They Called Me a Coward, Then the Mountain Came Down

The sales department organized a team-building trip and turned it into a killer-instinct trail race, with a $30,000 prize for the winner. I volunteer with a search and rescue team, and I stayed up all night mapping the safest route with supply points along the way. The new VP they had parachuted in tore up my map right before we set out. "What's the fun in a paved trail? We take the undeveloped Wildman Gorge. That's how you show real killer instinct! "To keep anyone from cheating with GPS, everyone hands over their communication devices." I pointed at the thunderheads on the horizon and tried to stop him. Wildman Gorge floods easily, and going in without radios was suicide. Instead, he smashed my radio to pieces in front of everyone. "You're just jealous that I got to lead this thing, and you want to keep everyone from taking home the prize money, right?" For that $30,000, my coworkers lined up to call me a coward who cared nothing about the team. Fine. I took off my shell jacket and volunteered to stay at base camp at the bottom of the mountain. A storm was coming. If this pack of office wolves wanted to take on a mudslide in Wildman Gorge, I would sit there with a hot cup of tea and wish them a triumphant return. 1 My map was in shreds, and my backup radio had been stomped to pieces by the VP they had parachuted in. He drew his foot back and brushed off his Arc'teryx shell, as if none of it mattered. "What's the fun in a paved trail? We take the undeveloped Wildman Gorge. That's how you show real killer instinct!" He turned to face the crowd of sales staff behind him. "To keep anyone from cheating with GPS or calling home crying the first time things get hard, everyone hands over their communication devices." A few people from admin came forward with black trash bags and motioned for everyone to drop their phones in. I pointed at the storm clouds boiling up fast on the horizon and spoke up one last time. "Mr. Shaw, the backcountry is not a game. "Wildman Gorge is shaped like a funnel. One hard rain and you get flash floods and mudslides. "Taking everyone's phones now means that the moment something goes wrong, you have sent them all in there to die." Shaw let out a sneer and jabbed a finger in my face. "Nora, you're just jealous that I got the lead on this race, and you want to keep everyone from taking that $30,000, right? "Flash floods, mudslides, whatever. I think you're a coward, and you have no business being on a team with any killer instinct in it! "I'm leading this group. If anything happens, it's on me. I don't need a coward standing here telling us all what to do." Greg Mullen, the sales manager, jumped in right behind him. "Exactly, Nora. Every time we push for numbers, you want to talk about compliance, and now we finally get outdoors and you're too scared to move. "$30,000 is sitting right in front of us. If you don't want it, don't get in the way of everyone else getting paid!" Tessa Moore rolled her eyes too and tossed her iPhone into the bag. "Nora's a volunteer rescue worker, you know. She probably figures we aren't worth protecting." A laugh went up through the crowd. The $30,000 prize had gone to their heads, and they had completely forgotten that they were ordinary people who sat behind a desk all year long. One of the older employees hesitated and looked at the black mass of cloud on the horizon. "Mr. Shaw, it really does look like rain. Nora has an actual rescue certification. Maybe we should listen to her..." Tessa cut her off with a contemptuous look. "Rhonda, you've been here ten years and you're still a sales associate. You want to know why? "Because you're just like her. You have no killer instinct." Rhonda went pale and hurried to pull out her phone and put it in the bag. I caught Rhonda's hand and tried to talk her out of it, but she shook me off and went to stand next to Tessa. Once one person gave in, the rest lined up and handed over their phones. Each of them looked at me with contempt as they passed. "Coward." "She can't stand to see anyone else do well." "Take your scare tactics somewhere else!" For that money, they would rather trust a parachuted-in VP who could not even hold a compass the right way around. Fine. You cannot talk sense into people who are determined to die. I took a deep breath, pulled down my zipper, and calmly took off my shell jacket. "If Mr. Shaw thinks I'm a coward, then I'll volunteer to stay down here and watch base camp. "I'll be right here. Good luck, and I hope you all come back in triumph." Shaw looked at me like I was a joke. "Sure. Stay in the safe zone and keep your head tucked in. "When we take that prize, you're not getting a cent of it, and I'm docking your bonus for this month when we get back!" I ignored the threat and walked over to the makeshift supply shed the local villagers had put up nearby. Shaw waved his arm in triumph and shouted for them to move out. Eighteen people set off in a long column toward the undeveloped gap that opened into Wildman Gorge. A few of them were wearing cheap disposable rain ponchos. I pulled over a folding chair and sat down, watching their backs disappear into the trees. The wind coming down off the mountain had already turned cold. 2 I sat in the supply shed and poured myself a cup of hot water. My phone screen was lit up, and the company group chat was scrolling by faster than I could read. That was because they had not been gone long enough to get deep into Wildman Gorge. The one phone nobody had collected, the one in Shaw's hand, still had a signal. He was sending a steady stream of photos and short videos to the chat. In one video, Greg and Tessa were posing in victory with their trekking poles on a dry riverbed. Shaw narrated at full volume. "Take a look, everybody. This is the dangerous area Nora was talking about. There isn't a drop of water in it! "This is what killer instinct looks like in our sales department. If you've got the guts, there's no obstacle you can't get over!" Coworkers from the other departments piled in with rows of thumbs-up and applause stickers. Gerald Pike, the owner of the company, who never posted in the chat, finally spoke up. "Mr. Shaw is leading that group the right way. This is the spirit this company needs! "Certain employees who back down and make excuses the moment things get hard will be writing a formal apology when they get back, and it will be read out to the entire company!" Pike's words were a verdict on me, plain and simple. I read the messages, said nothing, and quietly saved screenshots. Walt, the old local guide, came over with his pipe in his teeth and glanced at the sky. "You were right not to go with them, kid. That sky is about to drop out." I nodded and pulled up the weather radar on my phone to show him. On the radar, a harsh band of red and purple was moving fast toward Wildman Gorge. "Walt, is there any high ground inside the gorge where they could get out of the rain?" Walt sighed and shook his head. "It's a dead canyon, narrow at both ends and wide in the middle. Back in the day, even the herb pickers wouldn't go in there on a gray morning. "All it takes is one downpour upstream. Inside half an hour the water in there is waist deep, and there's nowhere to run." I took a screenshot of the severe storm warning the weather service had issued and posted it to the company group chat. And I tagged Shaw and Pike. "The weather service has issued a warning. Heavy rain is about to hit Wildman Gorge. Turn the group around and come back the way you came, right now." The message had barely gone through before a voice memo from Shaw popped up. "Nora, do you ever quit? You believe a forecast? The sun is out and it's beautiful up here! "Stop undermining morale in the chat. One more word out of you and you can go to HR tomorrow to process your resignation!" Greg sent a few voice memos through Shaw's phone as well. "Nora, is this because you can see we're about to hit the checkpoint and take the prize? Jealous?" "Right. She won't put in the work herself, so she wants to drag everyone else down. It's disgusting." Tessa chimed in right after. I looked at the words of people blinded by money and turned off notifications for the group chat. I opened the first aid kit I carry with me and did a quick inventory of the bandages, clotting agents, and emergency blankets inside. As a volunteer rescue worker, my responsibility was to save lives, not to answer for other people's stupidity. I walked outside the shed. The far peaks had been swallowed whole by a gray ceiling of cloud with no bottom to it. That is what it looks like right before the sky opens. 3 By two in the afternoon the sky had gone as dark as dusk. Wind tore around outside the shed, dragging dead branches and leaves across the ground. The company group chat had been silent for a full half hour. The last thing Shaw posted was a short video. You could hear wind howling in the background, and the trees around him were bending in every direction. Greg and a few of the women had gone pale in the video, but Shaw was still holding the phone up and shouting. "We have officially reached the heart of Wildman Gorge! "We are going to finish an extreme crossing through this wilderness and make a final push for that $30,000! "Let the cowards sitting back at camp with their tea see what real fighting strength looks like!" At the end of the video, Shaw made a point of turning the camera on the black trash bag stuffed with everyone's phones, then pulled the top of it tight and knotted it. Pike posted three thumbs-up in a row underneath. "When you come back in triumph, the company is booking the biggest hotel in town for the celebration!" That was the last message in the chat that anyone answered. I refreshed the screen. My signal was still full, which meant the problem was not on my end. It was Shaw and the rest of them. They had walked all the way into the dead zone inside Wildman Gorge. In other words, they were in the dead canyon Walt had warned me about. Heavy raindrops started hammering the roof of the supply shed with a deafening clatter. In under five minutes it turned into a downpour, like water being tipped out of a bucket. Walt stood in the doorway with a grim look, staring toward Wildman Gorge. "That's it. Rain coming down this hard, the soil up there can't hold the water." I took out my own personal backup radio, tuned it to the rescue channel, and tried to raise any other guide or ranger in the area. All I got was static. Nobody answered. If they had followed the route I planned, they would be halfway up the mountain right now, drinking hot soup in a solid mountain refuge. That shelter had plenty of supplies and a satellite phone with a direct line to the outside. Instead, the only link they had to the rest of the world was inside a black trash bag that Shaw was carrying. My phone buzzed. It was Pike calling. "Nora, I need you to go into the mountains right now and bring Mr. Shaw and the others out." He gave the order in a tone that took my agreement for granted. "There's a contract with an important client that Greg has to sign tonight. Get up there and bring them out." I looked at the sheet of rain outside the tent and answered coldly. "I can't get in, sir. Wildman Gorge has no signal at all." "I don't care how you do it! You're on a rescue team. What is a little rain to you? "If that contract gets held up tonight, can you cover the loss? That deal is worth several million dollars!" I held the phone away from my ear so he would not blow out my eardrum. "Sir, I'm in sales. I'm not the company's suicide squad. "And it was Mr. Shaw who smashed my radio himself and tore up my safety map." Pike went off on the other end of the line. "Don't you try to dodge this! I'm telling you, Nora, if Greg isn't back in time to sign, you're gone tomorrow!" I did not answer him. I hung up. 4 The rain came down in sheets, until the whole world seemed to be nothing but the roar of water. The water outside the shed was already over my ankles, and muddy runoff was pouring down the slope. I sat in the folding chair with a cup of hot tea Walt had just made. On the table, a tablet was playing the emergency bulletin the local station had cut to. My phone started buzzing again. It was Pike again. I hit speaker, and his furious voice filled the whole shed. "Nora! You actually hung up on me? You really think this company won't fire you? "I am ordering you to go into Wildman Gorge and find Greg. Now. Immediately. This second! "This is a work assignment! Refusing it is gross misconduct!" I looked at the news on the tablet screen, where a red alert had just been issued. "Sir, are you sure this is a work assignment? Are you sure you want to order an employee into a closed, undeveloped area under a red alert?" "Cut the crap! Mr. Shaw took a group in there, so why can't you? Don't hide behind the weather! "If anything happens, the company takes responsibility! Go, right now!" I pressed save on the recording. "Understood, sir. I have your instructions. "But unfortunately, I can't do it." Pike roared on the other end of the line, "What is that supposed to mean? Are you staging a mutiny?" Before he finished, the sheet-metal door of the supply shed was shoved open from outside. Several police officers and forest rangers in yellow reflective rain gear came in, soaked through. The officer in charge wiped the muddy water off his face and looked around the shed, tense. "Who's leading the group here? Who's in charge?" Pike heard the noise through the phone and barked at me, "Nora, what is that noise? What are you doing?" I ignored the phone and stood up to face the officer. "I stayed behind. The VP leading the group already went up." The officer slapped his thigh, and his voice shook. "Get them on the line! Tell them to get to high ground right now! "There was a major landslide upstream of Wildman Gorge and it turned into a mudslide. The whole mouth of the canyon is sealed shut with mud!"