Bursts of powdery snow filled the air as the battle raged on. During their “escape’, Justin and Rachel carried a child each. They darted to hide behind a great tree that was far away from the “danger zone” caused by the ‘gunfire” of others.
Victor had not planned to join the battle, but after an accidental shot by the berserk Jolly, he was forced to wade into battle. He naturally joined Hernandez. Now that it was obvious who belonged to which team, the two teams began frantically. lobbing snowballs at each other.
Using the camera she brought, Rachel took a photo of them. With a snap, the sight of the two teams baring their teeth ferociously at each other was immortalized forever. She could not help but let out a sigh when she looked at the picture. “If I sell this photo to the press, I will likely earn more money than the matchmaking. service ever could.”
“Not joining in their fight is the smart move,” Justin said, nodding. She absolutely agreed with that statement. Just as he finished speaking, a loud smack echoed through the air as a snowball was flung at his back.
“We got him, Samuel!”
“Hide!” At some point in time, Charlotte had released Rachel’s hand. She and Samuel then hid behind the tree. One of them was in charge of making the “ammo” while the other focused on attacking. The two kids were currently cheering with joy at their successful attack.
Justin was about to lecture them, but Rachel stopped him. Rachel recalled that Charlotte never had a snowball fight before, so she would likely be eager to have one. The two adults had nearly taken the joys of childhood away from her.
Before Justin could respond, another snowball came swooping down at him, showering the area inside his shirt with snow. Immediately, a rather intense look flashed across his face then. Having never seen his eyes bulging this wide before, Rachel burst out laughing.
This time, his attacker was Hernandez, the person who started this whole battle. His six- foot-tall form dressed in all white could be seen. standing not far away from them, and he was laughing like a madman. “Why are you guys just standing there? Chris, your teammate is just weak. Come join us!”
Of course, Justin was not one to back down from a challenge. “Did you forget how you lost in the boxing match, Hernandez?” Justin retorted as he angrily dusted himself off.
“That was an accident. You will surely lose in this fight!” Another snowball was sent flying toward Justin. “Chris, join my team, quick! We do not want to hit any innocents!”
Rachel, however, was already running toward Charlotte and Samuel. “I’ll be with the kids!” she shouted at Hernandez. “You guys take care!”
As soon as she said that, Jolly joined in the fight with a flying snowball. It had been aimed. at Hernandez, but she missed and hit Justin instead. With that, Justin had now been hit four times by accident. “Sorry! My target was not you!” Jolly shouted.
“Can’t you aim properly?!” “Well, you are the ones being distracted! All is fair in love and war!” she replied without any guilt at all.
“All is fair, yes?” Then, Justin, who thought the game was too childish for him, struck back with a snowball of his own. After swiftly moving across the battlefield to a better position, Rachel and the two kids joined in the fight as well.
The sky slowly darkened. Furthermore, the snowy land seemed especially cozy and warm as the glows of the setting sun shone down on it. It was evening by the time the fight was finally over. After the sun had set, the group had dinner while Rachel looked up the weather forecast for the next day.
“It says there might be some snow tonight, but we don’t need to worry because it will stop by tomorrow morning. When the storm is over, we will set up the decorations. Gloria will only be arriving at two in the afternoon, so we have time.”
“Let us hope there won’t be a blizzard tomorrow,” said Jolly. “It is not likely” Rachel glanced out the window. “Zermatt never experiences blizzards during this time of the year.”
As it was getting late, the group then split off to head into their own rooms. “Are you not sleeping, Rachel?” Just as Victor was about to head into his room, he saw Rachel setting up her laptop in the living room. Curious about her answer, Justin paused in his steps.
“I have an email to send,” replied Rachel. “For some reason, the reception here is so bad that it never was sent. I am going to search for a spot with a better signal. Go to sleep; I’ll be fine.”
Zermatt was a tiny town that could be described as desolate. This was a place where cars could not even drive to. As such, the reception in the area was extremely bad. They were also currently staying at a local bed-and- breakfast. Hence, if the line had problems, no maintenance team could help them at this hour.
Justin frowned. When he closed the door to his room, he made sure to leave it slightly ajar. Then, he sat down on his bed and looked at his phone. There was no reception.
A few minutes later, he heard a door closing When he stepped out of his room, he found the living room empty while Rachel’s thick jacket was gone from where it was hung Meanwhile, it was already dark when she was running around outside, looking for some reception. She had to send the email before tomorrow morning and it was a pertinent email to Hudson Pharmaceuticals.
Their bed-and-breakfast was located in the middle of nowhere. Over a mile away was the foot of a snowy mountain, which was the location of their snowball fight. The moon was bright and round that night. It made the mountain seem as if it was covered by a layer of shiny, translucent, white snow. It looked so much more beautiful than it did during the day.
The only bad part about being in such an area was that the land stretched out too far. It was possible to search for hours without finding. another sign of civilization.
Rachel walked along the path for a long time. When she saw artificial lights in the distance, she perked up with hope and stumbled toward the blinking lights. When she got closer, she found it to be at double-story villa with an antenna installed.
She immediately whipped out her phone. As expected, there was a signal, but it was poor. With her phone raised up high, she began to slowly walk toward the antenna.
Bam! Suddenly, she tripped before she accidentally stumbled and crashed into the fence. Someone instantly began shouting from within the house, and it did not sound like Latin.
Soon, someone appeared in the doorway. There stood a large, bearded man dressed in a red fur coat. He warily looked at Rachel and mumbled something she did not understand. “I’m only trying to look for reception,” she hurriedly said in Latin..
She waved her phone to emphasize her point. However, she had somehow switched to her camera app. Her wave resulted in a loud ‘snap” echoing through the air as she took a photo of the man. The man’s face clouded over. He grumbled and another man suddenly appeared from within. the house, holding up a gun and shouting at ” her.
Her face went pale and she could not event speak another word out of fear. She was in Zermatt, a place that allowed its citizens the right to bear arms. Since she was on their land, these men had the right to shoot her for trespassing into their private territory.
There was a grave misunderstanding happening, and none of them could communicate with each other. No matter how much she wanted to explain herself, there was nothing she could do.
When she heard the safety of the gun unclick, all strength fled her. She screwed her eyes shut in preparation but was soon forced to the ground by someone pouncing at her from behind.
