Chapter Two
Kim woke to the sound of sheets being ruffled behind her, or at least that’s what it sounded like. She opened her eyes and looked up at the sky: its reddish hues quickly giving way to the harsh black of night. The North Star was already visible in the sky and the redhead knew that it was about to get very cold.
“Ron?” She tried to sit up, but found that she was still strapped to her friend; both of them on their sides with the billowing chute tangled in a nearby lodgepole pine. Releasing her harness the redhead turned to check on her partner, removing his helmet and placing it on the ground next to them. He looked alive, his skin still warm to the touch…
She leaned in and placed her ear near his mouth to listen for breathing: letting out a relieved sigh as she felt her friend’s warm breath against her ear. Ron’s condition now ascertained; Kim took a moment to check herself for injuries. As far as she could tell there was no visible damage. Her whole body ached like she had spent a week at the gym…but there were no cuts or broken bones that she was aware of.
“Wade…”
Wade Load, Team Possible’s tech guru, she had to contact him; let him know they were alive and to send help. She reached into her jumpsuit pocket to retrieve her Kimmunicator, but it wasn’t there. She looked around frantically for the blue device, but couldn’t locate it anywhere. Then she remembered; shortly after takeoff Ron had complained about it digging into his thigh, so she had handed it up to Lt. Steeves to carry.
“The Kimmunicator is with Lt. Steeves…” Kim muttered to herself. “Lt. Steeves is in the plane…and the plane,” She looked around the granite-strewn hillside for any signs of wreckage, but found none. “The plane is…gone.”
“Kim…Kim!” Behind her, Ron bolted upright and began shouting her name.
“Over here Ron.” She stumbled back over to her partner. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” The blond looked around confused. “How long was I out?”
“I don’t know, I just woke up myself.”
Ron reached down to unbuckle his harness and Kim noticed for the first time the yellow nylon cord attached to the bottom of it: it was leading downhill toward an old rotting log.
“What’s this?” She reached down and began reeling it in: about five feet downhill the sound of metal dragging across rocks could be heard and a large olive container came into view. As she pulled it over to the two of them, they saw that it was approximately 30-by-14-by-6 inches and had the words ‘ESCAPE AND SURVIVAL KIT’ printed across it.
“Should we…open it?” Ron asked. Kim noticed that he was starting to pale slightly, and it dawned on her: Ron suffered from altitude sickness.
“I don’t see why not,” She replied, silently praying that it contained some type of anti-altitude sickness pills (if there were such a thing). “I kinda doubt they’ll find us until the morning.” Ron nodded slowly as his brow began to sweat slightly, despite the quickly dropping temperature around them.
Kim opened the container and found it to contain several neatly packed and organized items. She rummaged through the out-dated contents until she found the two items she was looking for: a packet of motion sickness pills (not perfect, but good enough considering) and a reversible survival blanket (camouflaged on one side for hiding from the enemy, and reflective silver on the other for signaling overhead aircraft). She removed the items and returned to where Ron had propped himself against a fallen tree.
“Here,” She held out the packet. “Take these, they’ll help with the altitude sickness.”
“Thanks KP.” Ron replied, tearing the package and swallowing the two pills inside. “Did you…contact Wade?”
Kim shook her head. “I gave the Kimmunicator to Lt. Steeves, remember?” Ron’s face actually seemed to pale even more. “Don’t worry,” She attempted to reassure him. “If they’re not here first thing in the morning we can hike to the crash site and…”
Ron shook his head slowly. “I was awake for a while after we ejected Kim,” His voice was filled with despair. “I saw where it went down.”
“Yeah? Where?” Kim asked nervously; not quite sure she wanted to hear the answer. Ron raised his arm and pointed to one of the countless snow-covered peaks surrounding them.
“It spun into a small lake… in the valley…on the other side of that mountain.” Kim’s hopes followed it in…
“Well, let’s not worry about that now.” She said as she sat down next to him and began to unfold the blanket over them both.
“It’s so…cold.” Ron muttered, somehow managing to shiver and sweat at the same time.
“Come here,” Kim commanded, pulling her partner up against her.
“I don’t wanna wrestle...” Ron mumbled as the redhead laid him down in her lap and pulled the emergency blanket over their bodies (making sure the reflective silver was facing out; just in case). She watched protectively as her best friend’s trembling subsided and his breathing became slow and rhythmic before allowing her eyes to shut and sleep to envelope her as well.
