The piercing cold had been a worrisome problem the whole trek. Trudging for hours through the knee-high layer of frozen snow, I had gradually lost all feeling in my toes but was too afraid to take my boots off and check their condition. However I was sure the irreversible process of frostbite had settled in to leave its permanent mark.
And the impending nightfall wasn’t going to make things easier. Although there was still light outside, the ominous moon was already high, grinning at me through the bare limbs of the still, lifeless trees. There wasn’t much time left. I needed some form of shelter by sunset or I was done for.
I did the only thing I could and pressed on. My heart rate increased as I sped up, more and more desperate with every hurried step, feeling the callous dusk creeping up behind me. The wind howled furiously, blowing icy snow in my face, piercing my skin and pushing me back. It felt like this whole frozen wasteland was alive, trying to bury me deep inside its cold depths.
In my desperate and disoriented state I almost walked right passed what looked like a tall, two story cabin. I could not believe I was so close to it when I first noticed it, but it didn’t matter and I rushed through the front door that was, quite conveniently, unlocked.
To my surprise, inside the cabin there were spread out about half a dozen men, all shouting aggressively at me to shut the door and something more about the latch that I couldn’t really make out because of them all yelling different instructions at the same time. After stumbling for a few seconds with the latch I finally managed to gather all remaining strength and push the door closed. Then a three hour long feud took place about one of the men, a bounty hunter, and his female prisoner. Spirits were high, guns were raised, it turned messy. I didn’t make it.
To my surprise, the cabin was empty but warm, the fireplace was lit and it smelled like dinner was being cooked. Then an old couple came climbing down, welcomed me in and made me feel at home. I let the guard down and relaxed completely. I had a big meal and a comforting chat with the nice couple, then warmed up beside the fire and fell asleep as calm and relaxed as a newborn next to his mother’s bosom. I never woke up.
To my surprise, the cabin wasn’t real. I was delusional, the cold had finally gotten to me. Hypothermia had settled in, I couldn’t tell what was real anymore and had lost all sense of direction. I soon collapsed into a hunched snowman and became an eternal part of the frozen landscape.
To my surprise, in the center of the cabin a weeping woman sat squatting. Dressed in dirty rags, with overgrown fingernails and her head bowed, she hid her face with long, messy hair and cried deeply, oblivious of my presence. But as I took a step closer I unintentionally startled her and she got up, released a powerful growl and then straight on attacked me. I was incapacitated immediately, and screaming for help lead to no results. My vision turned black and white and then just faded to black. I didn’t make it.
To my surprise, the cabin was inhabited by a group of scared-out-of-their-mind teenagers. One of them had been gutted and was twisting in agony on the blood soaked sofa, visibly struggling for every breath he took. From further discussions with the group I learned that another one, a girl, had gone missing after going to the outhouse. Initially they thought I was the ‘killer’ that was hunting them down one by one but after seeing the condition I was in they immediately let go of that absurd insinuation. So we all gathered around the fireplace and after a long and thoughtful conversation decided that the best plan would be to split up one by one, and wonder around aimlessly, with racial minorities from the group having to go first. Nobody made it.
To my surprise, Cryout Creations had released a new WordPress theme called Septera. They had a long, annoying post about it that had absolutely nothing to do with WordPress, themes or anything else even remotely related. I was infuriated for having to read scroll through it all but I went through with it, and at the bottom I finally came to find all the useful info about the theme. And then I knew: I had made it.