Free Ice by Lyn Gardner

blood now flowed freely from the wound on her side.
    Looking to the north, Alex peered through the darkness, and shielding her eyes from the unrelenting snow, she shined the flashlight through the trees. Up ahead she could see a clearing, and set back into the opening was something boxy and dark. Narrowing her eyes, Alex strained to make out what it was, and sprinting toward it, her heart began to pound with excitement. Mindless of the distance she was putting between her and Campbell, Alex high-stepped it through drifts until the cabin came into view. Grinning, she spun around to shout out her discovery, only to find that Campbell had been swallowed up by the storm.
    “Shit!” Alex said, realizing her mistake. Retracing her steps, she darted back through the trees in a panic. Finally seeing a dark heap in the snow, she ran to Campbell and dropped to her knees.
    “Come on, you need to get up,” she said, wiping the snow from Maggie’s face. “Campbell, there’s a cabin up ahead. Come on, woman, you need to get up.”
    “Please…I can’t. Just leave me…please, just leave me,” Maggie whimpered. Ravaged by fever, exhaustion and blood loss, her will to live had disappeared. The snow felt good against her heated skin, and all Maggie wanted to do was sleep. Just sleep.
    “No fucking way!” Alex shouted into the wind. Grabbing Maggie, she pulled her to her feet, and wrapping her arm around her waist, Alex growled, “Start walking, Campbell, or by God, I’ll carry you!”
    Praying that she could make it to the cabin, if only to save the life of the woman trying to save hers, Maggie tried to take another step, but her knees buckled instantly. Without missing a beat, Alex bent down and pulled her to her feet again. Leaning into the fevered Inspector, she laid Maggie over her shoulder, and taking a deep breath, Alex stood straight. Slowly, she lumbered through the snow carrying an unconscious woman over her left shoulder and a carry-on bag and knapsack over her right.

    ***
     
    By the time Alex reached the porch of the deserted cabin, her muscles were screaming for relief. Their sanctuary was only a small flight of stairs away, but she was exhausted. Deciding to give herself a minute to catch her breath, she lowered Maggie gently to the ground, and then climbed the steps and wearily walked to the door. Seeing the padlock barring the entrance, Alex’s shoulders fell. “Oh, you have got to be bloody kidding me!”
    Thinking for a second, she looked to her left and right, and then stomped around the porch, checking every window and door, but even the meager storage shed attached to the back of the cabin had a shiny lock hanging from a hasp. Whoever owned the cabin had done their due diligence. It was locked up tighter than a vault.
    As each padlock came into view, Alex’s fear and desperation began to grow. Their situation had become all too clear. They had survived a plane crash, and had struggled through a blizzard to find protection from the storm, but if she couldn’t find a way to get inside, they would both freeze to death. It was just that simple.
    Returning to the front door, Alex pounded her fist against it in anger. Swearing into the wind as she felt tears well in her eyes, her aggravation grew into rage. Unleashing her fury on the padlocked entrance, and mindless of the pain in her leg, she slammed her body against it again and again until finally, defeated, she crumpled to the porch. Seconds grew into minutes as Alex sat there, lightly tapping her head against the door in frustration as she racked her brain for a solution. When she realized that there wasn’t one, her temper erupted. Alexandra Blake did not like to lose.
    “No!” she shouted, scrambling to her feet. “ I will not fucking die this way !”
    Infuriated, Alex marched around the porch one more time, pulling at every lock with her frozen fingers, and checking the tops of all the windows and doors for a hidden key. Even though the small