(This was the old Chapter 8, before I decided to change Ashe's purpose in the story!)

Ashe noticed immediately when Arrone and Atlas never came back.

She sat cross-legged in the back of the SUV with her model brought up on her laptop, but couldn't focus on it. She spun it in circles absently, glancing up every once in a while.

The crevice sat just at the edge of her vision. Stems of dead grass peaked up where the snow melted and massive shards of rock protruded from its surface. The low sun sent sharp shadows along the rock faces, ones that were easy to see even from her distance.

There was something wrong about the feeling in her chest. She never said what she had wanted to when Atlas had led their manager down there. Even if she had, she would've been brushed to the side, she knew.

She sighed, setting the laptop to the side.

At the very least, she could peek over the edge. If anyone asked, she'd tell them that she was just stretching her legs—why bother spreading her anxiety? It's not like any of them knew what had gone on in the first place, anyways.

Her feet crunched in the snow. The cold of the night had frozen the top layer of snow, and the weather never bothered to warm up again that day.

She did enjoy the serenity of the snowy chill in the air. It had been her favorite part of the trip so far. Although getting to see her model built before her eyes had been pretty exciting, too.

But she wasn't smiling about it now.

She licked her lips before she called out into the crevice. "Arrone?" She wasn't sure if she said it loud enough, but it didn't matter since she didn't see either of them yet anyway.

Ashe glanced behind her. No one had yet bothered to look her way. Honestly, she didn't really know why she didn't tell anyone when she started to climb once more.

The crevice was an odd thing. On the top, there were sharp edges and piled snow, but on the bottom, there were flat floors and ankle-deep water. Just like before, the oddity had been more of the reason to go down. She could've just kept calling from above with less risk. Afterall, aftershocks were still a possibility.

But she wanted to see the layers in the rocks, feel them get finer and wetter as she dragged her fingers along the bottom of the hole. She wanted to guess at its mysterious quality. The air grew warm against her skin, like she was standing back home in Asheville rather than in the middle of Alaska. The sweet, sweet scent of hydrangeas, like the ones beside her grandma's patio that she always thought were fake, led her forward, enticing and soothing in the air.

No.

She shook her head. The scent faded as she regained focus.

Walking with more urgency now, she hurried toward the end of the tunnel, her boots splashing in the melted snow.

Soon, she saw the rock. It was a bare, dull brown-orange color. She didn't see a single ray of light reflecting off of its surface, and even worse she hadn't caught a glimpse of her coworkers or heard their voices.

She tried once more. "Arrone? Atlas?"

Had they disappeared?

Ashe found herself staring at the rock, surrounded on all sides by an eerie silence and a bad feeling.

When she touched it the day before, she felt as if she could have kept walking, that she could have stepped out onto her parents' yard back home, the one she grew up in. Could she have? Is that what happened to them?

She hoped to hear someone call her name like before as she raised her fingers to touch the cool, slick surface of the rockface. But nothing happened. No one called. There were no hydrangeas in the air anymore, no breeze to carry her parents' arguing voices.

She frowned.

What was she supposed to do? She backed up, looking about. Did they already ascend and start walking back? Had she just missed them? By then, her heart was beginning to pound in her chest and heat rose on her cheeks.

She just missed them, right?

Snow sifted down softly around her, and soon she felt a small rumble beneath her feet. She froze in place, her thoughts following suit as a few pebbles scattered from the walls.

Then the ground started shaking.

Ashe screamed when a mini avalanche came crashing down around her.

She needed to get out!

She shielded her head with her arms, ducking and running toward the closest climbable wall. Her boots slipped on the churning water beneath her feet, but she pressed on, nearly launching herself onto the wall in desperation.

The holds crumbled beneath her grip, the rock vibrating so fiercely she wouldn't have been able to hold on if she tried.

More snow plummeted down around her. She snapped her head back and forth. There was an overhang there—

She raced toward it, head ducked. In what felt like an hour, she dived in, bracing her side against the wall.

What had she done? Why did she go down there? Why hadn't she waited just a little longer—

Her breaths came in rapid gasps now. She tucked her head under her shoulders, like every instinct from the tornado drills in high school suddenly kicked in. It wouldn't matter if the rock collapsed on her. But maybe, just maybe, the rock would fall at an angle, maybe she wouldn't be crushed.

The rumbling stopped.

Snow continued to shuffle down the cliffside and melt around her. Her blood pounded in her ears as she dared to look up. Her chest was unbelievably heavy with each breath, her eyes blurred as she looked around.

Was it over?

Ashe swallowed repeatedly, trying to get air back into her lungs. She held onto the wall as she pressed her face into the rock, wet, dirty water streaming down it onto her skin, soaking into her coat and hair.

She didn't move or think for the next several minutes, listening intensely to the sound of dripping water and falling snow. There were tears in her eyes. She wiped them off on her shoulder. Why was she crying? She did it to herself.

Her body shuddered as she exhaled, the longest, deepest one she could muster with so little air in her lungs. And then, she peeked out.

Thank God she moved.

Her heart sank in her chest as she saw what laid where she had last stood. Snow and permafrost piled higher than she was tall right before the mysterious rockface, completely closing it from sight.

She sank to her knees, barely feeling the water beneath her and the uncanny heat building around her like a boiler.

Who knew how long she sat there like that. The sun could have set and her coworkers have left without her, for all she knew. She pressed her face into her hands. Would she even be able to get out? Was it safe? Why had she gone down? Why—

"Ashe!"

They shouted her name three more times before it even registered in her brain.

"I'm—" She gasped, still feeling like she couldn't breathe. "I'm here!" she managed.

~

Ashe sat in the SUV, hugging her coworker's coat tight around her shoulders, unable to breathe the uncontrolled shivers away.

She almost died. And none of them had found Atlas or Arrone in their brief, desperate search before they retreated when another bounder rolled down into the crevice.

Levi rubbed her back in silence.

There was a quiet thought in the back of her mind that waited until the right moment to arise, instilling doubt in its path. It's your fault. She tried swallowing it down, tried toning it out with calm, deep breaths. But she couldn't shake it. Atlas and Arrone never would have gone down there if she hadn't first that day.

But it wasn't time for that thought.

She shook her head, and nudged away Levi's hand, trying to grasp onto that small, pathetic resolve.

"I think Atlas and Arrone were down there," she said quietly.

Levi looked at her for the first time since they sat down, his brow furrowed.

"I was looking for them. They were nowhere else." When Levi still didn't say anything, she pushed the idea further. "We need to call firemen!"

"Already ahead of you," he said. His voice dropped and he looked away, clasping his hands tightly in his lap. "Let's not... let's not worry about it right now. They'll be here soon. I don't want to get caught in another aftershock."

Ashe leaned back against the seat of the van. They left it running. Heat blew from the front, dry and cold feeling against her still-wet skin.

If they had really walked through the rock... would they also come out there? Would they be crushed, too, if they came back?

The thought made her stomach churn.

Even if she didn't know any of her coworkers well, she couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to them. Arrone had been a blessing for her work, really, when he offered her the job. He always told stories about his kids and his wife, and he baked the best butter cookies, always willing to share them with the rest of them. Atlas had always been the nicest, giving small offerings of help when she needed and never getting offended when her sense of independence made her say no.

Ashe tugged Levi's coat closer to her.

She had to know. She had to know if that's where they went. A part of her wished that it wasn't true, that they had just taken to wandering as they walked, and that they'd come running back now that the earthquake was done, worried if everyone was okay.

But she had felt that siren call, too. Her gut told her it was supernatural.

When the first fire truck was in sight, she pushed the van door open despite Levi's protests to let him bring them over and stepped back out into the cold.

She had to make sure they could get out safely. She had to make sure that when the fire men hunted down in the crevice, it wouldn't fill back up when they were done.