This is my 100 word story in response to Rochelle’s wonderful picture. Thanks for keeping our minds working!
Edward has been lost for a month.
“Need to leave,” Suzanna says over the wind. “Mountain’s changing – blizzard tonight.”
“You’re right,” Jonathon says. “We gotta’ go. No food. Not enough warm clothes.”
Firelight illuminates the evening just enough to pack sleeping bags, crampons, poles.
Suzanne throws trash into the flames. “Lighten the load.”
Headlamps bright, they begin their descent, ice axes clattering against their packs.
Midnight. Coals barely alive. Edward, headlamp burning low, stumbles into camp.
Emaciated, he rummages through the ashes, mutters, “Food. Please, God, food.”
One blackened sardine can, a bird bone.
Edward collapses. Broken arm bent beneath him.
Up From the Ashes 