by Kerry Taylor
He started down the trail and I quickly realised it was not going to be an easy hike back. The paths were rough and steep, and now covered with snow, making them very slippery.
By the time we were about halfway I had slipped a half dozen times, luckily Kade catching me quickly each time. He too had lost his footing a couple of times. We were in the wrong shoes, Kade in sneakers and me in fashion boots with thin soles. My feet were numb from the cold, but I pushed the thought back, not wanting to worry Kade more. He was already stressed, the snow building quickly, already deep enough to cover my feet entirely, and up to my knees in some places, and still falling heavily.
We were at the steepest point and I was terrified of falling, seeing the drop to our right down a deathly steep banking, but I tried to just focus on each step instead of allowing panic to take over. I kept on telling myself how much I loved snow, like it would make me enjoy the terrifying experience. The snow was just coming down so fast and thick, I could barely see a foot in front of my face.
Once again my foot slipped out from beneath me, my boots just not having enough tread to combat the slickness. I squealed as I went down, that time Kade not fast enough to grab me. I landed hard on my butt, but Kade steadied me from going any further, thankfully.
“Shit! Are you ok?” He asked.
“Might have bruised my butt, but I’ll live.” I smiled to reassure him, then took his hand as he helped me up.
“I’m so sorry. I never would have brought you out here if I knew this would happen.”
“I’m good. It’s an adventure!” I declared, trying to keep it light. He was worrying too much. We’d get to the car, I knew we would, and if the car was stuck. We’d have to spend the night in it. So what? I’d spent 2928 nights in a much worse place.
“You won’t be saying that when we have to spend the night freezing in my bloody car.” He grumbled, and I smiled as the English in him, peeked out even more during his rant.
“One cold night in a luxury SUV will not kill me, after the place I lived for the last eight years. As long as you’re with me, I’ll be fine Kade.” I said confidently, needing him to stop stressing himself out.
“God, do you have to be so positive? You’re making me look bad.” He grouched as he pulled me close and started down again.
“I’m in a beautiful place, on a beautiful snowy day, with a very kind, if a little grumpy, guy. How can I not be positive?”
“Even though your butt hurts?” He asked, then grinned.
“Even though my butt kills.” I agreed with a laugh back.
“Ok fine. I’ll try to be less grumpy, but we need to move. I’m not spending the night out here. We have to get back to the car.”
“Agreed.” I nodded, then pulled away from his hold and took his hand instead. “We can’t move quickly enough, pressed together like that. I’ll be fine.” I told him when he looked back to me with concern.
“Just watch your step. If I didn’t keep fucking slipping too, I’d just carry you, but I won’t risk falling with you in my arms.”
“I’m good Kade. I can walk.” He nodded and dropped below me on the incline. There he waited and held onto me as I followed and that’s how we worked our way down for the next ten minutes, mostly in silence, the only sound the ever increasing winds whipping around us.
It was definitely getting colder, my hands becoming painful, the wool gloves I wore soaked from me falling in the snow so many times, and my feet painfully numb. Luckily my coat was thick, the guys having helped me pick an appropriate one for the blizzards in Chicago, when they took me shopping, but the rest of me not under it was freezing.
We were almost to the car, but first was the hardest part of the whole trail. It was a steep decline, made up of hugely tall concrete steps. I had struggled up them enough earlier, in the bright sunlight and no snow. Now it was pretty dark and the steps were completely blanketed in snow deep enough to reach my thighs! The snow had just come so fast, like the heavens had used a dump truck to just throw it down on us, and there was no sign of it slowing. It was whipping down violently, the soft flakes that had started it all, gone, and replaced with sharp, icy flakes that felt like they were cutting into my face every time they hit me.
“Fuck! This is bad.” Kade cursed as he stood at the top, assessing the steps. I remembered how uneven they were, some wide, some narrow. How would we even know where the steps were under the snow?
“I’ll go first. Just try to step where I do, ok?” Kade instructed and I nodded. Because he was so much taller, the snow was only just over his knees, but still, it was going to be hard getting down this section and I was worried about falling and making more stress for Kade to deal with.
He tentatively dropped down the first step, then held his hand out to me. I stepped into his deep imprints following carefully and we made it down the first three, but as Kade stepped down to the fourth, his hand ripped from mine and before I could react, he fell crying out as he went down. He landed hard, with a sickening crack, then he rolled down the remainder of the hill at speed, landing about ten feet below me in a pile, unmoving, the snow around his head staining red.
“KADE!” I cried as I stood frozen, desperate to see him move. When after a minute he hadn’t moved at all I just started running to him. Luckily he had cleared the snow from parts of the steps as he went and I was able to see enough to jump down. After two steps, I slipped, landing on my butt, but I didn’t stop to get up. I just shuffled down the huge steps, my body rattling with each drop until finally I reached the bottom, and Kade.
He lay on his side, his arm tossed out in front of him. He was covered in powdery snow and blood was oozing from a cut on the back of his head, far too quickly. I knew I needed to stop the bleeding, so I stood and frenziedly unzipped and removed my coat. I pulled off the spare sweater Kade gave me earlier. Completely frozen, I hurried to pull my coat back on, then lifted Kade’s head enough to press the sweater to the large, deep cut he must have gotten hitting his head on one of the concrete steps.
“Kade?” I cried. “Kade? Wake up! Please just wake up!” But he didn’t respond. He was breathing, but his eyes were closed and he was too still. I knew it was bad. He could have a brain bleed, he could be dying. I needed to do something!
My first thought was to get help, and I pulled out my cell, but the calls wouldn’t connect and I remembered Grant telling me you had to have coverage to make a call. I tried pulling Kade’s cell from his pocket too, but it wouldn’t work either. By the time I gave up, shoving both cells into my pocket I was sobbing and begging Kade to just open his eyes and tell me what to do.
When it became clear Kade wasn’t going to wake up, I knew I had to get him to the car before he froze, before we both did. It was too cold to be out and not moving and the snow was coming down so fast, it was settling on Kade’s still form.
We were only about twenty metres from the parking lot where the car was, but I knew it was going to be a long way to drag a man twice, maybe even three times my size and weight, especially as pathetic as I was.
I tied the sweater around Kade’s head so it stayed tight against the wound, then grabbed the shoulders of his coat, his actual shoulders too wide for me to grip. It would be easier to drag him by his feet, but I needed to protect his head, so I started heaving, dragging him a tiny amount at a time, keeping his head raised from the ground as much as I could. Each time I pulled, he moved maybe a centimetre and it took everything in me to do that, but I knew I had to get him out of the cold before I could do anything else.
It seemed like hours before I finally got him to the car and by that time I was shaking so bad I could barely hold myself up, but we made it. We got to the car.
I started looking in Kade’s pockets for the keys, trying not to look at the stillness and pale colour of his face. It scared me too much and I didn’t have time to be scared. Kade needed me to keep it together.
I found the car keys in his jeans pocket and pressed the fob to unlock it, then open
ed the passenger side door and almost cried again. I had no idea how I was going to get him into the seat. It was so high that it had been an effort just for me to climb up each time. That was hard enough. How was I going to get Kade up there?”
“Kade? It’d be really good if you just opened your eyes now please?” I whimpered as I looked over at him, laid so still on the ground at my feet.
“No? Ok fine, but I am warning you, this will not be fun or pretty.” I joked through my tears, just trying to keep it together.
I put a foot either side of his wide chest and crouched down, then heaved his heavy arms one on each of my shoulders. Just lifting his arms was a fight, they were so heavy. I used every ounce of strength, resolve and adrenaline in me, and heaved his top half up onto my back, his weight almost toppling me over, but I fought to stay upright, knowing I would never have the energy to get him up again if I dropped him.
Just as I started to panic that there was no way I would get him in the car, he groaned and I felt his hands move a little. My instinct was to drop him and check on him, but I was so close to getting him in the car, and if he was even a little awake, he could help.
“Kade!” I cried, my voice hoarse from all of the exertion. He groaned again and tears of relief ran down my face, thinking he must be coming around. “Kade, you have to help me. Can you stand for me?”
“Livy?” The word was slurred and quiet, but I heard it.
“Yeah, I’m here Kade and I really need to get you in the car before I pass out. You’re kinda heavy you know?” My voice was strained, my legs trembling like jello, and my chest tight with the effort it was taking to hold half of his weight against my back.
He groaned again, but this time he moved his legs, his feet struggling to move beneath him. I looked down, and as soon as I saw he had his feet flat I started standing, trying to pull him up as he too lifted his weight. I forced my shaking legs to stand and together we got Kade upright. Feeling him folding behind me again, I shoved back as fast as I could, before I dropped him, or his weight pulled me over. I felt his shoulders land on the seat and I turned hurriedly to hold him there before he slid back off.
“Kade?” I called, but he seemed to be completely unconscious again.
It took me forever to push his butt up into the seat, then lift each of his legs into the car too, but finally I got him in, laid across the two front seats, blood still staining the sweater tied tight around his head.
I hurried to climb in the driver’s seat and cradled his head on my lap, pressing harder over the bleeding wound as I just took a moment to breathe, and cry a little. Every part of me hurt with the cold and exertion, but I didn’t have time to think too much about it. I knew I needed to just keep on going.
“Kade?” I whimpered, but he was back to laying completely motionless, his breathing the only thing reassuring me he was still alive.
I looked down at the steering wheel. I had never driven before, not really. When I was a kid I’d sat in the driver’s seat and started the engine a few times when my dad let me, and I knew how it all worked in theory, but I had no experience and very little idea in practise.
Deciding it was our best option, I pressed the ignition I had seen Kade press earlier and the car came to life.
I had to move the seat as far forward as it would go, and even still my toes barely touched the pedals. I took a deep breath, knowing this was stupid. I couldn’t just start a car and suddenly drive because I needed to, but I had to try. I was smart. I was sure I could work it out.
I flicked it into ‘D’ which I guessed meant drive, and pressed one of the pedals. When we didn’t move I tried the other and we lurched forward. Panicked, I took my hands and feet off of everything, and looked to Kade. He had fallen forward and I hurried to push him back, then fastened him in to be safe, with the seatbelt. I also hurriedly put my own belt on, then decided I had to try again. My only option was to leave Kade in the freezing car and walk to the highway, but I was weak, very weak and I really wasn’t sure I’d make it. Also, I couldn;t bear to leave Kade alone, freezing and bleeding. No, driving was our only option. I pressed the pedal again, this time gentler and we started to creep forward.
“Ok, good, this is good.” I told myself, trying to keep calm. I looked around for the exit to the road we drove in on, but it was really dark out now.
“Lights? I need lights.” I told myself, then I started messing with the controls until the lights shone brightly ahead of me. I saw an exit sign and carefully turned the wheel, not knowing how much I would need to turn it to move the right amount. I worked the steering out pretty quickly, and very slowly crept out of the carpark and onto what I hoped was the road we came in on. It was covered with snow, so I wasn’t entirely sure, just hopeful.
I was moving really slowly, conscious of the slick surface beneath the tires and my ‘no clue’ driving status.
It took me about ten minutes of very cautious movement to reach the exit onto the highway and I realised I likely could have walked quicker, if I had any energy left in my body, which I didn’t.
I stopped at the exit and pulled out the cell phones, hoping like hell the little signal bars would show something, but they didn’t, not yet.
Terrified, I turned onto the deserted highway and tried to step up the speed a little, knowing time was of the essence if Kade was badly injured. Luckily I remembered the way we had arrived that afternoon, and tried to travel the same way back. It was hard to be sure I was going the right way since the falling snow was heavy, making visibility low, and everything was now white and covered.
I kept my speed moderate, under 30KMPH, too afraid to go faster in case we fishtailed and ended up a lot worse off.
It was about twenty minutes before I started seeing other cars on the road. Nervous I was endangering them, I pulled over in a layby and pulled out the cell phones again to check coverage, but before I could look, Kade’s started vibrating in my hand.
I dropped mine in my lap and hurried to answer it while I could, seeing as I did, that it was Grant calling.
“Kade, thank God! Where are you?” He asked urgently.
“Grant? Grant, it’s Olivia.” I cried, overcome with relief and emotion. I likely sounded hysterical to poor Grant.
“Olivia, sweetheart. Where are you? Where’s kade?”
“He fell, Grant, and he’s bleeding badly. He’s out and I….I can’t w-wake him. I got him to the car, but I can’t d-drive and I’m scared. He needs help!” I sobbed all at once.
“Just breathe, everything will be ok. Where is Kade hurt?” He asked calmly.
“H-his head. I tried to stop the bleeding, but I can’t….it won’t stop.”
“Where are you right now?”
“On the highway. I tried….to drive, but I don’t think I’m very good a-and there’s so much snow. I pulled over.”
“Good, that’s good. You need to stay where you are and just press something to Kade’s head for me. Kyle’s tracking your cell, we’re on our way.”
“Ok.” I whimpered. “Please hurry.”
I didn’t even finish the words before Kade’s cell bleeped, then shut off, the battery obviously dead from him constantly trying to call someone on our way down the trail. I picked up my cell to try and call Grant back, but there wasn’t enough coverage to connect the call and I just cried as I pulled Kade’s head further into my lap and readjusted the blood soaked sweater against his wound.
“Kade, please….. please wake up now.” I whimpered, but he didn’t move at all. I was terrified, sure he should have come around more by now if it was nothing serious. I started to panic that I had done the wrong thing in moving him. What if I had rattled him too much, and made things worse?
“Just d-don’t die, please Kade? I only just found you. I need you. I c-can’t…..can’t deal with losing anyone else.”
The temperature in the car dropped as we just sat there waiting, and Kade became freezing in my arms. Scared hypothermia would set in with his body so still I
shucked off my coat and wrapped it as tightly around his body as I could, making sure his cold hands were tucked into it too. Him being so much bigger, it only just covered his front, but I decided it would be better than nothing.
I was freezing, but I was conscious enough to keep myself warm. I’d be ok. I was terrified Kade wouldn’t.
After about thirty minutes I saw lights shine in behind us and when I turned I saw Grant jump out of the driver’s side and come running over. There was no mistaking it was him, even in the dark. There weren’t many men with his huge build, except his sons of course, three of whom came running behind him. The driver and passenger door of the car were thrown open in sync and Cole leant into the passenger side, glancing over me and then to Kade.
“He’s still bleeding. It just won’t stop.” I cried, terrified.
“He’s going to be ok sweetheart. Come out and let Kyle check you over while I take a look at Kade.” Grant instructed and I shakily nodded. Cole had climbed into the backseat now, and he lifted Kade’s head from my lap and held him still while I slid out of the car and Grant took my place.
Kyle stood just behind me once I was out in the freezing night air and as soon as I saw him I crumbled.
“Kyle!” I cried, and then I was in his arms, his heat encircling me and warming my shivering body. “He was bleeding so much and I didn’t know what to do.” I sobbed. Warm fabric covered my shoulders and I turned to see Matt putting his coat over me carefully.
“He’ll be fine. He’s tough and he’s got a thick skull.” Kyle tried to joke, but it didn’t work. Since we were all terrified.
“He’s lost so much blood.”
“Are you hurt?” Kyle asked. I shook my head, then just buried my face in his coat and sobbed, terrified for Kade and more exhausted than I had ever been.
“Kyle! Get her in the car and meet us at Chicago Gen!” I heard Grant yell, then I heard Kyle catch a set of keys Grant must have thrown.
Matt took me from Kyle then, gathering me into his arms and carrying me to Grant’s Range Rover. I was a little out of it on the drive to the city, completely devoid of any strength and energy and in shock at everything that happened. I just knew Matt held me in the back, while Kyle drove.
