Journey Through The Permafrost

Chapter one//Follow the light

Ice.

It lies as the object of our soul's existence, like a pebble casted across the infinite mass of the deep blue expanse of the ocean yet to be measured by man or any of his tools.

It's the frigid touch that leaves wanderers wary of the pellucid crystal.

As when tested, can match the force of a caliber pistol.

It tears us apart,

But as neither friend nor foe.

It steals our hearts,

Like the arctic waves below.

Through the pressing sorrow.

Of a distant tomorrow.

This shall be the cost,

To journey through

The permafrost.

***

This was the end. This is where I become no more.

The crisp daggers of the iced wind cut into my body as the frozen rocks impacted my snow suit with a ferocity I hadn't earlier imagined conceivable. Polar winds whipped my pathetic body like a torn sandbag as my vision decided best to work against me, broadcasting only the white obfuscation of the snow storm as I fell off the side of the mountainside.

I always loved snow as a child. I never thought it would the element to reduce me to a memory.

The sky bore no puffy gasses within its cerulean atmosphere but yet the hounding brutalization of the iniquitous dust devils sent me pile-driving into the jagged grasp of the frosted peaks below. The sudden collision made me lose sensation in my arms and my legs numbed beyond movement. But that didn't force its way to be my predominant perturbation before the searing pain of the landing kicked in. An intolerable concoction of the frigid gusts crystalizing my face and the excruciating heat boiling through my nerves served to be the worst drink I've never consumed.

I couldn't move.

I was afraid to move.

But I had to move...

For dad.

My neck crooked in the direction of my arm. A shift was all I needed. A sign that I'm not meant to die here in the cold snow. Instead, the slab of ice I landed on began to give way to undoubtedly plummet into the water rapids down below. Looks like I found my answer. I closed my eyes to let fate take me where I was destined to be.

But I didn't feel the rush of freefalling. It therefore left my initial instinct to crack open my eyelid. Waters were bashing against rocks ruthlessly miles beneath me and the white water rapids made my stomach churn. Death played through my mind as the thought of my neck breaking danced throughout my imagination. Bones grinding into oblivion as my body would be swept away by current along with the chunks of rock slowing falling with my body.

The mixed emotion became physical and bile spiraled from inside me, expelling into the open winds below. My savoir yanked my body to solid ground before I could finish cleansing my bowels. I heaved in breath as it seemed to come in very short supply miles in the sky.

"There will be no more dying today, Misses!" the man behind the tactical mask shouted, ice battering at his black snow suit. It was made up of multiple layers but his figure was still distinguishable from beyond the clothing. "Melinda would have my ass."

"Good to know where your priorities lie!" I shouted, retuning to both feet. The wind was picking up and breathing was now a pressing concern. The rush of nearly meeting death twice apparently requires a lot of breath to tame the adrenaline rush. Blood rollercoastered throughout every vein and artery in my body and my heartbeat was now an irregular rhythm of skips and lounges.