Chapter 16 Hannah #2
My hands fisted deeper into the caribou’s fur as a sense of helplessness swept over me.
Memories from my time skiing in Colorado shot through my mind.
I’d learned that, if you were caught in an avalanche, you needed to move to the side, swim to the top, create an air pocket, conserve energy, and keep your feet downhill.
But that was what to do if you were caught in it, not what to do before it hit you while you were bareback on a caribou.
This caribou seemed to know what it was doing, and I had no chance if I got off, so I held on tighter.
Another crack split the air above me and to my left. Sound tangled in the narrow space, echoing strangely between rock walls I could sense more than see. The noise grew, swelling from the left, then rushed lower, downward through the pass like a river raging below.
Were we clear?
The caribou angled upward again, still climbing and moving laterally along the wall.
Its stride steadied. The scraping and testing of its hooves smoothed into a faster rhythm.
My body bounced with the change, and agony exploded in my stomach where the horn had bruised me.
I tightened my grip without meaning to, the pain in my fingers burning and then fading into a dull, distant ache.
The vibrations lessened.
Pressure in my ears eased a fraction despite the roar still moving fast below us.
The caribou kept up its hard, ground-eating pace.
There was no rise and fall like a horse, and no moment of weightlessness to steal a breath.
Every stride shoved forward through its shoulders and into my chest, rattling my ribs and clacking my teeth together.
The edges of the agony blurred together until I couldn’t tell what hurt most. The cold was no longer sharp, just wrong and distant. I tried to flex my toes and couldn’t feel them move as the wind tore at my face.
My heart pounded.
Without the scarf, the wind cut straight across my mouth and cheeks, burning my skin raw.
My lips split again, and I tasted copper as warm liquid ran down my chin.
My breath came fast and shallow, little clouds torn away before they could warm my face.
I tried to slow and deepen my breathing and couldn’t make my chest obey.
The caribou shifted direction slightly and quickened its pace.
“Hrrrooooh—rrruuuh!” A deep rolling call sounded through the storm to my left.
My caribou lifted its head and tilted its antlers back to the point they brushed the top of my head. “Rrrroohh—hrrruuh!”
The change threw me off balance, and my stomach lurched hard. Panic flared, hot and bright, cutting through the fog in my head. I locked my arms tighter around the caribou’s neck and squeezed my thighs until they burned.
A little farther away to my right, a third responded with a similar call. Additional responses cut through the wind, as if the herd was signaling to one another that they had survived.
We’d survived the avalanche, but I probably had only minutes before I lost all dexterity. My brain was slowing, and thinking was hard.
My head dipped forward and bumped the caribou’s neck. The dull impact barely stirred anything but a vague sense that I should lift it again if I didn't want to fall asleep and slide off. If I fell, I’d probably be dead within minutes.
“Hrrr’KAH—rruuk! Hrrr’KAH!” The call came from a little to the left, a harsh bark.
The caribou stopped beneath me so abruptly that my chin hit its neck.
Its spine went rigid, breath blasting out in a sharp burst that steamed against my cheek.
The calls fractured, the rolling contact calls breaking into harsh, clipped notes that cut through the wind as the caribou barked back and forth, the sounds driving straight into my skull.
My caribou answered with a shorter, deeper bark that vibrated through its chest and into mine.
Its weight shifted back as its hindquarters braced and forelegs stamped against the deep snow as if it were trying to solve a problem.
The herd called in staggered echoes, the sounds passing fast and clipped through the dark as the wind whipped harder against us.
“RRAAAAAAOOOHHH!” A roar filled the air, and a massive form rose up, blue light flaring in the darkness.
Shit! What was that?
My eyes burned, my eyelids slamming shut too late. Pain stabbed behind them, white and blinding, and tears spilled and froze at the corners of my eyes. I tried to crack them open again. Everything blurred, the light far too bright. My head jerked down, and my breath tore out of me.
My caribou lowered its head and spun to the right, charging away from the noises. My arms locked around its neck again on instinct.
The run was relentless—pounding with no lift between strides. Each strike jarred my teeth and sprayed snow against my legs.
The roar came again, closer.
“RRRRAAAOOOHHH—HHRRUUUM!”
The caribou snorted and lengthened its stride, its hooves striking faster and closer together.
Something slammed into the snow behind us.
The impact rumbled through the slope and into my spine, and the caribou drove harder.
Its shoulders lifted in a shallow bound over broken ground, its stride hitching for a breath before slamming back to earth and into that crushing run.
The shift wrenched my balance loose. My palms slid, and my fingers scraped flattened hair slick with melting snow.
Another roar thundered right behind us.
“RRAAOOOHH—KRRUUM!”
The caribou cut sideways, its hooves skidding before regaining traction. The jarring impact tore my grip away. I tried to grasp its neck again and failed.
I hit the snow chest-first, knocking the breath out of me. Cold flooded my face and collar as I rolled, powdery snow packing into my mouth and nose. My shoulder struck hard, and my head bounced, causing it to ring.
Terror strangled me. I had to move because, if I didn’t, I was toast. The really dark, burnt toast that got thrown out to decompose on its own.
I tried to rise, my hands plunging into the snow, but my elbows folded, and my knees slid out from under me.
Glaring blue light stabbed through my closed eyelids before they cracked open.
I fought once more to get up, then slipped and rolled over and over in the icy snow. The entire world submerged in darkness.
I no longer knew which way was up, and my legs weren’t responding.
Snow burst up around me as something hit the ground close enough to jar my bones. Arms hooked under my shoulders and back, then wrenched me up and crushed me tight against a solid wall. Panic flared through me, and I tried to twist free. But then the darkness claimed me again, and everything faded.