Part 3

“I’m going to get us off here.” Tiff cupped Gus’s head and looked into his dark eyes while she caressed his ears. “I’m not going to let us…” His face blurred through her tears as she fought to pull in a breath. Gus’s warm body, rhythmic breathing, and strength of his aura brought Tiff’s heart rate down.

Opening her eyes, she watched a tiny semi rolled across a tiny highway.

“Actually…” Tiff said, her pulse quickening as her eyes danced. “I wonder…”

Gus’s slobbery tongue was all over Tiff’s face as she dug around in her pack, and her fingers sang when they brushed her phone. When she opened the screen, a laugh tumbled from her lips. “I actually have reception up here.”

The wildflowers trembled and the pika screamed as Tiff listened to the ring tone. “Pick up, pick up…”

“Hello?”

“Mike,” she said, a smile spreading across her face.

“Tiff? I can hardly hear you. Are you in the wind?”

“Yeah, hang on.” Tiff turned until the wind pressed into her side. “Is that better?”

“A bit. Where are you?”

“You wouldn’t believe…”

“Try me.”

“On top of Spirit.”

“On the top? What the heck are you doing up there at this time of day?”

As her fingers played with the loose skin of Gus’s scruff, Tiff gazed out at the valley. “Let’s just say I lost track of time and may have lost the route.”

“From up there, it’s at least five hours to get off the mountain and sunset is in three.”

“No kidding. And I have a feeling it’ll be longer than five hours considering I completely lost my way. I’m thinking that if I work my way around the gorge, I can find a route down, but that’ll be at least seven hours before I’m off this damn thing. And I’m almost out of water.”

“So, you’re calling for a rescue.”

“I’m calling for advice. You know these mountains better than anyone. What are my options?”

“Give me a sec…”

Mike’s heavy breathing and the banging of a screen door being wrestled into submission carried over the line. Tiff hugged Gus close, his body a weighted blanket for her fraying nerves.

“Okay,” Mike said. “I’m looking at Spirit through my binos. Where exactly are you?”

“I’m looking down on the town, so I guess I’d be on the southwest end. I have Gus with me.”

“Yeah… Yup. I think I see you.”

“You can see me?” Tiff said, pulling herself to standing.

“I think so.”

With the phone pressed to her face, Tiff turned into the wind and waved her hand over her head. “I’m waving. Do you see that?”

“That’s you, all right. What the heck are you doing on that end of the mountain? You’re way off course. You were right – you need to come down around the gully to the north, then hike back uphill to find the trail. You’re looking at seven hours minimum, but probably closer to eight. Why did it take you so long to call me?”

“I figured I could find my own way off this thing.” Tiff searched the town until she found Mike’s house. She could barely make out the teeny deck amongst his broccoli-like trees; there was no chance she could see Mike himself. “I’m almost out of water.”

“You already said that. I have no choice but to send out a rescue team.”

“Not a chance. I can get out of here on my own. Just tell me how.”

“Helicopter is how. At this time of day with no water, there is no other option.”

“But I have Gus with me,” Tiff said, finding the silky spot behind Gus’s floppy ear. “I won’t go without him, even if I have to spend the night.”

“I’ve got a dog harness that Atlas uses when we’re doing mountaineering work. It’ll fit Gus.”

“You think he’ll go into it?”

“He has no choice.”

“There really is no other option?”

“How’s death sound to you? And the guilt of making me write up a report on a dead hiker?”