got a space blanket. It’s just hard to reach around...’ Warm air feathered across Ethan’s face and something that made a scrunching sound was shoved up against his right side. ‘Can’t get it across you, Ethan. But they won’t be long.’
‘Who?’ It was Chase talking, right?
Remember. Remember.
‘Search and Rescue. They’re coming, but there’s a blizzard...’ Chase’s voice was weird. Kind of softer than normal, which was definitely weird for a seventeen-year-old kid who was usually full of himself. ‘You have to stay awake, okay?’
‘Heavy. Chest. Stuck.’ Pain shot through his head and he wished he could rub the damned place it hurt but he couldn’t lift his hand. ‘What happened?’
‘Avalanche. Took out the lodge.’ Grunting, Chase curled into an impossibly large ball in the tiny space, pressed his feet against the rubble and bricks and broken beam and pushed. Nothing moved. ‘You’re kind of trapped.’
Ah, yes. Now it was coming back. Junior team ski trials. The lodge. A huge roar and a breeze and then he’d been falling. Then black. ‘I’m cold.’
‘I know. It’s the fricking Alps and it’s almost midnight.’ Chase laughed but it didn’t sound right. Forced. Cold. Damn, it was so cold here.
Chase grabbed at something on the ground and pushed it out of the way, shone his head torch at the ceiling and shook his head. ‘I know it hurts, but try not to think about it.’
He paused as the haunting creaking of steel broke into the night. Then a crash and a plume of dust caught in the blue light. People screaming somewhere.
Ethan’s heart pounded and he tried to move his legs to scuttle back away from the noise. But he was pinned to the floor. Get me out of here.
‘What’s happening?’
‘Just a bit of movement. It’s fine, it’s the other side of the building. Don’t panic.’ There was an edge to Chase’s voice now.
‘I’m not panicking. I’m so cold. And wet.’
‘Always moaning,’ Chase tutted, but he didn’t sound angry or hostile—which was new. ‘Here, take my hand.’
Ethan heard the scrape of a ski jacket against wood and then felt Chase’s hand close over his. The warmth made Ethan’s hand stop shaking just for a minute or so.
More loud creaks and Chase’s hand stiffened. A couple of breaths until the creaking stopped. ‘It’s okay, Ethan. Breathe.’
That was the problem...he couldn’t get enough air into his lungs. ‘How long have I been in here?’
‘Seven hours? Maybe eight?’
‘So long?’ No wonder he was cold. Maybe this was just a nightmare where he was dreaming he was trapped with the guy he hated most of all in the world in a space so cramped he couldn’t breathe. Maybe he’d wake up soon. ‘Where’s everyone else?’
There was a silence long enough to make Ethan’s chest hollow out.
‘Out.’
‘Out? Thank God.’ He breathed away the dread of hearing anyone in the squad was injured or worse. ‘Everyone?’
‘All except you and... Nick. But he’s...he’s going to be fine.’ Chase’s voice did that weird soft thing again, but it also broke a little, telling Ethan that Nick wasn’t fine at all.
‘Why are you here, then, and not with him? You guys are such good mates you’re like an old married couple.’ In fact, it had been Nick they’d been arguing about outside the drying room. Same old stuff. Who was chicken, who was going to win, who was going to wipe out on the slalom. Just banter to fuel the competitive teenage aggression. That, and the fact Nick was always so damned sure of himself.
He was a shoe-in for the British junior team, and Chase and Ethan and everyone else were fighting for a place alongside him. A couple of beats passed before Chase answered. ‘Sucks, right? But until help gets here you’re going to have to put up with me. Lucky for you I’m just the right size to belly-crawl through the one tiny hole between you and the outside.’
‘Lucky? I have a wall on my legs.’ But the others were safe. That was one good thing. Not choked up in here like him. Wait...if he was lucky then did that mean Nick hadn’t been? Had Chase chosen to help him and not Nick? What the hell? His head hurt too much to make any sense of it.
‘You’re talking, that’s something.’
A sharp pain funnelled through Ethan’s lungs as he tried to inhale. It felt as if the blackness was filling him up from the inside too, stopping his breath. ‘I can’t breathe.’
‘If you can talk you can breathe.’ Chase tapped his hand. ‘When we get out of here, Reid, I’m going to whip your arse down La Sache.’
‘Yes, you will.’
‘Whoa. You always beat me down that run. Every single time. Where’s the fighting talk you like to give me? Bring it on, Reid.’
‘I can’t feel my feet.’
Silence.
Chase swore. Everyone knew a skier couldn’t ski if they couldn’t feel their damned legs. ‘Probably just the cold.’
The panic he’d thought he’d got a hold of bubbled up through Ethan’s belly to his chest. He couldn’t feel his feet or his back. He couldn’t stop shaking. There was so much ice and wetness and blackness he was suffocating with it. He wanted to breathe fresh air. He wanted to be outside. Would he ever be warm again? He gripped Chase’s hand as water seeped through his clothes. ‘I don’t want to die. Not here and not like this.’
Seventeen was way too young to die, he had a whole lot of living to do. Right?
The next moment was filled with another ominous creak and the drip, drip, drip of snow melt. Chase inhaled loudly then huffed out as their world, which had shrunk to this twisted leaning lodge, stopped moving. ‘You’re not going to die, man.’
‘Face it, I’m freezing. I’m hurting. I’m stuck in a collapsed building.’ The parts of his skin that he could feel stung with such intensity it felt as if he was on fire. ‘Is it hot in here? I’m starting to burn up. Can you take the blanket away?’
‘There is no way you can be hot, it’s probably hypothermia. Listen to me, you have to hang on. Someone’s coming to get you out.’ Chase rubbed rough hands over Ethan’s palm. He stretched and wound his arm through the tiny gap between body and wall, and rubbed Ethan’s torso, encouraging blood flow. Then over his leg. Chest. Cheeks. And then he started again at Ethan’s hand. He worked for a few minutes then murmured, ‘Don’t you ever tell anyone I did this, okay?’
‘Your secret’s safe with me.’ Time to be honest. Because if you’re going to die, then why not? ‘I’m scared.’
Ethan’s heart thumped and he fought to control himself, wishing he hadn’t said something so weak. He had to pretend he was okay, right? That he wasn’t
