Page 28 of The Edge of Never

“Yes?”

“How long was I oot for?”

They sat back on their heels and opened the packet of painkillers they’d extracted.

“I don’t know.”

“Ye havnae checked the time?”

They popped out two pills and grabbed a water bottle before shifting closer to me. I put out my hand for the paracetamol and took the bottle from them.

Kit had a tense expression on their face while I swallowed the pills.

“No.”

“Mibbe ye should.”

They bit their lip and fiddled with the drawstring on the sleeping bag.

“The thing is, I may have left my phone at the lodge because I was busy making sure I packed my bag to your standards and, well, it slipped my mind. I only realised when we stopped at the base of the mountain, so it’s not like I could go back for it or anything.”

I let out a sigh, unsurprised by this.

“Get mine then. It’s in mah go bag with the map.”

They kept fiddling with the drawstring, their fingers tightening around the elastic.

“You had your phone in that?”

“Aye.”

Kit’s eyes darted all around the tent. It set me on edge. There was something they didn’t want to tell me. Something bad.

“What’s wrong?”

“So… um, when I was organising stuff earlier, I kind of noticed it was missing. The bag, I mean. I looked everywhere for it, but it’s not in the tent, and I wasn’t about to put all my gear back on to go out in the snow as I was worried about you, so um… yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s lost somewhere out there.”

The weight of their words settled over me. My go bag was missing. My phone and the map were gone. Our lifelines to the outside world. Callan carried a personal locator beacon as standard on all his excursions. I didn’t think I would need one for this trip. Now I was sorely regretting the decision to go without.

I closed my eyes and tried not to panic over the situation. My body felt weak after being in that water and walking all day. My ankle continued to throb, and I had no fucking clue what we were going to do.

How the fuck did anyone stay calm after everything we’d just been through? The avalanche cutting us off from the faster route. The weather draining us of all our energy. Me almost dying from hypothermia. Now we were stuck in this glen with no way of getting help because I was injured. It was all too much.

“Fuck.”

“Fuck indeed.”

When I opened my eyes, Kit had a concerned look on their face. I couldn’t lose my mind over it even if I wanted to. Then it occurred to me I still had my watch. I pulled my arm up and stared at the clock face.

“It’s eleven.”

“No wonder I’m starving. We missed dinner.”

“Ye didnae eat anything?”

“I was far too concerned about you to be worried about me.”

I dropped my arm and frowned. They should be taking care of themselves. And they were likely as exhausted as me at this point. I didn’t know how they were still going.

---