84.
“It’s behind the waterfall,” I said.
Julian turned around, rubbing his hands together. “There’s always something behind the waterfall.”
If the Bunker creators were going for hidden, well, they did a pretty good job. This mountain valley could only be accessed by air, and on top of that, they had built the Bunker behind a giant sheet of falling water. Had it been warmer, we might have never found it.
How we were going to get through the icefall was another proposition entirely. But for now, Ashton and Anna had to know.
“Julian, Michael… stay here and get to work on breaking that ice. I’ll be back in ten minutes.”
“Alex…” Michael said.
“There’s no time for all of us to go back,” I said. “It’s too cold, and getting inside twenty minutes earlier could mean the difference between life and death. Start on the ice.”
Michael nodded, finally agreeing. “Fine. Go back the exact way we came in.”
I nodded. “Of course.”
As Michael and Julian grabbed some nearby rocks and began hammering away at the ice, I turned and ran. The cold air stung my lungs. The shock of the cold still hadn’t gone away. All I had to do now was not get lost.
I slipped on a patch of ice, tumbling to the ground. I stretched out my hands, breaking my fall as I pressed into a snowbank. Panting, I got back up. The freezing snow snuck into my gloves. I ran along the cliff, the exact way Michael, Julian, and I had come. I jogged for another minute, expecting at least a vestige of the trail of footprints we had left.
But instead, I found nothing — nothing but a field of ice, nothing but snow and the gray air, swirling. I suddenly felt very tired.
I ran forward into the snow, leaving the cliff behind. Ashton and Anna would be out there somewhere. They would not have moved…would they?
It was silent and cold. I felt completely alone, as if I were in my own world, as if I were on a separate planet. The ice and snow continued to fall, burying the land in its layers. There was nothing but snow in all directions. I thought there had been at least a few more rocks than this — a few more boulders when I had passed this way earlier.
Unless I hadn’t passed this way before. Unless I had somehow gotten completely off course.
I paused, breathing heavily out of both exhaustion and cold.
It was a cold I was beginning to feel in an entirely new way.
Chapter 10
I dropped to both knees, my breaths escaping in clouds. My entire face felt frozen solid — my vision dimmed, and the snow danced in the sky ahead, falling.
My gloved hands fell to the snow, holding up the rest of my body. I willed my legs to stand — to not die.
And my legs weren’t listening.
As if in a dream, I suddenly stood, walking forward. I kept walking, one foot after the other, feeling like I was floating…
I opened my eyes. I had fallen asleep.
I couldn’t tell how much time had passed — but I knew I didn’t have long. Despite how weak I felt — despite my desire to lie there and close my eyes — a thought came to me. Anna. I saw her smiling face, thought about holding her again — and how I would never have that again if I gave up now.
I stood, forcing myself forward. I ran ahead. Within seconds, I came within view of the frozen lake. And far to my right, I saw the boulder where Grudge had fallen, and two forms standing beside it. I ran forward, stopping before them. I had trouble deciding whether this were a dream or reality. It became real when both Ashton and Anna stared at me with wide eyes. Anna ran forward, pulling me into her arms.
“Alex… oh my God…”
“We found it,” I said.
Ashton looked me over. “He’s getting hypothermia. He needs to get inside right now.”
I pointed toward the shoreline. “Follow the lake… you will find it.”
Anna and Ashton helped me up. The cold was bad, yes — but the three of us had to move Grudge to the Bunker entrance.
They pushed me against the boulder, out of the wind.
“Is he still alive?” I asked.
Anna looked at me, pulling me close. “I’m more worried about you.”
“I know. But Grudge?”
Anna nodded. “He’s still kicking. Obviously, he doesn’t have long…”
“We need to go, then,” I said. “Michael and Julian are already working on the entrance. Let’s just pray that door opens.”
After I had warmed a bit out of the harsh wind, the three of us dragged Grudge along the edge of the lake. I was still woozy, but I helped as much as I could. I had to do anything to burn energy and warm up. As long as we followed the shoreline, we would find the frozen stream, which we could follow into the canyon that led to the icefall. We did come upon that stream, but nearly missed it. It was so covered in snow that the only thing that gave it away was the slight depression the snow made covering it.
We pulled Grudge upstream. Soon, both sides of the canyon rose taller and taller, blocking the wind. It was much-needed relief. A few minutes later we came upon Michael and Julian, desperately hacking through the icefall with a combination of large rocks and knives. They were working around the edges rather than the middle.
Upon seeing us, Michael walked up.
“We figured we might be able to get in the back way.”
“The back way?”
Michael pointed toward the right side of the falls. “It’s weaker, for whatever reason, on this side. The ice is thin right where it touches the mountainside. Julian and I have already taken a good chunk out of it.”
I picked up my own rock — a gray, jagged thing that wasn’t very heavy, but at least it was sharp. I went to the falls and started pummeling the ice where Michael and Julian had already made a dent. Chips of ice flew through the air, and I could clearly see the rounded door of Bunker 84, blue and blurry through the falls. Getting the ice out of the way was the chief concern. The second would be opening the door — something I had no idea how to do.
I wondered why the Bunker designers had decided to put the door here. I guessed it was very secluded and no one would have thought to look here. As far as Bunkers went, it was even more remote than the others — in the middle of the mountains, with no easy access. It made me think that there was something inside that they were trying to hide. The mountain was way too steep here for anyone to have reached this high-altitude valley without aircraft. It made me wonder if, perhaps, there was another entrance farther down. Maybe this one was just a back entrance.
I hacked at the ice again. A large chunk toppled, and a web of cracks snaked their way upward.
“Get back!” Julian said.
Everyone backed away from the icefall. Slowly, we watched as it disintegrated from bottom to top like a gigantic pane of glass. Shards tumbled down from the darkened sky and we backed away even farther. The ice crumbled, jangling almost musically as it formed a massive heap.
We waited a moment longer, breaths heavy, to make sure the rest of the icefall held. After a few more seconds, I walked forward. I picked my way carefully over the large mound of ice, and down the opposite side. I found myself in front of the Bunker door.
That was when I saw it was already open a crack.
I motioned everyone over. Michael and Julian helped move Grudge, and Anna climbed over the ice, slid down, and stood next to me, our arms touching. She peered into the sliver of darkness of the partway-open door.
Grunting, Michael and Julian pulled Grudge to where Anna and I stood before the door. Last of all came Ashton, who crawled with weary limbs over the ice pile. He slid down to the other side, not getting up once he had landed on the bottom on his rear.