Supernatural Fresh Meat - By Alice Henderson Page 0,86

the rocks around him for something to anchor the rope to when he heard Bobby shout, “I can do it myself, you idjit. Just tie the rope to something solid up there and toss it down.”

Sam leaned over. Bobby was awake, but a lot of blood had run down his face and stained his orange parka.

“I can come down and get you.”

“What am I, a helpless namby-pamby? Just toss it down. Find an anchor up at the top of the ridge.”

Sam lowered one end of the rope to Bobby, swinging it so it reached his ledge. Bobby grabbed it with his good hand. Sam stuffed the other end inside his parka to keep from jostling it.

Sam put Bobby’s pack on one shoulder and his own on the other, then tied them together with some of the rope. He studied the rock face above him, looking for a quicker route back up than the one he had followed down. Not seeing one, he started retracing each careful step.

It took him longer to get back up than it had to descend. He glanced down at Bobby a few times, worried he might find him passed out in the snow, but he was busy tying the rope around himself.

The snowfall near the top of the ridge was so thick that it coated Sam’s face instantly and a powerful gust of wind screamed up the opposite side, creating a wall of white at the crest, a vertical, unyielding snowfall. With the rope tied to a loop in his rainproof pants, Sam crept on hands and knees across the ridge. Each time he heard the roar of an upcoming gust, he laid flat, waiting for it to blow over him and die down again.

He crawled the remaining feet to the tree line. It felt incredible to stand up and walk into the trees. He found a massive ponderosa and anchored the rope around it.

He walked to the edge, braced himself against a tremendous boulder, and called out to Bobby, motioning that he was ready. Bobby gave him a thumbs up. Then, cautiously, he placed both feet on the cliff wall, hung onto the rope with his good hand, and walked his away laterally across the cliff face.

Bobby moved fast, Sam noticed, and with a great deal of agility for someone who must be in a world of pain. When he was directly under him, Sam pulled him up.

Bobby crested the ridge and they fell back in the shelter of the trees. Bobby groaned in pain. Up close, Sam could see how soaked his hat and parka were with blood. He examined his eyes, finding one pupil wide and the other dilated. Concussion.

“Let me see your wrist.”

Bobby bit his lip. “I don’t think it’s broken. I was worried for a second there that it had shattered and was more boneless than an octopus tentacle. It might be fractured.” He gestured toward his pack. “I can take that now.”

“What about your tentacle arm?”

“I’ll live.”

Damn, he was tough.

“Besides, if I get separated from you in the storm, I can’t afford to be without it.”

Sam relented. He slid the two packs off his shoulders and untied the rope binding them together. Together they looked through what remained in Bobby’s pack, Bobby happy to see his guns and Bowie knife remained.

Sam checked his own food supply. Two packages ofjerky and three granola bars. It wasn’t much. Bobby had had the bulk of their food. He indicated the research folder. “You can do some light reading tonight. That’ll take your mind off starving.”

Bobby still had his map, but the GPS unit was gone. It was a blow. The GPS had been the only thing keeping them on track in the whiteout.

“What are we going to do?” Sam asked.

“We know where we are now. We’ll just have to be really careful as we proceed. The cloud layer’s a little higher. We’ll keep getting glimpses of where we are. That’ll help.”

Sam used the rope to tie Bobby’s torn pack together, then helped Bobby heave the pack on and fasten the hip and chest straps.

“Now we really have to make it fast to the resort. The more we’re out with injuries like this, the faster we’re going to weaken.”

Blood had crusted around Bobby’s eye, and they used some snow to clear it away. Bobby strapped his snowshoes back on and continued into the forest. Sam hurriedly put his pack back on and took up the rear.

Already the brief glimpse he’d had of their surroundings