My legs ached and my ears hurt from the cold, yet there was nothing more I could do but simply keep moving. I was choiceless Well, that's not entirely true, there is always a choice. However, in this case, the other choice was worse. To sit still in this cold, to stop moving, would be a death sentence. So I continued.
The night grew colder and the dark seemed to wrap around me like the grasping hand of some dark demon. I didn't know where I was or how long before I would find any form of shelter.
I'd been walking so long. How did I get here? Why was I out on this road in this cold, unforgiving night?
Suddenly I felt dampness on my face, like drops of sticky rain. I reached up to wipe it away and found that I was bleeding quite severely from a wound I had not realized I had. I must have hit my head. Now sticky, mudlike, blood trickled down the left side of my face.
I began to remember what had happened. Slowly pictures formed in my foggy mind. I had been driving. I couldn't remember where or why but I could see my hands on the steering wheel. Suddenly the car swerved, I'm not sure why, and then I was off the road skidding through grass and between trees.
I tried to hit the brakes but they didn't stop me. The car just kept flying through this offroad nightmare. Then suddenly and violently it all stopped. There was pressure on my legs and the door wouldn't open. I remember wriggling out and climbing out the broken window beside me. I fell. Darkness.
The next thing I remember is walking. The cold nipping at my underdressed body. Pain wracking through me like knives being plunged into me.
The fog of my mind was lifting now, but the pain in my head prevented further memory from coming through. It didn't matter right now anyway. All that mattered was getting out of this cold and stopping the bleeding, which I now realized was happening on several parts of my torn up body.
I was so tired that I was no longer really walking, more like stumbling forward with purpose. I could barely get my legs to continue but my own stubborn will forced me forward. Cars whizzed by me without even so much as a glance. In this day and age nobody was going to stop for a stranger. I was on my own.
In the distance I heard sirens. I prayed they would come my way. I prayed for them to find me. Alas, they moved further away rather than closer.
I continued to stumble and fumble my way along the darkened road. The occasional car passed but the traffic became less and less. I realized that the hour must be very late now.
As snow began to float down from above, tears rolled down my cheeks as I began to believe this would be my end.
Then as I crested the next hill, bleeding and crying and barely able to walk, I could see a bright light in the distance. It was the first light I had seen in all this time I'd been walking, at least in the time I could remember.
The hope this gave me must have shot adrenaline through me because I felt my pace pick up. The hope that there would be people or at least some sort of shelter kept me moving forward toward this ever brightening light.
Further and further I walked. I wanted to walk faster but my body refused. So I kept the best pace I could and prayed that this light would be my salvation.
As I got closer, the light seemed to dim but the source became more visible. It was a sign glowing in the night, advertising the campground it sat outside of. Nobody would be awake and I knew that but maybe there would be a bathroom where I could clean up and take shelter from this bitter cold. If I could just get there.
Finally I was under the glow and looking into the darkened and quiet campground. I was so relieved that I almost fell to the ground. My legs felt like jelly beneath me. However, I knew that to fall now would mean not getting back up and that was still a danger I couldn't risk.
I forced myself to keep moving. I found the main building and the men's bathroom. I pushed open the door and stumbled through. Behind the door was warmth. My body collapsed. The warmth eroded my stubborness and released the flood of tears I had been trying to hold back.
I laid on the tile floor crying and bleeding until finally darkness overtook my mind and all was quiet.
Voices. Sirens. I couldn't open my eyes but I could hear them. I shook my head trying to clear the fog. Trying to remember where I was. Trying to wake from this dream. Then my eyes opened and I realized it was no dream. There were people all around me in this strange room. Outside the door I could see an ambulance and the people were putting me on a rolling bed. I didn't understand. Where was I? Why were they taking me?
Suddenly I felt a hand touch mine and the most melodious voice said to me, "You are going to be fine sir." I looked up to see the face of an angel.
The memories of the previous night came flooding back. Tears and a cry escaped as I realized I had somehow survived. Questions flashed through my head but I didn't say a word. It could all wait. Right now all that mattered was that I survived. Everything else could come with time.
I don't remember the ride to the hospital. That most likely has a lot to do with the medications they gave me in the ambulance. I don't remember much of that first day. Doctors in and out of my room, xrays, cat-scans, blood being drawn, and lots of medication induced sleep.
"Nate?" a man's voice asked. My eyes fought to remain closed but my curious mind wondered who it was. My mind won the battle as I forced my eyes to open.
The brightness of the morning and the fog of medication did not agree with me. My vision was blurred and focus did not come right away.
"Are you Nate Bacwin?" said that same voice, which I could now see coming from a shape within my room.
I struggled to see but my vision did not want to come to me. I tried to speak but my voice came out in a crackle with no words attached. I began to panic.
The man in the room must have seen my concern and he calmly spoke again, "I'm sorry sir. You've been through quite an ordeal. Let me get a nurse and we'll start over after." And then he was gone.
Moments later nurses, I'm not sure how many, swarmed into my room. They checked all my vitals and helped me sit up and get comfortable. Once again I tried to speak, this time the crackle managed a couple words, "Can't see clear."
One of the shapes in the room shined a light in my eyes and then he spoke, "It's ok Mr. Bacwin, it's just from the concussion you suffered. It should clear up in a few hours. I don't believe there is permanent damage."
Bacwin? Was that my name? My mind, still foggy from the accident and the drugs, struggled for answers. I closed my eyes and let my mind race through what information it could find, like doing a search on a computer.
Suddenly it all came flooding back. My past, my name, and the accident. The car hadn't swerved it had been hit and knocked right through a guardrail. It skidded for a long way and then hit a very large tree.
My eyes popped open. Vision still blurry I could only see shapes in the room. I croaked out, "Why?"
Once again the original male voice spoke, "Mr. Bacwin, we have the woman in custody. The woman who hit you. She was very intoxicated and after hitting your car she somehow made it into town and hit several parked cars. Police arrested her and she was babbling on about the car in the trees. We didn't know what she meant until she sobered up and remembered where she had run you off the road. We believe she was trying to go for help but was in no condition to succeed."
Tears rolled down my face as I listened. How could someone drive in such a condition and risk hurting others? Why do people do such things? As these thoughts passed through my mind I managed to croak out, "What will happen?"
The voice, obviously an officer, answered, "This is not her first offense sir. She will most likely be going to jail for a very long time, however, that is up to the court."
And then another male voice, who I now know was the doctor looking after me said, "And as for you my friend, you will be here for a few weeks recovering. You have several broken bones, cuts, bruises, and we had to put 14 stitches in that stubborn head of yours, but you will be fine. None of us knows how you made it the 4 miles to that campground but thank heavens you did."
