Snow On The Pines

Snow blowing, dust particles, and broken glass; that's what Noah saw when his vision started to clear. As he slowly regained thought, the memories came flooding back to him; driving down a snowy road, a blizzard starting, his girlfriend, Amelia, telling him that they should stop, then him losing control of the car, and it started spinning before rolling into the ditch.

"Amelia?" Noah called out, turning his head. He saw her in the passenger seat, slumped over unconscious, with a bleeding gash on the side of her head. He weakly reached over to her and checked her pulse; relief filled him when he felt a steady heart beat.

The car wasn't upside down, so it wasn't too hard for Noah to climb out; cold wind instantly chilled him, though he was wearing a coat. He looked around but saw nothing but pine trees blowing in the wind, snow falling, and a deserted road, that barely anyone used during the winter.

Noah, got out his phone, which was miraculously wasn't destroyed in the crash, but it was still of no use because there wasn't any signal. "Oh come on!" Noah yelled, throwing his phone on to the driver's seat.

He thought about his options; the nearest town was another 50 miles away, and Noah could travel with Amelia that far on foot; there was no cellular service out here, so that meant no way to contact help. "Wait! I have a GPS with an Emergency Signal on it." Noah realized.

He went to the trunk, and pulled the small, yellow device out of his back-pack. He then pressed the red button, but soon realized it would take a while for anyone to get the signal, and find them.

Noah looked around frantically, trying to find somewhere warm for both him and Amelia. Something brown and square shaped caught his eye, and shut the door. "Amelia, don't worry I'll be back." he whispered, placing a blanket on her, and tying his bandana around her head to stop the bleeding from the gash.

Noah trudged through the snow toward the brown structure, and was surprised to see that a one-story cabin. He went up to the door and knocked. "Hello? Is anyone here?" he yelled.

No one answered, so Noah tried the door handle; locked. Seeing no other option, he took his coat, wrapped it around his hand, and punched the glass window on the door. Noah stuck his other arm through the broken window, reached down, and unlocked the door.

-*-

Amelia's eyes fluttered open, and she realized she was no longer in a car, but she was in somebody's arms and being carried through cold, blowing winds. She groaned, and tried to squirm, but then she heard, "Amelia, you got to stop moving. I found somewhere warm we can wait out this storm."

"N...Noah? The crash..." her voice drifted off, and she groaned again. Her head was throbbing, and her whole body ached. "Amelia, can you walk." Noah told her. She nodded weakly, and prepared to be put down.

Noah set his arm arm around her shoulder, and kept her stable, while he opened the cabin door. Once the were inside, Noah led Amelia over to an old looking Sofa and laid her down. "Just stay here, alright?" he told her, covering her with a blanket.

He went over to the Fire place and saw that there was still some wood left over. Noah went over to his back-pack he retrieved when he went back to the car, and pulled out a tool kit before pulling out a lighter.

The fire was lit and the living room of the cabin was filled with warmth. As Amelia slept on the Sofa, Noah covered the door's broken window by pinning a towel on the inside of the cabin. He tried turning on the lights too, but the electricity was out because of the storm.

Noah looked through his back-pack and saw he needed to go back to the car to retrieve a first aid-kit. He walked over to Amelia, and stroked her head. "Amelia?" he said. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked at him.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"I need to get some things from the car. Don't go anywhere okay?" Noah told her. Amelia weakly nodded, and Noah gave her a small kiss on the lips, before getting up and going outside.

-*-

"Sir!" An officer looking at a computer screen called. A ranger walked over and asked, "What is it?"

"I just got an emergency signal." the officer told him. The ranger nodded, and asked, "Where?"

The officer turned his head back to the computer screen and and answered, "20 miles south on the back road leading toward the camp site in the Snowy Pines Forest Reserve."

"There are several cabins scattered throughout those woods." The Ranger mumbled. He straightened up and said, "Dispatch units to search the area."

-*-

That night...

The fire burned out an hour ago, and Noah couldn't find anymore wood; the cabin had been plunged back into coldness. Noah sat in front of Amelia, leaning against the wall, and wrapped in a blanket.

Just as he was dozing off, he heard Amelia go into a coughing fit. He rushed to her side, and tried to calm her down.

"Hey, Amelia. Try to to breathe." She kept coughing, and Noah ran over and pulled a water bottle out, and had her take little sips of it. Finally, she calmed down and laid her head on Noah's shoulder. "When are we leaving?" she asked, with a raspy and broken voice.

"Soon, babe, soon. Just hang in there." Noah whispered, rubbing her back. Tears came to his eyes as Noah realized that he could be making a broken promise.

They sat next to each other on the sofa, until the cabin's temperature went below freezing, and they passed out.

-*-

The ranger knocked on the door; he and the squad had found the car in the ditch and they separated to cover more ground. "Hello?" he called.

A male, broken voice answered, "H...Help." The Ranger quickly opened the door, and found Noah and Amelia shivering on the sofa.

The ranger took out his walkie-talkie and said, "All units, I found the source of the signal, come to coordinates of 13N-15S, and someone contact the nearest hospital."

He hung up and went over to them and said, "Don't worry, you two are safe now." Noah gestured to Amelia's head, and said, "I tried my best to stop the bleeding."

"Let me take a look." The ranger offered. He inspected the gash, and reassured Noah that she would make it to the hospital. Noah smiled , and was filled with relief when he heard voices of officers; he knew that him and Amelia would make it.