Countryhumans Oneshots

The Frozen State

This was co-written with a good friend of mine, NewLostIslands. This was originally her oneshot, but she was having trouble writing it, and I didn't want to let it be abandoned, as I really loved the premise and what she had written so far. So, it was her idea, and she wrote a good chunk of it. I just made it a cohesive thing.

I should've known better, seen the warning signs, and docked when possible. Or just never left the shore at all. But it'd been a gentle east wind and a beautiful day, and I'd naively thought I could handle whatever the Big Lake threw at me.

I cursed myself for that. One of these days, thinking that way would get me killed. The lake changed too quickly to be underestimated like that.

It was too dark and foggy to see the coastline. The wind whipped around so loudly I could barely hear the motor; my jaw ached from keeping it clamped shut. I could only use my own judgment and familiarity with the area to guess where I was. I hoped the shore wasn't too close. If I was correct in guessing, the jagged sandstone cliffs would destroy my boat ages before I got to land safely.

The best idea would be to go a little further to where I knew a small bay was and attempt to land there. After landing, I'd leave and go back home, where I could change into a dry set of clothes and complain to Illinois about my ruined evening.

The thoughts did little to distract from the biting cold. The frozen rain felt more like sleet, my skin and hands stinging from the temperature and ice spray. I was half tempted just to leave now and abandon my motorboat and belongings to the mercy of Lake Superior before I went completely stiff.

A shape loomed out of the fog that I, unfortunately, recognized: a half-fallen tree barely hanging onto the cliffs. My heart sank at the sight.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no," I said, fear spiking. "It's too far- I'm past it." I spun around, looking behind to see what I missed. This situation was suddenly a lot worse than I'd thought.

Turning around now would be a lot harder than going forward.

"No worries," I forced a sigh, trying and failing to calm myself. I could barely hear my voice through the storm, but it was easier than thinking. "I know where I am; been in worse places than this and made it out all right."

I just needed to figure out a way to reorganize myself and-

My eyes widened when I saw what was in my way: a giant wave, already whitecapping. Before I could think, it'd hit my boat and tilted her side against the waves, suddenly exposed in the open water. I cursed. I needed to move before the boat could capsize.

Before I could do that, another sudden wave hit me, splashing over the side and somehow drenching my already-soaked clothes worse than they'd been before, The cold feeling like needles jabbing deep into my skin. There wasn't time to worry about that; an enormous third wave was already bearing down on me.

My mind blanked, staring up in shock at the wall of water in front of me. There was a lurch of the boat as it started climbing up the wave.

I should've expected it to be that cold, considering I'd been breathing the lake for the last half hour, But being in the water somehow made it worse. The pain felt like a frozen fire I couldn't escape. Kicking upward, I barely managed to break the surface and get a breath of air.

The last thing I saw was my boat rise above as the wave flipped over. The cold of the second largest lake in the world made my clothes and feathers feel like an iron weight chained around me, trying to drag me down into its depths, seeping the little remaining warmth out. Something metal slammed into my head, and everything went dark.