Free Over the River and Through the Woods by Lacey Weatherford

homeowners with a list of everything we owed them. Once we were finished, we decided to sit down with our iPads and do a little afternoon reading, while they still had a charge. My story was good, but I felt my eyelids growing heavier, the more time that passed. I jumped in surprise when Micah suddenly elbowed me.
    “Hey! Do you hear that?”
    “Hear what?” I asked, sitting up to listen. The sound of a motor grew closer and we both jumped up and ran toward the front door. Micah threw it open, running onto the porch in his bare feet as he waved his arms wildly over his head. “Hey!” he shouted. “Over here!”
    I wasn’t sure if they heard him or not, but it didn’t matter. Two snowmobiles were coming down the lane straight toward us. As they got closer, I could see it was two men with big orange vests marked Search and Rescue on them.
    “They found us!” I said, hugging Micah as I breathed a sigh of relief.
    “Are you Micah Nickolaus and Felicity North?” the one on the left asked as they came to a halt.
    “Yes, we are.” Micah gripped me tighter. “Boy, are we happy to see you.”
    “We’re glad you’re all right. You have some mighty worried family members who are anxious for some news about you today. We were concerned that you might not have made it to shelter in the storm.”
    Both men climbed the snow covered steps and shook hands with us, introducing themselves as Officer Lance, and Officer Huffman with the Sheriff’s Department, before following us inside.
    “I’m afraid we broke in and made ourselves at home here in this cabin,” Micah admitted, truthfully. “We’ve been keeping a list of things we need to reimburse the owners for. Thankfully, they keep the place well stocked.”
    “I’ll make a report of everything before we leave,” Officer Lance said. “That way you’ll have something official if you need it. We can look up who owns this property on the county register and try to get in touch with them. Are both of you doing okay? Any medical needs to be taken care of?”
    “I think we’re doing fine. Mostly bumps and bruises,” Micah replied.
    “Except for the gash on his head,” I interjected. “I’m pretty sure he needs a couple of stitches.”
    “And Felicity fell into the river on the way here and got pretty chilled, but she’s seemed well enough since we got her warmed up.”
    “All right. I think we should take you both to the hospital, just to be checked out. I’m going to assume that you’re both healthy enough to ride with us on the snowmobiles to the main Highway? They’ve been clearing it today and there’s a vehicle waiting at the end of the road that can take you the rest of the way into town. We can call in a helicopter though, if you think it’s necessary.”
    “I think we can ride just fine. Everything we have with us fits in that bag over there.” He pointed to where his duffle bag rested against the wall.
    “Okay. If you want to show me around and give me a report while Miss North packs things, my partner can go radio the rest of our crew and let them know what the plan is. We’ll have them tell your families to meet you at the hospital.”
    “Sounds good.” Micah agreed with a nod, glancing at me.
    “I’ll start getting our things gathered and get dressed to go.” Relief surged through me. We were going home.
    ***
    The wind flew through my hair, whipping it behind me. I anxiously held onto Officer Lance as the snowmobile raced on top of the heavily snow-covered road. I kept glancing over at Micah, who was riding with Officer Huffman, to the side of us. Thankfully, my boots, coat, and outdoor accessories had all completely dried, making the ride much nicer than it would’ve been, otherwise.
    It seemed unfair how quickly the vehicles made it back to the main road, after all the hiking and misery Micah and I had gone through to get to the cabin in the first place. The afternoon sun caused the snow to sparkle like white diamonds, giving the