Chapter 28: Freeze

March 29th, 2017

Rick could not stop shivering, and neither could Cadi. The two of them trudged through the storm, occasionally stopping to heal the frostbite that kept creeping up on them.

“Rick-I’m-t-tired…” Cadi whined, forcing herself to take another step forward.

“Just a l-little f-farther.” Rick told her, his teeth chattering. Rick could barely feel his legs or feet anymore-except for the biting tingles that ran up and down his thighs.

Just a little farther…

“C-Cadi-l-look!” he said, pointing.

There seemed to be an abandoned barn. Eagerly, the two of them made their way to it against the strong winds. With a grunt, Rick opened the door and the two of them made their way inside. The barn was in pretty bad shape. The roof rocked with the wind, and there were rotting pieces of wood strewn about the place. Dead or dying plants sprung up from old stables, and the wind blew through some of the holes in the walls.

“H-Help me f-fix this place up…” Rick stuttered, trying his best to concentrate on little parts of the barn at a time. Cadi nodded, and the two of them got to work, rewinding parts of the barn so it would be a more suitable shelter. Finally, the roof seemed to be more in place, and the wind wasn’t blowing through the building anymore. Cadi plopped down to the ground in exhaustion.

“C-can we b-build a f-f-f-fire?” the eight year old asked.

Rick looked around, not wanting to even move cause he felt so cold.

“I-I don’t know… Maybe-there’s s-s-some blankets around here th-though…” Cadi nodded, a far off look in her eyes.

“Ok… While you l-look, I’ll stay here.” she told him, starting to take off her coat.

“Cadi-what are you d-doing? Keep your coat on! It’s f-f-freezing!”

Cadi paused, and then slowly put her coat back on.

“Oh yeah… S-sorry… I guess I’m just used t-t-o taking off my c-coat when I go inside a b-building…” she slurred, laying down on the ground and shivering even more. Rick regarded her with concern, and then went to look around the barn for anything he could find to help them.

He found a bucket of water, but it was completely frozen… And too bad-cause he was really thirsty… He also found some wet hay and old horseshoes, which he hoped might be good enough to start a fire-even if it was just a little one. Eventually, he did find a couple of ratty old blankets that had been damaged due to the elements, but with some quick rewinding, he was able to fix that.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t find any food.

He made his way back to Cadi, his stomach growling. If only they had been able to save the bread and peanut butter they had taken from Emille and Harry…

“Here-I-I f-found some b-blankets.” he told his sister, putting one on the ground for her to lay on. “I’ll t-try to build a fire…”

Over the next few minutes, he tried to build one using the horseshoes to try to make sparks, but unfortunately, he had no success. Cadi slowly crawled over to the blanket her brother had laid out for her. Rick spread another blanket on top of her and got underneath it with her. Then he unzipped his coat and had her sit up next to him so she could get more body heat.

“R-Rick, are-are we going to freeze to d-death?” Cadi asked, still shivering violently.

“N-no.” Rick said immediately, even if he didn’t really know the answer himself. He couldn’t help but think about how he wondered why the snow was so significant when he was in his coma.

Guess now he knew…

The snow was probably going to be their tomb…

Cadi then mumbled something unintelligible. Rick didn’t pay attention to it, feeling exhausted and a little bit dizzy and confused.

“Let’s just-t-try to get some sleep while we w-wait for the storm to p-pass.” he told her, laying down on the blanket and closing his eyes.

The two of them fell asleep as the storm outside raged on.

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Rick wasn’t sure how long he had been asleep, but when he opened his eyes, his body felt stiff. Groggily, he sat up, feeling very cold, but no longer shivering. He looked over to his sister, who was still laying down on the blanket. She wasn’t shivering either. Rick blinked and shook her a little.

“Cadi-wake up…” he slurred, nudging her arm.

Cadi didn’t respond.

Rick suddenly felt a panic, flipping her over.

“C-Cadi?” he asked shrilly. She almost seemed frozen. Rick couldn’t even tell if she was breathing or not.

“CADI!!” he screamed hoarsely, shaking her, trying to get her to wake up.

Instead, she remained unresponsive. Desperately, Rick wrapped her up in one of the blankets and picked her up.

They had to get out of here-they had to find help… The boy peeked outside to see that the storm was finally over, but now there was a whole lot of snow on the ground.

He had to get help…

Rick lifted his heavy legs over and over, trying to get through the snow. Tears streamed down his face, and he held Cadi tight.

Was it April 9th yet?

Had he failed?

Was Cadi…

...dead?

Finally, he made it back to the road and forced himself to put one foot in front of the other. For some reason, it was so hard to do, and he found himself stumbling a lot. He could see his breath as a little cloud in front of his face, and the cold air was really starting to hurt his lungs. Rick struggled to keep his eyes open, the exhaustion and cold getting to him even more.

But he couldn’t give up.

He had to take care of his sister-he had to save her…

Rick wasn’t sure how long he had been walking. It could have been several hours for all he knew, but in reality, it had probably only been a few minutes. Suddenly, he realized that a car was slowly coming towards him.

“H-help…” he whispered. For a split second, he was worried that it was going to be Harry and Emille, but then the car stopped and a couple of strangers got out. Rick’s vision blurred, and he collapsed to the ground. He could hear voices, but he couldn’t understand what they were saying.

“C-Cadi- my s-sister…” he struggled to say as a blurry image of someone leaned over him. “M-my name is R-Rick W-Wille…” he said hoarsely. “M-my sister and I w-were… w-were…”

“Alright Rick-stay with us. You said that girl is your sister?” the voice said through all the mush that was going on in Rick’s brain. Rick slowly nodded, wanting to warn them about Harry and Emille, and how he didn’t want to go back to them, but all he could do was lay there trying to speak. The voice said something else, but he wasn’t able to figure out what was said.

Finally, he closed his eyes and gave into unconsciousness.