“WE CAN’T SEE YOU ANYMORE,” he said. “ALL WE SEE IS DARKNESS.”
“WELCOME TO THE CLUB!”
The chimney was a perfect dimension for climbing. Just wide enough to brace my legs and back against the sides, while using my arms to feel around above me. Higher and higher I went, grunting and exerting myself until my breath became short. Eventually I could hear my breathing becoming muffled and distorted, and my head bumped into a wall of snow.
“MORGAN! ARE YOU—”
“PULL YOUR HEADS BACK!” I shouted down. “I HAVE TO DIG!”
I scraped with my hands first, sending clumps of frozen snow hurtling down the chimney below. I could hear the guys moving beneath me, two stories down, probably sweeping everything out of the firebox.
Eventually I hit ice. Pulling out the screwdriver, I struck upwards with my arm, hard, using the blade as an ice-pick.
“AHHHH!”
My whole body slipped! Swinging too hard, I’d stopped focusing on keeping myself wedged against the walls. I slid down the chimney a good three feet, then extended my body hard in both directions. It hurt like hell, but by jamming myself tight I was able to skid to a stop.
“ARE YOU ALRIGHT?”
“NO!” I said, choking on something in the darkness. Dirt. Soot. Spiderwebs. God knew what else. “I MEAN, YES!”
“YES OR NO?”
“I—I’M OKAY,” I called down. “JUST GIVE ME A MINUTE!”
I rested for a moment to catch my breath before working my way back up. When I reached the obstruction I took my time, chipping away at chunks of ice and hard snow until I’d removed enough to begin scooping with my hands again.
Snow rained down. Ice followed. They swept it all clean, and I kept on moving.
One advantage of the darkness was I couldn’t see how high I was. But eventually I could see light — very dim, very faint — filtering in from above.
“ALMOST THERE!”
I scraped and scraped, and suddenly I could see my hands. My arms. The filthy black sides of the chimney itself. Bracing my back and legs tightly against the walls, I punched hard and my fist broke through!
Light poured in, followed by a magnificent wave of fresh air. I drank it into my lungs, coughed a few times, then grabbed the top of the chimney and pulled myself through.
I was floating in a brilliant field of pure white snow, standing with one foot on each side of the heavy brick chimney. My vision was obscured by the raging blizzard, giving me no more than ten or fifteen feet of visibility in any direction. But it was absolutely beautiful. Like poking your head through a fluffy cloud, and climbing up to stand on top of it.
Someone shouted from below, but I couldn’t possibly hear them. It didn’t matter, though. The chimney was cleared. All that remained was to climb back down, making sure not to break my ass on the return trip.
Then I heard something else…
Whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop…
My body froze, arms out.
Was that…
I tilted my head to one side, ears straining to hear.
Was that a helicopter?
A wave of excitement rushed through me, obliterating the wind and the cold. The noise grew louder, even more distinct. I started waving my arms. I started shouting, screaming at the top of my lungs…
“HEYYYYYYYYY!”
I shifted in the direction the noise seemed to be coming from. But it was hard to pinpoint. Hard to tell.