One by One(32)

And then I notice a movement around the side of the building. It is Erin. She is holding onto Danny and they are limping over the uneven, debris-covered surface, stumbling on the hard-packed lumps of snow scattered across what used to be the track to the funicular.

They go out of sight beneath the shadow of the building. From downstairs I hear the screech of the buckled front door scraping against the tiles, and Erin’s sob of pain as she squeezes over the drift and down, inside the house.

“Is it broken?” I hear Danny saying, breathlessly. As if instructed, we all file down the spiral stairs to stand in a concerned circle around Erin.

“Is she okay?” Miranda asks, frowning.

“What do you think?” Danny snaps. Erin doesn’t seem able to speak, but she holds up her hand. I’m not sure what she means, but her signal clearly conveys something to Danny, and he shakes his head angrily and stamps off to the kitchen.

“I’m gonna get you some ice,” he calls back over his shoulder. “See if we can get the swelling down.”

“I’ve got some arnica in my bag,” Tiger calls after him. I cannot hear Danny’s reply. It does not sound complimentary.

“I don’t think arnica is going to cut it, Tig,” Rik says quietly.

Erin is slumped on the floor of the lobby. Her face is gray. She looks like she is going into shock.

“What happened?” Tiger crouches beside her, putting her hand on her arm. Erin looks up at her. She blinks dazedly. She looks like she is unsure why she is here.

“Erin? Are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” Erin manages. Her voice is shaking. “I was walking towards the f-funicular and I heard this n-noise and then it was like—it was like the mountain just came and swallowed the lift.”

“You mean—the funicular is gone?”

There is horror in Tiger’s voice, but her tone only echoes the shock I can see reverberating around the room.

“Not gone,” Danny says, coming back with a bag of frozen peas. He scowls around the group. “But… yeah, buried. A big chunk of glass has been stove in. Shit. There might have been people in there.”

“We should, like, call 999?” Ani says, and Topher nods emphatically.

“Seventeen,” Erin says tiredly.

“What?”

“Seventeen,” Danny echoes. “That’s the French number for the police. But I reckon you should try one-one-two. That’s the international number, they’ll have English speakers.”

Ani takes out her phone and then frowns.

“I’ve got no reception.”

“Transmitter’s probably down,” Danny says shortly. He is pressing the peas very gently onto Erin’s ankle. Her face has gone a strange yellowish white and her eyes are closed. “Try the phone on the desk.”

Ani nods and goes across to the landline phone on the desk next to the stairs, but when she picks up the receiver her face falls.

“There’s no dial tone.”

“Fuck.” Carl speaks for the first time. His broad face is red. He looks angry. “Fucking hell, that’s all we need. Avalanche took the line out I guess. Has anyone got any reception? Anything at all?”

There’s a momentary shuffle. Everyone feels for their phones. I get out mine too. The reception bars are grayed out.

“Nothing,” Topher says. Others are shaking their heads.

“No, wait.” It’s Inigo, his voice cracking with excitement. “I just got a bar! I’ve got one bar!”

He dials and then waits, holding up his hand for silence. We all stay totally still, listening.

“Hello?” he says. And then “Hello? Hello? Shit, they can’t hear me!”

“Go upstairs,” Miranda says sharply. “You might get better reception with the extra height.”

Obediently Inigo climbs the spiral staircase and goes to stand at the end of the corridor, at the long window that overlooks the valley, as if the visibility might somehow translate into better reception.

“Hello?” we can hear him saying, and then “Yes,” and “Okay,” and “Chalet Blanche-Neige,” followed by some information about our situation. There are long pauses, and many times he says “Can you repeat that? I’m sorry, the reception is really poor, you’re breaking up. Hello? Hello?”

At last he comes back down looking grave.

“I lost reception in the end, but I spoke to the police operator, and I think I managed to give them all the details before I got cut off.”

“Did you tell them about Eva?” Topher shoves in, and Inigo nods.

“Yes, I told them that we lost our friend right before the avalanche and we don’t know if she’s still out on the mountain.”

“Is someone coming to rescue us?”

“I don’t know,” Inigo says, and he looks for a minute like what he is—a PA who has failed to get the result his boss wanted. “They said they’re under enormous strain, there are people trapped on lifts and stuff. I’m not sure—” His voice falters a little at Topher’s expression. “I’m not sure that people with food and shelter are their priority right now. They’ve got my number. They said they’d be in touch as soon as possible with more information.”