After I shot the man at the door, the pilot of the helicopter decided to pull away. As he began to turn I had a perfect shot at him and fired twice. The chopper swirled around a bit, then went down with a loud crash up near the mine. We waited for the explosion, but there was none. “We better go see if that pilot survived,” said Kristina, “so he does not give us any trouble.”

“Good idea,” said Sky. We all went up there as fast as we could, but it is a fairly steep climb up to the mine. The chopper was a mangled mess and the pilot was dead. “I was hoping we might be able to use it to call for help,” said Sky sadly. “Not a chance with that,” I said. There was no way to even get the pilot free, so we decided to leave when the smell of fuel became very strong. It never did explode however. We did get some extra food in those boxes, plus more blankets which we really did not need, and a couple of raincoats.

Those might come in handy. Considering the size of the boxes, however, there was not a lot in them. There was some fresh fruit, vegetables and meat though which will be a nice change for a bit. Might help to build up our strength a little too. By the end of the day clouds had moved in and it began to rain overnight, just lightly. The next day there was more rain and it seemed like we were right inside the clouds.

We could not see very far. And it was getting cold. That night it began to snow. And snow. The next day it continued snowing, though not as much. There was a foot of snow on the ground already. We stayed inside all day except to go out for firewood. That night it began to snow heavily again and by morning we now had over 2 feet of snow on the ground.

While eating breakfast we heard the roof cracking. “That snow is wet and heavy,” I said, “we will need to clear it off. You did say there was a shovel, right?” “Um, yes,” said Sky, “but there is no handle.” “Well, it will have to do,” I said. Kristina said she would come to help, it was best for Sky and Sigurbjorn to stay inside. We put on layers of T-shirts and then the raincoats and up we went. That ladder was not too sturdy, but it worked.

Kristina brought the broom to try and push snow off the roof. It was slow going, but it was working. This side of the roof was quite flat, the other side was steep, so we did not worry about that side. Kristina was up near the peak of the roof and looked over the steep side, and slipped. She screamed as she slid off the steep side and down the hill a bit. Sky and Sigurbjorn went out quickly to get her.

Her shoulder was dislocated so Sigurbjorn had to push it back in place. “You need to help Kristina Steve,” said Sky. She showed me what to do. “That will help?” I asked. “We do not have painkillers,” said Sky, “and it helps when I do it for you.” “Okay,” I said. It did seem to help, though she still screamed. Her leg was very sore too, but did not seem to be broken.

Meanwhile, back to our team. They arrived at the nearest airfield, which had two planes and a sign saying they rented planes. Rock and Ralph went inside. “We would like to rent those planes,” said Rock. “Nope,” said the man, “not available, they need work.” “What is wrong with them?” asked Rock. “Do not know,” he said, “I just work in the office. Boss said not to rent them.”

“Where is he?” asked Rock. “On vacation,” he said, “cannot be reached.” He just kept reading his newspaper. Carver had come in now as well. He grabbed the newspaper and tossed it on the floor. “Now, talk to us normally,” he said. The kittens had also come in and started jumping up and down by the washroom door. Meowy, Meowi= Human people person inside.

Rock went over, but the door was locked. “Sorry, out of order,” he said smiling. “Then why is someone inside?” asked Rock, “give me the key, or I break the door, then I break you.” Carver was now behind the counter with the man. “He wants the key,” he said, putting a knife to the guys stomach. He pulled a key from a drawer. Inside the washroom Rock found an older man, dead.

“Some vacation,” said Rock, “now talk.” “Hey, I had nothing to do with it,” he said, “it was Carnival’s men, then they went out to the cabin in a helicopter, and they are overdue, something must have happened.” He was suddenly very talkative. “Where is the cabin?” asked Rock. Carver pushed a bit harder on the knife. “I, I really do not know,” he said, “I just do what I am told, but they never tell me important stuff.” Now the police need to be called, which will complicate things…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.