Snowtrapped!

Chapter One: Avalanche

The wind blew hard against the cabin window. Outside, a storm had picked up and dumped ten inches of snow on the mountain resort causing all activities to be canceled. Amana lay curled up in her bed. She listened as her roommates giggled and whispered to each other. One of the girls, Meg, smuggled in a playgirl magazine. Meg gave her free use of her iphone to keep quiet. Amana rolled her eyes and returned to her myspace page.

“Update” she typed, “I’m still stuck on Prison Mountain, aka, winter camp.” More giggles. “But thanks to this storm, I may get to come home early!”

Just as she typed her last sentence, the cabin shook violently, as if a car slammed into their cabin. Meg and the girls screamed; Amana jumped out of her bed, dropping Meg’s phone.

“Allah!” she screamed, “what was that?”

The girls huddled together watching the ceiling light swing back and forth. Amana’s phone rang making the girls jump again. She rushed over and answered it.

“Amana,” her brother shouted into the phone, “get out of there. We are leaving.”

“What?” she said, “what is going on?” she asked.

“The storm hit sooner than they expected, that was just a small avalanche of snow that hit us, they expect a bigger one soon. Get out now,” he shouted. “Come down to the main gate, all the vans and trucks are waiting to carry everyone out.”

Amana grabbed her coat and began lacing up.

“What?” Meg asked wide-eyed. “Where are you going?”

“They are closing the resort, we have to leave before the next storm causes another avalanche,” she said breathing hard.

The girls quickly put on their things and headed out the door. Meg stuck her head back in, “Amana!” she shouted, “what the heck are you doing?” she asked as Amana frantically stuffed her bags, “leave the stuff, we have to go now.”

“I’m coming,” she said “I’m coming.”

Meg ran out. Amana shoved her phone in her pocket, hoisted her bag onto her back and turned to leave. She saw Meg’s phone on the floor and bent over to pick it up. The cabin began to shake again, throwing her onto the ground. She hit her head against the bunk rail as she went down. The room went black.

********

Two hours later, Amana slowly opened her eyes and groaned. She rolled onto her side and got up, her hand holding her head. She stumbled to the door and stepped out. She started her trek down the hill. She reached into her pocket for her phone. There were three missed calls, two from her brother and one from her mom. She called her brother.
She got quite an ear full when he picked up.

“I’m on my way,” she said breathing hard into her phone. Whirls of wind and snow slapped her face and howled in her ears. Her legs were beginning to ache. The snowshoes and bags were heavy and the snow was quite deep.

Her brother sighed, “Amana,” his voice cracked, “you scared the heck out of me. I thought you were dead when Meg and your roommates showed up without you and that quake hit. They forced us to leave but are sending rescue teams out tomorrow after the storm blows over.”

Amana’s heart stopped, as she stood frozen in the snow. “Gone!” She was on that mountain all by herself? Not to mention, the mother of all storms was still coming. Amana looked around and saw some plush master cabins near the main resort hall. She took off for the cabin closet to her. The last thing she remembered her brother yelling into the phone was to call him as soon as she found a safe place to wait out the storm.

She was 100 yards away when she heard a crack and a loud rumble. She looked behind her and saw a white wave of snow crashing down the mountain. Her eyes grew wide and her mouth dropped. She turned around and raced toward the cabin. She could hear trees cracking and crashing. The snow thundered and roared as the ground shook underneath her feet. She barely made it into the cabin and closed the door before the avalanche rocked the cabin. Lucky for her, the occupants left in such a hurry they forgot to lock the door. The cabin rocked under the weight of the snow. She could no longer hear the roar of the storm because of the crushing pound of the avalanche. Furniture fell to the ground and the ceiling lamps swung back and forth. Amana huddled under a table, eyes closed tight and clutching her knees as she waited out the avalanche. What seemed like hours, the avalanche subsided. She took a few moments to collect her thoughts then crawled from under the table. She felt for her phone and called her brother.

“I thought you’d never call,” he said with a sigh of relief. “Where are you?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” she replied, “I ran for the nearest cabin.”
A quick image flashed in her memory, a plaque with a woman on it. Amana went to the door and opened it to get a better look. She came face to face with an ice wall. She was trapped inside the cabin. She went to the large window and found the same thing. Amana began to whimper. Her brother calmed her and told her to look around the cabin. Before they got off, he told her it would take the team a few days to reach her. He told her to turn off her phone to save battery life.

“Don’t turn it on until you see sunlight or it is an absolute emergency.”

Amana busied herself to calm her fears. She found a flashlight in her bag and began exploring the master cabin. The master cabins were the penthouses on the resort. This one had two rooms, two bathrooms, a cozy den with a fireplace and a restored wood-burning stove, a large storage room, a covered terrace with chopped wood, a small library and a huge kitchen. The cabin felt like an icebox.

She put all her things in the den, since the fireplace was there. She went into the upstairs rooms and gathered all the warm blankets and clothing she could find. The family in the cabin must have been really rich because she found quite of few nice thick fur coats and plush heavy blankets. She wrapped herself in one of the fur coats and hugged it. This would probably be the only time she’d ever get to wear one. She hobbled down the stairs, her arms loaded with goods. Amana checked the storage room; it was filled with food, supplies and an emergency kit. The wood holder was also filled with chopped wood. She checked the fridge and cabinets in the kitchen. Full. In fact, it looked like they had just gone shopping. With no electricity, she would have to eat the perishable items first.

Amana found some matches and started a fire in the fireplace. She sat down and tried to collect her thoughts. She reached for her phone but remembered she could not turn it on, so she turned on an ipod she found in one of the upstairs bedroom. She only found a few songs on it that she liked. A lot of the songs were loud, angry, and typical of a heading banging heavy metal fan. But, it calmed her enough to venture back into the fridge for some cheese and crackers. She munched on an apple and chugged down a bottle of water. She curled up next to the fireplace and fell asleep.

Copyright © 2010 SN Taylor, All Rights Reserved