She looked astonishingly beautiful — like an angel, emerging from the snow. Or like some kind of screwed up reverse phoenix, one that rises from the ice instead of the ashes.
“ARE YOU OKAY?”
I had to practically scream to be heard. Between the driving storm, and the howling wind? All my little angel could do was nod back at me.
“COME ON!” I said, extending my hand. “WE HAVE TO GET DOWN THE MOUNTAIN!”
She nodded again, this time while shivering. As the wind whipped her long hair all around her pretty face, I realized something:
She wasn’t wearing a jacket.
“WAIT… HERE!”
I shrugged out of my own coat and wrapped it around her. I did it without thinking, without hesitation.
Then the wind hit me, and I knew we were in serious trouble.
“C’MON!” I pulled her along. “HURRY!”
The snow was so deep all we could do was slosh our way through. It was slow going. Exhausting. Even powering my way forward, swinging my arms, I could barely cut enough of a path through to continue moving.
All of a sudden, the ski run was wide open despite the trail being steep and narrow. All at once, I could see forever in every direction. And then, with growing horror, I suddenly realized why:
Everything had been buried.
The trees, the hills, everything was just gone. So much snow had roared down from the upper peak it had buried 50-foot fir trees all the way up, until not even the tops were showing.
And it was getting dark, too. Darker and colder. The paths were long gone, leaving nothing but a long stretch of pure unblemished white.
Shit, I wasn’t even sure I was going in the right direction.
Follow her!
I’d been following her since Ponte di Legno, when I saw her riding the lift in her cute little fur-lined parka. Following her with my eyes, at least. She was one of those rare girls who didn’t know she was pretty — not yet, anyway — and I wanted to be the one to tell her.
She hadn’t shown for the after-party that night though. That part was sorely disappointing, but we still had one more day, one last trip. One final chance for me to approach her before we were all whisked back to campus, where she’d mingle in with the thousands of other students and the magic of something familiar halfway around the world would be gone.
It had been a stupid idea, jumping down the old double-black diamond trail. Following this girl during the last run of the day, trying to catch up with her in time to—
“WAIT!” Her eyes went wide with sudden recognition. “MY FRIEND!”
I leaned in, putting my ear against her mouth. I could barely hear what she was saying.
“WE HAVE TO FIND MY FRIEND!”
I shook my head. As cute as this girl was, if she had a friend with her things were looking pretty grim right now. As it was, we might not make it ourselves.
“BUT—”
“NO!” I shouted back. “WE HAVE TO KEEP MOVING!” I pulled on her wrist. “WE HAVE TO GET DOWN BEFORE THE STORM—”
CRACK!
As if proving my point, another section of the upper mountain broke away. We couldn’t see it, but we could definitely hear it as it went rumbling downward, somewhere off in the distance.
We winced, waiting for the inevitable. Luckily though, this particular aftershock wasn’t moving in our direction. The relief wore off quickly. I used it as motivation.
“COME ON!”