Snow blind
“Don’t worry honey, I’ll be fine.”
The man said.
“But Mark, what if you’re not? I
love you, and I want you to be happy, but to be happy you need to be alive, and
it’s because I love you that I don’t want you to go.”
“Please, baby, stop worrying. I’ll
be back in two weeks.”
“Okay, fine.” She said, and then
they kissed.
“Two weeks. I promise.”
“Okay. If you’re not, then there’s
going to be a price to pay.”
Mark laughed, and waved as he
started up the mountain. The ground was covered in snow, and his feet crunched
on top of the snow as he walked. The air was brisk with the cold of winter, but
he didn’t mind. He had on a coat, a knife and pistol at his side, and a huge
backpack on filled with what he would need for the days to come.
He walked in peace and quiet for a
few hours, tiring all the while. As he reached the four hour mark, he decided
to stop for a rest. He took off his pack, and lay down on a tree. He took out
his knife, spun it around a few times, and then put it back.
He decided to just sit there and
watch the clouds. As he watched the clouds, he lost himself into a self-induced
trance-like state. He felt his eyes get heavy, and his mind wandered off. He
snapped his eyes open, trying to stay awake, but it was no use. He saw the
sight of snow falling as he slowly drifted off.
Mark was dreaming that he was being
chased by a gigantic monster. This monster was ten feet tall, pure white, and
had two heads. He got chased all through the forest, running and running. But
still the monster was catching up to him. He tripped, the monster roared, and
then his eyes snapped open.
There was still a roaring, but it
was from the wind. And there was a monster, but that was the snow falling down
at speeds quicker than the eye. Mark jumped up, and put on his backpack. He was
freezing, and had to find shelter.
The thoughts racing through Mark’s
head were innumerable. How did he not wake up when the snow storm hit? Would he
survive? Would he ever see his wife again? And then there were countless others,
lost in the blizzard of thought mimicking the blizzard he was caught in.
Mark trucked through, trying to find
his way through the snow storm that was blinding him. He felt his face and
hands going numb, felt the stinging slap of the wind and snow hitting him, and
felt the pain of every step.
As he was
walking, the snow was seeping into his boots and pants. His feet were going
numb, his hands and face were totally numbed now. Every step became a trial,
every foot moved forward a gauntlet of pain.
But then, out
of the darkness came a light. He saw an opening in the mountain, a shelter of
rocks. He saw a cave. And with the cave came shelter, possibly water, and who
knows what else? He trekked towards the cave, fighting against fate with every
step. As he neared it, his hopes rose to the highest heights.
Then
finally, he took the last step into the cave. He took several steps further back, then
collapsed, shivering, onto the cold cave ground. He laid there for several
minutes, simply shivering. No thoughts, no emotion, and no movement besides the
shivering.
Then
finally, he fell asleep, still shivering. Then eventually the shivering
subsided. He laid there, cold snow blowing outside, sleeping. He laid there for
hours, just sleeping. And in his sleep, he had the strangest dreams.
He dreamt he
was in the cave, awake. He was sitting there, with the monster that had been
chasing him before outside the cave. The monster roared, and an icy wind blew
in from the monster's mouths. It stood out there, scratching and clawing at the
cave entrance.
As it stood
there, Mark was standing there, staring at the monster, ready to run if he had
to. He looked up the monster, starting at its feet, then its legs, then its
body. Then, he met its eyes. He froze in terror, was paralyzed in fear.
He felt the
monster's petrifying gaze, and couldn't move. He saw the intent to kill in the
monster's eyes, and saw everything the monster wanted to do to him. And he
couldn't escape. The monster roared again, a chilling wind blew in, and he woke
up.
A freezing cold
wind blew in, and Mark shivered beneath it. He curled up into a ball, trying to
shelter himself from the cold. He laid like that for several minutes, just
shivering beneath the bone chilling winds.
Eventually he
got up, and started looking around the cave. He walked all the way to the back,
and then back up towards the front. The back of the cave was warmer than the
front, so he moved all of his stuff back there.
He sat back
there, still shivering from the cold, when he heard a rumbling. He jumped at
first, thinking it was the monster from his dreams. But then he realized that
it was his stomach, aching from the pain of hunger.
Mark thought
about it, and realized he had no idea how long he had been in that cave. It
could have been hours, it could have been days. But either way, his stomach was
killing him, and he needed to eat, and to drink, his throat was dry.
So he went
into his pack, and got out his water bottle and some food. He had brought
enough to last him two weeks, and he would have to make it stretch. So he ate,
but not much. And he drank, but still not much. He ate and drank only enough to
sustain himself for the day.
So this went on
for three weeks, the snowstorm blowing outside indefinitely. He had dreams of
the monster every time he slept, and each time it was closer and closer. But
after those three weeks and a few days, he looked in his pack for food and
water, and this search brought horror to him.
He had no food
or water left. He rummaged through his pack, hyperventilating more and more as
he did so. "No, no, this can't be happening. I can't have run out,
no!" He said, voice rising with every word.
After minutes
of this, he finally sat back, defeated. He curled up into a ball, and started
sobbing. He was wondering how he could have run out of food, how he could have
been so stupid. How did he not ration himself better?
And to top it all
off, it seemed like the snow storm was nowhere near over. It had been going for
who knows how long, and there was no clear end in sight. How much longer he
would be in this cave was a matter of how long he could live.
He decided
to end his pain for the day by going to sleep. He closed his eyes, and drifted
off. It took him a while, but soon he was in slumber. And the monster was
watching him, right next to him.
The monster
sat there, watching him, doing nothing. For once it wasn’t roaring, wasn’t
terrifying him. It almost seemed peaceful, in a way. It was almost calming to
him. But then there was a flash of light, and it was terrifying. Another flash
and it was calming.
It
fluctuated like that for some time, going between terrifying and calming. He
was frightened, calmed, and then frightened again. This went on for some time,
almost seeming like it would never end. But then he woke up.
He sat in the
cave for days, doing nothing, growing weaker by the day with his only calorie
intake being water. Every day he did the same routine. Light a fire, drink
water, sit around the fire, go to sleep, wake up, repeat. The monotony was
going to drive him insane.
Eventually,
one day as he was sitting around his fire, he got an idea. He could eat himself
to survive. It was either that or die. He thought about it, then pushed the
idea out of his head. He couldn't, it wouldn't work. But at the same time, he
was so hungry.
He battled
with that idea for some time, pushing around the pros and cons of it in his
head. But then, one day, it clicked. He could easily do it, just cut off part
of him he didn't need. Like his leg.
If he cut off
his leg, he could still make it. He just had to cut it off at the right part.
He needed his arms to start the fire, and of course he needed his head. But his
leg? That he could do without.
He walked over
to the fire, and sat down. He took out a spare change of clothes that he had,
and cut them into ribbons with his knife. He tied the ribbons of clothing
around his thigh, and started heating up his saw.
He heated it up
until it was glowing red, just to make sure that it would do the job as quickly
as possible. He then took it out of the fire, and positioned it right above his
leg. He took a deep breath, and then began to cut his leg.
As he was
cutting, he screamed. He screamed a blood curdling scream, the likes of which
had never before escaped his mouth. He gritted his teeth, and as tears were
streaming out of his eyes, he still cut through.
The saw cut
through his flesh like it was butter, and soon a puddle of blood was pooling
around him. He started panicking because the makeshift rope he tied around
himself wasn't working, but he still was cutting through.
Soon the saw was
at his bone, and he started cutting through that. It felt as though he had a
thousand teeth chewing at his marrow, and he screamed through gritted teeth. He
finally cut through the bone, and by then the saw wasn't nearly as hot.
He cut through the
last few inches of flesh, then dropped the saw in pain. He was shivering, and
there was a sizable pool of blood around him. He felt weaker by the minute, and
felt his eyelids getting heavy. He was so sleepy, so sleepy, so... sleepy...
Then he fell
asleep, and the monster cradled him in its soft arms.
