Chapter 1:  Heather

The sun had been down for a while and what was supposed to be a great trip to the Appalachian Mountains with friends had turned into a miserable tour of falling snow as I drove down a long, seemingly deserted road. Even the radio had given up on me as I fought between bouts of static for a brief melody of actual music. I didn’t even care if it was a genre I hated if it kept me company and reminded me I wasn’t alone in the world. Each push of the radio’s scan button brought a little bit of hope, but it wasn’t long until the static started again and the music was drowned out.

“Come on. Give me something.”  I tapped the radio and hit the scan button again.

My cell phone was dying and I hadn’t even thought to pick up my car charger because I thought I would find the cabin I was searching for long before it ran out of juice. It wouldn’t have helped anyway because the reception was so bad my GPS couldn’t even get a signal. I stared at the spinning circle indicating it was searching for satellites, but it always timed out before anything was found.

Ugh.

I cranked the heater up another notch and tried to peer through the mixture of snow and ice forming on my windshield. The wiper kept pushing it out of my line of sight, but the cold outside was making it harder to defrost as the temperature dropped. I squinted my eyes against the darkness and tried to see with the abysmal light the high beams were managing to produce in the falling snow. Mostly I just got a reflection of snow that seemed to be falling in sheets instead of flakes.

Yeah, this is bad.

The situation was going to turn from bad to dangerous very soon if I didn’t find a road sign to guide me back to civilization. I wasn’t even sure where I took a wrong turn. I tried to remember the landmarks and follow my GPS even when the signal went out, but I had made a terrible mistake somewhere along the way. The road stretched on, my eyes got weary, and the gas meter signaled that the end of my journey was coming fast.

“Please, just a bar. A half a bar?  A quarter of a bar?”  I picked up my cell phone and tried to get a signal but I was still met with nothing. I even tried flipping it into airplane mode in hopes of somehow picking up a distant service tower, but it went right back to zero bars when I told it to search for a cellular signal.

Driving around in the dark until my car ran out of gas wasn’t going to help the situation and there was nothing for miles that I could see. It certainly didn’t help that my vision was fairly obscured by the frost on my windshield and the blinding snow falling in front of me. I let my car roll to a stop and kept the engine running as I thought about my situation.

Am I the only person on this freaking road?

I pulled my coat from the bag behind me and opened my door. I just needed to get a lay of the land and see if I could somehow get a signal if I wasn’t confined to my car. My coat did little to protect me from the elements as I wandered away from my headlights with my phone in the air, searching for any sign of service. I was met with a constant row of empty bars, and every step I took plunged me further into the darkness.

“Come on...”  I muttered through chattering teeth.

I heard noises in the distance and felt fear creeping up my spine. It was cold, but there were still wild animals out there, especially in the mountains. I turned towards my car and quickly ran back to safety.

Yeah, forget that.

Exiting and entering the vehicle had broken the warm seal I was enjoying from my heater, so I cranked the heater up as high as it would go and blew into my hands. After a few minutes, I could no longer see my breath so I took off my jacket and killed the headlights. It wasn’t like anyone was going to see them anyway.

What in the world am I going to do?

Somewhere in the distance, further up the mountain, was a cabin filled with some of my closest friends. It was supposed to be a party far from civilization, a party that lasted several days. My friends were probably already drunk, and rightfully so. I would have been doing the same thing if I wasn’t lost in the middle of nowhere facing the darkness and starting to panic.

I wasn’t sure how long my car would run if I just left it sitting there with the heater going, but I was certain it wasn’t going to last the night. I had no idea if the road I got lost on was traveled or if I was going to be stuck there until I eventually froze to death.

I peered out every window, looking for some sign of light—any sort of beacon to guide me towards civilization—but the only light I saw was the reflection of the moon peeking through part of a cloud and bouncing off of the snow around me. It was accumulating fast. If I hadn’t gotten started late, I would have made it to the cabin before nightfall and everything would have been fine. I silently cursed my terrible sense of direction.

“Drive until I run out of gas or sit here and hope someone shows up before I run out of gas...”  I stammered angrily. “I’m too far down this road to just turn around.”

It was a risk either way. I could get ten miles out of the gas I had left if the screen on my dash was correct, but I had no idea if ten miles would put me any closer to safety. If I just stayed in one spot, I would be able to last a lot longer, but I was gambling on someone finding me. I wished I had Google to tell me what to do instead of needing to rely on my own intuition because I was certain I shouldn’t be trusted to decide my fate in a life or death situation like the one I was in.

Nature seemed to make the decision for me as I realized exactly how tired I was. The adrenaline of the situation was starting to wear off and the coffee cup in my console had been empty for a very long time.

If I was going to be forced to walk, doing it in the daylight seemed like a lot better option than trying to do it in the dark, and I seemed to remember my friends saying we might get bad weather Friday night, but the rest of the weekend was supposed to be clear. If they were right, I would only have to battle melting snow and ice when morning came. I decided that I was there for the night, or until I was found, so I tried to make myself comfortable.

“I’ve slept in a car before.”  I said aimlessly. “I’ll just bundle up.”

I felt fear rising inside of me as the gas gauge dropped and finally gave out. Once the engine stopped, the heat that was blowing out of my vents was sorely missed. I had no options after that. If I was going to survive until morning, I was going to have to do it in the cold.

The fog on my windows started to frost over even worse and it got really dark when the moon disappeared behind the clouds that seemed to come together and close the crack. My car didn’t do enough to insulate me from the sounds all around me without the engine running. I could hear the whirling wind whipping against the car and I could hear the trees shaking—creaking. I could even hear the distant howls of a wolf but thankfully it sounded far, far away.

I closed my eyes and tried to force sleep, but while I was tired and drained, I was also starting to get colder. I pulled my coat around me, and then stacked a couple of shirts on top of it. My face was still cold, so I pulled a couple of shirts up over my nose, letting my breath warm them enough to dull the chill.

I felt like a natural survivalist for a moment, somehow managing to improvise with the meager supplies I had to create a cocoon of warmth. I dug into my bag again for more clothes, stuffing them in the seat around me to provide more insulation. When I got to the bottom of the bag, I felt the bottle of wine I had packed as tribute for the communal alcohol pool we planned to drink our way through before the end of the weekend. I thought about it for a couple of minutes and then pulled the bottle out.

“I always get warm when I drink...”  I muttered as I started to remove the seal around the top.

I didn’t have a corkscrew and my plan seemed to be for naught as I stared at the bottle, but then I got an idea based on a video I had seen someone post on their social media page. I dug in my purse for a pen and used the flat end to start pushing on the cork from the top. It took a little effort and caused most of my covers to get tossed around as I fought with it, but I was finally able to push the cork into the liquid below.

“Victory!  Thank goodness something is going my way.”  I stared at the cork with a bit of a smile forming on my chilled lips.

Once the cork was shoved through the top of the bottle, I was able to pour some wine into my coffee cup. It had a coffee taste at first, but the wine cut through it quickly. I wasn’t drinking it for the taste at that point. I hoped the wine would not only warm me up a little bit, but also make me tired enough to get some sleep. My stomach was rumbling a bit as well and I didn’t pack any snacks.

Down the hatch. Just drink it.

I stopped worrying after I finished off a couple of cups and felt like I could survive the night without any issues at all. The bulletproof feeling I often got after a few drinks came on quickly when the wine mixed with the emptiness of my stomach. The alcohol started to warm me up significantly after about an hour and I was feeling a lot better. The tips of my fingers were no longer cold to the touch and the blood was coursing through my extremities with ease once again. I still wasn’t tired, but I was feeling something else taking over—another urge that I often felt when I had a few drinks.

“You’re in the middle of nowhere, Heather...”  I poured another cup and stared at the red liquid. “Why not?”

The seat was leaned back and the windows were frosted. A light layer of snow had already formed over the car. The fact nobody had come by so far suggested my future would involve walking towards civilization when the sun came up if I survived the night.

If I’m going to die, at least I can die happy.

I knew one way to easily raise my body temperature and my inhibitions were lifted thanks to the wine. I slid both hands under the bulk of clothes covering me and unbuttoned my jeans. I pushed them, along with my panties, down to the floorboard and started to move my finger in a circle around the outside edge of my clitoris. My legs got cold, but the pleasure made up for the momentary chill.

Damn, it has been a while.

Even though I had never experienced a vaginal orgasm, I was certainly no stranger to rubbing my clitoris until it hummed with pleasure. The safety of bringing myself to orgasm using my clitoris had been my go-to method of masturbation since I first discovered how great it felt. My pussy was still a bit of a mystery that I didn’t understand. I wasn’t even sure how to get the same sense of pleasure out of it. I tried to penetrate it a couple of times with my fingers, but I was afraid to push them too far in, especially when I put too much pressure on my hymen. Being a virgin at nineteen seemed to be a bit of an anomaly amongst my friends, but I wasn’t really interested in having sex with someone just to do it. I wanted to find the right guy and possibly even wait until marriage—I was flexible on that part. I rubbed my clitoris a little harder and moaned.

There we go.

My hips moved in a grinding motion as my finger swirled around the outside of my clit and the sensitive bundle of nerves started to get even more aroused. When it was fully exposed, I used some of the vaginal secretions from my excitement to get a smooth glide across the hard knot formed from the overwhelming feeling of bliss flowing through my whole body.

“Oh God...” I tightened my lips and felt a moan rising in my throat.

I had a few fantasies in my imagination that always got me excited and the scrolling list of men willing to make me cum spun faster in my head as I picked up the pace. One day I hoped to find the right man so I wouldn’t have to rely on my imagination for excitement. Until that time came, my mental images were all I had.

“Don’t stop.”  I moaned again, a little louder—I had no reason to be quiet while my imaginary lover ravaged my body.

I imagined his kiss, his touch, and a hard cock that swelled because he wanted me. I spread my legs wider and felt a strong tingling sensation in my abdomen. It was like electricity centered in my clitoris, expanding through me as I got closer and closer. I moaned slightly, groaning with each passing second of pleasure. The pace got faster and I was practically abusing my clitoris, forcing as much pleasure as I could out the moment.

“Harder.”  I drew a panted breath that was coupled with a groan. “Make me cum!”

I bit down on my lip and kept going, pressing my hips upwards and then letting them sink down as I recoiled with the lust of my own touch. It didn’t take long for the feeling to overwhelm me and I knew I was at the point of no return. I held onto that moment, clinging to every bit of elation before the intoxication of titillation wore off—it came quicker than I would have liked. My orgasm was powerful, causing my vaginal walls to spasm slightly. I kept encircling my clitoris even as the orgasm started, trying to keep it going as long as possible. My whole body surged with pleasure as the feeling engulfed me. I kept my finger moving until it was so sensitive I couldn’t even stand to touch it.

“Wow...”  The afterglow of my orgasm held me in the cradle of tranquility for a moment.

I think a performance that good deserves a cigarette.

I rarely smoked, but when I had a few drinks with friends, I usually ended up asking them for one. The first pack I had ever purchased with my own money was in my purse because I didn’t want to be a leech the whole weekend.

I tore the plastic that surrounded the pack and flipped open the box. The smell of tobacco made my stomach curl a little bit, but I knew I wouldn’t care once it was lit and I felt the first hit of nicotine. I pulled a cigarette out of the pack and lit it, feeling warm all over. After a few drags, the car was filled with smoke and began to rethink the decision. I couldn’t crack a window which meant all my stuff would smell like smoke and the limited air supply I did have would be recycled nicotine for the rest of the night. I hated the smell of stale smoke, especially when it started to build in a circle around my face. I let it burn for a couple more puffs and then put it out in the bottom of my coffee cup, quickly covering it with the lid so the smell would be suffocated.

That was disgusting.

I was finally tired, to the point that I couldn’t keep my eyes open if I tried. The wine mixed with my orgasm had made me quite toasty, to the point I didn’t even care that I could see my breath if my lips weren’t covered. Sleep was coming for me so I closed my eyes and prayed for a miracle when the sun came up—if I could sleep that long. I pulled my coat and my extra clothes close as I snuggled in for what I expected to be a difficult night of sleep. The light buzz of nicotine wasn’t enough to overpower the fatigue I was feeling from head to toe.

Dear God, if you’re out there—please don’t let me die. I promise to go to church, read the Bible, sing hymns, whatever you want—just get me out of this alive.