Chapter 18

The rescue team arrived at 3:00 am. Valentina's face was streaked with tears and ice, her hands bright red from the cold. Even so, she stubbornly kept her flashlight raised, methodically searching every inch of the cliff base alongside the rescue workers. "I found them! Over here! Bring a stretcher!" one of the team members suddenly shouted. Hearing his call, Valentina immediately stumbled toward the voice. She saw Chris lying among the jagged rocks at the bottom of the cliff, a pool of dark red blood beneath him. Meanwhile, Jake lay motionless a short distance away. He was clearly dead. "This one's still breathing! Come on, help me get him to the truck. We need to get him to a hospital!" Valentina dropped to her knees in the snow, her hands shaking as she took Chris' ice-cold fingers in hers. His scarf had come loose during the fall, exposing the lower half of his face in the moonlight. But the darkness was too deep for her to make out his features clearly. She could only see t