Higher Ground (23 page)

Adam sighed with some relief. “Okay, that’s good.” He could feel Zach’s gaze boring into his back. But he couldn’t weaken. This had to be done. When they had the packs sorted out, he stood.

“We’ll check in hourly so you know we’re okay.” He smiled what he hoped was a reassuring smile at Zach. “We’re not going to be very far away, you know. Maybe only a few hundred meters.” But it would feel like light-years if Zach’s stricken face was anything to go by.

Adam and Simon helped each other on with their packs. Visha approached her husband, carrying Amina, so Adam strolled away to give them the privacy to say good-bye. Korrie and Howie were busying themselves putting the things discarded from Adam’s and Simon’s packs into others.

“Zach,” Adam said. “See you later. I’ll be—”

Before he could finish, Zach pulled Adam to him for a fierce kiss, pressed so close Adam worried about what people would think. He gasped when they parted. “My God, I can’t imagine how hard you’d kiss me if I ever went away to war.”

“Don’t even joke about that. Please, just be careful.”

“Hey, I’ve got Simon with me. He’ll keep us out of trouble. He’s steady as a rock.” Perhaps not a good analogy, given how unsteady the rocks around here had become.

“Then good luck. And don’t forget your check-ins.”

“You know I can’t go for an hour without hearing you worrying at me.” He reached up and touched the side of Zach’s face, feeling the rasp of stubble under his palm. “Take care of yourself, rock-botherer. See you soon.” His final kiss was gentle, lingering, yet over too quickly. Time to go. He clipped his walkie-talkie to the strap of his backpack and nodded to Simon, who fell into step with him. Neither of them dared to look back as they walked out of camp.

* * * *

Zach trudged at the head of the group, climbing. Lost they may be, but
up
was the only destination, so it made no sense to sit waiting for Adam and Simon to return.

“Can I walk with you?” Visha stepped up. She gave Zach a brave smile, but her eyes were red from crying. She carried Amina, fast asleep against her shoulder.

“Of course.” It would be good for him to have someone to talk to, perhaps lift his gloom. Though Visha looked as gloomy as him. Okay, then, misery loves company. “Can I carry Amina for you for a while?”

“Oh, thank you. She is getting a bit heavy for me.”

Zach glanced at Visha’s backpack as she handed the sleeping child over. It was too full for Amina to ride in like a papoose, since it had some of Simon’s things in there, just as Zach’s backpack had some of Adam’s belongings. He settled Amina against his chest and shoulder. She stirred a bit, murmured, but silenced again.

“She’s getting so big,” Visha said as they carried on walking. She sighed. “Seems like only yesterday she was my baby.”

“Time goes so fast,” Zach agreed. “Life, I mean. It passes so quickly.”

But not so quickly that a person couldn’t build a life, a family, a future. Not mayflies. We’re not. We’ve got the time to build careers. To have children. To explore all the possibilities of a life together.

“Adam will take good care of Simon,” he said, earning a smile from Visha.

“And vice versa. Our men, eh? Playing the hero.”

“Not playing it. They are heroes.”

“So are you, Zach. We’d all be dead back there if you hadn’t saved us.”

Zach didn’t answer. He could only think again about the people he hadn’t saved.

“And one day, when Ami’s old enough, I’ll make sure she understands what you did for her and for all of us.”

They weren’t safe yet. They could climb, but Zach couldn’t magic up rescue. Their climb might do no more than delay the inevitable.

But as Amina sighed sleepily close to his ear, he summoned up his resolve. She would be safe. He’d make certain of it.

* * * *

“Here!” Adam looked back over his shoulder as Simon scrambled over rocks to catch up to him. “Here’s our stream. Or rather, here
was
our stream.”

“You’re sure?” Simon asked, frowning down at what Adam was pointing at.

“I’m sure.” The channel in the nearly bare rock was empty and dry, but Adam recognized the signs that water had rushed down it not long ago. Particular lichens on the rock. Accumulations of pebbles behind larger rocks. “Question is, where’s the water?”

“Could falling rock have dammed it upstream?” They both looked up the slope, trying to follow the dry channel in a maze of rock.

“Could be. Only one way to find out. Come on.”

They climbed again on the bank of the dry stream channel and sometimes in it, when the rocks on either side were too difficult to easily scramble over. Simon did most of the check-ins. Adam wanted to hear Zach’s voice, but he thought Amina needed to hear her father’s voice more than Adam needed to hear his lover’s. He could have used the walkie-talkie he carried to talk to Zach, but sense won out; he knew he should save the battery.

“You hear that?” Simon said after a couple of hours climbing. “Is it the stream?”

“Sounds like it. Stop for a minute.” They stopped walking and stood in silence, and coming from somewhere ahead, they heard it. Water. Water running and crashing over stone. Simon pointed, and Adam nodded in agreement.

They climbed, barely speaking, only the rustle of their clothing and packs and the sound of their boots on rock breaking the silence, as they followed the sound of the water.

Adam took the lead, the more experienced climber, so he spotted it first. He stopped to let Simon catch up.

“There’s our stream.”

It had become a waterfall. The ground had cracked open right across the channel, splitting it in two like scissors through a ribbon. The water fell down into a deep ravine. Adam leaned over enough to look down into it. A pool had formed down there. Would it fill all the way to the top, or was the water escaping somewhere?

“Okay, so the stream above this crack is fine,” Simon said. “So we get across and go on following it.”

“I think it narrows in that direction,” Adam said, pointing to the left. “Let’s go see if we can get around it and back to the waterfall on the other side.”

“Should I radio in?”

“Nah. Let’s surprise them on your next check-in.”

“Best to save the battery anyway. Lead on, then. And stay away from the edge.”

Adam didn’t need telling. They walked for almost an hour beside the crack in the ground. It narrowed to the point they might be able to jump it. But the rest of the group wouldn’t be able to manage that, so they had to get to the end of it and lead the group there, then on to the water.

“It’s getting dark,” Simon said as they at last reached the end of the crack in the ground. At least a kilometer and a half back toward the waterfall on the other side. “I don’t think we should—” He broke off with a gasp at the familiar rumble. The ground shook. Loose rock clattered down the slope and into the crack in the ground.

“Get away from the edge!” Adam grabbed him and pulled him away from the ravine. They ran, stumbling. Adam lost his footing and fell to one knee, but Simon dragged him up and they ran a few more steps before the shaking grew violent enough to make them drop to the ground, grabbing on to rocks.

If Zach was here, he and Adam would be clinging together, but all Adam could do was grab for his walkie-talkie and open a channel. Simon clearly had the same instinct, and he had his out and was calling his wife’s name already. The radios connected at the same time, and in stereo they heard the sound of children crying and dogs howling. Adam shuddered, but Simon called out, apparently able to pick out Amina’s voice in all the others.

“Ami, baby, Daddy’s here. Don’t cry, sweetheart. Don’t be frightened.”

“Adam?” Zach’s voice, pained, scared. The shaking began to ease.

“I’m here,” Adam gasped out, his throat closed, choked. “I’m okay. Are you okay?”

“It’s stopping.” The rumbling noise died away. The ground stilled. In the background over the radio, the crying of children went on. Adam tried not to listen in on Simon comforting his daughter, tried not to hear the trembling in his voice.

“Zach. Are you okay there? Any injuries?”

“No…I don’t think so. Adam, you should come back. I can’t stand this. You can’t stay out there for the night.”

“It’s nearly dark.” He glanced across at Simon, who must have heard Zach’s suggestion and looked as if he very much wanted to agree with it so he could go be with his wife and child. “It’s too dangerous,” Adam said to both of them. “We found the stream.” He took a breath, tried to get his mind back on the job. “We’ll bivouac here. You can join us in the morning, and we’ll lead you to the stream.”

”But…Amina’s very upset. She needs—”

“Don’t,” Adam snapped, seeing the anguish on Simon’s face. “We’re all very upset. But this is the only smart thing to do. We’re fine. And we’re not so far away. I can see your lights.”

“I just wish…” His voice dropped. “I wish you were here with me, that’s all.”

“I know. I feel the same. I’d better sign off,” Adam said. “You go get everyone calmed down there. Set up camp before it’s too dark.”

They signed off reluctantly. With barely a word exchanged, Adam and Simon set about making camp.

“I’ll make the dinner,” Simon said when they had a fire going. “You go set the rest up.”

There was little else to set up, but Simon clearly wanted to be alone, so Adam left him to it. He unrolled their sleeping bags on either side of the fire and sat down on a rock that had a view of the distant lights of Zach’s group.

Beyond that lay the yawning blackness of the flooded basin. No lights. He’d climbed this mountain before and sat at night looking at the lights of the town. Now it was all washed away. So hard to picture it. Everything gone. The town, the Institute, the farms. The farms people had invested so much of their lives in. Eva hadn’t joined them on the climb. Few of the farmers had. He’d looked for her and others as the crowd gathered that first morning of their journey, scanning the crowd in vain. She was gone. All of them were gone. It took him in the gut like a medicine ball, and he dropped to sit down. Shock and denial gave way to reality at last.

Simon came over a few minutes later, carrying a lantern, and sat down beside him. He handed a bowl of soup and some crackers to Adam, making no comment as Adam scrubbed a hand across his eyes to dry them before he took the bowl.

“Sorry,” Adam said. “I should have come and helped.”

“You can do breakfast.” They ate their soup in brooding silence, Simon’s grim look matching Adam’s mood well. Ridiculous, he thought, to compare the anxiety he felt at being parted from Zach with what Simon felt. He’d met Zach only days ago. Simon and Visha had been together for years. Had a child together. He couldn’t claim to have the same thing with Zach, could he?

In the back of his mind, a soft voice spoke.

Not yet.

Chapter Twenty

“Did you get much sleep?” Zach asked Adam over the radio the next morning.

“Not much.”

“Well, get some rest. It’ll be a couple of hours before we reach you, so you and Simon can—”

He stopped as a shout came from the camp. Several people yelling at once, voices triumphant.

“What’s going on?” Adam asked. “What’s that yelling?”

“I don’t know. Stand by.”

Korrie came running up to Zach. “Come on!” She grabbed his arm and pulled him along.

“What is it?” Zach asked, as they ran. “Is something wrong?” Her laugh in answer to him made realize it was a ridiculous question. Clearly, triumphant yelling wasn’t about anything being wrong. “Is something…right?”

“Contact,” she said, laughing as she spoke. “We made contact.”

Zach stared at her until he almost fell over a bit of rough ground; then he just ran until he skidded to a stop on the damp grass beside a group of people. His boots slipped, and he crashed into Dr. Howie, who caught him and set him steady on his feet again.

The excitement centered around Visha, who was kneeling beside a tiny folding table which held the Franes’ radio set. A voice was coming from the radio.

“…fix on your beacon. Maintain position. Check in every fifteen, one five, minutes. E.T.A. forty-five minutes. Please acknowledge.”

“Acknowledged,” Visha said. “Will maintain position with fifteen, one five, minute check-ins. Thank you. See you soon. Frane out.” She looked up at Zach. “A ship. From the Dunbarrow outpost.”

If Dr. Howie hadn’t still been holding his arm, Zach would have gone down like a sack of potatoes. His knees shook, but Howie grabbed him into an embrace.

“We made it.” He slapped Zach hard on the back. “We made it.”

And then the whole camp started cheering.

“Zach! Zach! Come in!” Adam’s voice. They were still connected on the walkie-talkie, Zach realized. He pulled away from Howie, who went to hug Korrie instead. “What’s going on there?”

“We made contact,” Zach said in a voice weak with relief. “With a rescue ship. It will be here in less than an hour.” He waited a moment, grinning at the sounds of Adam and Simon whooping and cheering.

“Zach, that’s fantastic,” Adam said. “Okay, ah, I guess we should get back to you guys right away.”

“I’ve got a fix on your beacon,” Simon said, breaking in. “We’ll race the ship to see who gets to you first.”

“I promise we won’t leave without you,” Zach said.

“See that you don’t. Okay, no more check-ins, we’ll be moving too fast. See you soon.”

* * * *

By the time the forty-five minutes had passed, everyone had packed all of their things. A couple of people insisted on lighting a smoky fire, unwilling to trust everything to the radio beacon. Excitement hovered over the camp like a cloud. People were already talking as if they were on their way out of there. When the dark shape of the outpost supply ship appeared in the sky, people started gathering their gear like travelers at a spaceport finally boarding a long-delayed flight.

Zach didn’t grab his pack. He remembered the hassle involved in getting everyone on the road in the first place. There’d be plenty of fuss this time too. He’d bet on at least an hour before they were even close to getting away.