It had all been going smoothly for Balto and the rest of the team as they churned up the trail home with their snowmobiles at high speed, they had long left the great White Mountain in their wake and they were about to renter the forest. Balto and the team slowed down so they could see the mark left by Balto's tomahawk. What they ended up seeing stopped them in their tracks altogether.
The trees were marked alright, ALL of the trees in the fork on the trail were marked.
"Which way Balto? Which way?" Star asked as he sensed by Balto's tense form something was not right.
"Uh, this way" Balto said and took off on the trail going to the left and the team were only a second behind him.
For several hours the team rode on and near the end they felt as if the landscape had not changed at all and everyone's worst fear came when they saw the same fork in the trail again.
"Balto why are you taking us in circles?" Kaltag asked as his patience as beginning to wear thin.
"I am not, at least, I don't know. It's Steele." Balto said as he realized the trail home had somehow had been sabotaged.
"Maybe we were better off with him" Nikki stared to whisper but Balto's keen ears caught it.
"NO, forward!" and he shot down the right trail at full throttle, he no longer cared, the trees rushed pasted him, most marked, he had to be on the right trail; he could barely register Star telling him to slow down but his hell bent passion to get the medicine to Nome blurred all thoughts until he saw the tree line end and gave way to a sharp cliff.
The team gave their machines the brakes but that didn't stop the cargo sleds they had in tow. Each member of the team stopped before the cliff but because of the abuse the rope for the medicine sled had received from Steele and Balto over the few days were too much and the cord that held the sled to Balto's snowmobile snapped.
Nerves frayed and his mind very much on edge Balto heard and registered the ropes snap in about .5 seconds and leapt three feet vertically off his seat and turned 180 degrees in midair and pounced on the rope like a wildcat as the sled started to slip off the cliff but stopped it in its tracks when it was about halfway off. Balto's mukluks dug deep into the snow and the wild look in his eyes were focused on the sled and the message was clear "Don't you DARE "was written clear all over Balto's face.
Suddenly he felt the earth shift underneath him and his heart filled with the dread of impending doom and the earth underneath him gave way letting Balto and the medicine plummet into the gorge bellow.
/
In Nome the Storm had just arrived and it showed no signs of slowing down, Jenna and most of the town had resided in the café with little hope and very little to talk about, hoping to give the people some hope and something new to pray for she gave them the rundown of Balto's rescue attempt.
It didn't have the affect she wanted most people doubted her story ad more people yet doubted Balto, most people thought he was a crazy man with a gun and ate whatever he could find, what they didn't know was he was a mountain man with a highly established trap line and often traded in his furs for supplies and had forgotten more about the surrounding mountains then all of them could ever hope to know COMBINED.
Most people chuckled off the idea of Balto and his rescue mission and returned to their coffee when the doors burst open reviling a tall man dressed in a black and white parka. Steele had returned.
People where surprised at Steels return and began asked questions about the medicine as he began to devour a ham breakfast like he had not eaten in days, which was probably true.
Steele told his 'story' about the teams slow demise and how Balto took the medicine and his demise as well and presented half of Jenna's torn up scarf as proof. But something deep inside her managed to see past his honeyed lies and knew the truth, Balto was out there and so was the medicine, she didn't care who brought it here or how but it needed to get here NOW. Steele had obviously sabotaged Balto in some way and she still had faith in him but she knew he needed all the help he could get if he was to get here on time.
She thought franticly outside the best ways she could help out now. There was a storm and because of it there was low visibility. Fact. She now needed to increase the town's visibility, so could do that. She thought that light would be a good start. She thought of every source of light at her disposal, it wasn't a lot. The best source of light in town was most likely the schools projector, if she could get into the school and borrow the projector she could take that and a generator up to the hill and may be able to make a big signal visible for miles.
She made her way to the nearby school with the few street lights guiding her way, when she made it to the school entrance she wasn't too surprised to find it locked up for the night. Then she made her way around the building checking all the doors and finding all of them locked except that is for the old janitors closet that had not been used for years, there was a small chain and padlock though to keep people out but she managed to break the chain without much difficulty.
She went inside the small closet and was relieved to see the ceiling had the same tiles like in the hospital, using the nearby mop bucket as a booster she lifted the tile free from its place and crawled in. with all the insulation inside it got hot quickly but she pressed on going from class room to class room. She found it eventually and quickly unplugged it from the computer and using a nearby desk she crawled back up and made her escape.
Later that night using her snowmobile she climbed up the hill with a sled in tow with all of her supplies. When she thought she was far enough up but still most of the hill laid before her she went to work quickly, first she unloaded the generator and after a few tries managed to get it going. Then she plugged in her family's VCR and set it on top of the generator, then she worked to get the projector out and she plugged that into the VCR and found the system would work. She then got out a tape labeled 'NORTHERN LIGHTS' and popped it in.
Then a on the hillside the northern lights appeared in all her beauty, Jenna guessed anyone within five miles could see it but for now it would have to do, she quickly took out a tarp and some long wooden sticks to make a lean to shelter the beacon from being buried alive from the snow, the task was good for her health, it gave her something to do. It made her feel less help less. She barley registered the tear rolling down her cheek as she continued working
"Balto…" she whispered in an almost prayer like fashion.