Whiteout II: 11(The Death Zone)

11. The Death Zone

     The air was what woke me. I felt as though I was still gasping for it, and then I saw Lopsang gently shaking me. “It is time my friend. Gear up.” Most summit expeditions would have limited that term to climbing gear and hot water. Our sense of gearing up was slightly different. The bags that we had carried on our backs which had seemed so heavy now contained the tools we needed to take the beast down.

     I always carried a slew of weaponry with me, but attacking the beast was a different type of challenge. The three bottles of liquid we had rattled softly and I pulled them out. “Our best chance of getting these in is with some high powered arrow.” I had two crossbows and a harpoon gun. “Lopsang, James, these are for you. Remember to dip the tip into the liquid before you shoot, or you’re just wasting ammo.”

     I took the harpoon gun, a trusty weapon that had served me well. Just two years prior it had saved me from a rather dodgy group of mermaids who were content on eating me whole. After I skewered one the rest took off and left the rest of the work to the sharks. God I hate underwater jobs. At least this is better than that. Come to think of it, working underwater and on the top of a mountain weren’t all that different. On top of the mountain I had to wear an oxygen mask just like at the bottom of the ocean, and both were equally dangerous. The ocean has a lot of things that the documentary artists don’t tell you about.

     I loaded the vial into a compartment on the side of the harpoon gun and donned the many layers of gear I would need to survive. There were jackets, boots, ropes, carabineers, and more clothing than I ever knew one could need. The moment I stepped outside I could see why. The sun had not quite risen, giving an eerie green glow to the mountainside. Out over the edge there was only the inky blackness. Being in the death zone felt a bit like being on the dark side of the moon.

     Rocks poked their heads from the otherwise snowy surface, providing obstacles and reference points. Manchester’s team had stepped out as well. We all stood in the dark, head lamps on, in silence. “Glad to see you managed to wake up. Would be a shame if you weren’t able to share the glory with me.” Even Manchester sounded weary. The thinness of the air was getting to us all, making us slower, and I didn’t like it.

     Something didn’t feel right about that morning. It was all off in a way that I couldn’t pinpoint. The brain of another, much dumber person now resided in my skull and it made me nervous. Wind blew across the barren landscape, taking small puffs of ice with it. I put on my goggles and everything took an orange tint to it. “There’s no sense in delaying now, we’re almost there.”

     The last obstacle that stood in our way before we reached the creature’s altitude was a blue ice wall. It wasn’t very tall, but it was a steep climb. Lopsang took the lead and roped the ascent for us. Even the slightest mistake would end with us all tumbling down the mountain. Death was always close up there, forever knocking, wanting in desperately. We raged against its cold embrace and continued to climb.

     The blue ice crumbled and cracked as we scaled it. As we climbed I noticed on one side that there were several holes with cracks along them. I couldn’t be sure, but they looked like they might have been the creature’s tracks from when it climbed. Fear brewed inside me for the moment when I would have to face it again. The ever narrowing odds were clear at that point, and a melancholy determination consumed me.

When we had reached the top the sun began to poke out over the valleys below. We switched off our headlamps. When everyone was over the edge we prepared to do something no one had ever done. Going off the climbing trail was essentially suicide. There was one route up the mountain for a reason. Every aspect of its natural beauty was fraught with danger, and no one had fully explored it yet.

What lay on the other side was a mystery to everyone. “Switch on your masks everyone. This is where it gets really tricky.” I allowed Lopsang to lead the way. He had the best knowledge of the mountain and was least likely to miss something crucial like the beginning of a crevasse. “The creature returns to a point just on the other side of the mountain’s pinnacle. We have plotted a course that should take us on a reasonable trail.”

We had assumed there had to be some sort of trail for the creature to travel on to get back. It was clearly dexterous and able to climb very quickly, but it could not climb when there was nothing but a rock face, or at least, we hoped it couldn’t. As we stepped off the trail I felt the uneasiness creeping back in. Something was definitely not right about the expedition, but I could not place it.

The mission was dangerous, but I had come to relative peace with it. The mountain wanted to kill us, but we all knew that from the start. It was something about the area we had entered, like a visceral sense of foreboding and dread. We were not supposed to be there, and the odds of there being any more markers to save us were very little. We were on our own past that point.

The lazy path that wound up to the summit betrayed its difficulty. The path we took made no such illusions. On one side the rock abruptly dropped away, leaving room enough for us to move single file. Where there wasn’t rock ice had filled the cracks, and with every step it creaked and moaned, longing to give out from underneath us. “Still think it’s worth it?” I wheezed to Manchester through my mask. Amazingly he heard it.

“All truly amazing things are my friend. We are on the edge of history here.” We hiked along the edge of the cliff for what seemed like hours, but in reality was less than one. The energy of putting one foot in front of the other had become exhausting. Each step was a mile, each breath a workout. My body was like lead, unwilling to move, and yet I forced it to continue forward like a doomed soldier.

On my back the edge of the harpoon rattled against the mountain, knocking off little flakes of ice. It dulled the blade, but I hadn’t the care to change my walking pattern to better it. One moment of dull scraping wasn’t going to change our odds against the creature. “HALT!” Screamed one of the men from the front of the group. Around us there was  low rumble that usually meant avalanche, but we were far too high. At the top of the mountain powder didn’t stick, it merely blew off to the lower altitudes.

The rumbling continued as if the very mountain was about to split open. We all waited, holding our breath, praying to stay on our feet. After a brief moment the rumbling stopped, leaving us in silence. The wind whipped along the edge of the mountain briefly and died. I pulled out the laptop slowly from my backpack and opened it. The little green dot flashed slowly. It was still, unmoving.

“I think we can move—“A hunk of ice sprayed down the mountain, taking the man in the lead with it. There was no blood, only a sickening crunch as he was thrown over the edge. It must have knocked him out as there was no screaming. An echo reverberated up as the rock smashed against the mountain on its way down.

Terror gripped me as I waited for the next hunk of ice to take me. It never came. The light blinked on, and then, slowly, began to move. “Uh guys. The light is moving.”

Manchester turned to me in a daze, covered with a fine powder from where the ice had sprayed him. “What do you mean it’s moving?”

“The light, it’s moving. The creature, it’s moving.” The words seemed foreign to me. It was broad daylight, we were close to the creatures hideout, and uncharacteristically it was moving. BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. The light reminded me of the impending danger approaching. We were too far along the edge of the mountain to turn back, but none of us knew what to do. It was James who saved us from obliteration.

“If it’s moving we need to as well. We can’t face it here. Move forward! Quickly! Move your ass now!” Manchester started forward and we picked up the pace. Every step was agony, but the adrenaline did its best to numb the pain. I panted and heaved, moving my iron legs through the freezing cold.

You have to live. This is it right here. Move your legs or you are going to die. If you can’t keep up James will die too. Move your fucking legs. The thoughts came slowly but motivated me to keep going. We half ran along the mountainside to the beat of the beep. Every time it moved, we moved as well, and from the looks of it, we were moving straight towards it. I slipped and fell to one knee, but was quickly propped up by James.

“Not now Nick. Come on!”

“Good to know how to motivate you I suppose.” I said, laughing and wheezing hysterically. Any chance at comic relief would have been nice, but it was swallowed up immediately by the constant presence of my impending death. I had never been more sure that I was going to die. It felt like a dream, running in molasses towards an infinite ending. In the final moments I embraced it, and then the edge mercifully gave way to a rocky plateau.

I stumbled forward and into a stone ring. James tripped after me with Lopsang close behind him. The laptop skittered across the surface and into a small crevasse, beeping the entire way. I could hear it tumble and lodge just below the surface. The beep echoed softly up to us, informing me that our target was still there.

We’re alive I thought. I looked up and my heart stopped.

“The gates are open…” Whispered Manchester.