Frozen Flesh (Short Story)

Frozen Flesh

           A small chunk of bark falls down as I plant my only exposed and unfrozen trembling hand on the tree. Walking has become torture this last week. I stand there, a quivering, unstable mess. I can already feel the bark freezing solid under the abomination that resembles my arm. I have long forgotten what warmth feels like. Sometimes, I try to remind myself how it felt, to save any drop of sanity or humanity that still exists inside me. The shattering frost all over my body is the only thing that remains.

           For the past two and a half weeks, I have been searching for help. Three weeks ago, or four? Has it really been a month and a half already? It felt like two. Three and a half weeks since I started my journey to explore the Carpathian Mountains. Locals warned me of this year’s winter, but I was confident of my skills and experience. It was bound for my hubris to catch up to me one day. I can’t seem to remember how many days I have been camping. All I remember is a sharp sting hitting my neck and falling down. While stumbling in pain, I got weaker and confused. I remember pulling out from my neck a foul looking bug that seemed frozen solid but still alive. Shortly after, I passed out.

           The raspy and uneven breaths…no… wheezing pull me out of my rest, reminding me to find help. Pulling back my hand from the tree, a solid chunk of frozen bark landed near me. I pay no attention to it. My right eye, the only one not frozen shut, sticks to the perfectly stacked wall of lumber in the distance. A cabin. <They might help me> I try to tell myself aloud, but all that comes out is a faint and muted groan.

           <For the name of God. If you are there, let there be people in the cabin. They can help me.>

           The thought gives me hope.It gives me power to lift and drag the thick and heavy stumps of solid ice that cover what i hope are still my legs. The unwavering layer of packed snow makes what I hope to be my last walk seem to be a curse from the gods bestowed upon me after a cardinal sin. I stop for a second, arms limp next to my body, now twice the size and five times the weight. I try to turn my body so I can look behind me. It’s been so long since i could do that, though. Sliding myself in place to look behind, I see the two tracks in snow that were left by my legs. Thick and deep, looking like a car tried to pass through.

           Turning back towards the cabin, I see a dim light shining through the right window next to the front door. The chaotic flickering makes me think that there is a fireplace going inside. The warm tint of yellow and orange skipping and jumping around reminds me of the time I went up the Apuseni Mountains during autumn. Me and my then wife, Sarah, hiked for hours trying to see the Evantai Waterfall. The beautiful shades of rust and brown covered us all the way through the forests, up the cliffs, down dangerous chains, until everything opened up to a beautiful river cornered by a gorgeous mass of flowing water. We watched how it graciously danced. While getting absorbed by the water’s hypnotic course, I promised her that we would camp in the Carpathian Mountains during the winter. I swore to show her the beautiful white blanket over the forests and the soul cleansing silence that it brings. That was almost a year ago. Two months later, she died trying to climb one of our local cliffs. Her safety harness broke, and she went tumbling down more than a hundred and fifty meters.This is why I came here. To somehow fulfill a part of my promise and show her, at least through my eyes and soul.

           I snap out of my trance and struggle to move through grunts and moans. About twenty meters away from the front door, I hit a fence. The noise wakes up the dog chained to a small and flimsy pole. It starts running towards me while barking and growling loudly. If i wasn’t this tired, this cold and heavy, i would have run, but that is not an option anymore. A few meters of chains were left while approaching me when it stopped. It wasn’t the chain that stopped it. It took a short look at me, and then I noticed its ears going down and, with the tail between its legs, running back to a small doghouse, crying all the way there.