Chapter 2
She turned her head to look at him, her dark eyes reflecting the faint green glow of the dashboard.
"When things went bad, my family had to flee in the middle of the night.
Your parents stayed.
To protect you from being targeted, our families agreed to do something terrible.
They used a localized psychological treatment to wipe the memories of our friendship from your mind.
They wanted to make sure that if anyone questioned you, you genuinely wouldn't know anything about us."
Luke’s heart hammered against his ribs.
It sounded completely insane, like a plot from a sci-fi movie, but looking down at the childhood photo tucked into his visor, he knew it was the absolute truth.
The missing pieces of his life were finally starting to click into place.
Before Luke could ask another question, a terrifying, deep rumbling sound echoed through the mountainside, vibrating right through the floorboards of the jeep.
"Stop the car!"
Julianne screamed, grabbing the dashboard.
Luke slammed on the brakes.
The jeep skidded sideways, the tires losing their grip on the sheet of ice before coming to a violent halt just inches away from a massive drop-off on the side of the cliff.
Through the headlights, they watched as a massive wave of snow, ice, and broken pine branches cascaded down the mountain slope directly in front of them, blocking the logging trail completely with a ten-foot wall of debris.
It was a localized avalanche.
If they had been driving just ten seconds faster, they would have been buried alive under the ice.
Luke sat in the dead silence of the jeep, his breath coming in short, ragged gasps.
The headlights shone directly into the wall of packed snow.
The road was gone.
There was absolutely no way the jeep could get through this.
"The trail is blocked,"
Luke said, his voice trembling as the reality of their situation sank in.
"We're trapped.
We have to turn back."
"We can't turn back!"
Julianne said, throwing off the wool blanket and unbuckling her seatbelt.
"The cabin is only a half-mile past this ridge.
If we turn back now, the storm will trap Maya up there for a week.
She won't survive that long without heat."
Julianne pushed open the passenger door, the freezing wind instantly filling the jeep with a flurry of snow.
She stepped out into the knee-deep ice, her boots sinking into the fresh powder as she looked back at him through the doorway.
"I’m going up over the ridge,"
she said, her eyes blazing with a fierce determination that Luke couldn't help but admire.
"You can stay here in the car and wait for the storm to clear, or you can help me find the girl you claim to love."
Luke looked at the wall of snow, then down at the letter from Maya still resting on his lap.
He thought about his quiet, boring life at the coffee shop, wiping down granite tables while his soul slowly withered away from boredom and heartbreak.
He thought about the physical limits of his bones, and how his mind was screaming at him to break right through them.
"Wait,"
Luke shouted over the roar of the wind.
He grabbed his flashlight, stuffed the letter and the photograph into his inner coat pocket, and stepped out of the jeep into the freezing abyss of the winter night.
He slammed the car door shut behind him, leaving the safety of the vehicle behind.
Julianne gave him a small, respectful nod through the darkness, her trench coat fluttering violently in the gale.
Together, side-by-side, they began the brutal, steep climb over the ice wall, stepping into a dark and dangerous future where their forgotten past was waiting to be uncovered.
The world outside the jeep was a screaming void of white.
The wind didn't just blow; it roared like a physical beast, slamming into Luke’s chest and knocking him off balance as he struggled to climb the steep, icy incline of the avalanche debris.
Every breath he took felt like swallowing broken glass as the freezing mountain air scorched his throat.
"Keep moving!"
Julianne’s voice was barely a whisper against the gale, even though she was screaming at the top of her lungs.
She was just a few feet ahead of him, her heavy trench coat whipping violently around her legs like a dark flag.
Luke couldn't see her face anymore.
He could only track the faint silhouette of her shoulders through the thick, swirling curtain of snow.
The flashlight in his hand was practically useless; the beam reflected off the millions of falling ice crystals, creating a blinding wall of light that made it impossible to see where his boots were landing.
Suddenly, Luke’s foot caught the hidden edge of a buried pine branch.
The ice gave way beneath him, and he went down hard, his knee slamming into a jagged rock hidden beneath the powder.
A sharp jolt of pain shot up his leg, causing him to drop the flashlight.
It tumbled down the slope, its light flickering twice before being completely swallowed by the snow.
"Luke!"
Through the blur of white, Julianne appeared above him.
She dropped to her knees, her gloved hands grabbing the lapels of his heavy jacket, pulling him upward with surprising strength.
Her dark eyes were wide with panic, her eyelashes crusted over with tiny beads of frost.
"I lost the light,"
Luke choked out, his teeth chattering uncontrollably.
"I can't see the path. My leg—"
"Forget the path!"
she shouted back, her face just inches from his.
"We aren't going to make it to the ridge.
The wind is shifting.
If we stay out here on the open slope for another ten minutes, the frostbite will take our fingers.
We need to get off the ridge right now!"
Julianne didn't wait for him to agree.
She locked her arm under his shoulder, forcing him to stand despite the throbbing ache in his knee.
Together, they stumbled blindly off the edge of the logging trail, plunging into the deep, dark shelter of the pine forest.
The trees blocked the worst of the wind, but the darkness inside the woods was total.
The ancient pines groaned under the weight of the snow, their heavy branches snapping like gunshots in the freezing night.
Luke leaned heavily on Julianne, the sheer physical exhaustion starting to cloud his thoughts.
His mind was slipping back to that profound truth he had realized earlier: his bones were starting to rebel against his sheer willpower.
He was freezing to death.
"Look,"
Julianne gasped, her grip tightening on his arm.
Through the dense thicket of trees, a sharp, geometric shadow cut through the chaotic shapes of the forest.
Luke squinted through the frost on his eyebrows.
It was a small, square building made of rough, dark logs, its roof buried under a massive drift of snow.
A single wooden sign hung crookedly above the door, the carved letters filled with ice: Forestry District Station 4.
It looked completely dead, abandoned to the elements years ago.
The windows were boarded up with thick plywood, and a heavy iron padlock secured the front door.
Julianne threw herself against the heavy wooden door, rattling the iron chain, but the lock didn't budge.
"It's frozen solid! Luke, help me!"
Luke stumbled forward, his survival instincts overriding the pain in his leg.
He looked around wildly until he spotted a rusted iron fire-poker leaning against a collapsed woodpile near the porch.
He grabbed the heavy metal rod, wedged it into the space between the padlock and the wooden doorframe, and threw his entire body weight against it.
With a loud, splintering screech, the old wood gave way.
The door flew open, and both Luke and Julianne tumbled forward into the pitch-black, freezing silence of the abandoned cabin.
Luke slammed the broken door shut behind them, sliding a heavy wooden bench across the floor to wedge it firmly against the frame.
The sudden absence of the roaring wind was deafening.
The air inside the station was dead, stale, and smelled intensely of old pine needles, rust, and damp earth.
It was still freezing, but it was a quiet, stable cold—not the aggressive, biting frost of the open mountain.
Julianne collapsed against the wall, sliding down to the dusty floorboards.
Her chest heaved as she drew in long, ragged breaths of the dusty air.
Luke fumbled through his coat pockets until his numb fingers found his lighter.
He struck the flint three times before a small, fragile yellow flame bloomed in the darkness.
He held it up, casting long, eerie shadows across the small room.
The station was tiny—barely the size of a bedroom.
A rusted iron woodstove sat in the corner, empty.
A single metal cot with a bare, stained mattress leaned against the wall, and a wooden desk sat covered in a thick layer of dust.
"There's no wood,"
Luke whispered, his voice trembling so hard the words were barely intelligible.
The lighter flame flickered wildly as his hand shook.
"The stove is useless.
We can't build a fire."
"Check the locker,"
Julianne murmured, her arms wrapped tightly around her chest as she shivered violently.
"Emergency rangers...
they always leave supply crates."
Luke moved to a metal cabinet in the back corner, his boots clicking loudly on the bare wood.
He yanked the latch open.
Inside, covered in cobwebs, was a single, heavy canvas bundle.
He pulled it out, tearing away the rotted straps.
It was an old, military-grade arctic sleeping bag.
It was thick, heavy, and lined with dense wool.
But there was only one.
Luke carried the heavy canvas sleeping bag over to the metal cot, unrolling it with clumsy, frozen fingers.
"There's only one,"
he said, looking over at Julianne in the dim light of the dying lighter.
"And it’s barely big enough for one person."
Julianne looked up at him, her dark eyes reflecting the tiny yellow flame.
The fierce, defensive walls she had worn all evening were completely gone.
Her skin was a terrifying, pale shade of white, and her lips were turning a faint shade of blue.
"If we stay separate, we die,"
she said simply, her voice devoid of any argument.
"Body heat is the only thing that's going to keep our hearts beating until morning. Get in."
Luke didn't hesitate.
The absolute physical reality of the winter storm left no room for awkwardness or pride.
He blew out the lighter, plunging the room back into total darkness, and climbed onto the narrow cot.
Julianne slid in beside him, pulling the heavy, insulated canvas zipper up to their chins.