Page 36 of The Artist
“Mason, is that you?”
“Yes, sweetheart. It’s me. I’m gonna get you out, okay?”
“My legs are buried in snow and I’m stuck,” she cried.
“I’m going to dig a bigger hole so I can get to you. Just stay calm. I’ve got you.”
If her legs had been buried under snow for more than an hour, there could be frostbite and dead skin tissue for us to worry about, but for now my mission was to get her out of this tomb of snow. With frantic movement I dug a hole big enough for my head and shoulders to get through. My heart hammered in my chest when I pushed through the barrier between us and found Belle sitting close. The air pocket around her was the size of a small drone and provided her with enough air that she wasn’t suffocating. Shining my flashlight toward her feet, I assessed that she was buried from her knees down. The good thing was that her boots protected her feet from direct exposure to the snow.
Crying, she reached out for me. “Mason. I can’t move and I’m sooo cold.” Her eyes were squinting as if the bright light from my wristband blinded her.
“You didn’t use your wristband.” It wasn’t a question but an observation.
“We have no co…connection in the Northlands, so I left it back home.” Her teeth were chattering making it hard to understand her brittle voice. “I was so scared.”
“Shhh… I’ve got you.” I was already digging around her legs to get her feet out. “Are you hurt?”
“When the snow came rushing down, I pa… pa… panicked. I should have run to the others, but everything hap… happened so fast and I was so scared that I pressed myself against the wall.”
“You did the right thing. There’s no way you could have outrun the avalanche. I just wonder how you got this high above the ground.”
“I was al…. already on a rock formation be… because I wanted to see the top of the sculpture.”
Looking around I saw what appeared to be a natural indent in the mountain that would become our coffin if we didn’t get out of here. I tried not to think about how much her teeth were shivering and kept digging, but the chattering was so loud that she left me no choice. “Here.” Taking off my jacket, I placed it around her shoulders.
“Than… thank you.”
“Can you pull your legs up?”
She tried but only her left leg came out of the snow and it was without her boot.
“Here.” I placed one of my gloves under her foot to shield it from direct contact with the cold snow. And then I continued to dig out her right foot. “Pull,” I instructed and when we at long last got both her legs out, her crying intensified.
“Belle, sweetheart, listen to me.” I grabbed her shoulders and looked deep into her eyes. “I’m going to get us out of here, but you have to trust me.”
Her lips were blue, her skin pale as a ghost, and there was frost on her eyebrows and eyelashes.
“I do trus… trust you.”
“Thor and Indiana are going to pull us out, but we need to make it back down to the tunnel first.”
“Oka… kay.”
“The tunnel is narrow, and it can be scary down there. I want your face close to mine so I can talk you through it. That means I’m going down with my feet first while I’ll guide you down slowly head first. I know it’s strange, but you have to trust that I won’t let you fall or get hurt. There won’t be room for you to turn around once we’re in the tunnel, so we have to do it this way.”
Belle made a sound of understanding before I put my jacket back on and pushed myself back through the hole. She was crying as if every movement hurt tremendously but she managed to lie back on the ice. Wrapping my arms under her armpits, I supported her body down until we were in the tunnel with me on my stomach and her on her back. Placing her head on my shoulder, I clasped my hands tight around her chest.
“Are you ready?”
“Mason, I’m sca… scared.”
“I’m not letting go of you, Belle. I promise!”
“What if the tu… tunnel co… collapses and we get buried alive?”
“Then we die together.” I kissed her hair and then I talked to my wristband, dictating a message to Thor and Indiana. “We’re ready. Pull us out.”
Ten seconds later the rope around my right boot tightened and we began moving. As our bodies slid over the icy tunnel floor, I kept telling Belle that everything would be all right. She had her eyes closed and kept crying in small, frightened sobs, while her teeth kept chattering.
