Alpine

Gambit 3 - Fuse (1/2)

A blast of cold air brought me to consciousness. I was stiff and woozy. By the time I regained my bearings, the wind had stopped. Our little ice prison felt more spacious than it had been. I looked around. He was nowhere to be found. The space also felt darker. I reached for the flashlight. It had dimmed substantially. I wondered whether batteries could expire like the canned food had, or if it was the cold that had drained them so quickly.

Thinking about the damage cold can do reminded me of my ears. I pulled off a glove and checked the margin of each ear. One seemed fine, but the other burned when I touched it. I put the glove back on, trying not to imagine black patches of necrosis spreading along my skin.

The wind kicked up again as he slipped around disk sled. Panting, he tossed my duffle bag at me and gave the monotone command, "Swap the batteries." As he resealed the entrance, I dug around in the bag. I pulled out his packs of Crossroads, then our clothes, before I finally found the batteries caught under a seam in the corner of the bag. I put everything else away then unscrewed the bottom of the flashlight where the battery compartment was.

He settled in front of me to watch as I slid the old batteries out and popped in the news ones. Re-screwed the compartment shut. Flipped the switch. Nothing happened. Puzzled, I pushed the switch back and forth again. Nothing. I unscrewed the battery compartment and checked the alignment. The batteries were in there correctly. It dawned on me as I screwed the compartment shut again.

"Where did you find the spares?"

"On the counter where you left them." The suspicion in his voice was palpable.

I grimaced. "Those were the dead ones."

"What kind of idiot leaves the dead ones on the counter!? What do you think a trash can is for!?" He shoved me, jostling the flashlight out of my hands. "Put the other ones back in!"

"I was trying to do that!"

I barely had a chance to swap the batteries before he pulled the disk sled away from the entrance. After yanking the duffle bag from my lap, he crawled out. Before I could follow, he reached back in for Alpine. As he dragged, I pushed from my end, but we still struggled to slide the metal brick out. When we finally succeeded, I tried to leave again. No dice. He reached in for the disk sled next.

Because it had been the "door" to the little cave, it did not fit through the entrance. He rotated it and rammed it against the ice, forcing me to squish myself against the back wall to avoid being hit. A huge chunk of the front wall gave as he pulled the sled through. The rest of the fort collapsed on top of me. Swearing through a mouthful of ice is not easy.

I dug myself and the flashlight out of the heap without his help. It was still dark, but the blizzard had lessened into nothing but icy breezes and dry powder. For now, the dim flashlight provided enough light to see. I turned the beam on him.

He had remounted Alpine on the disk sled, secured it with the bungee cords, and tied the hose to sled. My duffle bag sat on top on Alpine. When he noticed the light, he waved for me to come over. Taking the flashlight, he placed the free end of the hose in my hands.

I shook my head. "Do we really have to? We don't even know if it's still going to boot. It's not designed to be out in snow."

"Do you really want to fight me on this?"

"Don't you get that we can legitimately die out here? Alpine is dead weight! It's going to slow us down!" I felt his eyes fix on me through his visor. My shoulders slumped. Not sure where to go, I scanned the area for the snowmobile. It laid pathetically on its side, half buried with its handlebars kinked at an odd angle. The trail back to the cabin was gone, obliterated by the wind.