Chapter 7 #2
“Can we go around?” She stares over his shoulder at the base of the mountain they’ve driven up to.
It’s towering and steep, but they could climb it if they have to. That’s besides the point, though, because it wasn’t on the map and they can’t drive a snowmobile up a nearly vertical mountain.
“Maybe. Don’t know how wide it is. I can’t see any end to it.”
This obstacle spans out as far as the eye can see. While she’s certain there has to be an endpoint, with their luck, getting there will eat up all their gas and put them way off course.
“Rough math based on how fast we were going and for how long puts us about a fourth of the way there. Now, we either go over or around.”
“I think we should go over,” she says, confidently. “We can make it the last way on foot, but we can’t if we go too far around and get stuck out there after doubling or tripling the distance again.”
“Are you sure?”
“If you are, too, then yes.” She nods, even though he can’t see her.
They’re already so cold that she’s spent most of the journey with her face buried against him, and when he turns his head, she winces at his red, wind-chapped nose.
“Your poor nose. Here, take this. You should have said something.”
“I appreciate you trying to protect this pretty face,” he jokes.
She unwraps the one scarf they found at the house from around her neck so he can use it as a mask. “Keep going, and I’ll strangle you with this instead.
“I can’t take that, you need it.”
“You need it more. Go on.”
He doesn’t fight her a second time. Knowing he’s been suffering just so she can stay a little bit warmer only confuses her even further when she’s already been sucked into a clusterfuck of feelings over this man.
No one’s ever treated her the way he does.
Like she’s important. Like he cares more about her than himself, and that might be weird if they didn’t have the added benefit of all this trauma to shove them together so quickly.
They skipped over months or years of getting to know each other and jumped right into some of the best parts. It sort of feels like cheating in a game she’s never been able to win before.
He ties her plaid scarf around his face, transforming into someone ready for a bank robbery. “Okay, let’s go over. It’s not that high, just steep. We can get it done in thirty minutes, maybe less.”
Abandoning the snowmobile is difficult, but it’s done its job better than they expected and given them a good head start, so they bravely begin the incline one foot after another, side by side through calf-deep snow.
He struggles more than her, huffing and puffing with each step.
She wonders if he’s a smoker. Hasn’t seemed to be craving it, but maybe he quit long ago and the damage is already done.
Either way, she worries for him the longer it goes on until her own lungs catch up.
Then all she can worry about is herself, until he slips at the halfway point and nearly gives her a heart attack.
He slides a good twenty feet back down while yelling at her to stay put as he tumbles before coming to a stop just inches away from face-planting into a rock.
“Are you okay? Theo! Talk to me!”
He raises a hand in the air and yells back. “All that’s busted is my pride.”
Her laugh is nervous and full of bundled-up adrenaline and concern. She’s about to ignore his pleas for her to stay before he finally gets his feet under him and reaches her again.
She grabs his arm, curbing the urge to hug him, but doesn’t dare after that slip in the garage. “You’re sure you’re okay?”
“I’m sure.”
Her fear at the possibility of losing him is terrifying in its own right.
It’s part of the reason she wanted to protect herself.
Slowly but surely, she is growing attached to Theo.
If she feels like this now, then she can’t imagine she’d survive it if they got closer, only for fate to snatch him away.
It would be an insane thought if they weren’t in exactly the type of situation that offers plenty of opportunity for deadly mistakes.
She’s already met her quota when it comes to loss.
One more might tip the scales beyond her ability to recover.
Quickly, she jerks her hand back and sniffles hard. Refuses to check his reaction to see if her own has bothered him. “Let’s keep going. We’re burning daylight.”
He only grunts in reply, following as she takes the lead.
He gives her a confused glance the one time she looks back, and that’s enough to make her doubt herself.
He’s sensitive just like she is. Maybe more so, it’s hard to tell, but it’s something they have in common.
Snipping at him to ease her own stress isn’t something she enjoys.
It’s for the best, though. He’ll see that later once they’re safely back to their own lives, where everything doesn’t feel magnified times a hundred.
It’s not real out here. What she’s starting to feel is just a one-sided figment of her imagination. It wouldn’t last in the real world anyway. She’s already proven time and time again that she can’t be trusted in relationships.
The rest of the climb is silent and grueling, but reaching the top offers them a bird’s-eye view of what lies ahead.
“That’s not on the map either,” she says quietly, staring at the building nestled into the snow much like she did the cabin. They freeze in place, waiting for it to vanish like a delusion.
He tugs down the scarf and grins at her for the first time since they began this uphill hike. “Nope, but this time I’m glad for it. Let’s go. Gotta be someone there. It’s too big to be empty.”
They pick up the pace, which isn’t all that difficult considering they’re going downhill.
Steep enough they can mostly slide on their asses, but not so extreme they’ll tumble onto their heads or into a tree, and there’s plenty of those waiting at the base.
It’s a virtual forest down there. They may not have noticed the building buried between them if it wasn’t such a massive complex.
They slide to a stop between towering pines and brush the snow off their pants with a gleeful flourish, heading straight for the beacon in the distance, hardly noticing the tiny bundle on the ground until they’re nearly upon it.
“Theo!” she whispers, jerking him to a halt just before they run over the smallest polar bear cub, blending perfectly into the white ground.
“He’s so cute,” she says softly, not daring to move.
Theo’s next words are ominous. “Where’s momma?”
He hardly has time to get the question out before a tank hits them both.
It’s enough to send them flying from the force of it, scattering in opposite directions.
She lands on her back with the wind knocked out of her and the world spinning.
Lies there in shock, trying to breathe until the sound of Theo screaming for his life hits her ears, then she rolls over onto her knees and watches as he grapples with a giant polar bear.
His arms desperately cover his face as the bear pins him.
It’s no secret who’s winning this match.
Nora doesn’t think. Doesn’t have time. She just grabs the rifle that’s slid off her back and aims at a wide, fluffy backside, firing twice.
The bullets miss by a mile. She’s normally a good shot, but right now her whole body is shaking like a leaf, and her aim is fucked.
Surviving a bear wasn’t part of her shooting lessons at the gun range.
The noise is enough to scare off their attacker, who runs for the mountain they just slid down, her baby fast behind her.
They disappear over the ridge so quickly that Nora could almost be convinced they were never here at all if Theo wasn’t groaning and writhing on the ground.
She rushes to him, dropping to her knees with wide eyes. “I’m here. I’m here, they’re gone. You’re okay. Please tell me you’re okay.”
She’s practically begging him to confirm he won’t die right here in front of her, nearly inconsolable as the words tumble from her lips.
Hadn’t she just been thinking that she couldn’t lose him once she got more attached?
That she could still get out in time and suffer less, but apparently, she’s so far in already that she’s jumping to worst-case scenarios like he’s already gone.
Her hands roam his body to search for injuries, finding deep scratch marks tearing his fluffy coat, but no blood.
He groans out a reply that sounds surprisingly clear-headed. “I’m okay. I think. Fuck, it’s my shoulder. Can’t move it.”
She blinks quickly, trying to clear her vision and focus on what needs to be done. She can’t help him if she’s losing it.
“Your arm’s lying at a weird angle,” she says, calmly. “Does it feel broken? Do you know what a broken arm feels like?”
“I do and it doesn’t, but who knows yet.”
“Could be dislocated. Where else does it hurt? Can you walk?”
“Everything hurts. Mostly my arm, though. I think I can walk. Don’t touch it. My arm, don’t touch it.”
She positions herself on his other side, steering clear of his biggest injury, wincing at the pained half-scream that leaves him as he tries to cradle his swinging arm. Touching it hurts. Letting it hang hurts. She knows that feeling all too well.
With his good arm draped around her shoulders, they begin their way to the compound ahead, yelling for help as they get closer and getting the same depressing silence the previous cabin offered.
The door is locked when she jiggles the handle, and pounding on it does no good.
She has to prop Theo next to it so she can search the windows for any that might be open.
The first two leave her frustrated enough to curse obscenities into the snowflakes that’ve begun to tickle her face, but the third offers them hope, lifting easily enough to crawl through without much fuss before unlocking the door and helping Theo inside.