Chapter 14 – Cold As Ice

Abby trampled through the thick snow settled on the ground in Archer Park. She stopped to take a breath and bends over to rub her calves, even though she has strong legs from everyday running about in the ER, walking on the snow is like sand on the beach, it is hard work…

She carried on walking with her hand guarding her eyes; the blizzard was darting into them. Her face is red and numb from the cold; her body is well insulated by the thick coat she's wearing and her hat is keeping majority of her hair dry. She spotted Neela at the expected place; the outdoor ice-skating rink, her favourite chill out, a place she likes to get away from this harsh world. She was sat on the bench taking her skates off.

"I thought I might find you here…" Abby said, taking her gloves off to pull away a strand of wet hair sticking to her face.

Neela looked up and pursed her lips.

"Everyone's worried about you"

"Oh are they? I didn't know that they cared" Neela replied in a sarcastic tone.

"Neela!" Abby scolded at her. "How could you say such thing like that?"

"I'm going to get fired, aren't I?"

Abby shrugged her shoulders and sits next to Neela on the bench.

"I don't think so… Susan knows what you're going through," Abby said, putting her hand on the younger woman's shoulder for reassurance.

"Well I've had enough, I going to bring my stuff here and camp out on this bench"

"What! Are you crazy? You'll freeze to death"

"Well I've got no place else to go"

Abby got up from the bench and turned to Neela

"You're coming home with me!" She grabbed Neela's hand and pulled her up.

"Are you sure? I mean last time, you couldn't wait to get rid of me"

"Huh? Neela it wasn't like that, remember I had post traumatic stress from the kidnapping, I needed my own space"

"Ok, but what about you and Jake? You both need the privacy when it comes to you know what" She grinned, thinking she could cope with their noise than Ray's rock band riffs.

"We're finished"

"Oh? I'm sorry," Neela said giving a sympathetic look.

"Don't be sorry" She smiled.

They both leave the bench, walked along the snow-drifted park. Abby spotted two kids playing on the frozen lake.

"Jeez! You got to be kidding me" Abby nudging Neela, pointing at the direction.

"Oh my god! We better tell them"

They both rush through the blizzard to the lakeside; their presence had startled the Children.

"Get the hell out of there!" Abby shouted at the boy standing on the ice. "What the hell are you thinking? Are you stupid?"

"What are you gonna do about it?" the boy shouted back "It ain't gonna break!"

"Please, come back, carefully" She pleaded, then turned to the other kid looking exasperated "What the hell you guys thinking?"

The kid laughed, "We're only having fun, maybe a game of dare!"

Abby scoffed in disbelief and looked at Neela.

"Come on Neela, help me here"

"Come on! Get your bloody arse over here now!" Neela shouted in her posh English accent.

"Come and get me," the boy shouted, stamping his feet trying to be clever, laughing and giving hand gestures. The boy moved in closer to the edge and started to show off, dancing. The ice beneath his feet starts to crack and his whole body dipped straight in to the icy water. They all gasped in shock.

"Jesus! Oh my god!" Abby panicked "Neela, call 911!"

Neela opens her bag to find the phone, pulled it out and punched in the numbers 9-1-1. The dialling tone is heard when she placed the phone on her ear.

They can see the boy bobbing up and down trying to get out of the water. He goes down again.

"Emergency! Fire and Paramedics please, at Archer Park, boy, fell through frozen lake" Neela giving the details.

Abby strutted around Neela thinking what to do next. She gets on all fours and carefully patted the ice in front of her to check if it strong enough to bare her weight.

"They're on their way!" Neela shouted

"Hurry up!" the boy cried standing next to the two doctors.

"Ok! I'm just checking if it's safe for me to go" Abby replied and turned to Neela "I want you to hold my ankles, in case I go down"

Neela nodded "Ok" She said, leaning forward to take hold of Abby's ankles.

She shuffled forward carefully towards the hole, She can hear her heart pounding rapidly and giving out little blows to calm her nerves.

"Oh god… this is crazy!" Abby moaned, shaking her head, shuffling a bit more.

The boy comes back up to the surface, gasping for air. It has startled Abby and she reached her hand out to him.

"Grab my hand!"

The boy reached his hand out to hers; she then felt the ice beneath her, starting to crack away.

"Shit! Neela… Neela! Pull me back… quickly… quickly!" Abby shouted, "Aah!"

Her tiny frame plunged in to the icy waters. She was gone… She could feel the pressure of the water in her ears, the underwater was silent, and the only thing she could hear, was herself screaming inside her soul. The freezing lake was so cold; it felt like knives stabbing into her.

Abby rose to the surface and gasped for air. "Oh! Oh!" she cried, trying to breathe, the freezing water has paralysed her. The weight of the boy attached to hand drew her back under again. This time she found herself trapped under the ice and started to panic, frantically trying to find the hole to get out, to get back to the surface for air again.

The EMT and the Fire Dept plough through the snow to the lakeside. The crew stepped out of their vehicles.

"Hurry!" Neela shouted, "We've got two people in the water now, boy and a woman"

"Ok leave it with us" the fire chief responded.

All the crew members gathered around pulling out and laying out their equipment.

Abby got weaker and weaker trying to breakout; her body goes into a paralytic mode from the hypothermia, and starts to lose her consciousness.

Two fireman kneeling over the hole, they manage to find Abby and they pull her body out of the water and placed her on the stretcher. Neela gasped in relief. They carried her lifeless body over to the lakeside for medical examination.

"I'm a doctor, I'll check her out" Neela said.

She placed her fingers on Abby's wrists to check for her pulse, no pulse, fingers on her neck, no pulse, and Neela bites her bottom lip to stop herself from crying.

"I'll have to do CPR on her, can you bag her?" Neela asked EMT Dumar.

Neela placed both hands on Abby's chest and started doing reps. EMT Dumar squeezes the bag for air. Then she repeated the reps again. Placed her fingers again, still no pulse.

"Come on!" Neela cried, she is frantically repeating the chest reps again.

"Come on Abby, comeback…"