December Drive

The darkness is giving way to the light. My ears are ringing but I don't know why. I open my eyes and see her face. Tears and panic cover her. She is pleading and talking but I can't hear a thing. Then it registers, she's trying to see if I'm Ok. I try to respond but the words don't come out. I can hear nothing. Reaching for her face I attempt to say I'm okay. She pulls my seatbelt off ,trying her best to be careful. I glance around and nothing but shards of glass,blood and debri cover the inside. The ringing begins to soften and my mind starts to clear. We crashed and I don't remember how. The moment of panic and fear are gone. Now is the time for action. I regain my composure and ask "are you okay? Do you know what happened?" She nods. " An elk ran into our truck." I respond," how long was I out?" "Five maybe six minutes." " okay, have you called for help?" She says "yes but they say the storm is to bad and they can't get up the mountain til the worst of it's over" I ask " did they give you an estimate?" " yes but I don't know if we can wait for 6 hours". My head is still throbbing but I nod and look around to asses the damage. We are against a tree on the side of the road. I think "Luckily the mountain levels here so we didn't roll down it" . I look to see if there are any mile markers because we need to get out of the snow. I try the truck lights. They cut on. I hit the brights and scan the area. First thing I see is the elk. It's neck broken, body torn breathing it's last breathes. I pause and pray, remembering that my life could be ending just as his. I look past him and see a road sign. December Drive and  August lane. We are not far from our destination. My mind is still fuzzy but I know that the cabin is no more than a half a mile from where we are. " baby are you okay?" She ask. Her words drawing me out of my mind and back to reality. "Yes baby I am, my head hurts but I'm fine" "good I was worried you wouldn't wake up" " I'm here now baby, are you okay?? Did you get any injuries?" " a slight headache and my neck is killing me but Im more in shock than anything" " good" . I turn the key and attempt to start the truck. It cranks but there is some sort of steam coming from under the hood. I don't have time to figure out the issue, I just need to make it to the cabin. So I cut the heat on high and attempt to return to the road. The wheels skid and spurt but no luck. I don't give up I keep gassing it until I feel is jerk away from the tree. The branches and snow hitting the bed of the truck as we move onto as fault. We stop and I decend from the truck and look at the elk. It's body and blood starting to freeze from the cold. I go to the bed of the truck and grab my ax. I return to the elk and realize it has huge claw and bite marks on its hind end... somewhat fresh. I think "maybe it was running from a bear" my thoughts interrupted but movement in the forest. Loud enough to drown out the sound of my truck. My mind and body say " get in the car" . I listen and hop in the truck with the ax.locking the doors I say " something attacked it and that's why it ran into us" "damn what was it?" " I don't know but we not finna find out because it's still here". Our conversation fading as we begin to drive I look back in the mirror and ask her " what's that" she looks and says " I don't know but it's big". My eyes focused on the road as I see the long drive way to our cabin. I tell her " keep your eyes out while I focus on the road  we wanna get in and get warm without any more issues" " yes sir" .  We reach the gate and I realize I have no window on my side. I put in the code and they start to open. " baby we need to hurry" " why?" " there is something watching us and it looks big" " okay it's almost open" the gates have enough room for us to fit so I hit the button and gun it.  No sooner than the bed getting through it began to close. I glance in my rear view and see it. The biggest bear I'd ever laid eyes on. Running straight for the gate. It closed in time but he hit it head on but couldn't get through. I don't slow down only the sound of him growling echoed through out ears as we disappear out of sight. Our property gated by a huge fence made of thick wood. " have you ever seen one that big?" She ask, " no I haven't and I think he followed us from the crash" " why? I mean we were sitting there for a moment why didn't he attack then?" " maybe the sound of the crash scared him for a bit who knows, but I do know this , we are letting the dogs out and not leaving until the storm is over." "Ok sir" . As we get closer to the cabin the lights start to fill the empty drive way. The two giant pine trees appearing as gates of heaven to us after such an ordeal. We begin to get closer to the second gate and I press the bottom from the car. It works thank God. We enter and open the garage . The floor heaters seem like the best invest other than the gates at this point. We make our way to the door being greeted by our dogs who seem eager to give us love. Four German Shepard and wolf mix balls of furs swarm us immediately. After greeting the dogs we look at the cameras to see what's become of the bear. We watch as we realize this is no bear and the fear of what it is becomes as reality that we cannot accept.