Chapter 6 - BURIED ALIVE
The storm was terrifying. The wind slammed into Sarah like a solid wall of ice, tearing the breath right out of her lungs. Visibility was zero; the world was a screaming vortex of white and gray.
Garrett held the lead rope, guiding Sarah through four feet of drifted snow toward the dark shape of the west barn.
When they reached the structure, the damage was catastrophic. Half the timber roof had caved in under the weight of the snow pack. Inside, the surviving heifers were screaming in panic, trapped behind fallen pine beams and mountain drifts.
Young Sam, a eighteen-year-old ranch hand, was desperately trying to lever a massive oak beam off a trapped calf with an iron crowbar, his hands bleeding from the effort.
"Mr. Thorne!" Sam sobbed over the noise of the storm. "I can't move it! The main support frame is giving way!"
"Get back, Sam!" Garrett shouted, grabbing a heavy pine fence post to use as a second lever. "Sarah, grab the tackle block near the tack room wall! Rig it to the center post!"
Sarah didn't hesitate. She scrambled through the debris, her skirt heavy with ice, and grabbed the iron pulley system. Working with frantic speed, she wrapped the heavy hemp rope around the center support post, hauling with every ounce of muscle in her broad, strong back.
"Heave!" Garrett roared, putting his full six-foot frame against the lever.
Sarah pulled with everything she had, her boots digging into the frozen dirt floor, her arms burning with raw exhaustion. With a sickening groan of splintering wood, the massive beam shifted four inches—just enough for Sam to drag the frightened calf out to safety.
"Out! Everyone out!" Garrett commanded as the rest of the roof structure began to crack ominously above them.
Sam ran toward the side exit, dragging the calf. Sarah turned to follow, but as she stepped over a pile of broken roofing, her boot caught in a tangle of loose wire beneath the snow. She pitched forward, landing hard on the icy floor.
"Garrett!" she screamed as a shower of wooden shingles and heavy snow began to rain down from above.
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Garrett turned instantly. Seeing Sarah pinned near the collapsing frame, he didn't think. He dove across the space, covering her body with his own massive, buffalo-coated frame just as the main roof section gave way completely.
A deafening CRASH shook the earth. Darkness swallowed everything as tons of snow and shattered timber buried them beneath the ruins of the west barn.
