Chilled to the Bone!

Whumpf! The sting of freezing cold ice, shocked Kate into consciousness, as she landed hard on the surface of the frozen pond. The ice crackled beneath her, and fractures appeared, emanating out in all directions. She frantically scrambled from the breaking surface, but the ice gave way, and she was swallowed whole by the icy water. Sinking into the depths, she became disorientated, and for a couple of seconds she swam downwards, instead of towards the surface. Turning around, she realized that the water above her, had quickly transformed into a thick layer of ice. She reached upwards and pounded on the ice, desperate for air, but she couldn’t break through. I’m dead if I don’t get out of here, she thought. As frost bite consumed her, visions of the events, of the past few hours, flashed before her.

‘They’d slept all afternoon in each other’s arms. It had been a glorious, sunny day, but now the park was pitch black, and freezing cold, and clouds of mist hung menacingly over the entire area. Icicles, hanging off the branches of the trees, glowed slightly in the moonlight, forming shapes like peculiar looking melting faces, or elongated, liquefying, jack-o-lanterns. What was that?’ whispered Kate, alarmed, over the source of the unnatural sounds, coming from the thicket. ‘I don’t know,’ Jake anxiously replied. Crunch! This time the noise was closer. Kate felt a tug on her arm, as Jake grabbed their jackets, and briskly hauled her towards the bushes to hide.

They could barely see through the murkiness, except for a small patch of greenery, dimly lit by the speckled light of a moonbeam, next to an impressive frozen pond. A figure emerged out of the haze, it was a towering, fierce, and intimidating looking man, with shoulder length, wild hair, and sunken eyes. He was wearing a large, dirty looking khaki jacket, and he was carrying a sawn-off shotgun over his left shoulder. With his other hand, the man was dragging something along the ground, it was big, and bulky, and they had trouble identifying it. ‘Oh, my god, that’s a man!’ whispered Kate.

As they watched in the darkness, the sinister man, dragged the body, all the way to the edge of the pond. He feverishly searched the corpse, taking out the man’s wallet and removing the money, placing it into a paper bag, and stuffing it into his own pocket. He unceremoniously tossed the man’s wallet and papers into the pond. Then the vile, repulsive thief, rolled the body towards the edge of the water, and with one last heave, he pushed it in. Kate was petrified, she could feel the tiny hairs on her arms standing to attention, and she was shivering from the cold, and the terror, of the spectacle in front of her.

Jake beckoned Kate to follow him, away from the bush, but stepping backwards, he disturbed a small mallard, that flew into the air from their position, furiously flapping its wings. It’s machine-gun squawking, was so loud, that it drew the attention of the murderer with the gun.

‘Run!’ Jake cried out, shrilly, and they ran at breakneck speed, but the murderer was in hot pursuit. The clouds of mist, eerily rising from the ground, meant they could barely see ahead, and they tripped over unseen objects in the dark. The tips of branches tore at their skin like claws, their clothes were being ripped apart, and they were being soaked in water from the melting icicles dripping from the trees. Cold, sopping wet, and exhausted from running, they finally found a clump of bushes to hide behind, but the murderer was rapidly catching up to them. Through the odd patch of moonlight, they could see him coming, along the way he was bashing at the scrub with the top of his shotgun. ‘We should call the police,’ Kate whispered, feeling around in her jacket pocket for her mobile phone, ‘Oh, god, we left them by the pond.’

Kate tried to hold her breath under the water, how long had it been? A few seconds? There was a tiny pocket of air trapped just under the ice. She breathed it in through her nose, so she wouldn’t choke on the liquid torture.

Her thoughts returned to the grotesque, filthy, repulsive murderer. ‘Wait for me to say, go,’ Jake, had whispered, ‘then you run that way and I will run this way, I’ll draw his attention, I can run faster than you.’ ‘Jake, I’m scared!’ ‘I know, I am too, but there’s nothing else we can do. When you get to the road, flag down the first car, and get the police out here.’ Kate nodded, as the murderer loomed nearer. Jake signaled with his hand to wait, and to wait, then finally the murderer was within striking distance. ‘Go!’ yelled Jake, as he darted off, loudly crashing through the bush along the way, it worked, the murderer chased after him.

Please, don’t die Jake, Kate thought, as she bolted, panic-stricken, through the bush, leaping over logs, and swiping away tree spiders, mosquitoes, and flying ants from her arms. The bush was densely covered in vegetation, there was thick bush on all sides of her, blocking her way, but she pushed her way through, determined to get to the road. Bang, bang, bang, she heard the echo of a gun being fired in the distance, he must still be chasing Jake, at least he’s still alive. Finally, Kate saw a streetlight just a few hundred meters away, she made for the road. Although the pain in her muscles screamed at her to stop, she fled down the road towards the township, hoping that someone would come along to help them.

In the distance, there was the unmistakable radiant glow of headlights. As the car approached, Kate ran into the road and waved the driver down. It was an elderly woman. ‘Please,’ Kate said, as the woman wound the window down, ‘Please can you help me? My friend, Jake, is in terrible trouble. He’s in the bush and somebody is after him.’

‘Oh, that’s terrible my dear, get in the car and we’ll go straight to the police. I don’t have a mobile phone, sorry to say, but it shouldn’t take too long. You poor thing, what an ordeal!’

Kate felt a little more settled as they drove towards the town. The old lady possessed a wrinkled, worldly-warn face, but she also had a kindhearted smile. Suddenly the old lady turned off the highway, ‘Oh don’t concern yourself, my dear, I thought it might be quicker if I call the police from my home phone, they’ll be out here in minutes! In the meantime, we can have a nice cuppa, while we are waiting.’ ‘Ok’, said Kate, happy that help would arrive sooner.

Just as Kate was getting out of the car, she heard the ringing tones of an old fashioned, mobile phone, emanating out of the glove box. Kate cautiously looked at the old lady. The old woman suddenly lunged at her, grabbing at her jacket, she was surprisingly strong. Kate tugged away from her, finally getting away as her coat’s hood tore open, and she dashed back into the bush. Kate became so confused she didn’t know which direction the town was, but she ran as hard as she could alongside the road, away from the old lady.

Hold on Kate! she thought, breathing in the last of the trapped air, from just under the surface. She kicked at the ice, managing to make a small dint, but the layer was too thick. As she pummeled the ice, her thoughts drifted to the other driver.

He was a young man with sandy hair and blue eyes. ‘Hop in,’ he said, I won’t bite!’ Cautious from her recent experience, Kate asked if he had identification. ‘Sure,’ he replied. He pulled out his id, he was a policeman, called Tom Baxter. ‘Oh, thank goodness!’ Kate exclaimed, relieved. ‘Why, what’s happened, hey, are you alright?’ asked Tom.

Kate burst into tears, she was physically exhausted, and could no longer hold onto her feelings, they gushed out in torrents of emotion, as she described the murder scene, and the old lady. ‘I’m so sorry!’ Tom apologized,

‘I thought you’d just been to a party or something. I’ve picked up a few stray teenagers along this road. Look I’ll call for back-up, but it might take them a while to get out there. Do you mind if I turn back and go rescue your friend?’

‘Um, yeah, ok,’ Kate said a little uneasy about going back there, but also happy that Jake would be rescued.

They arrived, parking just off the highway, Tom called for back-up, and Kate felt comforted to hear the voices, of multiple police, on the other end of the phone. ‘Now Kate, I don’t want you anywhere near that pond, you stay in the car. If anything happens you can phone for help on this phone, I always keep a spare. Oh, and there is a gun in the glove box, but you won’t need it. Just stay in the car and don’t let anyone in, until I get back, ok?’

‘Yes, um, sure!’ Kate said anxiously, she didn’t like the idea of being left alone, but she was relieved she didn’t have to go into the bush again.

She watched as Tom crouched down, carefully entering the bush with his gun drawn. Oh god, she thought, I hope those other coppers are on their way!

She looked in the glove box and found a small torch and a gun. She gingerly took the gun out. She was scared, she’d never held a gun before, she quickly returned it to the glove box.

Jumping with fright, Kate heard the booming sounds of gunshots, and then yelling, not far into the bush. Someone was running towards the vehicle. Terrified, she crouched down out of sight, curling herself into a tight ball. Suddenly the murderer’s face appeared, outside of the driver’s side window. He was glaring at her, his evil smug looking grin, was brimming with the satisfaction of a hunter, capturing their prey. Panicked, she jumped out of the car and ran.

She heard a loud, ear-piercing boom, and felt brutal, burning, excruciating pain in her side, then she collapsed. Kate could feel her body being dragged through the forest by her jacket, all the way to the pond. She went in and out of consciousness, but she didn’t have the strength to fight.

Goodbye, Kate said to herself, it was a short, but good life. She could feel the frost bite creeping up on her, she had nothing, no strength left to fight with.

Suddenly a fist shattered the ice. Tom grabbed hold of her arm and hauled her out of the frozen pond. Gasping for breath, and disorientated, she mumbled, ‘thank, you,’ and then passed out.

She woke, in the ambulance. Tom was next to her, wrapped in a blanket, and bandaged around his waist.

He was smiling at her, ‘You gave us a bit of a scare there, young lady!’

‘Where’s Jake?’ Kate asked bewildered, and groggy.

‘Don’t worry, we’ll find him! Now you stay awake for me, just until we get to the hospital, ok?’

‘Alright…What happened?’

‘Our perp was waiting for me I’m afraid, he winged me, but I’ve had worse. We got him, the murderer, and that old lady, she was his mother. They are well known, criminals, dealing in human trafficking, and the man you saw being put into the pond, he was their partner, well, until tonight.’

Just then Tom’s phone rang, ‘It’s good news, he said to Kate, ‘they’ve found Jake and he’ll be alright. That crim shot him in the leg, but he found a cave to crawl into and hide, he’s lost a lot of blood, but they’ve stabilized him.’ Kate smiled, at last the ordeal was over!