Frozen Fear

Chapter 16

They left the cave six o'clock in the morning. The organised teams left the shelter with haste, heading for the open tundra. North was the way, the pine forest was not too far from the starting point, but it would take a while to scan through the area. All they knew was that Jake lost contact with Everest near the cave's zone passing the gap between the mountains ahead, but anything beyond that point. There was a possibility that she could have freed herself somehow and wandered around in pursuit of protection against the storm, so it was necessary to check the forest. Sadly, in the other hand, the chances of Marshall being around safe and sound were low. Without the right equipment, his ambulance and most certainly hungry and tired, the Dalmatian would have a troublesome journey back home.

Zuma was paired with Chase for the scan work. Finding any trace was nearly impossible, the snow had covered all up through the night, not even wild animals were around anymore, apparently. The Lab tried sniffing around, just as Chase was doing, but with low expectations.

— "Anything, Chase?"

— "Not yet." — replied the pup. The wind made it hard to continue the conversation without getting closer. —"Well, that was the last area. Let's head back and report to Ryder."— The lab nodded.

Zuma had been kind of fearful because of how sharp Chase was being with Ryder those last days. But, somehow, the last line the Shepherd pronounced felt joyful. Still worried, for their friend and all, but he was not complaining anymore, with a tad of optimism. That relieved him to his very soul. Worth knowing, Chase can be scary when he is angry.

— "You think they're close, dude?" —Zuma asked— "I heard Rocky say that if we don't find them today it could be too late..."

Chase stopped their walk and stood silent for a moment, then turned calmly.

— "Cheer up, bro! Marshall and Everest are waiting for us to find them!"

In the cold tundra, Zuma found warmth in his words.

— "True that!"

*  *  *  *  *

Skye could not fly due to the terrible conditions. She felt like she could be doing so much more for her lost friends, but she did not let that drag her out, so she joined Ryder and continued looking for any clue. Being the first witness of Chase's indignation, she was quick to ask Ryder if anything was troubling them. After their conversation the night before everything was back to normal. Chase had this really positive vibe when they left off that morning, he was back to his old self.

— "I'm just glad everything worked out." — she added — "I was afraid this was gonna ruin everything between you two."

— "Sorry if we worried you guys. But now we can focus completely on the rescue."

Rocky came by followed by Rubble.

— "We're moving to the next area, Ryder. We found no traces on neither of them." — Rocky said.

The idea behind the plan was to cover as much terrain as possible, for which Ryder and Rocky divided the forest in eight different areas that should not take less than an hour to complete each. Anything that could be used as a shelter or any piece of information that could confirm that Everest or Marshall were close had to be verified and reported immediately. When they reached the time limit, Ryder called on to the team for the next location

It was three hours passed midday, the pups plus Jake and Ryder were in front of the gap between the two mountains that led to the next area described by the mountaineer. Going that way was what started it all, standing in front of it with a stern face was hard to pull off.