Joe was still screaming, screaming loud. His shouts were echoing all round this isolated valley. The ground started to rumble and quiver like a hungry belly. Snow started to tumble off the top of the mountains. The world came toppling down. Even though it was crumbling and collapsing at a super high speed, faster than a motor cross bike. I lay immobile. Motionless as this 500 tonne, white bird of prey came sweeping down, only, I was it’s prey… As layer upon layer of this snow waterfall fell, I just stared at it helplessly. The burning feeling from my limbs had now totally vanished. I was frozen. Trapped. Every part of my body went numb, including my brain.
Darkness fell. I just lay there, thinking I was dead but I wasn’t. I felt my heart beating replicating louder than a drum. I could hear my breathing, deep and rapid. My mouth was full of bitter snow. My head was throbbing. I slowly opened my eyes with a mass of effort; they felt like they were swimming in a thick fog, arduous to see anything. I wrenched my neck from right to left; nothing. The world was blacker than a witch’s cat. Where was I? Was I really dead? Silence echoed all around me.
I whipped out my lighter sharply. I ignited it and glanced around. I was within a cave entrance. A chamber. A hollow cavity. The rocky walls were encrusted in mould and moss. There was a constant drip, drip, dripping sound. I was petrified when I looked down; my lower body was buried within the blockade of the entrance; over 50 metres of snow. Luckily, they were numb and no feeling was penetrating them. Unluckily, there was no way out; I felt like a bear, captured by poachers. No way to escape.
I lay, my head on the chilling, damp floor; thinking how I got into this. Then it hit me; I may never get out of this. I may never see my children again. I may never hold my wife and tell her how much I love her. All these emotions were swimming swiftly around my head. Buzzing like busy bees. Without warning, my lighter became a low light then deteriorated completely. It was out of gas. I burst into tears. I thought about what else I could have done in my life. Then I thought about my family, wandering where I was, setting out for local parks to put up pictures of me with “MISSING” written underneath.
It must have 4 hours I remained with this black blanket over my eyes; obstructing light. I just lay there, motionless. It felt like perpetuity, just lay there, motionless. I wondered what my funeral would be like. I imagined white flowers arranged around an empty mahogany coffin. I saw my family, my friends and my work colleagues mourning for me. There was no doubt that there was no way out of this nightmare. Would I die of thirst? Hunger? Or a silent painless death. Out of the darkness of the night, the end of a pick axe came thrusting through the snow above me. As it withdrew from it’s position, a tiny beam of sunlight bashed into the ground next to my ear. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Had somebody found me? Or was it all an illusion of my imagination?
