Bracing his feet on either side of the hole, he was able to take the shovel and began digging into the icy snow drift, pulling the snow up into the luggage portion of the cab and on top of him. Every few minutes he had to push the snow off of him to the sides of the cab to make room for more snow. Because the back of the Jeep was facing downward, window glass was also pointing down. This forced Alex to dig out a man size tunnel initially that was pointed downward, and then in about three feet was able to level off and start digging upward.
“I can’t see a thing out here! How about some light?” Alex complained. Looking over at Alexi, she picked up the small flash light from the pile and scooted down to the end of the Jeep. She now used the flash light to light up the small ice room that Alex had made in the snow bank. Soon he was making great progress with his head and waist already sticking through the broken window with the shovel pulling even more frozen snow down around his legs. Alexi had her gloves on and was pushing and packing the snow on either side of her nephew.
You just got to know that when Fate is fucking with you that it is never over till that final thread is finally cut. Don’t like that fortune cookie? How about “There is always a calm right before the storm”? Or that the bad guy is never dead. I can give you a countless examples of its not really over till it’s over. I know I sound negative, but one man’s pessimism is another man’s reality. But in this case I couldn’t help myself and just suspend my normal outlook in life. I guess it was just easier to swallow that we were going to get out of this alive with nothing more than a scratch and we would go on with our life as if nothing has changed. I can assure you that this was not to be the case. Fate wasn’t close to being finished with us for the night.
“What was that sound?” Alex yelled back to Alexi over his shoulder. Before she could say “What sound?” Alex had started scampering backwards crablike through the back window. As quick as he was, he still wasn’t able to clear the window. That’s when the Jeep dropped down the hill again, but this time with the sound of cracking ice.
In seconds the lower part of the Jeep began to fill up with icy water. The drop also caused Alex to be pulled out of the window again but this time into the wet darkness below us.
“Alex!” Alexi and I screamed. When my little sister and I scrambled towards the back of the vehicle, it caused the Jeep to slip even a little deeper in the ice cold water. I was more terrified now than even the car accident. Being trapped in a snow drift was one thing, but this was water for Christ sake.
Fumbling with the crank on the emergency light, I began to turn the handle and a bright beam of light showed outward from twenty LED’s with an intensity directly proportional to the whirring sound of me turning the crank. My light showed me nothing through the back window but swirling water.
“Where the hell had this water come from?” Alexi asked me. Then began yelling out Alexi’s name over and over.