Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Stones of Summer: Instinct ❯ Late Spring/17 ( Chapter 2 )

It was earlier than I had ever been up, but it was necessary. The runway was nearly five miles away. I could sleep on the plane if I needed too. I stuffed three days worth of clothes into my bag along with the wad of money I would give the pilot and Aunt Julie's blanket.
Went to London.
Jan
I left the note on my made up bed.
The card would most definitely make mom or dad call Aunt Julie when I got there, and since I would be there already, they would have to let me stay. I'd just ask them to send my things.
I grabbed my inhaler off the self, stuffing it into my pocket.
I crawled out the window in my room, cringing when the door was blown fully closed by the wind. My feet touched the ground and I already felt free. I would never have to look at any of this stinking mess again. Everything was old, worn and in tatters. I wouldn't miss anything, that much I was sure of.
The walk was longer than I had thought, and that was still pretty long. The rays of the sun peeked through the darkness and I spotted the small plane on the tar mat. I was beyond grateful that I hadn't run into any denizens of the terrain. I had more bug bites than I thought possible but that was the worst of my ailments. There was a small collection of trucks at the far end of the runway, near the plane.
"I wish I had someone to drive me..." I complained. Finally I reached the plane and handed him the note Jun-Lee had given me. I counted out the money and pressed it into the captains grubby hand. A woman next to me stared the plane over turning to look at the captain.
"Yer' sure this plan' is safe?" He nodded, smile and gave her multiple encouragements. I didn't care if it was safe or not, it was my only way out of Asia. As long as it got me to Britain, I was fine.
I was the first on and picked my seat. They were hardly luxury seats. They consisted of a nylon belt with metal buckles for seat belts, and looked to be seats taken right from my parents truck. I sat in the middle and pulled the belt around me. It wouldn't fasten. I moved on to the next row feeling like this was a really bad idea. I mean a really, this is going to hurt, bad idea. I ignored the instinct to get away as the other passengers boarded. The next seat I picked, thankfully, was fully functioning.
There were six of us altogether, including the stewardess and pilot. I was forced to sit next to a man who was sweating profusely. He gave me a small smile and pulled the buckle around him. It strained before finally clicking into place.
"Hello and welcome. We are going to be taking off now, please fasten your belts and keep all bags in place." The pilot spoke over the cheesy loud speaker that looked nailed their with a hook.
The plane started and I thought I went deaf. The sound was utterly enormous, if a sound could be called that. The plane started moving at it shook ruthlessly as it took off. I was damn near sure we wouldn't make it three feet off the ground before it fell apart. We made it, and the ride smoothed out. I let go of the breath I had been holding releases my grip on my bag.
I closed my eyes in an attempt to calm down and tune out the sound of the motors.
I dozed for a while but was shaken awake by, well, the plane shaking. The plane continued to shake as the consistent drone of the engine coughed a few times and then stopped altogether.
Fearfully, I locked eyes with my seat mate.
"That doesn't sound good." As if to punctuate my words, loud piercing alarms started to sound in the cockpit, followed by bright lights.
I vaguely heard the captain say 'mayday' three times before stating our coordinates. I bit my lip and squeezed my eyes shut. I was dreaming, I had to be dreaming!
The plane was going down!
It was an incredible feeling really.
The thought that the plane I was on was now the same plane that was about to crash land in the middle of the Asian tundra. Snow could only hinder our impact so much, and there wasn't even a lot of it, the winter season had not even kicked into to full gear yet.
The alarm bells going off in the cockpit and the flashing lights that made this event seem that much worse did nothing to ease my asthma. The harsh fit would not pass until my inhaler was pulled from my carry on and thrust into my mouth, harder than i had intended.
The room wobbled a bit as a few people in seats gave cries of fear. I clutched my bag closer to my chest and prayed to God that we would all survive this. The pilot came over the air, telling us all to remain calm, but it was in vain.
We were crashing, there was nothing we could do about it.
The sounds the trees made when the wings of the planes cut them down like dominoes was horrendous. It was painful to watch, those were animal's habitats, and no doubt many an animal would suffer and or die because of a human contraption.
What was I thinking!?
Oh God!
"I'm turning into my mother!" It was utterly depressing. Especially since this was the last time i would ever think like this. My life was about to end, and all i could think of was the animals? I really needed to refresh my outlook on life.
And i had exactly ten seconds to do so.
The jar of the plane making contact with the ground made my teeth rattle and my bottom hurt. More and more devastation was brought upon the untouched land as we slid and scraped our way through the terrain. It was awfully terrifying. The man next to me looked as if he was having a heart attack. He was clutching at his chest and was blue and red in the face.
Uh,....no, he was just nauseous.
And all over my sneakers too.
Great, now i was going to die smelling like cheesy malt whiskey vomit. Rescuers were going to find my body and it would stink with the days rot and whiskey. I hope my parents didn't think i was drinking. Not that they would care. Let them think that, maybe they'll actually act like real parents and get angry. Then again, it's hard to get angry at a dead child.
Sighing, I shifted to rub the vomit off on the seat in front of me. It just smudged and rubbed further into my sock.
Great.
At last the plane came to a grinding halt then tilted over and dropped to one side sending all of us that weren't buckled in, namely two people in the back, dropping to the floor and sliding down towards the wall. The rest of us just hung there like dolls. The pilot came out, sweating profusely, and crashed against the door. He made an unmanly squeal when the door wouldn't open. The panic was written all about his face. i would have un-clipped myself from my seat, but I feared falling into the mess on the floor. Or worse. Falling into the mess in the chair next to me. The pilot grunted and cursed, fumbling and struggling with the door before finally giving up. The only stewardess on the plane moved to his side as he threw up his hands, turning to stare at each of us.
"That's it. We've survived the crash, but we are all going to die anyway. there is fuel leaking all over the ground and we are stuck inside here-"
Click.
He turned slowly to stare at the stewardess who had reached over, trying the door again, and pushed it open. The pilot turned pink in the face while his eyes opened wide.
"It was locked." The stewardess looked embarrassed for him. It took him a full minute of us hanging there for him to regain his composure.
"If you would all carefully un-clip your belts and proceed toward the door in a calm and orderly fashion, I will help you all exit the plane." The vomit man dropped from his seat easily, then turned to help me down with an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry, for...well...that...." I shrugged at we practically slid across the floor.
"N.B.D." The man made a grunt, but said nothing.
"Please move as far from the plane as possible, please say together. We have already radioed for help, it should arrive as soon as possible." The stewardess commanded, still standing at the door. Once outside, a cool breeze coated our sweat and fear covered bodies. The pilot was the farthest away from us and was soon puking into the bushes. The choppy terrain was difficult to walk on, and the smell of fuel was heavy on the air. All four passengers and the stewardess moved towards the captain as fast as possible, all wanting to get away from the mangled wreck that was our plane.
No one knew what to do. We sat around in a scattered group and said nothing.
It had gradually came to this. We had moved a distance from the plane and had looked over ourselves for injuries. I grasped my inhaler tightly in my hand along with my bag. How could this have happened?
The sun passed overhead yet none of us moved. We were all going to burn, but I guess only I knew that. I covered myself with the blanket, casting myself in shadow.
"Hunny, yer' gonna' git' heat stroke doin' that." It was the same woman who had asked about the plane before we boarded it.
We were all shell shocked. It couldn't have been our plane that crashed. We weren't sitting in the wilderness because our plane went down.
I looked across the dirtied and fearful faces. One other person had something over their head. It was a shirt.
I looked back to the woman who spoke to me. I motioned at my makeshift cover.
"You need to cover yourself. It may be hot, but you won't get so severe a sunburn" She laid a shirt on top of her head at my instructions. It didn't cover nearly as much as she needed but it was better than nothing.
Hours passed, the stewardess made multiple attempts to make contact with anyone on the old beaten radio. All that came through was static.
We were hopelessly lost.
Darkness was going to move in quickly. They weren't going to be ready for it. Heck, I wasn't ready for it. Ideas had been thrown around on ways to get help.
Someone, I wasn't really paying attention, had said we should light the wreck on fire. That was quickly dismissed by the fear of lighting the entire area on fire.
I wandered off, just slightly, and studied the small woods around us. Something bright and colorful caught my eye. I moved in for closer inspection and smiled.
An emerald ash borer.
I turned back to the huddled group.
"You don't think we're as far as Canada, do you?" The captain looked at me, but looked at his maps once more, ignoring me. A few other gazed at me. Frowning I picked up a rock and tossed his maps. He looked up startled and glared at me."Hey-" I crossed my arms.
"I was talking to you. If you'd answer the damn question, I might be able to tell you where we are." He glanced back at his maps and brushed the rock off. I thought he wasn't going to answer me again so I leaned down to pick up another rock.
"No, we haven't gone over any body of water and there wouldn't be enough fuel to get even close to the English channel. Why?" I tossed the rock down at my feet and pointed at the tree the green beetle was busy drilling into.
"An emerald ash borer." The captain looked at me like I had lost my mind.
"A tree? You can tell where we are by a tree? What are you a hippie?" I pursed my lips and crossed my arms.
"Actually, a bug, and real funny. Hippie's are tree huggers, not tree studiers." I vaguely heard someone mutter 'says the freak with a blanket on her head'. I rolled my eyes.
"These beetles are only native to China, but have been introduced to areas like Michigan, and southern Canada. Hence, if we aren't near Canada, it means we're in China still." I drawled exasperatedly.
Thwack.
I stared at the dead bug for a second not realizing what just happened. I reached out for the arrow embedded in the wood. Another arrow nearly took my fingers off. I jumped back and whirled around.
"Get down!" I screamed, not fully prepared to deal with the situation at hand. Arrows flew past u my face and screamed out as loud as possible:
"Dàn! Dàn! Shonwúcùntiì!" One of the men from out group screamed in pain but I didn't spare a look back. I continued to yell it at the top of my lungs. Finally the assault stopped.
I could here them descend on us and one gripped me by the hair, pulling the blanket off my face. The sun was blaring into my eyes, but it was on its way to setting.
"Jiàoshçng zhàn." My mouth snapped closed so fast my teeth clacked together. Everyone was in a panic. The man then told me to tell them to shut up. I did so. Not all of them seemed to believe me. I watched them load an arrow up and shoot one of our men in the eye, the one who vomited on me. He dropped seconds later. There was some more screaming.
"Everyone shut-up! They want you to shut-up!" Finally the noise died down. I risked a glance at the woman who had been so hysterical. The only other man, besides the captain, in our group, the one with the hurt ankle, had his hand clamped around her mouth. That was one way to do it.
The native who had a hold of my hair began speaking, so fast I nearly missed it. He was saying that we were on sacred ground, we defiled it with the 'contraption', and that we had to die for it. I begged, and bartered.
"gâlâ hui qû." He stared into my face. I told him that my parents worked with this nation in efforts to preserve the tigers, that we were just lost.
He yanked my hair to the right and talked over my head to another native. They spoke too fast for me to understand. When they finished, my head was yanked back to face him.
"Zoulù,cishí. Li shishi." He then lowered his face next to my ear and whispered quickly to me. I bit my lip. He let go of my hair and raised his bow at me. I nodded, completely understanding.
"Leave everything, move, now." I stood slowly and back towards the group. I looked to the man holding the cry woman's mouth closed and nodded to him. He stood slowly, taking the woman with him. I pried her bag from her fingers and placed it on the ground.
The native yelled 'faster!' and I flinched. I moved to everyone in our group and pulled from them their bags. I started to move backwards, hoping to God that they wouldn't just shoot us now. The group moved with me, inching back, except the woman. She crumpled down next to the dead man and cried. I grasped her shoulders and pulled. She leered up at me.
"We can't just leave him! What about his family!? Who will these murderers come to justice if we can't prove anything!?" I yanked her shoulders viciously, keeping my eyes trained on the native who had held me captive.
"You better get your God damn ass up and moving unless you want us all dead." Her shock allowed me to rip her from the dead man and drag her away. When we were about two, possibly three, hundred yards away they lowered there weapons and the man who was obviously the front-man, signaled for the others to collect our bags. We kept moving backwards, I kept my eyes trained on his face and he on mine.
"Youláo." I said with a slight bow. He bowed back. The woman I held onto gripped me tighter.
"What did you just say!?" She whispered hotly towards the side of my face. I turned now, moving to help the man with the hurt ankle.
"I thanked him, now we have to get moving. They could change there minds." The woman stood there indignant. I looked into her face which was a bright red.
"Thanked him! For what?! Killing that man!? Threatening us?! What?!" I looked to the distance, where we would be heading. I briefly gave her a look.
"For sparing our lives, now let's go." For once, no one complained or made any remarks. It was going to be a long walk to nowhere.
When full darkness fell, we gathered together in a huddled group near some large rocks. The stewardess tried to aid the many with the hurt ankle, wrapping it in strips torn from her vest.
I gathered small branches near the edge of the woods, but wouldn't venture any closer. It was an unspoken rule at home that you stayed out of the woods after the sun fell. I dropped my collection on the ground and began to form a pyramid. The woman lay on the ground, crying away her fear.
The captain was holding his head in his hands, just staring at the ground. The stewardess tried to help me, but her hands shook so bad, she kept knocking the structure down. I politely told her that she should go talk with the crying woman. She nodded and moved off to the side.
"Why aren't you hysterical or panicking?" I glanced at the man beside me and grunted as I rubbed two sticks together. I grew frustrated with it when nothing happened except my arms growing tired. Two large hands appeared near mine.
"Let me try." I handed it off to him without complaint. As he worked he talked.
"Ya' never answered me." I raised an eyebrow as a small spark caught some of the dried grass and a small flame appeared.
"You've done this before?" It was more of a statement. He grinned and reached for more of the grass. We each sprinkled some on and blew softly on the miniscule flame. It grew in size and licked up the wood. When it decided it liked the wood, it jumped to it and started to burn merrily.
"You answer my question, I'll answer yours." I frowned. This man was beginning to get on my nerves.
"This isn't the first time I've come across natives, though they weren't nearly as cruel as those ones." It was his turn to raise and eyebrow. He opened his mouth to question me but I held up a finger.
"New rule, you've got to answer my question before you can ask anymore, simon says." He gave a chuckle.
"Okay, okay. I've lived in Australia my entire life, you kind of get to know things like this," He pointed to the fire ", you never know when you'll get stuck outdoors. Next question, why did you run into those other natives, do you make it a life's job to bet in aero-plane crashes, or should we be warned about your bad luck?" I frowned. I didn't find it funny. What was with people and teasing me?
"I was in the field with my parent's team, and haha, real funny." I hunched down over my knees and stared into the fire.
"What's your name? Mine's Jancy." I didn't bother looking at him.
"Waylen." I tested his name, rolling it off my tongue.
How long could we survive out here? How long would it take for us to be found?
Forever.
In my heart, I knew we may never be found, that we would die out here. Idly, my hands stacked four stones on top of each other next to the fire. They were still there when we left the next morning.
Our days continued as such. We moved for as long as we could, and then we would sit and start a fire and eat root of plants. It was disgusting but it was what needed to be done. Waylen and I continued questioning each other, and some times we dragged the others into it, just to get them talking. We needed to trust each other if we were to survive. I would stack a set of stones by each fire.
"No matter what, we don't split up. There are too few of us to go it alone. From this point on, each of us is responsible for everyone else as well." Irene, the hysterical woman, nodded, still lost to her own thoughts. Grace, the stewardess, offered to help start the fire. We all had to be taught. The captain, Collin, was useless. He complained about everything and continually got on my nerves. I wanted to yell at him that no one cared, but I couldn't. Secretly, we were all thinking the same thing.
After the fire was started and the moon rose above us, we would sleep, always with one person awake, almost like shifts. There were noises all night, and most of use slept fitfully. When we did sleep peacefully, it was out of exhaustion.
We continued to move, day in and day out. We never stayed one place for long in fear of the animals and natives. We couldn't be sure where we were exactly or which direction we were headed, so we kept moving.
Soon the weather grew colder, the ground less navigational. Had we really been out here so long that winter was setting in? And if so, that meant we were towards Northern to northwestern China.
To top what had already happened, we definitely were not prepared to handle a winter in the wilderness.
"How do you know we aren't going in circles?!" I jerked back as the captain yelled in my face. It took me a minutes to fully understand him, I had been snatched from my daydreams and wasn't ready to see his glorious face so suddenly.
"Uh..." He pressed closer so I took a step back.
"Well? You've led us this far, how do you know we aren't going in circles?" I blinked then regained my wits.
"I've set up stone towers, every time we stopped, I built one next to the fire. If you had spent a bit of the time you spend complaining focusing on what's going on around you, you would already know that." I moved around him and pushed forward. We didn't have time to argue.
It soon began to snow and I was half tempted to turn around, but it wasn't heavy and it would melt in the heat of the day.
It was my turn for stay up. I would pull the all-nighter. The rest were so tired. They didn't have nearly as much stamina as i did, and even i was exhausted by the end of the day. I moved a small distance from the group to keep a look out. My thoughts drifted to memories. They were all golden compared to everything that was happening around me. Even the ones I thought were horribly embarrassing at the time I would have killed for now. My eyes began to fill with tears.
I couldn't help it. I just felt so helpless.
I sat down on a boulder and folded over. The pain was so severe.
I missed home. I wanted to be with mom and dad. I could even take Chris's teasing and jokes. Anything for the familiarity. I wanted the heavy scent of the tigers all everything; so long as it wasn't roots! I wanted to press my fingers into the scratches on the table. I wanted the cluttered office and the homey living room filled with dusty smells. I wanted to watch my dad read the his papers or Chris passed out on the ratty couch. I wanted to smell dinner and see mom put-sing around the kitchen as she made it. I wanted Myali's thumping at my wall.
I wanted to go home.
"Penny for your thoughts?" My head jerked up and my neck cracked painfully. My hand instantly went to massaging it.
"Ow." I complained. My glare shot to Waylen's face.
"What are you doing sneaking up on people?" He shrugged.
"Showing you how bad of a look out you are?" I grunted and turned away.
"Go away, I want to sulk some more." I heard him chuckle as he limped over to the edge of the boulder I was sitting on, leaning up against it.
"Hey old man, you're gonna' be tired and cranky tomorrow, go back to sleep." I couldn't help the grin that fought its way on to my face.
"And here I thought I told you that in total confidence and you go using it to tease me..." He couldn't hold the glare for long before breaking down in quiet laughter. The silence filed in though, as it always does. I was lost to my thoughts when he spoke again.
"Hey, I've been meaning to ask you somethin'." I looked down on him to see him staring at the ground.
"Yeah?" What was so important that he had been holding on to the question for this long. He was quiet.
"Aw, are you shy? Askin' the young girl her number or something?" I laughed, but it died down when I realized he wasn't laughing, only staring at me. Self consciously I pulled at my hair.
"Okay, that's gettin' a bit high on the creep-meter-" He interrupted me.
"What did that man really say to you?" My back shot straight. I turned away again.
"I don't know what you're talking about. What man?" I stared at the stars, trying in vain to not remember.
"Jancy, you are a horrible liar. Ya' know exactly who I'm talkin' about." I hunched against his words.
"So what if I do, what does it matter. It's not like you can speak Mandarin anyway." He sighed and I was half tempted to turn around to see his face.
Half tempted.
"I know basic sentence structure and I know he didn't just tell you that we had to leave." It was my turn to sigh.
"He told me that it was against their law to let trespassers go alive, but he would because of who my parents are, and he would use the dead man and supplies to make up a story of our deaths." I pressed my lips together but didn't turn around. Not yet.
"Really?" No. Not even close. It didn't sound like he believe me anyway.
"Yeah, scout's honor." I replied lamely. Silence seeped in once more. He patted the boulder twice before starting to limp away.
"See, that wasn't difficult. Don't stay up all night, grab some else to do watch before dawn, you need sleep too." He sounded overly cheery, falsely cheery. I groaned internally and smacked myself in the head.
'So dumb!'
The next day passed slowly, for me at least. Waylen basically ignored me, only giving me clipped responses when I asked him something. I instantly knew why. I struggled with the decision to tell him, and decided it was necessary. Finding a time of day where we could both have some privacy was another question altogether.
I volunteered for watch. Waylen never came.
I had a feeling he would make me go to him. So I did.
He was laying down next to the fire with his eyes closed and his breathing even, but I saw the muscle under his eye twitch as I got closer. I laid down behind him, pressing my arms to his back.
"I know you're awake." He didn't move. I sighed, frustrated. He wasn't going to give an inch. "I'm sorry, I lied." I was expecting something but nothing happened. Maybe he really was asleep.
"I know." I nearly jumped. I hadn't been expecting that. I pressed closer to his back, whispering harshly.
"You really are trying to scare me to death aren't you!?" I could feel him smile. "Jerk." I mumbled. The ever present silence made itself known.
"Tell me-" I shook my head.
"No, you don't need to know, it doesn't matter." I glared into my clenched hands.
"I'm curious. Either ya' know who those people were and could'a prevented that man's death, or ya' risked something great to save us." I bit my lip and lightly pinched his back.
"I would prefer you don't make guesses, and no, I didn't know them, I could do nothing about his death." He hummed and I felt it through his back.
"Way, what is it that you miss from home?" As time passed, I realized I was being ignored. I leaned over him to see if he was wake. His eyes met mine with a steady alert gaze. I frowned and lay back down. Fine, two could play at that game. I huddled down and closed my eyes, pretending to sleep.
A ray of light pierced my darkness. Shit! I had fallen asleep! I sat up and saw I was alone. I looked around at the sleeping faces of our group and found that Waylen was not among them. I shifted around to see his form leaning against a tree, slouched and leaning on one leg. Reluctantly, I stood and made my way towards him, sitting at his feet.
"You made me fall asleep." He didn't so much as look at me, yet he was staring around.
I threw my hands up in surrender.
"I give! You're horrible!" He still didn't say anything. "He told me that..." I pressed my fingers to my lips to keep the words in. They still didn't feel right to me. I pinched my eyes shut and tried to form sentences around them. A hand pulled my arm down and the words fell out like verbal diarrhea. "...He didn't like the abuse of women, and if I had not given him an excuse to let us go that the men would be forced to watch us tortured and killed and then killed themselves." I pursed my lips in disgust. His hand appeared on top of my head.
"What did you give up?" He murmured. I turned to stare at him and then the distance. It took me a time to speak.
"I have to keep us moving, we can't stop, they'll follow us until we are out of the country. He was giving me a head start." That solidified things so much more. Speaking the words made them that much more real. I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them.
"Thinking about it, I'm starting to wonder why I keep moving. It would be so much easier to get caught. I can deal with some torture, anything has got to be better than living like this-" I was yanked up by my wrists, turned around and slapped across my bottom. I jumped forward with a yelp, using my hands to cover myself for fear of any more strikes. I turned on him, angry, embarrassed and surprised as hell.
"What in the name of God was that for?" He pointed a finger at me and nearly spit at me in rage as he yelled at me.
"Don't you dare say that, you get your ass over there and wake those people up," He moved his hand to point out in the distance. ", and then you get your ass moving that way. Don't ever let me hear you say such a thing again! Do you hear me?!" So shocked I was that I could only nod and stand there. He sized me up before raising his hand up as if to hit me.
"What are you waiting for?!" I spun around and darted off. I went about my tasks as quickly as possible.
We were all up and moving in less than an hour. The day ahead looked overly hot and sunny as always. As we started to move, I kept as far from Waylen as our group permitted.
The tides began to turn faster then I could think. Within a few hours, a full blown storm had hit us and we were even more lost now than ever.
"We need to turn around!" The snow whipped around us, roaring past our ears, deafening us. I screamed at them as loud as I could.
"We need to turn around! We'll die if we keep going this way!" I pointed toward the direction we were heading away from.
"No! We can't turn around! We've come too far to turn back!" The captain yelled at me. Waylen tried to hobble between the two of us.
"She's right! It's just gettin' colder this way! We've got no food, or water, or shelter! We are not gonna' survive much longer! We've got to turn back!" The captain shoved a finger in Way's face.
"Her doings got us here in the first place! I'm done listening to her! We do things my way! Anyone who wants to follow this foolish girl, be my guest! The rest who want to live to see another day, you'll stay with me!" I glared at him the best I could while shaking uncontrollably. He turned away and moved forward. The other two followed after sparing us a glance. Waylen and I were left standing in the blinding snow that soon swallowed up the figures of the only companions we'd had in days. It was difficult to see them go, to watch them leave us here. Our numbers had saved us before and now it was just the two of us, on our own. I knew this was that last time we would meet.
Waylen bumped my elbow with his and nodded in the other directions.
"Best be goin' 'fore the snow eats up the tracks." We turned and left, leaving any other choice behind.
Waylen leaned on me, our sides pressed close together to conserve heat and ease the pain in his leg. The snow should have numbed it by now and the fact that it hadn't was concerning. My own legs were numb from the knees down. I felt weird to be walking, to be moving without feeling the ground beneath my feet. We bent our heads against the cold wind that slammed our backs. In that simple move of turning around, I felt better. I could suddenly hear mine and Way's breaths, heavy and labored, and the crunch of snow as we shuffled. In my heart, I felt that this was right, we'd be okay.
It was slow going.
Way's limping and the treacherous cold made it seem like eternity. My body ached, hurting more than I could ever remember. I wanted to lie down and never move again. As if agreeing, my legs gave from under me and I dropped to the ground. Waylen stumbled and grabbed my arm, pulling me up. I tried to fight him off with what little energy I could muster. I was tired of this. All of this.
"Come on lass, don't give up now." He pulled me up but I hung in his grasp like a petulant child.
"Wouldn't it be so easy?" To just lie down and go to sleep.
'Yes.' Who was that?
"Yer willin' to give up that easy? Let's go or I'll leave ya'!" I nodded and closed my eyes. Wasn't the cold known for doing that? Putting people to sleep?
'Yes.' Was I answering myself?
'What an easy way to die compared to everything else.' A flash of burning pain had me leaping to my feet and out of my attacker's reach. I held my chilled fingers to the inflamed skin, starring shockingly at Waylen, whose blue hand was red-palmed. I wouldn't doubt there would be a mark on my cheek.
"You are not givin' up this easy! Fight! Keep moving!" He reached over, grabbed my hand and pulled me along at his stumbling pace. The shock of the hit kept me from my dangerous daydreams of sleep and I forcefully pushed those thoughts into a black box in my mind, locking it and throwing away the key.
"Ya' need to dig a hole in the snow!" He gestured to a piling of snow next to a large bush. We dug it out quickly, making sure it was large enough for the both of us.
"Line it with some of the branches!" From a far end, he began pulling off branches to lay in the ditch; he then gave me a shove into the hole, following right after. The broad lower branches of the bush covered the top of the hole, shielding us from the direct onslaught. I still had enough decency to be embarrassed about the situation. Never in my life had I been pressed against someone so intimately.
Still.
I was warmer than I had been in a long time. Instinct had me pressing myself harder into Way's body, trying to warm my chilled skin.
Feeling safe and comfortable, I fell asleep easily. I was just so tired. My body ache so much.
After hours or days of walking and resting, of eating snow and frozen roots, we found our way out of the storm.
First it got lighter and the amount of snow on the ground lessened. Then the snow ceased to fall altogether and I began to gain feeling in my elbows. It was still bitterly cold. At last we were out of the imminent danger. We'd found 'dry' land when I accidentally stepped in a patch of loose gravel and slipped.