🔥Campfire Story time! 🔥 The nights are slowly getting cooler & cooler! Finally & ever so slowly starting to feel like fall late at night & early in the morning. Pour yourself a cup of coffee from the thermos & pull up a chair. This story definitely won't warm you up!
It was in the dead of winter & the ice on the lake was thick enough to put multiple trucks on it. People were ice fishing all over the lake. There was a "homemade ice rink" that was set up on the other side of the lake away from all of the "good fishing spots".
The local meteorologist said that there was going to be a pretty heavy & possibly dangerous snow storm heading into the area later on that day. The sky was so dark blue it was almost black & the sun was quickly snuffed out by the fast moving storm that didn't have an end in sight.
I was playing tag with a few of my friends on the ice (a good bit aways from the people who were ice fishing). Snow storms never prevented me from being outside in them. Especially since I was decked out in a heavy snowmobile suit with waterproof boots, a hat, & a thick pair of gloves to go along with it.
It began snowing pretty heavily & gusts of wind whipped relentless & furiously through the lake & the surrounding areas. Kicking up any loose snowflakes from the ice & sending tiny loose particles of ice into the air & across the lake. Causing the visibility to go from being able to see clear across the lake to down to barely able to make out the shadows of vehicles & people.
We were about ready to end the game & head inside when one of my friends who was it tried to tag me. I took off running in the other direction. She chased me for a bit then stopped & called me back saying that she was done & that they were going inside. I made a sharp turn going back to land but not in the same direction as where I ran from.
I went from a run to a jog & heard a loud crack. I fell straight into a hole & I instinctively held out my arms to prevent myself from going completely under the water. The cold water shocked me completely & snagged my breath as it swallowed me up to my upper chest. The once protective snow suit filled with water & was making it difficult to stay afloat. I cried out for help as loud as my lungs could manage as I shook violently from the onslaught of surprise ice cold water. I could hear my friends calling my name. I kicked as hard as I could trying to get back up on the ice. My boots had fallen off as I fought against the water.
My small group of friends came into view & one of them ran to go get help from the people who were fishing somewhere nearby. They tried to pull me up themselves as I continued to struggle to breathe & get back up on the ice myself. I kept my arms on solid ice but the effort to get up on it was in vain. Exhaustion had started to take over & it was getting harder & harder to tread water so I wouldn't slip under completely. My friends held my arms in place so I wouldn't actually go under & kept me talking.
Everything started to sound muffled, I stopped fighting & just gasped for air that hurt like hell even in small doses. My feet had no feeling in them at all. I closed my eyes because I had nothing left to give & darkness etched it's way into the abyss of the frozen grave I found myself in. I could faintly hear what was going on around me & I don't remember what happened next.
I woke up in the hospital with my friends surrounding me & the two older men that had rescued me from that watery hell. I was told by the nurse that I had survived hypothermia but there was no internal nor external damage.
"You were the only thing that we caught today." The older man of the two said with a chuckle & a wink. "Can't always keep what you catch."
"I wouldn't have tasted very good frozen nor would I make much of a wall decoration." I responded with a laughed "Thank you both for saving my life & for not tossing me back in once you knew that I couldn't be kept."