The Color of Love (The Color of Heaven Series) Read Free

for a long time, then Aaron began to shiver. “It’s freezing in here.”
    Maybe it was adrenaline, but I’d barely noticed the cold until he mentioned it. Then I realized my extremities were growing numb.
    Geez. I was a seasoned climber and wasn’t proud of the fact that I hadn’t been more on top of this. I blamed it on the shock of the crash.
    “You’re right,” I said. “We need to keep warm and make it through the night without freezing. That’s the most important thing. Help me get some stuff out of my pack.”

Chapter Five

    We barely slept a wink that night.
    Because I had only one sleeping bag and we couldn’t find Aaron’s jacket (it must have blown out of the plane when the wing broke off, along with his cell phone which was in the pocket), we had to share what I had in my pack. This included an insulated parka I’d brought in addition to the jacket I was wearing.
    We didn’t talk much. What exactly do you chat about with a total stranger when you’re shivering in the cold and weighing the fact that you just survived a plane crash, when others didn’t? And two of those lost souls were only a few feet away, so it seemed proper, somehow, to remain silent.
    When the sun finally came up, I nudged Aaron, tossed off the sleeping bag, and rose stiffly. My body felt sluggish and heavy from the cold, but my hands and feet were okay. I told Aaron to keep checking his extremities and not to ignore any numbness, then I crossed to the hole in the side of the plane to examine the situation in the light of day.
    “We need to get out of here and see where we are,” I said, “and make sure the wreckage is visible from the sky.”
    With the daylight, it was easier to establish what we were dealing with, at least in terms of an exit strategy. I made sure my gloves were on tight, then attempted to push some of the prickly branches out of the way. I discovered we were wedged tightly up against a giant black spruce.
    “We won’t be leaving through here,” I said, giving up the task.
    “Let’s try the door,” Aaron suggested.
    Together we managed to open the passenger door which included an integral set of steps. I descended first and hopped into a foot and a half of snow.
    “You stay where you are for now,” I said to Aaron who stood on the steps. “It’s important to stay dry.”
    There was not a single breath of wind in the air as I waded through the snow to gain some distance from the plane and get a better view of the wreckage.
    “ Jesus… ” I whispered as I took in the devastated nose section and strips of steel ripped like thin ribbons from the length of the fuselage. The tail end was in shreds too. It was a miracle Aaron and I had survived.
    “It doesn’t help that the plane is white,” I said to him. “The trees are tall and covered in snow. The branches are hiding most of the wreckage. Let’s hope we left an obvious trail of damage when we were landing.”
    A snowflake fell on my nose just then. I looked up through a hole in the trees at the cloudy sky.
    Great … Just what we need .
    “They should know where we are, though, shouldn’t they?” Aaron asked. “I mean…the pilots must have radioed that we were in trouble.”
    “Of course,” I replied, wading back to the plane. “But still, we should do something to make it easier for them to spot us. I have a red tent in my backpack. We’ll find the nearest clearing and fly it like a flag. And we should keep busy today in case they don’t find us right away. We’ll need to light a fire to keep warm and then take stock of what we have for supplies.”
    I returned to the steps and glanced briefly at the pilots’ frozen remains, visible through the smashed-in window as I climbed back up.
    Again, I thought about what had been on my mind as the plane was zigzagging through the turbulence and I believed we were plunging to our deaths.
    Carla and Kaleigh .

Chapter Six

    The snow began to fall lightly around 9:00 a.m., and by noon Aaron