Alpine

Gambit 3 - Resistor

The smell of smoke brought me back to consciousness. Dark, heavy, all-encompassing cherry smoke. My throat ached like I had been coughing. Now, it was too raw to protest anymore. I heard wind whining somewhere nearby, though it was not touching me. Next, I felt the cold. The backs of my ears were burning. The air I was breathing was warmer though. And stuffy. There was something soft against my face. I was half suffocating into it. Wriggling away from it, I got a frigid blast of smoke-infused air. My throat twinged, and I fell into a wet, racking coughing fit.

A little click. "Good, you're not dead."

I recognized his voice, through my bleary eyes only saw a sea of black and dull red. After I shook my head, the blob resolved itself into the shape of a helmet. I must have been leaning on him while I was out. He was less than five inches from my face. "What...?"

"How does your head feel?"

"My...?" I felt nothing. I reached back to look for bumps. My hair was stiff close to the base of my skull. Even if that it was matted blood, touching my head was painless. "Fine? What happened?"

He huffed. "I hit a rock under the snow."

When he did not explain further, I pressed, "And then?"

"We hit a tree."

"So... is the snowmobile drivable or...?"

He opened his mouth with an irritated pop. "I handled the situation correctly. I felt the weight shift. I leaned against it to counterbalance. If not for you, I would have been able to fix it. I did all the right things."

"It's totaled, isn't it?"

"How was I supposed to know there was a rock there! It would have been fine if the sled hadn't smashed into the engine."

I blinked. His words did not register. Dully, I gawked at his visor. It was only cracked open enough for me to hear him talk. In the dimness, I could not see his face or eyes. Just the space helmet for a space alien. A pause. My senses slowly returned to me. I looked around sleek white walls encasing us.

There was hardly enough room under the low ceiling for the two of us to sit without touching. The area was lit by something to my left. The flashlight. He had dug a divot in the snow to angle it on us. Alpine was on the ground behind it. The disk sled was propped against the wall. Or was it buried in the wall? There was no exit, so the sled had to be sealing the dome. The ice scraper lay to my right. I picked it up and stared at it.

He hissed, "Your welcome."

"What?"

"That 'useless tool' is the reason we have this little sanctuary."

"You dug out a snow fort?"

"Sanc-chu-ary."

I glanced between the visor and the disk sled. "I guess... thanks for not leaving me out there to freeze."

"Have I finally proven that you can trust me?"

A colony of squirming tingles crept down my back. "Do you know what time it is?"

He tsked. "Dark."

"Don't you have your watch?"

"What happened to yours?"

It was laying on the bed in the attic. "So... I guess we'll head back to the cabin come daylight."

"Not exactly. As soon as the storm lets up again, we're going to find the road. It can't be more than—"

"Are you kidding me!?" Raising my voice triggered another coughing fit. He took advantage of my incapacitation.

"Did it sound like I was joking? No? Then don't ask silly questions."