Descending White Death Mountain: The First Steps

Descending White Death Mountain: The First Steps

She was going beyond the fence. A small figure bundled in worn, thin clothes, with a tattered, threadbare blanket and a heavy backpack, walked towards a black fence filled with barbs. She threw up the blanket, and some of it caught on the top fence spikes, skewering the cloth. With a tug, it stayed in place, and she knew it was secure. With patchy gloves, she climbed a little over twice her height to the top of the fence. She was a small twelve-year-old, but it was still an accomplishment for her with a heavy pack. Looking down from the peak of the fence, her confidence wavered. The weight on her shoulders forced her to lean forward, keeping her balance while the wind threatened to throw her. The bare ground with rock and snow looked so far away.  

 I don’t know if I can do this, she thought.  I have to, though. They don’t have a choice. She slowly tried to turn around so that she could begin the climb down. The black metal fence was covered in thorns, barbs, and all sorts of dangerous points to discourage someone from climbing. A sudden gust of wind hit her face, with snowflakes going up to her nose. The cold tickle surprised her and made her sneeze. For such a slim body, it was enough to fling her off the fence, and she tumbled down. She grabbed the blanket, but it only ripped, tearing in two. She landed on her back, the pack cushioning her fall somewhat as she heard a loud crack. 

“Is the medicine okay,” she asked herself, quickly taking off the pack flipping it open. She saw the bottles, the small test tubes filled with warm liquid, the reddish-orange liquid seem to radiate heat, and she could feel it on her face. Seeing no crack, she said to herself, “Good,” and as the relief swept over her, she could feel pain on her side. Out of the corner of her vision, she saw a thorn or two with wet blood, already freezing to the unforgiving fence.

“Oh, it was just my side,” she said, seeing a small trickle of blood. She took a bandaid from her pocket and placed it on the wound, and tightened the jacket to her body. With the pack of scarlet tubes radiating heat, she began the long trip, the long descent down White Death Mountain.

On the other side of the fence was a vast building. It was made out of cool grey brick with an off white … something keeping the bricks together. Inside, the people were not much warmer. Most of them were women wearing monochromatic white and blue garb. The edges of the clothing, like the sleeves, were heavily decorated with all sorts of natural yet cryptic designs. However, there was an older woman in a central room, with light brown skin, with a dark blue shirt with embroidery not just on the sleeves of her pants and shirt but all over the clothing. From ice, wind, strange animals, even geometric patterns decorated her dress. Her expression, wrinkled with age and some bitterness, was colder than the ice on her clothes. It was focused on the other person in the room with her. A man, whose copper-colored skin was like hers sat opposite to her. His clothing was plain and rough, and his facial features even rougher. 

He was the first to break the silence to say, “You are condemning us to death.”

She rolled her eyes and said, “Oh, you think I don’t know that?”

“It seems to be,” he pointed out with bitterness, “that you needed to be reminded of that. Just because your people don’t die from the cold doesn’t mean we don’t.”

“It’ll be a problem for us if too many of you die. That’ll increase our workload.” 

He slammed his fist on the table, standing up, fury flushing his face with a crimson blush, shouting, “These are people! They may not be special, in the way that you’re used to thinking of people, but they are still people they don’t deserve to die.”

“I don’t get to choose any of your weaknesses.”

“You can choose to send a few maidens down with me so that we can stop dying. We need the medicine, And the previous you shipments have not gone through.”

“It’s not my fault that you cannot manage the communications. We had automatic transport, and you guys broke it.”

“The transport was supposed to be used for equivalent exchange. We mine the metal. Then we send it to you women to use your weird ice powers on the metal, sell it to that spaceship company for top dollar, and we all make a profit. You give us breadcrumbs while you eat the whole goat!”

 She only rolled her eyes in frustration, and shooing him away, said, “Are we just going to keep going back and forth, or are you just going to go back to your room?” 

As if to spite her wishes, he stood up and stepped closer to her saying, “We agreed to work here for five years, for a mountain of money at the end of it. We haven’t received half of what we were supposed to. You made it so that we can’t even buy the medicine from other places!”

“We’re not the only company of people on a space rock making metal for interstellar travel and selling it to others. There’s high competition. We are both poorer than expected.” 

“You mean competition on how much you can skim the top?”

On the other side of the wooden door, there was a loud, furious knocking. Judging by the sound, they both could tell it was a woman, and it was not to be ignored.

She sighed and said, “This day keeps getting better and better. Come in!”

A woman stumbled into the room, and she said with a flushed face, “There’s a problem!”

“It couldn’t wait until tomorrow?” the older woman asked, and the young woman with a light blue shirt with minimal embroidery winced. 

“When we double-check the beds, Chaha was, missing. Not only that but also the pack of medicine is also gone!”

The older woman showed no reaction, but the man stood up with fear in his eyes and asked with a wavering voice, “Chaha has missing?” In a moment, realization dawned on him, and he bolted out of the room. Today’s the older woman in the younger woman followed after him. They went through the winding corridors with a cool off-white color with little blue decorations dotting the doors and walls. He quickly turned into the main room and bolted out of doors and Into the Wild, shouting, “Chaha! Chaha! Where are you?!?” 

In a frantic panic, he turned left and started running to the fence to see if she was out there. He scanned the horizon, a steep drop with few to no trees obscuring his view yet, the night was sprinting ahead, and the snow was slowly falling. Even if she left an hour ago, he could find traces and begin the descent.  

If the man went to the right, he could have seen her tender footsteps and found Chaha. He never saw her, never heard her as he searched, but she heard him scream, even though she was walking for several minutes. Two tears formed, and she could feel the water coming down her cheek. She quickly wiped the tears off, fearing that they would freeze to her dark-copper skin. 

She said to herself, When I was alone, you were there. Now you’re alone, let me do the same for you. 

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