Adrenaline

Chapter 49

Jason

We'd been nestled together in front of the fire for the entire rest of the night. However, Alyssa was having a fitful sleep: mumbling things and speaking incoherently. She shifted in my arms then started shivering. I wrapped her up tighter rubbing her arms and legs. This was her fourth time shivering violently. I glanced at the clock: it was 9 a.m. We'd been sitting beside the fire for 6 hours, although by now the fire was just a pile of embers. I untangled myself from Alyssa, leaving her curled up in a little ball on the floor. My muscles uncoiled painfully, falling numb as I walked to the door and unsealed it.

My heart dropped at the sight of the wall of snow stacked against the opening. There had to be a second level to this building that we could go through when the plane arrived. I went back to Alyssa gently nudging her. Her eyes sluggishly opened as she tried to shift onto her side, but could barely move a muscle. She put her head back down, ceasing to move. There was something wrong. I searched the store looking for a thermometer. When I found one, I ripped it out of the box then slipped it under her tongue. After a few seconds I checked the reading. She was down to 93 degrees—hypothermia.

I shook her awake with a little force in my grip. Alyssa barely made an audible moan trying to speak. She opened her eyes looking around disoriented.

"Jason, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"We're in Alaska." I replied.

"Alaska? No-no, don't be—" she rested her head on my arm.

Confusion.

I lifted her up carrying her up to the second level. It looked to be the clerk's bedroom. I set her down throwing the blankets from the bed on top of her, then searched the downstairs area for a wide metal container. There was a metal tub in aisle 2. I grabbed it along with some matches and firewood and hurried back. In the bedroom, Alyssa was slowly moving underneath the blankets. I lit the fire getting it to go strong then lifted the blanket and brought Alyssa to sit in between my legs. I wrapped myself around her, scooting closer to the fire. Her face was paling.

She groaned quietly, patting my hand. I rubbed her arms then her legs trying to get her warm. The weird part here was that her body temperature was dropping while mine was fine. The fire burned a little harder, giving off good warmth. The snow was about 5 feet from the window. If it snowed again it'd be up to the window by tomorrow morning for sure.

Alyssa managed to turn her body burying her face into me. I pulled the blanket tighter around us and scooted even closer to the fire. Where was the help the tower promised? We were dying out here. It was too cold to move, to get up and eat, get up and pee. My eyelids were beginning to grow heavy on me, maybe it was sleep or maybe it was just the cold. I lied down, bringing Alyssa with me, she was asleep again or was she... I checked her pulse. It was still there. I shuddered, feeling a chill crawl through me.

Alyssa called out my name, but her eyes were still closed. The wind started picking up outside, beating against the window glass, shaking it. Alyssa was curled tightly around me, giving off a little heat of her own, but we were both freezing now. Where were they? I lifted the blanket over our heads, curling as far and I could without hurting her. Within seconds, darkness consumed my senses.

***

Alyssa

There was a warm feeling going through my body. My eyelids slowly opened to blurry vision. Everything looked white, and hospital-like. A woman called out my name in a soothing voice.

Mom?

Someone touched my hand making me look at them, mom!

"Jason, where's Jason?" I croaked, struggling to sit up.