He hurtled around a bend, lost in his thoughts, until a movement in the next valley caught his eye.
‘Are you trying to kill us?’
Thea almost skidded into a snowbank as she edged her skis hard into the ice to avoid a collision. Breathing hard from her exertions, she made her way up to him, her voice loaded with shock.
‘Look over there,’ he instructed, ignoring her fury. Then, as she failed to react to his order, he moved to stand behind her, lining up her eyes with his arm. ‘Across the valley.’
It didn’t take her long to realise what he was trying to show her.
‘An avalanche.’ She sucked in a breath. ‘And a skier? What’s he even doing there?’
‘From the bright yellow jacket, I’d hazard a guess he’s Mountain Patrol, checking the slopes. He’ll probably be okay.’
‘Right...’ Thea nodded, watching the skilled skier racing down the piste, trying to outrun the avalanche. There was a gap in the treeline to the side of the piste, which he was clearly aiming for, and Thea watched as the patroller reached the gap and practically did a one-eighty turn on his pole to drop back on himself, off the piste and onto the narrow, tree-free path twenty feet below, just as the avalanche thundered by above.
She exhaled a whoosh of relief, but even as she did so the skier either caught a hidden rock or slid on the ice. He had fallen, and was now hurtling down the slope on his stomach, his skis flying into the air with frightening sprays of snow.
‘He’s not going to be able to stop himself!’ cried Thea as the skier headed straight towards a wooded embankment.
Sixty feet into the slide, the skier slammed straight into a tree—head-first.
Time stopped for Ben, and it was as if his surroundings spun around him. Snow, desert, skis, tanks, bodies. He ripped his snowboard off and threw it into the webbing on his back. Through the fug in his head he vaguely heard Thea scream at him, but her words were indistinguishable. Something about a death wish. At some point she might have grabbed his arm, but he threw her off without a glance and then he was jumping down the steep embankment, letting himself fall and fall into the valley, hoping he’d land on soft snow and not hard rocks.
Wading through thigh-deep snow, he felt his back screaming at him, already on fire, but he ignored the pain and pushed on towards the immobile body. His mind kept switching the figure of the skier on the snowy slopes for Dan, bleeding out on the rocky mountainside. There was no way he could leave him there.
He had no idea how long the interminable trek across the valley took. The relief when he finally reach the skier and saw the man had his eyes open was indescribable. The guy was alive. Even better, the man’s eyes widened slightly upon seeing him. A trickle of relief crept down Ben’s spine. At least it meant the man still had some cognitive function.
‘Don’t try to nod or shake your head. Try not to move at all for the moment. If you can’t talk, just blink.’
‘I can talk,’ the man rasped, clearly having trouble breathing.
‘Okay, that’s good. I was on the run down the mountain to the village and I saw everything. I’m Ben, by the way. Can you remember what happened to you?’
‘Ben...okay. I’m Tomas. I was patrolling the unmarked slopes, looking for any extreme skiers. I triggered a snow slide and I was trying to outrun it. I thought I dropped down safely...but maybe I fell? I don’t recall much after that.’
‘Good—that’s good.’ Ben nodded encouragingly. ‘Can you move your arms and legs?’
‘I don’t know.’ Tomas was clearly having trouble concentrating. ‘Are you a doctor?’
‘A trauma surgeon.’ Ben nodded again.
‘Both of you?’
Ben froze as Tomas’s gaze lifted to just over his right shoulder. He turned slowly but he already knew what he was going to find. Thea, white-faced but resolute, stood behind him. His stomach slid away in fear. She’d only come because of him. If she got hurt it would be his fault.
He moved away so Tomas wouldn’t hear him.
‘Are you crazy?’ he hissed. ‘You could have killed yourself.’
‘No more than you could have,’ she countered angrily. ‘You shouldn’t have come over here. You know the snow is probably unstable. There was a heavy snowfall last night, and it must have landed on a layer of compact ice. The whole lot is probably ready to slide at any moment. You could be just the provocation it needs.’
Fear clawed at him. ‘Dammit, Thea, if anything happens to you I’ll never forgive myself.’
‘Then you’d better hope nothing does happen to me.’ Thea jutted her chin out determinedly, but inside she was shaking. ‘I couldn’t just leave you to it, Ben. Odds are it’ll need two of us to stabilise him. Then I’ll ski down to the town.’
‘You need to get out of here,’ he argued in desperation. ‘You know how time-critical this is.’
‘It’s only time-critical if there’s a stable patient,’ countered Thea. ‘It wouldn’t matter how fast I got down there if you can’t stabilise him. He wouldn’t live long enough for rescue to arrive.’