Caleb's Story

Chapter five

The water was ice cold, I ignored the freezing pain from my leg and swung my arms to get towards the waters surface. I sank very deep and it was torture to use my broken leg but I ignored the pain and kept on swimming. My head broke the surface of the water and I gasped for breath but was cut short from the cold. With my body trembling, I put my arms on the snow covered ice beside me to freeze myself to it. Beatrix rushed to the side of the river to make sure she didn't fall in as well.

"Hold on!"

I tried to talk but my breaths were so shallow that all that came out were little sounds. My body was quivering so bad, I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open. It felt as if all the oxygen was being sucked from my lungs. I was getting glimpses of my past. Oh no I thought. This was not the time for a panic attack.

"Beatrix, hurry." I said.

Beatrix looked at me and quickly threw her backpack to the ground and grabbed her rope out of it. She tied a big loop in it and threw it towards me. It landed near my right arm.

"Caleb I need you to put your head and one arm in the loop!"

With the cold water all around my body it was difficult to grip the rope. My arms were stiffening and my legs were getting tired from keeping myself up. Somehow I got the rope over my head and around one arm. I gave Beatrix a thumbs up, she turned around with the rope in her hands and started to pull. I felt the pressure on my chest and I began to move. The ice kept breaking under my weight so it was harder for Beatrix to pull me. The ice got thicker closer to shore so it didn't break as easily as the other ice did. I reached the shore line and Beatrix grabbed underneath my arms. She dragged me towards a clearing and set me down.

She tried to get me to stand up with my arm over her shoulders but I was too heavy for her and my legs just gave out. She went back over to her bag and took out the biggest blanket we had. I laid on the ground trembling, and my entire body was getting colder by the minute. My leg was numb and my lungs felt as if a 2 ton weight was laying on them. Beatrix laid the blanket on the ground, she came over to me and looked really concerned. Beatrix grabbed underneath my arms again and dragged me over to the blanket that was on the ground. She set me down and slid off the rope that was still around me. She walked towards my feet, grabbed part of the blanket and tied the rope around it making a pocket. She walked back towards my head then wrapped the rope around my chest under my arms and pulled. The rope was pressing on my chest pretty hard but I didnt say anything because I was moving.

It felt like we were walking forever. Everything was quivering and I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. I felt a cold chill, not from the wind but from inside my body. I looked at my hands, they were a extremely pale. My heart skipped a beat and I was starting to breathe hard. I tired to breathe deep to calm down. I couldn't even feel my leg anymore, and my wrist was throbbing. I heard the sound of cars closing in and knew we must be close to a road. Beatrix told me to stay awake and hang on. We reached to road and I felt the force ease off of my body. Beatrix ran over to the cars and yelled to the road while waving her hands. The cars just passed by.

Beatrix kept yelling to try to get a car to pull over. She got frustrated enough that she went out on the road and diliberatly stopped a car. The car was a very new truck that was a 4x4. The color was black and had black rims.

"We need help!"

"Whats wrong?" It was a women. She was very built and had cargo pants on with a black sweat shirt. Her hair was shaved to a pixie cut and she wore black gloves.

"He has a broken wrist, leg, and fell in a lake."

"Get him in my car, I'll take you to the hospital."