“Yeah, it’s possible I will fight off the infection and be fine,” I said optimistically. Neither of us believed that, though.
“You’re going with me,” Caleb said as he picked me up so quickly I yelped out from the surprise of it all.
“What the heck. Where are you taking me?”
“Bathroom, and then we are getting you bundled up. We are going.”
There are some moments when you look at someone, and you just know that there is no use arguing with them. I saw it in Caleb’s eyes; he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. I did as he asked, and by the time he had me all bundled up, I was in so much pain I was shaking and crying.
I couldn’t move my leg it hurt so bad. I was so hot already, and all the layers of clothing were making it even worse. I wanted to drink like a gallon of water but thought for sure I’d vomit it all back up. I was miserable, but I didn’t say a word to Caleb and sat on the bed waiting for him to finish whatever he was doing outside and then bring me to the sled he had made.
“Eat this,” he said when he returned to the bedroom with a piece of bread in his hand and two pain pills in the other hand.
“I thought it was too early?” I replied through the pain.
“You’re in pain, and we need to get down the mountain; two extra pills won’t kill you. Just take them.”
I was so relieved to have the pills. Even though they couldn’t have possibly started to work right away, my trembling stopped, and I was more in control as Caleb carried me to the sled.
He expertly maneuvered down the front steps, and I saw a huge pile of blood in the snow. It was a dark red and had spread at least six feet around. My mind couldn’t even comprehend that all that blood was from me. I looked away in an effort not to relive what had happened in that spot.
Luckily, it had stopped snowing out. Visibility was really good, but it was still freezing out. The snow was very thick, and I couldn’t help worrying how on earth Caleb was going to be able to walk in it while pulling me down the mountain. I just couldn’t picture how this was going to work at all.
“Caleb,” I started to say as he brought a stack of pillows out and arranged them around me.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got this all figured out. I want you to rest. That second round of medication is going to knock you out good. You should sleep. It will help you get through this.”
“But I don’t …”
“Shhh,” he said with a smile. “I’ve got this.”
I trusted him. The only thought that kept running through my mind was that I trusted Caleb. I’d only known him a few days, but I already felt so close to him, and I knew he was going to do his absolute best to get us out of there. I had to just trust him and let him do it.
Caleb was right about the second dose of medication making me sleepy. I was really glad Caleb had built a backrest on his sled after all as I leaned against it while he pulled the sled around to the road that was behind the house.
“Where are we going?” I asked. “And what is on your feet?”
“We are going to stick to the road the best we can. It’s not as steep as the mountainside, and I think it will be cleared off when we get to the base of the mountain.” He didn’t even turn around as he kept walking. “And these are my makeshift snowshoes.” He had managed to assemble some leftover wood into a tennis racket sort of accessory that he had on his feet.
“Thank you, Caleb,” I said as I felt reality drifting away and sleep overpowering me. “Thank you for taking care of me.” I was grateful that the pills were taking over and forcing me to sleep.
Chapter 18
Caleb
She was really sick. The fever was taking over and could easily start shutting down her organs if I didn’t get her to help. Not to mention that the fever was a sign of an infection which could spread and cause unstoppable damage if left unchecked. This was life or death, and I wasn’t about to let her die in my arms stuck in that cabin.
It was the worst day possible to be trying to get down the mountain. All the fresh snow was making it nearly impossible to walk. My makeshift snowshoes were a little bit of help in keeping me from sinking into the snow with each step, but I was still moving so slowly that it took me an hour to get to the end of the street near my house.
It was windy as well, which made the already cold weather feel even worse. When Jordan fell asleep, I grabbed one of the blankets and draped it up and over her head to try and keep the wind from her face.
Nothing was going our way. My phone hadn’t charged much at all since the solar panels were partially covered. I had ten percent of my battery life, which meant I couldn’t even try to turn the thing back on until I knew I could get a signal. I couldn’t risk it running out of power completely.
The whole time I was pulling Jordan down the mountain I was constantly on the lookout for this Peter guy who had attacked her. His trail of blood led down the mountain from my cabin, and I was going down the road which was farther away, but I stayed on alert just in case.
As I took step after step I felt burning in my quadriceps. The snow was well over two feet deep and hadn’t had much of a chance to compact on itself. The fluffy stuff was beautiful, and I imagined the ski resorts on the other side of the mountains were probably ecstatic about this weather and finally being able to operate like normal.
I contemplated trying to climb up the mountain and over to the ski resort I knew was off in the distance. The problem was that I’d never walked to the resort, and I had no real estimation of how far it was. In the mountains, distance was relative. You could think something was only a short walk away, but by the time you walked down the mountain and up the other side you’d spent two full days hiking. I couldn’t risk that. I couldn’t take us deeper into the woods. Jordan didn’t have that sort of time.
“How are you doing?” I asked Jordan as I heard her moving around in the makeshift sled. I wasn’t sure if you could even call what I’d built an actual sled. It was more like a box with a string attached. But the bottom was smooth, and it was pulling pretty easily, so that was good, and the back support was much needed to keep Jordan upright and a little comfortable.
Giving her a second dose of pain medication worried me a lot. It was strong stuff. I remember being really out of it when I’d taken two pills, and I was twice the size of Jordan. I also didn’t have the level of pain that I was sure she was in, so I couldn’t fully compare. Still, I stopped every now and again to make sure she was doing alright and still breathing on her own.
I pulled off one of my gloves and slid the back of my hand over her forehead to see how her temperature was. She was burning up. My hands were relatively warm since they’d been in the gloves, and her forehead still felt a good ten degrees warmer.
“Caleb,” she said as she opened her eyes slightly.
“Yes, I’m right here. What can I get you? Do you want a sip of water?”
I didn’t wait for her to respond. Jordan was so lethargic at the moment that she couldn’t even lift her head. I quickly put a straw into the water bottle I’d brought and got her to sip a tiny bit.
She was going to hate me after this was all over. I looked down at her and how sick she was, and all I could think about was how this was going to be a horrible memory for her. When Jordan and I had started to get close, I thought there was a small possibility we could continue to talk to each other and see each other when this was all over; now I knew that wasn’t possible. When we made it out of this, which I knew we were, Jordan wasn’t going to want to relive the horror of it all. Any small spark we might have had was lost now that things had started to go so downhill.
I couldn’t dwell on it, though. Saving Jordan was all I should be thinking about. I bundled her back up and was about to pull the blanket back up and over her head when she put one of her hands up to stop me.
“I really think we should leave you covered up. It will prevent you from getting frostbite since the snow keeps getting kicked up on you. I’m trying
…”
Before I could finish my excellent explanation about why I had to cover her up, Jordan vomited off the side of the sled and into the snow near my feet. Another very bad sign of what was to come. There was no way of knowing if her upset stomach was due to the extra pain medication or her increasing illness, but I had to keep moving. We only had a few more hours of daylight, and I wanted to get down the steepest part of the mountain before then.
“Sorry,” she said with a small smile before laying her head back on the pillows I had propped up behind her.
“Sleep. It’s better if you sleep.”
“Okay.” She didn’t argue and drifted back to sleep.
At least if she was sleeping, I knew the pain was manageable. Also, if she was asleep, then it was less likely that she was going to be vomiting which would lead to her being dehydrated. Sleep was the best possible thing for Jordan.
In the light of day, I could still tell where the road was as we made our way from the dirt road to the gravel road. It wasn’t very far from my house, but we’d been walking for nearly two hours.
I made the turn so we were moving down the mountain instead of across it. Despite it taking us so long to go what would normally take just a few minutes, I was encouraged by the downhill nature of the road and having Jordan in the sled. This was exactly why I’d walked over to the main road and hadn’t tried to just walk straight down the mountain.
When building roads that went through the mountains there was a certain pitch that was acceptable. This meant that while walking down the road I could still stay in control of the sled, and that was very important. Some of the mountain areas near my house were such a steep pitch that I’d slid down them even when there wasn’t snow on them. It took longer to get over to the road, but as I moved down the curves, it was clear that this was the best choice. The road was covered with snow, but I stuck close to the inner side of the mountain and used the land as a guide to prevent us from taking a wrong turn. Everything looked different covered in snow, and if I let my guard down even a little bit, there was a possibility of Jordan’s sled going over the edge.
After another hour of pulling the sled behind me, I decided the best bet was going to be to put her in front and push her. I could keep a better eye on Jordan plus the gravity of the mountain would be beneficial, and I thought we could move faster.
“I’m going to turn the sled around,” I said to Jordan as I pulled the blanket off of her.
My skin went cold with fear when I looked at her. Jordan was so pale that I thought she could be dead. I frantically shook her to try and wake her. I pushed the sled up against a small inlet in the mountain to keep it from moving, and I ripped the blankets off Jordan.
She moved. It was only a slight movement, but she definitely moved.
“Jordan, don’t you die on me, girl. We are going to get down this mountain. I’m telling you right now—I’m getting you to a hospital, and you’re going to be just fine.”
Her eyes opened slightly, and a small smile came to her face. I waited for her to say something, anything. I just needed to hear her voice to know she was going to be alright. But she didn’t talk. She didn’t open her eyes again. I thought for sure she was going to die.
With my hand on her chest, I closed my eyes and felt for movement. She was still breathing. She was still with me. This was it. I couldn’t stand there and wait for things to get worse. We were only halfway down the mountain, but I pulled my cell phone out and turned it on. I was desperate to get a signal. Any signal. I just needed to get an emergency call out.
It was there. Two tiny bars lit up my phone. I dialed the emergency number and hoped someone would answer.
“Nine, one, one, what’s your emergency?” The operator’s voice was like an angel from heaven.
I gave the operator the details about where we were and that I was going to continue down the mountain. I told them what was going on with Jordan and that they had to have a medic team waiting for us. There was a main road about three miles down the road we were on. It would be dark by the time we made it down there, but I hoped they could have that road cleared and get a team there to meet us.
The operator stayed on the phone with me as we started to move again. I then gave her details about the man who had tried to kill Jordan. I gave her as much as I could and pointed them in the direction I’d last seen him going.
“Just a second,” I said and leaned down to Jordan. “What was his name? The guy with the ax. Did you say his name was Peter?”
Even though she could barely move, Jordan opened her eyes and looked up at me. There was a faraway look in them, and I wasn’t sure she was going to make it to the hospital. I wasn’t sure she was going to make it down that mountain at all. A sick feeling filled the pit of my stomach. No way was this going to end with Jordan dying. No way.
“Peter Myers,” she said softly.
I repeated the name to the operator, and then the two of us decided I should get off the phone and save what little battery I had left. I gave them nearly exact directions to where we would be and how long I thought it was going to take us to get there. The operator promised they were going to send a mountain rescue team.
“Thank you,” I replied before hanging up the phone.
A mountain rescue team wasn’t the same as a team of paramedics. It was disheartening, but I had to let it go. At least a rescue team could get us to the hospital, and that was better than staying stuck on that mountain.
“They are coming?” Jordan asked in a soft, barely-there voice.
“We are going to meet them at the main road. How are you doing?”
“I’m fine,” she replied with a hint of a smile. “Thank you, Caleb.”
And just as quickly as she had woken up, she was asleep again. I covered her head and started to push her down the hill while holding onto the rope to make sure I didn’t lose control of her. I had much more energy than previously. There was a newfound determination to get us where we needed to be, and now that I knew someone would be there to help us, I pushed myself harder than I thought I could go.
My legs were burning by the time the sun set, and we were still at least a mile away from where I told the operator we were going. I didn’t expect that the rescue team would venture too far up the hill looking for us—it was all on me to get us there.
Dusk wasn’t so bad since I could still see where I was heading, but as the dark night sky took over, things changed. I could no longer tell if we were still on the main road. Two feet of snow made everything look the same.
The night brought about so much increased danger while also slowing us down a lot. It wasn’t one of those evenings where the moon was shining so bright that we could see everything around us; it was the exact opposite. The sky was overcast, and there wasn’t a star to be found. The temperature was dropping significantly, and my concern for Jordan had me stopping often to check on her.
The best I could do was keep close to the mountain and guide us down that way. I didn’t want to get close to the edge of the road because it had a huge drop off that I was very familiar with. I also didn’t want to get too close to the side of the mountain because there was a ditch on that end that would be very hard to get out of if I pushed Jordan into it.
As we turned a corner, I pulled the blanket off and knelt to check on Jordan. In the dark it was impossible to see how she was doing, so I had to get my ear close enough to her so I could hear if she was breathing.
“What are you doing?” she asked when I placed my ear near her lips. “You’re not going to kiss me, are you?” She laughed ever so slightly, and I could tell her energy level was very low.
“Yep,” I replied and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “We are almost there. I think we have to go around a couple more of these turns, and we should be able to tell if anyone is waiting for us.”
“What if they are not?”
“I’m choosing to stay positive. They are going to have a rescue team there, and those guys will get
you to a hospital right away. Then you’ll get a fancy cast on that leg of yours, and I’m going to sign it with something really funny.”
“Okay,” she said before closing her eyes again.
I’m not sure how much farther we made it down the mountain before, in the distance, I saw some red lights. It was the first sign of anyone else that I’d seen all day, and it was a huge relief. I picked up the pace a bit as I pushed Jordan’s sled down the mountain and tried not to lose sight of the lights at the bottom of the hill.
The closer I got, the more noise I was hearing too. My heart was pounding with excitement. They were there. The rescue team was waiting for us.
“Mr. McCann,” I heard a voice say as he flashed a light at me.
My first reaction was to reach for the gun I had tucked into the sled next to Jordan. I’d spent the entire day waiting for that maniac to come after us, and this man’s voice startled me. With my hand on the gun, I replied, “Yes.”
“Let me help you,” the rescuer said as he hurried up the hill toward us.
“This is Jordan. She has a pretty bad ax injury to her leg. She’s got some Percocet on board right now and is really out of it, but I think she has an infection as well.”
“Okay,” he said, and we turned the sled back around, so he could pull with the rope and I could push from the back side. “What happened?”
“My ex-boyfriend tried to kill me,” Jordan said softly.
The rescuer flashed his light at Jordan’s face and then instantly up at me. “No, I’m not the ex-boyfriend,” I replied quickly. “He got away. I shot him, though, and I think he’s injured, but he got away.”
“I think we found him on our way up here to you. Sent a team with him down the mountain and had a second team waiting here for you guys. He had a pretty bad gunshot wound to the shoulder and hypothermia.”
“Good,” I said both in response to him being so injured and that he hadn’t died on the mountain.
As much as I was fine with the guy dying, it wasn’t what Jordan wanted, and I didn’t want her to go through any more pain than she already had gone through. When we reached the emergency SUV, I was impressed with the setup. They had a plow on the front of the vehicle and had basically plowed their way up the road to that spot.
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