Page 40 of Run Wild Omega

I press two fingers to her neck.

Her pulse is there. Thready, weak, but it’s there.

“Tess!”

I grab her shoulders and shake her, hard. Her head lolls, her eyes fluttering open. They’re unfocused and glazed over.

“Wyatt?” Her voice is a thread of sound. “I’m… cold.”

“I know. I got you.”

“Dylan?” she whispers.

“He’s here. We’re all here.”

“Didn’t… want to die.”

“You’re not going to die,” I lie. “I’m going to get you out.”

“Wyatt.” Miles’s panicked voice from above me. “The slab is moving. We have to go. Now.”

I look up. Snow is curling over the lip of the crevice like a wave.

“Miles, get the litter!” I scream. “Lower the line!”

I rip my pack off and dig for the splint. I need to stabilize that leg before we move her, or the bone shards will sever her artery.

“Miles! Now!”

“Coming!”

I work on her leg, my hands shaking so badly I can barely fasten the straps. Every time she gasps in pain, it feels like a knife in my chest.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, her eyes closing again. “So sorry.”

“Don’t talk. Save your energy.”

The litter drops down beside me, clattering against the rock.

“Miles, Dylan, get ready to haul!”

I strap her in, locking her broken leg to the frame. I check her airway. I pull the emergency bivy over her, tucking it tight around her chin.

“Tess, stay with me.”

She doesn’t answer.

“Haul!”

I push from the bottom as they heave from above. We inch her up the icy wall of the crevice.

We are halfway out when the mountain gives up the ghost.

The roar starts as a low rumble, then explodes into a freight train sound.

“AVALANCHE!” Miles screams.

“Haul!”