Frozen Survival
By: Kiana Shaffer
I tried to open my eyes but the icicles had frozen my eyelashes together. I swallowed a descent amount of my blood as I propped myself up. I felt hot all over but I was shivering at the same time, I thought to myself how long would it be till I got out of this frozen tundra? I had gone skiing by myself two days before I think, and taken an unfamiliar path through the trees. My memory was so fuzzy and I wished someone had found me by now. I was going to stand and start moving to see if I could find a road, but as soon as I stood up I remembered what the real problem was. I had run into a tree, a stick about a foot long had pierced through my calf and out the other side. I screamed so loud I heard my voice echo off the snow covered trees. I grabbed my leg and noticed the cloth I had wrapped around it to help stop the bleeding, but it was still bleeding. My skis lay out as if chaos occurred and I knew I was not moving from this spot.
In and out was how I came to accept reality and at some moments I would start to laugh for no reason. Then I realized why I was laughing, I was such a stupid girl for challenging myself when I was all alone, why was this notion funny to me? I was hungry and light headed from blood loss and now I was thinking was it time to start wondering about who I was going to leave behind? I was recently a new mom and for the first time my husband had the day off so I gave him our beautiful boy and he let me go skiing, something I loved to do before I was pregnant. I was mostly angry at myself for ignoring my responsibilities for just a second. My 4 month year old boy was not even going to know who I was, I wasn’t going to be there for his first steps, riding a bike, prom, graduation, or his wedding. This anger started to grow in me like a huge tree and it turned into a motivation I wanted to start crawling and yelling.
The pain had disappeared for a few minutes like god was listening and letting the forest be quite as I screamed. The blood splattered snow was disappearing behind me as I made progress through the soft snow. I climbed over rocks and logs and I started to breathe heavily from the amount of work this took. I started to cry because I knew I had tired myself out even more and with one big sigh I collapsed into a big cold bloody heap. I had nothing left to give, not even for my son. I knew this was the end and as I started to close my eyes slowly I felt a hot scratchy tongue hit my face. Again and then again before I opened my eyes and saw a dog with a collar standing directly in front of me. I smiled and offered my hand as a token of my appreciation. I waited to see what was next. I heard voices yelling my name. I imagined myself much like Rose in the Titanic lost in the frozen water, waiting for help. I had no whistle but I called out again and the dog helped me; his loud bark made footsteps run faster and closer. After that I was gone and all I could sense was touch, the touch of several hands lifting me up, strapping me to a board. Two hands in particular touched my face and stroked my forehead and my hair. I recognized them as the love of my life. The comfort knowing there were several voices talking around me was all I needed as we made it to the bottom of the mountain alive.
