“Here.” Clay shoved something into my good hand. A tin mug, filled with something hot. It burned my fingers but I didn’t care. I inhaled deeply, letting the steam wet my face. The tent’s opening flapped and fluttered, and I caught a glimpse of dwindling daylight among the snow and wind.
I wheezed and sipped from the mug: instant cocoa mixed with instant coffee. Bitter, but necessary. I sipped more. Clay and Avery were sorting through the supplies I’d packed before falling asleep, gathering what else they wanted to take. Avery smiled when she saw the camera I’d kept for her, then crawled from the tent to check the others.
“Can you walk?” Clay asked me.
My head felt grainy, but I nodded. “I think so.”
“Good,” he said. “The storm’s eased off for now. It might start up again but the wind’s not as crazy at the moment, so we should get going as soon as we can. We’re sorry for leaving you here so long, man. It’s just, there was no warning, and with the snow and the cold—”
“I get it,” I said.
“—we weren’t able to get out until sunrise. Ave and I left when we could, though. I swear.”
I blinked. “What did you say?”
“I said we couldn’t get up here any earlier. I’m sorry. This whole thing, it’s so fucking shitty. The other three still have the fire going, but it’s pretty—”
“Did you say you left at sunrise?”
“Yeah.”
“What day is it?”
Clay cocked his head. “It’s Monday. What day did you think it was?”
“Monday? I thought it was Sunday still. Maybe early evening.” My hands shook, sloshing the drink on my lap. I’d slept all night apparently. “Holy shit.”
“I’m sorry,” he repeated.
“Don’t be. It’s just . . . shit.”
Avery ducked back in. She looked from me to Clay.
“Where’s Archie?” she asked again.
“Gone,” I said.
“What do you mean gone?”
The fear was already there, in her eyes. Avery knew, I think, before I said anything, but I told them what happened. How it had happened. That Archie was lost to us. That he’d lost himself because I sure as hell hadn’t chosen to give up on him. Because he wouldn’t stop looking for the money didn’t feel like the right explanation, but in the end, it was all I had.
“He’s Archie,” I said weakly. “He knows how to take care of himself. If anyone can survive up there . . .”
“It’s not him,” finished Avery. “We all know that.”
She was right, of course. I wanted to tell her I was sorry. I knew she cared for him, but I couldn’t do it. I finished the drink Clay gave me and ate a protein bar, before scavenging Mr. Howe’s belongings for dry clothes, including his hiking boots and a pair of dry socks. He’d apparently run all the way down the mountain to save us in his water shoes. Clay had to help me change, which I didn’t bother to be embarrassed about. The boots were too big, but in truth, they felt amazing—warm and sturdy. I slid my jacket back on, and we crawled from the tent to help Avery.
Daylight or not, stepping into the open air nearly knocked me on my ass. The wind might have died down, but the air was sharp enough to water my eyes and frost my lungs. I followed the lead of the other two, although with one arm I was only half as useful. We wrapped sleeping bags around our bodies for warmth, hauling what supplies we could on our backs before tethering ourselves together with rope.
“It can be hard to see where you’re going,” Clay told me. Ice already dotted his brows, the tip of his nose. “But just follow me.”
I nodded. I was at the end of the rope, and the realization that Archie wasn’t there to make some sort of Human Centipede joke at my expense hurt worse than anything.
We shuffled off. I had a moment of flustered panic, believing I’d somehow forgotten the keys. Or the map. Or something else I’d meant to bring back. Something that mattered.
But I hadn’t.
“Hey,” I called out to the other two, as we resumed our shuffling, heading toward the main trail that would lead us down the mountain. “Hey!”
They both turned to look at me.
“How’s Rose?” I asked, and the strange thing was, I didn’t know why I hadn’t asked about her earlier. I hadn’t even thought to ask. I couldn’t explain it. My head was in a fog.
Clay glanced at Avery.
“What is it?” I asked.
“She’s with her brother,” Avery said.
“That’s all you’re going to say?”
“That’s all I know.”
“Fine,” I said. “Whatever. Then let’s keep walking.”
So that’s what we did.
—
Ours was a slow, mostly silent descent. I gazed at the landscape in awe—icicles dangling from tree branches, the deathly stillness of the white. The mountain was perhaps more wondrous than ever, now that I knew its full power. In less than twenty-four hours, more than two feet of wet snow had fallen, casting the Trinity Alps straight from fire season into the frigid depths of winter—a remarkable display no matter how you looked at it. And I had more than enough time to look—the hike down the icy mountain was endless. My admiration for the others swelled the steeper the snowy trail angled downward; I couldn’t imagine climbing up it.
Avery and Clay talked more as we neared the gorge, entering into the now-white canyon. They told me how they’d been able to keep the fire going overnight, but that we were stuck on the mountain for the time being. The earlier rain had caused a landslide, a massive wave of fallen trees and earth, effectively cutting off the access trail we’d come in on, and Tomás had said we couldn’t walk out from the south yet, because the drifts were too deep and he was worried about an avalanche. But now that the storm had stopped, Clay told me eagerly, there was hope that people would be looking for us.
“Who?” I asked. “What people?”
He glanced back at me. “Search and rescue. Or whoever it is that does that. They know we’re missing. We were supposed to be back last night.”
“But how will they know where to find us?”
“I don’t know. Don’t they just fly around in helicopters and look for people who get trapped or lost? I mean, Shelby’s been trying to get a second fire going in the gorge, out of the tree cover, so maybe they’ll see that. But didn’t Howe tell the ranger where we were? They know we’re here, right?”
I paused. “Yes, he told them where we were going.”
Clay shot me a lazy grin. “Well, then that’s good, right?”
“It would be if we were where we said we’d be.”
“What do you mean?”
“We said we’d be camping near the summit. In the meadow by the waterfall. If they look for us anywhere, that’s where they’re going to go.”
Clay was still confused. “You mean . . .”
“Yes,” Avery cut in tersely. “That’s exactly what he means. They’re going to be looking for us back where we just came from. Not where we actually are.”
40.