The sun shone, a bright majestic beacon in the wondrous landscape of mountains and valleys that lay before her. It was beautiful, breathtaking in a way that made it appear surreal. She stood still just below the mountain peak, at a narrow pass.

The cliff face that she had been hugging for hours split open suddenly; and she could finally see through to the other side of the range she had scaled.

“Wow …” Tami exhaled, frozen to the spot as the last of the sun’s rays warmed her after a frigid climb on imposing eastern cliffsides that had tested her physically and mentally.

The sky blazed in pastel colours, ever changing, peaches and pinks, purples mixed in with spectacular blues. Ebbing puffs of clouds gathered in places, golden in the evening light. Then the sun dipped behind the horizon, and the sudden darkness jarred her to motion.

How long had she been standing there, she wondered as she hastily, but carefully, scrambled around the loose rocks peppering the treacherous pass — the only way through the mountain range, without having to summit.

Tami shuddered even before she looked up at the almost always concealed mountain peak, hiding behind dark, angry looking clouds that swirled menacingly.

She would be a fool to try to reach the summit even on a good day, and today was not a good day.

“Oh!” she stepped on a large rock, expecting it to carry her weight, surprised when it gave way in the shallow soil and rolled down slowly first, then faster.

Her heart sank as she listened to the sound echoed loudly down the cliff-face.

“She is up there, I tell you!” a shout came through the fog below her.

“Climb!” came a scream that chilled Tami even more so than the freezing temperatures had set in the twilight.

The scream was frenzied, filled with a desperation that meant one thing; they could not stop. Tami clutched at the little pouch securely strapped to her body inside her clothes she swore once again to never let them have her research, her breakthrough cure that would render most of the pharmaceutical industry redundant.

A natural cure all, with thousands of medicinal applications lay in a vial inside the pouch. And that, that was something they would kill for.

Struggling to keep her wits about her, the deepening darkness adding to the feeling of danger, her mind flashed backed to yesterday, her last day at work …

********

“Sir, I am not sure what you mean …” she was wringing her hands in frustration, breathing deeply as she fought the irritation rising in her chest.

She didn’t want to speak out of turn, she had never even met the CEO of the firm before today.

“It is not important. Not a priority. We have other products in development …” the balding, wiry man replied curtly.

“You do understand,” Tami’s voice managed to remain calm despite the cauldron of emotion bubbling inside her, “Five years of my research show that this,” she held up the vial to reinforce her point, “This is the cure … and we have only studied it with a few hundred known ailments so far. Just imagine what we could do with more funding, more research …”

The CEO’s eyes narrowed and his demeanour was threatening as he cut her off firmly.

“More research? There will be no more research, no more funding, nothing. You will not continue working on this and as per your contract, you are expressly forbidden from revealing anything you have come across while in our labs,” he said as his eyes bored into her.

A lesser person would have been shaken, but Tami’s compulsion to help people, which had driven her to become a scientist in the first place blazed so purely, that as she spoke, she seemed lit from within.

“What are you going to do if I do? Heck … go ahead, sue me. I quit.” She spun on her heel and stormed out.

The call came in the middle of the night. It was one of her colleagues, whispering urgently.

“Tami? This is Chris … jeez Tami what did you do? I overheard top management… Please get out of town now!” he implored, his fear palpable even over the phone.

“Chris what are you talking about, I’m not afraid of …”

“Dammit Tami! They used the word ‘eliminate’; Get out!”

The phone went dead then, but the violence of his words still hung in the air. It was a balmy night, yet Tami’s body was covered in goosebumps as she moved instinctively through her small apartment, grabbing only what she needed.

Her analytical mind was up, planning her escape before she had stepped outside. There was only one road in or out of the quaint town the pharmaceutical company had set up in, privacy being key … she would have to go over the mountain.

“You have hiked before,” she psyched herself as she began her ascent, knowing deep down no one really hiked these ranges. Falling boulders, narrow trails up steep cliffs, sudden windstorms that brought along rain and sometimes snow… But, she wouldn’t give up so easily. She had to try.

********

“Climb! Get her … before she gets across the pass!”

Tami could see tiny headlamps not too far below her. They couldn’t yet see her, but she knew she didn’t have long.

Scrambling madly now, her own headlamp dimmed to conceal her position, she made her way across the pass and through to the western face of the mountain range.

A desolate, howling wind awaited her there, lashing at her mercilessly, forcing her to her knees.

There was nowhere to hide, the trail was just another narrow footpath hugging the cliff side, snaking down into the darkness. Tami gritted her teeth as sharp rocks dug into her fingers and palms, and crawled down the mountain.

“There! There, look!” another voice wafted up.

She’d lost all sense of time, her muscles screaming from fatigue and her breathing coming in shallow gasps. At the shout, she mustered all her strength and scrambled it to a rocky outcrop, ducking down for refuge. Not a moment too soon.

The men were tired, they were in unfamiliar territory and scared. They had been told “We want her dead or alive,” and now, the former seemed easier. The shots rang out in quick succession, a feverish and confused cacophony.

Then, before Tami heard it, she felt it. Disturbed by the vibrations of gunfire, the ground shifted beneath her feet. Then the entire mountain trembled as if alive, a waking giant shaking off an avalanche of snow, dirt and rock that went careening down both sides of the mountain range.

********

“ … in today’s news bulletin, only three people survived the devastating avalanche that occurred last Tuesday night, wiping out the entire town that used to lie in its eastern shadow. Simon Mina, a wanted felon, police officer John Jackson, who incidentally was out chasing Simon … and a celebrated young scientist, Tami Simbah, who just three days after the incident, announced the online publication of what many in her field are calling ‘a miracle cure’ …”