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Her voice is closer now, though still carried by the wind. She calls out again, and I turn my head until I can home in on the sound. I walk quickly, making minor adjustments each time she yells out. At the edge of my vision, I finally see a dim outline of a flailing person.
I take a deep breath and jog over to the vague shape in the distance. The relief I feel is short-lived when I realize I can only see the top half of her. She’s dropped into a hole of some kind. I pick up my pace.
“Help me!”
“I’m here.” I grab her under her arms and haul her out of the hole. Ice cracks and splashes into water below. She’s managed to wander to the edge of the marsh, and the ice cracked under her weight.
“Shit, Seri, you’re soaking wet!”
“Cold…” Her teeth are chattering, and she can barely get the word out.
The wind picks up, blowing snow into my eyes. I look around, trying to get my bearings, but I can’t see the shape of the barn or the cabin through the blowing snow. My stomach churns as panic attempts to take hold. Pulling Seri out of the marsh has me turned around, and I don’t know which way is home.
Keep it together. Get the facts.
The sun is setting quickly, which tells me which way is west, but that doesn’t really help. I can see the dark grey shape of the rock wall to the north, and the cabin is south of the rock wall. If I make my way to the rocks, I should be close enough to the cabin to reach it but might walk right past it if I can’t see. I can’t chance walking Seri around in the blinding snow. She’s wet. Frostbite will set in quickly, and she’ll lose her toes, if not her feet, and I have no way of performing an amputation safely.
Trying to find the cabin right now means death for her and possibly me as well.
There is only one other option.
“Come on.” I haul Seri to her feet and head straight north.
She stumbles. If I hadn’t been holding her arms, she would have fallen face first into the snow. I haul her upright, but she cries out.
“I can’t walk!”
“It’s okay.” I yell over the sound of the wind as calmly as I can. “We just need to make it to the rocks. I can carry you.”
I slip one arm around her shoulders and the other under her knees before I lift her. I walk tentatively at first because of the extra weight, trying to adjust my balance in the snowshoes. The rock wall is the only obstacle I can focus on in the blowing snow, and I make my way there quickly.
I set Seri back down on her feet, and she winces immediately.
“Need to get you out of those boots and pants,” I mumble.
“What?” she yells over the wind.
“Hold on!” I yell back.
I have my bearings in a general sense—the rock wall at my back juts out of the earth for about two kilometers, and my cabin is near the center of it. The problem is, I have no idea where I am in relation to the middle of the rocks. I can’t see well enough to figure it out, and I need to get Seri into shelter as soon as humanly possible.
I can’t get us back to the cabin. I have to make shelter here.
“B-B-Bishop?”
“Stay still,” I tell her. “This won’t take long.”
“So c-c-c-cold!”
“I know.” I settle Seri down on the ground close to the rocks. As I start to stand, she grabs onto my arms, her eyes wide enough that I can see them clearly through the goggles.
“Don’t leave!”
“I’m not going anywhere.” I drop down to one knee and take her face in my hands. “Relax. I’m going to make us some shelter. Just hang on a sec.”
She stares at me for a long moment, takes a long, slow breath, and nods slowly.
“All right.” Her shoulders drop slightly as she sits back, releasing my arms.
