Deep Freeze Read online

  “Skye! Come on!” Zach yelled into the wind. He ran toward the car. Its hood dunked into the ditch at the side of the road. A figure inside was barely visible. And it was completely still. The body was slumped over the steering wheel.

  Running through the snow drifts was like running on sand, but worse. He could barely move. Zach sunk into the snow with every step. The snow came up to Skye’s belly, so she had to keep jumping over the snow to get through it. But they both knew they needed to get to the car.

  The nose of the car was in the ditch, which left the tail end of the car sticking up. It was definitely his dad’s car. He drove an older model sedan that Zach’s mom had always hated. But his dad liked those old cars, so he refused to upgrade as long as the car still ran well.

  “Dad! Dad!” Zach waded through the snow, which was waist-high in areas. Once he had plodded through the snowdrift, he wiped the driver’s side window with his gloved hand, keeping the injured hand tucked inside his pocket.

  His dad was still inside. How long had he been here? Five hours? Six hours? Had he been stranded here that long? Stuck in the snow so close that he could have walked to the cabin in good weather.

  Zach cupped a hand up to the window and looked inside to see more clearly. His dad’s eyes were closed. Was that blood on his forehead? His dad lay there asleep, or unconscious, or—Zach didn’t want to finish that thought. He pounded on the window. “Dad! Wake up! Dad!”

  His dad’s eyes fluttered open. He slowly turned his head toward the window.

  “Zach. Zach? Is that you?” His voice was muffled by the closed window.

  “I’m here, Dad. I’m here. I’m going to get you out.”

  Skye barked and paced along the snowdrift behind Zach.

  Zach whipped out his phone. No bars. Still no signal. Unbelievable.

  Zach ran up to the road again, looking for help from anyone, but no cars passed. Nothing in either direction. He hadn’t seen any vehicles on the road even as he was making his own way up to the cabin hours ago. Zach didn’t expect the same kind of traffic that left them jammed in a long line of cars for hours during their summer commutes up north, but still. Where were the salt trucks and the snowplows? They should have been equipped to handle this kind of storm. If this had happened in the cities, the trucks would have gotten out right away. But this was far up north—in no-man’s-land. There was no way of knowing when the plows would come through.

  Zach rushed back to the car window.

  “Dad,” he yelled through the window. “Can you open the door?” Zach’s dad reached for the handle, but as he moved his face turned a pale shade of gray and his eyes squeezed shut.

  “Dad!”

  He reached up to touch his shoulder and groaned, a pained look on his face. “My shoulder.” He wore his seatbelt, but he had still hurt his shoulder when the car went off the road.

  “Dad, don’t try to move. I’ll get the door open.”

  “My leg.”

  “What?”

  “My leg is hurt, too—it’s pretty bad.”

  Zach looked toward his dad’s leg, but it was dark inside the car. The glass fogged up where he cupped his hand against the window and stared through. He looked at his dad lying there, helpless.

  “Okay,” Zach said. “Don’t worry. I’ll get you out of there.”

  Zach tried the door handle. Sleet had accumulated, sticking the door closed. Zach brushed the icy sheet away and pulled on the silver handle one more time. The door fell open, as gravity took control. Well, Zach thought, there’s one advantage of the car leaning forward, nose first, in a ditch.

  With the door open, Zach studied his dad’s leg. A bone in the upper leg was broken and visible. Zach saw the white poking out from a tear in the pant leg. He turned away and puked.

  He definitely wasn’t expecting that. He grabbed a handful of snow and wiped it across his face. He took a deep breath before turning back to look at his dad.

  “I don’t think I can walk.” His dad was probably right.

  “I tried calling for help, but I can’t get a signal.”

  “Zach, I’m sorry. I should have listened to the forecast.”

  “Don’t worry, Dad. It will be alright.” Guilt was creeping through Zach. He had been the one who’d insisted they go on this stupid trip. He had gotten them into all of this.

  And now he would have to be the one to get them out. “I’ll be right back,” Zach said and scrambled back the way he came.

  He hurried down the road back to his car. Skye followed his every move. He reached into the backseat for any supplies that would help them. Zach grabbed the blanket, the map, the tarp, the rope, and the bungee cords. He also took the remaining can of beans and the candy bar. Zach hesitated with his hand near the bear spray. He picked up the bottle, but its contents were frozen solid. It wouldn’t do much good against a bear unless Zach used it as a projectile. It’s just as well, Zach thought, Dad is probably right, it’s just for scared tourists anyway. He closed the car door. His pocketknife and matches were still in his pockets, but nothing else that was gathered in the back seat seemed like it would be useful. He tied the map, bungee cords, beans, and candy bar up in the blanket and flung it in a pile on top of the tarp and rope.

  Now he had to figure out how to move his dad. He needed to find something to make the frame of a sled with. Zach ran as fast as he could through the forest, searching until he found two branches that were at least four or five feet long and straight. The branches were sturdy enough that they wouldn’t break under the weight of a body—at least he hoped they wouldn’t. “Perfect.”

  Zach laid the branches on the ground parallel and about two feet apart. He set the tarp on top of the wood and tied everything together. He hoped it would support the weight of his dad so he could move him to a better location.

  Zach looked around. It was already darker now than it had been when he left his dad’s red car. How long had he been away from his dad? He glanced down at his watch and it was already 6:05. Zach pulled the makeshift sled behind him as he hurried through the woods to get back to his dad. He used both hands to move faster even though that meant he was exposing his injured hand to the blizzard.

  What if his dad were unconscious? Zach had to hurry.

  9

  When Zach got to the open car door, his dad was still grimacing in pain.

  “Dad,” Zach said, gently tapping him on his good shoulder.

  His dad turned to look at him. “It hurts.”

  The temperature was dropping fast now that dusk was upon them. Zach had heard something about staying in your car if you had an accident in bad weather, but his dad’s car was tilted forward so it wouldn’t be safe for them to sit inside. They couldn’t go back to Zach’s car either because it was sitting in the middle of the road. It would get covered in snow and if a plow finally came down it would slam right into them. Zach was certain that they couldn’t survive another disaster like that.

  They needed someplace that was warm and dry for the night, especially considering the shape his dad was in. He was already shivering and his lips had started turning purple. There was no way Zach’s dad would make it through the night like this. They needed to find some place to get warm.

  “We need to get you out of here. I’m going to undo the seatbelt.”

  Zach reached around his dad and found the seatbelt latch on his right side. The car moved a little. Zach stopped for a moment. He would have to be careful not to push the car any further in the ditch or he might risk injuring his dad even more. He slowly reached in again and pushed the latch release and the belt unhooked. In the process, he bumped into his dad’s shoulder.

  “Oh!”

  The car creaked and moved again. This time it wobbled and slid a little bit further down in the ditch.

  “Sorry!” Zach immediately drew back, afraid to touch the car now that it had actually moved.

  He had never seen his dad so helpless and injured like this. His leg was badly hurt, he winced e
very time Zach came near his shoulder, and blood was matted on his face from a one-inch gash on his forehead.

  “My leg jammed . . . into the dash . . .”

  His face looked pained. Crinkles formed next to his eyes as he squeezed them shut. It was killing Zach to see his dad this way.

  “Here. Wrap your arm around my shoulder.” Zach reached in the car and grabbed his dad around the middle. “On three. One . . . two . . . three!” Zach pulled him out of the car as gently as possible. His dad tensed and cried out in agony but Zach knew that he didn’t have time to stop. He pulled his dad the rest of the way out of the car and onto the snow bank. The car squeaked and wheezed. It rocked forward and rolled the rest of the way into the ditch. Skye, who had been sitting by the sled, jumped up and barked.

  Zach helped his dad ease onto the tarp sled he had made.

  “We’re going to pull you out of here, just like riding a sled.”

  Zach was trying to sound positive, but it was difficult listening to his dad groan in pain.

  Zach grabbed one of the bungee cords out of his blanket sack and started to attach it to the sled when Skye grabbed the cord with her teeth.

  “Do you want to help?” Zach almost cried with relief. Skye grabbed the rope in her mouth and started to pull. It was slowly moving, but Skye was clearly pulling Zach’s dad along.

  “Hold on, girl,” Zach grabbed the dog’s collar. “Let’s make this a little easier for you.” Zach pulled out another bungee cord and wrapped it into a makeshift harness around Skye’s shoulders. He attached the remaining bungee cords to the sled and picked up the rest of the supplies.

  With his dad resting safely on the sled, Zach set out to find somewhere for them to wait out the storm overnight. It had become pretty clear to him that no one would be driving past them in this weather.

  “Looks like you learned something useful in Cub Scouts,” his dad said.

  They both smiled, but neither of them said anything else. Zach pressed on, trying his best to keep Skye slow and steady as she pulled his dad behind her. He felt suddenly more like an adult than he ever had. He needed to take charge to get them out of this mess—for his dad.

  “It’s getting dark,” his dad said.

  Zach didn’t answer at first. Then he said, “I know. We need to get out of the cold. Someplace we can stay for the night. I’m taking us deeper into the woods. I once saw a rocky ledge a ways from the cabin. I’m looking over there.”

  Skye trotted beside Zach. Every few steps she looked up at him to make sure he was still there.

  Zach trudged through the snow. They had to turn to bypass mulberry bushes and fallen trees and the snow was getting deeper the farther into the woods they went.

  Soon Skye was out of breath and limping along on her bad paw. The sled’s weight was too much for the dog. Zach unhooked the sled from Skye’s harness and attached it to his own belt loops. He set the blanket pack down at his dad’s feet and started to pull.

  “Good girl, Skye. Now how about I give it a try?” The dog barked appreciatively and ran a few steps ahead, leading their group on.

  Pulling the sled reminded Zach of pulling the team equipment for football. They used a pull sled to work the chest muscles and build upper body strength. Coach would add more weights when you were ready. His dad’s weight was actually less than what Zach pulled in football, but his dad was more fragile. In football, if Zach hit a bump nothing happened, but here his dad could be thrown off the sled.

  “Keep going. You’re doing great,” Zach heard his coach in his mind.

  “Stay with me, Dad. We’re going to get through this.”

  Zach glanced back. His dad groaned from the sled, but mostly kept still. Zach looked ahead and steered them toward a rocky embankment. There might be something beyond the curve that would at least shelter them from the wind.

  “This isn’t exactly what we had planned, is it?”

  “Nope,” Zach said. He was trying to sound brave, but he didn’t feel brave at all. He couldn’t feel parts of his hand and face. He still didn’t know if they would find shelter, but he kept pulling. The pulling gave him something to focus on.

  His dad groaned as they covered increasingly rocky ground.

  “I’ve got you.” Zach steadied the sled. “Thought we’d be cleaning off some trout right about now.”

  “Naw. We would have thrown them back. I would have caught them all and you would have said, ‘Let’s go for pizza.’”

  “Or else I would have caught them all.”

  “Right.” They laughed.

  “Oh.” His dad grabbed his shoulder. “Hey, kid. Don’t make me laugh, okay?”

  “Okay,” Zach said. “I’ll try being less funny.”

  The blowing wind bit at Zach’s cheeks. “We need to get out of this wind or we’ll freeze to death. I think I remember a spot where we can spend the night,” Zach yelled over the blowing wind. “Over into those woods. There’s a high ridge in there. It’ll at least shield us from this wind.”

  They were about two miles from where they had left his dad’s now-totaled car. The woods were starting to look the same. Only a sliver of the sun hung low over the horizon. Zach blinked back tears. They needed shelter fast.

  10

  Zach didn’t know how much farther he could pull the sled. His shoulders ached, his neck, his back. Not to mention he could barely feel his hands or his feet. His dad had grown quiet. “Dad! Stay with me!”

  His dad stirred and grumbled. At least he was still alive.

  Zach glanced back at Skye. She limped behind them now, hanging her head low. Zach didn’t know how much farther he could go on. He was close to giving up hope that they would find anything when a hill appeared ahead. Zach gave a great heave to bring the sled forward as he climbed the hill, hoping he would be able to find some sort of shelter from the cold at the top.

  Beyond the ridge, the rocky walls were indented as the shape of the rock took on the ridges of the land. Zach pulled his dad along, following the contours of the ridge. Around the next bend, he found an opening in the rocks.

  The cave opening was an oddly shaped triangle. What little light there was left of the sun made it a few feet inside the cave entrance, and then it tapered off and dimmed until it all but vanished into the completely pitch-black distance. The cave would be warmer than staying outside and it did block the wind, which would be a relief. Zach didn’t know if his hands and feet could survive another moment in the bitter wind.

  “Here.” Zach pulled the sled to one side of the cave. “Try and sit up if you can. Slowly.”

  Zach offered his arm and shoulder to his dad in case he needed to lean on something. He clutched Zach’s arm and pushed himself up. Zach noticed that his dad winced in pain every time he moved his leg the slightest bit.

  Zach was in pain, too, but his was the pain of his hands and feet coming back to life. They tingled with the awful pins and needles of feeling coming back into the extremities. But he wanted to help his dad, which meant taking off his gloves.

  Zach’s dad reached up to his forehead. He was badly bruised, but the bleeding had stopped.

  “You hit your head on something,” Zach said. “Your leg is bad too. I’m going to try to stop the bleeding.” Zach’s fingers were stiff and difficult to move from the cold, but he cut off another long strip of his t-shirt and tied it around his dad’s leg just above where the leg was broken. Zach tried not to look at the actual break or the bone. He knotted the strip and pulled the cloth tight, hoping it would at least partly secure the leg.

  His dad was sweating and clenching his jaw. Zach felt his dad’s forehead. It was definitely hot. He needed a doctor.

  “The plows should come through by tomorrow,” Zach said, trying to reassure his dad and also calm himself. “In the morning, I can make my way back to the road and get help.” He grabbed his blanket-pack, emptied the contents, and threw the blanket over his dad. “For now, this blanket should help keep you warm,” he told his dad.

/>   Skye whimpered. Zach gave her a gentle look to get her to be quiet.

  “We need to get you something to eat,” Zach said, turning back to look at his dad. He fished his pocketknife out of his jeans. He would be extra careful using it this time. He took the can of beans from where he dropped it on the floor and started working the opener tool around it.

  Zach scooped up some beans and held them to his dad’s mouth.

  His dad chewed slowly, working the cold beans down to a paste.

  Zach smiled. He scooped some more beans from the can and fed them to his dad.

  “Your hand. What happened?” his dad asked.

  “Can opener accident.” Zach shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

  To think before he was so worried about having a great final hurrah for spring break! Now he just hoped they would make it out alive. He didn’t think they would if they didn’t heat up soon.

  Suddenly, Zach remembered the matches in his pocket. He pulled them out and showed his dad. “I can make a fire. I just need something to burn.” With new hope, Zach shoved the can of beans into his dad’s lap, pulled back on his gloves, and bounded out of the cave.

  “Where are you going?” Zach heard his dad yell, but Zach was already outside and back in the snowstorm. Skye started to follow him. “Stay here, Skye. You need to rest too.”

  Near the cave, Zach grabbed some twigs. He broke some small braches off the birch trees right outside the cave entrance. By now the sky was pitch dark, but the white that covered everything made the woods glow. The wind whirled up like a mini tornado taking off. Zach held up a hand to shield his face.

  He gathered the sticks in his arms, as many as he could carry at once. He shook the snow off the branches as much as possible. Then he grabbed a few spruce branches with needles. They would be good for kindling to get the fire started. Zach brought them back into the cave and dropped them down. But he knew that he would need more and braced himself for a second trip out into the wind.

  He really needed a thick chunk of wood or the fire would burn out right away. Zach wandered around, but kept a close eye on the cave. He didn’t need to get lost alone in the woods. After a while, he found a fallen tree. He kicked at the wood and a piece of the trunk broke loose. The piece was nearly three feet long, but without an ax he couldn’t chop it apart. And beggars can’t be choosers, as his dad would say. Zach dragged the big log into the cave, satisfied that, if properly tended, the long piece would burn through the night.