All characters are consenting adults. Occasionally they may be based on real people, in past experiences. But it's probably all fiction, maybe.
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Our team had responded to a search for an overdue hiker near Lake Alpine in the Sierra Nevada foothills. I had a friend with a cabin in the area and he had graciously allowed me to extend an offer to team members to use it for accommodations.
Eight of us had piled in on Friday evening, and spent all day Saturday and Sunday morning searching for the hiker. We were a mixed team of men and women, some very experience mountain rescue types, and some newer, just out of the academy types. Our training, and the hard work of searching in the rugged terrain of California wilderness created a bond amongst our members, and we all got along very well.
Being somewhat more senior, I often found myself paired up with the more junior members. That was fine, but always having to be in mentor role could be taxing. Since I was the lead for our group on this search, I set the four-person teams, and chose to put the two junior members on the other team. I took Scott, Chris, and Mei with me. We were all about the same, fitness-wise, and we had a good working camaraderie. Mei and I had be working together lately, trying to get a team fundraiser off the ground, and there was an extra sense of closeness between us, as a result.
At the morning brief, the Ops Officer alerted us to a change in the weather. Dropping temperatures and precipitation pointed to freezing rain in the forecast later in the day. Groans could be heard among the searchers. Nobody wanted to be driving home in that weather, after two days of exhausting searching.
Soon we were in the field working our assignment areas. As usual, the terrain was challenging with steep elevation changes, deep drainages, and thick brush. My lower back and knees were starting to ache, but I was determined to push through the discomfort. At fifty-five, I was no spring chicken, but I kept my fitness sufficient to work in this environment.
We stopped for a break around mid-morning, and I considered the team. Scott and Chris were both in their early forties, and Mei was forty-nine. Some of the teams out here had an average age of twenty... whatever. Let's see if they can still cut it when they're our age, I thought.
"You feeling ok? You look like you're favoring your back," said Mei, breaking me out of my thoughts.
I smiled at her.
"Yeah, still working out the stiffness from yesterday's effort," I replied. "I'm good, though. How about you?"
"I need a foot rub..." Mei lamented.
Scott nearly spit water out his nose as he laughed at the reply.
"Right," I said, holding up my water bottle in acknowledgement.
As we were preparing to return to working our search area, a radio call came in requesting all teams hold where they were. This usually meant there was a change in search strategy or something else. The missing person may have been found, or the weather forecast may be prompting search management to pull the teams before the weather turned foul.
We speculated about these things and more. Mei suggested we scope out a landing zone for a helicopter in case they send one to retrieve us. I couldn't help but laugh, a little. Mei was so helo-oriented. She managed to get herself on more helo transport assignments than anyone I knew. She loved to fly.
"I wouldn't get my hopes up, Mei. This weather is not helo-friendly," I said.
"No, it's fine. They have a National Guard Blackhawk. It can fly in this," she retorted. "You have to stay positive," she said with a smile.
"Ok," I said. "Take Scott and see what you can find."
Mei and Scott got together looking at the map software on their phones, then headed out to check a potential area. They came back pretty quickly. Mei looked crest-fallen.
"No good?" I asked.
Mei shook her head. "It's the only decent flat piece of ground, but there must have been tree falls during storms last winter. They're down all over the place. It's no good for landing there."
The radio came to life.
"All teams, all teams, return to base. The missing person has been found. Make your way to your drop locations to await transport."
We gathered together and checked to make sure everyone was feeling ok, and had all their gear. Then we started hiking back to the forestry road where we had been dropped a couple of hours earlier. The hike out was easier than the hike in, but we had to wait a couple of hours by the road for our pickup. By the time it came, we were all tired, and stiff, and ready to go home.
After returning to the command post, we did a short debrief, and signed out. The eight of us met in the parking area. We had a mix of official team and personal vehicles, and I wanted to get a sense of what people wanted to do with the incoming weather. Nearly everyone wanted to leave immediately to drive directly home. Even though they were tired, they felt they could rotate drivers effectively with folks sleeping as others drove. While we talked, some folks were already pounding back energy drinks in preparation.
I was in no hurry to beat the weather. I decided I was going back to the cabin. I wanted to shower, and sleep. However, there were some logistics with turning in radios and other equipment to be dealt with first. Everyone handed me the gear they needed to return and left for their vehicles. That left Mei and I with the small pile of gear to sort out. I looked over at the crowd of folks queued up to turn in their team's gear.
"This is gonna take a while," I mumbled.
Mei glanced towards the gear trailer and back at me.
"I'll take care of it," she said. "You head back and get the cabin warmed up. I'll be back as soon as I'm done."
"Are you sure?" I asked. "I can wait."
"I'm sure."
Mei had been growing on me the last few months. We'd been teammates for a couple of years, but recently we had been working more closely together on some special team projects. At first I had admired her for her wit and skills, but outside the usual team activities I started to notice how smart and put together she was in day-to-day life. She had a level of common sense I appreciated. She was a kind person, and she was patient.
I had also realized she was attractive in a natural way. She wore little to no makeup. Her Asian features didn't need to be highlighted. She had a brilliant smile and warm eyes. When we started on the side projects she wore very conservative clothing, but more recently, she had been wearing shirts that were a little more revealing, pants or skirts that defined her legs, and there was a hint of perfume that I couldn't get a handle on.
