Three Days Up and Three Days Down

Summary: When three friends go for a six day climb, it goes horribly wrong. When they return to civilization, they find that 2 ½ years have past. What really happened on Mt. Deception and how are they going to get home?

Prologue

November 1st

Snow. Glistening white powdery snow covered the treacherous peak of Mt. Deception.

“There’s still no sign. There’s nothing up here,” a crackled voice sounded over a walkie-talkie at the make-shift command center at the base of the peak. “There’s no garbage, no campsites—nothing. It’s like they vanished into thin air. Over.”

“Copy, Rescue 1. You can turn back around now. Over,” responded the search coordinator, Doug Brown. He turned to the other volunteers and workers standing around him and shook his head sadly. “Call it all off.”

A few of the volunteers looked surprised at his sudden decision but everyone involved knew he was right. The missing climbers had only carried enough supplies for six days and it had be double that amount of time. Plus a snow storm was rolling in that would halt the searches for several days. There was no point in continuing when everyone at the base camp knew the outcome.

Doug Brown flipped on the television out of pure curiosity. It had been approximately three hours since he had disbanded the search and retreated to the warmth of his apartment. As much as it pained him, he knew ending the search was the proper way to handle the situation.

“The search for the three missing climbers on Mt. Deception has been suspended. On October 20th, twenty-six-year-olds David Matthews, Bill Connors, and Austin Lyons begin their six day hike on the mountain. On the 27th, when the climbers failed to return, a search party was mounted with support from the Air National Guard and the National Forest Service as well as almost a hundred volunteers,” came the news reporter’s voiceover as CNN re-ran the now stock footage of the helicopters and other climbers searching the mountain for any sign of the three missing men.

No matter how many searches he helped with, Doug couldn’t but feel disappointed when he had nothing to show for all the man-hours and effort put into the tedious process. All of the men had someone waiting for them: David Matthews had a wife at home, Bill Connors had a girlfriend, and Austin Lyons had two parents whose haunted faces refused to fade from his memory. Not only had they not discovered the men, but there wasn’t even a trail or a body to bring back. There was nothing he could do to ease the agony of the family the climbers had left behind.

“A snow storm has crept up on Washington State, forcing the halt of the searches,” the reporter’s voice continued. “Down-trodden searchers retreated from the mountain a few hours ago, leaving behind the climbers. Despite an extensive six day search coordinated by search-and-rescue specialist Doug Brown, the searches had failed to yield any evidence of the climbers’ trail or gear.”

“Lady,” he hissed bitterly at the television, “you have no idea what you’re talking about.”

He flicked the remote and the set blinked off. Satisfied with the silence, Doug settled in front of a window overlooking the distant Olympic State Park and drank his hot tea as he watched the storm clouds roll in.

I’m sorry…but I tried. I tried my best…

Sometimes, even the best wasn’t enough. Mother Nature’s fury had seen to it. Even if he kept on searching, the most they would ever turn up was their frost-bitten remains. It was an unfortunate, harsh part of reality. It was part of his job.

He raised his mug to the tacked-up photographs of the three young men, all friends from high school, and toasted them and all the other lost ones on the corkboard. “Rest in peace,” he said solemnly and took a sip of tea. “May you one day make your way back home.”