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 Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 10:29 pm
"Like hell!" Hayes dodged a vicious elbow and grabbed for Nikki's wrist as it shot past, dropping his other trekking pole. He'd forgotten his bulky gloves. Unable to get a grip on her thick sleeves, he made another attempt, and another, keeping hold of her by the strap.
"You haven't been hydrating or keeping your energy up! And when was the last time you checked our position? Did you even bring a tent?" His arm came around to roughly pin her against him.
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Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 10:38 pm
"Oh.. Shut!... Up!" she snapped as she started dodging his attempts to grab her. Knocking away his hand repeatedly, all the while still struggling to get out of his grasp.
"What are you, my mother?! AGH!"
He managed to restrain her with his arm, forcing bodily contact and causing her to glare daggers up at him.
"I am really hating you right now."
She then aimed a knee at his groin.
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Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 11:08 pm
"As if I care," her partner growled. His tinted snow goggles hid the shape of his eyes, but his mouth was annoyed enough on its own. "The way you're acting I think you didn't have AUGH."
Hayes collapsed, his mind centered on a private world of pain. Unfortunately his hold on Nikki's pack didn't slip, and he ended up dragging it, and possibly her, down with him. He landed face down in the snow with a crunch and was motionless.
"Arceus," he managed after some moments.
A few chunks of snow tumbled past him.
Then a few more. Larger ones.
Hayes struggled to his knees, trying to undo the waist strap of his pack. "s**t. Nikki-"
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Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 2:24 pm
There was a brief smirk of satisfaction as she hit her mark, causing the expected reaction. She'd been grabbed and manhandled by many men in the past and knew well how to defend herself.
Although that smirk went to surprise as she was pulled down into the snow with him. Irritated all the more, she took her foot to kick at him. "a**, you deserved it!"
However, her attention was suddenly riveted away from Hayes as mounds of snow slid past them. Her eyes going wide as she looked up towards the peak. The snow was so thick and heavy that it was unable to cling to the rock face anymore and was giving way.
"s**t!" she shouted as well, trying to get up but was only able to half way due to Hayes still hanging onto her backpack. She wormed her way out of it and started to beat a retreat... but it was too late.
The entire mountainside looked as if it was falling as the massive amount of snow started coming down in a roar. A white mudslide that was headed straight for them.
Nikki didn't get very far before a wall of white slammed into her from behind, knocking her off her feet and carried her farther down the mountain. Arms and legs flailed as she tried to grab ahold of something to stop her decent, trees passing by in a blur and narrowly missing them. But it was futile, the forces of nature and gravity were too strong. That is until she landed hard in a ditch, only to have the snow bury her alive.
The world of white suddenly went to black.
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Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 10:37 pm
It might seem like an eternity, a time out of time, the world far beyond the shroud of snow. Perhaps the legendary bird they sought felt something similar when it cased itself in ice, waiting years to emerge from a frozen nest. Possibly, away from all sky and earth and life, someone might forget such things existed, and fall back into slumber, to next awaken.. when?
The ice groaned.
"..ki."
A brief snuffling, just as soon gone.
"..hey.."
Something bluntly pointed, questing.
"..ki?"
The world began to fade to blue, cracking and crumbling, and then a plastic shovel was heaving at the snow, replaced after some bladefuls by gloved hands brushing at her nose and mouth.
"Hey! Nikki!"
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Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:19 pm
After being buried for about an hour, she was finally being uncovered.
However, the girl's hair was wet, her skin pale and clammy, and lips turning an interesting shade of blueish purple. It was hard to tell if she was still breathing or not since snow was crammed in her mouth and nose.
The force of her fall and the weight of the snow had knocked her out.
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Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:47 pm
When he finally unearthed her, he opened his mouth to swear - again, since every strike with the collapsible shovel had been punctuated by sound that was not always intelligible, but unmistakeably profane.
She looked.. dead.
He exhaled.
Well.
Too hard to tell if she was breathing, no way to listen to her chest through that thick jacket, no time. The blond huffed and yanked a glove off with his teeth. Kneeling in the snow, he took Nikki's face in one hand and squeezed the sides to work her jaw open. With his other hand he began to clear her airways, the warmth of his bare fingers melting the snow.
He paused with his hand just over her mouth and squinted behind his goggles for three seconds.. four.. five.. nothing. Nothing that he could see or feel, at least.
"Come on," the Rocket growled, frustrated with the world in general by this point. "Really? You're not? Can't you at least be- damn it, Nikki." He wrestled a yellow plastic case out of a zip pocket as he fumed and removed a silicone CPR mask, which he placed over her nose and mouth.
This was going to hurt. Not now, but later, because if she kicked people who held her back, she'd do worse if they gave her the kiss of life.
Hayes took a deep breath, held it, and bent his head.
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 1:21 pm
But she wasn't dead. Not yet anyway. Had she been in there much longer she probably would have been.
As Hayes attempted his rudimentary CPR, it didn't take long for something to happen. With air suddenly rushing into her lungs, the girl sputtered and coughed as if she was choking. Her eyes flying open in surprise.
"The... hell..." she managed to say.
It took her some moments to realize what was going on. And needless to say, she was rather repulsed. Her arms coming out of the snow to push him away, but cold had sapped a lot of her strength.
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 2:20 pm
Hayes pulled himself and the mask away the moment Nikki started breathing on her own, a little more quickly than was necessary. He brushed her arms away as if he were dismissing gnats, and with about as much attention. His businesslike posture and flat voice said he was not in the mood for this.
"Good, you can talk. Now unless you have something useful to say, shut up."
The blond looked as if he'd been recently excavated himself. Snow was caught in the folds and creases of his clothing, strands of wet hair stuck out between the top of his goggles and face mask, and his snowshoes were gone. He breathed warm air on his bare hand and attempted to rid it of excess moisture by wiping it on his jacket before pulling his glove back on, then the heavy mitts hanging from his wrists by idiot strings.
Once he'd taken steps to conserve his own heat, he went back to digging her out with the shovel, lifting away the heavy drifts pinning her lower half. The storm was ending or had hit a lull and would return, but the flurries and wind had died down for now. "How's your legs? Can you feel them?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 3:42 pm
Nikki glared up at him, although the intensity from before wasn't quite there.
"This is... all your fault," she croaked, trying to pull herself out and failing. Crap.
His question drew silence from her for a few moments as she came to the realization that she couldn't. "No." In fact, she felt numb all over. Not too surprising considering water had seeped into her clothing and she had been in a natural ice box for an entire hour.
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 4:09 pm
"Sure it is," Hayes huffed between pitching snow. "And so is the weather, the french fry in your coffee, and that sludge on Fridays they think passes for chicken tikka." He was ranting a bit, but it was that or hit her with the shovel. Once Nikki's legs were free, he tossed it aside and stood with his back to her, breathless from exertion.
"You are. So lucky. To even be alive right now," he said, looking out over the wake of the disaster. "Don't jinx it."
The Rocket ran a hand over his temple and trudged over to his pack, which was wedged upright in the snow a few feet away. He paused, scanning across the chaotic landscape for something without success, and began to search through his gear.
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 4:29 pm
She was about to protest and opened her mouth to do so, until the mention of the french fry in her coffee came up. She huffed and looked away, brows creased in irritation. So he had heard about that, eh? Whatever. It figures.
Using her arms, Nikki pushed herself out of the second hole she manage to get herself in today. Even though the storm had died down, the wind was still cold and she hugged her knees to her chest and shivered.
She was oddly silent, apparently having nothing to say or unable to due to her chattering teeth.
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 4:46 pm
"Here." Hayes had waded through the snow and was back again. He crouched next to his partner with an armful of flat teal plastic packs in various sizes. "Hands and feet. Slip these in your gloves. Can you get your boots off?" He selected four of palm-sized ones and mashed each one between his hands before holding the first out to her. It was already growing warm.
This was hardly the best place to do this, but he didn't think Nikki could walk and Hayes couldn't carry her as he was right now. The Rocket kept his head down, talking as he worked. "We're going to head for those trees and I'll set up a bivouac. Then we'll see how things are."
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 5:07 pm
When he offered her the heat packs, Nikki looked up and stared at them silently for a few moments. She wanted to refuse and say she didn't need them, but she knew better than that. Having to relent, she reached out and took the first one. She muttered something inaudibly when he asked about her boots, and started inserting the packs in her gloves first.
Her gaze went towards the trees and she sighed. It was then that she realized she didn't even have her backpack anymore. It must have gotten knocked off and buried somewhere in the avalanche.
"s**t," she cursed, a slight panic coming over her as she patted herself down, looking for something. But there was a sigh of relief when she found her pokeballs. At least they were safe.
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