He Saved Her Ashes, But Left Us to Die

I held her tighter, feeling the last bit of warmth leave her body. "No. They just didn't hear us. They didn't hear Mommy and Chessie calling for help." To save my daughter, I grabbed a piece of rock and slammed it against the wall beside us in the narrow gap. The next second, the entire rescue team froze. "Captain Mercer, I think we just heard someone calling for help." "What sound? You must be hearing things." Vanessa immediately cut in. Then, catching herself, she changed her tune at once. "What I mean is, listen carefully. Rescue resources are limited. We can't afford to waste them." But the teammate who'd spoken first pointed straight at the spot where my daughter and I were trapped. "The sound came from over there." The others immediately moved toward the spot., until Vanessa cried out and twisted her ankle. Mom and Dad were around her in a heartbeat. "Nessa, are you all right?" Vanessa said she was fine, but three times she tried and couldn't get up off the ground. Caleb crouched down on his own. "Get on my back. I'll carry you." Vanessa refused. "The trail's rough, and your leg still hasn't fully recovered from that injury. If you carry me down, what happens to your leg?" Mom and Dad backed her up. "It's safer to carry her out on a stretcher." But the rescue team was only four people. Two people would have to stay behind to carry the stretcher, leaving only two rescuers to handle the search. Someone offered a compromise. "Captain Mercer, how about we go check first? Confirm there's no one, then withdraw?" "If the people in there really are your wife and Chessie, at least we won't have to live with the regret." But Vanessa grabbed her ankle, even though there wasn't a trace of swelling. Seeing the pain written across her face, Caleb refused without a moment's hesitation. "You heard wrong. No one's calling for help." The teammate argued. "But I clearly heard someone striking the rock wall with a stone." Caleb denied it. "That was rocks falling from above." "It's only been ten days since the mudslide. The ground is still unstable. Loose rock coming down and hitting the wall, there's nothing strange about that." I'd been trapped ten days. My entire body had already gone numb from the cold. And still I felt a dull, grinding ache in my chest. Vanessa's parents had died saving my mom and dad. So my parents had always favored Vanessa. I could understand that. But Caleb was different. He was the first one who, after seeing how my parents treated Vanessa and me so differently, said it was unfair, and stood up for me. He said that from then on he would protect me, that he would never let anyone hurt me again, not even in the smallest way. And now, for Vanessa's sake, he was insisting he hadn't heard me calling for help. I didn't have time to wonder when everything had changed. My daughter's small hands, looped around my neck, were slowly losing their grip. "Mommy, I'm so sleepy." Feeling her cold little hand, I patted her cheek, begging her to stay awake. And at the same time, risking a second collapse that could bury us both, I struck the stone wall again and sent the sound echoing through the rocks "Captain Mercer! Listen! We're not imagining it, there really is a sound!" "And it's steady, with a pattern to it. It sounds a lot like the international distress signal for someone who's trapped!" "I remember your wife took a course on emergency signals in college. What if the people trapped in there are her and Chessie?" The teammate spoke with sudden hope. But Vanessa muttered under her breath. "Bri graduated years ago. How would she still remember something like that?" "And would it really be that much of a coincidence? We've searched for over ten days and found nothing, and now, right when we're about to leave, suddenly there's a sound?" "If anything, I'd say it sounds more like the ground shifting right before signs of another landslide are about to happen..."

Vanessa only tossed it out as an offhand remark, and Caleb reacted as if the worst had already happened. He gave the order without even conducting the most basic search. "Nessa's right! There's a real chance another mudslide is coming. We withdraw now!" But the team still couldn't let it go. "We really did hear something, though. Pulling out without even doing a sweep—that's not how a rescue operation is supposed to work." Caleb shot back. "If we stay and another slide comes down and someone dies, are you willing to take responsibility?" "We pull out!" As the team turned to leave, a boulder above me broke loose from the earlier tremors and crashed down onto my back. The blow drove me to my knees, and the tiny pocket of air around my daughter became even smaller. Starved of oxygen, her face soon turned pale and bluish. I arched my back, slowing my breathing to save what air there was. My hand found the star bracelet on her wrist and pressed the emergency button on the inside. My parents had it custom-made for her the day she was born, after a nurse nearly carried her off by mistake. It was designed to be foolproof. Press the little bump on the inside and the chip will immediately send a distress alert to everyone connected to it, along with an alert and location sent to the nearest emergency services. My parents did get the distress signal. They didn't even glance at it before switching their phones off. A minute later, the nearest station called Caleb. "Captain Mercer, we received a distress signal and a location from your daughter's device. It matches your current position almost exactly—have you already found them?" Caleb's brow furrowed. Vanessa quickly pulled a bracelet from her bag. It was the same design, only more refined. "Tansy sent me a message earlier saying she was worried about me, so she tucked her own bracelet into my bag," she said. "She must have bumped it by accident and set the signal off." "Caleb, I'm so sorry. I've caused you trouble again, haven't I?" Caleb shot her a reassuring glance before telling the officer, "We haven't found Sabrina or my daughter Chessie yet." "But we've decided to pull out." The officer sounded uneasy. "Your wife and Chessie have already been missing ten days. Their odds of survival were low to begin with." "If you pull out now, isn't that giving up on them completely?" Caleb spoke with a righteous expression. "I'm not only Sabrina's husband and Chessie's father—I'm the captain of this team!" "They matter, but so do my men! Another mudslide is coming, and I will not send my people into that!" "Besides, Sabrina received professional survival training in college. I believe she'll hold on to the very end!" The officer tried to say something more, but Caleb hung up. Then he ordered his men to carry Vanessa out on the stretcher and get moving. The team hesitated. "Captain, we really think we should do a quick sweep first." "I've got the thermal scanner. It'll be quick." Several of them carried the scanner toward the spot where my daughter and I were buried. My parents rushed over, tore the equipment away, and smashed it hard against the ground. "Sweep for what? Can't you see how swollen Nessa's ankle is?" "She's a ballet dancer! Do you have any idea what this could do to her career?" The team wavered. "But we still haven't found Caleb's wife and Chessie. Didn't the captain say a second slide was about to hit? What if—"

Caleb cut her off right there. "It's exactly because another mudslide is coming that we need to evacuate immediately." "As for Bri and Chessie... they've survived ten days already. I believe they can last a little longer." "We're pulling out now. Anyone who disobeys will be removed from the team." The team members had no choice. They began to withdraw. And then my daughter's breathing stopped. No matter how hard I shook her or called her name, she didn't respond. I wanted to give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but the boulder that had shielded us was gone, and the mud filling the space blocked her mouth and nose. Soon, the mud swallowed my whole body. The phone beside me buzzed. It was a message from Caleb. [Now you finally know how helpless Nessa felt a year ago when she came to me for help, when you pretended Chessie had an allergic reaction and forced me to drive you to the hospital, leaving her alone at the intersection, holding her daughter and waiting for a ride?] [Don't worry. I won't really leave you and Chessie to die. Once I get Nessa down the mountain, I'll come back for the two of you.] But by then, the mud had already flooded into my mouth and nose, and it cut off my last cry for help before it could escape. An hour later, Vanessa was safely evacuated to the temporary shelter at the foot of the mountain, escorted by the rescue team, by my parents, and by Caleb. The sky was a dull gray. There was a damp smell in the air. Someone muttered. "Isn't it going to rain? It might set off a second mudslide." "I hear there are still people who haven't been pulled out. If another mudslide hits, they're done for, aren't they?" "Don't joke like that. It's been ten days since the first mudslide. Even if there's no second one, anyone up there's been dead a long time, right?" Caleb heard it, and an uneasy feeling cut through him for no reason he could name. He walked over to the aid station, to Vanessa, who was directing a volunteer to spray medicine all over her completely uninjured ankle, and asked. "Are you sure you received a message from Sabrina yesterday?" "She said she and Chessie were fine, that they had food and water, that she'd just twisted her ankle and was stuck on a shallow ledge and couldn't come down for now?" Vanessa had thought Caleb came over to check on her. Hearing that every question was about Bri and Chessie, her mood soured instantly. But she kept the carefully controlled smile on her face and answered gently. "I already showed you the text! How could it be fake?" Caleb still wasn't reassured. He pressed on. "What about the weather? What does the weather report say? Is there any risk of heavy rain or a second mudslide?" Vanessa's face fell at once. "The forecast updates every hour. Clear skies all week. The data syncs straight to your phone." "If you don't believe me, go check it yourself. Why ask me?" "Or is it that you regret leaving Bri and Chessie behind on the mountain for my sake" Caleb frowned. "That's not what I mean. I'm just worried about Bri and the kid's safety..." Vanessa's eyes reddened. "So my safety doesn't matter?" "A year ago, I was out there at night with Tansy, trying to get a cab, and no one would stop for us." "When I finally got through to you, you told me you had to take your wife and daughter to the hospital." "Caleb, Tansy is your child too. How could you treat her like that!" My parents scolded Caleb too. "Nessa lost her own parents when she was little, and she's been with you for three years without a proper place in your life, and she gave you a child. She's suffered enough as it is!" "How could you even think that of her?" Caleb couldn't get a word out. In the end, all he could do was apologize. Vanessa turned away in silence. Then her phone rang. It was a call from a neighbor. "Vanessa! Tansy was home alone and starving, she tried to make something to eat and forgot to turn off the gas." "She's already been rushed to the hospital for gas poisoning!" "Get back here now. The doctor says they need a family member to sign the consent forms." Vanessa staggered to her feet. Caleb moved to go with her, but she shoved him off hard. "I don't need you pretending to care! Go find your wife and your kid! What are Tansy and I to you?" By the time Caleb finally calmed her down and arrived at the hospital with my parents, they learned that Tansy had been lucky. A neighbor had noticed almost the moment she passed out and brought her in. There was nothing seriously wrong. The knot in Caleb's chest finally loosened. He wanted to go back to the rescue site and get me and our daughter out. But Tansy was shaken, and she clung to his arm and wouldn't let him leave no matter what. He looked at poor Tansy, and at Vanessa beside her with her eyes rimmed red. Just one night, Caleb thought. As a father and a husband, he told himself he should stay with them for one night. First thing tomorrow morning, he'd take his team up and bring me and our daughter home. The next morning, Caleb was woken by his phone ringing. A member of the rescue team was on the line, his voice heavy as he delivered the news. "Captain Mercer, the weather turned on the mountain last night. It rained hard all night and set off a second landslide." "After the rain stopped we went up to search, and less than ten meters from yesterday's survey point, we found the remains of your wife and Chessie…"