Grabbing Simon’s shoulders, I shook him. “Where the fuck is Belle?”
His lips were quivering, and his voice kept breaking as if he was about to cry. “We don’t know. We thought that we would build our sculpture close to the wall of the cliff… you know, to get shelter from the wind… but then it started snowing hard and we wanted to go back to the cabin. Belle said that she just wanted to finish up the sculpture and take some more pictures.” Simon’s eyes were darting from side to side and he spoke fast with his accent making it hard to understand.
Isaac took over and babbled, “We waited for her in the drone, but then we heard a loud crack and looked up. The whole wall came down at once like an avalanche.”
I held my breath as we all stared at them. Holly and Doreen stood with their hands to their mouths and Freya and Aubri held on to each other.
“There was so much snow and we were afraid that if we stayed, the drone might get covered by more snow falling,” Simon explained.
“You left Belle?” My voice was a shriek.
Victor’s head fell forward. “We didn’t want to but there’s no way she could have survived the impact of all that snow. She was right under the ledge.”
I heard his words but refused to believe them. Turning to Thor and Indiana, I ordered, “We’re gearing up.”
There was no hesitation or protest from either of them. Both of their faces were set in stone as I grabbed my snow gear and put on my boots. “Let’s go. We’re taking my drone. It will take us back to its last stop.”
“I’m coming with you,” Aubri called behind us but Thor gave her a strict order to stay behind in case something happened to us.
“We’re bringing the laser,” Indiana shouted over the wind that was now howling while snow whipped my face.
The two of us dragged the heavy machine and loaded it into my drone, not caring that we scratched the paint job.
Flying as fast as we could it still took us seventeen minutes to get to the Moose Valley. Those seventeen minutes felt like seventeen years and involved a lot of swearing in the drone.
Indiana, Thor, and I agreed that this was further proof that Motlanders and Europeans should fucking stick to doing meditation and calculus and let us Nmen run the world.
“What kind of idiot places the sculpture under a ledge with snow on top? Did they even try to dig her out?” Thor muttered and even though none of us said it out loud, we all knew that no one could survive being buried in snow for more than a few minutes.
“We’re here,” I muttered low as the drone finally slowed down and began descending. Looking out, it was impossible to see what was there because of the snow coming down. Luckily, the drone showed us a 3D map of the area telling us where the cliff was.
“There.” I pointed to the right. “They said she was under the ledge.”
We had to land at least seventy-five feet away because of all the snow.
All three of us had our locator maps up, scanning for living beings.
“I don’t detect anyone with a heartbeat,” Indiana said in a low gruff voice.
“Maybe she dug herself out and started walking.”
Even as I said it, I knew it was wishful thinking and so did they. Neither of them answered me.
“Wait! I’m getting something.” Thor lifted his hand higher to study the projected map.
“Why aren’t Indiana and I getting anything?” I huffed in frustration, watching my own map.
“The weather could be interrupting your signal, or her heartbeat is too weak for your equipment to pick up on.”
“Do we know it’s her?” Indiana asked.
Thor pointed out the obvious. “No, it could be a bear or another large animal that has a cave back there.”
“It’s Belle!” My statement was based solely on hope. The thought that we wouldn’t get to her in time made me push the button to open the drone.
With a single narrowed focus on getting to Belle, we put on our snow glasses and got out in the storm.
Working together, we carried the heavy laser out and connected it to the drone for power. Thor used the weak red dot on his map to aim it in the right direction and watched as the laser cut a tunnel big enough to crawl through. It took forever for it to clear the way, but once it reached the wall it stopped.
After we moved the heavy laser to the side, Thor bent down in front of the opening. “I’ll go.”
I stopped him. “No, I’ll do it.”
“You sure?”
“You’re the heir. The tunnel could easily collapse. It’s too dangerous.”
“It won’t collapse. That snow is settling in like concrete.”
“Do you have a rope in the drone?” Indiana asked me.
“Yes.” Running to the storage area I pulled out a white rope of a hundred-foot length and the small avalanche digger that I carried when hiking during the winter. Never did I think I would ever get to use the damn thing, but I stuffed it inside my jacket and ran back.
“Here.” Indiana tied the rope around my foot and squeezed my shoulder. “I hope it’s long enough. Move as fast as you can but be careful. We should have brought Aubri. She is smaller and could have crawled faster.” The howling of the wind took away some of his words, but I made out the meaning and got down on my knees. Indiana was right. With my size, I was too large to crawl so I would have to snake my way through the tunnel.
“Mason.” Thor was calling after me as I kept moving forward. “When you reach the wall, you have to dig upward and to the left of you. That’s where you’ll find Belle. Find a way to connect her body to yours and give a signal when you want us to pull you out.”
“Got it!” The tunnel was narrow, barely fitting my wide shoulders. Wriggling my way forward, I used the technique I’d learned as a soldier. I’d always hated the exercises where I had to move with my hands and feet tied. At least while practicing, I’d been able to roll, but now I relied on my core muscles to push me forward.
A voice in the back of my head kept telling me that I was going to die. I had no time to stop and think about the risk I was taking. The small, cramped tunnel was getting dark the further in I got, so I activated the flashlight on my wristband.
My heavy breathing made my snow glasses foggy. Pushing them up to my forehead, I stiffened when I heard a loud cracking sound. Please don’t collapse. Please don’t fucking collapse. I waited for a second, but when nothing happened, I breathed again. Every instinct told me to get out or die, but Belle was buried alive, and thinking about how frightened and alone she felt right now made me swallow my fear and keep going.
It felt like I was digging under the entire Atlantic Ocean to get to Belle. All my muscles were getting tired from the uncomfortable position.
Come on! Push through the pain. No time to stop now. Belle needs you.
When my hand finally hit something hard, I took off my gloves to be sure. Yes! It was definitely rock. Energized that I was close to her, I called her name.
“Belle, do you hear me? Belle?”
When my ears picked up a faint moan, I almost cried with relief. “I’m coming, Belle. Hang in there.”
Her weak cries gave me renewed energy as I used my avalanche digger to dig upward and to my left like Thor had instructed.