In the Mountains of Montana

Written for contest. Prompt: “Sam, Chris, Dave, Montana, Winter, greed and forgiveness. Word Limit 800.

In the Mountains of Montana

Montana is one of the most beautiful parts of the United States, the kind of beauty that only remoteness can bring. Sam could see why the state had been named after the Spanish word for mountain – montaña – he just wondered what the Spaniards would have thought of winter in the Rocky Mountains.

Sam, Chris and Dave trudged on, through the kind of cold that sinks to your very bones, freezing you to the core. Their aching limbs defied the instinct to keep moving. However, move on they must. Canada was a few days distant and the sooner they reached it the better. Naturally they had chosen the most difficult point to cross the border, the one least likely to be watched, and the route they were least likely to be followed along. Still, a sense of danger hung over them, like the gathering clouds clinging to the peaks above.

Their burden had been split exactly evenly before they set out. To begin with the weight upon their backs had spurred them on, with the promise it offered. Slowly the load became harder to bear, making ascents more toilsome and descents more dangerous.

**************

Sam had always been the-man-with-the-plan - the jail break; the hiding places and the Big Job had all been his brain children. Sam was also the first to admit he couldn’t have done any of it without Chris and Dave. Chris had contacts, everywhere it seemed; people who could get things; could tell you things or could make things happen – all at a price, of course. Dave, well, Dave had the kind of hard-earned toughness that came from years of struggle. So, the relationship was born out of mutual gain, the fact that each of them needed the other two, at least until the job was finished.

**************

The North Wind moaned down the deep valley they were walking through, the cold rush of air stinging their faces.

The weather worsened, surrounding them in a swirling and impenetrable pillow-burst of white. They felt their way, with numb fingers, along the walls of the valley. Suddenly a cave opened in the wall of rock and ice. They collapsed inside, out of the snow, but not out of the cold.

They needed to keep warm or they would die, it was as final and as simple as that. They needed a fire, and they only had one thing to burn – money.

They opened their packs and each removed three bundles of tightly-packed notes. They started with the tens; each bundle contained ten-thousand dollars in used bills – ninety-thousand dollars worth of precious heat.

Their first installment smoldered and smoked for three hours, the snowstorm still raged at the mouth of the cave.

Next came the twenty-thousand dollar bundles, the heating bill was rising. It all burned the same though.

As Sam lifted the last bundle of twenties he leafed through the notes. Suddenly he glared at the other two.

“Ok, which one of you assholes was trying to screw us?”

Neither spoke.

Sam continued, “This ain’t a bundle of twenties. This is a bundle of hundreds with a few twenties on the outside. One of you was after a bigger cut.”

Dave spoke, “Who’s to say it wasn’t you? You were always the cunning snake.”

“I’d hardly have mentioned it, if it was me. I’d have just burned the evidence.”

Now it was Chris’s turn, “Maybe you’re watching our loot going up in smoke and you figure you can turn us against each other, wind up with one of us dead and only have to split the cash two ways. “

The three glared at each other above the flame-licked effigies of Presidents Jackson, Grant and, finally, Franklin. As the last of their haul blew away in ash and smoke the snow finally stopped.

They emerged from the cave into a world of purest white, innocent and clean. There was no money anymore, so nothing to argue over. They were free and alive though. They walked in each others’ tracks through the cold wilderness.

On the other side of the border they parted ways, not with animosity but with a shared relief and joy that they had survived and perhaps even found a little redemption along the way.

**************

Each of the three waited until he was sure he wasn’t being watched or followed, before removing the various bundles he’d concealed inside his thick winter clothing. Thank God I stashed this away before we set out, they thought.

THE END

Word Count: 749