Free Poison Bay by Belinda Pollard Page A

plane offered safety in numbers. You could all go down together, singing Kumbaya.  
    His long legs were folded awkwardly into the cramped footwell, and the narrow seatbelt cut into his beer belly, but he wouldn’t have minded making it tighter. At least this meant I could be at Tahlia’s birthday party . It’s worth a couple of hours of near-death experience to spend time with my little girl. My little girl who just became an adult, and barely knows I’m alive.
    Ted the pilot turned his way and grinned. “We could fly over the Fiordland mountains too. Great day for thermals. Nice bit of rock’n’roll.”
    “When we get home I’m going to find some pretense to arrest you. A night in a cell would be just the thing.”  
    Ted chuckled and shook his head. “That’s a very dangerous thing to say while you’re still in the air.”
    Peter closed his eyes and groaned.

16
    Tuesday, Three Days Lost

    The first snowflakes drifted out of a lowering sky, landing soft and cold on Jack’s face as they struggled out beyond the tree line.
    He was at the back of the line again, with six people ahead of him. This morning’s decision had ended up being unanimous. They would stick together.  
    And then they’d discovered this shy little valley, with what looked to be a fairly civilized mountain pass at its head. Everyone’s spirits lifted as they made good progress, hopeful of crossing to the next valley before nightfall.  
    Until the weather closed in.
    Now, the temperature was dropping fast and Jack watched Sharon with concern. Every inch of progress over the uneven ground was more of a stumble than a step, and the twisting action on her ankles and knees had to be agonizing, but she just kept moving, seemingly oblivious.
    Jack grabbed a strap dangling from Callie’s rucksack, just ahead of him, and tugged on it. She turned and looked at him with tired eyes, her breathing audible with the exertion of the steep incline. He nodded in Sharon’s direction. Callie turned just in time to see Sharon fall sideways against a large boulder. She slid to the ground and crumpled, defeated.  
    Callie shouted, “Erica!”  
    Further up, Erica turned around, took in Sharon’s situation at a glance, and began to clamber back down those hard-won meters of mountain. “Sharon!” she called, but there was no response.  
    Progress stopped. There was now something more urgent than getting over that mountain pass.
    ***
    Jack watched Callie and Rachel huddle close to Sharon, wrapping their arms around the foil first-aid blanket that enveloped her, willing her to warm up. She showed little sign of life other than the staccato shivers that shook her body in waves. Erica and the men discussed the prognosis as though Sharon wasn’t there, and in a way, she wasn’t.
    Erica said, “I’m pretty sure it’s hypothermia, plus probably shock. It’s serious stuff. We’ve got to get her warm. Those damp jeans of hers aren’t helping.”
    “She shouldn’t be up here at all,” Kain said, with a venomous look at Jack.  
    Adam said, “It wasn’t Jack’s decision.”  
    “Oh really?” Kain said. “Are you quite sure we’d be here right now if he hadn’t said all that stuff about me when we were back at Poison Bay? And now we all die because Sharon can’t keep going.”
    “Stop it, Kain!” Erica hissed. “What’s wrong with you? She’s sitting right there!”  
    Adam said, “Let’s figure out an answer that helps us all survive. Will she be warmer if she moves, or does she need to rest?”
    “I’m not really sure,” Erica said. “I’m no paramedic. In a hospital ward we’d give her warmth and fuel, preferably IV glucose.”
    Rachel cut in. “What about my glucose tablets? We could give her some of those.”
    They all turned and stared. Rachel’s meager remaining supply could be the difference between life and death for herself.
    The group focus shifted to Erica, reluctant team medic. “Maybe if we just gave her one, that