In The Orbit (Part I)

35. Strom

"Ok. Let's go," I say, and open the door.

Immediately, the cold hits, and wind blows the snow on the ground into the pod. We step out. The snow comes up almost to my knees. We look around, shielding our eyes from the sun, and also the snow swirling in the wind.

"Wow," Kellina says. "I haven't felt wind in years."

"Why? Don't you spend your summers down here?"

"Nope. We have a home on Satellite XVIII."

"Wow." Satellite XVIII is famous for it's glorious homes and tropical "climate." It has a man made sea and rainforests. They even grew animals. We watched a whole documentary about it when the construction was finished in second grade.

"Wait... do you know that little girl in the XVIII documentary?"

"Yeah... I was that little girl. That is an embarrassing moment for me. Now which way should we go?"

"Hmm, I say uphill. Away from the forest. Also, people usually live on top of hills, right?"

Kellina looks confused.

"Never mind, I'm from Louisiana."

"Ok," she says. "We will also be able to see roads and stuff up on top of the hill... I guess."

We close the pod's door and start to wander in the direction away from the forest and up the hill. It isn't horribly steep, but we are walking into the wind and it is biting. My skin stings like it is on fire and snot and tears run down my face. The snow really hard to walk through. Under it, there is ice, which makes it really slippery. Kellina falls four times.

We finally get to the top, and she screams with delight, or maybe frustration. A highway winds itself next to a river. There are bulidings off in the distance, probably a rest station. We start to run, and both slip and fall. We slide probably a hundred yards. There is one of those highway walls blocking us from getting on the highway. Kellina groans.

"It's a fast one. Not one of those just pull over and let someone in highways," she grumbles.

"Can we climb it?" I ask.

"I'm NOT athletic," she replies.

"Yeah, neither am I. Let's just walk along it until we get to that rest stop."

"This was a bad idea. We should have just gone back to the satellite."

"No. I need to figure this all out."

We start to walk. Both of us are shaking so hard and it is really slow-going. I put my arms inside my shirt for a moment of warmth. Then I take them out again so I can keep my balance. We get to a bridge, where the highway crosses the river.

"What should we do?" Kellina's voice is croaky and her teeth clank so much that she can hardly get the words out.

I point to the tiny gap between the wall and where the railing for the bridge starts. Kellina whimpers but she starts walking towards the bridge. We squeeze through the opening. The highway is relatively empty, which is good because the snow is piled up against the railing, giving us no room to walk alongside the highway. We will have to walk in the highway.

We start to cross the bridge. The absence of the wall means the wind is back and it feels like tiny bits of glass are cutting into my skin. A car speeds by on the other side of the road. The kids in the backseat goggle at us.

The bridge feels so long. My vision is blurry and I close my eyes. The frozen tears crackle on my cheeks. It feels like hours later, we are still on the bridge. Two cars have passed on the other side. One on this side.

Suddenly, I hear the purr of a motor and brakes squealing. We look behind us. A red minivan has stopped and the driver gets out. She is what we politely call "a little heavy." She is wearing a huge jacket with a fur hood and big, shiny sunglasses.

She walks over to us and asks, "What the heck are you doing?! It's like negative forty! Get in the car!"

Kellina and I glance at each other. Neither of us want to be kidnapped. She does her best to shrug, and I can tell that she is too cold to care anymore. We start to stagger towards her and her car, but another car gets there first. It's brakes screech and it skids around the red minivan, but scrapes the side of the car in the process.

There is the horrible sound of metal on metal, and then the guy in the car gives us the finger and speeds off.

The lady screams for about thirty seconds straight. She surveys the damage of her car, and then she seems to remember that we are there. She beckons us into the car, and shuts the door behind us.

The heat of the car hurts. It actually hurts. Kellina and I literally groan in pain as we try to move our extremities and get the blood flowing.

The lady taps the screen embedded in her car. The little phone icon comes up. She taps in 911. Kellina and I both start yelling for her to stop at the same time.

She glances at us. "Illegal immigrants, are we? Runaways? Got kicked out because she's pregnant?"

"No, what?" Kellina blurts. "None of those are true!"

"911, what is your emergency?" says the dispatcher.

"Picked up some runaway pregnant illegal hitchhikers in the cold. Didn't want them to freeze themselves to death."

"How long have they been out there?" asks the dispatcher.

"Forty-five minutes?" I reply.

"And you're pregnant? Hold on, are you currently in an automotive vehicle?"

"Yes," snaps the lady. "Now tell me the directions to the nearest hospital and I'm gonna dump these two frozen idiots there. They are warming themselves up right now. I think they might have some weird skin damage or something. The girl's legs are blue."

Kellina whimpers. I look down at her legs. They are indeed a blueish purple color.

The lady hangs up her car phone and flips on some music. Death metal comes pouring out of the speakers. The bass pumps, and the lady steps on the gas.