Zero Visibility (16 page)

Hawthorne’s threat to kill them both before they got off the mountain still weighed heavily on his mind. “Let’s get moving. We should have some daylight in just a little bit here.”

The few hours sleep they had gotten in Henry’s cabin had made a big difference. They skied toward the front part of the resort. The skis made a light swishing noise as they pushed out into the open. The chairlift came into view. Nathan was grateful that the skis stayed on the surface of the hard pack snow. They’d encounter deep powder soon enough. At least it looked as if the other side of the mountain had gotten most of the snow.

“There are only two runs on this hill.” He pointed down the mountain. “This one is the longer run. We might be able to ski a little beyond the runs, as well. From there, we should be able to get to the road.”

Merci craned her neck. “What’s that noise?”

Before Nathan could even register what Merci as talking about, a guttural clanging filled the air right before they saw the headlights of the trail groomer come into view. The yellow lights glowed like monster eyes. Two figures sat in the cab. The machine lurched forward as the metal tracks bit through the snow. They were directly in the path of the groomer.

“We can stay ahead of it.” Nathan dug his poles in and pushed off. “Let’s go.”

Merci’s skis sliced through the snow behind him. The snow grew deeper and fluffier, creating a white powder cloud around them as they zigzagged down the mountain. The air smelled of diesel fuel. The mechanical groan of the groomer making its way down the mountain pressed on his ears. They could outmaneuver the big machine, but he wasn’t so sure they could outrun it, not in these kinds of conditions.

They came to a smooth part of the run that was exposed so most of the new fallen snow had blown off. Nathan gasped in air as he tucked in and leaned forward. When he glanced over his shoulder, Merci was doing the same.

The groomer was about thirty yards behind them. Merci’s ski hit a snag or rock. He heard her scream right before she somersaulted. Both skis broke free of the boots. The groomer loomed toward them. Merci sat up looking a bit dazed.

He worked his way uphill toward her. “You okay?”

She nodded as she pushed herself to her feet. Nathan skied uphill, stepping sideways to retrieve the lost ski. Merci grabbed the other one. The groomer was ten yards from him and was showing no sign of turning to avoid him. Skiing wasn’t going to work. Nathan dropped the ski, turned and pushed down the mountain.

“Toward the trees. The groomer can’t go there.” He clicked out of his own skis. They pushed toward the forest with the clanging engine noise of the groomer consuming all other sound.

Moving in the ski boots was slow going. The plow on the front of the groomer lifted in the air, screeching like a dying bird. They were a good twenty yards from the trees. The plow slammed down only a few feet from them, stirring up a dust cloud of snow. Merci screamed.

Nathan grabbed Merci’s hand and pulled her toward the safety of the trees. The groomer surged toward them. The trees were within five yards. The roar of the motor and metal tracks chopping through the snow engulfed them. With adrenaline surging through every cell in his body, Nathan summoned up a final burst of strength and pushed hard toward the edge of the forest.

Once they were beneath the shelter of the trees, it grew even darker. They could hear the groomer being powered down as they moved through the thick forest. Both of them were out of breath. The rougher terrain and the bulky ski boots didn’t allow them to run. They could only take big steps. The physical exertion caused the cut in his pectoral muscle to flare with pain.

“We have to get out of these boots.” Merci gasped for air.

He couldn’t hear the groomer anymore. The people in the cab would come looking for them. He wondered what had happened to the other two thieves. The cab only held two people. Were the two who got left behind already attacking Elle and Henry? Would they search all the cabins looking for food or give up after the first one didn’t yield results?

“We need to find a hiding place.” He didn’t know this forest like he did the area around the youth camp. “Come on.”

They moved deeper into the forest, stopping to listen for any signs of their pursuers but hearing nothing. The snow wasn’t as deep, but fallen logs hindered their progress. Early-morning sun peaked through the trees, and still they heard no signs of their pursuers.

Merci stopped when she came to a large fallen log. “My feet are killing me. Let’s stop and switch into our regular boots.” She plunked down on the log and pulled her boots out of the backpack Elle had given her. “I don’t think they are going to chase us into here.”

“They didn’t come right after us.” Given Hawthorne’s resolve to see both of them dead, though, it didn’t make sense that they would just give up. While Merci clicked out of her ski boots, Nathan patrolled a circle around her looking for any sign of their pursuers.

“Boy, my feet are freezing.” She pulled one of her boots out of the backpack.

Nathan studied the pathway through the forest where they had just come from. No sign of movement, no noise, nothing.

He quickly stepped into his boots while Merci continued to lace hers up.

Merci’s scream caused him to stand up and spin around. The man in the orange coat stood holding a gun. Merci scooted back on the log. One of her feet was still exposed.

The man in the orange coat offered them a toothy grin. “When the helicopter flew over this area, we saw how small this forest was. It was nothing to circle around and find you in here.” He raised the gun so it pointed at Nathan’s chest. “Surprise.”

Nathan held up his hands as he edged toward Merci. Terror was etched across her face. Why hadn’t he been paying more attention? “Now hold on. I think we can talk about this. Is killing us really the best idea?”

“It’s what the boss wants,” Orange Coat said.

“Do you just do your boss’s bidding no matter what? You pull the trigger, you’ll be the one going to jail.” Nathan’s voice was steady.

The gun wavered a little in the thief’s hand. The hardness of his expression changed, indicating that doubt had crept in.

“So you go to jail for something your boss set up.” Nathan edged a little closer to Merci. “That doesn’t seem very fair to me.”

The thief lifted his chin and pressed his lips together. “Boss says the way he’s got it planned, they will never find your body.” A sense of self-satisfaction permeated his voice.

Merci’s sharp intake of breath was audible. Her head jerked back. Nathan put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

Though he looked the thief in the eye, his peripheral attention was on the gun. He didn’t want to die today, and he sure didn’t want Merci to die. All he needed was a moment of distraction. Nathan shifted his gaze and made his eyes go wide as though he was seeing something in the trees. The thief’s hand holding the gun slackened, and his eyes moved sideways.

Nathan jumped on him, driving the hand holding the gun upward and pinching the nerves in his wrist so the thief let go of the gun. The man managed to get a solid punch to Nathan’s stomach before they both tumbled to the ground. He fought past the pain and caught a glimpse of Merci scrambling to get her boot on as he rolled. Pain from his knife wound electrified his nerve endings. Once he was on top of the thief, he landed a hard blow to the man’s neck. Not enough to knock him out, but enough to leave him gasping. He punched him a second time in the stomach. The man drew up into a fetal position.

Nathan glanced around the area. Where was the gun?

“I can’t find it,” Merci said.

The thief continued to clutch his stomach and struggle for breath.

“No time. Let’s move.” The others were no doubt closing in on them from other parts of the forest.

They ran. He had no idea where they were, only that moving downward would eventually connect them to the country two-lane. If they could follow that out, they could get to the highway…if the thieves didn’t get them first.

When they came out of the forest back toward the ski run, the groomer was still making its way down. They slipped back into the trees and ran until they came to a river partially frozen over. Only the water in the middle of the river flowed, pushing ice chunks downriver.

“Now what?” said Merci, staring at the freezing water.

FOURTEEN

M
erci’s heart pounded erratically as she glanced over her shoulder at the trees they had just emerged from. The thieves would catch up soon enough.

Nathan gripped her gloved hand. “We’ve got to jump across. The groomer won’t be able to follow us across the river. Then they’ll be on foot, too.”

“The ice looks really thin.” The river was at least fifteen feet across, too wide to make in a single leap. A hard fall on the ice would break it for sure. Merci was still struggling for a deep breath from their run.

“The trick is to choose where the ice is thickest. I’ll go out first. Walk where I walk.” Nathan placed a tentative foot on a frozen edge of the river. It held him without cracking. She sucked in a shaky breath as he stretched his leg out and took another step.

One more step and he was able to leap across the narrow opening where the water still flowed freely. She cringed, fearing the ice would crack from his hard landing.

His feet touched the other side of the bank, and he turned to face her. “Did you see where I went?”

She nodded.

Nathan broke eye contact with her and glanced over her shoulder.

“Are they coming?”

He turned his head slightly as he searched the tree line. “I don’t see them.”

Merci took a breath and stepped free of the bank. The ice held. She lifted her foot and stepped forward. As she put her foot down, it slid on the ice, straining her leg muscles. The ice beneath her cracked. She screamed. Her foot went into the cold river water.

Nathan grabbed her and pulled her to solid ground, holding her in his arms.

Already the icy chill from exposure had seeped through her skin. “My foot is soaking wet.”

“Can you run?” His attention was on the hill behind them.

When she turned, she saw the groomer lumbering over a bump that must have hid it from view.

“Do I have a choice?” Her leg already felt like a block of ice. This was way worse than having snow in her boot. Though the long underwear and thick jeans provided some protection to her leg, her boot had soaked clean through and saturated the sock.

Nathan led them downhill away from the river toward an aspen grove that provided a little cover. They ran for what seemed like miles. The sun peaked up over the mountain when they finally stopped by a rock formation. The river had to have stopped the groomer, and the thieves would not know exactly what direction they had gone once they crossed the river. They had a moment to catch their breath.

Merci pulled the prepackaged meal Elle had given her out of her backpack, and Nathan did the same. She chewed the meal, which was labeled lasagna but tasted more like cardboard with marinara sauce on it. It would be nice to wash the food down with something. She hadn’t thought to ask Elle for water. “I’m really thirsty.” She leaned down to scoop up a handful of snow.

Nathan grabbed her hand and brushed the snow off her glove. “Don’t eat frozen snow. It’ll kill you. Your core body temp will go down.”

Her leg that had been exposed to the cold river water had gone numb, and her jeans were frozen. When she stepped on it, there was no sensation. She was pretty sure her core body temperature had already been affected. “I need a drink of water.” She wrapped her arms around her torso and shivered. Her throat felt unbearably dry. “Do you still have the matches?” When she swallowed she couldn’t produce any moisture in her mouth.

“They’re in my pocket, but I lost the tin can somewhere. If we can find any kind of container, I’ll melt some snow for you.”

She appreciated the compassion she heard in his voice and the way he reached up to brush his hand over her cheek.

“Hang in there,” he added. “We should keep moving. The more distance we can put between them and us, the better.” He trudged forward.

She followed behind. Her mind was still on the water. If she could only have a drink. “How much farther to the road?” She stared at Nathan’s back. He didn’t turn around or answer her. “You don’t know where we are, do you?”

He kept walking. A sense of hopelessness crowded into her thoughts. She had no feeling in her leg from the calf down. She was unbearably thirsty. They were lost, and it was only matter of time before the thieves caught up with them.

Merci crumpled down into the snow.

Nathan stopped and rushed toward her.

“I can’t keep going.” Tears formed.

“Sure you can.” He pulled his gloves off and touched her cheek. “Come on, I’ll help you up.”

“You don’t even know how far it is to the road.” More than anything, she just wanted to lie down and sleep.

“Everything is covered in snow, and the way we left the ski hill was rather haphazard. Something will look familiar sooner or later.” Nathan’s voice was soft and undemanding. He kneeled beside her. “Who was it that told me we couldn’t lose hope?”

The look of assurance in Nathan’s expression renewed her strength. She managed a smile. “Talk about my words coming back to bite me, huh?”

“Come on, I’ll help you walk,” he said.

She wrapped her arm around his shoulder and leaned against him. “Am I going to lose my leg? There’s no feeling left in it.”

“I don’t know. We need to get to a place where I can have a look at it.” An undercurrent of worry colored his voice. Was there something he wasn’t telling her? He of all people must understand about the effects of exposure to freezing water.

As they came out into an open area, the wind picked up, forcing them to bend and stare at the ground as they walked. Merci pushed her knit hat farther down on her head so it covered more of her ears and neck. She’d lost the hat liner Nathan had given her somewhere along the way. When she tilted her head toward the sky, the charcoal clouds toppled what little optimism she had left. Not another storm.