Night was falling, and a mantle of white smothered the landscape, a deceptive blanket of serenity that concealed the violent truth beneath. Tori's boots crunched on the virgin snow as she and Javi hastened towards the maw where the avalanche had torn through the mountain's side with ravenous ferocity. Their breaths materialized in ghostly vapors, rising in the freezing air, and their expressions were etched with the urgent severity of the mission at hand.
"Over there!" Javi's voice cut through the hushed aftermath, his arm extended towards a cluster of orange vests and flashing lights where the sheriff's department had already begun coordinating efforts.
Everyone accounted for. Except one.
Multiple reports, all from other athletes on the slopes.
All of them pointing the finger to one missing person. A woman named Emily Carter.
Tori felt her stomach tighten. Emily Carter was the same age as the other victims, and also part of the Extreme Sports Expo. The search for Emily Carter was a race against the unforgiving clock of nature, each second a potential difference between life and death.
"Fan out! Eyes sharp!" barked the sheriff, his presence commanding amidst the chaos. Shovels plunged into snowbanks with desperate energy, probing for any sign of the lost.
"Here to help," Tori announced to a deputy coordinating the search dogs, her voice steady despite the adrenaline that surged like an undercurrent through her veins. A nod of acknowledgment sent them towards the eastern ridge, the last known location before the icy cascade had erased all traces of human passage.
"Keep your radio close," Javi reminded her, his own gaze hardened by the task at hand. They moved in tandem.
The silence of the mountain was a stark contrast to the flurry of action, the occasional crisp command from team leaders piercing the quiet. Each shovel full of snow lifted and cast aside felt leaden with possibility and dread. The ominous creak of settling snow served as a grim reminder of the latent danger still lurking above them.
"Anything?" Javi asked during a brief lull, his voice barely louder than a whisper, as if afraid to disturb the precarious peace.
"Nothing yet," Tori replied, her focus unwavering.
Together, they worked, sifting through the frozen debris, knowing well that beneath the cold touch of winter could lie the colder stillness of the unrecovered.
Tori's boots crunched against the compacted snow, her breath misting in the frigid air as she cast a determined glance over the expanse of white. Each step was measured, a deliberate effort to cover ground that seemed to stretch on endlessly. Javi’s figure grew smaller in the distance as they split up, their paths diverging with a silent nod—a mutual understanding that time and thoroughness were their most precious allies.
"Find her," Tori muttered to herself, the words a mantra fueling her resolve. Emily Carter's face, framed by a tumble of auburn hair, flashed in Tori's mind, drawn from the briefings and the missing person report.
Her gaze swept the landscape, searching for any anomaly, any clue that might lead them to Emily. But the mountain kept its secrets well, offering nothing but the relentless sprawl of snow and silence.
They needed an eye in the sky.
She radioed, “Where’s the helicopter landing?”
“Almost in,” came the reply of the coordinating deputy. “Search and rescue en route.”
“I’m coming to them,” she said. “Don’t take off without me.”
She flagged down Javi. “Hey! Come on. Let’s go eyes in the sky.”
He nodded, expression grim as he trudged through the snow towards her. The two of them hastened past the other diggers, moving towards the parking lot that had been temporarily cleared with barriers to make sure the helicopter had space to land.
Tori felt her heart skip. Time was not on their side. “Where’s the damn bird?” she muttered.
And then she heard it. The distant whoomp whoomp of helicopter blades. A small, measly little thing. Hardly the sort of vehicle that would instill a sense of confidence. It was coming now, descending, though buffeted by the wind and the rising gusts of cold off the newly settled snow.
Tori and Javi hurried towards the landing zone, their eyes fixed on the small helicopter that was making its descent through the turbulent air. The whirring blades chopped through the stillness of the mountain, echoing off the slopes as the aircraft struggled against the buffeting wind.
As the helicopter touched down with a jolt, Tori and Javi wasted no time in climbing aboard, strapping themselves in as the aircraft lifted off once more.
The howling wind whipped around them, sending flurries of snow swirling in its wake. Tori’s grip tightened on the safety harness, her eyes scanning the vast expanse below as they soared above the treacherous terrain.
“Keep an eye out for any signs of movement,” Tori shouted over the din of the chopper, her voice barely audible above the roar of the blades.
Javi nodded, his gaze darting from one snowy crevice to another. The landscape below passed by in a blur of white, each shadowed recess holding the promise of discovery or despair.
They leaned forward, eyes straining against the brightness, scouring the terrain for the slightest hint of color or movement that could signify Emily's whereabouts. The searchlight mounted on the chopper's belly cast a stark beam across the snow, an artificial sun probing the depths of the avalanche’s aftermath.
"Keep your eyes peeled," Tori instructed, though she knew the words were unnecessary. Javi was as invested as she was, his sharp eyes missing nothing as they swept left to right, tracing patterns only he understood.
Time stretched taut between them, each second an eternity as they hovered above the desolate canvas. They were looking for a needle in a mountainous haystack.
"Anything?" Javi finally broke the silence, his question hanging in the air between them.
Tori gnawed at her lip, refusing to say that she hadn’t found anything either. It was infuriating, knowing she was out there, knowing that the killer had chosen a method of murder that people could be saved from—if only they could find her! If only—
Suddenly, Tori stiffened, surging against the window as she squinted down into the spotlight below—an anomaly in the pattern. A straight line where no straight lines should be.
"Stop," she commanded, not recognizing her own voice, strained and sharp with urgency.
Javi signaled the pilot, and the helicopter slowed, hovering above the anomaly. There, half-buried in snow, was the unmistakable silhouette of a black camera stand, like a straight hairline crack in the porcelain white of the snowbanks.
"Could be hers," Tori said, her heart hammering a staccato rhythm that resonated with the thumping of the rotors. “Her friends said she was recording video
The stand had been placed on an outcrop of rock, like an island rising from the sea. Somehow, miraculously, the snow had missed it, and the rumble of the avalanche had not knocked it loose.
"Let's get down there." Javi said hurriedly, motioning to the chopper pilot. That camera stand could mean everything—it could mean Emily had survived the initial onslaught, that she had clung to life amidst the cold and desolation.
As the helicopter began its cautious descent, Tori's fingers curled into fists, her knuckles blanching with the force of her grip. There was no room for error, no second chances. They were racing against time.
The pilot shouted into his headset, “I can’t land here. Snow won’t work. You’re gonna have to rappel down."
Without hesitation, Tori and Javi snatched the harnesses from the wall. Tori and her partner fastened their safety harnesses to the helicopter's interior, their movements precise and practiced. As the chopper hovered unsteadily above the rocky outcrop, Tori gave Javi a determined nod before they both rappelled down, their boots hitting the hard-packed snow with a soft crunch.
Tori's eyes scanned the area around the camera stand, searching for any signs of life. The silence of the mountain enveloped them, broken only by the distant whirring of the helicopter above. She knelt down, brushing away snow with gloved hands, revealing a patch of fabric caught on a jagged rock—an auburn-colored fabric that matched Emily's snowsuit.
"Over here," Tori called out to Javi, who joined her in uncovering more clues hidden beneath the snow. They found a glove, then a boot—each piece of clothing a breadcrumb leading them closer to Emily's location.
With each discovery, hope mingled with dread in Tori's heart. The evidence suggested that Emily had been here, that she had fought against nature's wrath.
"Over there, by the fir cluster!" Tori's voice pierced through the cacophony of chattering radios and whirring helicopter blades, her arm outstretched towards another orange speck cradled by snow. Her eyes, reflecting the gray turmoil of a stormy sea, didn't waver from the spot as she radioed the ground teams, hustling closer and closer.
Beneath a shroud of white, the outline of a figure emerged, the soft contours barely distinguishable from the surrounding landscape. Tori dropped to her knees, her fingers encased in thick gloves, working with methodical precision to clear away the icy blanket.
It didn't take long for the grim reality to reveal itself. Emily Carter's body lay motionless, her auburn hair a jarring splash of color against the monochrome backdrop. And for a moment, Tori simply stared, the angry, grieving pang in her chest making her jaw clench as she let out a frustrated groan.
"Damn it," she muttered under her breath, the words crystallizing before dissipating into nothingness.
Then Tori’s eye caught a glitter of reflective glass, and she tilted her head, brushing aside the snow over Emily’s hand. In Emily's stiff grip was a camera, its red recording light blinking steadily. It seemed impossible, almost a cruel joke, that such a small device could still cling to life when its owner had succumbed to the merciless cold.
"Javi. We have a camera," Tori said, motioning her partner over to her side. “It’s still on.”
Kneeling beside her, Javi cradled the camera with a reverence reserved for relics. His thumbs navigated the device and the screen blinked to life, illuminating his features, highlighting the grim, haunted look in his eyes from below.
"Oh Lord...," he whispered, the words a smothered gasp as the images flickered across the small display. His eyes darted over the footage, the vibrant life of Emily Carter now only a digital echo.
Her wide, enthusiastic smile that had once beckoned adventure lovers from around the globe made Tori blink, releasing a sigh to dismiss the feeling of injustice at her death. It wasn’t fair—none of it. But that was the job, why she was here.
Tori watched Javi work the camera, her pulse thrumming against the icy air, her breaths shallow drafts in the heavy silence. She read the torment in every line creasing his brow, saw the struggle to comprehend the tragic narrative unfolding before them.
"Javi?" she ventured, her voice barely more than a thread in the fabric of their grim tableau.
He looked up at her, the weight of his discovery anchoring his gaze. His hand extended the camera toward her, the footage still playing out its macabre dance. "She was live-streaming," Javi choked out, each syllable laden with the gravity of what this meant. "The whole time, Tori. People were watching."
The words carved through the remnants of hope she'd held onto, splintering it into fragments of stark reality. Tori took the camera, the cold metal biting into her flesh as she witnessed the truth. There, framed within the confines of the lens, Emily moved with an oblivious grace, narrating her journey seconds before chaos would claim her.
"Live..." Tori echoed, the term haunting in its implications.
Their eyes locked, shared shock resonating in the taut space between them. Beyond the rescue team's calls and the distant whir of helicopter blades, there was a new silence—one filled with the ghosts of viewers who had tuned in for adventure, only to witness the unscripted cruelty of fate.
"Did they... did they see it happen?" Tori's question hung in the air, a shiver of dread accompanying the possibility.
"Looks like it..." Javi couldn't bring himself to say more, the unfinished sentence mirroring the abrupt end to a life once so vibrant.
Together, they stood watch over Emily's final resting place, the severity of their responsibility pressing upon them.
“We need to comb through that footage,” Tori said finally. “We need to examine every inch.”