Dead Five's Pass Read Free Page A

didn’t belong here on the virgin snow. But neither did this tableau of gore. Michael’s mind raced at the various horrors lurking in the dark: wolves, bears, axe murderers.
    Nate came back around from the stones and pulled Michael from his terror, but didn’t make it any better.
    “He’s a climber.” Nate held a fragment of a neon-yellow winter jacket.
    “Was,” Dave said, his voice low and solemn, devoid of emotion, or too much.
    All three of them just stood there and stared at each other. Dumb fear.
    From the distance within the tent, Mouse called out, “What’s happening?”
    They all turned around in sync and headed back to the tent.
    “We’re getting out of here, that’s what’s happening. And we’re calling this in,” Michael said, trying to hold the panic back, and mostly failing.

 
     
     
    3
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Marcel switched off the CB radio and froze. He was hoping this weekend would mark the end of climbing season. He wanted to leave the country for a week, take Janis, his fiancée, away on a fishing trip in Florida, catch some sun and marlin—make some attempts at repairing their relationship. But if what those two truckers were saying was true, then something terrible had happened.
    He couldn’t leave now, not if there were still people out there in the pass. It’d also mean he’d have to see Carise again.
    The thought of her still hurt like an iron spike to the chest. There was so much unresolved grief there: the loss of their child, the accident, her descent into alcoholism—and worse: his abandonment. But it was mutually destructive, them staying together. Her blaming herself for the miscarriage, and him trying to ignore it even happened.
    It was all circular.
    Marcel swallowed his mug of lukewarm tea, walked out of his cramped study and into the cabin’s kitchen.
    “You heard then?” he said to Janis, referring to the trucker’s conversation about the girl.
    She kept her back to him, arms propped up on the countertop, her back hunched with tension. He could almost feel the words before they came out of her mouth.
    “You can’t go to her. Not after all this time. I won’t have it,” Janis said.
    “No discussion, no—”
    She spun, her eyes were wide and her mouth curled into a sneer.
    “You will not see that…bitch.” She spat that last word like it was poison.
    “It’s Carise, it wouldn’t hurt you to use her name.”
    “If you go, that’s it,” she said.
    This scenario had played out hundreds of times in his head all the while waiting for a call from Marge, or Frank, waiting for the time when he would have to go out together with Carise again. Janis had wanted him to quit the rescue team months ago, but there was no one else in this godforsaken community willing to help. And none that knew the pass better than he. He’d lived here all his life, which of course made the gossip on the CB about a newly discovered cave all the more surprising.
    “Why does it have to be so final with you all the time?” he said. “I can’t ignore my responsibilities. If there’s kids out there—”
    Janis ground her teeth, clenched her fists.
    “What about me, Marc? When do I become a responsibility? When do I factor into your priorities? Just don’t go. I know they’re going to call; they’re short on numbers this season, but it’s dangerous out there and I don’t trust…”
    She trailed off and looked away, wiping her face on the sleeve of her silk robe.
    Me, her? Probably both.
    Marcel walked to her, placed his hands around her waist. She flinched at his touch as if he were some stranger.
    “I know you don’t trust her. I’m not sure I can.” Even saying that felt like a betrayal to her memory. “But it’s all the more reason why I have to go if they call. How can I let Carise go out there on her own? She’s a danger to herself, not least any climbers stuck out there in the pass.”
    “She’s a drunk! Reckless, and she’ll get you killed too. Mark my