Jori turned her back and moved to the edge, off the roadway. There was a narrow strip of black-tarred gravel, not even enough to call a shoulder, and then nothing. She put down her things and reached for the flashlight. The beam showed her a sheer drop of about six feet, the same as before. She couldn’t handle that.
She began walking the rim, pointing the flashlight over the edge. Sam danced along beside her, barking occasionally, as if to hurry her along. Finally, about ten yards farther, she found a slope of earth. Not more than two feet wide. It angled downward like a ramp dug into the hillside.
Sam at her heels, Jori hurried back to pick up her things, swearing when she nearly fell again. The road’s smooth surface was quickly becoming a skating rink. Surely once she was off the road into the dirt and trees, the ground would be drier, not yet frozen and thus easier to navigate. She thought for two seconds about putting Sam on a leash. But if she fell or Sam did, and they got tangled up in the underbrush, the leash could break Sam’s neck or strangle her. No, the dog was better left off leash.
Sam watched her, head down and still, as Jori touched first one boot and then the other over the edge. Her arms were full. She held her flashlight in the same hand as the auto kit. No way to catch herself if she went down. But she needed the supplies.
Her right foot slipped a little in wet mud but her left foot found solid footing in rougher rutted ground strewn with gravel, sticks, and leaves. Slowly, one foot at a time, she moved down the makeshift ramp until she was only head and shoulders above ground.
This seemed to be Sam’s signal that it was time for action.
Sam moved in behind her, snuffling as she went.
“No, Sam. Stop.” Sam was prodding her, nose at the middle of Jori’s back.
“Okay, good girl. Go slow, Sam.” Jori spoke automatically. Her concentration was on the ground in front of her. Or rather below her. The ramp didn’t extend very far. About four feet ahead, it sluiced back into the hillside.
“Crap.” Jori froze. What was she going to do now?
Impatient with the delay, Sam barked and pushed past her.
“Aaah!”
Dumped off the trail by the dog, Jori fell several feet and began sliding on a combination of rain, mud, and soaked leaves. First on one knee and then on her butt, she pinwheeled down a steep slope interspersed with tree trunks, leafless limbs, and vines that looped through the undergrowth like trip wires. A tree limb struck her right wrist, forcing her fingers to open and release one of the kits.
“Crap!” Angry tears filled her eyes.
With her free hand she grabbed a vine and jerked herself to a stop. It happened so fast she couldn’t process it all. She felt nothing for a second but relief that she wasn’t dead.
Then pain flared to life. Her wrist. Her shoulder. Her knees.
“Dammit, Sam!”
She sat up and looked around. She could still see the rim of the road backlit by the gray sky maybe twenty-five feet above her. She hadn’t fallen that far. But she’d lost the auto emergency kit. No flares. No blankets. She didn’t want to waste time looking for them.
Her flashlight lay farther down the slope, its light half buried in a tangle of dry brush. She climbed to her feet, ignoring the pain in her ankle, and flexed her hand around the first-aid kit. She had that much.
The silence was suddenly split with a dog’s excited barks, from below her.
“Sam! Law?” Sam had found Law. She was sure of it.
Jori scrambled to stay on her feet as she began moving through the treacherous but less steep woodlands. The sounds of Sam’s barks were her beacon. Sam had found Law. Law would know what to do. All she had to do was get to him.
She paused when she finally saw the truck. It had landed on or rolled onto its roof. The front end was crumpled and the tires were all shredded. But the cab remained intact. Everything was still. No Sam. No barking. No sounds but the moaning of the wind high overhead and the growing silvery jingle of icicles.
Why wasn’t Sam still barking?
Jori moved forward slowly. She just knew it was going to end well. That Law was hurt maybe. But surely, he would be okay. She forced her feet forward. Her heart thumping so hard her body shook with each beat. The wind shoved her along, almost against her will. Whatever was here, whatever she found, she’d have to deal with it.
“Oh, Law.”
Jori approached the passenger side, set her teeth over her bottom lip, and ducked her head to aim her flashlight into the truck cab. All the windows were broken out, making access easy.
Law lay on his back on the roof at an awkward angle. Another man’s body hung, nightmare-like, from the front seat on the driver’s side. But her only focus was Law.
His face was wet with blood. Sam had wedged herself in and around him for protection. But it was the look in his eyes when he recognized her that stunned her.
“Jori? What the hell are you doing here?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN