Chilled by Death by Dale Mayer Page B

appeared to be more solid than it was.
    Up ahead, more shouts could be heard. With the others in front, Stacy couldn’t see who was shouting.
    Royce said, “That’s them. We’re almost there.”
    Stacy had her camera around her neck. She wanted to break rank and take pictures as they approached but wasn’t sure where she was in relation to the fault they were talking about. She stayed in place.
    George changed direction, stepping into the trail their group already made. The walking got a little bit easier yet again.
    And suddenly she could see them. Her group spread out so she could step closer. Sure enough, a bit of the ground had given way and Stevie appeared to have slid rather than having fallen down. He waved up at her. “Hey, Stacy. Glad you came to see.”
    She laughed. “I’m just wondering why you’re still there. With all the help around, I’d have thought you’d be back up on top already.”
    “Ha. I actually tried to climb up by myself, but the bank keeps coming down.”
    “Of course.” They always did. She stepped back and pulled out her camera. Within seconds, she had Stevie’s predicament captured for posterity. Then she took another and another. When Stevie understood what she was doing, he called out a mocking protest. The others all laughed. Stacy kept clicking as they worked to get Stevie up from the fifteen-foot deep hole. She made sure to document where it started and stopped if for no other reason than to mark it on the maps for other people.
    There were a few depressions on one side and more. She carefully followed the light so she could see the full scope of where the depression, faint until she saw it in the shadows, ended.
    “It stops here,” she called out.
    “Which actually means that it likely goes under the ground for another twenty meters. Such is the way of faults,” Royce said as he walked toward her so he could see the magnitude of the fault line himself. She watched the narrow edge in his gaze as he studied the ground. She couldn’t resist. She pulled out her camera. The look of intensity on his face, the knowledge in his eyes. He knew his stuff. And that sense of authority was damn sexy.
    And she sure as hell needed to stop thinking like that.
    She stepped back again.
    And felt the snow give way.
    She cried out in surprise.
    And fell.
    *
    George heard Stacy call out. He spun around to see her disappear from sight. “Stacy!”
    The others raced toward her.
    Royce held out his arms. “Wait. We don’t know how far the fault goes.”
    George took a cautious step forward. “Stacy, are you okay?”
    “Yeah, I am.”
    The sound of her voice hit him so hard he had to stop his headlong plunge and close his eyes. Oh thank God. All business now, he called out, “Are you hurt?”
    “No, I’m fine,” she called back. “Just pissed at myself.”
    “No need to be,” he called down to her, carefully walking forward and poking the ground with long sticks, making sure it was solid enough to stand on. They stepped forward as a wall and the poking continued. They’d almost reached her when the wall of snow caved in front of them.
    And there she was. With the bank down and the crevasse widened, it was easy to see her now. She stood on her own two feet – staring up at them. She studied the space and turned to the left. The group was walking down the path and poking into the ground to make sure it was solid, but they actually opened up the crevasse as far as they could see. They quickly opened up the space between Stevie and Stacy. Stacy walked toward Stevie with every new step that opened up until she could see him.
    She laughed and ran over to give him a big hug. He picked her up and twirled her around, only the ground was full of snow and ice chunks and they both fell down to the amusement of everyone watching.
    It took another twenty minutes before the two of them were standing up on solid ground. The group had continued to collapse the snow along the fault line so it would