Kat saved my life today. I always knew not knowing how to swim would get me in major trouble some day. When I woke up this morning, I walked around on the leg a bit to see if it improved at all. It did, but not by much. I felt somewhat confident enough that I wouldn't do any further damage to it if I tried traveling on it. We left the hotel at around 10 once it started warming up.
I got on the bike and started to pedal, and it wasn't that bad actually. It was slow going, and I had to put most of my weight on my left leg whenever I pedaled. Not even a mile up I-39, we hit the bridge stretched across the Illinois River. As we were crossing it, we saw a semi truck coming towards us. We almost couldn't believe it!
The first thing I did was hop off my bike and run down the street in front of the truck waving my hands out to get him to stop, but he was moving a lot faster than I thought he was at first. The driver barely had enough time to slam on his brakes when he saw me, and it caused his truck to jackknife. He was able to steer the cab away from me, but the trailer swung out from him in my direction. I only had three options. A) Get crushed by the trailer. B) Dodge to the right into the path of the cab. C) Jump the rail into the freezing river below.
Obviously since I'm writing this, I went with C. It must have been a good 50 feet drop into the water below, but it felt like much more. I kept holding my breath waiting to hit the water, and just went I tried to breathe again, SPLASH! My world became water. Water forced its way into my nose, gagging my throat as I involuntary breathed it in, burning my lungs as the liquid found residence. My eyes were forced shut and the shock of the cold water seized my muscles preventing me from extending my limbs out all the way in a weak attempt to tread water. I didn't know which end I was facing, the current taking over and treating me like laundry in a washing machine. I felt bludgeoned all over my back, as if someone was beating me with lead pipes. I realized the current was dragging me across the river bed, across the rocks that rested along the bottom. Maybe it was just instinct, but I realized at that second, I needed to propel myself up to the surface. I knew I was at the bottom, so there was only way to go. I kicked off as best as I could until I felt the cold snap of air assault my face as my head broke through.
I tried to cough the water out, but every time I did, I swallowed more water. I thrashed around with my useless arms and kicked with my equally useless legs but I had no concept of rhythm in order to keep myself afloat. I was panicking. I was freezing. I was drowning. Death had me all around, its formless fingers yanking at me from every direction, tugging at me trying to reclaim that prize it once had: my head. The river wanted me back under, and it was having its way. I lost all my energy, spent from desperately trying to swim, sapped from the cold waters of the river.
I was under. All I could do was stair up into the water looking at the sun, the blue sky, distorted by the water's surface. I felt the current pushing me along, twisting my body around to keep me so disorientated, I would never get lucky enough to reach the air again. Until I felt something else grab me, something firm and tangle. I felt pressure hook me from under my shoulder just as I lost consciousness.
When I came to, I was coughing up water and then vomiting it up. It was a one-two punch, first the burning of the esophagus from the puke, and then the burning of the water still draining from my nostrils. I only felt a few moments discomfort before the violent shivers took over and prevented me from feeling anything else. I looked up and there she was, Kat, in her all her soaking glory. She jumped in after me, narrowly missing the truck herself. She swam down the river chasing me until she finally caught me. It felt like eternity, but all in all, it was only a few minutes from when she jumped in to when she pulled me up on the bank.
The first thing she did when she saw me come to was take off all my clothes and wring them dry as best as she could. When she finished with my clothes, she did the same with hers. Instead of putting the clothes back on, she covered us with them and hugged me tight, my naked body against hers, to transfer her body heat to me. After she felt me warming up a bit, she helped me put my clothes back on and got dressed herself. She hugged and kissed me all over and I returned in kind, but then she berated me for not knowing how to swim. I said one day, she'll have to teach me. She saved my life! She was so happy that I was still alive and it seemed like all the frustrations we had the past couple of days were completely lifted. I had the sudden feeling that everything between us was going to be just fine.
The river took us about a half mile southwest from the bridge. We started heading back to it, but when we got there, the truck was abandoned. We shouted out "HELLO?" several times hoping that whomever drove the truck was still around, but no one yelled back. I started to investigate down the bridge where it connected to land and that's when I saw the blood trail, a line of drips randomly changing in intensity and frequency. I followed it down several more feet until the drips turned into one giant smear trailing off the side of the road. I stopped following the track knowing there was no longer a reason to.
I went back to the truck and realized it was stilled running. The first thing Kat and I did was hop in the cab and blast up the heat. It felt SO GOOD to have all this hot air blowing on us! We actually took our clothes off again and used the heater to dry them off. After putting them back on, Kat asked me if I knew how to drive a truck. I said I didn't even know how to drive stick. She made a snarky remark about how if I don't know how to drive a truck or swim, what good am I? She flashed me a smile and a wink to know she was just kidding. I asked if she knew how to drive a truck and she shook her head.
My bike was smashed, though, so there wasn't much of a choice. It wasn't our truck and we didn't have to worry about insurance, so I figured it was worth a shot to try to figure it out. The problem was there was a lot of unmarked buttons and switches and there were two gear shifts which really threw me off. I had no idea how to get the thing into the proper gear to even get it to move. Then, I also remembered the jackknifed trailer. I got out and inspected the hitch. I didn't know much about trailers, but I knew that a bent piece of metal in the back of the semi's cab meant this trailer wasn't coming off without machinery.
I went back in and told Kat we're pretty much going to have to abandon the truck. Then she remembered Johnathan's bike and I smiled. That's right! He left it behind. And well, he wasn't going to have anymore need of it, so I told Kat to stay in the cab and keep warm. I'd go back to the hotel and get the bike.
It was still there, where Jonathan left it, but the darkened bloodstains on the seat did not make me want to ride it. I had no choice, though, and just gritted my teeth and rode it back to Kat. Once there, I swapped my seat, which was still in good condition, for Jonathan's and I felt much better about using it now. While I was retrieving the bike, Kat went through the glove compartment and the sleeper compartment for anything useful. She found a couple of flares and some beef jerky, a revolver with three rounds and a flashlight you recharge by shaking it. Not a bad find. I decided to check the trailer itself, but it was locked tight. Whatever was in the trailer would just have to stay there.
We warmed up some more in the cab, but we started getting lazy and actually dozed off for an hour or so. We didn't want to leave the blissful comfort of the truck, but then we heard the clunk-clunk-clunk of the engine as it ran out of fuel. So, at roughly two in the afternoon, we mustered ourselves up and go back on the road.
I kept myself at about 10 miles an hour and with roughly four hours of light left, we only made it about 40 miles when we decided to look for shelter for the night. We got off I-39 and went east until we came across another farmhouse and barn. I made sure I wasn't going to repeat the same mistake I did before and I searched the property thoroughly: absolutely no sign of anyone still living there.
The house was locked up, so I had to break the window in the door to reach in and unlock it. We parked our tired butts in chairs too comfortable to be dinning chairs, and we ate dinner of newly discovered beef jerky and the last jar of fruit we had . We savored it, because we had no idea when we were going to come across canned fruit again. It was a delightful treat.
We found the master bedroom, and it was like it was never touched. Whoever lived here, if they were attacked, were not attacked here. They never made it home. At least their bed would serve the purpose of giving two very wary souls a good honest night's rest.
Until tomorrow.
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