Conri

Sarai added the last bit of notes to her report. She
really tried to leave work at work but what else was she going to do when she
was home alone? There was only so much TV a woman could watch. Sarai pulled the
earbuds
out of her ears, the classical music helped
sooth her when she had to plug into the world of resident reports.

When the music dissipated she cast her eyes upward,
her upstairs neighbors were at it again. Yea she could be doing that… if she
had a boyfriend. She rolled her eyes and saved her work. Winter had come in
northern Alaska and it had only been a month since the first snow fall. It’s
not like they were all completely snowed in, but there was little incentive to
venture outside for too long.

She moved to put the
earbuds
back into her ears when her phone chirped.

“Hello?”

“Hey there Dr. Ethridge!”

“Hey Stella.”

“How’s my best Doctor friend?”

“I’m not a doctor yet Stella, you know that.”

“Yea, yea.
But you’re in your
last month of residency and then it’s the board exams and then Doctor-hood!”
Stella’s voice was way to chipper, way to high pitched but a whole lot of
comforting.

“One can only hope.”

There was a pause that should have been awkward but
Sarai knew it was Stella’s way of letting her know she was changing subjects.

“So did you hear that there’s a warm front moving in?”

“Really?
That’s surprising.
Usually when winter comes she’s here to stay until spring.”

“Well we’re getting a boon. The snow is supposed to
stop tonight and then it supposed to start warming up tomorrow and by Friday we
are looking at temperatures close to 40 degrees!”

“Why do I get the feeling I am not going to like the
next thing out of your mouth?”

“Because this is the last time we will be able to get
out before Mother Nature and her bitch ass drives us inside.
 
Soooo
…”

“No.”

“No? You don’t even know what I was going to
say!”
 
Stella’s whine is a force to be
reckoned with. Sarai hasn’t been able to decide if it’s because she sounds so
pathetic you desperately want to please her- or if the sounds is so deathly
annoying you’ll do anything to shut her up. Sarai was leaning towards the
later.

“I don’t have to know what you’re asking. The
implications of warm weather are enough to suggest you have something planned
that I do not want to be included with.”

“You’ll love it, I swear. Just listen to what I have
to say and then you can say no if you still don’t want to do it.”

Sarai sighed and leaned back into her desk chair.
“Ok.”

“OK! So Link and I are going to take the truck to the
outskirts of the reserve and ATV inside on Friday, I know you are off on Friday
so it shouldn’t be too much trouble. We can spend the day four wheeling and
then camp overnight. Then we ATV our happy asses around for a bit the next
morning and be back on Saturday before the sun sets. That gives you all day
Sunday to relax and catch up on boring work reports.”
 

Sarai could hear the excitement in her best friend’s
voice, she was pretty sure Stella was thinking she had won this one; but Sarai
wasn’t convinced.

“How is a weekend alone, with you and your honey,
supposed to be fun for me?”

“Because I said so.”

“Stella.”

“Come on
Rai
! Please, pretty
pretty
please. I need you with me on this.” Stella paused,
sighed and then added, “If you say no I’m calling that favor you owe me.”

“
Uhg
,
If
I do this, you will considered that favor paid.”

“Fair enough, as long as you’re coming!
 
Ohp
, I
gotta
go my other line is beeping.”

Stella hung up before she could respond. She looked at
her phone, glared as the noise from the above neighbors started up AGAIN and
then tossed her phone onto the desk.

She wondered fleetingly if she should get a cat, or a
boyfriend, or some noise cancelling headphones. She wrapped her hands over her
ears. She couldn’t tell if she was pissed because her upstairs neighbors were
like freaking rabbits or because she was getting turned on sitting there
listening to them; and there was no one to help her with her predicament.

By Friday Sarai was ready to renege on her agreement. She
didn’t want to go... just didn’t want to. She checked her pack twice, three,
four times before being satisfied. She checked her lists and her lists of
lists. It was as good as it was going to get. She turned her heat down to 65
and opened all her cupboards and cabinets to make sure all the pipes would be
heated enough. She turned off all her lights and even unplugged the things that
use residual energy. Electricity and running water are so expensive in town she
could save herself a few dollars.

Lugging her pack out, she locked her door and headed
down the one flight of stairs to the first floor. Just as she stepped outside
Link slid to a stop. Sarai forced a smile as Stella hung out the window like a
teenaged girl taking her first ride in a pickup that isn’t being driven by
family.

“I told you it was going to be beautiful!”

Sarai shrugged, she had to give it to her friend,
it
was
warm for winter.
The back of the pickup had an ATV in its bed and two ATV’s were secured to a
hitch off the back. She tossed her pack over the edge of the bed and climbed in
through the extended bed back doors. Stella whooped as she slid back through
the window and into her seat. Stella slapped the dash and looked at Link,
“Let’s go!”

*

They made it all the way to the reserve in the pickup.
As Stella and Link unhooked the ATV’s, Sarai checked her gear again. She pulled
her heavy winter protection gear from the top of the pack and methodically put
it on.

“Girl, you are way too overdressed for a ride on these
babies. It’s going to be about 45 degrees for another few hours. Save the heavy
winter stuff for the camp.” Link teases. Sarai ignored him and Stella swatted
at his arm, admonishing him and then planted a kiss on his lips.

Sarai ignored them both as she fitted her wool hat
over her head, letting her red hair drape over her shoulders for protection.
She slipped the heavy goggles over her eyes and synched them tight on her head.
The last thing she did, before securing her pack on her back, was zip up her
heavy jacket. It zipped up over her chin and stopped just at her nose.

“Good to go!” Sarai yelled through her layers.

Link Laughed again. Stella, dressed perfect for the
semi-warm weather and a chilly ride, smiled gently as all three of them climb
onto their ATV’s.

“You should just secure your pack to the back of the
ATV
Rai
.” Link smirked and leaned over the
stearing
of the ATV.

“I feel more balanced this way.” Sarai answered. Link
rolled his eyes and sat up straight.

“You ever handle one of these bad boys
Rai
?”

Sarai glared at him, “Yea Link. I’ve lived here for
over fifteen years- I’ve been on an ATV.”

“Good!
 
Try to
keep up.”

With that Link turned the key, revved the engine and
took off into the snow dunes. Stella squealed with delight and tore off after
Link. Sarai started her ATV, put in the clutch, gave it some gas and gasped as
the beast took off. Yes, she had been on one of these before and yes she had
learned to handle them but damn she had forgotten how much fun they were.

She followed the tracks her friend and her friends’
boyfriend had made. She was desperate to catch up. Just as she had about given
up hope of finding her friends before the sun set she heard Link’s jubilant
shout as he crested a dune- the front tires coming out of the snow.

Sarai couldn’t help it, she burst into laughter. Ok,
she knew when to concede- she was having a good time. She kicked her ATV into
full power and joined her friends as they turned figure eights, spun their
tires, dusted each other with snow and jumped dunes. Sarai couldn’t remember
the last time she had this much fun; at least not since she went into college
for a doctorate.

By the time Sarai looked up from the figure eight she
was creating Link had taken off again.
 
Stella gave a fleeting glance and tore after him. Sarai wasn’t going to
be left in the dust- or snow- so she quickly put her ATV into gear and followed
suit. All was turning out just fine… until Link crested another dune, his dark
hair disappearing into the endless rolling snow and his screams of jubilation turned
into shrieks of terror.

Sarai felt her blood go cold as her best friend
wrenched the wheel on her ATV. The machine responded but it was too late. The
back tire gripped the edge of the precipice and the machine failed, “BAIL!”
Sarai screamed.

Stella must have already been thinking the same thing
because she flung herself to the side and as the machine went over the edge
Stella landed on the snow, rolled and slid…. toward the edge.
 
Sarai braked hard and jumped from the ATV
before it had fully stopped. She raced toward her friend as her legs went over
the edge. Stella screamed, screamed Sarai’s name and pleaded for help. Sarai
sprinted faster as her friends hips went over the edge. Sarai dropped to her
knees, her belly, her chest- reaching out one hand her fingers scraped her
friends’ fingers and instinctively Stella latched on.

Movement halted for a heartbeat. “I got you, I got
you.” Sarai said breathlessly. But the moment of security vanished with a burst
of short-lived hope as Sarai’s momentum caught up with her. The combination of
forward motion and Stella’s weight sent both girls over the edge. Sarai barely
had time to warn her friend, “Keep your chin tucked and protect your neck!” And
they were freefalling.

*

Sarai would never know how she survived that fall. She
didn’t remember hitting rocks on her decent, but she was pretty sure she had
hit many of them. She will however remember three very distinct things about
that experience. One: She had survived and the only reason she was reasonably
ok was because her camping pack had taken most of the damage. Two: Stella had
survived too. She was alive, but she was in bad shape- a dislocated shoulder
and a head wound that refused to stop bleeding. And Three: Link was dead.
 

She didn’t know how long she had been unconscious or
how bad Stella’s shock was. All she knew was the sun would be setting soon and
if she didn’t find them shelter they would freeze in the Alaskan winter’s night.
By the time she found them shelter, a hollow cutout in the rock face that could
only barely be classified as a cave, the sun was nearly gone. She was shivering
but also sweating.

She had soundlessly walked a zombie Stella to the cave
and retrieved her pack as well as anything dry off of Link to use as kindling
–if she could find dry wood. She didn’t want to think about what she had seen
to obtain the undergarments; she knew she would never forget that mangled
image. Her hopes soared when she found a few barren trees that littered the
inside of the crater. She was able to shake loose some limbs and after spending
some time warming under her and Stella they were dry enough to work with.

Sarai had siphoned the last bit of gas from the
mangled ATV that Link had ridden. Siphoned was actually the wrong word, the
damn thing was upside-down so when she opened the gas cap, the gas nearly
poured out. She wasn’t going to touch Stella’s until she had to. For now she
was conserving. With a flint and a prayer Sarai started a fire that only barely
chased away the chill. With the fire up as good as she could manage for now,
she turned her attention to her friend. Stella hadn’t moved and Sarai knew the
signs of shock to well. She walked over and knelt before her friend.

“I have to set your shoulder.” Stella didn’t respond.
Sarai hung her head a moment. “It will not be pleasant Stella, it’s going to
hurt; a lot.”
Still nothing.
She reached for her
friend’s jacket; a jacket Sarai knew would not protect her friend much as the
night progressed. She had never been as grateful for her over-preparation as
she was now. She was cold, but she wasn’t freezing... Stella should start
shivering soon. As she unzipped the jacket to get to Stella’s shoulder she
talked, hoping something would bring her friend out of the daze; but knowing
that unless she got advanced medical attention her chances her slim.

“I am going to take your jacket off and then I am
going to set your shoulder. Let me know, at any time, if you feel more
discomfort than necessary.”
 
Still Stella
said nothing. Sarai removed the jacket with as much care as she could and then
took her friends arm in one hand, bracing the elbow with her own hand and
letting Stella’s forearm rest on hers. She rotated that arm until she felt the
muscles tighten. “I need you to put your shoulders back if you can
Stel
. Can you hear me?”

Stella didn’t react. With her free hand Sarai lifted
Stella’s chin and pushed pack gently. The movement forced Stella to sit up
straighter, which would have to do. She took a breath, massaged her friends
shoulder with her free had, pushed up and rotated the arm inward. Sarai felt
the shoulder pop back into place with the soundless snap. She let her breath
out. With a few strips of Link’s old shirt she wrapped Stella’s arm and braced
it against her body. She wrapped the jacket back around her friend and zipped
it. For now she had done all she could. She ran her hands through her hair and
sat back on her heels.

“We need to eat. Our bodies will start shivering within
the hour so we will need our strength.

Sarai went about pulling food from her pack. She
mashed up a meal-ready-to-eat and soaked it in some snow that she put over the
fire. It would liquefy- and though she knew it would taste awful- it was the
only way she was going to get food into Stella’s stomach.

It was two hours later; an hour and a half of total
Alaskan night and Sarai still couldn’t get comfortable. She had obtained more
timber and it was drying by the fire. She knew she would need more, but without
Stella to help watch the fire she didn’t trust going out and possibly having
the fire die.

She was exhausted, she wanted her friend back,
she
even wanted Link back. But damn it, most of all she
wanted yesterday back. Yesterday she was home safe- warm- oblivious.
Here...well Sarai knew that if she couldn’t find a way out...

“We’re going to die here aren’t we?”

At first Sarai didn’t know if she had voiced her
thoughts or if Stella had actually spoken. Her eyes snapped to her friend; who
was looking at her. She slowly shook her head.

“No
Stel
, my ATV is still at
the top. If anyone, ANYONE comes through here they will know something is amiss
and they will find us.”

“No one is coming
Rai
.”

“Someone has to come. It’s supposed to be nice for the
weekend; surely other people will come out.”

Stella just stared at her, “It was only supposed to be
nice today- yesterday... how long have I been out?”

“Just a few hours.
What do
you mean it was only supposed to be nice today?”

Stella looked at the fire, “It’s supposed to start
snowing again tomorrow early-afternoon. But we figured we’d be out of here by
then so we should have been ok.” Stella blinked slowly, “Link,” she whispered.

Sarai didn’t respond she didn’t know how to respond.
All she could do was scoot closer to her friend. “We’ll just have to figure out
how to get out on our own.” Neither of them spoke for a good long while, at
some point Sarai fell asleep.

When Sarai woke the fire had died, Stella was
shivering and she could feel the frostbite beginning in her toes. The sun
hadn’t made its way up yet so she didn’t know what time it was. Sarai did her
best to get the fire going with the timber they had left. She knew she would
need to get more now so it could dry out before they needed it.

She let her toes warm a few minutes before dragging
her sleeping friend closer to the fire. She set out with the small hatchet she
had packed and went in search of the barren trees.