Search for Lazarus

We had already made it some ways down the mountain trail. Taking our time and just enjoying the day and being out in the sunshine and fresh air. Michael and I holding hands and smiling at absolutely nothing, how could any day get better? PIB yelled out in my head. His voice so loud I just knew Michael had to hear it too. “Look Up.” He bellowed. My gaze didn’t look skyward. Something in the way he said it had me looking toward the mountainside directly up slope from us. My sight saw a distant figure but with the amount of bulky clothing they had on I couldn’t tell the size or even if it was a man or woman. I didn’t like the fact that whoever that was, was standing right on top of a huge snow pack. It was much too early for avalanche season. There just wasn’t enough snow yet for it to be a problem. That’s one of the reason’s Michael and I had decided to go hiking. A lot of us had decided to do that this Saturday before the snows got so deep it was almost impossible to get anywhere without skis or snowmobiles and avalanche warnings were a daily worry. Grabbing Michael’s arm I pointed to the distant figure. “Trouble.” He didn’t ask how I knew. By now he knew better. We both heard the not so soft bang of an explosion. I didn’t wait for the results. I knew what was coming next. Grabbing Michael by the hand, we ran. Maybe I could have made the distance if I had left him behind but we both knew that wasn’t happening and he hadn’t wasted his breath trying. He needed it for running. Just before the ice and snow hit I grabbed Michael around the waist. Wrapping my body around his, we both curled in as tight a ball as we could. Locking my legs and arms around him to try and buffer as much of the impact for him as I could. I could heal much quicker than he could and his medical training could help me if was injured seriously enough to need it. I knew it was going to be bad but even my imagination hadn’t prepared me for the hit we took. Rolling end over end sometimes and at other times being bounced around like a ball at the worst, most painful tennis match in history. I couldn’t even determine what was up and what was down anymore as our sliding and bouncing torment continued for what seemed like hours. I could tell our momentum was slowing and I thought good we were almost done with this as the snow flipped me one last time and I felt my left shoulder hit something hard and my shoulder blade snapped in two and my rotator cuff dislocated. I tried to scream but only managed to get snow in my mouth as I felt my tight grip loosen and Michael was torn away from me in the last few seconds of our snowy pain filled ride. Which way was up and which down? My eyes were open but snow was everywhere, packed tightly around me. I could breath but it was difficult even for me. I kicked hard with a foot straight down and only found hardness; it was the same when I punched in front of me, it was a little softer but not much and I could dig into the snow with my fingers. My right arm shot straight up and my fingertips hit open air. YES!!! I dug and kicked and pushed my way up less than two feet but it seemed like ten. It was like swimming through concrete. Soon I was on top of the packed snow. Looking around I couldn’t see any sign of Michael. He must be buried close by but in which direction. I didn’t have a lot of time. He could suffocate in just a few minutes. Calm down Maggie, I said to myself. He’s had as much or more cold weather training than you had. He’ll know to not panic, to take shallow breaths and wait for me to find him. PIB, I called out in my head. Michael, help me find Michael. “Listen.” Came his soft voice. The way that was said it didn’t mean with my ears but I tried anyway, stretching out with every bit of my very sensitive hearing. Nothing. Then I tried what I thought PIB really meant. I reached into my shirt and my hand wrapped around a crystal pendant, the mate to the one Michael worn under his shirt too. It had been our bonding presents to each other. Now they pulsed in time to our heartbeats. I focused on mine and listened. Not with my ears or even with my head but with my heart. Mine was beating at a frantic rate so I had no idea if Michael’s was the cause of the tempo or not. I focused around the panic and did what Michael had said he did when I had been shot with the drug-laced arrow. I shut down every emotion but my love for him and reached out. There it was like a brilliant light shining out from the gloom on a foggy night. Michael’s heartbeat calling to mine, I followed the pulsing almost light. Our hearts had beat as one for months now. I followed where my heart lead, listened to its quiet, almost whispered voice. It knew where to find its other half. And then something PIB had pushed at me months ago finally clicked. This is what he had been trying to tell me when we had both gotten so frustrated when Michael and I had worked on combat training. The heart spark was good for more than just finding each other. I could feel everything he felt and could almost see through his eyes. Stopping around five feet from the hole I had dug myself out of I dropped to my knees and started digging. My claws sprung out and that helped and I dug and clawed my way through the hard packed snow. I found a boot first, followed it to the leg it was attached to. I started to pull but he was wedged in too tight and he was almost upside down. Digging around him to loosen the snow I must have looked like a possessed dog trying to find a bone as the snow flew up over my head. Finally he was loose enough that my tugging on both his legs Michael came up out of his snow prison with an almost audible pop. He was flushed and taking in huge gulps of air but otherwise he seemed fine. My shoulder blade had mended itself in the time it took me to dig my way out and find Michael. Before I had even given his foot the first yank it was fine. My rotator cuff needed help. It couldn’t go back into place all by itself and even though I knew how, I hated to do something like that to myself. But Michael was always a bigger priority than I was. “You okay?” I asked a little breathless. He nodded. “Yeah. You?” “I could us a little help.” I didn’t need to say more. His eyes skimming over my body, he quickly found the problem. “This is going to hurt.” He warned me. “Can’t be any worse than having a bullet dug out of it.” Our friend Anthony had to do that honor. That was the price he had to pay for me coming to rescue him when Aspanari agents decided they liked him and his computer a little too much. Michael’s hands grabbed my shoulder and with quick strong tug everything was back in place and would soon be working like always. “You know the next time I get something broken or dislocated I wish it would pick a different section. My left shoulder is starting to feel picked on.” Michael snorted but didn’t say anything. His eyes went up the mountainside that was now almost totally bare of snow. Mine followed but I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary from this distance either. “You know somebody just tried to kill us.” He said. Michael rarely got mad anymore but there was more than anger in his words and in his heart. Not quite rage but something so close as to be a kissing cousin. “Yes, somebody did.” My voice was cold as ice just like my emotions. They went that way when I was beyond rage leaving me feeling nothing, only cold resolution and dedication to purpose. Somebody was in for a big surprise that we were alive. Revenge was not a thought I entertained but we needed to find out whom that someone was and why we had been targeted before they tried again. I was now very sure this was not an isolated incident.