"For fucks sake!" I shouted as I honked the horn. "Move the fuck out of the way, it's only fucking snow!"
I hated these backwoods hillbillys. Even worse, I hated driving back roads.
My flight had been cancelled due to this shit, and I just wanted to get back home. All of these people were driving too slow just because of this shit. First my meeting, then my flight, and now this, just because of fucking snow, that's it.
I drove past the two cars before me and gave them the finger. "Fucking idiots!" I said.
Now that I was free from them, I stepped on the gas. I wanted to be home on my couch as soon as possible, but the GPS clock said it would be another two hours.
At least it won't be two hours of this shit. I was sure there would be no snow once I got out of this hillbilly state, then I could really put the hammer down.
I had ventured into this state to buy out a small warehouse company. It's what my company did; we bought out failing companies and got what we could get from them before selling them cheap. Many people would get fired in the process, but who fucking cares, we got paid, and that's all that mattered.
The snow was really falling now, and I found it harder to see.
"Fuck," I said as I tried to look out the windshield.
That little voice in the back of my head started to tell me I should have listened to the idiot at the rental car place when he said I should stay in a hotel for the night.
It was pitch black outside, and the snow wasn't slowing down at all. If anything, it was ramping up. I had the heat at full blast, and the car still felt freezing.
Then it started to happen. My car started skidding this way and that way.
"Fuck," I said, gripping the steering wheel tighter.
Fear was beginning to settle in. I hadn't seen another car for what seemed like an hour now.
The GPS timer was starting to go up instead of down. As I was sure it knew what I now knew, the roads were getting covered in snow.
"Come on," I said, looking for any sign of life, a truck stop, a gas station, even a roach motel, anything that would get me off the road.
I only saw pitch blackness and sheets of snow coming down harder by the minute. I looked at my speedometer. I was barely doing ten miles per hour now. I didn't want to risk pushing it anymore as I could barely make out where the road was and where it ended. From what I saw up ahead on the GPS, the road looked like it twisted and turned.
The last thing I wanted was to go off the road.
'Should have listened,' the voice said again.
"I fucking know," I said as my hands felt like they were going to freeze, and my feet felt worse.
I knew I was in danger. I couldn't pull off to the side of the road and wait this out, my car would be covered in snow within seconds, and I would freeze to death. I had to keep pushing forward and hope there was a building or anything that would take me in.
"No!" I said as I felt the car starting to slow.
It was getting too cold, and it was affecting the engine.
I punched the gas, and it roared back up. I had to keep the car going. It was the only thing keeping me alive.
I saw some lights up ahead, and my heart jumped. Hopefully, it was a snowplow or someone that could help me.
As I got closer to it, my heart dropped. It was a reflector on the side of the road bouncing my high beams back at me. Nothing was out here. I had to rethink things. Maybe if I stopped and put more clothing on, I might be able to keep warm to stay alive for the night.
I turned to look back at my suitcase.
"Shit," I said as I remembered I had put it in the trunk, there was no way I could stop and get it out and come back inside. My temperature would drop rapidly.
In the moment it took me to take my eyes off the road, my car turned sideways. I felt it hit something, and then I was falling. I must have gone off the road as I wasn't just failing. I was crashing end over end.
The car finally stopped, and I felt okay, banged up, but it didn't feel like I had broken anything.
I unhooked my seatbelt and immediately fell onto the roof.
"Shit," I said.
I was upside down. The car lights were damaged, and I couldn't see anything. I tried to start the car to give me heat, but it wouldn't start.
Staying here wasn't an option for me anymore. I was getting colder by the second, and I knew it would get worse.
I put my shoulder against the door and pushed hard. Slowly it opened.
"Fuck me," I said as the cold wind tore through my clothes like little sharp knives.
'Move!' the voice shouted.
It was right. I had to keep moving. Movement was life in a situation like this, I might have been born a rich city boy, but I knew how to survive.
I walked towards the embankment and slowly crawled up to the road. Hopefully, someone will come by and see me. I barely made out my car tracks as the snow was doing everything possible to cover them up.
"This way," I said, knowing nothing was back the way I had come.
'Should have stayed in that luxury hotel,' that voice said.
"I fucking know it," I said out loud.
It seemed like I was walking backward as the snow pummeled me. I could barely see the ground in front of me. I couldn't feel my hands or my feet. The fear of death was sweeping over me.
'I am going to die out here,' I started to think.
After a few more minutes, that realization started to hit me harder.
There was no sign of life anywhere, no lights, no buildings, nothing. I would even settle for some rickety shack where I could go inside and die properly, somewhere someone would find my body, not out here.
I fell to the floor, ready to give up. "This is it," I said.
I couldn't go anymore; my feet were too cold to take another step, my bare hands shook uncontrollably, and I could barely breathe.
'Just lie down, it will go faster,' that voice said.
"Okay," I said.
"Hello!" I heard a voice.
"Hello!" I yelled back.
"Jesus!" a lady said as she came into view. "What are you doing out here?"
"My car..." I started to say.
"Let's get you up, you can't last long out here," she said as she helped pull me up.
We walked for what seemed a few minutes when a small house came into view.
"What in heaven's name made you think you could survive out here," she said as she got me into the warm house and closed the door.
"I thought...." I started to say, but I was stuttering.
"Clothes off, now," she said.
I finally could start seeing, she was a big woman, with long brown hair. The house was small, with a kitchen, living room, and one bedroom.
"I said clothes! No need to be shy, I have seen it all," she said as she entered the bedroom.
I started to take off all my clothes. I was standing naked in a stranger's house.
"Here," she said as she sat me down on the sofa and started to towel me off.
"Are you a nurse, or doctor?" I asked.
"No," she smiled. "A florist."
We both laughed, and I started feeling better. There was a small fire by the fireplace, and she pulled me to the floor. "Sit by it," she ordered. "I will make you some tea, warm the insides."
I nodded. The feeling was starting to come back to my feet and hands.
"Name is Sebastian," I nodded.
"Bernadette," the lady nodded.
"Thank you for saving me," I said. "How did you know I was out there?"
"I didn't," Bernadette said. "He did," she pointed to an urn over the fireplace.
I looked at it, and it had a man's name on it.
"My late husband," Bernadette smiled. "You might think I am crazy, but he talks to me sometimes, he told me you were out there."
"Well, thank you sir," I nodded at the urn.
If she was crazy, I wasn't going to say anything. She just saved my life, so if some bat shit idea made her come and save me, then so be it.
