It's been a while since the last update, I know, and I am sorry...
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Hours left until the wedding: 28
Miles left until Venice: 248
"Sam! Stop!", Mercedes screamed into his ear. She didn't dare moving her hand away from his waist to tip on his shoulder. Another panic glance to the back told her that the stretcher was getting faster and faster.
"Sam!"
When he didn't react again despite her and Kurt's shouts, Mercedes got an idea. She put off her left glove, put her hand underneath Sam's sweater and touched him on his warm skin.
"OHMYGOSH!" When Sam braked, snow got blown into their faces, but the vehicle eventually stopped. "Are you nuts?", he said, sounding pissed. "This is not the time for stupid jokes. You could have killed us!"
"Look, over there!" Mercedes pointed at the stretcher that still glided down – right to the direction of a river.
"Dammit!" Sam turned the engine on again and started driving towards the river as well.
"Slow down!", Mercedes yelled anxiously, but Sam ignored her completely, driving past a couple of trees in a dangerously fast way. Her heart was beating way too fast, and she clutched her hands tighter around Sam. How could he be so reckless? That idiot! He could kill them all!
Sam decided to take shortest – and most cliffy - way down.
"Watch out!", Kurt yelled.
Mercedes buried her face into Sam's shoulderblades. This wasn't funny anymore. They sped down, right towards the river. She heard how Sam was cursing quietly, and when she looked up, she saw how he was leaning to the right where the stretcher was.
"Careful!", Mercedes shouted.
Like a stuntman, Sam leaned over to the stretcher, trying to get a grip on it, Mercedes gripped him tighter so that he didn't fall out of the snowmobile.
Even though he couldn't get the stretcher, he could at least direct it to the other direction so that it wouldn't drive into the river anymore.
Somehow, Sam made the snowmobile stop, and Mercedes put off her helmet, still stunned about what just happened. Kurt and Sam did the same while they watched the stretcher glide into a barn in a fast and uncontrolled way. A loud thud could be heard.
"No way", Mercedes wheezed.
The snow underneath their feet was soft, watery and muddy.
"We need to walk the rest of the way", Sam commented. "The snowmobile could get stuck in the slush."
As fast as possible, the three of them ran down to the barn to where the stretcher had glided into.
"I am scared about what we will find in there", Mercedes admitted when they went closer to the door. "The dress is probably pierced on a pitchfork, has been devoured by pigs or used by chicken as a…"
Kurt looked up. "Listen! Is it what I think it is?"
"Cowbells", Sam explained to Mercedes and winked at her. "How swiss."
When they finally came stumbling to the door of the barn and peeked around the corner, the first thing they saw were rear ends of light brown cows that had gathered around the stretcher and were looking at it with interest, nudging it with their humid noses. The bells around their necks were moving back and forth, harmonizing with their delighted moos.
Mercedes was horror stricken. The ground was covered with dirty slush, even dirtier hay and cow dung, right where the stretcher had stopped.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!", she shrieked breathlessly. "Please do something, guys!"
"Allergy to animal hair", Kurt explained apologetically, lifting his hands in surrender. "I can't go. Besides, they could bite me. And this coat is out of cashmere, so…"
The cows got more courageous and started coming closer to the stretcher. Frankly speaking, Mercedes felt like crying out loud when some of the cattles started touching it with their horns.
"We need to go in there", she decided.
"I don't have experience with cows", Sam confessed. "Can't you just whistle so that they get out of our way?"
"Sure, if you are keen on panicked cows or what cows gone wild like to do", Mercedes said sarcastically.
"Do you have a better idea?", Sam asked her, arms crossed. "You are from Ohio, there are plenty of cows at this place…"
"The dress!", Kurt cut him off, alarmed. "Please, just postpone that childish fight and do something!"
Three of the most courageous cows were about to tip over the stretcher, the dressbag with Coralee's dress would fall down any moment.
Mercedes and Sam started running at the same moment. Even though Mercedes grew up in Lima, a rather rural town, she never had been that close to cows before. She knew that they could get aggressive, especially when panicked.
On the other hand – so was she. She needed to save that dress even if she would get killed while doing so.
"Calm down, ladies", Sam tried talking to the cows in a soft tone while he approached them with Mercedes in tow. "Move your fat butts out of the way."
"What a charmer", Mercedes muttered. "Come on, girls, let's stop this game", she purred "That's a customized Décoste dress and you…"
The cows and cattles ignored the intruders and continued toying with the stretcher. Mercedes spotted a pitchfork on the ground, grabbed it and continued her foray.
Sam looked concerned. "Do you want to stab them all? Someone's in the mood for steak on a stick?"
"Really funny", Mercedes hissed. "Now continue walking."
"The dress is probably ruined anyway", Kurt whined "Cow saliva on Haute Couture? That's never going to be a bestseller in Paris. Quel désastre!"
"Not helping, Kurt", Mercedes shouted.
She somehow could sneak around the animals who still tried tipping over the stretcher. She just needed to push herself between them so that Sam could pull out the stretcher….
Sam seemed to have understood her plan. Carefully, he tried getting as close to the cows as possible.
"Excuse me, ladies, but I need to get past you if you let me…" She was almost there "I guess your English is not that good, but please know that I don't want to hurt you."
"It's tipping over!", Sam shouted.
Mercedes looked down. The three annoying cows were still trying to move the stretcher and the dress was slowly gliding down to the mud.
"Leave! Get your dirty asses out of here!", Mercedes screamed, moved forwards to the stretcher and lifted the pitchfork warningly. "Get out before you end up as steak tartare!"
"Whoa, not so feisty", Sam laughed.
But it seemed to work. The cows obediently walked out of the barn, Kurt needed to press himself closer to the door as they all left.
At that moment, Sam tripped and steadied himself on the dressbag so that he didn't fall down.
"No!", Mercedes protested. "You are ruining the dress!"
"Oh, really?"
The cows were gone, their cowbells could be heard from afar. Finally.
"So you would prefer if I fell right into cow shit?"
Downcast, Mercedes looked back and forth between the dressbag and Sam. Please, please, let it be waterproof, she prayed to herself.
"You know what?" She grimaced. "Yes."
They glared at each other, wheezing and pissed off. Mercedes resisted the urge to yell at him angrily. How did it even come that far?
Sam waved it off. "I will just clean it."
"How do you know the dressbag didn't get ripped? Or the dress didn't get dirty?"
Equally pissed, Sam put his hands on his hips. "Thanks for asking, but I am fine. I almost broke my neck to save that thing, but…"
"You have no idea how much that dress means to me!"
"It's just a dress, Mercedes. Just a darned dress", he shouted. "If something like a simple dress means so much to you, you really have to question your values"
"What did you just say?" Mercedes was speechless. Beyond pissed, she turned away.
"Okay, maybe I was too harsh", he admitted contritely.
"Absolutely!", she answered, her voice was trembling.
Kurt was standing on the doorway and cleared his throat loudly. "I would enter and help you get out the stretcher, but I don't think my coat would appreciate it."
Mercedes threw him a killing glance. "Of course, Kurt, just stay put, no problem", she said sarcastically.
Kurt got the hint. "Okay, okay." Not looking thrilled, he carefully entered the barn.
"Watch out!", Mercedes warned him, but it was already too late.
Kurt's designer shoes were not made for the muddy ground of a barn. Like in all the comedy movies, he slipped- in Hollywood Style- and landed on the ground, falling right into the dirty hay-mud-cow dung mixture.
"Oh mon dieu", he gasped, appalled and tried getting up again. "Just look at me! No, better don't!"
"Sorry, bro", Sam shouted but he had a hard time biting back his laughter. "It's kind of slippery in there, isn't it?"
Much to Mercedes' annoyance, he seemed to have forgotten that they were in a fight. Especially now that it seemed that she had been close to winning.
"So…", Sam went on and turned to the stretcher. "Shall we?"
Mercedes watched him try to get the stretcher out of the barn, still mad.
"A little help over here wouldn't be bad", he muttered, so she offendedly walked over to him.
After they finally got it out of the barn, Mercedes stared down the stretcher that just looked sad with all the hay and dirt. With balled fists, she waited for Sam to apologize because he didn't properly fix the stretcher on the snowmobile.
Finally, Sam broke the silence. "Let's get the stretcher back to the snowmobile and hope that nothing got damaged."
"I'm sure it's damaged", Mercedes hissed, outraged. "Don't you get how important that is? Tell him, Kurt. Just look at the dressbag. The wedding dress of my sister! And tomorrow is the wedding! You don't take this serious, do you?" She furiously pointed at the dressbag. "Just because it doesn't mean anything to you, it's okay to treat it with no respect – to treat none of us with respect!"
That hit home. Saying nothing, but with a hurt face expression, Sam turned away.
"We should set off", Kurt spoke up quietly. "Fighting won't help us at all."
At the snowmobile, Mercedes watched the guys fix the stretcher to the vehicle. Sam ignored her completely. She didn't mind.
He showed Kurt the ripped rope. "Probably a sharp rock", he speculated.
"There is no way you have fixed it properly", Mercedes commented stubbornly. "Besides, you were driving way too fast. How could you?"
For a while, Sam stayed silent. "Maybe", he said eventually. "Who knows? It's not like I do something like this every day. I just want to get to Venice, just like you. And that's the only way we can make it in time. So, shall we continue? It's not far anymore."
Mercedes didn't look at him. "Fine!", she said, still pissed.
When they sat on the snowmobile again and she felt Sam's warm body next to her, it wasn't exactly easy to stay pissed. But she did her best.
She tried sitting in the back, but Kurt didn't want to switch places and get into the crossfire.
Great, if Sam wanted to be stubborn and childish, she could totally pass on him. He didn't seem to get how valuable the dress was to Coralee, not only because of its price – a customized dress worth thousands of euros, almost ruined in a barn just because he obviously didn't properly fix the stretcher…
And a couple of hours ago, she thought that she had a crush on him!
Funny how fast things could change.
Whoa, chill Mercedes lol
I am definitely siding with Sam this time...