The Pass (Wattys 2019)

Chapter Twenty-One

Everyone was in a serious mood the next morning. And it was no wonder: that evening, they would arrive in Dyatlov Pass, where they would spend two nights searching for clues about what happened to the hikers and the scientists. Nobody could be certain of just what they would see out there, but after all of the unexplainable things they'd seen so far, Nika felt like they would certainly find something, and she was pretty sure that the rest of the group felt the same way. A complete 180 from believing that she would just look around the pass while they were out there for her rehabilitation trip for the Everest expedition in the fall.

The Everest expedition. As crazy at it seemed, it had been the furthest thing from her mind for the past few weeks. Since she got back from the search party and decided that she would go out there, herself. When she got back to Sverdlovsk, Everest was all she'd been able to think about. Now, it was as if there wasn't an Everest expedition eight months away; now, there was only Dyatlov Pass.

They packed up their camp in relative silence while the snow fell. It was a little more gentle that day, but the wind was also starting to pick up. According to the weather reports, that day would be one of their worse weather days: they needed to get as far as they could before the weather turned.

It was while they packed up the camp that Nika noticed that Yuri was struggling a little more than he normally did in the mornings. He grimaced in pain, moved as slowly as he could manage. But, of course, he didn't complain: she knew full well that he didn't want anybody to know that the same thing was happening to him on that expedition as it did five years ago.

"How are you feeling, today?" Nika asked him as he packed up his bag.

Yuri grunted as he continued packing. Nika had gotten used to that response: that was how he responded to most questions.

She was getting damned annoyed with that: would it kill him to give her an actual response to something? A yes, a no?

"Don't think I haven't noticed," she said quietly. Sternly. "Your arthritis is bothering you. More than it was, before."

He stopped what he was doing. For a second, he got a wide-eyed look, apparently surprised. Then, he went back to what he was doing. "I'm fine."

"You're not: you can't move without being in pain." Nika looked out at the frozen landscape. "We're not far from Arisha's village. We can head over there, stay the night there, instead. And you can stay there until your arthritis goes down a bit."

"We aren't doing that," Yuri said. "I'm staying with you guys until the end."

The same thing he'd said the last time she'd questioned him about his arthritis. He was stubborn; almost as stubborn as she was.

Almost.

"You're going to sacrifice all of us for this: you know that right?"

"You're one to talk," Yuri muttered as he tied off his pack sharply. "The only reason we're out here is because you insisted on coming out here. Think about that before you start accusing other people of that."

Before Nika could say anything else, Yuri stood up, slung his pack over his shoulders, and stalked off. Even as he did, she could see that he made slow, painful movements. Like a machine in desperate need of grease.

Nika sighed. There was no getting through that one, was there?

"Let me guess: you just tried to confront him about his arthritis?"

She looked over her shoulder. She hadn't realized that Rufina was standing there until then.

"How long have you been standing there?" Nika asked.