21. I Don't Feel So Well (Chronic Pain | Hypothermia | Infection)
They weren't often sent to snowy, mountainous places. Honestly, that's not where their services were needed most of the time. Cold-climate survival was a beast most weren't willing to take on.
But a particular clash with Russian mercenaries had landed them here. And it was cold. And the oxygen was thin.
Adam found himself sucking in air without much reward. He was breathless, and his body was screaming for rest. But this is where the job took them, and they couldn't let thin air stop them from completing the mission.
They'd donned their snow camo and were carefully picking their way through deep powder, wary and deliberate. The mercenary camp was close by, but they had a feeling it'd be difficult to find among trees and snow drifts.
"Be careful, Dalton," Patricia instructed quietly.
"Always am, Director," he whispered, bringing his rifle to his shoulder as he darted his eyes back and forth over the bright white terrain.
Then there was a shout, and Adam's eyes quickly shifted to the figure peering over the crest of a hill. Another man quickly pulled the man down, his hushed response echoing around the otherwise still silence.
Adam quickly directed his team behind a pillowed pile of powder, pulling his scarf down to uncover his face.
"Any ideas, Top?" Jaz asked quietly, brows furrowing slightly.
With a sigh, Adam shifted, repositioning his rifle. "We've lost the element of surprise, so we can't rely on stealth ops alone."
"You thinking a split?" Preach offered, his gaze serious.
Adam nodded, looking between his team members. "Jaz, Amir—you're on stealth. Preach, McG—you're with me for a frontal assault."
"This oughta be fun," McG sighed.
"I'll be at the front. McG and Preach, stagger behind me some. The point is to use whatever cover we can find so they don't immediately realize where Jaz and Amir are." Adam replaced his scarf, pursing his lips behind the fabric. "Also, McG and Preach, preservation first. Our goal is to distract, but no need to be a hero."
Shallow nods bobbed around the circle, and Jaz and Amir immediately set off discreetly. Noiselessly.
"We've got limited coverage," Preach reported, peering out a little from their hiding spot.
"Then be quick and careful," Adam answered, boldly stepping forward. The snow slowed him down, but he didn't even attempt to quiet the crunch of every step as he bounded toward a wide pine tree.
A few shots rang out, followed by another hushed admonishment.
Adam's brow dipped. Sounded like something was keeping them from an all-out attack.
He looked up toward the peak, eyes combing over the undisturbed collection of snow.
And it clicked.
Avalanche. Too much vibration and all that powder could slide down over them.
He'd seen it before in a childhood hunting trip to the mountains. It was so cold that the snow was dry. Light. Hardly packed. And when a deer skittered across the slope . . .
"Noah?" he whispered, giving Preach and McG hard stares as they found their own hiding places.
"Yeah, Dalton?"
"Are we possibly in danger of an avalanche here?"
"Can't say I'm an expert in avalanche-prime conditions, but looking at recent weather conditions," there was the clack of keys and a few beats of silence, ". . . I wouldn't take the possibility off the table."
"Seems like a lovely place to set up camp," McG muttered.
"Everybody, keep an eye on the mountain. We could find ourselves in the middle of an avalanche, even if we don't trigger it ourselves."
"Never a dull moment," Preach muttered.
With the delicate threat of being buried alive, explosives were a hard pass. Depending on just how delicate, maybe a stray bullet could start something they didn't expect.
Damn.
That also meant that Adam had to be a lot more forward to be a decent distraction for Jaz and Amir.
"I'm moving ahead," he reported, stepping out from his cover to quickly hike his way up toward the camp. He could sense McG and Preach behind him, running from hiding place to hiding place.
A head popped up over the hill of snow, and Adam quickly dived out of the way as a barrage of bullets spit into the snow. The spray was targeted, focused, and brief. Adam recognized the sharp edge of deliberation. They were keeping their shots to a tight minimum, careful not to awaken the wrath of the mountain.
Looking around now, Adam could see they'd nestled their camp in a fairly flat area, avoiding the threat of a steep incline above and below. But it was a slim strip of potential safety, and they could easily find themselves on the edge of avalanche from either side of their encampment.
It explained their hesitance, but it was also very clear that Adam's team had more to lose than the mercenary crew.
He took a deep breath.
Suddenly, there were shouts and a random line of bullets struck the slope further up the mountain.
Adam froze, quickly looking up the incline.
Something was shifting.
"Preach and McG, head back!" he shouted as the slip in snow gained traction and gathered more snow as it quickly descended. Adam was right in the center of its line of destruction. "Go back!" Desperately trying to suck in air, Adam made a split-second decision to run toward the enemy camp.
For Jaz and Amir.
But he didn't stand a chance.
A barrage of snow violently slammed into him, rolling him up into a flurry of moving, shifting powder. Trying to stay on top of the flow, he flailed wildly, attempting to think quickly. He reached out to grab a stray branch, but the frozen offshoots tore his glove off. He tried another, and it ripped through the palm of his hand.
The wave seemed to shift beneath him, and he frantically tried to stay on top as the snow threatened to drown him.
Then he was falling, powder pelting him from above.
He didn't remember the landing.
-0-0-0-0-0-
"Top!"
A surge zapped through Jaz at McG's desperate cry. But she had to stay focused. Her and Amir's life depended on it.
Without a thought, she plunged her blade into another man's neck, moving him immediately to shield her from another burst of bullets. A cry sharply split the air, followed by a thud. Then silence.
Jaz dropped her own target as she met eyes with Amir.
They'd seen the beginnings of an avalanche. They'd heard McG's shout. And with all five mercenaries taken care of . . .
The two of them quickly climbed up the short hill beside the camp, staring out into the freshly churned snow.
And on the other side of the clearly disturbed channel of powder stood Preach and McG.
"What happened?" Jaz asked fearfully into the comms.
She saw McG shake his head.
"Top couldn't get out of the way fast enough."
"We've got to find him," Amir muttered, looking through the snow. "As soon as possible. He could be suffocating."
"Shit," Jaz growled, quickly but carefully making her way down the hill. She stumbled through the snow, following the angry path of powder as swiftly as she could manage. Vaguely, she noticed her teammates following behind.
A tan blob caught her eye, and she swiveled her head to investigate.
Adam's glove. Stuck to the icy encasement of a nearby branch.
"He tried to grab on," she huffed, stepping toward the glove to pull it off.
"That must mean he ended up further down," McG supplied, treading onward breathlessly.
They hiked desperately onward, huffing and puffing as their lungs battled the thin air. Time was ticking by. They couldn't waste even a moment.
"Shit," Jaz huffed, coming to the edge of a sudden drop-off.
"You think he went down there?" Amir asked breathlessly, already looking for a way down.
She pulled her balaclava down, gulping in deep breaths of oxygen. "Maybe."
"You three find a way down," Preach urged as he came up from behind. "I'll keep looking up here."
Jaz locked eyes with Amir.
They were losing time.
-0-0-0-0-0-
Adam jolted awake, his body completely immobile.
And he couldn't breathe.
He couldn't see.
For once, he panicked.
He didn't know which way was up, but he had to try something. So he put everything he had into pushing his body through the snow, forcing his arms through the packed powder.
One arm hardly moved. But the other budged, and his gloveless fingers found cold, open air.
Urgently, he used his one free hand to scoop the snow from his face. He was feeling lightheaded, but the adrenaline kept him going.
Eventually, the last of the snow was swept from his face.
And he could breathe.
He sucked in air with a gasp, wheezing as his lungs painfully took in freezing air. Slowly, he realized his face was completely exposed. His scarf must've slipped off at some point. And his hat.
Still mostly buried in the snow, Adam took steady stock of his situation, trying to think of a reasonable game plan.
First step: dig himself out of the snow.
All he had was his one arm with a gloveless hand, so it would be slow. But it was his only option. The cold was starting to nip at him, seeping in steadily through his cold gear. It bit cruelly at his flesh, needling it's way through skin and muscle and into his core. He was getting colder, and the snow was pressing in at every side.
Adam scooped snow away one handful at a time, taking breaks to breathe warm air onto his frigid fingers. It was getting colder, and at one point, he realized his free hand was bloody and torn.
He couldn't worry about that now.
When he'd managed to unbury most of his face and part of his torso, he was forced to take a break, his body too worn to go on. He was freezing now. He could hear his shaky breathing as he shivered in the compact powder.
He tried moving his legs again.
They wouldn't budge.
Scraping up what was left of his waning energy, Adam worked on freeing his other arm. He was beginning to grow numb, and he felt his frozen fingers clawing clumsily at the snow. This wouldn't last. He couldn't keep going like this.
He knew his body was steadily shutting down against the invading cold.
Adam longed for the desert heat.
-0-0-0-0-0-
They'd managed to scramble down the drop in the mountain, following the broken path of the avalanche with eyes wide and worried. The sun was steadily crawling across the sky, light waning with passing time. It had been twenty minutes, and they still hadn't seen any sign of their CO.
Panic was starting to set in.
They tried to move quickly, but the snow was too deep, and all they could manage was a rapid stumble through powder.
"Top?" McG called, eyes scanning the snowy terrain, looking for anything.
Without a word, the four of them fanned out, combing over the expanse of blinding white.
It was getting dire now. Adam may have suffocated by now.
But they couldn't think like that. They had to hope he wasn't that far in the snow.
That still left hypothermia in these frigid temperatures.
-0-0-0-0-0-
Adam's arm uselessly flopped against the powder, too weak to do much. The biting cold had faded, which he knew wasn't a good sign. It was becoming more and more difficult to hang on to the same train of thought, his brain moving sluggishly as he fought his now heavy eyelids.
"Top?"
The sound drifted distantly over him, and Adam didn't quite gasp it. At the back of his mind, he knew that it meant something. He knew he was supposed to do something with the information. But he couldn't figure out what.
All he could cling to was the fading thought that he had to dig. He didn't know why.
But he still pushed everything he had into his one arm, throwing it against the powder with pale fingers.
-0-0-0-0-0-
"Top?" Amir shouted, his teammates echoing his call around him. The wind had picked up, slicing mercilessly against their bare skin. They'd briefly spoken to DC, and the cut of chopper blades echoed in the distance. Patricia had permitted a search, considering how isolated their mission location had been. Most likely, they were threat-free.
But time was short. The sun would set in an hour, and Patricia had reluctantly ordered them to stop their search once temperatures began to drop.
"Top?" Amir repeated, cupping his hands around his mouth. He dropped his arms, looking over the avalanche's path with sharp eyes.
And then he saw it. A pale hand flopping out of what looked to be a pit in the snow.
His breath hitching, Amir scrambled over the snow, his legs burning as he moved as quickly as he could manage. As he got closer, he spotted familiar sandy blond hair, and his arms were already reaching before he'd made it to the hole's edge.
"Over here!" Amir shouted into the wind, grasping Adam's frozen hand. He winced at the bloody fingertips and knuckles and tried to ignore the garish slash across the palm, but he held on anyway, anchoring Adam in the icy cold. Foggy eyes met his, confused, and Amir bent down to paw the snow away from his CO. "We've got you, Top."
Adam was nearly colorless, his lips taking on an eerie blue. It looked as if he'd cleared a bucketful of snow around his head and shoulders, but the cold was getting to him—quickly. And he was wedged tightly in the powder.
Amir was relieved when two other figures dropped on each side of him, helping him clear the snow as a fourth clung to Adam's free arm to start pulling. Adam was listless, eyes heavy and nearly vacant, and Amir wondered fearfully if it had been too long.
Between their frantic movements, they managed to clear the snow down to Adam's waist. Impatience overwhelmed them, and hands were reaching for whatever they could hold onto, tugging on Adam with all their body weight. After several strong pulls, the snow began to give, and they steadily pulled Adam free of the snow.
"Shit, he's freezing," McG muttered frantically, eyes falling to the unnaturally blue tinges to Adam's fingertips. To his lips. "Didn't he have something covering his face before?"
"Probably came off in the avalanche," Jaz replied, taking ahold of Adam's arm as they hauled him up and urgently moved toward the now waiting chopper on the edge of the expanse.
Preach hung back a few feet to connect with DC while the other three pushed a stumbling Adam into the chopper. When Preach climbed in after them, McG was already barking orders and activating warm compresses. Amir and Jaz were stripping Adam of his heavier gear, relieved to find his base layer dry. Removing his own heavy gear, McG pulled Adam up against his chest, instructing Amir to place the heat packs against Adam's chest, neck, and groin. Beside him, Jaz dutifully unfolded a space blanket, draping it over Adam once Amir had finished his task.
Sometime during the flurry of first aid, Adam had drifted unconscious, his face slack and weary. And save for the shallow, slow movement of his chest, he already looked too far gone.
They'd done all they could for now.
So Jaz and Amir each took one of Adam's hands in their own—Amir careful around Adam's bloody and torn knuckles—and pressed their warmer palms against his freezing hands, all while Preach continued coordinating with DC.
They just had to hope this was enough.
-0-0-0-0-0-
The blue tinge had faded, making way for healthy pink, though still paler than normal. The doctor was confident there would be no permanent damage. While Adam's fingers had been mildly frostbitten, it hadn't been enough to cause lasting issues. That had been an enormous relief.
But it had been several hours of unconsciousness with warm IVs and layers of blankets. And the team was getting antsy.
The doctor had mentioned that Adam may wake soon, but soon wasn't soon enough.
Jaz's knee was bouncing wildly as she waited, Amir and McG fidgeting subtly. Preach was the only one who'd manage some semblance of calm, though even he would shift every now and then, betraying his unbothered mask.
"I vote no more cold missions," McG huffed, pulling a blanket tighter around him. Having a freezing Adam pressed against his chest for so long had left a lingering cold. Cold he could deal with. An unresponsive Adam? Not so much.
"I second that," Amir agreed quietly.
Silence.
"This sucks," Jaz grumbled, folding her arms impatiently.
McG inhaled deeply, throwing the blanket off his shoulders. "Yeah."
Silence again.
Then a stir. A fluttering of blond lashes.
And sudden chaos.
The four of them quickly moved to either edge of Adam's bed, watching eagerly as tired blue eyes cracked open. Brows furrowed. Pale skin pinched.
"Wha . . . ?"
His voice was thin and frail, but it didn't matter.
He was talking. He was alive.
Adam swallowed, his frown deepening. "Wh' 'm I so cold?"
"Uh, that would be the . . . avalanche," Amir answered softly, a quirk of apology at his mouth.
Adam's weary eyes opened a little wider, though still hampered by clear exhaustion. "Av'lanche?"
"Yeah, avalanche," McG confirmed, a smile pulling at his lips.
"N'more col' missions," Adam mumbled, groaning a little as he shifted his aching body.
A chuckle rippled across the team.
"I think we decided that already," Preach replied with a smile.
Fin.