# 102: Melvin : Ice Slick
Melvin had little way of knowing that he and his companions were experiencing the longest lasting ice storm in American history but it wouldn't’ have surprised him one bit either. There were no signs of it letting up. Everything was coated in ice. Most places were encased in several inches of the stuff. The Flood RefuGee Camp, their numbers increasing as the chill water forced people out of more and more homes, had to move, again. Not only had the ice collapsed their tents but the water was inexorably rising. It was either leave or drown if not freeze first.
Melvin’s was the last bus to leave the camp because it couldn’t move. It was spinning it’s tires and sliding on the ice but wasn’t going anywhere. There was zero traction. It could NOT go uphill. The solution set was binary. Either go uphill or drown and soon. They couldn’t go uphill and there were no tire chains available nor any field expedite material with which to make them. Drowning was looking like a real possibility if they didn’t freeze to death first. Time for the GoTH Plan. Plans A-Z hadn’t worked.
The ground was so ice covered and so slick that Melvin, the inmate monitor(tiger mom) and all the kids (inmates) slipped and fell to the ground when they got out of the Bus. They couldn’t even stand up without falling much less walk. They had to crawl.
Melvin and TigerMom, managed to control the kids. No other Driver/Monitor could have done so with these kids. This particular busload had all been through hell together many times and they trusted each other. They had all learned the hard way that to quit was to die. They had no intention of dying. Melvin searched the bus for tools. He found some. From under the seats he retrieved a couple of ScrewDrivers, a pair of pliers and some duct tape. He also found a baby sledge. Gotta love a sledge hammer. That sledge might make ALL the difference. Hammers, especially since all sledge hammers were kin to Mjolnir.
Melvin ripped the headliner fabric out of the bus overhead. He used the hammer to knock out the bow rods, then to break them into shorter pieces and put a crude point on their ends. The he used the baby sledge to crush the headliner so that it would tear and ripped off a few strips. He used the strips and the duct tape to make handles for the short pieces of sharpened headliner bow rod. Now he had a great number of pointy things.
Next he, tiger mom and the kids, removed the seat cushions and tossed them out of the bus onto the ground. They’d make good sleds on the slick ice. He selected a few more items that he thought they might need then crawled, skidded and slipped as he distributed the loot among his charges. Then he explained to them what they were going to do with it. They had to move. The water was rising.
TigerMom laced and braided a harness with the heavy roll of carpenter’s twine that he had found. They tied themselves together. The water was only a few yards away when they finished. They had to hurry.
Everyone was on a seat cushion. It would insulate them from the ice and help keep them from freezing right away. The headliner and other stuff was packed on the seats too.
Then everyone began crawling uphill, using the seats as belly sleds. Pushing with their feet. It wasn’t long before the slope of the hill made even that impossible. It was a long, long hill but a very gradual one, and slicker than snot on glass.
When they couldn’t push with their feet they began stabbing the ice with their pointy things too. Between slipping feet and stabbing hands they inched forward. Soon they were exhausted.
“Can’t stop” Melvin told them. “If we stop the water catches us. You know what happens then.”
They knew. They’d had examples enough. Time and again they’d seen someone fall into the water, splash for a little while, then slowly stop moving,
....... and die.
The cold water sucked the life right out of a person. It didn’t take long. They knew what would happen if they stopped, but they were SO tired.
They had been worn out the day before and had slept poorly. They’d received little rest.
“Can’t stop” Melvin said to them as well as to himself, they all depended on him, everyone did. He couldn’t let them down. He couldn’t let them freeze.
Some people just don’t have any “give-up’ in them. Some folks just don’t have a reverse gear. Some folks just don’t have any ‘back up’. Melvin was one of those people. They all were. He wouldn’t stop while he still breathed. If he stopped they would all freeze. He had to keep moving forward. He had to stay ahead of the water.
Melvin reached forward and stabbed the ice with his screwdriver.
Everyone else did likewise with their makeshift sharp pointy things just as he’d instructed them.
He pulled. He was pulling them all forward.
Everyone else did likewise just as he’d instructed them. They pulled themselves forward also.
He reached forward with his other hand and stabbed the ice with his other screwdriver.
Everyone else did likewise with their other makeshift sharp pointy thing. Just as he’d instructed them to.
He pulled. He was pulling them all forward.
Everyone else pulled too.
“Yank” he shouted, yanking his right hand screwdriver out of the ice.
Everyone else did likewise just as he’d instructed them
“Stab!” he shouted...and reached ahead and stabbed the ice.
Those behind him did likewise
“PULL!” He shouted as he pulled himself, and those tied to him, a few inches or a foot forward over the ice.
Those behind him did likewise
“YANK!” he shouted, and extracted the left screwdriver from the ice.
Those behind him did likewise
Yank...Stab...pull.
Those behind him did likewise
Yank...Stab...pull.
Those behind him did likewise
Yank...Stab...pull.
Some of the smaller children, and they were mostly children, were too weak to pull themselves with one arm. They only had one screwdriver, or one icepick and used both arms to swing and stab. They braced themselves, to keep from sliding backwards, on the body of one of their mates near by.
Yank...Stab...pull.
Yank...Stab...pull.
Sometimes two of the children worked in coordination.
Yank...Stab...pull.
Some were too weak to help with every pull.
Yank...Stab...pull.
They would alternate. They would pull, then let themselves be pulled, then pull, then be pulled....
Yank...Stab...pull
Some were just too weak. They were near to death and just lay there. They were just pulled along by the others.
Yank...Stab...pull
Melvin, and TigerMom, did not give up..
Yank...Stab...pull
They could see the crest of the hill. Once they reached the top of the hill they could rest.
Yank...Stab...pull
Melvin’s arms were on fire. A red haze clouded his vision. If he kept this up he was going to stroke out.
So be it.
Yank...Stab...pull.
BELLOW!! he roared like a bear, he refused to acknowledge defeat..
Yank...Stab...pull.
Melvin would NOT let the ice defeat him
ROAR! he spit in the face of YMIR!
SHREIK!! TigerMom Screamed.
she matched him strike for strike, pull for pull. Shriek for Roar
She was pulling her weight and many of the children’s weight too.
Yank...Stab...pull.
ROAR!
SHREIK!!
Yank...Stab...pull.
ROAR!
SHREIK!!
THEY........WOULD.....NOT...Quit...
Finally they reached the crest of the hill. Melvin and TigerMom pulled all the children up onto the top. They could relax now and not slide back into the water, the freezing water, the deadly killing water.
Melvin almost passed out from exertion. His blood pressure was sky high and his heartbeat was racing. He was about a gnat’s eyelash away from passing out. He forced himself to retain consciousness. It was so hard. All he wanted to do was lie in the freezing foggy rain and breath. Let his arms get some life back into them, let his gasping breath return to normal.
No.
If he gave in to temptation and relaxed he’d die in place. He had to keep moving.
All of the children, even TigerMom, had fallen into an exhausted stupor. Hypothermia would be a real threat soon. They couldn’t stop long or their sweat would start to freeze and they would die.
Melvin untied the braided twine from his belt and carefully scouted the immediate area. The fog was too thick to see very far..
The hill began to dip down and he saw...
...water.
They were on an island. They were surrounded by cold, icy water.
The Next Episode Is
#103: Henry Drake: Your ride is here…
The Previous Episode was
#101: Daniel Freemartin - Sporting Goods Survivor…
The First Episode was
# 1 : Prologue…
..............
Book One: SoulStone
..................................................
I'm
.
I write
SPECULATIVE FICTION
My books on Amazon.
I engage in political commentary
and
generally talk about anything that strikes my fancy
on
Steemit
and
Sola
When watching the LameStream FakeNews Media
it's hard to tell what’s true or when they are lying isn’t it? It seems that they are more interested in influencing public opinion than they are reporting the facts.
SteemPunk Snail Image from Pixabay
I really did not think anyone else ever used that phrase, so cool to see it.
On a side note it looks like about 2/3rds of the way down Melvin turned into Wilbur.
oops...I'll check it out.
I read this episode about Melvin.Well written @everittdmickey
fab post...that is goodhello @everittdmickey
Chilling episode, it seemed that we were pulling the improvised sleds along with them; but we arrived ... good episode, I immediately moved to that frozen scene.