One Deadly Night

Thirteen

Skye heard the man let out a sharp gasp as he moved deeper in the water.

The hissing was nearly deafening now.

She refused to look back.

Instead, she stared ahead.

They were in the middle of the river when her boots became immersed in the frigid water.

Her body shivered violently, and she gritted her teeth to keep from crying.

The water was so cold, it hurt.

It quickly rose to her hips. Her breathing hitched and shuttered.

"H-hang in-in there!" Jon stammered as he stumbled through the half-frozen river.

Moments later, they reached the other bank.

The man crawled up the snowy incline to reach the base of the frozen waterfall.

Skye felt his body shake beneath his wet clothes.

The sound of the helicopter could still be heard but it was beginning to fade.

Jon cursed.

"Hold on t-tight, S-Skye!" He replied.

Nodding, she tightened her legs around his torso, and wrapped her arms more firmly around his neck.

He pulled something off his waist near her right foot.

She watched as he opened a strange looking metallic stick with a sharp pointed tip.

"H-here we go!" Jon said and drove the pointed tip into the ice.

Sure enough, they began to climb the frozen surface.

Skye felt the gravity trying to pull her body away from Jon's as the distance from the ground grew further away.

It wasn't long before her legs were quivering as she fought to keep them from uncoupling.

"T-try not to choke me t-to death!" Jon wheezed as they paused in mid-air.

Skye hadn't realized she had a death grip around the man's neck. She forced her arms to relax some.

"Th-thanks." He groaned. "Alm-most there!"

Her body swayed as soon as he began climbing.

Don't squeeze. Don't squeeze. Skye chimed to herself with her eyes clamped shut. Her heart thumped hard against her ribs.

Doubts filled her mind of not being able to hold on long enough with images of her body splattering across the white landscape below.

**

The muscles in Jon's legs and arms burned as he rammed the steel crampons of his boots one at a time into the frozen surface before driving the slender axe in the blue-white facade above his head.

He slowly pulled himself up. The muscles in the arms shook under the strain of lifting that kind of weight.

Any kind of negative thoughts that tried to enter his mind, he immediately squashed.

They were going to reach the top god damn it!

He only hoped that Arnie kept circling this part of the valley.

I'm coming, brother. Just don't give up on me yet!

He repeated the sequence of movements several times before finally dragging his body across the hard snow.

Exhausted, all he wanted to do was close his eyes and sleep.

He felt the girl moved off his back. With the sudden removal of her weight, he had the odd sensation of floating.

He heard the snow crunched near him, and then the girl let out a whine.

Jon forced himself to his knees.

The girl stood near the edge. Her face paled as she stared down the way they just came.

"The b-bugs are coming!" She whimpered.

He crawled to her and peered down.

The countless multitude of slimy beetles were scurrying across the river via any rock or ice untouched by water. Those who reached the other side were scampering up the wall of ice and boulder.

Adrenaline rushed through him as he sprang to his feet.

Jon reached into a pocket of his parka and pulled out the reddish gun.

"Come and stand over there, sweetie." He motioned for the girl toward the center of the flat peak.

Away from the advancing swarm.

With shaking hands, he loaded a cartridge into the pistol and pointed it to the night sky.

"Close your eyes." He muttered and fired.

**

Skye covered her face with her mittens.

A boom rang out and she heard a whistling as it quickly rose upward ending in a soft explosion somewhere overhead.

"It's okay now." The man said.

Her hands dropped and she gazed up.

Red sparks rained from the heavens – only none touched ground.

There was something wrong with the sky.

Strips of orange, yellow and red stretched through the atmosphere before retreating sharply. A second later, the colored lights unrolled across once more.

Watching this strange display of lights reminded her of the party blowouts her Granny kept in a kitchen drawer.

Whomp-whomp-whomp

It was the sound of the helicopter again only this time it came directly for them.

"Look!" Jon pointed.

Skye saw the white lights in the air as they swayed side to side like a rocking cradle.

She suddenly found it difficult to breathe and she dropped to her knees.

What was wrong with her?