Supernatural Fresh Meat - By Alice Henderson Page 0,64

“Did you see the section of forest the last one took out?”

She hesitated. “Yes.”

“And you think that won’t happen here?”

“We’re higher up on the slope, in denser trees.”

The mountain really started to shake beneath them, and Dean grabbed onto a tree trunk to steady himself. “Where is it?”

Grace tried to see upslope, past the trees. “Must be on the slope to our left.” She waited. “I think it’ll pass us by.”

The mist was so dense that Dean couldn’t see past the edge of the trees. For all he knew, the avalanche could be speeding their way. It was humbling to think that a wall of snow could just wipe them off the mountain. He listened for the crunching of wood, the splitting of trunks, anything that would give away the direction of the avalanche or if it were taking out another swath of trees.

“Maybe we should move in the other direction, or go upslope?”

Grace stood still, listening. Beneath them the snow had shifted so much from the vibrations that their boots were completely covered. Then the quaking lessened.

“I think it’s ending,” she said finally.

The rumbling stopped, the roar in the distance fading away as the snow settled.

“So we’re safe?” Dean asked.

“For now.”

“That doesn’t instill a lot of confidence. We need to get to the ski resort.”

Dean started upslope again, winding between the trees. Grace followed, occasionally glancing nervously in the direction of the avalanche noise.

The low cloud layer was almost claustrophobic at times. Their stalker could be following them and Dean would never see him. In fact, he was pretty sure he was still following them. He could feel eyes staring into his back.

FORTY-ONE

Dean and Grace slowly worked their way toward the ski resort through the driving snow. At least, Dean hoped that’s where they were going. He estimated they’d walked four of the six miles and made about half of the one thousand foot elevation gain.

He could certainly feel the five hundred feet they’d climbed. While that was nothing to him on a regular hike, slogging in the snow took a lot more energy.

They reached a large meadow, and Grace stopped, checking her map. She pointed out a meadow that ran alongside a slope. “This is Seven Boulder Meadow. Once we cross this, it’ll be up a rockslide on the far side, and then we’ll be within range of the resort.”

Dean looked up from her map. The visibility was so poor, he couldn’t even see the edge of the meadow. It just looked like a flat expanse of deep snow ending in a sky of white.

She followed his gaze. “If it were clear and sunny, we’d be able to see the ski runs of the resort by now.” She stared out over the field. “We’re close.”

On the map, she pointed out the resort in relation to the meadow, and she was right. They were close.

She started across the flat expanse of snow. The wind created a hypnotic effect on the ground, like snow snakes winding in and out of each other.

Dean followed in Grace’s trail, keeping an eye on their six. But he hadn’t seen their pursuer since he shot him.

Grace reached the center of the expanse. Dean didn’t like being so out in the open, but he did appreciate finally moving on a level surface, and felt some of his energy returning. He hadn’t eaten anything but a few strips ofjerky in over twenty-four hours.

He slowed, getting his water bottle out of his pack and taking a long drink. The cold dry air sucked the moisture right out of him, making him constantly thirsty. As he paused to put the bottle back, he heard a loud cracking noise.

At first, he glanced upward, afraid it was another avalanche. Then Grace cried out. He turned just in time to see her apparently fall into the snow. There was another tremendous cracking sound, and suddenly the ground around her tipped upward. Water sprayed up and she disappeared.

“Grace!” Dean yelled, hurrying in her direction.

Then he saw their terrible mistake. They weren’t on a meadow, but on a frozen lake. He dropped to his stomach and crawled forward to the hole where she’d gone in. He didn’t see her at all, just a dark hole in the ice, sloshing with turbulent water.

He felt something thump under him, and realized she’d been sucked under the ice sheet. She was pounding on the ice beneath him, trying to find her way out.

Dean knew the icy water would almost instantly paralyze her lungs and body. He