Thanks, Danielle and Serenity Rain for the reviews, and to all others who have reviewed in the past! It means a great deal!
I have decided on the solution for the climax. Btw, I have Sam and Casey basically back together.
Smarti, Smerek- Scarlett?
Derek was pacing back and forth in the tent, listening to his father's report on the status of everything with ill concealed contempt.
When George told them that the storm was probably going to continue full force until late that night, Derek exploded.
"Why can't these #$ people do what they're supposed to?" he yelled.
Everyone flinched as though he'd hit them.
"They're supposed to risk their lives to save others, no questions asked! And yet they sit at the station twiddling their thumbs, and shaking their head at the storm!"
Casey began to sob softly.
"Look, man," interrupted Sam. "We can't do anything about it. All you're doing is getting yourself worked up and everyone depressed. Just cool it."
Derek looked at his best friend with murderous eyes for several long moments. Sam returned the glare calmly, his arm around Casey's shoulder. Then Derek slumped back into his chair in defeat.
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Later, Casey was talking to Sam. "I can't believe this," she sobbed. "My little sister and my best friend are going to die out there. You know what the last thing I said to Scarlett was? Do you?"
Sam shook his head, trying to sooth her.
"I said, Derek gets what Derek wants. Like I hated her. And then I stormed off."
Sam sighed, drawing her into his lap and stroking her hair. She was shuddering uncontrollably, having worked herself into a fit of hysteria.
After many long moments, Casey calmed enough to look up at him with a tearstained face. "What will happen?" she whispered.
"I don't know," answered Sam, and then looked at her considering, as though measuring her reaction to a piece of news.
"What is it?" she asked nervously, sensing he might tell her something.
"Don't freak out, but… Derek is going after them tonight."
"What?" she squeaked.
Sam put a hand over her mouth as she began to rant, not letting go until she calmed. She glared at him. "Okay, okay," said Sam. "But you were going to tell everyone this side of Canada if I didn't do that."
"Why would he do it?" she asked.
"Because his little sister and the love of his life (though he won't agree to the latter) are going to die if he doesn't try. And if he dies trying, there won't be anything lost, or so he reasons."
Casey sat staring blankly at the side of the tent for a long time. Unshed tears still glistened in her eyes. Finally she buried her face in Sam's shirt. "I'm so scared," she muttered.
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High up on the mountain, Scarlett and Marti huddled against the back of the indent. The electric blanket had been ripped free by a powerful gust of wind, and borne out of sight within seconds.
Try as she might, Scarlett could not get a fire to start. The snow laden wind kept snuffing it out.
The temperature around them and inside the coats steadily decreased by the minute. Soon, Marti was shivering again.
"I can't take it anymore," mumbled Scarlett, looking with wide, panicked green eyes into the storm. "I have to do something," she whispered, looking down at Marti.
"We'll b-b-be ok-k-ay," assured Marti, trembling from the cold, but still indomitably cheerful and determined.
It had been nearly two days since Scarlett had stumbled up to the indent in the mountain. She was starving and tired and cold. Thirst was becoming an issue. Drinking cold water robbed them of precious heat. And now the thermos wasn't melting the snow she put in, because she had nothing to warm it with.
Scarlett closed her eyes, trying to calm the terror rising up in her stomach. Now I have to do something. There is no other option. Either I wait up here and watch Marti die and then die myself, or we try to go back even in this weather. We might die trying. But at least we won't be waiting nervously for hypothermia to set in.
"Marti, honey," she said softly.
"What, Letty?" asked Marti, her voice garbled.
"Do you want to try and go back?"
She nodded sleepily. "Will Daddy be there?"
Her heart breaking, Scarlett said, "Of course Daddy will be at the campsite. We'll se him when we walk in."
Marti heard the terrified note in her friend's voice. "Don't worry, Letty," she said confidently. "Smerek will find us."
Scarlett smiled weakly and secured Marti in place against her skin, underneath all of the coats, so that not even her feet poked out beneath them. As best she could, she insulated the coats against any breezes entering, and shrugged the backpack with difficulty onto her shoulders.
Then, taking a deep breath, she started out.
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Derek trudged through the wailing winds determinedly, for that was all he could do: plod. Plod, and trudge.
Edwin had remembered the direction Scarlett had gone. Derek, after a few seconds on it, had realized it was the trail they had hiked on that day.
Oh, how long ago that day seemed. That was the day when he'd kissed Scarlett. He remembered the soft feel of her lips on his...
Was that all she was going to be? A memory?
There were many confusing feelings surrounding Scarlett running through Derek's mind as he trudged through the snow. Why did he feel like he had lost an opportunity? As though something priceless was about to be removed from his reach forever?
And Marti. His Smarti. She was going to die if he didn't find her. He could only hope that Scarlett had found her, and that somehow they were both all right. Then he could bring them back.
But hours passed, and Derek's hands gradually turned a ghastly shade of bluish white underneath his gloves. Time was running out.
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"D-dad?" stuttered Edwin.
"What, Edwin?" asked George tiredly. There were dark circles under his eyes, and lines on his face that were premature and hadn't been there two days ago. Nora looked similarly.
"Derek's gone," he said quietly.
There was silence.
Finally, George pulled Edwin into a tight hug. He was having problems controlling himself. "You better not be going off anywhere. I can't lose you all."
"Derek will find them," said Sam confidently.
"I hope you're right," sighed Nora, rubbing her temples.
They were past the point of explosions and rants. All they could do now was pray, hope, and wait.
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The snow whipped around Derek in a maddened frenzy, driven by the never ending wind. He felt like he was going insane. There was nothing around him. Nothing but a bluish black canvas with a myriad of white, blowing dots on it. If he looked long enough, he thought he could see varying shades of the black- what he presumed to be trees. But eyes tend to play tricks on you.
He was now in very much the same situation as Scarlett, continuing on only by feel and memory, hoping that he was on the right track.
Ages past. Centuries flew by. All he knew was the endless drudgery and the determination that drove him onwards.
Then he heard something. A whisper on the wind.
"Smerek?"
A figment of his imagination.
"Is that you?"
A vaugely different tinted color was up ahead suddenly. A mirage, he nodded understandingly.
"Smerek!" it cried.
The blob was stumbling forward, slowly gaining shape and color as it neared. Stupidly he held out his arms as Marti crashed into him.
Comprehension dawned. "You're okay," he said softly, over and over again. "You're okay."
"Smerek I was so scared," she sobbed. "Letty told me that I had to walk the rest of the way by myself. I didn't want to, and she yelled at me! Letty yelled at me, Smerek. I was so scared!" Her cute little voice was trembling, and no wonder, with all she went through.
"Letty found you?" he said, slowly. The wind still howled around them, but Derek was deaf to all but his sister's voice.
"We stayed in the cave for a long time. And then she asked me if I wanted to go home. I wanted to see you, and Daddy, and Casey and Nora and Lizzie and Edwin and Sam. Letty was scared, and I told her you would come. And you came, Smerek!" she cried.
"I'll always come," he said, hugging her close. "Smarti, can you find Scarlett? Where is she?"
"Letty told me to go, and she gave me her coats. She yelled at me, and I ran, but I was so scared that I went back to find her."
"Where was she?" he asked patiently.
"Smerek, is Letty okay?" she asked, scared, her voice making Derek's stomach sink.
"She might be if I can find her," he answered. "Smarti, where is she?"
"Letty must have fell," she sobbed. "She was on the ground when I went back, and when I called her she didn't say anything."
Marti pulled him back to where she had been standing before, pushing valiantly through the deep snow and hard wind. Derek was only concious of one thought. Please, God, let her be all right. Thank you for giving Marti back to me. Let Scarlett come back too.
Marti pointed to a white, raised area at their feet. Derek slowly recognized it was Scarlett. Snow was piling up on and around her.
She was sprawled out on the ground, her skin bare to the elements and bluer than Derek's. Her eyes were shut tightly, and a tear was frozen on her cheek.
Slowly he pulled off a glove, and with a shaking finger he reached out to touch her throat.
Dun dun dun… My version of a cliffhanger. Still didn't tell ya what I decided on. Bwuahahahahahaaaaahaaaaha.
Five more chapters tops. I'm shortening everything. There really shouldn't be a whole lot after the climax anyhow, right?