Supernatural Fresh Meat - By Alice Henderson Page 0,70
up at the cliff. “Climbing this is a necessary evil. Once we cut across the top, we’ll be back in the trees.”
“How narrow is the top?”
“Let’s hope wider than it looks.”
“Won’t we be a little exposed up there?”
“Not as exposed as we’d be if we’d taken the avalanche route.” Bobby pulled a rope out of his pack. “It’s going to be windy up there. We should rope ourselves together in case one of us falls.”
As they tied themselves to each other, Sam stared up at the vertical wall. Bobby noticed his worried look. “It’s still better than the route back to the trailhead. A single avalanche could wipe us off the mountain.” Bobby stooped over and unbuckled his snowshoes. “We’ll have to take these off. Make it easier to find toeholds.” He eyed the ascent. “It’ll be easier if we stick to the big boulders going up. Just be careful not to slip down any cracks and break a leg.”
“You paint such a cheerful picture.”
They strapped the snowshoes to their packs. Instantly Sam sank up to his thighs, and he knew it was actually a lot deeper than that. They struggled through the drifts to the edge of the boulder field, and stepped up onto large granite rocks. Bobby pulled out an ice axe from his pack and Sam did the same. If either fell, the other would dig in with their ice axe to arrest the descent.
Bobby took the lead, creeping upward, using his hands to steady himself. The rough granite was a lot easier going than the snow had been. Sam jumped from boulder to boulder, gaining altitude a lot faster than they’d been able to do slogging through the snow. He watched the rope between them go slack and taut as they gained and lost distance between each other.
Within a few minutes, they were a quarter of the way up. It grew steeper then, and the boulders smaller. Progress slowed a bit. When they’d climbed halfway, Sam looked down as they moved above the height of the trees. The layer of cloud stayed low, and for the first time, he could actually see more than thirty feet.
In the near distance were steep granite cliffs. Clouds hung in front of them like shawls made of spider webs. Fresh snow covered the slopes, collecting in all the crags.
Now outside the forest, exposed on the rock face, the wind hit them.
They were almost all the way up, and Sam could see the crest of the cliff above them.
Bobby reached the top first and started making his way along the ridge. A sudden gust of wind kicked up, pinning Sam momentarily to the rocks. He gripped the stone in front of him as it blew even harder, almost knocking him off balance.
“Wooooo!” Sam heard Bobby call out in surprise. “That was a hell of a breeze.”
As it died down, they both straightened up. Sam reached the top of the ridge and could see down the other side of it, a dizzying two hundred foot sheer drop onto a pile of rocks below. They walked along the narrow line of the top, only two feet wide in places and full of loose stones.
A blur of movement flashed up the side of the cliff they had just climbed. Sam saw a dark shape leap to the top of the ridge and slam into Bobby. Bobby cried out and fell backward, plunging over the sickening drop. Instantly, the rope cinched up on Sam, and he lost his footing. He slammed down hard on his tailbone, then spun around to his stomach, clutching the ice axe. He held it tight to his chest, letting his weight drive it down into the rock. The axe dragged through loose soil, and Sam felt his legs swing free as his lower body went over the edge. The weight on the rope tugged him downward. He gritted his teeth, pressing on the axe as he felt his elbows go over the edge. Then, suddenly, the axe found purchase and Sam hung, swinging on the end of it.
As he hung there, he dared a look down and saw Bobby on the end of the rope, suspended above the two hundred foot drop.
Something slammed down onto Sam’s hands where he gripped the axe. He looked up into the face of a black-haired man in his thirties, dressed in a long, black wool overcoat. The man’s mouth parted into a smile full of sharp teeth. His eyes glinted reflectively as he stared