Chapter 4
[Kent Farm—Five minutes earlier]
Martha shook her head at the giant tree in the living room's center. She'd thought that they'd decided to skip the decoration this year. She should have known that Jonathan would insist on it. Wecouldusethemoneyforfood.Christmasismorethanjustatreeorgifts!
"It looks great, Mom," Clark interjected while trying to make her feel better.
She frowned, not really wanting to dampen his enthusiasm but not wanting him trying to play referee either. "It is, Clark. Why don't you set the table for me?"
Uhoh.Super powers or not, he knew the nature of that request. He knew Jonathan had just stepped in a deep cow pie. "Yeah…that table's looking like it needs setting." He quickly backed away from the tree and crossed the room. As he did, his phone rang. "Who now?" He answered it, "Hello?"
"C…clark….H…help," Lana rasped while shivering vehemently. "B…blazer…crashed…."
"Lana? LANA!" Clark panicked as his fears surged. His heart nearly stopped beating. "Where are you?"
"R…Res…Rester….Rav….ine….Clark, h..help…." Lana begged weakly before her phone died.
"LANA!" Clark shook the phone and stared at it. He set it down on the table while collecting his thoughts.
"Clark, what's wrong? Where's Lana?" Martha queried. The tree was forgotten. Her mind on her son and their soon-to-be guest.
"Lana crashed in Rester's Ravine! I know where that is! Tell Dad!" Clark grabbed his coat and sped off into the storm….
…while leaving the phone behind.
"CLARK! CLARK, WAIT!" his mother begged.
"Martha? Martha, what is it?" Jonathan wondered while coming down the stairs with a box of decorations. Seeing her trembling and biting her lip, he dropped the box and rushed over to her. "Where's Clark? Where'd he go?"
"Lana crashed between here and Metropolis. Some place called Rester's Ravine. I've never heard of it," she recounted while grabbing onto him.
"Clark's indestructible, Martha. He can deal with it and have Lana back here in a flash," he assumed. Then he saw the phone on the table. "He left his phone."
"Clark knows better than that!" She stared at the forlorn phone. For some reason, she felt anxious. She looked out into the storm and felt her heart sinking as well.
[Rester's Ravine—four minutes later]
Despite the conditions, Clark rushed through the storm toward the ravine. His speed melted the ice under his feet before it refroze again in his wake. He barely avoided a few oncoming cars and trucks hugging the center line of State Route 90. He did graze a few trees but fortunately, they fell in clearings and uninhabited stretches of forest. His x-ray vision proved a powerful aide in piercing the misty curtain and icy mess.
At the ravine's edge, he stopped cold. Several vehicles lay wrecked and abandoned effectively blocking access to the area. Theytookthecornertoofast.Atleastnobody'shurtthatIcantell.I'lllettheauthoritiesknowonceIgetbacktoSmallvillewithLana.
His heart spasmed at the sight of the mangled guard rail. He rushed over to the rail and peered down into the heavy mist.
Unfortunately even his x-ray vision couldn't cut through the cover.
"She's down there somewhere," he told himself. He bit his lip. If this were Smallville, he knew there could be some sort of green meteor rock deposit down there waiting to ensnare him. But he was almost to Metropolis. He shook his head.
Lana…She needs you.
He set his jaw and jumped into the abyss. As he pierced the veil, the road and ledge vanished. He fell for what seemed for an eternity. For some reason though, he felt a chill but didn't know what it was. His skin puckered and dimpled from the wet and icy conditions. He felt the impact and stumbled for some reason.
Then all around him, the blue rocks glowed in unison bathing the granite floor and him in their navy light.
He grimaced and spasmed. He felt his strength evaporating. His legs felt heavy but he pushed on. Whatisthis?What'sgoingon?He could see the glowing stones but couldn't correlate their effect on him with the current situation at hand. He tripped and fell face first into the mud by Lana's burnt out blazer.
His hand steadied itself on a sharp rock and then it burned.
"OW!" Clark stared in disbelief. The rock cut his hand. It was bleeding. "What's going on?" He felt his knees burning as well and saw streaks of purple on those areas of his jeans. His mind swam with this realization. He tried to use his x-ray vision. He tried to jump out of the area. He even tried to heft a section of burnt metal.
All of these efforts proved futile. That to him proved an unfamiliar experience in its own right.
Still his heart pressed him onward. Lana was around there somewhere. She needed him. She needed him now.
He fished through the wreckage gingerly. The metal burned his hands but his devotion numbed the pain. He felt relief at not seeing an ashen corpse or smelling the acrid odor of burning flesh. "She's alive. She has to be!" He shivered in the freezing air and felt an unfamiliar tickle in his nose. He shook and sucked in a deep breath. "AH…AH…ACHOOO!" Twice more, he sneezed. "G…got to get out of this…. Find warm place….G…get f…fire going. Then I can f…find L…Lan…na." He put his hands out in front of himself and started walking as fast as he could. He knew the granite ravine wall wasn't that far away.
Another fifteen minutes passed before his hands scraped up against the icy rocks. He could clearly see the glowing cobalt source of his malady even if he didn't understand what was going on. He ground his teeth and followed the wall. His feet grew colder and number. His legs wavered. His eyes burned yet couldn't discern anything but thick fog and icy droplets from above. His skin reddened. His fingers stiffened as they passed over the granite guiding spots.
He just about fell into the cave's maw and out of the wet. He tore the jeans' knee coverings on the rocky floor. "Darn it! What's going on? W…why am I s…so…cold?" He shivered while struggling back to his feet. His numb legs just managed to pull him back upright.
"W…who's there?" a familiar voice called with effort.
"Lana? LANA!" In a heartbeat, his own cold and pain issues were forgotten again. He forced himself across the stone chamber. "W…where are you?" He tripped on something soft and fell. This time his cheek scraped the rock and bled.
"R…right here," she whispered. "Y…you came…for me. Kn…knew you would…." She forced her eyes to open and smiled for his benefit. "M…my w…white knight."
"I…I'm going to try…" He shivered as he considered their possibilities. While waves of exhaustion crashed over him, he knew he couldn't risk sleeping in these conditions. Not yet anyhow. He looked around for options.
In the corner, unbelievably, sat a small pile of pine boughs.
"F…fire…." He rubbed Lana's hand.
"Hmmm…?" she asked drowsily.
"I'm g…going to…m…make us…a fire. Stay with me!" he admonished while rubbing her cheeks.
"K…kay. It hurts," she groused with a frown.
Don'tIknowit?He limped over to the pine limbs.
First a fire then he could tend to her and himself as well…..