Smoking Power

Chapter 15

"How are we going to get to the top without our equipment?" I ask while we all continue to stare between the summit and the spot where all of our equipment was. Seeing as though sleeping isn't really an option anymore, since they are now lost under the recently fallen Avalanche, with have no choice but to continue on our way to the top of Mount Lhotse.

"Right, our stuff was around there," Declan points in the general direction of where our equipment was before, "so maybe, Micky here could melt the snow, so we can go get it." He nods, not bothering to hide the fact of how proud he actually is of himself.

I look at Amber who is pulling a weird face at him, "well sorry to pop ya bubble but this snow is completely frozen. To melt this, all the rope in our equipment would just melt along with it. Without the rope, our equipment is useless anyway."

Declan slumps his shoulders before turning and glaring at Amber, "So what does her majesty suggest?" He says in a fake posh British accent.

"Well, that thing must've come from somewhere. Livin' in a place like this, my guess is that they burrow. If they burrow then they'd have to have tunnels to the summit." Amber says.

"So you want us to go crawling around in their holes?" Declan asks, shocked.

"Not want. I ain't wanna go in their burrows but desperate times calls for desperate measures." Amber corrects Declan.

Declan bursts out laughing. "That's even stupider than my idea!" He manages to get out between gasps of laughter.

"Guys stop! Why am I always stopping you two from creating world war three?! Let's talk about this properly like civilised people." I say to them both, sick of them fighting. "Okay, Ambers right there's no point trying to find the equipment because it is mainly rope and that will burn and be useless."

In my peripheral vision, I see Amber nodding her head at Declan. "But," I continue, "that yeti hybrid thing, whatever it was would of killed us if it wasn't for that Avalanche. Who knows how many of them will be in the tunnels that they've made. Also, we need to actually find the entrance to one of these tunnels before we can start making any proper plans about going in there."

"How 'bout that hole over there?" Amber asks, pointing to a dark hole just over the peaks surrounding our snow-filled campsite.

I squint my eyes in the direction of the cave. How did she even spot that? It must be around 11:00pm now so its pretty dark everywhere. The cave looks about the size of two doors.

"So we just walk up there and have a look then?" Declan asks.

"I guess so." I answer him back, while starting to make my way up there. Somehow.

Thankfully this mountain peak isn't too steep and after the Avalanche it's even easier to walk up. I take each step carefully though, since I no longer have a harness to save me if I did manage to fall.

While we all slowly walk up, I think about everything that's just happened and quite possibly might happen. We have no equipment and are about to go walking around in the yeti hybrid's cave of tunnels. Actually, now that I think about it, why are we discovering heaps of unknown creatures now? Okay, it might just be two, but still, did we seriously know so little about earths terrestrial life? What if they're extra-terrestrial? Okay brain, just stop. I'm not going to even think about that.

"So what are we going to name these things?" Declan asks when we're almost at the top.

"What do ya mean? They've probably already got a name for their specie. We can't just re-name 'em." Amber tells him.

"Well if I'm about to die by one of these 'things', I reckon that I have a right to know what they are called. Besides, we don't have to tell anybody what we've named them." Declan says.