Lost Light

There was snow everywhere. Ahead, behind, above, below. Half an hour ago I thought it was beautiful. Now it was starting to get deadly. The sun would set soon, and I could see the light leaving even though I couldn’t make out any shapes on the horizon. It was just a slow fade to night that began as white tinging with grey and ended with black swallowing up everything.

The storm had come out of nowhere. They always did. I made the mistake of turning aside from the path, and now I didn’t know which way it was back to camp. I wasn’t going to last. I already knew an empty wash of flurries and shadows would be the last thing I’d see.

At least it was cold. Truly cold. Kill you in an hour or two cold. Better to go quickly than to drag it out. You never knew exactly how long it took when you found the body the next morning, but you could tell when it was long and drawn out.

I could already feel my body shutting down. I’d lost feeling in my toes an hour ago. My hands didn’t work anymore. The suits we had left were only rated for an hour in this weather, but nobody expected we’d be here for more than a few days.

I lay down and curled into a ball. My inner ear told me I had changed position, but when I squinted into the blizzard it looked exactly the same. Grey.