Chapter 16

The dark wall of snow sealing the entrance of the tunnel sparkled and glistened in the moving beams of our flashlights. Alice paused for a moment to wipe the sweat from her forehead. After digging into the embankment for almost an hour, we had almost nothing to show for our efforts.

“Time for a break.”

Alice leaned her back against the rock wall of the tunnel and rested her head against the rough surface as she pushed several stray strands of blonde hair out of her eyes.

“It should be about sunrise,” I glanced at my wristwatch and back at the snow, searching for any sign of light from the outside. A faint glow would tell us where the snow cover might be thinner than the rest. No glimmer of light entered.

With a sigh, I leaned against the wall next to Alice and took a deep breath followed by another. My fingertips tingled with the same feeling I got when my arm falls asleep.

The blizzard and the drifting snow did an excellent job blocking the entrance. Digging in the drift would have been easier if it were not for the tangled branches of the young Aspens. The barren foliage and sticks acted like rebar in a reinforced concrete retaining wall. Running the Boston Marathon would have been easier compared to digging an air passage between all the woodwork.

“Dennis, it’s getting hard to catch my breath.”

Alice’s chest heaved as she inhaled a long breath. The annoying headache dancing in the shadows stopped hiding and announced its presence in a wave of pulsating pain keeping time with my beating heart.

We were on the leading edge of CO2 poisoning and like the canaries in a coal mine, we didn’t have any place to go. I kept pawing at the snow as I removed one handful of white stuff after another. I would dig a little and stop for a minute or two to catch my breath and dig some more.

Somewhere within the recess of my mind alarm bells sounded. A tiny part of my brain jumped up and down trying to get my attention, All rather annoying, and I told myself to settle down and take a nap. A nap would be so fantastic right about now.

I rested my head on the arm I used for digging and took another breath. Warm and cozy, a snow cocoon surrounded me in my new tunnel. Do butterflies dream when they sleep?

“Dennis! Dennis! Move. I got it,” Alice’s hands shook my body as she pulled me back toward her.

“Whatcha doing? This is no time to cut firewood.” I rested against the warm snow as Alice crawled past me with a saw in her hands and took my place where I had been digging.

“Son of a bitch! Grunt. God damn it! Ugg!” Clumps of snow mixed with twigs, branches, and sticks flew out from behind her.

“Whatcha doing?” I asked again. My voice called from a million miles away.

“I’m cutting my way through the fuckin’ snow. I’m not, ah fuck it, I’m not, God damn it! Digging!”

She kicked a huge snow block bristling with sticks and branches out of the hole followed by more cursing and more snow and wood. My field of vision kept getting smaller and narrower. How strange ... I found myself in a tunnel looking at myself in a tunnel. I wanted to tell Alice to stop making so much noise and let me sleep, but my voice was lost in the fog filling my head.

So warm, so restful. I closed my eyes in a cozy blanket of sleep when a blast of freezing air hit me in the face. What the hell? I inhaled a satisfying breath of fresh, freezing air and another. I could feel the fog in my head clearing each time I inhaled.