by Lucy Snow
Before waiting for me to answer, she took her first step back out into the storm.
And immediately fell flat on her face. I rushed toward her, but by the time I got to her, Naomi had already started picking herself up off the ground, trying to take another step.
I’d had enough. I helped her up and wrapped my arm around her torso, pulling her back under the tree and sitting her down as gently as I could against the tree. She was babbling about finding the bus, not leaving someone behind, none of it made any sense.
I knew what I had to do — if not now, then some other time.
Now would have to do.
I crouched over her and unzipped my jacket, slowly, taking it off and feeling my teeth start to chatter as a fresh wave of cold hit me now that my outer layer of protection was gone. “Listen,” I said, reaching my arm around Naomi’s head and pulling her close enough to hear me. “I’m going to have to go away for a little bit. You’re going to stay here and wait for me to get back.”
Naomi’s eyes were closed. “Hey!” I shouted at her till they fluttered open and she looked at me, unfocused, till she blinked a few times and I could tell she recognized me. “You don’t move till I get back. You got me?”
She nodded. “I got you,” I heard her whisper.
I pulled her forward and slid my jacket around her shoulders, picking up each hand and threading it through the sleeve in turn, before zipping it up. “You’ll be warm enough in there,” I whispered and stood up.
“Alex,” Naomi whispered.
“Yeah?”
“Come here,” she said. I sighed and crouched back down till I was close enough.
“I didn’t mean it. What I said about you not caring about anything.”
I cocked my head to the side. “Yeah, Naomi, you did mean it.” I smiled. “And maybe you’re right.” I leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss, which lasted a lot longer than I’d expected it too. “We’ll find out soon enough.”
I pulled away and stood up soon. “Come back soon,” I heard Naomi whisper, but it sounded more like ‘come back soup.’
And then I headed back out into the snow.
I don’t know what possessed me to turn away from the inn and walk slowly toward the cliff and bus, but I knew that if I didn’t save whatever it was Naomi needed from there, she’d come back some other time and probably get herself into some serious shit.
It was now or never. I started walking down the hill, toward the curve in the road. I knew that there were only two more turns till I got back to the cliff and the bus — it was impressive just how close Naomi had gotten in her quest for that…diary, was it?
I didn’t know why she needed it so bad, but somehow, under that tree, her quest had become my quest, and I was going to make sure that she got what she needed.
Even if it was the last thing I did. For some reason now it mattered to me.
She mattered to me.
I dug my hands into my pockets, flexing my fingers to try and keep them warm as I moved as fast as I could through the snow piling up. It was bitterly cold, and eerily quiet, but also very bright all around — not a combination I was in a hurry to get back to.
I passed the time as I walked trying to avoid thinking about my teeth hitting each other constantly, or the cold soak I could feel in my shoes as the snow got under the legs of my pants and into my socks before melting.
I was miserable. I flashed back to all the places I’d been, the long walks I’d taken under terrible conditions, and for a while that gave me strength; I remembered the happy faces of the people on the other ends of all those walks, greeting me, welcoming me, thanking me for anything I could bring them.
It made the trip bearable.
After two more curves in the road ran quickly downward and I could see the cliff a few hundred feet in front of me just to the right of the sharp turn. The bus was still there, shockingly, and still in almost the same position we’d left it, propped up by the twisted and mangled remains of the guardrails that had saved Naomi’s bus from going over the cliff the first and second time.
I closed the distance to the bus quickly, renewed vigor pushing itself out all over my body as I saw my goal in front of me and getting rapidly closer. Once in front of the hulking ruin of a powerful machine I walked around it, slowly, hesitant to get too close for fear of disturbing it and causing that final fall off the cliff and into the oblivion below.
It didn’t look like anything had been disturbed. The bus still lay upside down and the windows were blown out, the front of the bus almost off the cliff. There was a healthy covering of snow all over it which gave me pause - I didn’t know how the weight distribution of all that snow had changed how close the bus was to tipping over.
I just knew that I didn’t plan on being on it when that happened.
I would, however, need to get aboard to get Naomi’s bag, and after walking around on my inspection run, I stopped in front of the blown out window that we’d used to escape the first time.
Sure enough, Naomi’s bag was there, suspended from the seat she’d been in — the bag’s strap must have gotten caught somewhere, leaving it hanging from the bus’ former floor. I watched it sway in the wind for a mesmerizing moment before shaking my head.
OK, that was the target. In, out, lickety-split, no need to wait around. I leaned over, psyching myself up, and reaching into my pocket to pull out my pocket knife, flicking the blade open.
No time to see what the strap was caught on or to root around in the bag for some piece of jewelry. Just get in, slice the strap, get the bag out of there and sort it all out later, preferably after throwing myself into the fire back at the inn.
Easy. Done it a million times.
As soon as I set foot onto the former ceiling of the bus it shook underneath my weight, and I knew that I had even less time than I thought. I frantically looked to the left, out the front of the bus and had to swallow at the view out the giant hole where the windshield used to be — a view into open air, and no ground beneath for hundreds of feet.
No time for that, Eames. Life or death, here and now. I’d always looked for something to help me feel alive, yeah? This was one of those times.
My other foot hit the floor of the bus and it shook again, and this time it didn’t stop. “Shit,” I muttered under my breath as I dove forward, just barely keeping my feet under me as the bus lurched forward, sliding down the hill toward the edge, Naomi’s bag getting tantalizingly closer to me for all the wrong reasons.
I wasn’t going anywhere — the bus was doing all the work for me, and that was a bad thing.
I took one giant step more forward and reached up, snagging the knife on the bag’s strap while pulling it closer to me with the other hand. The strap took a few seconds to cut through, and as soon as I felt the bag’s weight sag into my hands, I turned around and ran as fast as I could toward the window turned exit, jumping out and landing face first in the snow.
The bus kept moving, and I turned around with enough time to see it teeter over the edge of the cliff and then it was gone.
An eerie pall of silence fell over my ears for a few seconds before I heard the crash of mangled metal as the bus hit the ground far below.
I stayed there for at least a minute feeling the adrenaline coursing through my body. I’d been in some hairy situations before, but this was the closest I could remember to getting myself killed. Finally, I calmed down and looked over the bag that I’d just barely managed to escape with.
For this? Really?
I hesitated before opening it — something about opening a woman’s bag just sounded wrong to me on so many levels, but I felt how cold I was and changed my mind quickly, tearing the bag open and searching around inside to find the warmest thing I could.
It was a sweatshirt. Bright red and fluffy, bordering on pink. And it was way too small for me.
At least, I realized, I’d be easy to see. It took me a minute or so to get it on me, and I knew that Naomi would never be able
to wear it again, but at least I felt warmer.
The bag was full of stuff, but I kept on searching, and eventually, in a small pocket, I found plastic zip lock bag. In it was a small notebook, a diary — this must be what all the fuss was about.
I pulled it out of the bag, beating back the voices in my head that shouted that this was private and that I shouldn’t pry. Fuck that, I’d risked everything to get here, I was going to make damn sure this had been worth it, even though I already knew that no matter what I found I’d have trouble believing it was.
My fingers took way longer to open the zip lock than they would have under normal conditions, and I could barely feel the leather of the book cover as I pulled it out and pulled the old lock open, fanning out the pages. A necklace fell out from in between the pages, and I grabbed it before it hit the ground. Staring back at me from the inside of the cover was a picture of a beautiful girl, maybe the same age as Naomi. Underneath the picture was written, in flowery letters, “Naomi.” T
Only the girl in the photo was definitely not the same girl as I’d left under the tree a little while back.
What the hell was going on here?!
I shut the notebook, angry at myself for not knowing what was happening, who she was, or why I had come all this way just to find out I was getting the run around. I stuffed it and the necklace back into the zip lock bag and deposited that in my pocket before hefting Naomi’s bag and starting back up the hill toward the tree and the inn.
I got about a hundred feet up the hill before I realized the bag was just weighing me down. “Fuck it,” I said to no one in particular, and dropped the bag right there, feeling a lightness that energized me as soon as I did.
I didn’t owe that girl anything; especially not if she wasn’t going to tell me the truth about who she was.
I felt duped; I felt deceived. I felt lied to. And that anger fueled me, gave me strength to hike back toward her so I could find out answers.
And answers were in front of me.
One foot in front of the other.
That’s all I needed right now.
Easy. Done it a million times before.
CHAPTER 13 - NAOMI
Cold.
COld.
COLD.
That word echoing through my head was the only thought I could keep straight as I huddled under the tree, trying to collapse into it in case I could be a little bit warmer inside it.
Nothing worked.
I barely knew where I ended and the cold snow began.
All that existed was cold. It was my entire world.
Cold.
COLD.
How did I get myself here? Why had I left the inn on such a fool’s errand? Yeah, I wanted the diary back, but did I really need to risk my life, and Alex’s life, to get it? Couldn’t I just have waited?
Deep in my mind, Alex stood there with his hands wrapped around his barrel chest. “No sense in moaning about it now, Princess.” Yeesh. Even in my mind he called me that, and I hated it just as much.
Just hearing his voice, even in my own head, pushed a sense of warmth throughout my body that made me draw my breath in sharply as I remembered the feeling of his lips against mine, and the fire it had ignited deep inside me.
That kind of kiss was worth being called a nickname I hated, I finally decided.
But what would come of it? I’d wanted more last night, and for whatever reason he hadn’t given it to me. Now…where were we? And where could we go from here?
I laughed to myself, realizing it was a funny time to be thinking this kinda stuff when there was a good chance I wasn’t going to survive long enough to get back into a…compromising situation with Alex. That thought sobered me up quite a bit.
I didn’t want to keep thinking about him, and the way he had of dancing around my head and making me question all the ideas about goals and futures that I’d spent so much time building up. I didn’t like that he could do that — that I let Alex do that.
It wasn’t fair. I didn’t want to feel this thing I felt between him and I. I wanted it to just go away so that when this infernal storm finally passed both of us could move on with our lives away from the other — even if right now that felt like the most difficult thing in the world.
Where was he?
I looked around. He’d sure been gone a long time. I figured he’d gone back to the inn to get something, or maybe to build something to make it easier for us to get out of here. Alex always seemed to have the right thing to do handy, and for all I knew he was making a snow-powered helicopter to fly over here and pick me up.
But…he’d sure been gone a long time. I didn’t know what to do about that.
What if he got hurt? Or delayed, or tired, or something else?
What if…he wasn’t coming back?
What would I do then? I couldn’t just stay here and wait for someone who wasn’t going to show up, I knew that much.
At the same time, though, I didn’t want to miss him and have him wonder where I was.
I knew I had to do something, though. Sure, this tree had been saving me from the brunt of the storm for a while now, but I couldn’t exactly build a home for myself here. I needed to start heading back to the inn if I was going to have a chance at making it.
For all I knew Alex was already there, enjoying some hot cocoa by the fire, and yucking it up with Marty and Clara as the soup simmered, waiting for me. I licked my lips in anticipation, almost able to smell what Clara was undoubtedly cooking up.
No, I couldn’t stay here any longer.
But I couldn’t just go back. I had to look for Alex. What if he needed me?
I walked to the edge of the tree cover, still barely able to see the outline of where I’d pitched into the snow face first in my last attempt to leave. I hesitated, straining my eyes to see out into the white-lined road and beyond.
The tree almost felt like a funny version of home — it felt momentarily safe.
Just as I was about to take my first step out from under the tree, I caught a glimpse of something red, almost pink, lying on the snow about 50 feet away.
What was that? Everything out here was some shade of grey or white, what was that doing there? I hadn’t noticed anything red on my way here - I’d have stopped to investigate.
My blood ran even colder than it already was as I realized what it was.
Alex.
“Oh Shit! Alex!” I screamed as I charged forward toward the red and unmoving blob, already starting to cover over with snow.
“Alex!” It still didn’t move as I got closer but I could see the shape of a person start to form.
I stopped right in front of him, splashing a little more snow onto him as I crouched down. “Alex!” I screamed again, turning him over and seeing his face, his eyes closed. I leaned in.
He was still breathing, and when I pulled him close to me, I heard his voice whisper to me. “Got what you wanted….Who…Naom-“ and then his voice trailed off and I felt his body sag below me.
I had to get him out of this snow, and before I knew what I was doing next, I had one of his hands in each of mine and I was dragging him back under the tree I’d hidden under for so long. Adrenaline kicked in, and I felt like all feelings of cold had dropped away.