Chapter
8

CJ couldn’t stop thinking about how many TV shows she’d watched in which one of the characters said, “At least things can’t get any worse.” That meant things were about to get worse—usually a lot worse. She felt that way about the blizzard. She’d thought it many times during the drive, and the storm always proved her wrong. She made the fatal mistake of thinking it just before they started walking, and once again, the storm was proving her dreadfully wrong.

The wind sliced at every inch of exposed skin. Every time a blast of cold wind blew into her face, she felt like her breath was caught. Even swallowing was difficult. Frost had formed around the mouth of her ski mask, which was doing next to nothing in these conditions. Her coat and snow gear were warm but heavy, so her legs quickly began to ache as they trudged through the snow. And dragging their bags with them didn’t make the hike any easier.

They’d only been walking for forty-five minutes.

Even if the road had been clear, the walk probably would have been difficult due to the constant incline. While CJ had been proud of her ability to conquer her fear and get their belongings from the trunk, now she almost regretted it. The bags were a burden, maybe an unnecessary one.

“Should we just leave our suitcases?” she asked the group.

Leo, leading the trail, and Alex, just behind him, turned around. “What?” she heard Leo yell through the wind.

She repeated her question. “We can’t,” Katrina said from behind her. “If we make it to the cabin, we might be there for a while, especially if this storm doesn’t let up. We’ll need clothes and stuff.”

“What?” Leo shouted again, unable to hear anyone over the howling wind. Alex turned back toward him and repeated what CJ had asked.

Leo turned back to her and shouted, “We’ll want the spare clothes and stuff when we get to the cabin.”

She rolled her eyes. “I got that. Okay, we’ll keep the suitcases.” Still, she fished her wallet out of her suitcase and zipped it up in her coat pocket with her currently useless phone. That way if she had to abandon the suitcase later, she’d still have her money and ID with her.

They continued on.

The longer they walked, the slower their progress became. The snow covered most of their legs, and moving through it was like trying to walk through a pool filled with packing peanuts.

CJ forced herself to put one foot in front of the other as they made their way up the road. With each turn they rounded, she hoped the cabin’s mailbox would be right in front of them, but it never was. Besides the occasional tree, all she could see in any direction was pure white.

She began to doubt their ability to make it there at all. If the storm continued like this, it would only be an hour, maybe two, before they were all too tired to keep moving. They would be stuck with no shelter, no warmth, and no hope. She started considering the possibility that she, Leo, Katrina, and Alex would die on this mountain.

The wind was arguably worse than the snow. When it whipped up into a strong gust, the four were forced to hunker down as much as they could because it was simply unbearable.

Leo stopped. Alex, looking at the ground to keep the wind out of his face, bumped right into him. They leaned their heads together so they could hear one another talk. CJ and Katrina, who were trailing behind them, waded through the snow to join them. The four of them pressed together in a tight circle for warmth.

Leo looked at CJ and said, “Alex wants to keep going, but I don’t know.”

“We can’t be far,” Alex said.

“Do you know for sure?” CJ asked.

She looked at Katrina as Alex shook his head. “It could be around the next corner or a mile farther,” Katrina said. “Without being able to see the landmarks, I can’t say for certain.”

“Do we have a choice anymore?” Alex asked. “Going back down will be just as slow and definitely farther than the cabin.”

“I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” Leo said.

“Alex is right, though,” CJ said. “Even if we had cell reception, I don’t think anyone could get to us right now.”

“Maybe we should camp out somewhere and try to stick it out,” Leo suggested.

“There’s no way we’d survive this, Leo!” CJ said. “If we stay out here much longer, we could get really sick—or worse.”

“Well, maybe we go back to the van! At least we’d be a little warmer in there.”

“It was teetering on a cliff!” Katrina said.

“Teetering, not falling,” he pointed out.

“And you’re assuming we’d be able to find it again,” Katrina continued as if Leo hadn’t said anything. “At the rate the snow’s coming down, it’s got to be buried already, and that’s not even counting the time it would take us to get back there.”

The wind picked up, and the four of them closed in together even more to form a little pod. When they were huddled up like this, it wasn’t so bad. The wind whipped at their backs, but it couldn’t reach their faces or their hands tucked into their chests.

Before they could continue their debate, CJ heard a rumbling sound. Thunder, she thought. It started as a dull roar, but it got stronger and stronger until she could actually feel it shaking the ground beneath her. I didn’t know blizzards could produce thunder.

Alex popped his head up from the huddle and seemed to be looking around. Suddenly, he started pushing all three of them. “Run!” he shouted.

CJ and the others practically tripped over themselves as Alex shoved them forward. He grabbed Katrina and Leo’s arms in each hand and started dragging them behind him. Leo reached to link hands with CJ as she trailed behind.

CJ didn’t know what they were running from until the thunder grew louder behind them, and something clicked into place in her mind.

Avalanche!