Benji and Gio had been best friends since middle school.
They were 21 now. Old friends who had gone to the same college and eventually, in their third year, ended up as roommates.
They had also made the same terrible decision regarding their winter break travel plans.
A bunch of their friends had snagged a snow cabin up in Park City, and so they decided to eschew the icy road conditions and attempt to get Gio's older Jeep through some gnarly back road conditions to make it through the snow and somehow get safely to their AirBnB.
"I'm gonna get so fucked up tonight, man. I think Lacey is gonna be there." Benji said hopefully, referencing a sexpot they'd been close with in school.
"Same. It'll be amazing to see the old gang. Some of the girls have fucking blossomed. Lacey is a perfect example." Gio held up his knuckles which Benji knocked.
Unfortunately for them, when the weather guy said two feet overnight, he had actually meant four.
This was a record snowstorm, and their horrific T-Mobile service flickered like a candle as their Waze app attempted to navigate them down the right backroads.
"Fuck dude, these roads are starting to get slippery," Gio complained, as he peered out at the wipers struggling to keep up with the onslaught of snow flurries continiung to fall. Their phones were plugged in and the defroster was on blast, but it was barely helping their vision, as the road grew all the more dark.
They had turned down a very dark road as their navigator attempted to redirect them around a huge accident on the interstate.
"Yeah man...just take it slow, no hard breaking," Benji assured him. They both wanted to come off as sounding relaxed, even though they both were inwardly nervous about the worsening conditions.
This was not a well-traveled or plowed road. And as the houses became fewer and the snow became heavier the risk grew.
Their quarter tank of gas should've been plenty, but they were twenty miles away still and their cell service was like a stoic, mormon town—zero bars.
Then things went from bad to worse. On a series of steep hills, the weathered SUV began to fishtail.
As they headed down a hill with a curve up ahead, the brakes locked up.
"Fuck." Gio muttered, releasing the brakes. But the car was sliding down the slick, snow covered hill now.
"Fuck dude, brace yourself." Benji warned.
The car coasted right off the edge of the road and rumbled down a small fifty foot hill, coming to a stop when the front end smashed into a giant tree and began to sputter.
They were lucky not to be injured, though Gio's hand felt sore.
They were also somewhat lucky none of the windows had broken. It was 15 degrees outside and their car wasn't turning over.
"You okay man?" Benji checked in.
"That was fucking scary, but yeah I'm okay. The car is fucked." He tried it again to no avail.
"Any reception on your phone?" Gio asked the next important question as they tried to remain calm.
They both checked.
"Zilch. Zero. Nada." Came Benji's tittering levity.
The car was still warm from the heater they'd previously been blasting right before the accident, but it was amazing how quickly the cold began to creep in to the old SUV.
"So what do we do? Do we walk?" Benji wondered aloud.
Gio turned to look out the back of the car. The place the car had stopped was mostly flat but the hill they'd careened down was dark and rocky and covered in snow. There was barely any moonlight due to the all the thick forest of trees they were surrounded by. Climbing the hill would be a bitch to attempt.
"I don't know man, whatya think? That's quite a climb in the dark," Gio responded. they both peered out at the tiny glimmer of light back up the hillside they'd driven down. The thick shadows of trees and bushes and falling snow closed in all around them.
"What do the books say to do? Stay put right? Stay warm, don't freak out, use what you have," Benji got out of his seatbelt, which he was thankful he'd been wearing, as neither of the airbags had managed to go off even though they'd rammed the tree pretty firmly. He climbed into the backseat and began to look over the supplies they had with them.
"Well we've each got our sleeping bag, a couple of blankets, and whatever clothing we brought," he said.
"Yeah...too bad we don't have any snow gear on us," they had planned to go snowboarding but were going to be renting all of their gear from the local shop for this trip. Which meant their clothing was basically sweats, jeans, sweatshirts, and jackets.
"Well...we could put a bunch of clothing on, and grab all of our stuff, and basically just try to stay warm throughout the night, and then in the morning when we can see better we can try to climb up that hill and find some cell service." Gio reasoned, as he climbed into the backseat with his friend.
They both grabbed as much as they could, working fast and trying to stay as calm as possible.
They each put on a pair of pajama pants under their jeans, and an extra pair of socks to boot. And then their heavier jackets and gloves and scarves and beanies finished off the task.
They put the backseat into a flattened position which created a central squate of space for them to roll out their sleeping bags to face each other. Then they wrapped the two blankets that were in the car around their border, basically facing each other. Gio had also set up his emergency camping lantern, which his parents had thankfully forced him to carry in the back of his car ever since high school. This gave them enough light to see each other and see a little out of the windows as well.
"Fuck man...this is the dumbest thing that has ever happened to us," Benji said with a half-hearted grin. They were trying to maintain some sense of levity.
"Yeah...if we make it through this we should probably buy a lotto ticket or something," Gio encouraged him.
"I'm gonna fuck Lacey's asshole like a prize breeding stallion," Benji joked regrettingly.
"I'm gonna eat an entire box of Toasters Strudel," Gio joked in contrast.
They busted up laughing. The warmth on the car was fading fast and they could see their breath when they joked now. They were in good spirits but getting colder.
Even with the sleeping bags and layers, there was a definite prickle creeping up their spines.
"Wait...I've got an idea," Gio said. He reached back to his duffel bag and then quickly came back into the shelter of their warmth. He was holding a handle of Jameson they'd packed for the cabin.
"Should we drink a little...that would probably warm us up, right?" He held the bottle up for Benji to decide.
"Fuck. Yes." He grabbed it dramatically and unscrewed the cap and took a big swig, even as his teeth began to chatter. It was a long, painful gulp.
"Wow. That's impressive," Gio laughed, as he took the bottle back when he was finally done. Benji burped.
"Fuckkkk," he groaned.
"Pretty sure that was like two shots," Gio was impressed. He took his own, long swig to match his friend's.
