Just One More Yesterday

I took a break from reading my medical journal to see what the weather was doing outside. The windows were straining against the hurricane force winds that the blizzard had brought with it, but they were holding their own. I lived deep in the middle of the mountainside woods which I wouldn’t trade for a thing, I just wasn’t too keen on being surrounded by all of these trees when the wind was blowing this hard. The snow was coming down incredibly hard, limiting my vision to just a few feet outside. It wouldn’t take much to get lost in the whiteout conditions just by walking outside to my car, but I had no intentions of doing that. I was too caught up in my readings of the newest robots on the market to perform cardio-thoracic surgery.

I fixed a cup of hot chocolate and returned to my recliner by the fire going in the fireplace and threw the blanket over me, more out of habit rather than me being cold. The fireplace was the only light I had right now besides a few lanterns and flash lights. The power had been out since early this morning when the storm first started, but living way out in the woods, I was used to not having power.

I went back to reading about robots and surgery, dreaming of how I could be doing that kind of work. The hospital I worked for now was medium sized but had the financial issues of a small town rural hospital, making my desire to work with better equipment just a mere dream. One thing was for sure though, as nice as it would be to have those luxuries, there were not necessary for me to save lives on a daily basis which is what I had become a trauma surgeon for. Even if I didn’t have the means to continue the care of a particular patient, I had the means to stabilize them to be transported out to another facility. It had been a long, hard fought journey to earn my title, but it had been worth it.

The howling wind put me to sleep sometime later which usually happened when I was stuck at home during the storms and not at work. The soft crackling of the wood on the fire wasn’t helping matters any either, but it was quiet, peaceful and calming. Well, it was until I was brought out of my light sleep by a frantic knocking on the door. I sat up in the chair, unsure if I had actually heard it or not, and then I heard it again, this time more frantic. I jumped up and ran to the door and opened it, ignoring the strong rush of ice cold air that I was hit with.

A man, who looked to be about my age in his middle twenties, came toppling through the door at my feet, not even bothering to catch himself. I grabbed him and pulled him inside as he yelled out in pain, making this situation even more confusing than it already was. I pushed the front door closed using most of my bodyweight, and turned around to kneel down beside the guy. He was covered in snow, most of his hair frozen. He was covered in dried blood and looked like he had been to hell and back. After rolling him over so that I could see his face, I recognized him as the lead singer of the band Fall Out Boy who my thirteen year old daughter was absolutely in love with right now. Had she been here with me instead of at her grandparent’s house in California, I had no doubt that she would be sreaming at the top of her lungs right now.

“H-help me pl-please.” The man shivered.

“I will. What the hell happened to you?” I asked as I helped him up and walked him over by the fireplace.

“I – I don’t kn-know. Where’s Pete?”

I turned around and looked behind me for this guy named Pete, knowing good and well that only one person had come into the house.

“Was he with you?”

“Yes. We were hanging on to each other because we couldn’t see. My whole body is numb. He’s hurt too. Please, we have to find him.”

I had to get him calmed down before he went into shock, if he wasn’t already halfway there right now. I didn’t have long to do that though if I had any hope of finding Pete alive in the sub zero temperatures.

“Hey, I’m going to find him okay? I want you to focus on warming up. My name is Charlie and I’m a trauma surgeon. You’re in good hands okay?”

He looked up at me with tear filled eyes as if I were putting an end to struggles he had been enduring for years and years.

“Thank you.” He whispered.

“I’m going to get you some blankets and I want you to strip completely and stay right here by the fire okay? I’m going to go look for Pete before your tracks get covered and I’ll get you cleaned up when I get back.”

He nodded as he reached for his shirt with shaking hands, and I headed to get some warm clothes on to go look for Pete. I really had no idea where they had come from but I was going to start by walking from the front door where Patrick had come to. I put on some of my thickest snow clothes, which I most of the time wore for skiing or hunting, and grabbed as many rolls of rope as I could from my bag of hiking equipment. As hard as it was snowing right now, tying a rope to myself and then the front door was the only way to ensure that I didn’t get turned around and get lost myself.

“I’ll be back okay? I’m going to tie a rope to the front door so I don’t get lost.” I told Patrick as I got ready to walk out of the door.

“Be C-careful.” He shivered.

The cold took my breath as I opened the door and quickly shut it behind me. The wind was strong and threatened to knock me off of my feet but I kept my balance as I tied one end of the rope to the door knob and kept the rest of it in my hands. The tracks Patrick had left were now just barely visible as the snow was coming down so hard that they were almost covered up. I followed them for as long as I could and then just kept in the same direction once they became covered. I didn’t have to go much further until I came upon a weak, struggling person trying to make his way through the snow. I pushed myself through the snow a little bit quicker and knelt down beside the guy.

“Pete?” I yelled over the roaring wind.

He looked up at me with a sort of terror in his eyes as I reached to grab him only to have him push my hand away. I wasn’t sure if the cold was getting to him or what exactly had happened to these guys. He was a bloody mess as well.

“It’s okay! My house is few hundred yards away and I have Patrick inside warming up. You can trust me. I only want to help.”

He hesitated for a second and then reached with a shaking hand and took mine. I ducked down and wrapped his arm around my shoulder and my arm around his smaller frame so that we could make our way back through the knee deep snow. The trip back didn’t seem to take as long since I had my precious cargo and wasn’t having to hunt for it. I would have given anything to have been able to get these guys to the hospital but that wasn’t an option and wouldn’t be for at least a day or two. I was thankful for the small stock pile of medical supplies I kept in my basement in case the mountain base ever needed anything and couldn’t get it from town.

I got Pete inside and reunited with Patrick and I went to change clothes and get cleaned up so that I could hopefully try to figure out what had happened to these guys. The priority though was getting them checked out and cleaned up if they would trust me enough.