UnEarthing Toroid

Part 1

On the snow-covered mountain, drifts of white winter fluff were piled up under the pine trees. Snowflakes billowed in on an angry summer wind, tossing the snow around in swirls and bulges and lumps. One of these lumps was perforated by a strange shape. It almost looked like...the outline of a person, lying face down, lightly dusted with snow. The shape moved. Twitched its' arms and legs a little. Groaned and made a strained noise. Then, it sat up, and a shock of bright red hair popped out of the snow.

"Wha--?" It was a girl of about 17, with short curly hair and pale skin. She looked around with confusion, her brow furrowed. "The hell? How did I get here?" She spoke softly, to herself, in a tired and raspy tone. Stiffly, she rose to her feet, quickly wrapping her arms around herself and shivering in the cold air. She was wearing a shirt that left her midriff bare, and she definitely felt that now. The coldness of the snow against her skin was turning her pink. Even worse, she was wearing sandals.

"Hello?" She called out, not urgently. Just curiously. She took a few shivering steps forward, rubbing her arms and looking around her. "Anyone around?" I must have gone on a bender again. Shit. This is probably a national park, and I'm supposed to be camping with someone, and I don't remember. Lucky I didn't freeze to death. Hopefully no one else did either. For she certainly had to be with someone. She would never end up at a place like this by herself. She wasn't a cold-weather person, and would never leave the tropics unless someone else suggested it.

"Hello!?" A boy's voice suddenly answered her call, echoing through the snow from a few feet away.

"Oh, hey!" The girl jumped forward a footstep, squinting her eyes to try and make out the other person. She didn't recognize the other voice, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. She made friends with strangers every day. "I'm over here! Where are we?" Her tone was casual and chipper now. Since she'd been found, this guy would surely take her back to camp, and everything would be fine.

From between the pines, a figure emerged, slowly becoming distinguishable. It was a young teen boy-about 15 or so-with sandy-blond hair curling down to his shoulders. He was wearing boots, jeans, and a denim jacket. Much better equipped for the snow than the girl. "Hey!" He raised a hand when he saw her, quickly running over. "What happened to you? Do you remember?"

"No?" The girl shook her head, her brow furrowing further. This guy sounded worried. Was something wrong? "I don't remember anything. Where are we?" No point in asking how she got there. That was pretty obvious in her mind.

"I don't know." The boy shook his head, his voice cracking into a whine. "I'm not supposed to be here. I'm-I was just home. I was just at home, in my garage."

Oh, he must've gotten fucked up too. Did we get dumped here? Poor kid. The girl moved closer to him. The cold was making her bones hurt. Her teeth were clicking together rapidly. "Yeah, last thing I remember I was at home too. Must've been some pretty wild shit that got us here."

"No, I mean-I was really just at home." The boy shook his head, desperation straining his tone. "Like a second ago. I didn't move or anything. I was just working on a car and then-BAM-suddenly I wake up in the snow."

"Hey! Hello, hello! Are there people over there?" Yet another voice called out to them through the trees, another boy, but this one definitely older-sounding.

"Yeah, we're over here!" The girl called, waving one hand in the air.

Crunching footsteps grew closer, until through the snowy clouds emerged a black-haired boy of about 16 or 17, wearing a thick yellow flannel shirt and cowboy boots. He drew up short when he saw the girl, staring at her openly. "Oh." His eyes widened.

"What?" She blinked back at him. "Do I know you?" Is he the one I came here with? I really can't remember anything.

"No, it's just-" The dark-haired boy shook his head, looking her over with concern. "You're going to freeze to death dressed like that. I mean it. You need to get out of this weather right away. I can't believe you even got this far."