Sharon Dunn - Zero Visibility

Merci ran back to the room, slipped into a sweater and jeans, grabbed her coat and put her boots on. She opened the door and stepped out on the porch. Silence greeted her. Where had Lorelei gone?

Her heart drummed in her ears as she scanned the empty landscape. One set of footprints looked newer than the others, where less snow had drifted over.

She stepped off the porch. “Lorelei.” She sank down into the deep snow as she followed footprints away from the cabin.

A mechanical noise, the sound of an engine starting up, broke the silence. Headlights sliced through the darkness and then the snowmobile emerged from a three-sided shed. The tall man in the leather coat who had tried to rob them earlier was driving. Lorelei stepped out behind him. When the thief saw Merci, he grabbed Lorelei and pulled her toward the snowmobile.

Merci raced toward them. The man pulled a gun out of a coat pocket and pointed it at Lorelei. He said something to her, and she got on the snowmobile.

He pointed the gun at Merci and then at Lorelei. “Back off or she dies.”

“You better do what he says.” Lorelei’s voice cracked.

“No, Lorelei, I won’t let them take you.” She grabbed Lorelei’s sleeve.

The man reached up and hit Merci hard against the jaw with the butt of the gun. She fell backward. Pain, intense and hot, spread across her face. Her eyes watered. When she looked toward the house, Nathan was standing up at the far side of the stairs.

The man revved the motor, preparing to take off. Merci turned to face the thug as Nathan’s footsteps pounded behind her.

Nathan, dressed in his boots and an open coat, jumped in front of Merci. “Get off my snowmobile.” He hit the man across the face with a right hook.

Lorelei screamed and scooted back on the seat.

The man leaned sideways, recovering just in time to lift the gun as Nathan grabbed him and yanked him off the snowmobile. The gun flew out of the thief’s hand.

Merci crab-walked backward in the snow. The two men struggled, rolling around on the ground. The thief freed himself of Nathan’s grasp, scrambling for his gun where it had fallen in the snow.

Out of breath, Nathan lunged toward the man.

The man hit him with the butt of the gun just as he rose to his feet. Nathan reeled backward and fell in the snow, not moving.

The man crawled back on the snowmobile. Lorelei sat stunned. Her eyes glazed as though she didn’t really comprehend all that was happening. The man revved the snowmobile and lurched forward. Merci waited for the backward glance from Lorelei, but it never happened. She tried to get to her feet to chase them, but sank down in the snow. The snowmobile disappeared into the trees, and the engine noise faded.

Out of breath and shaking, Merci crawled over to where Nathan lay. Blood dripped from his cheek.

She shook him. “Please, please be okay.”

His eyelids fluttered. Brown eyes looked at her. “Hey,” his voice was weak, but his eyes brightened when he saw her.

She breathed a sigh of relief, then noticed he had thrown his coat over his pajama bottoms. “You’re shivering. Take my hand. Let’s get you inside.” The struggle had chilled her, but he was probably nearing hypothermia. She was dressed for the cold and hadn’t had to roll in the snow with the thief.

He sat up swaying and blinking rapidly. “What about the snowmobile and Lorelei?”

“It’s too late. We can’t catch them.” She slipped in under his arm and helped him to his feet. “Let’s get you warmed up.”

“I’m an EMT. I know what to do. I just need to…” His voice trailed off.

She helped him up the stairs and through the door, easing him down into the chair by the fire.

“The coat needs to come off, it’s wet.” She peeled it off his shoulders and put it aside. She drew the same blanket he had offered her earlier over his muscular shoulders. His lips were drained of color, and he was still shivering. She touched his cheeks with her palms, forcing eye contact. “Better?”

He drew the blanket closer as he crossed his arms over his bare chest. “Getting there. I…he knocked me off the porch…hit my head.” He touched the back of his head and winced.

She hadn’t even seen Nathan as she had raced down the stairs in search of Lorelei. “How long were you there?” She covered his freezing hands.

“I was only out for a few minutes. I came to, and I saw you struggling.”

She pulled his boots off. The inside lining of his boot was wet from where the snow had seeped in. His bare feet weren’t blue, but they looked cold. She cupped her hand over one. “Can you feel that?”

He nodded. “Exposure wasn’t long enough for frostbite, just kind of cold.”

She grabbed a throw from the couch and secured it around his feet. “Now it’s my turn to make you tea.” She rose to her feet and went into the kitchen. She allowed herself only a momentary glance out the window. Lorelei was out there somewhere with those animals. They were going to have to find her before anything bad happened. If it hadn’t already.

* * *

Heat slowly returned to Nathan’s body as he listened to Merci work in the kitchen. A tingling sensation came into his feet and hands. He wasn’t accustomed to being the one needing first aid. She had handled herself like a pro.

In the kitchen, the kettle whistled. Merci hummed while she made the tea. He caught an undercurrent of tension in her singing. Her feet padded softly on the wood floor. She brought the steaming mug on a tray and set it on the table beside him.

She picked up a wet washcloth and pointed to his cheek. “You have blood on your face that needs to be cleaned.” She leaned toward him and touched the warm cloth to his face.

He drew back, surprised by the pain. “It must be pretty bad, huh?” He was going to have a knob on the back of his head where he had been hit, too.

She dabbed at the cut. Her face was close enough to his that her cool breath fluttered across his lips. “It’s a pretty big gash.”

“I have a butterfly bandage I can use to get it to close up,” he said.

“Let me get it. Where is it?”

He really wasn’t used to being the patient. “There is a first-aid kit in my bathroom, but I can get it.” He rose to get up.

She placed a gentle but firm hand on his shoulder. “Sit.”

Something in her tone told him argument would be futile. He listened to her open and close several drawers and then she returned, placed the first-aid kit on the table by his chair and tore the bandage out of the wrapping.

“Hold still.” She leaned close, her touch as delicate as feathers brushing over his skin.

Her proximity sent a surge of heat up his face. Surprised by the sudden smolder of attraction, he turned slightly away.

“Hold still.” She grabbed his chin and readjusted his head.

She was all business. Obviously, the feelings were not mutual. “Really, I could do this myself if I looked in a mirror.” She ignored him and finished the job.

“There, that should do it.” She sat back on the hassock between the two chairs. Her hand brushed over his cheek as she scrutinized her work. “You shouldn’t have any scarring.”

He touched the bandage and then looked at her. He studied her full lips, delicate—almost invisible—eyebrows and her freckles. Her green eyes widened. For a moment, time stood still and he forgot what they had just been through and what they faced. She was a lovely young woman.

She cast her gaze downward at the bloody cloth where she had placed it on the tray. Her expression grew serious and her soft full lips drew into a tight line.

She didn’t have to say anything for him to know what she was thinking about. It had been on his mind, too. Lorelei was out there with armed men who had no qualms about using violence.