Trapped in a snowstorm

Trapped in a snowstorm
Gina Salvatore tightened up the ropes of the tent. The wind blew the tails of the Gore-Tex shelter with a fury she had rarely experience in her career as a mountain guide. The skilled woman had much trouble fixing their camp pavilion and keeping it in one piece.
However, more than the violent gusts playing with their possessions, it was the snow rain that slowly but surely plunged the area around Mount Devil into thick darkness that worried her. Gina looked up in the sky at the snow storm raising. The only way to survive the night was to dig themselves into an igloo-like habitat. She prayed the tent would hold the night.
She checked the surroundings and their shelter a last time, and stepped into the tent. There she confronted the firm look of a young scientist.
“How’s the situation?” she asked.
“Bad. What else?” Gina answered dryly.
“Will we survive the night?”
“Only if we keep quiet and don’t try to escape the tent. Otherwise, without compass, map or clear starlit sky, we are lost. But don’t worry,” she cut the blonde woman short, “I am sending a radio signal so we should be found quickly.”
Jennifer Delamair scrutinized the Italian guide with disbelieving eyes. She had been trekking behind that woman the whole day, had eaten poor food and was that close to abandoning the whole expedition if it had not been for the sensational discovery she had done before the guide had bellowed her to plant the tent. Still, she was trapped with a wild stranger in a snowstorm.
Gina sat down next to the other woman. “We should be able to travel free tomorrow. Snowstorms do not usually last long in that region.” She rummaged in her rucksack and plucked two tin cans, a pot, a spoon, and a portable gas oven. “Believe me, I wander here around for the last twenty years, I know what I say.”
Jennifer looked up. The sun tainted woman looked younger than forty. Her dark eyes, though, wore the traits of long life experience.
The scientist held a little glass bottle in her hand in which an embryo-like being revolved on itself.
“What’s this?” Gina asked, using the spoon to convey the content of the cans in the pot.
“I don’t know” Jennifer answered. “That’s part of my studies.”
“Any alien stuff?”
“Surely not”, the blonde retorted. “But if I were you, I would not eat it. I would have to kill you otherwise.”
“Whoa… for a worm?”
The scientist snapped up. “I would only kill you to open your body and extract the alien substance out of it, if you really want to know.”
The Italian girl smirked mockingly and handed the scientist the pot with the spoon. “Eat, before it gets cold. But,” she added, “leave something for me. I also need some food.”
Jennifer grinned, holding her discovery between her thighs.
After their dinner, they went to bed. It was time to sleep. They dived under the blankets, which tried to get warm. Finally, some autogenic training later, Jennifer managed to fall asleep.
---
It was dark and cold. She had the impression she was dead. Still, extending a hand to her left, she felt the presence of the other woman. Sighing with relief, she listened to the sounds outside the tent. The storm had stopped. However, there was no way to get out.
Jennifer stood up and tried to open the zip, but then, she gave up. Looking around, she saw in the bluish light left by the snow the body of her guide.
“Gina… Gina!” she claimed.
The other moved in her sleeping bag. “What? Can’t you sleep?”
“No. I’m too cold. Can I… can I come to you?”
Silence.
“I’m freezing. I can’t feel my toes anymore… please…?”
Gina snorted, and answered. “Alright. Put your sleeping bag over mine and get under my blankets.”
Jennifer did as told. Soon she could feel the other’s warmth penetrate her.
“So… now lay on my arm, and don’t move under any circumstances.”
The blonde hesitated. “Why?” she whispered.
“Because you otherwise create a cold blow that chills down my spine, you genius!” Gina muffled a laugh, and Jennifer had to smile in the dark.
Tight to tight under the blankets, both women finally fell asleep, again.
---
“Here, they are here! Move quickly!”
A rescue team with snow dogs made out the place where Gina Salvatore and her guest had been seen for the last time, twenty-four hours before.
After an hour of hard work, they dug both women out of their snow cage.
Looking into the rising sun, Jennifer sighed contentedly.
“See, I did not promise too much, did I?” the Italian woman grinned.
Jennifer turned around. “Not at all.”
“So… ready to go on?”
“Let’s go!” answered the blonde sneakily.