Chapter 19 #2
My hands and feet move before my mind catches up. I gun the cruiser, the engine screaming as I force it forward. Dawn doesn’t say a word. She simply grabs hold of whatever she can as the ground beneath us begins to tremble violently.
Then the mountain explodes.
Trees snap like twigs. Cliff faces crumble. Massive slabs of rock tear loose and tumble down the slope as the roar behind us grows louder and louder.
I jerk the cruiser left.
A tree crashes down inches from us.
I wrench the wheel the other way as a wall of rock tears across our path. The cruiser fishtails, the sleds fighting against every turn, and I barely manage to keep us upright.
Then—
SCREEECH!
The side of the cruiser slams against something solid.
The entire vehicle shudders. I grit my teeth and keep going.
Snow and ice begin hammering the roof so hard I can barely hear myself think.
The sky disappears behind a blinding white wall.
Every second we lose is another second the avalanche gains on us.
“Come on!” I snarl, stomping the throttle.
The engine howls. I push it harder. Faster.
The cruiser was never built to withstand this. It wasn’t designed to carry us through a mountain coming apart beneath its own weight.
But stopping means death.
My beast roars beneath me as I fight the controls, the sleds whipping wildly from side to side. The ground bucks beneath us. The cruiser lurches sideways, and Dawn cries out as I wrestle it back in line.
Behind us, the avalanche is no longer something I can see. It’s something I can feel. The air itself seems to shake with its fury. I glance ahead. The ridge is close, but we are not clear yet. And the mountain is already swallowing everything behind us.
A small hand clamps around my arm, and somehow, that is all my beast needs. Something inside me snaps back into focus.
The next tic is nothing but fragments—wind screaming, snow exploding around us, my beast moving with a speed and precision I could never have commanded. I am not in control anymore. Something else has taken the wheel.
I do not know if it is the Lord of Light.
I do not know if it is some buried knowledge I never knew I possessed.
All I know is that one moment we were racing for our lives, and the next, we are standing motionless atop a jagged peak overlooking the main valley. I stare down, breathless and bewildered. How the frack have we gotten here?
Then the mountain answers.
A deafening roar rolls through the valley as the avalanche comes crashing down behind us. A wall of white swallowing everything in its path—trees, rocks, earth—turning the mountainside into a living wave of destruction.
It thunders past below us, shaking the peak beneath us before finally grinding to a violent, destructive stop.
I can only stare.
We should have been buried beneath it.
We should have been dead.
Yet somehow, we are still here, alive.
“WHOOOOHOOO, big guy, now that was some damn good driving!!”
I look over at Dawn, who has this huge smile on her face, and simply shake my head. I expected her to be scared out of her mind but instead, she is cheering.
“We almost died.”
“Hell, that’s becoming a daily thing for me, but guess what? We DIDN’T! Shoot, that right there got the old pumper working. Who knew the abominable snowman should have been a NASCAR driver? That was quite impressive.”
I lean forward, running a shaking hand through my facial hair, trying to gather my thoughts.
“Are we stuck out here now?”
“No, Hallister is not a large planet, so if one way is blocked, we will simply head another. The cruiser seems not to have sustained any real damage, so we should be fine.”
“Do you think the mammoths made it?”
“Yes, they were moving long before we even realized what was happening. I will have Bane send out a drone just in case, because even if one got stuck, the rest of the herd would have stopped sending out distress signals to locate it.”
“Did anyone live out this way?”
Her words stop me as I gather the names in my head that reside in this area.
“Several, actually and this is one of the things that weighs heavily on me. Yes, the compound is an advancement that many do not appreciate, but it provides a measure of safety that the planet itself simply cannot. It always saddens me to watch them pack up after market and head back out, because I know firsthand how difficult it can be to face such extreme conditions completely on your own. Let me call this in so that Bane can get on that too.”
She rubs my arm for a tic before looking out over all that has just occurred all around us while it hit my comm unit.
“Bane, there has been a huge avalanche in the western sector and there were some mammoths in the area with calves that may need to be checked on.”
“Already been notified by Gelid because the stupid fracker was out corralling a lost calf when he got trapped in the pass.”
“Has he stayed in contact?”
“Yes, but even though he has not said it directly, I believe he is hurt.”
“How far is he from our location?”
I see the red dot appear on the cruiser’s navigation screen. “Frack!” I lean closer, watching it pulse against the map. “He is completely on the other side of this disaster.”
My fingers tighten around the controls.
“Bane, I have got an avalanche and loose soil and rocks blocking my main path. Can you send me the quickest route around?”
“Already on it,” Bane answers through the comm. “But you know Gelid. He will not leave that calf behind even if he is cut in half.”
A growl rumbles deep in my chest.
“I will worry about that when I find him.”
I pull up the terrain map as another section of snow slides somewhere beyond the ridge, the distant rumble vibrating through the cruiser.
“Has anyone else reported in?”
“Sorum sent word that his main entrance is blocked, but he is fine until the frost settles. Jeton just commed and said he was all right as well, but he was caught in the aftermath. He is banged up and believes his wrist is broken, but he is heading toward Gelid’s last known location since he is closer. ”
I close my eyes for half a breath, knowing the frost is moving fast enough to turn this entire pass into a graveyard.
I glance at Dawn. She is watching me. I should take her back.
Every instinct I have is screaming at me to turn the cruiser around, get her somewhere warm, safe, and far away from whatever else is coming. Then I can come back for the others.
Except I do not know if there will be time. The frost is already too close. I look back at the navigation screen. Then over at her. Dawn’s eyes flare.
“Don’t even think about it.”
“I said nothing.”
“You didn’t have to since it’s written all over your fuzzy face.” She shifts in her seat, pulling herself straighter. “I’m warm, HaL. I’m not hurt, and I can help.”
“This is NOT a discussion.”
“Yes, it IS.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
I bare my teeth. She merely raises an eyebrow. “We can do this all day, or you can get going, your choice.”
“I am not sure I can control my beast around them with you there.”
Her expression softens for only a moment.
“All I can tell you is … get a grip.”
A low growl rolls through me.
“If I need to, I’ll stay sealed up in here. But I would rather be beside you than sitting alone in this sled waiting for something to happen. If your friends are hurt, then let me help.”
I stare at her.
She stares right back.
I already know I have lost. “Frack.” I turn the land speeder toward the signal. “Fine.”
Her mouth twitches.
“But you stay close.”
“I was planning on it.”
The cruiser crawls forward. The route Bane sent me barely qualifies as a path anymore.
Snow is piled against one side of the pass almost as high as the cruiser.
Rocks and broken earth jut through the white like the bones of some enormous beast. Trees that had stood here only a tic ago are now snapped and buried beneath tons of snow.
I remember this pass. I knew every turn. Every rise and narrow section where the cruiser needed to angle before climbing. I could have driven through here blind. Now I do not recognize any of it. The mountain has shifted, and everything familiar has become a threat.
We crawl onward. The temperature inside the cruiser drops despite my own body generating heat. I keep glancing at the external temperature reading.
Lower.
Lower.
The frost is coming and I can see it creeping closer every tic. So now it is not only dangerous for Dawn, but for the rest of us as well.
The sleds slip while my mind has drifted off. I correct them, then the back end fishtails before catching again, and Dawn braces herself against the side.
“Easy big guy, eyes on the road.”
“I am being easy.”
“That was your version of easy?”
Suddenly there is a flash of light through the trees. A flare!
“There.”
I push the cruiser forward. The bend comes up fast. I round it only to slam on the brakes. The cruiser fishtails sideways. Snow explodes around us, and for one terrifying moment, I think we’re going over. Then the sleds catch. I stare through the windshield.
Mammoths.
Dozens of them fill the pass. Massive bodies packed shoulder to shoulder, their dark, shaggy forms almost disappearing into the falling snow. Their breath pours from their trunks in thick clouds, as their tusks gleam beneath the pale light.
They are not moving.
They are blocking the entire path.
And behind them — Gelid.
“Frack. Depending on how spooked they are, they may not let us pass.”
The animals are strangely calm. After what happened here, that could change in a heartbeat. A single frightened mammoth could crush the cruiser. Could bring the entire herd down on top of us. I turn to her.
“You are staying here, Roja.”
“No.”
My head snaps around.
“What?”
“No.”
She points through the windshield. “You see those big, hairy-ass things? Right now, they’re calm. But the moment they decide this planet is trying to eat them again, they’re a force of their own.”
She starts unbuckling the straps.
“I’m safer with you than anywhere else.”
“You are not coming.”
“I can’t drive this sled, HaL.”
“Dawn—”