Everglow: Friend From Far Away

25 - Escape Plan

The freezing cold water lapped at Fischer's chin as he and Ko both lay silent in the small stream. The sounds of police dogs grew louder and louder as the patrols grew closer to where they lay. The icy water rushed past them, so cold Fischer's lips and hands had begun to turn slightly purple. The two of them were frozen, literally. They watched on as the officers walked past, praying that the trick would work and the dogs would lose them.

Sure enough, "Fuck. They're gone. Oxy's lost them."

"Same here. I thought it was a myth that rivers could stop tracking dogs?"

"I guess not. Hurry, contact the higher-ups and let them know we're going to need some air support. They can't have gone far. A helicopter should flush them out."

The second officer nodded and the two of them turned back the other way.

Fischer let a huge sigh escape from his mouth, not even realising that he'd been holding his breath the entire time. He turned to Ko to see how she was doing.

"Hey, you ok?"

She was shivering violently, similar to Fischer. Despite being from a planet made of ice, she wasn't designed for being half submerged in single digit waters. Her purple cloak had become heavy and waterlogged, although it did serve as good camouflage, hiding her pearly white scales. She shook her gaze from the officers and looked over at him, giving a slight nod as she did so. The water was splashing all over both their faces and it was becoming unbearable.

Fischer watched as the police's torch lights slowly faded behind the trees. Only when they were completely gone did he heave himself and Ko from the water, shivering violently. They sat down next to a tree to catch their breath, only about a meter or two from the stream.

"How about you? You look frozen," Ko stated, shuffling closer to Fischer, using what little heat their bodies were giving out to keep each other warm.

"Yea. . . you could say that. It's not exactly like we're in Egypt now are we? The pyramids are a long way from here."

Suddenly, Ko's vision erupted into yet another wall of colour. More images of strange objects whizzed past her face, all the while the demonic voice made itself known. She snapped her eyes shut, but before she could let out a scream, Fischer quickly wrapped his arms around her and cupped her mouth with his hand, keeping her silent.

This intervention seemed to work, snapping her out of whatever trance she was in. She flung herself back as her eyes opened, her hands out in front of her, shaking violently.

"Hey, hey hey hey! Ko, you're alright! You're ok, you're ok," Fischer blurted, holding her close to himself.

She looked around, blinking her eyes rapidly as she tried to remember what she just saw.

"Ko what was that?"

"Another. . . another one of those. . . vision things. . . it was really fast this time though. . . I didn't see much."

"Well now really isn't the best time to be having visions ok? We need to try and get back to the car. That's the only way we're going to be able to get out of here alright?"

Ko responded with a series of small, uncertain nods. Fischer rose to his feet, helping her up alongside him. Despite just being dunked in freezing cold waters, and with a fairly decent wind blowing through the forest, Ko's hands once again felt hot. It was like she'd just put them on a stove and cranked the setting up to eleven. But again, they didn't hurt at all.

They could worry about that later, right now they had to get back to Fischer's home. Getting there was the easy part. Getting to the car was going to be a little harder.