Built and Bearded: Bearded Bros Series Page 11

  If I hand’t known it then, I knew it know. I was in love.

  Oakley

  Dax was able to stand up. He caressed my bloody cheek.

  “Are you okay?” he asked. “This looks bad.”

  “I guess. My head is throbbing. Maybe a concussion,” I answered him, shaking my head a little and wincing at the searing pain that shot through.

  “You are getting this checked out by a doctor as soon as we get back down to the resort,” Dax informed me.

  “I think that we all will need to be checked out when we get back,” I reminded him. “You’re not as tough as you think you are, you know?”

  I was only half kidding. He looked like shit just then.

  He just smiled at me.

  We took a survey of our situation. No other soul was in sight yet.

  “I wonder if Mrs. Baker has gotten to help yet,” I asked.

  “I hope so,” Dax replied, looking at the snowdrifts around us. Some of the drifts were massive, making seeing down the mountainside pretty much impossible. “These drifts look unstable,” he observed.

  I looked at what he was pointing to. The snow was really unstable and the digging that I had done made it worse. I feard that it might even shift again.

  “We need to get out of here,” Dax said with urgency.

  “I agree,” I answered. “Look that mound is sliding above us,” I said, pointing up the hillside.

  “Shit,” Dax replied. “Let’s start moving this way,” he said, leading us away from the sliding mound of ice.

  The going was slow, and as I looked up, I noticed that this time the slab was moving along with the loose snow. It began to head right for us.

  “Run,” I yelled out.

  But it was of no use. The slab picked up more and more loose snow and it all came tumbling down again and took us right off of our feet.

  Dax and I got one quick glance in at each other before we both grabbed onto a kid. Dax reached out for me and I threw my body weight toward him. He, somehow, latched onto me as the avalanche tumbled us down the mountainside for another fifty yards.

  Dax never let go of me or of the kids. We all tumbled as one big group. I heard the kids, who were cradled between us for protection, crying.

  At some point, I felt a sharp object smack off of my head, almost in the same exact spot as the last wound. The pain was excruciating but I fought to stay conscious. Dax would need me.

  When we finally came to a stop this time, we found ourselves all buried under the snow. One of the kids was crying and I heard Dax murmuring to him. It tugged at my heart to see how good he was the them.

  But then I heard Dax grunting. By him holding all of us, he had taken the brunt of the fall.

  “Dax, are you okay?” I asked him. “Kids?”

  I got a small yes from both of the kids who were still between Dax and me. Dax was silent.

  “Dax?” I yelled out. Yelling made my head throb and I saw stars again. At one point, I felt as I was going to faint, but I squeezed my eyes closed and fought it off.

  “Oakley?” I heard Dax calling me. “Oakley, talk to me,” he was saying.

  “Dax,my head,” I tried to tell him but I had trouble speaking.

  “Hold on Oakley,” I heard Dax saying. “Do you still have the shovel?”

  I did still have the shovel and I pulled it out of my pocket. The space was tight but I was able to get it close to one of the kids.

  “Take it,” I told Adam. “Hand it to Dax.”

  I felt Adam’s little hand grasp onto the shovel. “I can’t reach Dax,” he said.

  “Pass it to me,” whispered Marcy. “I can give it to him.

  I felt Adam wiggling around until he passed the shovel over to Marcy. Then she was grunting, attempting to hand it off to Dax.

  When I hear Dax say, “Got it,” I sighed a breath of relief.

  He would save us.

  Dax began shoveling upward until he broke through the top. Dax yelled for me to try and lift up Adam and for Adam to try and pull himself out.

  Miraculously, Adam pulled himself to freedom.

  “Shovel sideways around us to make the hole wider,” Dax ordered him. “That’s it, just like that.”

  Soon we all had a good airway but I felt that something was very wrong with me.

  Hitting my head twice in the same place was causing me to start to black out. My head was throbbing and now I could feel the blood flowing down my face again. More blood this time around and it wasn’t stopping.

  I became extremely tired and could hardly breath anymore. I started to feel more and more lightheaded.

  I knew that I was going to pass out.

  “Dax,” I whispered. “I’m falling asleep.I can’t keep my eyes open anymore..” But my words were slurred and sounded funny in my ears.

  “No!” I dimly heard Dax yelled at me. “Stay awake, Oakley. You have to stay awake.”

  I struggled to keep my eyes open, but the rythmic pounding of my pulse in my ears was lulling me to sleep.

  “Oakley? Oakley?” I heard the panic in Dax’s voice.

  I tried to tell him that everything was okay. That I was going to go to sleep now. I felt my lips moving but no sound was coming out.

  “Dax?” I silently called his name.

  Then it all went black and I soundlessly drifted away.

  Dax

  I kept calling her name but she wasn’t answering.

  “Oakley! Oakley!”

  Nothing.

  “Adam, can you try and shake her? Give Oakley a good nudge?” I urged the child.

  “Adam? What’s happening?” I asked when I didn’t hear anything.

  “I am shaking her. She won’t move!” he exclaimed from above.

  Shit, Oakley was unconscious.

  I needed to get her out of there before she suffocated. Adam was the only mobile person right now. I needed him to give Oakley a good air source. I couldn’t tell from where I was if she was breathing or not.

  “Adam, can you shovel around Oakley’s head? Make a space for her to breath?” I asked him.

  “Okay,” the child responded. “Then, a moment later, “I can’t make the hole any bigger. It’s frozen solid,” he cried out.

  Fuck.

  “Adam, can you grab your sister?” I asked him.

  “No, she’s stuck, too.”

  “Dig around her until I can lift her out,” I yelled up to him.

  I heard the shovel digging and prodding at the frozen snow. The problem was that I was having a six-year-old child dig two grown-ups and another child out of an icy hole.

  “Can you move at all?” I asked his sister, Marcy, who was still lodged up against me.

  “No, not yet,” she answered softly. “Mr. Hunter?” she asked.

  “Yes?”

  “Oakley’s not moving at all. I don’t think she’s breathing,” the girl cried.

  No. No. No.

  This was impossible, I thought. Now what? I could try digging myself out.

  “Hand me down the shovel, please, will you Adam?”

  “Okay, here it is,” he replied, handing it down to me.

  I could only move my hands about halfway up my body. But I was able to get the shovel that Adam lowered into the hole and I began chipping away at the ice in front of me.

  It was slow going, but I needed to get myself out of this hole if Oakley had a chance.

  I tried to not scare the kids, but chipping away at the icy snow was taking too long and I started to panic. It Oakley wasn’t breathing, I wouldn’t be able to get here out of there in time.

  I was thinking of another way around the situation. I could try and send Adam down the mountainside for help. But how I could I send a six-year-old out on his own?

  What if he didn’t make it? At least, for now, he was safe. I couldn’t do that to him. That’s it, I thought. It’s over.

  I closed my eyes as a tear fell from my cheek. I’d failed her; the only woman I’d ever loved.

&nb
sp; Just as I was about to give up, I heard something. I strained my ears and listed for the sound again.

  There it was! It sounded like a dog barking.

  It was! In the distance, I could hear a dog barking. A deep, throaty bark that only Bella had. I hoped that it wasn’t too late.

  “Adam, can they see you?” I asked him.

  “Yes, they are coming!” he shouted out in excitement. I could see his shadow jumping up and down and he was waving his arms. “Over here!” Adam yelled.

  A moment later, I heard my brothers yelling out and then footsteps as they approached the hole.

  “Get Oakley out of the hole,” I cried. “She’s unconscious. I don’t know if she’s breathing!”

  “Dax, we are working on it,” Harley’s face showed up above mine. I heard several shovels digging through the snow and ice. I closed my eyes and waited.

  Brad was working on digging out Oakley’s side while Cole was working on the middle to get Marcy out. I must have closed my eyes from pure exhaustion and drifted off for a second because a moment later, I felt Marcy’s small frame being pulled from my grasp and it startled me back into the horrific situation.

  “Cole,” I called out. His face was the only one that I could see at the moment.

  “Dax, buddy, hold on a little bit longer. Brad and Harley are pulling Oakley out now and then I’ll get you out,” he told me.

  I could see the look of alarm on his face as they pulled Oakley free from the hole.

  “Is she alright?” I yelled up to him.

  “I don’t know,” he replied calmly.

  A moment later, Cole reached down and began to heave me out of the hole. Since everyone else was now out, I was able to swing my legs to the side and make a purchase on the snow wall with my feet to help climb out.

  With one last heave from both Cole and I, I was able to lift myself out of the hole. I saw Oakley laying on the snow and I frantically crawled over to her.

  Harley was feeling for a pulse. Her face was blue.

  “Do something!” I cried to my brother. “Please, Harley.”

  Harley started CPR. I kneeled over Oakley and just watched as Harley breathed into her mouth and pumped her chest in rotations.

  “Come on, Oakley,” I begged her. “Breathe, baby.”

  I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. All of a sudden her chest rose in a big breath. But then it went flat again and hardly moved. Harley stopped the CPR and felt for her pulse once again.

  I looked up at him, pleading for good news.

  “It’s faint, but she does have a heartbeat,” Harley announced.

  I started to cry hard. “Oakley,” I begged her to wake up as tears fell from my eyes. I caressed her cheek and brushed the hair from her forehead. “Oakley,” I called to her softly.

  She couldn’t hear me.

  “Her breathing is extremely shallow. She needs to get to a hospital like now,” Harley said sadly. “I’m sorry, Dax,” he added, frowning down at her.

  “Where’s the chopper?” Cole asked angrily. “We talked to them half an hour ago!”

  Brad was holding the kids who were both shivering.

  “Are they alright?” I asked him.

  He looked down at me and nodded. The look in his eyes was of total despair.

  “There,” Harley yelled, pointing to the sky. “It’s coming. They’ve sent a Medevac.”

  “Can they land here?” I asked. “The ground is not stable,” I added.

  “No, but they can lift Oakley, you, and the kids, and take you all to the hospital.

  I hoped so. I wasn’t worried about myself. Oakley was the one who needed medical attention right away.

  We all watched as the helicopter circled above us. Then, it lowered slowly until it was hovering beside us. A rope ladder lowered and an EMT lowered herself to the ground. She ran over to us and immediately kneeled next to Oakley.

  A second technician climbed down the rope and took the kids, one by one, from Brad. He fastened them to his harness and then climbed back up the rope with each one.

  The EMT with Oakley was listening to her chest with a stethoscope. “We need to get her on oxygen right away,” she said. I think it’s a combination of a serious head wound and inhaling too much CO2 while she was underground.”

  The second EMT returned and they had a long orange stretcher lowered from the helicopter. Unhooking it from its rope, the technicians carried it over to lay beside Oakley and shimmied a backboard underneath her.

  “One, two, three,” the one technician counted, and on three, they both lifted Oakley onto the stretcher. They each picked up an end and carried it the short distance to the helicopter, reattached it to the rope, and gave the other man in the helicopter a thumbs up.

  Slowly, the stretcher began to rise into the air. I watched with despair as Oakley was lifted away.

  The female EMT returned to me as the other one followed the stretcher up into the helicopter. My eyes only left the stretcher when it was lifted inside, out of my sight.

  “Mr. Hunter, Come with me,” the EMT was saying. “I need you to walk to the rope. They will send down a harness for you. Can you do this for me?” she asked me, concerned.

  I nodded. I was in a daze and having trouble concentrating.

  “You probably have inhaled too much CO2 yourself. We need to get you on oxygen, too,” the technician was saying.

  The next thing I knew I felt Brad and Cole lift me to my feet. They each put one of my arms around their shoulder and half carried me to the helicopter. The harness was lowered and they helped me get into it and secure it to the ladder.

  “Go up the ladder,” Brad was saying. “Oakley needs you. Go to the hospital with her. We will meet you there,” he was saying.

  Hearing Oakley’s name brought me out of my daze. “Okay,” I said. “Thank you.” I looked at each of my brothers. They all nodded for me to go.

  I climbed up the ladder and the technician helped me inside. He directed me to a seat close to Oakley’s stretcher. The EMTs were nice enough to let me sit close to her so that I could hold her hand. They had her on a respirator and an IV.

  I looked at both kids. They both were wearing oxygen masks but looked good to me.

  “Are you guys okay?” I asked them.

  They both nodded. I tried to give them a smile. I could tell that they were scared.

  I squeezed Oakley’s hand and it felt so small and cold in my own. I watched as the respirator helped her breath. Her chest rose and lowered slowly along with the machine. I put my head down by hers and closed my eyes. I was so tired.

  The EMT gave me an oxygen mask with a tube attached to a small tank.

  “Please, Mr. Hunter, wear the mask.”

  I took the mask from her and slid it over my nose and mouth then put my head back down beside Oakleys. I squeezed her hand, hoping that she’d squeeze mine back.

  But she didn’t.

  Dax

  I never left Oakley’s side except for when they took her for an examination. The doctors told me that she had a severe head injury. That, along with the lack of oxygen, resulted in her being in a coma.

  “Is she going to wake up?” I worriedly asked her doctor.

  “It’s too early to say, right now,” the doctor informed me. “The coma could be a result of her body shutting down so that it can heal itself. We need to take her up for an EEG to determine her brain activity.”

  “Are you saying that she could be brain dead? Or, have brain damage?” I asked him.

  “I’m not saying anything definitive right now. I don’t believe that she is brain dead since she was breathing on her own before the EMTs put her on the ventilator. Could she have some brain damage? It’s possible. It’s too early to jump to conclusions. I’m sending someone in to take her up now. Wait here and when we come back down, I’ll know more,” he informed me.

  “Alright,” I agreed.

  “Mr. Hunter. While we are gone, will you please let the ER doctor check you out?” he
asked me.

  “Yes, okay,” I nodded. They kept bugging me about it so I guessed that it was the best time as any to get it over with.

  The ER doctor examined me and determined that I was okay for the most part. I was badly bruised and weak from the experience. He wanted me to stay in a hospital bed for the night, but I refused. No way I was going to leave Oakley’s side to go and lay in some hospital room down the hall from her. I needed to be wherever she was.

  “Alright,” he agreed. “Just keep the oxygen tank with you. If you start to feel lightheaded, it’s imperative that you tell a nurse,” he warned me.

  “I will,” I promised him.

  “Your family is out in the waiting room. If you want, I can send them in.”

  “Yes, please send them in.”

  “We need to contact Miss Padin’s family. Do you have phone numbers for her parents? Or any other family members that should be notified?” the ER doctor asked me.

  I thought about it for a moment. Funny thing was, I had no idea about her family except for the little bit that she had told me about her mom being remarried and stuff. I did not have her parent’s numbers.

  “No, but her best friend is Hailey Voortman. She is visiting here with her from Utah. She knows all the numbers,” I answered.

  The doctor gave me a suspicious look which I ignored. My relationship with Oakley was none of his business as far as I was concerned.

  “Yes, Miss Voortman is in the waiting room, too. I’ll go and ask if she wants to make the calls or if the hospital should,” he said and left the room.

  I was glad that the doctor was gone. I just wanted to be alone. But a moment later, my brothmrs, mom, and Hailey walked through the door.

  “Dax!” My mom exclaimed. “Are you okay?” she asked rushing over to me.

  “Hi, Mom. Yes, I’ll be okay. I don’t know about Oakley though. I think they’re checking her for brain damage,” I cried to her.

  My mom came over and wrapped her arms around me. “She’ll be okay, Dax,” she soothed me.

  “Thanks, Mom, but you don’t know that.”

  “You just have to stay positive for her,” she said.

  She gave me a kiss on the cheek and stepped away. Brad, Cole, and Harley all came over one by one and said how sorry they were that Oakley was hurt and to ask how I was feeling. I shrugged them off, telling them I was fine.