by Lyn Gardner
Unlocking her door, Alex carefully pushed it open and shined the light around. Seeing snow-covered earth as far as her eye could see, a small grin appeared on her face, but it disappeared almost as quickly. Another loud groan filled the air as the fuselage strained against something unknown and the plane shifted again.
Baffled, she climbed out and slowly put pressure on her injured leg. Discovering that the pain was now dull and quite manageable, she walked carefully around the wreckage searching for the source of the noise. Following the sound with the LED beam, Alex found her answer. The tail of the plane was submerged in water.
“Fuck me!”
No sooner had the words left her mouth when something crackled under her feet. Shining the light on the ground, and seeing nothing but snow, Alex shuffled her feet, and feeling the ice beneath them, the color drained from her face. Swallowing hard, she carefully retraced her steps, holding her breath as the frozen water cracked and strained with every step she took. Reaching the cabin door, she flashed the light toward the nose of the plane, and seeing it buried in a small stand of spindly trees, Alex couldn’t help but smile. Land was only a few feet away. Taking a long, calming breath, she carefully climbed back into the plane.
As if working on a criminal case, Alex methodically sorted the facts. The pilot had told them to head north, so shining the flashlight on her wrist, she checked the compass displayed on the heavy silver watch to get her bearings. Relieved that north was in the direction of the trees rather than the lake, Alex began to make ready for the trip. Within seconds, she found Campbell’s carry-on lodged under a seat and the half-filled bottle of water she had placed in the holder on the door, but her backpack was nowhere in sight. Scratching her head, Alex was about to give up when she spied it wedged under the pilot’s slumped body.
“Shit,” Alex said under her breath, staring at the lifeless form. Taking a few moments to get up the nerve to disturb the dead, she gently extracted the backpack from under his shoulders. Grimacing as he slipped further between the seats, she reached over and closed his eyes. “I’m sorry, George. I’m so, so sorry.”
Settling back into her seat, she hunched her shoulders as a gust of wind and snow whipped through the plane. Fighting off the chill, she emptied the bag containing Maggie’s disguise and began tearing apart the black wool skirt. Using the first strip as a bandage, she wrapped it around her head to stop the flow of blood still trickling down her face, and wincing, she pulled it tight. What was left of the skirt, she quickly fashioned into two scarves, and after covering her head with one, she set the other aside.
Leaning over, she placed her hand on Maggie’s shoulder. “Campbell, wake up,” she said firmly. When Maggie didn’t move, Alex began to shake her gently. “Campbell, you’ve got to wake up. We need to get out of here.”
After several attempts, Alex was on the verge of slapping the woman into consciousness when she heard Maggie begin to moan.
Grinning slightly, Alex said, “Campbell…come on, darling, you need to wake up.”
“Don’t call me that,” Maggie mumbled as the fog in her head faded away. Leaning slowly back in her seat, she moved her head from side to side to work out the stiffness before finally opening her eyes.
“How do you feel?” Alex asked. “Is anything broken?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so,” Maggie replied as she slowly moved in her seat.
“Good, because we need to get out of here, and we need to do it right now.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We landed on a lake…or a pond…or some other fucking piece of frozen water, but the point is, we’ve broken through the ice, and we need to get our arses out of here before the plane sinks.”
Achy and feverish, Maggie had resigned herself to the fact that she was going to die. With a sigh, she said, “You go…I’ll stay.”
“Not on your life, darling,” Alex snapped, grabbing their luggage and tossing it out the door. “Now, either you get out of here on your own, or I’ll pull you out. Your choice!”
“Please, just let me—”
Grabbing Maggie’s chin, Alex forced their eyes to meet. “I’m only going to say this once, so listen carefully. I will not leave you here! You got that? The pilot told us to travel north, and that’s exactly what we are going to do.”
“The pilot—”
“He’s dead, so it’s just you and me. Now, come on, get out of that seat and let’s go.”
“I’m going to die regardless,” Maggie explained. “I’ll only slow you down.”
“Jesus Christ! I don’t know what kind of life you’ve got…maybe it’s shit…I don’t know, but you are not dying on my fucking watch! Now get out of this bloody plane right now!” Carefully climbing outside, Alex waited as Campbell began to shift across the seats to the open door.
Grimacing in the darkness, Maggie closed her eyes for a few seconds to allow the pain to pass. She had no clue as to the extent of her injury, but as she felt warm blood leak from her body, she knew that she’d be in God’s hands soon. Pulling her coat tightly around herself, Maggie climbed out of the plane and allowed Blake to guide her north.
***
They methodically plodded through the forest for over an hour, trying their best to brace themselves against the wind that whipped through the pines, but it was impossible. The squalls of winter’s fury had become so strong that both were knocked to their knees more than once. Ice and snow pelted their faces until they were raw and chafed, and fingers and feet protected by gloves and boots simply didn’t have a chance against the rawness of Mother Nature at her fiercest.
If there was one word in the English language that described Alex Blake, it was tenacious. When she set her mind to do something, it would be done. From graduating with honors, to tracking down criminals in the bowels of London, most of her achievements could be directly attributed to just one thing…her stubbornness. Tell her no, and she would find the yes. Tell her impossible, and she would prove you wrong. So, as Alex trudged through the snow, she knew that death was trying to wrap its icy tentacles around her, but she had other things on her mind. Fuck death.
Alex stopped and glanced over her shoulder, watching as Maggie struggled to follow in her footsteps. Slogging through the ever-deepening snow, Alex had slowed her strides in order for the shorter woman to keep up, but as each minute passed, the snow grew deeper and Maggie was falling farther and farther behind.
The frigid temperature helped to keep Maggie’s fever in check, but just barely. She was rapidly reaching the point of exhaustion, and after stumbling several times, Maggie knew that her life’s blood now flowed freely from the wound on her side.
Looking to the north, Alex peered through the darkness, and shielding her eyes from the unrelenting snow, she shined the flashlight through the trees. Up ahead she could see a clearing, and set back into the opening was something boxy and dark. Narrowing her eyes, Alex strained to make out what it was, and sprinting toward it, her heart began to pound with excitement. Mindless of the distance she was putting between her and Campbell, Alex high-stepped it through drifts until the cabin came into view. Grinning, she spun around to shout out her discovery, only to find that Campbell had been swallowed up by the storm.
“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.
Chapter Six
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 w
ith 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.”
