“It’s here.” Angela gave a wan smile and tapped a lump of dirty tan leather that sat at her hip. Nina sighed. It was her bag. “You still had it across your body when the guys got you out of the plane,” Angela explained.
Nina reached for her bag and held it tight. Though ripped with dark burn stains it was a wonderful sight to see.
“Jake said that Ben had medicine in his rucksack,” Neil said. “Let me get it.”
Her eyes widened with surprise. “You were able to save other people’s luggage?”
Neil bitterly shook his head. “Hardly. Only you and Jake have stuff because you had your handbag on you. The rest of us didn’t. Parker suggested we wear as much on us as we can, and now I’m grateful I listened. It’s why I have my phone and a couple of other pieces inside my ski jacket.” He grimaced. “But luggage? We couldn’t risk our lives to stop for those.” He moved to Ben’s rucksack and opened it.
Angela watched Nina open her handbag. “I feel naked without mine,” Angela said.
Nina swallowed and went through the contents of her handbag. Remarkably, everything she had packed in her handbag remained: gloves, passport, purse, lip balm, headache tablets. Even her house keys and tissues stared back up at her. She almost wept with relief at seeing such basic yet familiar things. Their familiarity brought her some comfort.
“Take these; they’ll help a little.” Neil returned and passed Nina two small white pills and a small bottle of water. With Angela's help she managed to sit up and take the pills.
“Ben had antiseptic in here, too,” Neil said with a strange glance at Jake that Nina didn’t understand.
“Thanks.” She applied it to the lump at the back of her head. It's so quiet out here, she thought with an almost distant awareness. They all sat like shocked zombies, not talking and barely moving. No one was looking at anyone else. And there was something else that she noticed. A brooding silence hung over the group. At first, she thought it was merely the fact that the jet had crashed, but there was more to it. She felt it, sensed it, and not knowing only made her restless. “Ange...” She tried to look around but her neck was stiff. “Ange, where’s–?”
“You need to keep still, Neen, or this’ll take longer.”
Angela was avoiding her question, a typical occupational tactic of those in the legal profession, one which Nina was more than familiar with. Right now it did nothing to settle her already unsteady stomach. Angling her head away from Angela’s ministrations, Nina turned to face her friend.
“You need to worry about yourself right now.” Angela dampened a cloth with disinfectant and pressed it to the corner of Nina’s split lip. “You were out cold for a long time.”
“But she’s alive,” Jake bit out. “Not everyone was that lucky.”
She couldn’t see Jake, but his anger reached her. “What does he mean, Ange?” But Angela just lowered her eyes and looked away. Nina’s gaze whipped to Neil. “Neil? Who...?”
“Ben, my second in command,” Jake continued without mercy. “He died from smoke inhalation. His body has no doubt turned black and blue by now.”
For a moment Nina could only stare at him in disbelief. “What?" she whispered. “No.” Of course, Ben. He wasn’t sitting here with the rest of them. She heard weeping then, and from the corner of her peripheral vision, she saw it came from Emily. The stewardess had her face in her hands.
“That last bit wasn’t necessary, Jake,” Neil said, his voice tight. “A simple no would’ve sufficed.”
“No?” The captain gave a harsh bark of laughter and curved a comforting arm around Emily’s shoulder. “You’ll have to excuse me if I’m not concerned with her sensitivity right now. We’re all sitting here using Ben’s meds that he was thoughtful enough to pack, and I was lucky to grab, yet he’s gone. Just gone. He wasn’t just a colleague but a friend.”
Neil looked pained as he slid a glance over at the inert Hugh. “I understand,” he began, “but–”
“No, you don’t; none of you do.” Jake’s gaze swept over them with one savage glance. “What have any of you lost? Some luggage?” His gaze zeroed in on Justin. “Some freaking fancy ski gear? Who in your team has actually died?”
His question was met with tense silence.
Nina swallowed. “I’m so sorry, Jake.”
“I don’t want your apology. You all–”
“I couldn’t loosen his seatbelt either,” Emily said in a voice as flat as death. “It wouldn’t loosen.”
Everyone stared at her with horror. Nina felt her heart clench. The other woman sat hunched under Jake’s arm. Removing her hands from her face, Nina saw the devastation in Emily’s large brown eyes.
“I’m so sorry, Emily,” Angela began. “It’s–”
“Like I said before,” Jake cut in angrily, “we don’t want apologies. We–”
“Leave it, Jake.”
It was Emily who spoke; her words were soft even as her eyes remained vacant.
With obvious effort, Jake clamped down on his lips.
“Did you manage to grab the candles?” she asked him.
“Yeah.”
Nina watched them. Ben was dead. She couldn’t believe it. Only hours before, he’d graciously allowed Hazel to go in and speak to Jake before takeoff.
“Parker’s waking up,” Rita announced flatly.
They all watched Parker’s eyes flutter several times before finally staying open. “W-where—?” he stuttered. His gloved hands flexed restlessly.
“You’re okay, Parker,” Neil assured him.
Parker fought to speak, his voice low and sounding scratchy. “W-what’s going on?”
“The jet crashed.”
What little color Parker had in his face drained away. “Oh, God. I knew–” He coughed violently, spitting out dribble as he did so. “Hugh. I–”
“Don’t try to talk,” Neil advised him.
Justin glanced at Jake. “You have a first aid kit?”
“Ben had one.” Reluctantly taking it from Ben’s rucksack, Jake tossed the small green and white first aid to Justin.
“I know what to do,” Emily stated without inflection and took the kit from Justin.
Taking out a thermometer, she knelt on the snow and gently forced it between Parker’s stiff lips as Parker’s eyes darted around. ”Twenty-eight degrees,” she reported. “The ideal temperature is between thirty and thirty-eight.”
“We’re not in an ideal situation,” Justin pointed out. “I don’t think any of us are particularly warm right now, despite the warm clothes we’ve got on.”
“I’ve never been so cold in my life,” Angela said, and comforted herself by pressing against Rita who wrapped an arm around her.
“Justin.” Parker’s voice hitched. He began to sit up, but Angela and Neil urged him to stay down. “Thank God you’re all right, Justin,” he croaked. “Where’s Hugh?”
Justin let out a breath. “Right here, he’s breathing but it’s faint.”
“B - but he’s alive?”
“More’s the pity,” Jake muttered.
“How’s the arm, Parker?” Angela frowned at his left arm.
His face twisted in agony. “Something fell on it. The jet–”
“Crashed because of your brat of a son,” Jake interjected. “He’s the reason we’re all in this crappy situation.” He swung his eyes around the group as if daring anyone to dispute his words.
No one did.
Parker’s gaze shifted to Jake. “I - I remember...Hugh...Hugh broke into the cockpit.” He wheezed out a breath. “W-where are we? What fell on my arm? Something ...struck it.”
“Do you have stuff in there for his arm?” Justin asked Emily.
Instead of answering, she slowly began to pull what she needed from Ben’s rucksack.
“Thank you, Emily.” His breathing heavy, Parker frowned. “Do you know where we are?” he asked Jake.
“No,” Jake snapped. “I’m a pilot not a mountain guide. My job was to fly you to Salzb
urg airport. That was it. Maybe you should ask your son where we are. He landed us here.” Jake swept his gaze over the rest of the group. “But now that we’ve got Nina, let’s get going.” He didn’t try to sound enthusiastic about it. “We can’t stay in this spot.”
“Why not?” Justin asked in annoyance. “We’re all exhausted.”
Jake pierced him with a look of pure disgust. “You didn’t even go back for anyone. Neil and I did.”
“Because I was looking after my brother,” Justin hissed. “Neither makes you or I Boy Wonder.”
“Don’t start,” Neil implored before Jake could lash back. “Please. Let’s just get through this.”
Not listening to their bickering, Nina’s eyes darted around at the tall dark mountains surrounding them. “Are we still in a danger zone?”
“We need to get moving,” Jake said instead.
“For how long?” Angela wanted to know.
“A while.”
Her mouth tightened at his curt reply.
“What’s that noise?” Rita suddenly asked, looking around anxiously as she held Luke close to her. “It sounds like...like...”
“Cracking,” Neil finished, and grimaced.
Nina’s ears picked up the sound then. They all started looking around them anxiously, trying to see where it was coming from.
“What–?” Emily began, and then broke off, her eyes widening in horror.
And for as long as Nina lived, she knew she’d never forget the terror that rang in Emily’s voice when she screamed, “Avalanche!”
Chapter 6
––––––––
It happened on the other side of the snow bank. Nina estimated the distance to be around three hundred feet from them, yet its deafening roar made it seem only two feet away. She watched it happen in sick fascination, unable to tear her eyes from the tumbling volume of white snow. She’d seen avalanches depicted on TV, of course, but nothing had prepared her for this. She barely heard the anxious shouts from Neil and Jake. Only when Neil grabbed her wrist and pulled her to her feet did her wide stunned eyes meet his desperate ones.
“It’s going to block any way out of here.” Jake had to shout to be heard over the scream of the avalanche. “It’s going to push us deeper into backcountry.” He looked around frantically. “We need to get moving.”
Neil shook the shoulders of Parker and Hugh. “Wake up. There’s an avalanche. We have to move. Quick.”
Parker’s eyes flickered open. “Wha–?” The shocked and pained expression on his face said more than a thousand words. Beside him, Hugh blinked twice and moaned.
Neil helped Parker to his feet, the older man unsteady as he looked around in disbelief. “What’s going on?” Parker asked as Justin tried to revive Hugh.
“Just start walking,” Jake ordered him, jerking his head to the miles of snow-covered ground ahead of them. “We don’t have a minute to waste. Let’s head upslope toward higher ground.”
Neil kissed both Rita and Luke on their cheeks and took Luke into his arms. “You have to try and be strong, baby,” he told Rita.
Face bleak, she merely nodded and prepared to follow him.
“What about Hugh?” Parker asked, struggling to remain steady on his feet.
“I’m helping him,” Justin muttered. “Don’t I always?”
“Jake...” Emily licked her lips. “What about Ben?”
They all stilled momentarily.
“You know we had to leave him, Em,” he whispered, his eyes sending her a thousand apologies “He’s...he’s gone.”
“No.” As the avalanche screamed on, making them all cast uneasy glances over their shoulders; Emily shook her head with determined resolution even as tears streamed down her pale cheeks. “No. We have to go back and get him, Jake.” Her eyes pleaded with Jake. “Let’s go back and undo his seatbelt. We can’t–”
“Em...” Jake’s face, pinched and frozen with cold, made his lips barely move.
“We don’t have a choice.” He took her slim shoulders in his hands. “I’m so sorry. You know it’s the last thing I want–”
“We can’t,” Emily wailed. “Please. Don’t do this to me.”
Nina was forced to cast her eyes to her left as the avalanche continued to hammer the ground. It made the ground under her booted feet feel as steady as a shredded dishcloth; the frenzy of it making it impossible to think straight.
“We don’t have a choice, Em,” Jake repeated urgently. “We have no choice. There’s nothing we can do for him now. We have to save ourselves now.” He lifted her chin in an effort to make her damp eyes focus on him instead of the horror still clearly clouding her mind. “You can do this,” he told her fiercely. “You can. Ben would want you to be strong. We have to help ourselves now, and we have to hurry. None of us know where we’re going, or where we are. I don’t’ have a compass or map with me, so we have to stick together and do our best to survive. Come on.”
“Help ourselves how?” she cried shrilly. “No one knows we’re here or that we’re stranded. How, Jake? How?”
“We can’t debate it here. Let’s move,” he said. Shoving the rucksack onto his back, he all but started dragging Emily along with him. “The rest of us are lucky to be alive. We have to be thankful and try to survive. Come on.” He nodded in approval to Neil and Rita who had already started to walk up ahead. “Let’s follow them.”
Nina grimaced with every step through the snow. They were all hobbling, she saw, especially Parker, but they were moving, and now she had to. She only hoped she could.
Justin supported a babbling Hugh to his side, his body almost bent double under the weight.
Hugh’s complexion was waxy and drawn; his face damp with sweat, and Nina saw he was having difficulty walking. “Looks as if he might have caught a fever,” Justin shouted to them over the howl of the avalanche.
Disgusted, Nina looked away.
“Not our problem,” Jake shouted back. “Either dump him or carry him. Your choice.” Even as Justin’s face stiffened, Jake had already dismissed him. “Keep your hand over your nose and mouth.” He demonstrated with his free hand. “It’ll make breathing easier.”
Nina tried to block out the pain of her stiffened limbs and aching ribs as she limped away from the rolling tide of the avalanche and toward, what she hoped, was safety.
The wind howled around them, a groaning that permeated her ears and made her teeth continually chatter. She had wrapped her scarf around her neck when she’d changed into her ski gear but wisps of cold air still sneaked underneath it, irritating her.
For every step they took, the wind forced them back two steps. She fell down several times, and Angela had helped her back to her feet.
She wasn’t sure when the avalanche ceased; it might have been an hour or ten minutes. Emily drew their attention to it, her gloved hand shaking in the air as she pointed her finger to the suddenly quiet mountains, that tranquility settling over the area after so much natural destruction. They took the moment to stop and express their relief and take a much-needed break.
Not so much as a bird flew overhead and snow began falling in thick flat flakes, making visibility difficult
Her sister Hazel’s face flashed into Nina’s mind then, and it was all Nina could do not to weep as fear clawed her throat. Hazel was expecting her to be smooching with Parker’s client and making contacts for their law firm. Heck, her sister expected her to have access to a Jacuzzi.
The current reality couldn’t be further from the truth.
She always called Hazel when she went on a business trip. Hazel was the only one of her three other siblings who currently resided in London. They always informed one another if they’d be away for any extended period of time. How would she make the call now, when Justin had said earlier that there was no signal?
How on earth had they gone from joking in the VIP area of Gatwick to being battered, bruised, and deserted in the middle of nowhere?
Then with one thought she had h
er answer: Hugh Drayton.
Was it wrong that she wished him dead? That she’d envisioned, as she’d fallen and stumbled in the thick snow, herself with her hands around his neck, drawing out every last breath he had? If it was wrong to feel this way she didn’t care. How could he still be alive and Jake’s friend Ben dead?
Realizing then that Neil and Parker had stopped, she sighed in relief. Tentatively, she rolled her aching shoulders.
“Let’s take a short break,” Neil panted, his chest heaving. His suggestion was met with relieved sighs and nods of agreement. Within moments, they had all lowered themselves onto the snow in a small circle. Hugh, more alert now but still groggy, opened and closed his eyes.
Justin glanced up at his father. “He’s no lightweight.”
You should have just dumped him,” Jake responded before Parker could reply.
Nina shared Jake’s sentiment, as did everyone else it seemed. Only Parker contradicted him.
“That’s not the attitude to have to get through this, Jake.” Parker’s face was haggard, the toll of the last few hours having added ten years to his countenance.
The pilot’s eyes frosted over. “Don’t lecture me about the right attitude,” he snapped. “The reason we’re all in this mess is because of your brat of a son. Do you have any idea how lucky we are to not have lost any body parts? Our ears for example? Or our legs to walk with? Do you?”
Nina swallowed. Angela squeezed her eyes shut.
“I–” Parker began.
“Forget it,” Jake cut in, and pulling out a large bottle of water, took a swig before reluctantly passing it to the rest of the group to quench their parched throats.
Nina pressed her chin to her raised knees. Though the avalanche was behind them, the way Jake kept flicking his eyes around told her that they weren’t yet out of trouble. From where she sat, miles and miles of snow was their only company; it seemed they could walk for a month and not see anyone. “How much longer do you think we have to walk for?” she asked Jake.
Spiral and Torn Books 1 and 2 of The Salzburg Saga Trilogy Page 5
