Aimee
“What’s wrong with you, Flow? You look like you had a rough night.”
The harassing voice of Brian “Angel” Harkness awoke her from her dozing as he strode in to the common room where the SAR team hung out and did much of their non-physical training.
She looked up at him from her spot on the couch and flipped him the middle finger. But she stayed awake. His presence meant that they were now on duty, and the shift change had been completed. People were relying on her now, and Aimee was ready to throw herself at it, bringing her A-game more than she ever had before.
Bury the hurt beneath duty, she figured. Shove it so far down it never saw the light of day again. Rhyolite could stay out there in his dank, ugly cave and she wouldn’t care. Hopefully he lost all his treasure when an avalanche caused a cave-in. That, she figured, would serve the asshole right for manipulating her into sleeping with him.
“I’m good,” she replied to his unspoken question when she didn’t immediately say anything. Shoving Rhys from her mind, she shut the door on her hurt for the time being. The unspoken reprimand from Angel was enough to get her riled up. She was not going to let this asshole distract her from her job.
“You’d better be. Franco’s shift responded to a record number of avalanche calls the past three days. It’s getting worse.” Harkness shook his head angrily. “The resorts still won’t close the hills either, despite our repeated requests. At this rate, it’ll take someone getting seriously hurt for that to happen.”
Aimee nodded. They ran into this every avalanche season, though this one was worse than any she could recall. “I suppose we’d better be ready to go save their asses when the inevitable happens, shouldn’t we?”
“Isn’t that always the way it goes?” he replied.
Behind them Jergins and Clancy rolled in, both holding cans of soda, talking to each other. Aimee opened her mouth to make a remark, but their radios buzzed at the same time.
“Be advised, reports of two skiers trapped on Napier Peak after a suspected avalanche. SAR is required on scene.”
The room exploded into action as the four of them leapt for their gear. Napier Peak was home to the Whorly Resort, one of Drake’s Crossing’s fanciest ski resorts, and also the most northerly and highest elevation. Anytime a call came in from them, it was bound to be bad news.
Aimee was ready first, and started for the door. Harkness wasn’t far behind, and his long legs caught up to her. When the other two joined up the four took off at a jog for their chopper. Shortly thereafter they were airborne and headed up into stormy gray skies that promised more danger than any of them were interested in.
“Listen up, people, this isn’t going to be easy,” Harkness said, speaking over the cockpit channel after getting the full details of the situation. “The two skiers are trapped in a valley about halfway down the hill. Seems they decided to do some free-skiing, and ignored all the warning signs.”
The team groaned. Arrogant pricks like these were the worst.
“How did we even find them?”
“Oddly enough, a cell phone call. They appear to be all right, just trapped, unable to climb up the walls. Some bumps and bruises, but I guess they missed the avalanche itself, and got caught in the aftermath of the shaking.” Her boss shrugged at the mysteries of life. “Anyway, let’s go get them. Flow, you’re first down to assess. I’m second and King you’re third if we need your ugly ass for some godforsaken reason.”
The laughter was tight and somewhat forced. Despite the situation, they all knew that it could go sideways in a second. Factor in the weather outside, which was likely to worsen, and things could go very, very bad in a hurry. The team settled into a deep silence as the chopper cut through the air, heading for Napier Peak.
Despite all the grief they gave him, Jergins was a hell of a pilot, and in short time had them stabilized over the crevice where the skiers were trapped. Pulling her suit tight, Aimee flung the door open and peered down, easily spotting the black-clad skiers against the blue-white of the ice and snow.
“Eyes on two,” she called, clipping herself in and undoing her harness and safety line. “Requesting permission to go for retrieval.
“Go get ‘em, Flow,” Angel replied, clapping her on the shoulder.
She swung out over the abyss and the wire began to unravel, sending her swiftly into the depths, spare harnesses jingling at her side.
“Help!”
“Save us! Please!”
That’s what I’m here for, idiots. What, do you think I’m just out for a joyride?
Aimee descended to the bottom and introduced herself to the two men.
“Are either of you hurt?” she asked.
They shook their heads.
“Okay, fine. You’re up first,” she said, picking the younger of the two and pulling him over. “Come on now, we don’t know how long we have. This ground could go at any time.” She wanted to stress the urgency of the situation to the two of them. Things had been going fine so far, but that was no guarantee it was going to last. The mountains were all unstable right now, and she wanted to be down here for as little time as possible.
“You’re next,” she said, speaking up to be heard over the beating of the rotors above her. The first civilian was rapidly disappearing into the helicopter.
The wait was a short one, but the sky above them darkened, and she could see snow flurries moving in.
“Let’s go!” she shouted, pulling the man closer as she snagged the descending line and secured him to the now-empty clip. “Angel, one to pull up.”
Her headset crackled with static before his voice came over the air. “Roger that, Flow. Jergins says it’s getting bad out here, so we may have to do an accelerated departure with you.”
“Lovely. Just wait till I clear the walls, okay?”
“Jergins says no problem. He doesn’t want you any flatter than you already are.”
She laughed in the face of everything, knowing that Jergins would never make that joke in a calmer situation. “Tell him that if he gets me out of here I’ll forgive his pathetic excuse to distract me.”
Laughter was all that greeted her. Truthfully though, it had helped. The shock of his crude humor had helped to focus her on the situation, even as she stared up at the high vertical walls of the crevice, praying that they wouldn’t come crashing down on her at any moment.
As if to enhance her fears, a low groaning sound reached her ears, something so very deep it reminded her of a building falling over in a movie. A hundred feet down the crevice she saw one entire wall simply tip over and hit the other with a crunch.
“Uh, Angel?” she asked, starting to back away. “Did you see that?”
“Line’s on its way down. Hang tight, Flow, we got you.”
That was bad. Really bad. If he wasn’t acknowledging it, that meant he was trying to get her to focus on him.
“Angel,” she said, panic entering her voice as another section crashed over, this one less than fifty feet away. “Hurry please.”
“We’re not leaving you, Flow. Stay focused.”
She turned as the sound intensified. Behind her the ground moved. Not like an avalanche, but rippling, as if something were moving underneath it.
A chunk of wall behind her simply exploded outward, ice chunks flying out in all directions. Aimee screamed and ducked into a ball, protecting her head with her body and arms. Chunks battered her and sent her to the ground.
Above there was a horrifying bang. Looking up, she saw smoke begin to pour from the side of the chopper. Oh no. Her team!
“ANGEL!” she screamed.
There was no response.
“Angel?” she asked. “Angel respond. Are you okay? Angel?”
“We’re okay.” The voice was shaken, but steadying even as he spoke the two tiny words. “Jergins says we took a hit of some kind. What the hell happened?”
“Ice. The wall exploded.”
“Any injuries?”
“Lots of bruises, but nothing a hot tub and wine won’t take care of,” she quipped, trying to keep her voice from cracking, and only half succeeding.
The ground under her heaved, and the entire left wall in front of her crumbled forward. Aimee shouted and bolted toward the rear, but the ground heaved again and flung her from her feet.
“Shit, Aimee, we’re losing power.”
“GO!” she shouted, training taking over. “Get the civvies to safety.”
She flipped over onto her back, watching as cracks appeared in both walls on either side of her. The ground was shaking but she got to her feet anyway, hoping to run onward, making it farther into the crevice, where she could perhaps find shelter.
“I’m not leaving you.”
“GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!” she shouted, pushing herself to her feet, stumbling forward as the ground shook and bounced. After no more than five feet she fell to the ground, but this time she kept crawling, using all four limbs to balance her.
More ice from the walls came crashing down, a spear of it impacting less than five feet to her left, spraying her with shards that sliced at the exposed parts of her face.
“Ow, motherfucker!” she shouted.
Her headset buzzed. “We’re going to get the other chopper. Jergins says ten minutes.”
“Bullshit,” she gasped, thrown to the side as the floor under her rose three feet in less than a second. “It takes three minutes to do preflight.”
“We radioed in. Franco was still on base, he’s getting it prepped now.”
“Okay. I’ll wait to hear from you, then light my flare.” Every member carried several small flares on them for emergencies, though they hoped never to use them.
“We’re coming back for you,” Angel replied, static breaking through the earpiece as they flew out of range.
“You had fucking better,” she said to herself, using up precious air as she pulled herself forward, breathing hard from the exertion.
All at once everything stopped. The ground calmed, leaving nothing but the falling flurries from the storm above them. Aimee looked around, feeling off. Something wasn’t right. She looked up the crevice to perceived safety, and behind her where it was blocked off less than ten feet from her.
Gulp. Nervously she got to her feet, putting one hand against the wall to steady herself.
The instant she touched it the ice wall shook, spilling more ice to the ground.
“What the fuck?” she cried out, pulling her hand back. The wall had felt…well, squishy was the only way to describe it.
She reached forward, trying to figure out what to do, when suddenly something moved behind the wall.
A scream ripped from her throat as Aimee found herself staring into a large, yellow eye. One filled with malevolence as it narrowed on her.