Chapter Ten
‘Everybody please be calm,’ said Gunther, holding up his hands. ‘We are all fine, and there is no need to panic.’
Lucy looked around at the room of distinctly un-panicked people.
Everyone was either in shock, or not daring to move or make noise in case it triggered another avalanche.
Either way, they were all frozen in their seats, waiting to see what might happen next.
Lucy’s phone buzzed again, prompting a narrow-eyed glare from Nate.
Probably Marco again, with more specific and anatomical suggestions about how Lucy might relieve the boredom of his insurance seminar.
The only saving grace was that it hadn’t been one of Anthony’s dick pics; she’d never be able to look Nate in the eye again.
She ignored the phone and focused on Gunther, wondering if the burning heat in her face would ever subside.
Gunther’s phone blared out a ringtone that sounded a lot like ‘Enter Sandman’ by Metallica, providing both welcome distraction and a frisson of worry about what the news from the village might be.
They all sat in silence and listened hard as Gunther spoke intently to the person on the other end.
The conversation was in German and Lucy couldn’t understand much, but Gunther was mostly listening with a grave expression, which definitely didn’t bode well.
‘OK, everybody, let’s talk together,’ he said, after he’d ended the call. Lucy and Nate shoved up so that Andrea and the keyboard player could squeeze into their booth, and Gunther, Monica and Chantal pulled up three extra chairs.
‘Can we do this in German?’ asked Gunther in English, looking first at the two Dutch men, who nodded happily, then more pointedly at Lucy and Nate.
Lucy shook her head apologetically, having done Spanish at school.
The basics she’d learned had been much enhanced by all the dirty words Marco had taught her.
‘Ja, kein problem,’ whispered Nate.
‘You speak German too?’ hissed Lucy.
Nate nodded. ‘Yeah. And Dutch and Spanish. ?Cómo estás, Lucy?’ He gave her a deadpan stare, and Lucy blushed, wondering if now was a good time to mention that she had a shelf of awards for really impressive words written in English. Possibly the wrong audience, to be fair.
‘OK, then for the benefit of the English Fr?ulein, we will do this in English. Can everyone here speak good English?’
Everyone nodded, and Lucy caught a withering glare from both Chantal and the keyboard player from the band. She shrank further into the bench and quietly died all over again.
‘OK, I have spoken to the mountain safety people,’ said Gunther. ‘It is not safe for them to check the pistes tonight – it’s dark, the weather is still very bad, and there may be more avalanches. Nobody is hurt, and they know we are OK, so they will meet again in the morning.’
‘We’re staying here tonight?’ said Alex the Dutchman, his hand pressed against his chest in horror, clutching imaginary pearls.
‘Yes,’ said Gunther. ‘There is no other option.’
‘Just for one night?’ asked Willem. Before the avalanche, Lucy was pretty sure they were having a conversation about one of the two men being something to do with the Dutch royal family. A baron, maybe? She couldn’t remember the details now.
‘That, I cannot tell you,’ said Gunther, turning his palms upwards.
‘It will depend on the situation tomorrow. If the piste is clear and safe, Ulrich will come up with the bus, probably with some other big machines to help clear his way. But if the piste is blocked or there is still avalanche risk, it may take a little more time. A few more hours, maybe one more night.’
‘Can’t they send a helicopter to rescue us?’ asked Alex. Oh, hark at Baron von Princess, thought Lucy, rolling her eyes at Nate.
‘In this weather, most definitely not,’ said Gunther, shaking his head, then grinning broadly. ‘And also, my friend, you don’t need to be rescued. We are all safe here – we have firewood and food and water, and the Guntherhütte is not in the path of danger.’
‘Does anyone need anything?’ asked Monica. ‘For example, does anyone need to take urgent medication?’
Lucy briefly considered making up a chronic illness, so they’d scramble a rescue party led by hot Swiss mountain men and a pack of fluffy St Bernards.
The look on Alex’s face suggested he was thinking the same thing, and Lucy wondered if he’d go with type 1 diabetes or something more obscure.
But in the end everyone shook their heads regretfully.
‘Where do we sleep?’ asked Lucy, deciding it was time to address the elephant in the very small and uncomfortable room.
All the surfaces in here were hard, apart from the upholstered booth seating, which were narrow semicircles with very thin cushions.
Any sudden movements, and you’d either fall off or smack your head on the table.
‘We will squeeze in,’ said Gunther with a dismissive wave of his hand.
‘Squeeze in where? With who?’ replied Lucy.
‘It’s all fine, we will manage,’ shrugged Gunther breezily. ‘Tonight we have music and good food and drink, and by bedtime you will not mind whose bed you sleep in.’
‘I fucking will,’ hissed Lucy, catching the death stare Monica was throwing Gunther.
‘I will give you more information as soon as I can,’ said Gunther. ‘Please relax and enjoy our hospitality. The bar is open, and there is nothing to pay, obviously.’
The group dispersed to different corners of the pub to make phone calls and send messages, everyone moving tentatively and keeping their voices low in case loud noises set the mountain off again. Lucy looked at Nate, who was pale and sweaty again. ‘Are you OK?’
‘Yeah,’ he mumbled. ‘Trying to remember to breathe.’
‘Gunther says we’re safe,’ she whispered.
Nate gave her a bleak look. ‘Well, with all due respect, Gunther would say that.’
‘Do you need to make any calls?’ To Sasha, for example?
‘Yeah,’ said Nate. ‘I guess I should.’
‘I’ll call Jonno, let him know what’s going on.
’ She slid out of the booth after Nate and checked her phone – there were several missed calls and three unread messages from Jonno alongside the one from Marco, and her battery was down to twenty-six per cent.
Presumably one of the other eight people still on this mountain had an iPhone charger, but she’d worry about that later.
It was only just gone five o’clock – what the hell were they going to do for the rest of the evening?
She couldn’t even get drunk, because she was already drunk.
‘Hey,’ she said to Jonno, who answered before she’d even heard it ring. ‘There’s been another avalanche, just wanted to let you know I’m still alive.’
‘Fucksake, Luce,’ he said with a huff of exasperation and relief. ‘Why didn’t you answer or reply to my messages?’
‘I haven’t even read them yet. We’ve been having a meeting about the fact we all have to stay in this bar for the night.’
‘We wondered if that might happen. There’s drama down here too – we’ve been told to leave the village as soon as possible. There’s insane amounts of snow coming, total freak weather apparently, and they’re going to close the road up the mountain.’
‘Shit,’ said Lucy, her mind racing. Everything felt like it was going at a hundred miles an hour, and she definitely wasn’t feeling entirely in control of things right now.
‘Yeah. Everyone’s packing up, we’ll be out of here within the hour.’
‘Where are you going?’
‘Geneva. Kristoff’s booking us a house on the lake. So we can still do all the work stuff tomorrow.’
Lucy gasped. ‘Wait, you’re fucking off to Geneva and leaving us here?’
‘I don’t have any choice,’ pleaded Jonno. ‘We’re being kicked out of Zermatt, all the hotel staff are being evacuated too. They’re expecting the worst snowstorms in decades, apparently. Avalanche warnings keep going off. We need to get out.’
‘And what about me?’ Lucy was aware her volume was rising and people were looking, even though she’d moved over to the space next to the wood burner.
‘I know, I’m sorry. Apparently you’re safe, because you’re so high up.’
Lucy took a deep breath, trying to put a lid on her growing panic. ‘I’d just got my head around staying here tonight, but nobody’s mentioned there’s worse weather coming. What if I’m trapped here for weeks?’
‘Oh God, don’t be such a drama queen. Look, I’ve checked with loads of people and those huts are built to be totally stormproof. You’re definitely not in the path of anything that could avalanche.’
Lucy smiled for what felt like the first time since she and Nate were playing board games. It was less than an hour ago, but it already felt like another century. ‘Wait, is avalanche a verb?’
‘Fuck off, Dictionary Corner. Drink the bar dry and take loads of videos; stick it on TikTok or Instagram or something. People live for this kind of thing.’
‘I don’t do social, you know that,’ said Lucy, grudgingly accepting that real-life, high-pressure situations where strangers were thrown together made the kind of content she would definitely watch. Maybe Nate would take a video, or one of the Dutch guys.
‘It’s going to be fine, Luce,’ said Jonno. ‘The storm should all be over by tomorrow, then hopefully you’ll be able to join us in Geneva.’
‘Yeah, OK.’ She tried to bring her stress levels under control, rationalising that Jonno didn’t have any choice but to leave. And even if he was allowed to stay in Zermatt, there would be nothing for him to do.
‘How’s Nate?’ asked Jonno.
‘He’s fine, I think.’ Lucy didn’t mention Nate’s anxiety challenges, because it wasn’t anyone else’s business. Presumably Sasha knew already that her boyfriend was prone to meltdown, and was probably pretty worried right now. ‘He’s on the phone. How are Kristoff and Sasha and the others?’
‘Revelling in organising manoeuvres – Sasha’s glued to her phone as we speak. It’s a good excuse for them to take charge and rally the troops. Spirit of Dunkirk and all that.’