The Blizzard

The Blizzard

                Corey Philip laid on the horn as he and his sister lost control of their car. The combination of snow and ice carried their car forward until they collided with the SUV in front of them. The impact threw them forward but their airbags and seat belts flung them back into their seats. They sat still in the glow of the tail lights of the SUV, watching the blinding snow, blur the view from their cracked windshield. Corey turned to his sister Becka,

                “Are you ok?”

                She took a deep breath and then ran her hand through her autumn hair, checking for blood.

                “I’m ok, are you?”

                Corey flipped down his mirror. He checked himself in the reflection when he saw headlights coming up on them without sign of slowing.

                “Get down and hang on!” He said as they both tucked their heads into their chest. The impact threw them forward again. They heard the loud crash of the back window showering glass in the back seat. After a moment they looked up. Bright lights illuminated their car from the headlights of a truck. Corey looked at Becka and she gave him the O.K. signal. He sat up and opened the door.

                “I’m going to go check on the people in front of us, can you call 911?”

                “Yeah, I’m on it” She said pulling out her phone.

                He pushed open the door in a world covered in rushing white. Corey raised his arm to shield his face from the blizzard's assault on his face. He moved to the SUV in front first. He approached the driver's side and knocked on the window. As the glass rolled down, he saw a woman around his age with her head lying back against the headrest. A streak of blood dyed her blonde hair on her left temple. In the passenger seat sat what was an 11-year-old girl.

“Ma’am I’m a doctor, can you hear me?”

“Yes,” The woman said, raising her hand slowly to her head.

“Don’t touch it, I’ll be back with my kit.” He looked over at the girl in the passenger seat, “How are you doing kiddo?”

“I’m ok”

“Alright, I’ll be right back ok”

He moved back to their car and opened the door. Becka had just taken the phone from her ear, “First responders said because of the storm it will take time before they can get out. They may have to go by snowmobile or Sno-cats.”

“Ok, the driver in the SUV is a little banged up so I’m going to get my bag and patch her up. She has a daughter in the front seat that may be a little shaken up, would you mind distracting her?”

“Yeah, sure!” Becka said zipping up her jacket and putting her hat on.

Corey opened the back seat and brushed off the glass of a duffle bag with a red cross sign on the side. Corey and Becka were twins. They were both 28 years old and were traveling to Northern Michigan. Corey was a doctor headed to a medical convention in Petoskey, and Becka hitched a ride with him to visit college friends in the same area. They were close brother and sister. Even though they went their separate ways while he pursued a career in medicine, and she pursued accounting, afterward they came back together and shared an apartment.

Becka opened her door and walked to the passenger’s window, while Corey went back to the driver’s side.

“Hi! I’m back he said, knocking on the window”. This time instead of the window rolling down, the door opened. He bent down, opened his bag, and retrieved a flashlight.  “My name is Corey Philips and this other woman” gesturing to the passenger door opening, “is my sister Becka. She is going to make sure your daughter is ok too. I’m just going to take a look at that cut on your head.”

He flashed the light into the wound. Luckily it only looked like some glass cut her head but didn’t wasn’t stuck. He retrieved some alcohol and applied it. The driver winced at the sting for a moment. Corey applied some gauze to her head and then wrapped it. After this, he took the flashlight again.

“Ok can you look at me Ms..?”

“Belfry, Laura Belfry. That’s my daughter Amanda”

“Ok Laura, I’m going to shine this light in your eye…ok it looks like you are ok. Any nausea or dizziness?”

“Not anymore,” She said, feeling the bandage on her head.

“Ok, anywhere else that hurts?”

“No I think that covers it”

Corey turned the flashlight off but still saw Laura in the glow of the cabin light. Now that the urgency was done, he noticed how beautiful she looked even with the bandage on her head. He snapped back from this thought and asked, “We got word the first responders may take a while, you may want to let your husband know you are ok”.

She chuckled. “He stopped caring about that two years ago when he left, but thank you.”

“Oh ok”

A pause.

Corey said, “I think I need to check on the guy that hit us, to make sure he’s ok”

“Ok, nice meeting you Corey” She said with a smile.

“You too, if you have any water, maybe take some pain relievers to help with any pain.” And he walked off.

            Corey past their car and approached the truck. The driver was already out, standing at the front of his truck.

“Hey!” Corey yelled over the howling wind, “Are you ok? I’m a doctor”

“Yeah! I’m good, sorry about your car man.”

As Corey got closer, he saw the guy. He wore a trucker hat, cowboy boots, jeans, and a flannel jacket. He was in his mid-thirties with a large frame. The man stuck his hand out, “Names Jason Cartridge. I’ll grab my insurance info here in a second,” he said in a southern drawl.  

Corey shook Jason’s hand. “Corey, Corey Philip. There's no rush on the insurance. First responders won’t be getting out here for a while.” They looked up and down the country road into the unending tunnels of darkness guarded by woods on either side. After a couple of minutes, Becka walked up.

“How are the Belfries doing?” Corey asked.

“They are doing ok, Amanda is a little banged up but nothing serious.” She replied

“Good, by the way, this is Jason Cartridge,” He said motioning to Jason. “Jason, this is my twin sister, Becka”

“Hi” she smiled and stuck her hand out.

“Ma’am” He returned the smile and shook her hand. “I hate to break up this pow-wow, but I think the temperature is dropping. We better return to our vehicles. Are yall or the Belfries able to turn on your vehicles for heat or do you have candles?”

“Yeah, we got some candles. We’ll check on the Belfries too.”

After that, everyone returned to their vehicles. The Belfries didn’t have any candles so Corey and Becka gave them two and set up two of their own in their car. While the candle wasn’t a roaring fireplace, it did manage to raise the temperature in the vehicle a little bit. Becka wrapped herself in an emergency blanket from their kit, and within half an hour fell asleep. Corey sat and watched the flames on the dashboard. The occasional gust of wind would make its way through the windshield and make the flame dance, then return to normal. Corey checked his watch. 11:15 pm. He looked past the candle to the Belfries SUV. His mind began to think of Laura. He kicked himself for not getting her number, at least so they could be in contact with their vehicle.

His thoughts were brought back to the present as the sky lit up in a purple hue, then streaks of red lightning flashed, followed by large green glowing clouds. The display continued for thirty seconds, then stopped.

“What the hell was that?” Becka was sitting up and gazing up at the sky.

“I don’t know” He replied.

Becka’s phone buzzed. Her face lit up by the screen light. “Jason says, ‘Maybe that was the Aurora Borealis?’”

“Jason eh?” Corey said with a jeering smile.

“What? He seems nice” She said, “What about you and Laura?”

“What about her?”

“I heard you ask that ‘Did you let your husband know’ line”

Corey fumbled his words, “I was just making sure any of her family wouldn’t be worried.”

Becka laughed at his attempt to change the subject.

A horn’s blast cut their conversation short. They noticed it was coming from the Belfries’ vehicle. They tried to peer around to see what they were honking at, then looked back at Jason for any indication. Jason’s face was astonished. His eyes were wide. He waved both his hands in a downward motion. Next, they felt the car rock, as if the ground itself was shaking. They turned back in time to see the Belfry's vehicle flung into the snowbank to the left of them. It caught the packed snow and rolled onto its side. They looked up in time to see a large shape stomping toward them. It was over 12 feet tall. It's bulk blocked the entire view of the windshield. Corey saw a large head swing back from throwing the SUV. Now he could see two large tusks and a trunk that was covered in fur. It was headed right for them.

The first foot stomped on the hood of the car, pressing the hood down into the ground while simultaneously pushing the back end of the car into the air. The second step came down on the roof. The ceiling caved under the weight with a screech. Becka and Corey slid down toward the foot area. The car shifted as another step was made, then another, they heard a loud bellow followed by a crash, then silence.

“Corey,” Becka said, “Are you ok?”

“Yeah” He replied.

“What the hell was that?!”

“I don’t know, it was like an elephant of something. Lets try to get out, are you hurt?”

“Nah I’m ok”

Becka’s door opened and Jason came into view.

“Are yall alright?”

“Yeah, can you give us a hand?” Becka said.

He helped Becka out of the cramped interior. For Corey’s side, they needed to grab a crowbar from Jason’s truck and pried open the door so he could crawl out. Next, they moved toward the Belfries. Jason and Corey used the underbelly of the SUV to climb up the vehicle and open the passenger door. They grabbed a hold of Amanda and lowered her to Becka. Corey was concerned Laura’s head injury would make it hard for her to climb, but she jumped and grabbed their hands and was lifted out. A few moments later the five survivors stood on the solid ground as the snow whirled around them.

“What was that!?” Laura shouted over the storm.

“Looked like a damn Wooly Mammoth, like what you see in them museums,” Jason said.

“Yeah! I remember that from my books at school.” Amanda said.

“But how did it get here?” Laura replied.

“Regardless, our vehicles are toast. Jason, how does your truck look, could we drive out of here if we needed to?”

He shook his head, “The Mammoth did a number to the engine. Looks like I’ll be in the market for another vehicle. But the rate this snow is coming down, we need to construct some kind of shelter. I got survival gear in my cab and we can rig a tarp up to my truck.”

And with that, the survivors trudged their way to Jason’s vehicle. Amanda and her daughter searched for sticks to make a fire and returned with a bundle each. Jason, Becka, and Corey unraveled a large tarp and secured it to the side mirror and a latch from the truck bed. To make the shelter complete, Jason came back with two long sticks and attached the other side of the tarp. Becka passed out emergency blankets to everyone. Once the shelter was in place, Jason and Corey assembled one of the bundles of sticks and lit it with one of Corey’s flares from his med kit. Up until this point, everyone was walking around by the light of their flashlights or phones. When Corey struck the back of the flare, the bright red light blinded everyone momentarily, but it was quickly thrust into the bundle and a couple of minutes later, they were seated around a fire. Jason retrieved a hiking gas stove and heated up water for hot chocolate and tea. As they sat around the fire, the conversation eventually went back to the creature that smashed their previous shelters.

“Maybe it was something to do with that light show we saw” Becka interjected

“What do you mean?” Laura said.

“Well, we all saw the skylight. I mean I haven’t seen the Aura Borealis, I thought they were green and didn’t involve lightning.”

“I have to agree,” Jason said, “Maybe it did have something to do with the Mammoth?”.

“You mean like some kind of special storm caused it to show up?” Corey said.

“Maybe, who knows, maybe some government operation we don’t know about opened a portal or something,” Jason said.

“Eh that sounds like a load of crap,” Laura said.

“Maybe, but I stopped trusting our government long ago” Jason responded.

“You know what worries me though,” Corey said, “If a portal or something opened up to another time, I’m surprised only one mammoth came through. And that thing was running like a bat out of hell.”

“Like it was running from something?” Becka added.

A Low howl pierced through the winter silence, followed by heavy footsteps. Each concussion rumbled through their bodies. Jason reached through the broken window and retrieved a Remington pump action twelve gauge. They felt the steps pounding faster. In the center of the road, a stage performance of history passed by. A Wolly Mammoth came into the frame. It moved in an awkward gate as if it were injured. It shook its head back and forth as if trying to scratch an itch. Then they saw it, clinging to the right flank was a light brown mass. Another shape flanked the mammoth. Its movements silent and agile like an enormous cat. Then in a split second, the creature leaped onto the Mammoth’s head, causing the beast to panic and storm off to the right. The muffled roars of fright carried back to their shelter. Becka was about to speak when another shape walked out in front of them. Its head was bent to the ground picking up the scent of its quarry. Laura pulled her daughter close to her to keep her from crying out loud. The shape stopped. Its head turned and looked at the group of bystanders. Its eyes refracted a green glow from the fire’s light. It took two steps toward them. They could see the creature now. It was a cat from a bygone era. It stood five feet tall, with paws close to a foot across. Two large fangs protruded from its mouth past the bottom jaw. Blood dripped from the teeth and stained the snow beneath. The cat's eyes looked at each survivor for a whole second, as if committing them to memory, then walked off into the darkness.

“Shit,” Becka said.

“Now we got Sabretooth Tigers,” Corey said.

“What are we going to do? Did you see how big those things were?” Amanda said.

Jason reached back into his truck, produced a box of 2-inch slugs, and began loading the shotgun to capacity. A thought ran through all their minds. If those bastards had their fill with that mammoth, what would keep them from getting us?”

“Jason,” Corey said.

“Yeah?”

“Do you have any rags by chance in your car?”

“Yeah, what do you got in mind?”

                Fifteen minutes later, they had four sticks wrapped in gasoline-soaked rags ready to be lit into torches. Jason stood at the edge of the shelter looking out into the darkness. Corey sat next to Laura as she slept. He thought this is what cavemen must have been like, hiding in caves by the fire. Arming themselves with sticks to fight beasts 2-3xs their size. He forgot about rescue. This was the new way of life. To shake this thought from himself, he got up and walked toward Jason.

                “See anything yet?”

                “No, but there’s no way in hell I’d be able to sleep knowing those things out there.”

                “I hear ya,” Corey bent down and retrieved one of the torches. “Have you thought about rescue anymore? I thought we would have heard something by now. It's been a couple of hours.”

                “Yeah, thank God no one is injured too bad. But this whiteout seems to just be getting worse.”

                “I’ve thought about maybe we need to consider walking out of here. Maybe make some snow shoes with branches or things from the cars.”

                “I’ve thought about that too, but I don’t like the idea of walking out of here with those things still on the loose.”

                The snow whirled in a devious blinding rush as if it knew their conversation. Beyond the snow, two lights gleamed back at them in the darkness. Corey grabbed Jason’s arm and pointed. Jason raised the shotgun to his shoulder. Two more sets of lights appeared next to the first pair. A chill crept up Corey’s spine. In a silent movement, the flanking eyes moved further apart from the center, then went out. The remaining eyes continued to watch them, like a chess player trying to read their opponent's move. Then they too disappeared.

                “We better get the fire bigger and light those torches,” Jason said in a hypnotic tone, as he peered through the snow looking for the last pair of eyes. Corey ran over and put his and two additional torches in the fire. The rags caught and the flame burst to light, illuminating the inside of the shelter. In the fleeting light, he saw a gap between the tarp and the truck. And in the gap green florescent eyes shown back. Corey yelled and thrust the first torch he grabbed into the Sabretooth’s face. Becka and the Belfries screamed and moved away from the hole, grabbing the torches in the fire. The Sabretooth hissed, dodged back, and swung its massive claw in a counterattack. Corey dodged and thrust the torch further into the opening and made contact with the animal's face. Whether by the fur on the animal or the gasoline, the tiger’s face caught fire. It screeched in pain and anger and disappeared from the opening.

                By this time, Jason had squeezed off 3 shots. The concussion was muffled by the snowfall. Corey turned around to see Jason standing at the front of the tarp firing from position to position at the second tiger. Corey looked for the third tiger to appear. He came beside Jason, feeling each blast of the shotgun. Three more shells down. They were both knocked down from the right. Standing over them was another tiger. Its breath reeked of blood and death. It began clawing at Jason. He raised the shotgun horizontally to keep the big cat at bay. Corey got to his feet and looked for his torch, it lay in the snow a foot in front of the second tiger. Its face black from the torch before. He heard the screams of Becka and the Belfries as the third tiger began to walk toward them. Becka waved the torch back and forth in a vicious attempt to scare it off. He looked forward as the second tiger crouched low ready to pounce. Corey closed his eyes as he saw the muscles of the great cat relax and propel forward. He prayed it would be quick.

                He expected to feel a sudden impact that would send him backward. But instead, he heard a solid impact in front of him. He opened his eyes to see the sabretooth suspended in front of him. Its face twitching in pain. He saw a long white tusk sticking through it, now covered in blood. Corey followed it and found himself looking into the great form of a Wolly Mammoth. With one swing the beast launched the tiger through the air at a tree. The collision produced a loud snap as the tiger collapsed lifeless. Corey saw the tiger that was going after Becka and the Belfries sprinted past him toward the Mammoth. Before the tiger could leap, the Mammoth brought its massive trunk and tusks in a downward swing, smashing the tiger into the ground. A similar crack was heard and the second tiger lay lifeless. Corey looked up to see Jason lying on his back while the third tiger and the mammoth battled each other. He sprinted over and grabbed his coat and pulled him over to the shelter.

                “Corey, is he ok?!” Becka said.

                Corey looked him over and saw his coat was torn open in multiple areas and blood was seeping through. But he managed to protect his vitals in his struggle with the tiger.

                “He's gonna be ok” Corey said.

                They all turned to the battle in front of them from a bygone era. The tiger leaped onto the mammoth's face and sunk its claws and fangs into the animal's trunk. The mammoth let out a howl of pain and shook in a violent panic to get the tiger off. The sabretooth adjusted its mouth, and bit down harder, this time close to the mammoth’s eye. Then in rage, the mammoth rushed toward a large Oaktree on the other side of the road and slammed its head into the tree with all its might. The sudden blow caused the tiger to release its grip. The mammoth seeing its opportunity swung its head to the left, then quickly to the right. The tusk pierced through the tiger's flank. The sabretooth cried out in pain as the mammoth lifted it in the air and flung it to the ground. Then in the final act of victory, it lifted its large foot and crushed the sabretooth's head in a single step.

                The survivors watched in awe as the mammoth raised its head and turned toward them. It didn’t have the look of rage it had when it destroyed their cars. But it looked as if it was content, and its job was complete. It raised its trunk and let out a low bellow and walked off into the night.

The End