He wasn’t sure how long they had sat there, but they had shifted their positions some. Now he sat with his back leaned against some broken seat, his legs outstretched in front of him, and with her curled up next to him, her head in his lap. He was sure he was on the verge of falling asleep until her voice pulled him back to full consciousness.
“We should bury her … and the pilots too,” Penelope spoke out in a whispery voice. After getting over the initial shock of Tara’s death Luke had moved to the cockpit hoping to find the pilots alive and to see if the E.L.T. had been activated so someone would know where they had crashed. He had been nearly devastated to discover that the two pilots he had gotten to know pretty well over the past year had both perished and the emergency location transmitter had been destroyed. He knew no one was likely to come looking for them because they wouldn’t know where they were. Also, he knew anyone just finding them in the Alaskan Denali mountain would be impossible. They would have to try to walk out to find help.
“We can’t,” Luke replied with a sigh as he kept his eyes closed. When he felt her lift up then he slowly opened his eyes because he knew she would be outraged by his words, and think them to be callous. So, he hurriedly explained his reasoning. “We can’t waste the energy digging graves and moving bodies, Pen. I know you are starting to feel the cold and dampness deep down in your bones. That’s the start of hypothermia because we are out here in the open in the snow and cold. We have to do everything we can to conserve our body heat, so we just can’t exert ourselves and energy to bury our friends. If we had crashed at a lower altitude and in a warmer climate, I’d have already started but not here. I’m sorry sweetie, but we can’t,” He was a little surprised but also pleased when she just silently nodded her understanding and then leaned back beside him and dropped her head to his left shoulder.
“So, how long do you think we will have to wait for the others to find us?” She meekly asked and he closed his eyes once more and let out a heavy sigh before he spoke again.
“The sun’s pretty low in the sky right now. It’ll be dark in a couple of hours. So, we will bunk down here for the night,” He began. “The cockpit is half buried in the snow but otherwise fully intact. Its door will offer us shelter from the elements and any wildlife that might be out here. I know the idea of being in there with two dead bodies is not appealing but we have no choice. So, we’ll lock ourselves in there for tonight, and tomorrow we’ll search the crash site for our things and try to salvage whatever we can that might be useful and walk out at first light.”
“Walk out? No, no we have to stay here,” Penelope argued as she lifted and shook her head at his idea. “That’s like the first rule they tell you for when you get lost, you stay where you are.”
“Yeah, and in normal circumstances, that’s a good rule, but we are not in normal circumstances,” Luke replied. “We crashed somewhere on top of Denali mountain in the Alaskan winter, and no one knows where we are. We can’t stay here.”
“But … but these planes have a location beacon right, so-” Her words were cut short when he grasped the damaged E.L.T. and dropped it beside her.
“It was never activated,” He said. “I heard the pilots sending out a mayday when I went to the cockpit right before we crashed, but without this transmitter, they wouldn’t even know where to start looking for us. I am sure they will send out a search team but, unfortunately, we have had the luck of crash-landing on the largest mountain in the country. We cannot sit here and hope they will find us, because it’s highly unlikely that they will.”
“But you don’t know that for sure, Luke,” She protested. “And how do you know for sure that the transmitter isn’t transmitting?” He leaped more forward and upright in his frustration, more at their situation than her nagging, but it had gotten the better of him at this point. He yanked up the E.L.T. and shoved it into her lap.
“Look at it!” He yelled at her and she visibly flinched and recoiled back some. “It’s destroyed, Penelope, and as handy as you are on your computers, I didn’t know you were also good at repairing electronics, but hey, if you think you can fix it, do it! Otherwise, if ‘you’ can’t fix it, because I sure as hell can’t, NO ONE WILL EVER FIND US IF WE STAY HERE!” He instantly hated himself and regretted his harsh words and behavior when he saw her face crumble under the weight of what he was telling her. He moved to console her and she made a defensive blocking move with her arms as if she were shielding herself from being struck. “Oh God, Penelope, I’m sorry,” He spoke more gently to her as he reached for her, grasped her arms, and pulled her into his embrace. “I’m so sorry, baby,” He spoke calmly as he gently rocked her and she welcomed his closeness as she buried her face into his chest and sobbed. “I’m not mad at you, I’m just … I’m just scared. I’m just so fucking scared right now.”
Luke had gotten them up at the break of dawn to search the site, his logic had been the earlier they started the more daylight they'd have to walk to safety. They had found all of the luggage still secured in the tail of the plane, which had broken off and landed a good 20-25 feet from the rest of the plane. Luke got excited when Penelope found two first aid kits because both were stocked full of many things, he knew they could use not just to patch them up if they got hurt but all so things that he could start a fire with once they got to drier ground.
“Is that a snowboard?” Penelope asked from where she stood putting on more layers of her clothes as Luke had instructed her to when they had found her suitcase. “You, snowboard?”
“Yeah, and I was actually looking forward to hitting some trails on this very mountain, just thousands of feet lower,” Luke answered as he strapped the board to his backpack, which he had emptied of his clothes and stuffed full of things he thought would help them.
“It could probably get us off this mountain faster huh?” She pondered. “So, do you have an extra board? I have never snowboarded in my life but I am a damn fast learner,” She added on and for a split second his eyes lit up because she was right snowboarding would get them down the mountain faster. Then he thought about the fact that they didn’t know the terrain and they might fly over a ledge, off a cliff, or into some gorge they hadn’t seen. And as he stood there looking at her with her hope-filled eyes he knew that even if he had brought an extra board, which he hadn’t, he would never risk her life on it.
“No sorry, I only brought one,” He answered honestly and said nothing of his fears, as he didn’t want to scare her more than he knew she was already.
“Then why are you taking it?” She questioned as she lifted her left hand and rubbed it up and down her right arm. “Are you planning on using it?” He could see what was running through her mind it was written all over her face. In reply, he pulled the board from the strap he had just secured it in, knowing he could just easily slide it back in now that he had the straps how he needed them to be. He then stood up from where he had been crouched and walked over to stand before her. And then without saying a word he bent over, buried one end of the board in the snow, and then easily dug up the snow and flicked it away. “Oh, it’s a makeshift shovel,” She finally realized as she nodded, and he did as well.
“Yeah, we can use it to make a snow cave to sleep in if we can’t find any other shelter,” Luke said as he stood up before her now. “Penelope, I would never … EVER, leave you behind,” He said this and lifted his right hand and placed it on her left shoulder. “Not ever,” He reiterated as he lifted his gloved hand and stroked at her hair. They stood there for a second watching each other, him trying to relay with his eyes his feelings and convictions and her trying to determine if there was something more behind his words and his eyes. She had always felt that things he would say to her had a double meaning and even though sometimes her brain would tell her ‘Yes, girl, that’s exactly what he is saying’, she would never fully believe it. That was because mostly his words came across like he was flirting with her or saying that he was attracted to her, but she wouldn’t accept that as fact. She thought he was breathtakingly gorgeous, and even a level higher than her chocolate Adonis, Derek Morgan. She knew he could and probably did have any woman he could ever want, so why would he ever want her? But sometimes, like now, with the things he would say to her and the way he would look at her, he would leave her wondering what if.
“Right, right…Uhm, ‘I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy’,” she recited with a big smile and Luke’s smile also spread wide across his face at her words. “That’s from the Army Ranger’s mission statement, right? I hope I got it right I tried to memorize it after I found out you used to be an Army Ranger,” She confessed as he looked at her in surprise that she had even bothered doing that and he was truly touched by her effort.
“Yeah, that’s right, but it doesn’t really apply here,” He said with a kind smile as he jammed the end of the board he still held into the snow and then reached out both of his hands to snap close the jacket she was wearing over the puffer vest and three sweaters. She had wanted to put on more and had more clothes than she probably even needed for this trip, but he had told her not to overdo it, because they needed to try to stay as warm as they could, but not get overheated. He told her that sweating could be deadly for them. “I’m not in the Army anymore,” He continued speaking as he closed the last snap. “And that’s not the reason I would never leave you,” He let the words linger as they both stood there, toe to toe scanning the other’s face; him gauging whether she understood what he was trying to tell her, and her again pondering if there was something more behind his words. Both were too scared to just come right out and say or ask what they wanted. “C’mon, we should start our journey,” He spoke as he dropped his eyes from hers, grabbed up the board again, moved back to his backpack, and stuffed it back in. He then lifted the backpack and slung it on his shoulders and latched it around his waist. When he looked over at her he saw she was looking into the plane and at Tara’s body, which they had covered with some extra clothing they had decided not to take with them. Luke bowed his head, sighed, and then walked to stand on her left side. He placed his right arm around her back. “I don’t want to leave her either, but we have no choice,” She nodded at his words.
“I know and I know you said we can’t bury her but…” She swallowed the sob that wanted to escape and then turned to look at him. “Could we put her body in the cockpit so no wild animal comes along and drags her off to…” She clamped her eyes shut to the thought as her fresh tears spilled out.
“Yeah, sure, we can do that … yeah,” Luke affirmed as he hugged her slightly and then stepped around her.
“Thank you,” She whispered and she moved behind him to help.