Chapter 114: Temporary shelter

Conquering the mountains was an easy task only on paper or when one did so from behind the screen of his television. With my mind torn between the complete boredom of this arduous journey and the constant vigilance that I didn't dare to lower in such an unfriendly environment, I was forced to acknowledge how difficult this task was.

Back before the apocalypse, my only contact with the topic of climbing was centred around the occasional news of some pro-climbers losing their lives in some disasters or accidents. On such occasions, the internet would explode with couch experts claiming how they would never fall for such misfortune or how stupid those climbers were in the first place when picking their passion. 

Given how I didn't know anything about the topic, I preferred to steer clear from those heated discussions, as I couldn't provide anything constructive in it, while most of the internet users wouldn't bother to do so in the first place. But right now, with my fingers brittling in the frost, with my legs constantly shaking in the early signs of hypothermia…

And all of that because I was reckless. Because I dared to treat this task with lesser respect than it reserved.

After the explosion that miraculously not only saved me from death after the long fall but also considerably shortened my path, I landed on a small plateau. Once I stood up and assessed the situation, it seemed as if the entire thing was some kind of divine intervention, as the protrusion in the otherwise nearly vertical face of the mountain was barely any bigger than my body. With a narrow path circling around the steep mountain toward its other side, I didn't dare to stay on this small plateau any longer.

In the end, with how lucky I was to end up on this protrusion, I had no wits to believe the stability of the ground below my feet. Who could know whether this protrusion was actually hardened snow that could fall apart under the weight of my body at any given moment?

As mature and careful this approach appeared to me back when I left this small safe place, it didn't have anything to do with being reasonable. If only I could calm the terror that continued to creep in my soul after the recent close call, I could've taken just a moment to change my clothes for the fully intact set. 

Eager to secure my position and find the real path towards the peak, I ended up following the narrow cliff. At some points, I had to hug my back to the mountainside in order to keep my centre of mass above the path rather than the dark depths below me. With the track getting as thin as just a single foot, by the time I reached my first pit-stop, I no longer could feel anything in my mind.

Overwhelmed with constant stress and fear of falling down, I didn't even notice when my body started to give up on too much heat. The anxiety of the dangers on the road made me immune to all the notifications that my body was desperately sending me, resulting in my left leg already giving up. While I could still move it, not even a shred of feeling remained in it. 

"I guess I don't have any choice…"

With my breath escaping from my lungs as I spoke, I could observe how quickly it turned into a white mist, before the frost hit even harder, turning the gas into a myriad of small snowflakes before laying them to rest on the layer of the snow all around me. 

After poking the snow gently with my arms for a while, I made the decision that I couldn't go on like that any longer. As important as finishing this quest was for me, there would be absolutely no point in rushing it. Not only would it make it harder to accomplish, but could also force me to pay a much greater price for fulfilling the mission than I ever expected. 

And with my body already clearly communicating to me just in how bad state it was, I couldn't spare a single moment now. 

Dropping my bags on the snow, I started digging. Even though I didn't know the principle, it was common knowledge that all kids in the world knew, that there exist a tribe of people who lived in igloos. In theory, this kind of safe house was made out of the snow, making it highly irrational to be used as a place to warm up…

But for some reason, the people form that tribe continued to live in such places, even all the way down in modern times. Trusting almost with my life in their wisdom, I continued to dig a small, simple tunnel. Only when it could more than two of me did I dare to stop.

Getting inside, I quickly pulled out some of my stuff from the backpack. Once the second set of clothes and all the necessary tools found themselves dropped at the bottom of the hole, I actually took down my winter jacket. In this one moment of being deprived of this insane cold-protection, I felt as if every second was bringing me closer to the lethal hypothermia that would make me freeze to the death down the line.

Thankfully, there wasn't much for me to do.  Instantly pulling the spare jacket on my back, I could only curse in my mind as I continued to fix all the buttons and locks with my frigid fingers. Even when the last strap was secured, all the heat that I lost in this short moment made me tremble. But I couldn't stop now.

Using a simple sword, a gift from Huskarl that I never knew what to do with it, I glued the broken jacket of mine to my backpack before propping it with the sword to close the hole above me. Recalling the general direction of the wind, I dug a small additional compartment in my temporary hideout, adding a small, upward exit from it. 

There was no way for me to set fire at the bottom of the main hole. Given how I dug it in the simplest manner possible, that would mean setting my feet ablaze. That's why I created a small hole at the height of my chest in the snow, before adding a ventilation hole that led outside. Only with all those preparations finished I finally dared to set a special sheet at the bottom of the additional hole, before stacking some wood on it.

At last, I had a small fire to keep me warm. With the smoke escaping through the ventilation hole, only a part of the heat remained. Watching how the pieces of the wood cracked, I felt a sting in my heart at the thought of losing the valuable energy. 

"Isn't is funny how quickly one starts valuing different things depending on his situation?" Asking myself, at least I didn't need to worry about losing heat by speaking up. Right now, with the small campfire setting a barrier between me and the frost, all the heat that I would radiate away would remain in my hole, quickly raising the temperature of this small shelter of mine. 

Only once the shaking of my body finally subsided did I move to the next step of my necessary maintenance. As scary as it was, I pulled down my burned-out pants. Quickly replacing them with not only a fresh pair but two more layers of thick clothing underneath, I finally felt the life returning to my bottom limbs. 

Taking this moment of rest at a relatively human temperature withing my hideout, I quickly dished out some of the instant foods that I brought with myself on the trip. Given the uncertainty of where the mission would take me, I ended up with local military rations.

As much as everyone loved to bash on the quality of the food in the military, with just a single slap destroying the capsule with a chemical heater, I only had to wait for two minutes before removing the lid and relaxing to the hot aroma of the spicy beef.

With that laughable fire of mine, there was absolutely no way for me to boil the water, not to speak about preparing any proper meal. If I decided to go with just tourists rations, in the current cold, I would most likely be unable to even open the cans!

Yet, everything good had to come to an end. Once my stomach was filled with the steaming hot food, my body quickly regained both its heat and energy. With my clothing replaced, stomach filled and energy restored, there was no point in wasting the valuable fuel and keeping the fire going. 

Cleaning up the insides of the hole from all the useful things, I finally removed the backpack lid on the entrance to my hole before crawling out of it.

In the time that I spend recuperating, the calm weather in the mountains drastically worsened. From the appearance of a strong wind that torn me to all directions, through a seemingly fragile cloud of snowflakes that quickly turned out to be extremely sharp. Someone of a lesser heart would most likely just go back to the hole and decide to wait the weather out.

But I actually couldn't do it. 

In the wake of my preparations, I decided to get a tiny bit of everything. Not knowing where I would end up, I had to make sure I would survive at least a moment in any kind of place. But that didn't mean I was properly outfitted for a full-scale adventure. Initially, my plan was to gather resources like food or water on the go, but so high up in the mountains, there was hardly anything edible to speak off. 

And that meant, I could last in this place only for as long as both my fuel and my rations would keep me warm. And with such a strict time limit, how could I be bothered by this tiny cloud of snow?