Chapter 42: Death by Ice...
The wind howled through the mountains, carrying strange sounds with it. Distant roars and cracking ice, plus the cries of unfamiliar creatures, echoed everywhere. Chloe swallowed in fear. For the first time, she fully understood what entering a rift meant. She wasn’t at school anymore; she wasn’t in New Liberty. She wasn’t protected by teachers or walls or civilization. She was inside another world, a very real one, and she was alone. The realization made her nervous and terrified, mostly because someone wasn’t here. Silas.
She found herself looking around instinctively, as though the pink-haired menace would somehow appear from behind a snowdrift. The thought almost made her smile.
"He’s probably causing trouble somewhere."
The moment the words left her mouth, she paused. Actually, knowing Silas, he was definitely causing trouble somewhere, probably several places at once. The thought strangely comforted her. If Silas was causing trouble, that meant he was alive, and if he were alive, he’d eventually find a way to reach her, or accidentally stumble into her while running from whatever disaster he had created. Both outcomes sounded equally possible.
A small laugh escaped her lips. She took a deep breath.
"Okay."
She adjusted her backpack, checked her supplies, checked the emergency equipment issued by the academy, and started walking, only to realize that Silas’s things were also with her. They were just a new pair of clothes. Well, there was nothing she could do about it. It wasn’t as if they could use phones in the rift. It was impossible.
The snowy landscape stretched endlessly before her. Her footsteps echoed through the frozen wilderness. Minutes passed, then nearly an hour. The environment gradually changed. The mountains became steeper, the snow, deeper, and the air, colder. She noticed something: tracks, much larger than a human’s.
Chloe immediately crouched and checked, using her knowledge of basic survival she’d learned. She was one of the best academic students for a reason. The prints were fresh, and whatever had made them was enormous. She could tell because the academy used simulations that were very real. That helped a lot.
The tracks disappeared into a nearby forest of frost-covered trees. For a moment, she considered following them, but then common sense won.
"No."
She was many things; curious. determined, sometimes stubborn, but not stupid. She wasn’t as stupid as the characters in horror movies who would go check out why a door in a supposedly haunted house was creaking.
She stood up and prepared to move in another direction when a distant sound reached her ears. It was a howl, long, deep, and powerful that echoed across the mountains, gaining answers all around. Chloe slowly turned... Far in the distance, on a ridge overlooking the valley, several massive white figures stood watching, their glowing blue eyes fixed directly on her. The distance was too great to make out details, but one thing was obvious. They had noticed her, and they were moving toward her.
"..."
Chloe stared, and the creatures stared back, and she did the most intelligent thing possible. She turned around and started walking away calmly in the most dignified way possible. The creatures immediately began running.
"..."
Chloe’s calm walk instantly became a sprint.
"WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN?!" she screamed as the snowy wilderness exploded into motion behind her. Somewhere else in the rift, Silas suddenly sneezed for absolutely no reason. Chloe ran. Snow exploded beneath her boots as she sprinted through the frozen wilderness. Behind her, the howls continued, getting closer and louder.
She didn’t dare look back. The survival classes taught by Valecrest instructors had drilled one thing into every student’s head. When something bigger, stronger, and faster than you is chasing you, run first and panic later.
The icy wind cut across her face, her lungs burned, and her legs ached, but she forced herself forward. The terrain gradually became more uneven. The open snowfields gave way to rocky slopes and jagged cliffs. Large boulders protruded from the snow like the bones of some ancient beast. Another howl echoed, much closer this time.
Chloe finally risked a glance backward, immediately regretting it. The creatures were visible now. They were huge, white-furred, and four-legged, each one easily the size of a truck with glowing blue eyes that burned within their skull-like faces. They bounded through the snow with terrifying speed.
Her pace increased. Ahead, she noticed something, a mountain wall, and within it was a cave, exactly the kind of place every survival guide warned against entering. Normally, Chloe would’ve avoided it. Unfortunately, giant monster wolves were trying to turn her into lunch.
Sorry, common sense.
She dove inside, and the darkness swallowed her. The sounds of the outside world immediately became muffled while the temperature somehow dropped even further. However, Chloe didn’t stop. She continued running deeper into the cave. The ground beneath her feet became slick while ice covered many surfaces. Strange blue crystals protruded from the walls. The cave twisted, turned, and descended as she moved.
Eventually, the sounds of pursuit faded, and Chloe slowed to a stop, trying to catch her breath.
"Alive," A shaky laugh escaped her lips. "I am definitely alive."
The words echoed softly when something cracked. The sound came from under her. Chloe froze as she realized something...
"..."
The ground cracked again, and her eyes widened.
"Oh no."
The ice under her shattered, and the world disappeared.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"
She fell straight down into the darkness and into water. The impact stole the breath from her lungs. The water was unimaginably cold and felt wrong, as if the cold itself was alive. The shock almost stopped her heart.
Chloe surfaced immediately, gasping and coughing, but the current grabbed her. It was strong and violent. She was swept downstream before she could orient herself. The stream twisted and turned through subterranean tunnels. She desperately tried swimming, but the cold didn’t allow it. Her fingers had become numb, only for her arms to become numb too.
"Move..." The words emerged weakly. "Move!"
Her body ignored her while the current continued carrying her deeper into the cave. Around her, strange symbols glowed faintly: snowflake-shaped runes embedded into the stone, but Chloe never noticed. The freezing water was already affecting her.
The runes reacted one by one. Soft blue light spread through the underground river, and the cold intensified. Chloe’s lips turned pale, and her breathing slowed. Her movements weakened while the current eventually pushed her against a rocky shoreline within a hidden cavern. She tried crawling out, but failed, each attempt weaker than the last.
Eventually, she managed to drag herself halfway onto the shore and collapsed, but the cold continued spreading through her body. Her fingers lost all sensation, her vision blurred, and the world became distant. She thought about Silas, and a weak smile appeared on her pale face.
"You’d probably laugh..." Her voice barely existed anymore. "...if you saw this..."
Her eyelids became heavy as the glowing runes surrounding the cavern brightened. Blue light reflected across the icy water, the walls, and Chloe’s unmoving body. Chloe’s breathing became slower while her skin turned frighteningly pale as her body temperature continued dropping, until eventually, everything went still, and the cavern fell silent.
