The Talon Family
Bloody Snow
January
Draft_2
By: Chase L. Currie
Gabriel jumped into the back of the jet not trying to reach the cockpit but trying her best to grab a snow kit before the whole ship went down. Raphael watched in horror as the back of the ship started to dip under the water shooting the front of the massive beast into the air. All the planes on the deck whole or destroy started to slide to play hidden and seek under ice. He heard the jet behind him starting to scream in protest from the movement as he yelled, “Hurry the hell up Gaba.”
“Working on it,” She screamed back tossing one of the kits at him. He didn’t see the pack coming from until he hit him in the back almost making him lose his footing. He garbs the pack wrapping it out his back jumping out of the way of a jet screaming at him. He glanced up at the front of the deck only to see a creak starting to run across it. Soon the front of the ship would break off barely holding itself together but hopefully by that time they would be gone.
“You need to move it,” he yelled trying to stand where he was, but it was all becoming harder to do.
“An easy mission they said,” Gabriel mumble to herself putting a pack on her back. “Just going to say hit to an old friend, they told me.” She glanced up to the cockpit wondering if she had time to set the emergency beacon off before getting off the ship, but the Devil played his game and tossed a jet right at her plane. She only had moments to jump off her plane grabbing her brother and dodge out of the way before everything came crashing together.
They rolled away from the jet as it melted with another jet and became a fireball before being snuffed out by the icy water.
“Move, move, move,” she yelled mostly to herself and not Raphael who was already on his feet making a mad dash for the edge of the deck. Gabriel was right on his heels as they both leap from the deck falling to the ice below. Gabriel landed wrong on her arm creaking it but the adrenaline and no time to worry about the pain she didn’t flinch much. She grunted under her breath only to find herself fighting to climb out of the freezing water. The ice gives away due to her weight or the fall itself but either way it didn’t matter why she was sinking into her icy death. She clawed at the sheet of ice under her gloves, but it wasn’t working. She heard the water behind her bubbling up from the ship being pulled down, and all she could think about was meeting the same fate.
Her life didn’t flash before her eyes like the movies said it would, no, the only thing that came to mind was she hope Helbis remembered to make dinner for Michael, dad, Sesily and not order out the whole time she was gone. She wondered how they were going to eat anything but junk with her death? They would all die from heart attacks from how badly they ate, and she cursed herself before going completely under for sounding like her mother.
The cold of the water was almost more painful than her creak in her arm, but when Raphael pulled her out of the hole dragging her a few yards away from the ship, she realized the pain of the wind and her arm keep her awake and alive.
“Let go of me,” she screamed up at him, and he did so. He helped her to her feet as they rushed into the storm. They looked back only once to the shadow of the ship break and half and faded into the water lost forever. They looked around at the endless winter before their eyes not sure where to go. The storm had kicked the snow up mixing the sky and the land into one big white blanket.
“We got to find shelter,” Raphael yelled seeing Gabriel suit lights had turned a dull green hue and she wasn’t moving her left arm. “How bad are you hurt?”
“We won’t find anything out here,” she cried back thought clattering teeth. Her combat suit was taking its sweet time heating up her body. “We need to find a hill or something.”
“Alright,” he yelled back over the wind. He switched over the view in his helmet to night vision and started to scan the area. He could see a little farther but not too much. They would move to find a hill of any kind, and there was the add fact the ice under them could have been weakening from the ship sinking.
“I don’t see anything,” he said. “Can you walk?”
“Yeah,” she told him. “My helmet must have gotten damaged in the fall I can’t switch views.”
“Right,” he said fixing the pack on his back and then pulling a little hook from his belt. “Latch on,” he ordered.
Gabriel took the hook with her other arm and clipped it to her belt. The line and the hook were made for climbing, but in this storm, it would keep them from losing each other. She winces from the pain in her arm, and they started to walk. Her suit was starting to warm up, but the cold had already bitten her to the bones and was staying there for a bit.
They marched against the wind for at least a few hours in the dark. Raphael led the way with Gabriel fighting back pain and the longing to close her eyes. The fall did more damage than she felt before, some of her rips must have been broken as well. The pain was stabbing her side like someone had placed a knife there. Sadly, or luckily, this wasn’t her first time dealing with broken rids she knew how to keep the pain from affecting her mind.
The cold, however, was something she didn’t know how to handle or fight back against. Her little swim in the waters of the North Pole had sent her body into shock, and she wasn’t standing up to it well. She was somewhat warm now but not by any standers she would enjoy. It felt like she was wearing about thirty blankets in the middle of a snowstorm back home. Sure, she was warm-ish, but her body knew the cold was out there begging to get in and under the blankets.
She was about to tell her brother she couldn’t go anymore when he said, “Found a small cliff.”
“Gets us to the bottom of it,” She told him. “There should be an Arctic tent in our packs.”
Raphael nodded. He should have known there was a tent in the packs, but he rarely went over what was on the plane for the mission. Gabriel and Helbis made sure they had everything any of them would need for any mission. His job, like his brother, was to follow orders and make sure everyone got home safe.
He headed for the cliff in his sight when the rope pulled him back, stopping him in his tracks. He glanced back to see Gabriel face down on the ground. The lights in her suit had changed from a bull green to a heavy blue letting him know she was injured more than he thought. She was alive and breathing. He could tell that much from the suit. He walked over trying to lift her off the ground, but all the weight was too much. He thought about tossing her pack to the side, but there was no telling how long they would be out here. They would need it.
He rolled her over placing the pack on her chest tying it to her and dragged her under the small cliff.
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