222 Survive

As the fire slowly died, I added in another twig, giving it the elixir needed to sustain life. I looked over at the pile of firewood that had been gathered, taking in the stockpile. I wonder if this will be enough for the night, considering how fierce the storm was going outside.

I looked over at the mouth of the cave and shivered somewhat as a gust of cold wind blew in and was heated by the crackling fire. Around me, I saw that the others were sleeping as peacefully as possible, with their knees tucked close to their chest in order to preserve warmth. Since they are well asleep and there has been no activity outside, I decided that now was the time for me to conclude everything that I know so far.

The suspension bridge didn't collapse on its own. Someone cut the rope, meaning that there's someone else on this mountain with us, someone who doesn't want us to leave. Then...what about the weather? There's no way that the weather could be made to change, so either it was luck or whoever cut the rope waited until now. Both the former and the latter are equally likely. The weather changes without any notice, and I know nothing about the intellect of the culprit. So, I guess I must prepare for both possibilities. The former is the more ideal, because if the culprit planned this, then it'll be a rather difficult situation.

"But why?" I sighed and asked myself while adding in another log to the fire. "Why us?"

Is it just a whoever-comes-by type of scenario? Then the second hypothesis of the culprit planning this does not stand. If it's planned, the victim must be someone in our group. The culprit must be familiar with this mountain, but who in our group would wrong anyone in a mountain? That eliminates that possibility, so maybe the weather is just luck?

And then there's the being I saw outside. It was rather tall, maybe somewhat taller than me. But then, that wouldn't make sense. I saw something that resembled a tail on the large, stocky creature. That slender almost tail-like object...it was located near the head of the creature if compared to the overall body of the being. I've never seen anything that has a tail that close to its head. What could it be?

I looked over at Noah, who was still asleep.

Does he know anything about this? He was rather enthusiastic about having us come and see the flowers. But then Zaksus was also like that. And when we saw the collapsed bridge, Noah's as also caught by surprise, so it's not him?

"Ah," I let out a silent, frustrated cry.

I don't have anything else to go on for now. This is all that I had gathered, and if I want to know anything else, I would need to investigate further tomorrow. But if we're able to get off this mountain tomorrow, then this can be forgotten. But...I have a feeling we won't be able to leave this place that easily.

When the hour was up, I walked over to Loyd and shook him awake. He slowly opened his eyes, blindly somewhat so as to decipher where he was. However, after a while, he was able to come to his senses.

"Will the firewood last?" He frowned.

"I don't know," I sighed as I laid down in the spot he was resting earlier. "We'll have to hope for the best."

"I really want some actually security but..." Loyd sighed. "I guess you can't have everything you want in life."

"You alright?" I frowned.

"Yeah,"  Loyd chuckled.

I stared at him for a moment, and then before I closed my eyes, I relayed to him one final message.

"If you see anything outside," I said, "and tell this to the others as well. Wake me up."

"Yeah," Loyd nodded as he sat down by the fire, staring into the crackling flame. He didn't question the reasoning for my request and simply listened.

***

When I opened my eyes once again, it was already morning. Outside, it would appear that the snow storm had stopped, leaving behind a thick layer of snow. The others were huddled around the dying fire as it burned the last bit of fire wood, giving us the final flashes of its energy.

Slowly, I pushed myself up from the cold, rocky surface of the cave floor, feeling a freezing shock as it travelled up from my palms to my brain, and rose to my full height. I walked right past the fire and to the mouth of the cave, looking out.

I first peered at the ground, and sure enough, there were no tracks. The storm had covered it all, making it so that I am unsure of where that creature had came from.

"We'll need to find a way off this mountain," Mura said in a sluggish voice. It would appear that she is not well-rested. I believe none of us are truly. "There has to be another bridge."

"Hopefully," Alvelyn sighed.

The morning was then characterized by our difficult march through the snow-covered ground as we roamed the mountain in search of a way back to the other mountain. Reasonably, there should be more than one bridge, so we bet all our hopes on that fact and searched around. We didn't technically have to return to the original mountain. As long as we can find somewhere with civilization, we should be good.

With those hopes in mind, we forced ourselves to continue. With no breakfast, our stomachs were in discomfort, but even then we pushed on. There's no point in stopping and complaining. That'll just eat up the scarce energy we have left. We just have to keep going and going and going. Continue on through this world covered in a mournful white, in this world that seemed to have just suddenly died.

The march through the mountain in snow and while we were freezing proved to be difficult. Progress was extremely slow as we were tired from the constant shivering and hunger. It took us way too long to mobilize, so when the day approached dusk once again, we were still fruitless.

"This can't do," Loyd shook his head in frustration. "We're not getting anywhere like this."

"We'll just use up our energy and eventually collapse from over-exertion," I calmly pointed out.

"We need another way," Mura nodded. "Would starting a fire work? Have the smoke signal to people that we're here?"

"That will only work if there's a search party out for us," I sighed. "Unless we burn the entire forest down, which is impossible with all this snow on the ground, we're not attracting anyone here."

"What's gonna happen to us," Irina frowned. On her face was a look of concern and insecurity.

"Irina..." Luna placed a hand on her back and she seemed to want to comfort the girl. However, Luna herself did not know what to say during circumstances like these so she stayed mute.

"I think I see a radio tower!" Zaksus called to us from up ahead. His voice trembled as he himself shivered in the cold, but his voice was still loud and powerful.

"Where?" Noah exclaimed as he rapidly climbed through the snow to reach where Zaksus was located. "Is that a building over there?"

"What?" Sounds of joy was elicited from the others as the hopes of rescue was ignited once again.

"That's for sure a building," Noah pointed out. "But it's so secluded..."

Noah was right. The location of the building was up against a wall of a ravine. On either side of the ravine above the building were dense vegetation that seemed to act as a cover for the building. In addition to the building's natural geographical location, the moss growing on the wooden building also seemed to serve to conceal it from the naked eye. It's almost as if it was intentionally designed to be hidden from view of airplanes flying overhead.

"It's not too far from here," Mura said to us. "We should be able to reach there by nighttime."

With that decided, the ten of us then made that building in the distance as our destination, making it a must-achieve goal to reach that establishment before nighttime. However, that meant we will still have to conduct a long march in the cold over to that location. In this cold temperature, it is even more taxing.

We shivered each step that we took, and due to the cold, our hands and feet lost their warmth, becoming increasingly numb and difficult to control. It was almost a bit painful to move, but lucky for us, the temperature drop had stopped, causing the temperature to stay relatively constant at a point where we are still unable to get frostbite.

When we finally arrived at the building, the sun was already setting. Because we had nothing to eat for the entire day with only a few drinks of water from the melted snow, we were extremely weak and sluggish. Therefore, when we finally saw the state of the building, our hopes of survival seemed to be extinguished.

"I don't think this place has anyone living here," Noah said in a trembling and desperate voice.

Noah was right. The building, with its cracked windows and out of repair walls...it looks as if no one has done maintenance on this location for over fifty years.