The Knight´s Legacy

Avalanche

José woke up startled without knowing the cause. Soon a terrifying lightning gave him the answer to his question. The atmosphere electrified around them twitching the traveler’s nerves. After a brief moment a very strong gust of wind shook the tent canvas. Juan immediately woke up his colleagues telling them:

“We have to hold the tent structure to prevent the wind from blowing it away. This is the beginning of a storm. I should have never permitted this trip in the middle of autumn!”

“It is useless to complain now.” Answered Lautaro. “ Let´s concentrate only on what we can do, this helps keep us focused and with high morals.”

The whistling of the wind became a roar, and the tent shook as if it the gale would uproot it in the next second . The mules snorted out, until it was soon heard another noise, covered by the roar of the storm. The five travelers embraced the metal structure, looking to add the weights of their own bodies to the stability of the tent, and at the same time, get covered with its tissue of the rain that had begun to fall almost horizontally, carried by the wind. They thus remained for a couple of hours, after which the blasts were losing intensity and an intense cold gripped their bodies. José and Matías came out of the tent with two lanterns in order to check on the weather conditions and the state of  the camp. A heavy snow was falling on the slopes and on the mountain summit thus  covering the entire landscape. Only the bulk of four mules shook to keep them warm. Other two animals had disappeared with their loads in the middle of the storm. They immediately began a search by the narrow site in which they were but it proved fruitless. There was no doubt that the poor beasts had slid into the precipice. The loss of animals and their cargo was a sensitive issue in the mountain.

At dawn the next day, after a brief collation, they picked up their remaining belongings and continued their walk by the terrace along which they had come. Everything was covered by a white blanket, and their feet sank deeply in fresh snow. The summit in which they were was only one minor elevation among higher mountains. The road continued down the slope of a wide and long valley, the end of which was lost through the low clouds. The sky above was quite clear and the cold was intense. They continued their journey despite the great difficulty to move through the thick layer of snow. They saw condors fluttering atop the peaks that appeared to be stalking them, what was inauspicious because these animals eat carrion. The march was made in silence, because opening the mouth meant losing breath and let cold air enter the body.

José, the only one whose ears were not covered by a Balaclava, was the first to hear an uncertain and far bellow to which he did not give initially importance. As it repeated he became aware of what was happening. With signs he sped his companions to follow him while he was  heading for a distant vertical rock wall about one hundred meters away. It was a vertical cliff actually projecting outwards as a cantilever, creating a kind of roof under which they could shelter. Meanwhile some at first isolated crunches became a kind of distant blare that was rapidly approaching. José hurried his friends, who still did not understand what was going on still confident in the open sky.

“Avalanche!” Exclaimed José, and all the expeditionary then perceived their delicate situation. At the mountain summit directly above them they could see a kind of blurred white spot from which the roar arose. The spot was approaching with enormous speed, and for a moment they despaired to arrive to the shelter in time. They had lost sight of the mules, and the only matter now was to come under the lintel of rock. José finally arrived and helped his fellows to squeeze on the stone wall facing it. Already the first loose rocks wrapped in snow fell round about. The noise was in crescendo, and light was interrupted by the falling material. Terrified they saw that although the roof of rock on them protected them from rocks in free fall, they were being surrounded by snow and rocks everywhere. The fear of being locked in a tomb of snow became apparent, while the white wall constricted around them. After an endless amount of minutes the din ceased, which gave them a brief respite that was only psychological, because immediately they realized they were enclosed in a cabin of snow of unknown thickness, inside which there was only a limited amount of air.

“Fast. We have to drill the snow cover before it freezes and solidifies and the air inside runs out!” cried José.

Everyone began to undertake the snow wall with the elements that had brought with them. After some exasperating minutes they could see the light on the other side through one of the open holes,

“Keep digging all around this hole, because the wall of snow is already weakened.” Said Juan.

The hole grew larger, eliminating the possibility of asphyxiation as it  allowed the free access of air, but they had to work still for half an hour to enlarge it so as to be able to come out of the block. Outside, the scene was devastating, every contour of the landscape was hidden under the snow layer with numerous fallen rocks emerging from it. After a time they observed that two bulks were moving under the snow. Pulling hard they could get two of the mules out of the frost cover. All their other possessions were lost covered by feet of snow.

“Alo, Herr Schneider, this is Branko Jelicic from Bariloche.”

“Ah Yes, Herr Jelicic, what can I do for you?”

“One of my men detected a group of travelers in an area near Cholila. They can be people you are searching.”

He then succinctly described the travelers. On the other side of the line, the so-called Schneider rubbed the long scar in his face in an involuntary gesture of complacency.

“Yes, I think that they are the people I am looking for. Tell me, Herr Jelicic, can you make arrangements to deal with this problem?”

As Jelicic answered affirmatively, both men focused on carefully programming the arrangements to meet Schneider´s wishes.

Branco Jelicic was a survivor of the Ustaša - Hrvatski revolucionarni pokret, called ustashis, a group of Nazi Croats who had fought in the World War II on the Axis side and against Tito´s communist partisans. The fight between the two groups was extremely brutal and bloody, and when the Germans and their allies were defeated, the ustashis were exterminated by the Yugoslav partisans or fled out of Europe. Some of them found a sanctuary in the Argentina during Perón's first Government, who at the time was open to all kinds of Nazi fugitives. Jelicic was part of the fearsome Alianza Libertadora Nacionalista, a group of direct action which exercised violence against the enemies of Perón. After this, their hosts dispersed by Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Paraguay, and sometimes constituted shock troops for various political groups, in general of right-wing affiliation.