Black Mountain Read Free Page B

wall to the ranger when we get back.’
    Amanda looked back at the edge of the path and shook her head, trying to clear the image of that long fall to the forest below. She started walking, her legs feeling wobbly, then turned back briefly. ‘Okay, we report it, but only after we’ve got that stone safely in the trunk of my car. Just one second.’
    Buzz-click, buzz-click – two more photos for her album.
    *
    By the time Brad had hauled Amanda up onto an outcrop of rock and declared they were as high as they could go, the occasional speck of sleet had turned to real snow. There was a wind chill that cut through their clothing and made their lips so numb it was hard to talk.
    ‘We might be the first people to have stood here for nearly one hundred and fifty years,’ Brad said through gritted teeth.
    Amanda tried to give him her best appreciative smile. She was standing as close as possible to his huge frame so he acted as a windbreak. As far as she was concerned, and kept telling him, the view had been just as good from the side of the mountain where the slip had been. She noticed his lips were turning blue and he’d developed the hunched look of someone whose body temperature is rapidly falling.
    The snow either drifted down or whipped past them, depending on the gusts of wind, and she had to speak loudly to be heard. ‘Let’s go, baby. We’ve seen enough now.’
    Brad stared into the wind for a few more seconds, then nodded and took her hand to help her down from the rocks. ‘You’re right, time to go. I don’t like the way the weather’s closing in on us.’
    There was no sightseeing on the way down. Away from the exposed Black Dome, there was more shelter so the needle-sharp cold wind with its haunted moaning was left behind. The falling snow suppressed any sounds around them, except for the squeal of crushed flakes under Brad’s large feet as he moved them quickly along. Amanda had her hands firmly tucked up under her arms and only pulled them out to maintain her balance when they had to hop across logs, boulders or particularly slippery-looking drifts.
    ‘You hear that?’ Brad said, stopping and half-turning to her with a frown on his face.
    She almost bumped into him. On seeing his expression, she stopped to listen to the snow-dampened silence. She didn’t hear anything . . . no, wait, there . . . It was a thumping sound, like a fist striking a giant pillow. There was no rhythm or pattern to it. She slowly turned her head, trying to determine where the sound was coming from.
    ‘What is it?’ she asked.
    ‘Shit, better not be another rockfall. Come on, let’s hurry – we’re nearly at the slip. I’ll feel better once we’re back across it.’
    ‘Goddamnit, Brad, I am not staying on this mountain tonight. I warn you – you’ll be in big trouble if you’ve gone and gotten us stuck.’
    Brad just frowned before setting off again. He looks worried , she thought. She didn’t know why she was blaming him, after all she liked to hike and it wasn’t as if he’d made it snow or caused the slip to drop more debris. She just felt like venting – and probably would again before they got back down.
    It didn’t take them long to get to the slip, now white with fresh snow. Its surface looked like a powdery moonscape complete with meteor-strike craters. Brad hung onto a tree, not yet ready to step out. He leaned out and craned his neck to look upwards.
    Amanda grabbed a handful of his parka and tried to lean out too. ‘What is it?’ she whispered. ‘Has there been another landslide?’
    Brad kept his eyes on the track. ‘I think . . . yes and no. That old Indian wall up on the rock face – it looks like it’s finally crumbled. I think that’s what’s causing the pits in the snow.’
    ‘Is it safe to cross?’
    Brad hesitated. ‘I guess so . . . doesn’t look as though there are many stones left to fall. Besides, there’s no choice if you want to sleep in a bed tonight.’ He still