

  They fed it out until they heard Jeremy yell, “I’ve got it.”

  Stefan went back to the edge and knelt down so he could see Jeremy. He held his breath as he watched the boy struggle to get into the harness.

  When he had it on, Stefan called, “Ready?”

  “Ready!” Jeremy yelled.

  Stefan tossed the cord over the lowest, thickest branch of the tree, then grabbed the end. “We’ll use the branch to help us,” he said. “Like a pulley. You’re going to stand in front of me. We’ll b
oth pull when I say go.” She nodded her head and moved into position. Stefan braced himself and said, “Ready, Go!”

  Jeremy started screaming the instant they starting pulling. “No! No! Stop! Stop!”

  They couldn’t see him from where they stood, so Stefan stopped pulling and yelled, “Jeremy, is the harness holding?”

  “Yes, but I’m scraping against the rocks! It hurts!”

  Stefan didn’t know what to do, but then Raine called, “We’ll go slow! Use your hands and your feet to push away from the rocks! We’re going to start pulling again.”

  When there was no answer, they resumed, inching the rope up. It was nerve-racking not being able to see Jeremy. If Stefan hadn’t felt the weight, he wouldn’t have known the boy was there.

  All of a sudden Jeremy screamed. “Ow! Ow! Stop! Stop!”

  Raine faltered and Stefan barked, “Keep pulling! He’s just in panic mode. We can’t stop.” He knew if they stopped, they’d never find a way to get Jeremy up, and the kid couldn’t stay on the ledge. As they pulled Stefan realized the snow had begun to fall again. It was quickly building up on his face. He couldn’t let go of the cord to brush it away, and the snow felt like it was already covering him up. He tried to shake his head to get it off, but the flakes just kept coming. His heart started to race, and he could feel sweat breaking out on his forehead. It was going to bury him.

  “I see him!” Raine’s voice sounded very far away, and Stefan shook his head again. The dizziness was back. He thought he heard Jeremy crying and Kep barking, but his heart was pounding so hard he wasn’t sure. Stefan tried to concentrate on what they were doing, not on the snow he could feel coating his eyes. He had to get the snow off his face, so he took one hand off the cord, just as Raine let go, saying over her shoulder, “Hold tight while I help him up.”