Altitude

Escape Plan

Peter, Kat and a few others were in the rescue team, left in the soaring chopper thirty hours ago. Without a permit and deteriorated body condition, the strict authorities in the base camp wouldn't let Mia in. She was under supervision.

As the helicopter pilot mentioned, the temperature fell rapidly and raised only with the sun. No matter how cold it was, the base camp was never vacant. Midnight snacks, soup and tea were served around the campfire. Laughter always erupted the valley. Sometimes there would be an orchestra.

"There has to be another reason to trigger an avalanche?" Mia's father teased once during a bonfire.

As June approached fast, the drastic change in the weather was as expected. There seemed to be no possibility for the clear weather window. With Arjun out there, she just couldn't sit in a tent waiting for the message from the safeguards. It had been six days already. Executing the plan was not the hard part, the timing was. A few master coins had been tricked and she hoped it worked out following her strategy.

In blind confidence, she left the tent. On her way around the camp, not a single soul paid any attention until she came across one Mr. Rajan Vasudevan. With prying small eyes under his spectacles and stern face, he would pass for a government official in any corner of the world. Features of a Nepali man was inscribed on every inch of his body.

"Stop looking at me, you idiot. This is all because of you." She grunted under her breath but smiled at him like he was one of her favorite men. 

She never liked him. The feelings must have been mutual, he usually snarled like a monkey at her. He had his reasons to do so. The young Mia could be considered as a prankish child. With the frisky nature, Mia once threw a cracker into Mr. Rajan's overall and the other one stuck in his hood. Tiny busters they were, harmless and did nothing but just startled him.

His complaint had stacks after stacks that Dhruv had a deep sleep for a few hours of lecture. Scarcely did she be available for Mr. Rajan after that incident. Though her innocuous pranks around him didn't stop and she was about to pull the biggest one of all.

Walking past the men cheering and drinking, she reached the neck of the valley after a few minutes and waited. It was this place through which the climbers came into the base camp, like an invisible portal. Though the opposite side of the entry point was where her attention was.

A magnificent view of the night sky attracted her as always. The clusters of stars coating the onyx spread across the valley were mesmerizing. An efficient artist spray-painted the litters of sparkles on the sable swart that glowed on its own. Aurora Borealis might be the only other phenomenon that could be compared to the excellence in front of her. Nothing else in the World had the rights to stand even beside it.

As time passed, anxiety crept in. 'Aren't they gonna show up today of all days? Ohh, please... I need you now. Don't do this to me...' she prayed. Her body was ice-cold. The breath vapor served as a distraction as she was observing and experimenting with it. 'How would the smoke come out if I don't inhale one? Why have I never thought about it? What'll I tell Ishaan if he asked me the same question?'

That was when she saw it - a few little green lights on the western ridge, moving towards her. Like the fireflies, they danced in the dark, except they were too slow to be one. Elated, she wanted to jump but stayed quiet so as not to attract any kind of adverse attention.

Holding the torch by her side and taking a few deep breaths, she started to climb the soft slopes of the ridge. Dhruv was the one brought her to those slant in the past and entertained her with the ravishing beauty of the night, showing the main component of her present game plan.