Wait There!

"Just hold on a moment!" You say to her. "I'll come get you!"

"How?" She asks, starting to panic again. "Your weight will only crack it faster!"

"I'm still working that out!" You reply. Your brain works overtime furiously. C'mon, think you idiot!

"Hold on!" Melody cries suddenly. "I got it! Get down on your stomach!"

"Huh?" You respond.

"It's all about physics. If you are standing up, the pressure of all your body's weight is condensed to your feet. If we distribute the weight more evenly across your body, it should reduce the pressure on the ice and keep it from cracking so much!"

God bless her for staying awake in class. You immediatly drop to your stomach and began to penguin-slide your way to her slowly. The cracking beneath you is freaking you out, but you stay steady. "Easy does it." You whisper.

"Okay...I'm going to get down on my stomach too." Melody says. She slowly drops into a kneeling position. From your low posture, you notice the ice crack and divide sharply. Your eyes widen.

"Wait! The ice is-!" You don't get to finish your warning. The ice breaks and with a shriek, Melody plunges into the cold waters below. "Dammit! Melody!" You cry out and slide over to the water as fast as possible. She is splashing like crazy trying to stay afloat. Unfortunatly, it isn't being helped by the weight of her snowsuit. She is slowly sinking lower and lower.

You manage to get to the edge of the crack without breaking anymore ice, miraculously. You plunge your hand into the freezing water. It stings, but you ignore the pain and grab a hold of Melody's wrist. You pull her out of the water, or at least attempt to. The ice beneath you is cracking more and more.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" You shout as the ice below your crumbles apart. With one final bout of energy, you yank her out of the water fully. You push her body across the ice and her wet suiot helps her slide away from the cracks. The ice beneath you finally cracks into pieces and you slip partway into the water. In a panic, you push yourself backwards, using the breaking ice as leverage.

Suprisingly, you push past the breaking ice and it gets thicker, meaning more support. You exhale sharply as you realize you are now safe and you somehow survived. Your arms are soaked, but you are otherwise dry. You immediatly slide over to Melody's body. Your breath catches in your throat. Her eyes are closed and she isn't moving, but you can see her chest rise and fall slowly. She's breathing, you realize and your heart resumes beathing. She's soaked in freezing water, though, and it's getting colder out. The icy wind is starting to pick up too. She'll catch pnumonia soon if you don't do something.

You stand up and cautiously test the ice. It's stong enough to hold your weight, which is good news. Carefully, you pick Melody up in your arms and start to carry her off the lake. Her unconsious body shovers in your arms and you try to hold her close to keep her warm. You can't let her down...not now.

It's dark by the time you get off the otherside of the lake and into the other forest. However, much to your surprise, it isn't far into the forest that you see an old wooden cabin. You shout out loud at your good fortune and hurry over to it as quick as possible. You set Melody down and knock on the door several times.

"Anyone home?" You shout, but get no response. You see a lock on the door and realize noone must be occupying it at the moment. You look around for a rock and find one by one of the tall trees. You grab the rock and smash it against the lock several times. You finally manage to bust the lock off and open the door. You pick Melody up and bring her in.

You can see the cabin has an old furnace with a flue in the center of the room. There are a few beds lining the walls of the cabin. You breathe a sigh of relief when you see some blankets folded up at the end of each bed. At least you have something to keep Melody warm with. her shivering is getting worse and you don't have a lot of time to decide what to do to help her.