“Good stuff?” Ryan poked his head in through the open end of the airplane. When the avalanche had spun the body of the plane like a toy, it’d left the open end half-buried in a snowbank. A person could just squeeze through. They’d already decided to pack snow into the space to close it and use the hatch toward the rear of the plane for exiting and entering. After they looked for the packs.

Ryan’s shaggy hair poked out around his hood and his eyes looked like he’d pulled an all-nighter studying for college finals.

“Like single malt whiskey.”

Ryan’s gaze went to the little stove, and Alex wondered if he wanted to tuck it under his coat too.

“Got your pack from the top of the hill?”

Ryan nodded. “Two packs for the five of us. That’s not good numbers.”

“Someone will come in after us.”

Ryan shook his head. “I think we’ve had our window of good weather. The weather on my GPS is showing nothing but storms for the next two days.”

“We won’t starve in three days.” Alex watched Ryan pale and swallow hard. “Stomach still a wreck?”

“Let’s not talk about food.” His smile was feeble.

“GPS working?”

Ryan nodded. “They’re all showing the same readings now. I don’t know what the fuck was wrong with them earlier.”

Alex took a sip of salty broth as Ryan stepped all the way into the plane and held his hands out to the little stove. He studied Alex from head to toe. Alex raised a brow. “Surprised to see me breathing?”

“Yes.”

“Me too.” Alex stared at the stove and its glowing flame.

“What do you remember?”

Alex was silent for a moment. His stomach knotted as he pulled up the memory. “I remember seeing you and Brynn waving at me. I remember looking up the hill and seeing a wall of white rushing at me.” He took another sip. “I remember thinking I was a dead man and tried to run.” He rubbed at his leg. Brynn had shoved three Advil in his hand along with the broth, but his knee still felt like he’d been hit by a truck. Or an avalanche.

“You didn’t get very far,” Ryan spoke softly.

“It was loud; I remember that. And then my ears were plugged with snow, but I could still hear the roar. Maybe the sound was in my head.”

Ryan shook his head. “No. It sounded like a train or tornado coming. That sucker was loud.”

“It reminded me of being tossed in the ocean while bodysurfing. You know, when you can’t tell up from down? That absolute panic that makes you pump your arms and legs and hope you’re headed toward the surface. That was my only thought. For some reason I knew I needed to move like I was swimming. I don’t know how I got lucky enough to end up on my back. I could have ended up head down. That would have been a hard target for you diggers to hit.”

Alex clamped his jaw as a full-body shudder rocked him. God, I was lucky. So damned lucky.

“Nah, your feet probably would’ve been sticking out of the snow. Might’ve been easier to find.” Ryan forced a smile.

Alex let an answering smile spread across his face. His smile wasn’t forced. He was aboveground, and that was all that mattered. He could smile forever.

“I was awake for a while under there.”

“Fuck. I can’t imagine…” Ryan’s eyes widened.

“Looking back, I’m surprised how calm I was. At first I wanted to scream and dig out and fight. But then after the first panic I just accepted it. I knew there was nothing I could do. And I was OK with that. Peaceful almost.”

He met Ryan’s curious gaze and kept quiet about his dream of Brynn. He’d thought about her a lot since he’d been dug out of the ground. When he’d first seen her above him, she’d looked so damned scared, and then relief had shot through her eyes.

At the same moment, something had shot through him, bonding him with her. Some sort of freaky cosmic thing. He’d heard that rescuers would forever carry a piece of the soul of the people they’d saved. He didn’t know he’d physically feel it when it happened to him.

“Thomas knew where you were. He saw you get tossed in the avalanche.”

Alex bit his lip. What if the big guy hadn’t seen him?

“Jim thought he knew where you were. We started digging in two different spots, but Jim’s spot turned up Brynn’s pack.” Ryan cleared his throat. “I thought Brynn was going to lose it when she realized it wasn’t you under all that snow. We were all about to give up after that.”

“I’m glad you didn’t.”

“Maybe it was my ears. I don’t know what I heard, but when we were digging at the hole where we finally found you, I swear a sound was coming up from under the snow.”

“What kind of sound?” Screams? Moans?

“A chime. Just a single quiet chime.” He studied Alex.

Alex blinked. A chime? Like his…he reached in his coat pocket and pulled out his cell phone. The screen showed two missed calls and a voice mail. The chime would sound occasionally until he checked his voice mail. He dialed.

“It’s from Jim.” He stared at a grinning Ryan. “He’s cursing at me to answer my phone.”

Both men burst out laughing.

“You tried to call me? Did you think I could tell you where I was?” Alex gasped between laughs. “I can’t believe the call went through.”