"Okay, did anyone else hear that howl?"
When Cassie didn't get an answer the first time around, she repeated the question. She understood why she received no answer when she saw her companions shivering in their boots and not from the cold.
Tyler broke the silence. "I've killed wolves and dogs before but no such creature howls that loud."
Derek nodded. "Only creatures that make that sound are creatures hidden from the world from my experience."
The Priest looked at Cassie. "You better not be walking us into an ambush; I will haunt you if you're the death of me."
Cassie tilted her head. "I didn't know you believed in ghosts."
"Are you sure you know where we're going?" Bethany asked in a begging voice.
She nodded. "Yes; my visions told me to stay on the west and northwest side of the mountain. And to aim for the inside of their mouths."
"Why?"
"They have thick skin on the outside to protect themselves from elements but their interior is their weakness, as they have no armor built up so a well-aimed shot to the inside of their mouths should hit them. The giant one can be taken out if it swallows a large explosive device."
The Priest shook his head. "Why do they stay away from the northwest side of the mountain is what my niece was asking."
Bethany looked at her uncle. "No, I was asking why to aim for their mouths."
Cassie sighed. "I'll answer both of your questions; the northwest side of the mountain is directly linked to Noah's Ark. The power of Noah's Ark is also keeping the giant wolves away from us."
"This is getting bizarre," Alec commented.
"It doesn't take much to cognize this redundancy but can we stop with this egregious garrulousness already?" Tyler pointed to the top of the mountain. "We still have to make it to the top to reach Noah's Ark."
Cassie pointed at the mountain. "Right. Let's not waste any more time."
They continued their hike up the mountain, procrastinating no longer. They walked for the better part of an hour up the mountain before they came to a dead end. The dead-end was a rock wall that lead upward with no alternate route. The only route they could take would lead them to the opposite side of the mountain where the wolves are.
"Let's climb up," Derek ordered. "I'll climb up first and then I'll scope the place out."
"Remember, if you see one of the giant wolves, aim for the inside of their mouths," Cassie reminded, "that should be able to kill them."
"Killing Giant Wolves 101," Alec laughed.
Derek climbed up the wall using his similar Drake-style freehand rock climbing skills and reached the top. He scoped the place out with his pistol before deeming the place to be clear.
Derek threw the end of his grappling hook down and helped pull the Priest and Bethany up.
"Such a beautiful mountain," Tariq commented as he stared up the mountain, taking in the view before him. "Such a beautiful, beautiful mountain." He points at the top. "If what my friend, Arda, said is true, then he should be heading up to the mountain."
A few miles down the mountain, Tariq stood before the surviving twelve Sunni Islam members. It felt lonely without Arda there and he missed his presence. He's known these people for several years but none of them shared a close connection with him then Arda and he was on the mountain looking for Noah's Ark.
"It's probably a trick," a Sunni Islam member spoke, "why would that traitor give us his current location."
Tariq took out a knife and pressed it to the man's throat. "Don't ever talk about Arda like that!" he yelled in his face. "Arda may be on the other side but he is still my best friend." He pulled the knife away from him. "I saw the look in his eyes; he was crying for help."
"What do you mean?"
"He begged and pleaded for Burak and Leyla to spare me from death. When I was on the ground as he was begging, I saw the look of despair in his eyes. He was crying for help. We're going to follow Overlord up to the mountain and kill them all."
"What about the Priest and Bethany and those two Americans?"
"Overlord will kill them for us." Tariq holstered his knife. "Let us climb up this mountain. Follow Overlord and wait for our moment to strike." He ran over to his snowmobile and put his helmet on. "Ride, Sunni Islam."
He started up his snowmobile and the thirteen Sunni Islamists climbed up the mountain.
When they were sure they were out of sight of the giant wolves, the Overlord soldiers pulled up to the side and parked their snowmobiles against a rock wall.
Burak and Leyla dismounted and looked down the mountain. Four more snowmobiles pulled up to them with a Hasan and Arda dismounting.
Hasan raised a hand and pointed it in the direction they came from. "D-Did y-you g-guys s-s-see t-t-that?"
"Stuttering Hasan is back," Arda deadpanned. "Of COURSE we saw that, Hasan, why else would we run for our lives?"
"The others," a soldier named Refik panted, "we left them behind; what are we going to do?"
Leyla took charge. "We continue the mission." She looks around and counts the number of soldiers present. "There's ten of us in total and we still have an hour's worth of a climb with the snowmobiles. Our plan is this: Alpha Team will continue hiking up the mountain while Beta Team will stay here and look for survivors; we leave no man behind."
Refik shook his head. "With those giant wolves out there, that sounds like a bad idea, ma'am."
Leyla shot him a glare. "Are you looking for a Code Black, private?"
Refik shook his head.
"Then fall in line."
Refik saluted her. "Yes, ma'am!"
"Sergeant Hasan, Sergeant Arda, Corporal Bedrettin, you're with me and Lieutenant Uzun. Everyone else, reunite with the survivors."
The soldiers nodded.
As the soldiers prepared to depart, Burak looked at his wife with a smirk.
"Damn, honey," he whispered seductively, "I like it when you take charge."
Leyla blushed but did not let it discomfort her. "I know."
Burak was about to whisper something kinky in her ear when he spotted something down the mountain. He pulled out a pair of binoculars and looked down the mountain. It looked like-
"Sunni Islam," he hissed. He handed the binoculars to his wife. "They're still chasing after us." He looked over to Arda to see him preoccupied with assessing his brother for wounds. He shook his head disappointingly. "He said that Tariq won't be a problem anymore." He turned to the soldiers. "Enemy incoming."
The soldiers looked down the mountain.
"We have hostile forces climbing up the mountain." He pointed at the binoculars in his wife's hand. "I verified it myself. Set off several grenades; we'll bury them in an avalanche."
The soldiers saluted Burak before they ran to a snow-covered hill a few feet below them, setting up four pounds of C4 across the ground. It was Corporal Bedrettin who put the C4 down last held up the detonator and got clear.
"Looks like even atheists are going to be singing their prayers right now," Bedrettin laughed and pushed the button.
Seven snowmobiles, each with two soldiers on the back, had escaped the wolves' grasp, but only five of them managed to stay with the group. The two snowmobiles drifted off to the side of the mountain, uncoordinated in trying to stay with the group and opted to just run with it. They figured since they were battling something larger than life then it was every man for themself.
Cassie climbed up the wall, grabbing handholds as she went along before she was three handholds away from the top.
Derek got down on his stomach and reached an arm out. Cassie grabbed it and, even though they were touching with gloved hands, could feel the warmth from the other's palm.
Cassie looked up at Derek's blushing face before turning away, blushing herself.
I can never look at Derek the same way, she told herself.
"You are so beautiful." Derek covered his mouth with his free hand, shocked at what words left his mouth.
Cassie was snapped out of her thoughts as she looked into Derek's eyes. She never realized how beautiful he looked. Everything about him was perfect.
His curly brown hair, his smooth skin, his hazel-brown eyes, his ears, that scar on his back.
Cassie remembered the scar she carved on the back of her hand when Derek was feeling self-conscious about his permanent back scar.
The two snowmobiles pulled up to the group, stopping only twenty feet away and drawing their guns.
"Freeze," the soldiers shouted.
Tyler and Alec turned and aimed their guns at them.
The soldiers aimed at Bethany and the Priest on top.
"Make a single move and we'll kill you all," the lead soldier warned. He pointed at Cassie. "Drake, I want you to-"
Cassie drew her gun and Derek drew his pistol with his free hand.
"We're evenly matched," Cassie told them. She suddenly became aware of how exposed she was because she was still climbing the rock wall.
"Don't underestimate us," the soldier said with pride. "We may be evenly matched, but the six of you are f-"
BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!
The soldiers flopped dead on the ground.
"Watch your cursing," Alec scolded, "there is a five-year-old with us."
Bethany scoffed and shouted, "I'm thirteen."
"You have the height to be a five-year-old."
"I'm not that short."
Derek chuckled. "You going to climb up?" Derek asked.
Cassie smiled at him. "Yeah."
She grabs the top of the rock wall and pulls herself up to her chest. When she got a secured footing, she looked ahead to see something coming. It didn't look like anything at first but when she narrowed her eyes, she thought she got a better look, only because it was coming straight for them...
Along with the heavy sounds of rumbling.
Her eyes went wide. "Ava-avalanche!"
Derek looked over his shoulder and saw the fifty-foot tall avalanche coming for them. In the panic he failed to keep in check, he lost his grip on Cassie's hand and she went pummeling to the bottom.
"Cassie!" Derek cried.
"Get out of here!" Cassie urged. When she realized that the avalanche would close in on her before she would get up the rock wall, she looked at the snowmobiles. "Run!"
Derek looked at the Priest and Bethany, both were shivering at the sight of the avalanche before Bethany pointed to something in the corner.
"Get in the cave!" Derek shouted. "Hurry!" He grabbed Bethany and the Priest and dragged them away. "Into the conveniently located-next-to-us cave."
Cassie jumped onto the first snowmobile and revved it up. "Uncle Sam taught me how to ride a motorcycle; same basic concept." She remembered a certain duo. "Tyler, Alec!"
Tyler jumped onto the second snowmobile, Alec climbing on after him, and started it up.
They took off before the avalanche could bury them but they were not out of the woods yet.
They put everything they had into the snowmobile, determined to outrun that freaky disaster by any means necessary, and the steeper they went down the mountain, the faster both the snowmobile and avalanche chased after them.
Cassie had hit a bad patch of snow that caused her to slow down, causing Tyler and Alec to get ahead of her but she knew better than to consider this a race. If either one of them faltered then all three would die.
When the rumbling of the avalanche grew in volume, she looked behind her and suppressed a scream when she discovered that the avalanche was feet away from trampling her. She kept her hand where it was on the throttle, not changing positions even for half a second and kept her gaze forward.
Hours of hiking all for nothing because of this avalanche; we're heading back to the bottom.
They flew over a small hill just as the avalanche was about to bury them. Tyler and Alec steered off to the side, narrowly avoiding the avalanche by a hairsbreadth but the avalanche was insistent on burying Cassie in its snow.
Tariq and his crew were climbing up the mountain on their snowmobiles with determination when they saw a figure fly off a hill in front of them and straight for them. Tariq recognized this figure with their dirty blonde hair.
Cassie Drake. He smirked. I guess I'll kill her and be done with-
The fifty-foot avalanche roared and it soared over the small hill and fell towards them.
SHIT!
Tariq and Sunni Islam perform U-turns as quickly as possible with Cassie already having a headstart on them.
The Sunni Islamist in the far back was swallowed before he made a complete U-turn.
The avalanche chased the snowmobile riders down the mountain, picking up more and more snow along the way and causing the mountain to shake. It started throwing rocks forward that hit one of the Sunni Islamists in the back and knocked him off his vehicle, subsequently swallowing him.
Two snowmobiles crashed into each and caused the other to slow, which made them get swallowed whole by the mountain of snow.
No, Tariq thought fearfully in his head. It's not supposed to end like this.
He turned his head around to see the avalanche gulp down the remaining Sunni Islamists monsters like it was having a snack.
It can't end like this, he cried. I did all this to protect people from the disgusting ambitions of treasure hunters and it ends like this?
Cassie was ahead of Tariq by ten feet; she knew that Tariq, a human, would give in and either break off or get eaten by the avalanche, but the avalanche was nature and nature does not give up.
Cassie and Tariq cut through two rocks and sail straight through a canyon.
Shit, I shouldn't be in tight spaces! Cassie desperately looked for a way out of this small canyon. There could be a dead-end below.
Speak of the devil.
Man, I've made so many correct predictions I'm practically a precog.
At the bottom of the canyon was nothing but a rock wall twenty feet high.
Cassie shook her head in panic. She tried to look for an alternate route but the only place to go was forward.
How the hell am I supposed to climb out of h-hello!
Cassie smiled.
She took out her grappling hook and threw it to the branch dangling precariously over the edge and jumped off, the speed from the snowmobile transferring into her jump and sending her flying up into the air.
Tariq's snowmobile crashed into a rock and sent him flying forward. He didn't see the dead-end until he stopped rolling forward. He quickly picked himself up and looked at the incoming avalanche. He backed as far into the rock wall as possible, feeling his heart pound in his chest, and shouted at the top of his lungs:
"SAVE ME, GOD!"
The avalanche crushed him against the wall.
Cassie leaped off the grappling hook and to the top of the canyon to her right, grabbing hold of a handhold before it broke off. She took out her climbing piton and quickly stabbed it into the wall, stopping her descent just as the avalanche finished filling up the canyon.
Cassie waited a few seconds after the rumbling stop before she pulled herself up the wall until she was on flat, snow ground once more.
She could do nothing but go over the thoughts in her head as she sat on her knees but her thoughts were flowing far faster for her to comprehend so she decided to give herself a break and scream her thoughts out.
"HOW THE HELL DID I SURVIVE THAT?!"