Deadman Anchor Page 4

  Lifting her ice ax, Kendal positioned it in front of her and dug the tip into the glacier beneath her to stop herself from sliding. Then she felt the rope around her waist grow tight. She looked behind her and saw that her father was slowly sliding toward a dark crevice. The rope that had connected him to Jeremy dangled loose. Jeremy was not on the other end.

  Kendal watched in horror as her father tried to stop his slide. He had lost his ice ax in the fall.

  Kendal held onto her ax with all her might.

  “You need to unclasp the rope from your waist,” her father yelled up to her through the roaring wind and blowing snow. “You need to let me go. You won’t be able to hold on if I slip.”

  “No,” Kendal shouted to him. She dug the points of her feet deeper into the glacier. She wasn’t going to let her father fall, but when she turned around to look back at him, she saw that his left foot had slipped. In one swift motion, she saw him grasp the carabiner at the end of his rope and unclasp it. She watched her father fall over the edge.

  Chapter 23

  “Noooo!” Kendal cried, but her voice was lost in the storm that raged around her.

  Her arms ached, and she knew she had to push herself to more solid ground. She wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer, and she couldn’t help her father if she fell too.

  Moving her left foot and then her right foot, digging into the ice and snow with the sharp points of her crampons inch by inch, she pushed and pulled herself to a level place covered with snow.

  When she stood up she could see that a section of the ice bridge had cracked and a deep crevice had formed. Immediately, she knew what she needed to do. Dig. A two-foot trench. She needed to make a deadman so she could rappel down into the crevice. She needed to save her father and Jeremy.

  Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew that they might be beyond saving—but she didn’t have time to think about that now.

  “Deeper,” she kept telling herself as she dug. “Wider.”

  She had one chance to do this right. Any mistake and she would be gone over the edge too. She took off her backpack and pulled out a figure eight of climbing rope. It was bright yellow and orange and stood out against the blinding snow. She made a sling with the rope, attached one end to her ax, and buried the ax, stomping and packing the snow down until she felt sure that it would hold.

  Or as sure as possible, anyway, considering she’d never actually done this before. Her training practice with Jeremy was one thing, but now she had to do it for real.

  Attaching the other end of the rope around her waist, she got down on her knees and then her belly. Slowly, she crawled backwards toward the crevice.

  “Dad!” she called. “Dad!”

  But there was no point. The wind carried her words away.

  Finally, she made it over the edge.

  When she gathered the courage to look down, she saw her father crumpled on an ice ledge. Jeremy lay a few feet away, his body still.

  “Dad! Answer me if you can hear me. Say something—please!”

  The wind howled in her ears. She couldn’t hear his voice, but she saw him attempt to get up.

  “Don’t move!” she yelled as loud as she could. He was perilously close to the edge. “Just stay there. I’m coming down.”

  Chapter 24

  Slowly, she lowered herself down, using her feet to push off against the glacier wall.

  “Kendal,” her father said when she was just a few feet away.

  “Don’t move,” she repeated. There was only a few feet of slack in the rope, so she had to unharness herself in order to reach her dad.

  “Are you hurt?” she said to her father.

  “My leg,” he said.

  She saw the pain in his face and guessed his leg was broken. “We need to get you out of here.”

  “You should leave. Go down the mountain and get help.”

  It was icy cold in the crevice, like entering a deep freeze. If she left, her father would freeze to death.

  “What about Jeremy?” her father asked.

  “I don’t know,” she said.

  She crawled over to Jeremy and was happy when she saw him move, try to sit up. For a second she thought that maybe he was okay. That’s when she saw the blood on the top of his head.

  Chapter 25

  Kendal found the first aid kit in her father’s pack. She wrapped his leg with duct tape to help stabilize the bone. Next up was the cut on Jeremy’s head. Kendal cleaned the large gash, then sealed it with Super Glue. The head injury was bad. He couldn’t focus when he opened his eyes and seemed to fade in and out of consciousness.

  “I’m going to climb back up and help pull you out,” Kendal told her father. “And then I’ll go back for Jeremy.”

  Kendal dug the points of her crampons into the glacier wall and pulled herself up with the rope. It was nothing like climbing the plastic wall back at the gym near their house, but at least her arms were strong enough to pull herself to the top.

  When she was over the edge, she threw the rope down to her father. She couldn’t see him, but she knew that he was pulling himself slowly up, pushing off the ice with his one good leg. When she saw him reach over the ledge, she pulled him up with all her might until he was safely next to her.

  Jeremy was next. How were they going to rescue a barely conscious man?

  Chapter 26

  The only way to save Jeremy, Kendal realized, was to go back into the gorge.

  This time, she took an extra rope with her.

  “I’m so cold,” Jeremy said. His lips were blue. His skin was white, emptied of all color.

  “We’re going to get you out,” she said.

  He closed his eyes again.

  “Stay with me,” she said. “You’re a Navy SEAL. You can’t give up. You can’t surrender. You have to keep going.”

  Kendal moved him into a sitting position, and as she did so, her headlamp shined over the ledge and caught on something another twenty feet down. She steadied the light and saw that there was another body—a body wrapped in a blue ski jacket.

  She nearly fell over the edge, but caught hold of Jeremy’s arm and balanced herself.

  “Jeremy,” she said. “I need you to stay here for a second. Don’t move.” She crawled on her belly and looked over the edge again. This time she could clearly see the body below. It was perfectly preserved, frozen. Next to it, there was a snowboard, cracked in two.

  There was nothing Kendal could do for the snowboarder—he was already gone. She concentrated instead on Jeremy and getting him out of there alive. She turned his backpack into a harness. Kendal and her father would have to pull him out.

  When she had the rope secured around Jeremy, she climbed back out of the crevice again. Then she and her father slowly pulled Jeremy out of the crevice and over the ledge.

  Jeremy was shaking. They needed shelter, and they needed it fast.

  Chapter 27

  Kendal pulled her ice ax from its shallow grave. That’s when she spotted the cave. Only thirty feet away. She sighed with relief—except . . . the entrance. It was covered in snow. For the first time, Kendal felt like giving up. The nonstop blizzard. Her achy, dead-tired muscles. It was all too much. She could feel drops of sweat turn to ice. Any second now, her body would be wracked with shivering spasms.

  She cursed because there was nothing else to do. She kicked the snow for the same reason. Then she kicked it again. And again. At least it would keep her body temperature up.

  Her boots swept through the snow, over and over. Until they didn’t.

  The toe of her boot thudded against something. Something hard. Ice? She looked down.

  It was a backpack, still partially buried.

  It must have belonged to the body down in the crevice. Kendal handled the backpack as though it was a sacred thing. The buckles were frozen shut. If she could thaw them out and open the pack, maybe she’d find supplies.

  “Kendal?” her father said. “Where are you going?”

/>   “To get us into that cave,” she said.

  Chapter 28

  Which is exactly what she did.

  All she had was her ax and her hands, but they were enough. She hacked away at the snow; she scraped and scooped it. She didn’t realize her hands had completely frozen until the three of them were inside the cave. The warmth made her fingers throb.

  “Where’d you get that extra pack?” her father asked.

  She told him she found it buried in the snow, but she didn’t tell him about the body in the crevice. He was in enough pain already. She didn’t want to give him anything else to worry about.

  Still, the backpack might prove to be a lifesaver. Literally. The buckles were still frozen, which was weird. Shouldn’t they have thawed by now? It was almost as if the backpack didn’t want to be opened.

  Near the entrance to the cave, Kendal set up the propane stove from Jeremy’s pack. She melted snow for them to drink. The heat of the blue flame warmed her fingers and face and sent more heat down into the small snow cave.

  Jeremy opened his eyes again and was able to sit up and drink a few sips of tea and swallow a crushed pain reliever.

  “Where am I?” he said.

  “You’re on the mountain,” her father said. “But we’re safe thanks to Kendal.”

  “Thanks to the deadman anchor,” Kendal said.

  “Radio for help,” Jeremy said.

  “We tried,” her father said.

  The radio was broken. Kendal had watched her father try to fix it, perhaps a way to distract himself from the pain, but the radio never turned on. They tried her father’s phone too, but after a couple attempts the battery died. And Jeremy had no phone, because he had brought the radio instead.

  Time slowly passed in the cave. There was nothing they could do but wait. Wait and think. It only now occurred to her that Nellie Bly’s family had been stuck in a cave as well. Where had the story said they were on the mountain again? She couldn’t remember. Was it possible that this was the exact same cave?

  No, that would be impossible. There must be dozens (or hundreds? or even thousands?) of caves in the mountain. Right?

  “It’s getting late,” her father said, bringing Kendal out of her thoughts.

  “I wish we could call Mom and let her know we are okay,” she said. They were supposed to be down from the mountain by early afternoon. Her mother would have called the ranger station and ordered a rescue team by now.

  “Your mom knows we’re fine,” Kendal’s father said. “I sent her a message just now. I used to do it all the time on the ship. Letting her know when I couldn’t call her that I was all right, that I was thinking of her and you—I sent it with my heart and mind.”

  Kendal crawled next to her father and the two of them fell asleep.

  The next morning, Kendal had to dig herself out of the cave. The entire opening had once again filled up with snow. When she finally cleared out the door, she hoped to see that the snow had stopped, but it hadn’t. She could only see about six feet away.

  Kendal knew she had to at least mark where they were so she positioned her bright red backpack outside the front door. Would that be enough? Would a rescue team spot the pack?

  The snow was still practically blinding. She seriously doubted a puny backpack would do the trick.

  Maybe she could construct some other type of signal? Or make a trail to the cave?

  She had to do something; she’d sat around long enough.

  Soon, the propane would run out. So would the food and the medicine.

  “I should go for help,” Kendal said to her father.

  To her surprise, her father didn’t object. Instead, he said, “I’m sorry I dragged you up this mountain, kid. I should have listened to you. A beach vacation. That’s what we’re going to do when we get off this mountain. Sit on a warm beach in the sun.”

  Kendal smiled at this.

  When her father turned back to Jeremy, she went over to the small backpack. Finally, she was able to unbuckle it. She dumped the contents out on her lap. There was a bright red climbing rope. A frozen phone. And some . . . rocks? But why would someone carry rocks in their pack? Wouldn’t they just weigh the person down? She turned on her headlamp and saw that these were not rocks.

  They were gold.

  Gold nuggets, to be precise. Some of them the size of her fist.

  Nellie Bly’s cursed gold. She was sure of it. The snowboarder had somehow found it and made the mistake of trying to leave the mountain with it.

  Kendal wouldn’t make the same mistake.

  Chapter 29

  She quickly put the gold back in the backpack. Was she crazy, or could she actually feel the bad luck crawling over her arms as she buckled the bag? Quickly, she threw the backpack back outside.

  “What was that about?” her father asked.

  “Nothing,” she lied. “I dumped out all the useful supplies, so I thought we could use the bag as another signal.”

  She couldn’t tell him the truth. For one thing, he’d never believe her. And what if he did? What if he didn’t believe her about the curse, but wanted to keep the gold?

  Kendal couldn’t take that chance.

  “I thought you wanted to go for help,” her father said.

  “Maybe tomorrow,” she said. Right at this moment, she felt too spooked to follow the cursed backpack outside.

  Her dad looked confused, but he didn’t press. He wasn’t about to complain about his daughter not risking her life.

  But that night, she couldn’t stop thinking about the gold. She thought about how Jeremy could buy the lodge with the gold, fix it up, and make it great again. Then she thought how the gold would allow her father to retire from the Navy. He’d never have to go out to sea for months at a time again. The gold could make them happy. She even started to crawl toward the entrance of the cave, her movements steady, trancelike.

  “Kendal?”

  It was her father.

  She snapped her heavy eyelids open.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “I am now,” she said.

  At least I think I am, she said to herself. Or has the curse already set in?

  Chapter 30

  The next morning, light fell through the cave entrance. The wind and snow had finally let up a little.

  Maybe the curse had calmed down? Could curses do that? If so, what would make a curse less angry? Kendal thought about the backpack filled with gold. Maybe the curse liked that she threw the bag aside? Or that she resisted—thanks to her dad—going back to get it?

  Maybe.

  There was no way to know for sure.

  “How’s Jeremy?” she asked her father.

  “Not good,” her father said. He limped across the cave and joined her by the entrance.

  “Now or never,” Kendal said.

  Her father understood. “You’re going out for help.”

  She nodded but didn’t say anything. They both looked out at still-falling snow. Behind them were the Pearly Gates, below was Devil’s Kitchen, and just to her left was the crevice where the ice bridge had given way.

  Kendal saw that there was a flat, wide-open space near Devil’s Kitchen, a good place to put a signal for help.

  She gathered up the climbing rope and started to hike through the deep snow. On an impulse, she turned around and grabbed the backpack filled with the gold. She wanted to carry it far, far away.

  Evidently, the curse didn’t understand her motives, because instantly the blizzard resumed. She thought about returning to the cave, but thought better of it. They needed to send a signal, and she was the only one healthy enough to do it.

  The icy wind picked up as she hiked through the deep snow. Kendal’s legs grew tired quickly. Her eyes watered. The backpack seemed to be getting heavier and heavier. It took all her strength to remain upright.

  When she reached the open snow field, she unwound the rope and used it to form the letters: SOS. It stood out against the white snow. It would sign
al that they were still alive.

  Assuming, of course, the blizzard let up. Right now, rescuers would be lucky to see a few feet in front of their faces.

  By now, the backpack felt as though it were filled with anvils. Kendal shrugged the pack off her shoulders. The moment she did, the snow abated. Not a lot, but some. Kendal could see ten feet in front of her instead of two.

  Her eyes moved back and forth from the backpack to the cliff from which her father had fallen.

  And right then Kendal knew what to do.

  Instead of returning to the snow cave, she grabbed hold of the backpack. Instantly, the snowfall increased. The backpack was now too heavy to carry, so Kendal dragged it through the snow. As she did, she thought about Nellie Bly. She sniffed the icy air. The scent was faint at first, but it grew stronger. Rotten eggs. Thanks to the unrelenting snow and the weight of the bag, her progress was slow. But, eventually, she made it. The vent in the ground. The place where warm, volcanic air escaped, creating a deep crevice. The place where Nellie Bly had dumped the gold.

  Well, most of it.

  Kendal was determined to finish the deed.

  She covered her nose and mouth with her face mask and crawled on her belly until she was close enough to throw each and every piece of gold from the backpack deep into the gaseous crevice.

  Chapter 31

  Kendal was back in the cave, trying to get Jeremy to chew on a piece of ice, when she heard the sound of a helicopter.

  She scrambled out of the cave and waved her arms and jumped up and down.

  “Here!” she shouted to the empty sky. “Here!”

  A Black Hawk helicopter rose over a ridge and hovered above the place where she had placed the SOS.

  Two rescuers descended from the helicopter.

  They removed her father first and then Jeremy.

  There was no place for the helicopter to land, so Jeremy and her father had to be lifted up in a basket.

  “We’re lucky that blizzard finally stopped,” her dad said to Kendal before he was lifted away.