The cold an ever present reminder, that they where above the vertical limit, where the environment itself was inhospitable to human life. Moments like this when the winds screamed with demonic voices, filled with such power, he could feel joy at being alive. No place in his mind for kids, or jobs. Work, family, friends, all the dramatics and frustrations of home washed away in a moment, where a single thought could kill you. He missed them, but if he didn't get away, well he might just kill himself.
Trey had grown up in the wilderness, mountain climbing, diving, sailing, cross country skiing. In fact that was his greatest love, well he loved his family but the kids were either to young or to old to appreciate hanging with the old man off the side of a mountain, and Rebecca was his heart, but after the kids she'd settled into being mom, and stopped being his beloved rebel.
So now it was just him and the Pride, his group of wilderness buddies, who like him needed a break from civilization, or were still single, and thrived on wildness. This trip was once in a lifetime. Reb really didn't want him to go, but he always took off a month a year as his time. Sometimes the older kids would come, but dating was becoming more important, they grew up so fast. And the family had started to take this time as mommy and me, so he was glad to get away, cross-country skiing out into the Tibetan wastes, hiking in, then climbing K2.
The Pride had climbed quite a few of the killer mountains, but this was to great, packing in the gear they needed, cross country, then going for the summit, what an experience. Somewhere things started to go wrong. The sat phone had started to get frizzy, as well as much of their other technology.
Of course that meant if a problem arose, they were on their own. The tech thing didn't bother him much, they'd get it solved, but Erik was going crazy. Being the gear head that's to be expected, and he'd climbed with him enough to know he'd figure the shit out, and things would be fine. What had begun to worry him was Erin's behavior. She was harder than the mountain they were climbing, and could be just as cold, but she'd started fantasizing something was following them. Trying to stop, or kill them.
At first he and Don, the team medic, had figured altitude sickness, but she had no other noticeable effects. Their watches, which kept track of all sorts of biophysical information hadn't alerted them to anything, and they were being paid a fortune to test the damn things. Of course they were Erik and Don's love child, he could care less really. Though it was pretty cool how they were connected to a device the size of an iPhone which stored all the data, and transferred all the information to a tablet, Don had. Each night it was supposed to connect to the sat phone and upload all the days data. Knowing they were all connected in some weird wireless way kinda reminded him of the force, but hell, what did he know.
Really Erik made a living writing programs for some kind of virtual world using motion capture suits. Actually his climbing gear looked odd because he was recording all of his motions somehow, so he could turn this into a game when he got home, hysterical really, like any game could capture what they went through out here. He could imagine his kids at home playing in the Suite, the series of virtual worlds that was all the rage, and thought it was nothing like being here.
They were all sleeping in the bio-tents, made out of some new technology, Erik tried explaining it to him, about custom atoms, and tiny bots or nanny bots. Whatever he'd use there gear, take their money and enjoy leading the climb. Guess it was a good thing he could hunt, trap, forage, and cook. Those micronutrient bars were nearly worthless, a man needed more than a bar to stay alive, well ok if you call that living.
Don rolled over in his sleep, and Erik was snoring again. God, he lived for this. A shrill piercing scream punched through the wind startling him, as Erin sat up, wild eyed, "it's out there", she said.
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