Up North by Jeff Ross

Author:Jeff Ross
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781459814585
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2017-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

I awoke frozen. My fingers and toes ached. I could see my breath with every exhale. It was brutal. Breathing in was like inhaling ice water. I wasn’t even certain how I’d slept. I should have been glad that Keith had stayed up all night to tend to the fire, but every time I looked at him there, his back to us, all I could think was that this dislike for people he barely knew was eating him up for absolutely no reason.

Keith glanced over at me as I tried to get up.

“We need more wood. I’ll be right back,” he said. I didn’t reply because I wasn’t certain my mouth could move. It took a bit for me to get my arms and legs moving. The tarp we’d been sleeping under was frozen except for the area closest to the fire, where there were little waterfalls trickling to the ground.

Duncan sat up next to me and then stood with what seemed to be very little effort.

“Aren’t you frozen?” I managed to say through my chattering teeth.

“My grandfather taught me to slow my breathing when I was cold. You slow your body down like a bear going into a cave to hibernate.”

“And that somehow keeps your limbs warm?”

“Those you tuck under you,” he said, poking at the fire and putting a final log on. “Keep yourself as tight as possible, but with loose muscles. The main things are your heart and your lungs. That’s where the blood goes.” Duncan spoke like someone much older than sixteen. I’d noticed this the first day in class. He had a steady pace to his words. As though he was considering them before they left his mouth.

I finally managed to sit up, though everything hurt.

“You need to move,” said Marc. He rose beside me and walked to the fire. The towel wrapped around his arm was bright red and seemed damp.

“Get the blood flowing,” Marc added.

“Is your arm okay?” I asked as I stood.

“It doesn’t hurt,” Marc said, glancing down at it. “I’ll live.”

I pulled my cell out. There was a little battery power left, but still no signal. The wind roared around us.

“What should we do?” I asked.

“There are lots of cabins along the river,” Rog said. He stood on his right foot, not putting any weight on his left. I got under his arm and helped him over to the fire. “There has to be one nearby. Most will be stocked. So we can go that way, or we can backtrack and try to find a way up onto the road.”

“That’s a long way up,” Duncan said. “And even if one of us did get up there, how would you manage it?”

“Yeah, that’s a real problem.” Rog looked at the flames. “I’m sorry I got you boys into this.”

“It was an accident,” I said.

“I should have been driving slower.”

Duncan and Marc remained silent, looking down into the flames.

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