Chapter 8 – 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, though she has strong legs from everyday running about in the ER, walking on the snow is like sand on the beach, hard work…

She carried on walking with her hand guarding her eyes from the darting blizzard. Her face was red and numb from the cold; her body was well insulated by the thick coat and also wearing a hat. Abby spotted Neela at the place she expected to be at… the outdoor ice-skating rink, Neela's favourite chill out, a place she likes to get away from everything. 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 sat 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'm 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, I thought you wanted Jake to yourself at home…"

Abby winced at the reminder.

Neela continued "But what about you and Luka? 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.

"What? You know about Luka and me…? jeeez words get around quick!"

"Oh?" Neela said giving a sympathetic look. "Yes it does."

"Uh-huh." 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 nudged Neela and pointed.

"Oh my god! We better tell them"

They both rush through the blizzard to the lakeside "Get the hell out of there!" Abby shouted at the boy standing on the ice. "Are you out of your mind? Stupid…"

The children were startled by their presence. "What are you gonna do about it?" the boy shouted back "It ain't gonna break!"

"Please, come back, carefully" She begged 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.

Abby paused to look at Neela with one brow raised "Yes Neela... thanks..." She muttered under her breath with sarcasm Yeah the kids are really going respond to her instructions.

"Come and get me then?" the boy shouted, stamping his feet trying to be clever, laughing and gave them rude hand gestures. The boy moved in closer to the edge and started showing off by 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 saw the boy's head bobbing up and down trying to get out of the water and he goes down again.

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

Abby strutted around Neela clutching her head, 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 grab hold of Abby's ankles.

Abby shuffled forward carefully towards the hole, she felt her heart pounding rapidly. She exhaled air from her mouth to calm her nerves. "Oh god… this is crazy!" she moaned, shaking her head, shuffling a bit more.

The boy came up back up to the surface, head above water, gasping for air. Abby extended her arm reached her hand out to him.

"Grab my hand!" She shouted.

The boy reached his hand out and grabbed hers. Abby felt the ice beneath her beginning to crack…

"Shit! Neela… Neela! Pull me back… quickly… quickly!" Abby panicked, "Aaaaaaah!"

Her tiny frame plunged into the icy waters. She was gone…

Abby cried from the pressure of the water in her ears and the underwater was silent. The only thing she could hear was herself screaming inside her soul because the freezing water was so cold as if it felt like knives stabbing into her. To her reaction she pushed herself up.

Abby rose to the surface and gasped for air. "Oh! Oh!" she cried, trying to breathe, the shock has paralysed her. She forgot that the boy was still holding her hand; suddenly his weight drew her back under again. Abby panicked as this time she found herself trapped under the ice, frantically trying to find the hole to get out… for air…

The EMT and the Fire Dept ploughed through the snow to the lakeside, stepped out of their vehicles and rushed to the lake.

"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.

They all gathered around pulling out and laying out their equipment.

Abby felt weaker and weaker trying to find a way out. Her body goes into a paralytic mode from the hypothermia and loses her consciousness.

Two fire fighters kneeled over the hole and after a few seconds they manage to find Abby and pulled her lifeless body out of the water and placed her on the stretcher. Neela gasped in relief.

"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… Neela chewed 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 while Dumar squeezes the bag for air. She repeated the reps again. Placed her fingers on Abby's neck and wrist again, still no pulse…

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