Where the Wild Things Are
One: True North Bound
The following takes place two years after Season 3
Dark clusters of pine trees passed by as the flight descended, revealing a landscape blanketed in flawless snow. Stark against the cobalt blue sky, the jagged peaks of the mountains shimmered, bathed in sunlight.
"You're going to love it, Ryan," Michelle said earnestly from the neighboring seat. The excitement in her eyes was palpable, her gaze fixed on the snow-kissed mountain range.
Tony, situated on her other side, leaned across with a grin, "Yeah, Chapelle. It'll be a fun break from the daily grind at CTU."
Ryan glanced skeptically at the perpetually enthusiastic Tony Almeida. His former subordinate, now-turned-deputy, was absolutely brimming with excitement. The moment they had left LA for Whistler, Tony had talked about nothing else but black diamond slopes, cafe après-ski, and snowboarding tricks. The mere idea of engaging in these activities made Chapelle's sciatica twitch in protest.
"Look, Tony," Ryan said in his matter-of-fact tone, "I just don't see the point to this whole charade. It's a big waste of time."
Hyper-focused on her laptop screen, Chloe O'Brian chose that moment to add her two cents. "Conferences are more effective in a virtual format anyway."
"Well," Tony teased, unable to resist the opportunity, "Seems like someone's upset about a certain Mr. O'Brian not being around."
Irritated, Chloe snapped her laptop shut and shot Tony a glare. "I do not get 'upset'."
Tony, far too jovial to be deterred, turned back to Ryan. He seemed to relish Chapelle's clear discomfort. "But CTU is all about hands-on learning, isn't it, Ryan? How do you know you won't enjoy a day on the slopes?"
Ryan sighed, massaging his temples in futile anticipation of the inevitable headache to come. "God help me if I have to spend any more time with any of you outside the office," he muttered. Director Vaughn had forced Ryan on this little bonding trip much to his displeasure.
"Well then, you're in for a whole lot of divine intervention," Tony retorted. Michelle giggled while Chloe rolled her eyes again.
The bickering and banter kept rolling as they collected their bags and joined the bustle through the airport arrivals. Ryan found himself looking out of the tinted glass panes at the snow-covered landscape twinkling in winter splendor.
A part of him wished he was back in Los Angeles, navigating the intense, peril-filled world of CTU. But as he saw Tony throw an arm around Michelle, pulling her close, and Chloe engrossed in a technical manual, Ryan couldn't help the sense of kinship he felt.
He might grumble about the inconvenience, but he realized he wouldn't trade this bunch for anything. He glanced back at the towering Cascade mountain range, a sense of adventure slowly seeping in. Come to think of it, getting lost on a mountain slope with them didn't sound that awful after all.
They piled into a rented SUV, treading the winding mountain roads to the resort. The wilderness sprawled around them, the vast expanse of white broken by towering pines and quiet, frozen bodies of water.
Ryan, accustomed to the comfortable climate of Los Angeles, hunched in his seat. He pulled his thin blazer closer, a futile attempt against the Canadian winter. He had packed in haste, his focus on briefing files rather than winter wear.
"Geez, it's freezing here!" Ryan grumbled, glancing sideways at Tony. "How did you talk me into this again?"
"Implication of insubordination and a chance to bond with your loving team?" Tony suggested, flashing a grin in the rearview mirror.
On the driver's seat, Tony squinted through the windshield, his visible tension contrasting with the light banter. Driving in snow was not something he had anticipated. His view was partly obscured by the heavy fall of snow, and the unfamiliar slipperiness of ice under the tires had him on edge.
Suddenly, the car lurched slightly as Tony veered to avoid a pair of crossing reindeer. His grip tightened on the steering wheel, knuckles white. Michelle gasped, clutching onto her seatbelt. Chloe's eyes widened and Ryan instinctively braced his hand against the cold glass of the window.
Tony cursed under his breath, "Damn Canadian wildlife…"
The snow was falling more heavily now, a white curtain obscuring the view ahead. Tony slowed down, following the faint tread marks of the vehicle in front of them. Each crunch of the tires seemed to reverberate in Ryan's eardrums.
Ryan let out a frustrated sigh as the SUV jostled, coming to an abrupt stop off the road in the deep snowbank. The headlights illuminated the wall of snow in front of them, the falling flurries swirling chaotically in the bright beams. It was eerily quiet in the car, the only sound the soft hissing of the snow against the glass.
Tension filled the car as Tony threw a helpless look towards Ryan, finally admitting, "I think we might be lost..."
"Ya think?" Ryan responded, sarcasm dripping from his words.
"You've really done it now, Almeida!" Ryan muttered, trying unsuccessfully to force the door open against the weight of the snow. He could feel the chill seeping into his thinly clad body, making his teeth chatter. His suit, designed for California's mild winters, was pitifully insufficient for their current location. Sure, Vancouver was temperate, but the mountains held their own microclimate which was as harsh as unpredictable as the landscape around them.
"Easy, Ryan," Tony replied, doing his best to keep his own temper in check. He was as desperate as Ryan to get them out of this mess. "Let me try something."
Tony attempted to rev the engine, but the only response was a series of feeble coughs and sputters as it futilely tried to move the four-wheeler out of the snowbank. Finally, the engine let out an ominous groan and went silent, leaving them in the eerie silence of the snow-laden wilderness.
A wave of cold reality washed over Ryan as he slumped back into his seat. They were stuck, the biting cold of a Canadian winter seeping into the cab as the vehicle's systems failed.
He shot a glare at Tony, failing to suppress his annoyance. "Fantastic, Almeida. Just fantastic. So, what's your genius plan now?"
With a dejected sigh, Tony reached for his phone, only to curse when he saw the screen. "No signal..."
"Yeah, I figured as much," Ryan grumbled, pulling his thin blazer tighter. "God, it's freezing here!"
From the back, Chloe voiced her own concerns. "What if there are... bears?"
An unintentional laugh slipped out of Ryan despite the dire circumstances. It wasn't every day one gets to see Chloe O'Brian, the tough-as-nails analyst, worried about wildlife.
Tony, however, wasn't sharing in the amusement. He seemed more determined than ever to fix their predicament. "Let's not panic," he said, already rummaging through his bag. "We've got Michelle here, who can fix anything, remember?"
"I appreciate your confidence," Michelle responded, pulling out her emergency flashlight, "But I'm not exactly a car mechanic."
Despite the light mood, the harsh reality hung ominously over their heads. Stranded, lost, and in the cold heart of the Canadian wilderness, they were far from the warmth of the LA office - both physically and metaphorically. Ryan's gaze fell outside the window, filled with regrets and uncertainty.
"Welcome to paradise, eh?" Ryan muttered darkly, pulling his suit jacket even closer.
By midnight Ryan was starting to get cold, irritable, and stir crazy.
"Great job, Almeida! Just great!" Chapelle spat out, stabbing the air with his finger for emphasis. His agitation made his voice rise, his usual acerbic tone layered with a sheen of fear and anger.
"Calm down, Ryan!" Tony snapped back, his eyes flashing with frustration. He was gritting his teeth, wrestling with his rising temper.
"The hell I will! We're stuck in some godforsaken wilderness because you couldn't follow a freaking GPS!" Ryan retorted. His breath came out in little puffs of white, highlighting the dropping temperature inside the car.
"Both of you, stop. Now." Michelle finally had enough. She turned in her seat, her face bathed in the pale glow of her flashlight. "Arguing isn't going to help us."
Ryan sank back into his seat, glaring at Tony. The Deputy Director of the CTU bit back a retort, focusing on the bags in the trunk of the car instead. Michelle was right, they couldn't afford to waste time in pointless bickering.
"Alright," Michelle's voice echoed in the confined space of the car. "It's late and the weather's getting worse. We'll have to hold out tonight and walk back towards the urban area in the morning."
"Here," Tony tossed a few emergency blankets to Ryan and Michelle, keeping one for himself. "It's going to be a long night. Try to get some rest."
Chapelle berated himself for not pulling rank sooner. This was going to be a long, cold night. But as he focused on the deafening silence of the night outside and the dim, flickering light inside, Ryan felt an unfamiliar camaraderie in this moment of adversity.
"Yeah, 'rest.' He muttered ironically, finally accepting the thick thermal blanket. "Sounds like a fine plan."
As the night wore on, the four of them were huddled under the emergency blankets, each lost in their own thoughts. The onboard clock ticked softly, each passing minute echoing loudly in the oppressive silence of the car's interior.
Ryan sat in the backseat, his knees hugged up to his chest for warmth. Every breath stung like a dozen needles in his chest, the biting cold seeping into his very bones. He detested the cold and the current predicament did nothing to improve his opinion of it.
"Who even decided that Canada was a good place to go?" Ryan muttered, more to himself than to his companions. He let his head fall back against the seat, running a hand down his face. Despite the situation, Tony cracked a smile.
"I believe that was the director," Tony teased lightly. "Maybe you should give him your feedback when we get back."
"Just get me back to LA first," Ryan shot back. The icy sting in his voice matched the chill around them.
Tony rifled through their supplies, pulling out his spare ski jacket and tossing it to Ryan. "Here, use this. It'll help."
Ryan regarded the blanket for a moment, then sighed, taking it from Tony. "Thanks," he mumbled, wrapping it around his body, trying hard not to shudder from the cold.
Meanwhile, Michelle continued studying the map, the steady beam from her flashlight illuminating their possible routes. Her expression was severe, eyes darting over the map, taking in every detail. "I think the closest town is about eight miles away - if we walk down the road southward. It's not ideal, but it's our best bet."
Everyone fell silent at her words, the ordeal they had to face in a few hours hanging heavily in the SUV. The Canadians might be familiar with these unforgiving environments, but the four CTU agents were the fish out of the water, away from the buzzing tech-filled rooms and hot coffee.
Ryan grimaced. "Eight miles in the snow. Sounds fun."
"Yeah, well, unless you have another brilliant idea, that's what we're stuck with," Tony retorted sharply, his good-natured facade slipping slightly.
"Look, can we not—" Michelle began, trying to defuse the situation.
"No, let's let him finish," Ryan snapped, glaring at Tony. "He's got such a good record of great ideas so far."
Tony's brows furrowed, his jaw clenched, but he managed to force out a curt, "Fine."
They uncurled back into silence. The tension hung thick like the accumulating frost on the windows. Ryan fiddled with the edge of his cotton hood, dreading the morning more with each passing minute.
"Hypothetically speaking," Chloe piped up for the first time. "How likely is it for us to run into a bear?"
"If we meet a bear," Tony grinned wickedly, "I am definitely throwing you to them first."
Chloe huffed, crossing her arms. "I was just asking."
Ryan chuckled, his previous bitterness fading somewhat, "Well, keep asking, O'Brian. We could do with a bit of distracting right now."
Ryan wasn't sure when he drifted off to sleep, but he woke with a start to a pale dawn light. The car felt even colder, his breath misting up the windows. It was time to face the unforgiving Canadian wilderness.
Ryan muttered under his breath as he began to shake awake his companions, "Remind me again why I didn't stay in LA?"
Freedom from the confines of the SUV brought a new set of discomforts. The wind roared around them, biting at their faces and hands as they trudged through the knee-deep snow. The road, though faintly visible, seemed to stretch endlessly into the rising dawn, promising them miles of arduously slow progress.
Ryan led the reluctant parade, bracing himself against the icy gusts. With each step, he grumbled under his breath and cursed Tony, the weather, and for good measure, the rest of Canada. He'd trade a hundred reality-bending shifts at CTU for the comfort of his own heated office.
Tony followed Ryan, urging Chloe and Michelle to keep pace. His light-hearted demeanor from the previous day was completely gone, replaced by a grim determination. He had led them into this mess, and he felt a weighted responsibility to lead them out.
True to her word, Michelle kept them all together. She nudged Chloe when she stumbled, shared an encouraging word with Ryan when he looked miserable, and gave back as good as she got with Tony's occasional quips.
Chloe trudged along behind, shielding her eyes from the blinding reflection of the rising sun against the snow. She didn't speak, following the footprints of her comrades. She, too, wished she was back in the safe and heated confines of the CTU computer room.
"We're making good progress," Michelle called, pointing to the road markers. Her words were swept away by the wind but the implication wasn't lost on any of them. They had hope - a thin one, albeit, but hope nonetheless.
"Not fast enough," Ryan said, his jaws clenched. "I can feel my legs freezing."
As they progressed, the sun's weak warmth had done little to dispel the chill and things went from bad to worse when they discovered their path blocked by a wall of snow, probably caused by a minor avalanche.
"We lost the road," Tony stated the obvious, scanning the snow-covered wilderness for another way.
Ryan, who was now leaning heavily on a makeshift staff found along the way, groaned in frustration. His usually sharp eyes were now glazed over and he was uncharacteristically quiet. This didn't go unnoticed.
"Tony," Michelle moved closer, whispering so Ryan couldn't hear, "Ryan doesn't look so good."
Her words brought a new wave of worry. He turned and took a closer look at Ryan, just in time to see the older man stumble and struggle to regain his balance. Watching him, Tony felt a pang of guilt.
"We should find shelter," Michelle suggested. "He won't last long in this cold."
"I know, I know," Tony scanned the surroundings. "We need to find some-"
"I see something," Chloe interrupted. "Over there."
All eyes turned to follow her pointing finger. At a distance, obscured by a clump of fir trees partially laden with snow was what appeared to be a cave.
"Good spot, O'Brian," Tony acknowledged, feeling a flicker of relief. It wasn't much but it promised shelter from the biting wind.
As Tony and Michelle moved ahead to inspect the cave, he turned to Chloe with a half-hearted grin, "Think you can keep Chapelle awake?"
"How?"
Tony shrugged, "Talk about IT protocols, encryption codes, the new firewall you've been working on. You know, the stuff you love to talk about."
Chloe gave him an irritated glare, "I don't love to talk about it. I just have to do it because of the incompetency in our department."
"Well, now you just have to annoy Chapelle with it," Tony replied, unable to resist the opportunity to tease her further. He gave her a gentle push towards Chapelle, who was moving at a precarious pace a few meters away, and joined Michelle.
As they reached the cave, they found it was larger than it had appeared from a distance. It was dry and shielded them from the wind - a perfect refuge.
"Let's gather some branches and twigs. We can make a fire," Tony suggested.
As he went on wood-procurement duty, Michelle returned to help Chloe and Ryan get to the cave. Despite the grim situation, she had to suppress a smile listening to Chloe trying to keep Ryan awake by lecturing him about the new text-based command line interface she'd designed, while Ryan struggled to respond semi-coherently with coherent grumbles and half-hearted nods.
Once the fire was lit, they huddled close to it, their cold bodies greedily absorbing the precious warmth. The cave was filled with the warm glow of the fire, casting flickering shadows on the uneven walls.
Ryan, despite being more exhausted and cold than he'd ever been, found himself watching the flames dancing on the branches. Beside him, Chloe continued her discourse, her voice just another background sound to the fire's crackling. As much as he hated admitting it, the IT chatter was grounding, a lifeline to the normalcy he was so used to back in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, Tony was squashed uncomfortably between Michelle and the cave wall. Every now and then, he'd throw more wood into the fire, sending a flurry of sparks dancing up into the cave. He was quiet, a stark contrast to his usually talkative self. Worrying came naturally to him, and he found himself hoping against hope that the situation would get better by morning.
Across from him, Michelle was curled up, staring into the flames. She found herself lost in the hypnotic dance, tracing the sparks as they fluttered upward. Though she was an agent used to uncertainty and chaos back in CTU, this was an entirely different battleground. A night outdoors in the chilling cold was not something she'd expected when they were preparing for the conference.
"You know," Chloe started, breaking the momentary silence, "to build a strong cybersecurity framework, you'd need to research and implement a variety of cryptographic algorithms…"
Her monotonal lecture was met with a chorus of low groans from her captive audience, but it was a welcome distraction. Annoying Chloe was better than being lost, better than thinking about the endless miles they still had to walk, better than acknowledging the cold that lingered despite the small fire. It was a reliable constant when everything else was uncertain.
"Are they edible?" Ryan asked after a moment, nodding at a buch of unknown berries Chloe had collected earlier. It was more out of desire to change the topic rather than actual hunger.
"Do they look edible to you?" Tony asked, raising a brow.
"Do I look like a botanist?" He shot back, irritable.
"Alright, you two," Michele interjected, "Keep it down. We need to conserve our energy" She couldn't suppress the smile playing at her lips. "And no, Chapelle, unless you want potential food poisoning, I suggest you stay away from unknown berries."
As the night wore on, they took turns keeping the fire going, huddled together for warmth, sharing sparse words and long silences. It was funny, Ryan thought, how a crisis could pull people closer together.
Despite their quarrels and their differences, they had collectively accepted that they were stranded, that they were cold and that they were stuck with each other. And maybe, just maybe, they could rely on one another to get through it.
Ryan's gaze fell once more on the fire, the flames a dancing beacon in the dark, cold Canadian wilderness their inadvertent shelter. As undesirable as the entire situation was, Ryan found himself thinking that this was certainly a conference to remember. But for now, the flames beckoned him to a fitful slumber.
They were jolted awake from their uneasy sleep by a guttural growl, chilling even the morning's freezing air. They all stiffened, bodies taut as a bowstring, as the ominous figure of a grizzly bear appeared at the mouth of the cave, its brown fur contrasting against the white and glinting in the pale morning light. It sniffed, the massive flanks of its body heaving as it took in the scent of the intruders.
Ryan's eyes widened. His back was pressed against the wall of the cave so hard he felt as if he could disappear into it. He was no stranger to dire situations, but being faced with a grizzly in the middle of a Canadian wilderness was beyond his scope of nightmare scenarios.
"Jesus Christ…" Tony started but trailed off, his knuckles whitening as they gripped a rock at his side but his eyes never left his backpack left few meters away. He took a moment to swallow down the thickness of panic, his mind quickly formulating a plan.
Chloe, meanwhile, looked as if she'd faced the worst IT glitch possible, her mouth agape, her usually talkative self rendered silent.
"B-bear," she finally bleated out, stating the glaring obvious. "A-a grizzly bear…"
"Wonderful observation, O'Brian," Ryan couldn't resist the sarcasm, although his voice was a thin whisper. He kept his gaze focused on Tony, who was trying to edge towards his backpack on the cave floor.
Michelle, the calmest among them, was unfolding slow and deliberately from her blanket. Her quick, military-trained mind was running on a high gear, scanning for exits and weapons, her eyes darting between the bear and Tony.
"Tony," she barely breathed, hoping only he would hear, "if you're going to do something heroic, do it now."
Heeding her words, Tony made a swift grab for the bag and rummaged inside it. A moment later, he was holding a flare. With a quick prayer, he pulled out the safety pin and hurled it towards the mouth of the cave.
The red spark soared in an arc before erupting into a bright, magnesium light. The sudden explosion of light and noise startled the bear. It reared up on its hind legs, bellowing one last time before lumbering away from the cave and back into the surrounding woodlands.
While the relief was immediate, it took them a few seconds to exhale the breath they didn't know they were holding. Their previously tense bodies sagged into the cave's floor, the danger momentarily averted.
Tony let out a shaky laugh. The remnants of terror were slowly ebbing away but he could still feel adrenaline thrumming in his veins. "That… that was fun."
Ryan shot him a look that could have frozen the bear solid, the sarcastic retort on his tongue dying down as relief flooded him.
Their hearts were still pounding from the bear encounter when a sudden, bone-rattling rumble filled the air. A cloud of white rose from the mountains in the distance, the trees shook as if in fear, and the ground beneath seemed to vibrate with anticipation.
"DAMMIT!" Ryan's sharp cry cut through the sudden disturbance, his nerves on edge. "What is it this time?"
Michelle paled. "Avalanche!" She barely got the word out when Tony lunged forward, grabbing them and dragging everyone deeper into the cave. Snow crashed violently into the mouth of the cave, and within seconds, a wall of hard-packed snow replaced what used to be their only exit.
Stunned silence followed the resonating roar of the avalanche. The world outside was eerily muffled, cut off. They were alone, trapped in the black void of the cave – their immediate universe reduced to an icy tomb.
As Ryan pushed himself into a sitting position, repressing the sudden wave of claustrophobia, anger flared. "Perfect! Just bloody perfect!" He bit out, furious. "First, a bear and now we're stuck here in this - this freezer!"
His raised voice echoed around the cave, each word a ricochetting bullet. This was not what he signed up for when Tony pulled him into this 'team-building' trip.
Chloe's eyes narrowed behind her glasses, finally snapping. "Chappelle, keep it down!" she hissed, gesturing at the packed snow at the entrance. "Your shouting could trigger another avalanche."
Ryan glared at her, but closed his mouth.
Tony, on his hands and knees, had already started to dig at the packed snow wall. His breath came out in short puffs, white in the cold air, as he chipped away at the frozen barrier. "We need to dig," he panted, his voice holding steady despite the panic that clawed at his gut underneath.
Ryan stared at him for a moment. In the face of extreme adversities, Tony Almeida was nonchalantly planning a great snow escapade. Then, with a resigned sigh, he joined in, his frozen hands digging and scraping at the hard-packed snow, grumbling underneath his breath.
AN: Huge thanks to lavashchips for the review. I know haha just a fun little idea I wanted to explore.
Please let me know what you think and I can post the rest of it :)
