FROZEN

Chapter 1
Lilly


It’s cold. The power went out years ago. The food will be entirely gone in a few months. We warn you this is not a happy tale, it pains us to write these words. Alas, it is the burden we must live with; we must let the world (well what’s left of it anyway) know of the horrors that befell the pour souls of the dead. Those whose lives were stolen by the bitter cold, the story of those who were frozen.

It’s a regular day. January 31st, 2009 to be exact. It’s cold, blustery, and an all around miserable day, but as usual school isn’t closed. At about twelve-thirty P.M. the power went out. Ms. Hazleton went around instructing everyone to go to the gym. It was too dangerous to send us home. For the blizzard of the century was on its way.

With these words my heart skipped a beat. I had a gut feeling that something horrible was going to happen today. This morning I couldn’t put my finger, on it but now I knew what had made me feel this way. I could see the questions and concern on everyone’s faces. My teacher looked confused, I tried to hide what I was feeling. I’m not sure how it worked though. I tried to make myself look emotionless by looking down and not making any sudden movements. You’d swear I was hiding from a T-rex.
We made our way to the gym, stopping by everyone’s locker so the would have their coats. Who knew how cold it would get. Still, some idiots had no coats, so they were left to shiver.

It is cold outside, colder than I even knew it could get in Minnesota. The temperature dropped from negative ten to negative 46 without wind chill. By two the school was entirely covered with snow. No possible way out, the beginning of a second ice age had begun.

The day dragged on slowly but surely, none of the digital clocks are getting a signal, so we have no idea what time it is. There’s no way the cold could have frozen time. The school was cold, but not nearly as cold as we would have thought it would be. Apparently snow and ice are great insulators. According to the thermometers inside the school it’s negative five.

For the most part of that first freezing day no one spoke, there was complete silence. Slowly everyone fell into a fitful sleep. No matter how hard I tried that first night, or what we suspected was night I couldn’t convince myself to sleep. I sat up that long night with company of snoring and the rustling of jackets. When morning came or what we thought was morning, the silence was broken. Mrs. Hazleton shouted from the balcony.

“If you would please move to the cafeteria for breakfast, no charge will be given, meals are currently free. Thank you. That is all.” Her words stumbled from her lips, Her body shaking so badly we thought for sure she would fall right over the edge. Yet she tried to seem as though she had it all under control. It wasn’t working.

Breakfast was bleak, cold cereal and frozen milk. We had to tear the milk carton that surrounded the milk to be able to get to it. The milk was solid. I tried to melt it with my breath, but that only worked for so long. The cold robbed my lungs of the warm air it needed to melt it so I settled for licking it and then taking a bite of cereal. The frozen milk caught in my throat. I hate frozen milk, but I need the nourishment, and I need food more that I hate frozen milk.

“A-all s-s-s-students are to return to the g-gym once their have f-finished their b-breakfast. T-thank y-you that I-is all” rang Mrs. Hazleton’s unsteady cracking voice through the cafeteria. Slowly but surely all of the students left the cafeteria one by one, until only Alexandra, Nicole, Peggy, Shawn and I remained. Our heads were spinning with all of the different possibilities.

Would we die here? Would we make it out? If we did, when? If our families were okay, whom we thought would die, but what we tried not to show was our fear. Our fear of the inevitable, when would we die and what would we do if one of us died.

About an hour later Mrs. Hazleton came and shooed us from our table. Slowly, we walked back to the gym to take our seats in the bleachers. We didn’t want to sit on the cold hard floor, plus with all of the people sitting there, there wasn’t enough room for us all to sit together on the ground. That was the last thing we wanted. To be separated was to be alone. To be alone was to be lonely, and to be lonely was to be cold.

It outstands me how everyone could be so quiet. Why would you want to be trapped in your head with these thoughts swimming in your head? How could it not eat them alive with everything going on right now? I think I would go insane if I didn’t have someone to talk to, to share my fears, with to know that they were feeling the same things as me.

Just looking at everyone eyes sunken from the cold, seeing everyone shiver makes me feel horrible because I don’t feel as horrible as they look. I still feel scared but it’s easier with my friends surrounding me to help keep my hopes up and keep me from slipping over the edge.

We attempted to keep conversation going a constantly to keep our minds off of how cold we were. It worked for a good amount of time until the only thing we could talk about was how cold we were. Gradually, our tight knit group grew into a group of about ten. It was no longer the five of us. Alexandra and Peggy had a few of the other friends join in our long conversations. Jamie, Theresa, Blake, Journey, and Alice joined us. Shawn and I were against letting anyone join in with us. We feared that if others joined we would no longer be as close as we all were. Our secrets would run through the halls and our group would fall apart. We were right to think this. For when Jamie’s boyfriend Nick joined in it all went terribly wrong.

Nick had partly gone crazy just being there for three days. He would sit there rocking back and forth muttering to himself. Whenever anyone asked him a question he would snap at us. I suspected that he was addicted to some sort of drug and was suffering from withdrawal. It was common knowledge that he gave out drugs to people, he was a dealer, but nobody knew whether or not he did them himself. Later in the afternoon or what we thought was afternoon, he went off by himself. About three hours or so passed before we went looking for him thinking maybe he got lost in the darkness. With his current state of mind who knew?

We split into teams Alexandra, Shawn and I would check the upstairs. Peggy, Journey and Alice would check the main floor. Teresa, Blake and Nicole would check the basement. Jamie was too scared of what she would find to look so she stayed in the bleachers in case he came back. One of each group was to stand in the stairwell so we could relay what we found to each other. The other two were to set of in different direction on the same floor and meet in the middle.

My group decided that Alexandra would stay behind in the stairwell, Shawn would go left and I would go right. I wasn’t too concerned. My guess was that he was just sitting in some corner muttering to himself. Yet some distant part of me told me that everything wasn’t going to be okay. As I checked the classrooms I found them empty. My pace quickened involuntarily. I knew deep within myself that he wasn’t okay.

There was only one last place to check, the boy’s bathroom. I knew I should leave it for Shawn, but something made me look anyway. What I saw made me gasp with horror. There laid Nick in a pool of his own blood. A deep gash sliced across his left wrist. Through the blood I could see the shining white bone. I turned my head and saw the shattered mirror and a piece of it in his right hand. I collapsed to the floor into the puddle of blood. A look of pure horror frozen on my face. Shawn walked into the bathroom and gasped.

“It’s my fault Shawn, someone should have gone with him, especially with the state of mind he was in. I shouldn’t have let him go.” My conscience heavy with his death the words fell from my lips. I felt like crying, but I wouldn’t let myself. Shawn bent down and hoisted me up.

“It’s okay, Lilly, it wasn’t your fault. No one will blame you, and if someone tries to blame you they’ll have to blame me too.” His words were firm and sure. He put his arm on my shoulder. His hand was cool but I turned into his shoulder anyway. As he embraced me I felt safe.

“Shawn why would you do that?” I choked, about ready to cry.

“Because if it’s your fault then it’s mine too. I could have stopped him just as easily. If anyone thinks it’s our fault then they’re wrong because they could have stopped him too,” He said reassuringly. With that I couldn’t hold my tears in any longer. I began to sob uncontrollably into his shoulder. My tears warm against my cold skin.

He just stood there holding me close and stroking my back. I felt so juvenile just standing there crying like a child. I had no idea how long we stood there before I finally settled down enough to walk back to the bleachers.

When we got back to the staircase Alexandra looked at me. With my eyes puffy I nodded. She knew that we had found him and it wasn’t good.

“Is he...” She said, her voice barely audible. I nodded again.

“He’s in the bathroom.” Shawn said firmly, trying to hold himself together.

Together we went around to the rest of the groups telling them what happened. They all reacted the same, shocked. No one could believe what we were telling them.
After we got everyone from the search party, we had to go and tell Jamie the news.

We started the short walk down to the bleachers. We were all dreading telling the teachers and even more so, telling Jamie. Shawn and I decided that we would tell everyone because we were the only ones to see what it actually looked like and where it was. Nobody else would go; they didn’t want to deal with the memory of what he looked like. So we decided it best if they just didn’t see. Slowly we came up to the circle of teachers.

“Um, Mrs. Hazelton.” I stumbled.

“Yes” She said, slightly startled. “What is it?”

“Um, there’s been a…a, a death.” I stuttered. My voice was stumbling and cracking, just the thought of his cold lifeless body lying on the floor of the bathroom in a pool of his own blood makes my heart sink.

“What do you mean, a death?” She echoed, her eyes wide with shock.

“I mean Nick Knooner killed himself.” My words shrinking away with every syllable. Everything was coming up in my stomach and I could feel the bile rising in my throat. No I can’t throw up, I told myself. I cannot, I will not, I have to get through this. I have to.

“What?” She asked her eye’s were big as saucers as we told her about Nick. The whole time she just stared at us, her face becoming more and more difficult to read. When we finally finished, she spoke.

“Well that’s a lovely story you’ve made up but I don’t have time for this nonsense. Were in the middle of a crisis. Now please, if you wouldn’t mind, I have business to attend to” Then she turned and walked down the hall to the office. Shawn and I just stood there, mouths agape.

“How could she not believe us? Nick is dead and she doesn’t believe us! She’s suppose to be watching out for us. How the hell does she get off with ignoring the fact that one of her students is dead!? What the hell is wrong with her!?” I shouted as soon as she was out of earshot. I was nearly shaking with anger when Shawn grabbed me.

“Lilly, you can yell and scream about it all you want, but it’s not going to bring Nick back or make Hazleton believe us.” His words gentle, but firm at the same time. They soothed the anger from me. I knew he was right.

“Yeah, you’re right.” I said softly. “I suppose we should go and tell Jamie.” He nodded and we started to walk over toward her.

“I’ll tell her, okay Lilly” he sighed. I could tell that he didn’t want to tell her. His eyes looked deep and knowing in a way I’d never quite seen them before. They looked full of wisdom. His eyes were sunken yet deep and understanding.

With a deep breath, Shawn took a step forward as though he was stepping up to his death. “Jamie,” He said with courage in his voice that didn’t show on his face.

Jamie lifted her head, her eyes bloodshot, puffy, and deep with sorrow, cheeks stained with tears. “What” she said in a hoarse uneven voice.

“Nick is dead; he killed himself” He said forcing himself to stand straight for Jamie’s sake.

“What? No. Why?” She cried as she buried herself into her sleeves. She kept on sobbing for what seemed like ages, Shawn and I sitting beside her rubbing her back and telling her it would all be okay and telling her that it wasn’t her fault. When her cries began to settle, she looked up. Looking so weak, Shawn picked her up and carried her to the top of the bleachers where she curled up into a ball and fell asleep almost instantly. From my seat, I watched. I had always known that Shawn was a caring compassionate person, but I had never quite seen him like I had just witnessed.

It must have been late because everyone was asleep. There we sat alone in the silence trying to digest what had just happened. Nick was dead, the teachers didn’t believe us, we were trapped in a school, and it’s negative only god knows what outside.

I wanted so desperately for someone to jump out and tell us that it’s a big joke and this is just a TV show so that we could all have a good laugh about it and go back to living our lives the way they were. Yeah, right, there’s not a chance in hell that will happen. Why would I even think that it was a possibility?

“Shawn.” I whispered

“Hm?” he mumbled I could tell that he was deep in thought, the way he always gets quiet when he’s thinking.

“We’re never gonna get out of here, are we?” I said, again attempting to pull the tears back into my eyes.

“No. Don’t think that way. We’ll get out of here somehow. I refuse to let this be the place I die.” His words were so convincing I almost thought that he was faking it, but then I looked into his eyes. They were serious, meaningful. There was no way that he was going to die here. The expression on his face said it all.

“But what’s to stop us all from becoming like Nick? What’s to stop us all from dying here? What, Shawn? What is stopping us all from spending the rest of our miserable lives in this hellhole!” Even through the cold I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks. I was scared oh so, very scared of what would become of us. What would become of us? These thoughts were too much to bear, but I had to face the facts. I am going to die here.

“I won’t let you die here. You are getting out of here alive, we all are. If I have to push myself to death to find a way out of here I will. If there is a way out of here, I will find it.” I could hear the intense passion in his voice. I knew right then and there that he would get us out of here. I didn’t know how or when, but I knew he would.

“Okay… I suppose we should move Nick’s body so no one stumbles on it by accident.” I don’t want to do it, but it has to be done. So far Shawn and I were the only ones who had seen the body, and I wanted to keep it that way. Nobody else needed to see that. With our luck, if someone else saw it they would go mad and kill themselves. Yeah, that’s the last thing we need, another dead body.

He nodded. We both knew that we should get up and go, but I just couldn’t move myself. I was dreading seeing his lifeless body laying there in a puddle of his own blood again the image sends chills up my spine. All right, I have to get this done. With a sudden burst of energy I jumped from my seat and began to half walk half run down the hallway. I couldn’t see the expression on Shawn’s face, but I’m pretty sure it was inquisitive.

“Lilly? Wait!” he said as loudly as he could without waking everyone. I could hear his footsteps behind me, the smacks of our sneakers echoing in the empty hallways.

“Come on Shawn can’t you keep up with a girl.” I couldn’t quite figure out why I was acting the way that I was. I just couldn’t help myself I had a sudden urge to just be silly.

“So that’s what you think huh?” he said with amusement in his voice that I could hear. By now my heart is pounding. I’m starting to gasp for breath, the cold stealing my oxygen. I can’t breath but I keep running anyway. I can tell Shawn’s gaining on me his foot steps are quicker and sound closer I almost feel his breath on the back of my neck. I can feel my body starting to slow when I feel and arm wrap around my middle. My heart pounding wildly, I feel Shawn fall on top of me. The feeling of his body pressing against mine I lose track if my heart is pounding from running, or from him. I open my eyes to see him staring me directly in the eyes.

Everything stops. I can’t see anything but him I can only hear the beats of my own pounding heart. I never want the moment to end. Just as Shawn leans his head down toward my face do I realize what’s happening. I turn my head to the side and force myself up. Playfully I shove Shawn to the side