Ice (8 page)

“Shit!” Alex said, realizing her mistake. Retracing her steps, she darted back through the trees in a panic. Finally seeing a dark heap in the snow, she ran to Campbell and dropped to her knees.

“Come on, you need to get up,” she said, wiping the snow from Maggie’s face. “Campbell, there’s a cabin up ahead. Come on, woman, you need to get up.”

“Please…I can’t. Just leave me…please, just leave me,” Maggie whimpered. Ravaged by fever, exhaustion and blood loss, her will to live had disappeared. The snow felt good against her heated skin, and all Maggie wanted to do was sleep. Just sleep.

“No fucking way!” Alex shouted into the wind. Grabbing Maggie, she pulled her to her feet, and wrapping her arm around her waist, Alex growled, “Start walking, Campbell, or by God, I’ll carry you!”

Praying that she could make it to the cabin, if only to save the life of the woman trying to save hers, Maggie tried to take another step, but her knees buckled instantly. Without missing a beat, Alex bent down and pulled her to her feet again. Leaning into the fevered Inspector, she laid Maggie over her shoulder, and taking a deep breath, Alex stood straight. Slowly, she lumbered through the snow carrying an unconscious woman over her left shoulder and a carry-on bag and knapsack over her right.

***

By the time Alex reached the porch of the deserted cabin, her muscles were screaming for relief. Their sanctuary was only a small flight of stairs away, but she was exhausted. Deciding to give herself a minute to catch her breath, she lowered Maggie gently to the ground, and then climbed the steps and wearily walked to the door. Seeing the padlock barring the entrance, Alex’s shoulders fell. “Oh, you have got to be bloody kidding me!”

Thinking for a second, she looked to her left and right, and then stomped around the porch, checking every window and door, but even the meager storage shed attached to the back of the cabin had a shiny lock hanging from a hasp. Whoever owned the cabin had done their due diligence. It was locked up tighter than a vault.

As each padlock came into view, Alex’s fear and desperation began to grow. Their situation had become all too clear. They had survived a plane crash, and had struggled through a blizzard to find protection from the storm, but if she couldn’t find a way to get inside, they would both freeze to death. It was just that simple.

Returning to the front door, Alex pounded her fist against it in anger. Swearing into the wind as she felt tears well in her eyes, her aggravation grew into rage. Unleashing her fury on the padlocked entrance, and mindless of the pain in her leg, she slammed her body against it again and again until finally, defeated, she crumpled to the porch. Seconds grew into minutes as Alex sat there, lightly tapping her head against the door in frustration as she racked her brain for a solution. When she realized that there wasn’t one, her temper erupted. Alexandra Blake did not like to lose.

“No!” she shouted, scrambling to her feet. “
I will not fucking die this way
!”

Infuriated, Alex marched around the porch one more time, pulling at every lock with her frozen fingers, and checking the tops of all the windows and doors for a hidden key. Even though the small storage shed at the back of the house wouldn’t have given them much protection, she nonetheless rammed her shoulder against the door, her instinct to survive stronger than it had ever been. But the lock was far too strong, and Alex had grown far too weak. Dejected, she slowly returned to the front of the cabin, and sniffling back a tear, she limped down the steps to retrieve the woman she had left in the snow. With her last ounce of energy, Alex carried Maggie to the porch, and slumping to the floor, she pulled her near. Propping the flashlight between them, Alex aimed it at the small overhang above their heads. She had no idea how long the batteries would last, but knowing that permanent darkness would come soon enough, she welcomed the muted light reflecting down on them.

Up until that moment, Alex had never thought about her own death. If she had been ill or weak, perhaps it would have entered her mind before now, but healthy and young, death had always seemed so distant and foreign. As she sat on the porch slowly freezing to death, Alex couldn’t help but ponder her demise. Would it be warm and peaceful? When the cloak of the grim reaper covered her, would a bright light suddenly appear to guide her to Heaven? Would she struggle with her last breath or simply slip into the afterlife with the ease that comes from faith? Would Maggie die first? Jolted by her last thought, she shook her head at the flood of macabre questions. Pushing them away, Alex turned her attention to their executioner…the storm.

As her hope of survival faded away, her senses grew keen. Even though she had walked through a forest for over an hour, Alex hadn’t noticed the fragrance of pine in the air until just then. It reminded her of the wreath she had hung on the door to her flat at Christmas, and the tree, tall and proud, she had admired in her parent’s lounge six weeks earlier. A smile appeared on her face as she remembered Christmas day with her family, and then it disappeared just as fast when she realized that it had been her last.

With a sigh, Alex closed her eyes, and as if on cue, the wind slowed. The night grew silent for a moment, almost peaceful, but then the symphony of the storm began to build again. Ice and snow pinged and skittered across the porch as the wind grew strong, and in the distance she could hear the faint strain and crack of branches losing their fight against the torrents of air crashing their way through the timbers. The cacophony was deafening.

A brutal gust of wind whipped across the porch, and Alex’s eyes flew open. Squinting against the sting of it, she tugged Maggie closer, trying to share what little warmth she had left, but it was pointless. She could see that the snow had begun to creep over them like a white plague, and its goal was simple. Steal their remaining heat and turn them to ice.

Taking a ragged breath, Alex’s eyes filled with tears as she looked at the woman in her arms. She had always longed to hold Maggie close, and now she would hold her for eternity.

Noticing a delicate gold chain around Maggie’s neck, Alex pulled it from underneath her sweater. Smiling softly at the tiny gold cross dangling from the intertwined links, Alex began to pray. There was nothing else to do.

A tear rolled down Alex’s cheek. Nearing total exhaustion, she knew that when she finally closed her eyes, she would never open them again. A kaleidoscope of images and thoughts invaded her mind. Allowing herself to accept the inevitable, she took a deep breath and made peace with God.

Lightly kissing the top of Maggie’s head, Alex took a deep breath and slowly let the air empty from her lungs. Her head nodded forward as she allowed sleep to take hold, but then a thought popped into her head. Opening her eyes, she glanced at the religious symbol around her partner’s neck.

“Son of a bitch,” Alex said, staring at the tiny religious symbol. “
Son of a bitch
!”

Propping Maggie’s lifeless form against the wall of the cabin, Alex struggled to her feet. Calling on every molecule of strength and adrenaline she had left, she forced herself to take one step and then another…and then another. Traipsing through the drifts of snow now piled on the porch, she stopped in front of the door to the storage shed. Staring at the white crucifix hanging above it, Alex swallowed hard as she removed it from its hanger. Holding her breath, she said a prayer and flipped it over.

“Thank you, God!” she cried out, seeing a key sticking out of a slot carved in the back. “Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you
!”

Pulling the key from its hiding spot, she gave the crucifix a quick kiss, placed it back on the nail above the door and rushed to the front of the cabin. Stepping around Maggie’s slumped body, Alex placed the flashlight on the porch, tugged off her gloves and began fumbling with the lock. More than once the key almost fell from her frozen fingers, but finally, she found the keyway and the padlock sprung open with ease. Unfortunately, the door did not.

Shocked, she grabbed the flashlight, and seeing that ice had formed in the cracks around the door’s edges, she began ramming her body against it. Her leg was pounding and her shoulder ached, but it didn’t matter. Determined, she continued until the door gave way, and she stumbled into the cabin triumphant.

“Yes!” she hissed, shining the flashlight here and there. Quickly taking note of her surroundings, she went back to the porch to get her partner.

“In you go,” she groaned, as she grabbed Campbell by the lapels of her coat and dragged her through the doorway.

Struggling and swearing, Alex didn’t stop until Maggie was lying in front of the stone fireplace that practically filled one wall of the cabin. Standing straight, she shined the flashlight around the room again, and getting her bearings, Alex got to work.

Although the firebox was void of wood, she reached up, opened the damper, and with purpose in her step, headed to the dining area on the other side of the room. Picking up one of the Windsor-style chairs, she raised it above her head and slammed it to the floor, shattering it instantly. Gathering what remained, Alex strode to the fireplace with kindling in hand, and taking a book from the mantle, she began ripping out the pages and stuffing them around the spokes and rungs. Searching her pockets for her cigarette lighter, she tried and failed several times to work the mechanism. Wincing at the sting in her frozen fingertips, she warmed them with her breath and tried again. Smiling at the sight of the small yellow flame dancing at the end of the lighter, she held it against the pages of the book and watched as the paper slowly began to burn and char.

With her adrenaline now pumping, Alex quickly stood up and immediately wished that she hadn’t when the room began to spin around her. Grabbing for the mantle, she closed her eyes and prayed that it would pass. Hungry, dehydrated and well past the point of exhaustion, Alex was running on empty. There was only one problem. Alex was too stubborn to admit it. She wasn’t ready to rest, at least not yet.

“Five more minutes, I just need five more minutes,” she said aloud. “God, please…just five more minutes.”

When she opened her eyes again and found her dizziness gone, Alex wasted no time. Retrieving a blanket that had been draped over the back of a nearby chair, she returned to Maggie’s side and within minutes, the woman’s snow-covered coat had been replaced by a warm, albeit dusty blanket. Pausing to catch her breath, she studied Maggie in the firelight. Pulling the scarf from Maggie’s head, Alex combed her fingers through the woman’s hair, and then checked her fever. Thankful that it seemed to have eased, she tucked the blanket tightly around Maggie and sunk to the floor. Pulling the scarf from her head, Alex’s shoulders slumped as she let out a long breath. Seconds later, sleep took hold.

***

Alex had no idea how long she had slept, but when she opened her eyes, her teeth were chattering and the fire had dwindled down to almost nothing. Although her leather coat was providing her some warmth, her jeans were soaked through and her boots, while knee-high, had never laid claim to being waterproof. Shaking off a chill, she crawled over and placed her hand on Maggie’s forehead. Noting that the woman’s forehead was still warm, but definitely not hot, Alex said glibly, “So much for death by fever.”

Getting to her feet, Alex winced as a bolt of pain shot down her leg. Grabbing her wounded thigh, she held her breath until the ache dulled, and then she slowly made her way to the dining area. Turning another chair into firewood, after she stoked the hearth with the spindles of oak, she decided her next priority was to get them both out of their wet clothes. Glancing around the room for her knapsack, her brow furrowed. “Where the hell is it?”

Scratching her head, Alex glanced at the door, and realizing what she had done, she rushed outside and began searching the snow-covered porch. At last, finding both her knapsack and Campbell’s cloth carry-on near the stairs, she dusted them off and went to sit by the fire. Emptying the contents of both, she groaned. Snow had made its way inside, and all their clothes were now frozen into solid blocks of fabric.

“Not one of your finer moments, Alexandra,” she said, holding up a pair of her ice-cubed knickers. Dropping them to the floor with a thud, she grabbed the flashlight and said, “Okay, time for Plan B.”

Frowning when the LED bulb dimmed immediately, she switched it off and made her way to the kitchen. When she had first scanned the room, she had noticed a hurricane lamp on the counter, and picking it up, she listened as the oil sloshed in its belly. Alex adjusted the wick, raised the glass and within seconds, the kitchen was filled with a dim, shimmering light.

Crossing her fingers that the owners of the cabin had left behind some clothes, Alex headed down the hallway leading to the back of the cabin, the rough sawn flooring squeaking under her feet as she went. Coming to the first door, she peeked inside and smiled at the conveniences that the bathroom contained. Walking over, she worked the pitcher-pump handle over the tub, but when no water appeared, she simply shrugged her shoulders. “Melted snow it is, then.”

Continuing to the next room, Alex looked inside and sighed. While the room contained metal frames of bunk beds, each had been stripped of their mattresses, pillows and blankets. Taking a deep breath, she headed to the last door at the end of the hall, and saying a quick prayer, Alex stepped inside the room.

Grinning at the sight of the quilt-covered bed, she was about to pull off the patchwork covering when she spied a large trunk at the foot of the bed. Placing the lamp on the floor, Alex opened the latches of the trunk and raised the lid. Her smile grew wide when she saw the stacks of clothing sealed in plastic bags, and quickly grabbing a few, she tossed them on the bed. As she was about to shrug out of her coat, Alex noticed the stone fireplace that filled one wall, and cocking her head to the side, she began replaying in her head what she had just seen.