If they say two to four feet of snow, they mean that shit, and you’d better listen or end up a popsicle to be found next spring.
“Screw it,” I grumble, hopping into the warm vehicle and getting my ass on the road.
I need to grab petro for the generator and extra firewood before making the hour trip home, so I need to hustle. My phone beeps as I’m filling up the gas cans, and I glance at the notifications from my motion detectors.
That’s odd.
When I open the app, all I see is white fluffy snow crystals covering the lens. I roll the footage back and see a large pile fall off my roof and cover the camera about five minutes ago.
“Crap,” I run inside the store to pay and grab the bundles of wood I purchased and load everything carefully but quickly, knowing I need to get home fast.
If the snow is already sliding off the roof in sheets like that, it’s worse at higher elevations, and I might not be able to get the SUV or myself into the house without digging a path, depending on how the wind is blowing.
The joys of moutain living.
I kick the SUV into second gear and start up the montain but notice the second pair of tire tracks as I climb higher. I’m the only resident on this side of the mountain, but maybe an evacuation was ordered, which would have sent the local police up to force me out.
But about a mile from the cabin, I see lights heading my way. It’s moving way to fucking fast to be anyone local. I open my glove box and pull out my gun. I slow down and move my vehicleover to give it space to pass, but it never happens. I watch as it loses control and lands in a ditch.
“FUCK,” I stop a few feet away and hop out of the SUV with a flashlight and my gun ready.
“HELLO!” I scream as I approach the small sedan.
No way is this a local. The hood of the car is smoking, and the airbags make it next to impossible to see anyone inside.
“CAN YOU HEAR ME?” I scream over the wind, which is picking up.
I get closer and try to open one of the doors, but it’s locked. I move to the other side of the car and see the passenger whose airbag must have failed because his head is facing backwards at an unnatural angle.
My throat goes dry as I look past him at the driver.
A tree limb went through the windshield and got the poor fucker through the chest. I tuck my gun into my pants and search the ground, finding a large branch which I haul over to the car and plunge into the snow to mark the spot where the vehicle is.
“Sorry, guys. You’re gonna have to wait until this passes.” I rush back to my SUV and haul ass up to the cabin. When it comes into view, I sigh in relief until I see the footprints in the snow.
Those fuckers were on my property snooping, but why? Suddenly, I don’t feel so bad about their current condition. Safes me the hassle of disposing of bodies.
I get the SUV into the garage, fill the generator, store the wood by the back door under a trap, then push my way through two feet of snow to the front porch, which isn’t visible from the road.
So I wouldn’t have seen the present those assholes left me.
Pinned to my front door by a knife is a white wedding dress. The blood dripping on the knife has stained the garment, and I watch one drop fall onto a mass lying unconscious on the floor,half covered in snow, which it takes my brain a full two seconds to realize is a naked woman. I rush over to her and check her pulse.
My Lord, she’s just a child. No older than Lucas, really.
I turn her face to me, moving her hair out of her face to pull the gag out of her mouth, and frown at the rope that has her bound up. I close my eyes as I wait to feel the thump under my fingers. It’s there, thank God, but faint. Her skin is turning blue, and I shrug out of my coat to cover, but not before I see what’s written on her chest.
Someone used blood to write me a note that will forever be seared into my memory.
MARRY, BREED HER. YOU HAVE ONE YEAR.
I reach down to lift her into my arms, and that’s when I feel the wetness pooling under her blood.
THEY STABBED HER?!
I scramble to lift her into my arms and open the door. I place her down carefully and check the wound. It’snot deep, just enough to get the blood they needed. I look at my cellphone and curse while I hit speed dial on the only number programmed in the fucking thing.
It didn’t work.
