Categories > Cartoons > Kim Possible > The Point Of No Return
Day Three
Kim woke up early the next morning. She wasn't alone. Apparently, Ron was awake as well. There were footprints leading out of camp. Kim followed the prints, and found Ron, looking out over a ledge opposite of where they had come up the day before,
"We've got to get across that?" Kim asked, looking up, she caught her first glimpse of Dead Man's Gorge, the huge crevasse that had claimed the lives of several of the areas best climbers, the chasm was wide, and huge, it seemed to go on forever,
"Yep, if we want to make it to base camp two tonight, we got to." Ron said, pointing to a large ledge overlooking the chasm, Kim could barely make out a small tent on top of the ledge,
"Just don't go killing yourself, Ron, you know, Middleton Park Cemetary is filled with the bodies of climbers that thought they could beat the gorge." Kim said,
"Yeah, I know." Ron said, referring to the fall down the gorge, that most of the climbers in the area had nicknamed, 'The Express Elevator to Hell,' Ron himself had almost experienced that same ride four years ago, but midway down the fall, he had gotten his ice axes lodged into a glacier and was able to climb his way out of the gorge, thereby making it to the camp, but not without injury, he had dislocated his shoulder in the fall, and two other climbers in his party had died in the ensuing exodus over the side of the gorge, and that, more than anything, put a stop to going any further that year. And it was only two years ago, he had managed to successfully make the jump, crossing the gorge without a scratch, but the following morning, he had broken his leg, when his foot found an unmapped crevasse in the mountainside.
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It was mid-afternoon when Kim and Ron reached the gorge, Kim watched, as Ron got out a large length of climbing rope, and pulled his ice axes out of his backpack, then, dropping his pack to the ground, he took a long run backwards, to give himself a head of steam when he made the jump. Apparently, he was going to hook the rope onto a tree on the other side, because he had lodged one end of the rope into the granite of the mountain, which would allow Kim the advantage of just going across by the rope, rather than risking the fall. Kim got out of the way just in time, Ron had begun his run, as he reached the edge of the gorge, he made a wild leap, Kim watched, horror struck, as Ron hung in midair, and then, began to fall, his arms flailing madly, but in a few seconds, it was over, Ron had made it across, but barely, Kim was stunned that he made it at all, but then she realized, the reason the other climbers didn't make it, they didn't drop their packs, and didn't have someone on the other side to bring it over for them.
It took nearly twenty minutes for Kim to get across the gorge, she didn't want to try any heroics, not at this height, but Ron's voice made her feel comfortable as she shimmied across the rope, when her feet touched solid ground again, she let out a sigh of relief,
"Thank God that's over with." Kim said,
"Oh, the fun's only started, K.P." Ron said, a slight grin on his face, Kim knew what he was saying, they would have to navigate the gorge during the decent, but something about his voice meant something entirely different,
"What do you mean?" she asked,
"Well, the weather, it's cold, and snowing out, that means there's bound to be hidden crevasses as we get higher." Ron said,
"Yeah," Kim replied, "not to mention, several covered holes dotted all over the mountain, if our feet come into contact with any of them, it's broken bone city."
"Got that right." Ron said, remembering his encounter with one of these covered holes a couple of years ago.
They had arrived at base camp two about five hours ahead of schedule, the first thing Ron did when they arrived, was to call the ranger's station, and ask for a weather report,
"Clear as a bell tonight, Ronnie," the ranger said, "so you're good to go to camp three."
"Roger that, Paulie." Ron replied, when he came out of the tent, he looked over at Kim, and motioned over to another large tent near the comm tent,
"Mess hall," he said, now leading Kim to the large tent, as soon as they went in, they found a small man inside, his blond hair was blindingly white, as though it were made of freshly fallen snow, his light blue eyes looked as though they were made from chips of sapphires, and his body was well built, if not a little pasty looking,
"Ack, Ron Stoppable, you made it, Paulie said you should be coming, so I had a meal prepared for you, and your party, how many?" the man asked, in a thick Scandavian accent,
"Just the two of us, Sven." Ron said, gesturing over at Kim, then, to himself,
"That is good, please, take a seat, your dinner vill be shortly." Sven said, now disappearing to the rear of the tent, Kim was looking at Ron, a question seemed to be forming in her head,
"How did they get a mess hall at two thousand feet up?" Ron asked, noticing Kim's puzzled look, Kim nodded, "They made it when they erected the camp." Ron said,
"What about Sven?" Kim asked,
"He's harmless, he's one of the search, and rescue workers that stays in a cabin located about a few hundred yards to the east of here, he's always the first to arrive at this camp, he cooks the meals, and keeps the camp in order, Joe works camp one, and Wayne works camp three." Ron said,
"How come we didn't see Joe at camp one?" Kim asked, but Ron didn't answer that question, instead, it was Sven,
"He vas sick, there vas no one vorking camp one." he said,
"Okay, sick with what?" Kim asked,
"Pneumonia." Sven replied,
"Wow, is he over it?" Ron asked,
"Ja, he is fine, now, my friend." Sven said, smiling, revealing dazzlingly bright teeth,
"That's good, tell him, Ron sends his best wishes." Ron said,
"Ja, that, I'll do." Sven said, still smiling.
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Kim and Ron left camp two about two hours later, the sun was still up, and the temperature seemed to be holding for now, but in the north, little to Kim, and Ron's awareness, one of the worst blizzards to hit Middleton was starting, it had already buried Denver, and several other cities to the north, in more than two feet of snow, and stopped much of the air traffic in the area, passenger flights had been rerouted to other airports, and all flights in the areas had been grounded, and according to the forecast, if the storm maintained its current path, it would hit Middleton by tomorrow afternoon, unfortunately for Kim, and Ron, they had left the camp before Sven could give them the bad news.
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Kim and Ron were going to make camp in a clearing about a quarter mile from camp two, there, they would dig in for the night,
"We're almost there, K.P." Ron said, but when he turned around, Kim was nowhere to be seen, he retraced his steps, and found a hole in the mountain, that he was sure wasn't there before, as he made the descent down the hole, he looked down, and saw Kim, lying at the bottom, she was holding onto her right leg, and shouting out in pain,
"Ron, get your ass down here!" she was yelling, Ron was suddenly nervous, Kim was injured, and this might stop his ascent up the mountain,
'Even if it did,' he thought to himself, 'it's the furthest I've gotten in five years, I can't complain about that.'
As Ron made it to the bottom of the hole, he noticed that Kim's right leg was folded underneath her, and a red substance was staining the snow around her. As he slowly moved Kim's leg straight, he realized what the red substance was, it was Kim's blood, it had stained the leg of her snowsuit, and he was pretty sure that Kim's leg was broken, he just didn't know how badly, but he didn't want to find out here, something was telling him to get out of the hole before nightfall, so he laced Kim's left arm over his shoulder, and around the back of his neck, then, attaching Kim to his climbing harness, (Kim was wearing her harness as well) he climbed out of the hole, and found a small, flat area where he could set up camp, and assess the damage that had been done to Kim's leg.
"Easy, K.P., I got you." Ron said, laying Kim on the floor of the tent, he was removing her snowsuit, and preparing to remove Kim's broken leg from the leg of the suit, as soon as Kim's right leg was free, Ron looked down, what he saw made him sick, the bone had broken the surface of the skin, ('No wonder there was so much blood on the ground.' Ron thought) and was showing itself clearly through the leg of Kim's pants, as Kim got up to look at the damage, Ron's hand came down swiftly on her shoulder,
"Lay back, Kim, you don't want to see this." he said, quickly covering the injury with a cloth, and pushing Kim into a laying position,
"So not the drama, Ron," Kim replied, "it's just a broken leg, how bad could it be?"
"How about an open wound." Ron said, not hiding it any longer, he knew that Kim would remove the cloth as soon as he was out of sight, so he took it off her leg, and showed it to her, resigning himself to the worst, if Kim were to see it, she would go into shock, and he would need to get them off the mountain within the hour, and if not, he would have three days before Gangrene set in,
"Holy shit!" Kim said, looking at her mangled right leg,
"I told you not to look." Ron said,
"That's not what's worrying me, Ron, do you know enough to sew it up, and get us off the mountain?" Kim asked,
"I hope." Ron said, there was a complete absence of confidence from his voice.
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Ron had sewn up the wound as best as he could, and had set Kim's leg, when he had set the bone, Kim screamed, and shouted out a bunch of obscenities that he was sure, she didn't learn from anyone in her family, after that was done, he bound the leg in a splint, and fashioned a crutch for her to walk with, he had thought, if she were able to move under her own power, they would be able to make down the mountain faster, and get her to the hospital,
"I only hope this works." Ron said, looking over at Kim, her snowsuit had been returned to her, unfortunately, Ron couldn't get out the blood that stained it, so she would have to deal with it, he had also sewn up her pants, the tear in them had happened across one of the seams, so it made it easier to conceal the tear. Tomorrow, they would start the descent down the mountain.
That night, while Kim and Ron slept, the blizzard that had been threatening Middleton, hit with the force of a runaway freight train, thirty mile an hour winds, topped with heavily falling snow, had covered the valley in about two-and-a-half feet of snow in under an hour, all flights in, and around Middleton had been grounded, including, the search and rescue helicopters that the National Park Service used to patrol Mt. Middleton with. At the Possible home, Mrs. Dr. Possible woke with a start,
"What's wrong, honey." Mr. Dr. Possible asked, looking at his whey-faced wife,
"Something terrible's happened to Kimmie." she said,
"Ronald's up there with her, she'll be fine." Mr. Possible said,
"I hope you're right." Mrs. Possible said, laying back down, listening to the wind howling outside their house, but the worry over her daughter didn't die off, instead, it got worse, she quietly got out of bed, and walked into the kitchen, where she poured herself a cup of coffee, and sat down at the table.
'Please, God, let her be alright, let her come home to us, safe, and sound.' she thought. She went back to her room, and got back into bed, her dreams tormented by the fact that her only daughter was out there, in all that snow, and that terrible storm that was raging outside their home right this moment, and there was nothing she could do to stop it, for the first time in her life, she felt helpless, like there was nothing she could do to bring her daughter back home.
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Up on the mountain, Ron remained awake, a protective arm around Kim, he was watching her closely, he knew it was a matter of time, he only had a small window to get Kim off the mountain, and to the hospital, otherwise, she could loose her leg to Gangrene, that was, of course, the worst case scenario, if all went well, she would be fine, the doctors would work their magic, and she would be back to her normal self in no time,
'But what if she did loose her leg?' Ron mentally asked himself, 'Would she blame me for it, would she never want to see me again, would I blame myself for it?'
These thoughts swirled around his head, as he drifted off into a fitful sleep, just as the winds began to pick up, and the snow began to fall.
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A/N: Now, it's getting interesting, I thought I should add the parental instinct in there, it wouldn't be right if the elder Possible's didn't react in some way to Kim's injury, Kim's mother would be the one to worry the most.
Kim woke up early the next morning. She wasn't alone. Apparently, Ron was awake as well. There were footprints leading out of camp. Kim followed the prints, and found Ron, looking out over a ledge opposite of where they had come up the day before,
"We've got to get across that?" Kim asked, looking up, she caught her first glimpse of Dead Man's Gorge, the huge crevasse that had claimed the lives of several of the areas best climbers, the chasm was wide, and huge, it seemed to go on forever,
"Yep, if we want to make it to base camp two tonight, we got to." Ron said, pointing to a large ledge overlooking the chasm, Kim could barely make out a small tent on top of the ledge,
"Just don't go killing yourself, Ron, you know, Middleton Park Cemetary is filled with the bodies of climbers that thought they could beat the gorge." Kim said,
"Yeah, I know." Ron said, referring to the fall down the gorge, that most of the climbers in the area had nicknamed, 'The Express Elevator to Hell,' Ron himself had almost experienced that same ride four years ago, but midway down the fall, he had gotten his ice axes lodged into a glacier and was able to climb his way out of the gorge, thereby making it to the camp, but not without injury, he had dislocated his shoulder in the fall, and two other climbers in his party had died in the ensuing exodus over the side of the gorge, and that, more than anything, put a stop to going any further that year. And it was only two years ago, he had managed to successfully make the jump, crossing the gorge without a scratch, but the following morning, he had broken his leg, when his foot found an unmapped crevasse in the mountainside.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was mid-afternoon when Kim and Ron reached the gorge, Kim watched, as Ron got out a large length of climbing rope, and pulled his ice axes out of his backpack, then, dropping his pack to the ground, he took a long run backwards, to give himself a head of steam when he made the jump. Apparently, he was going to hook the rope onto a tree on the other side, because he had lodged one end of the rope into the granite of the mountain, which would allow Kim the advantage of just going across by the rope, rather than risking the fall. Kim got out of the way just in time, Ron had begun his run, as he reached the edge of the gorge, he made a wild leap, Kim watched, horror struck, as Ron hung in midair, and then, began to fall, his arms flailing madly, but in a few seconds, it was over, Ron had made it across, but barely, Kim was stunned that he made it at all, but then she realized, the reason the other climbers didn't make it, they didn't drop their packs, and didn't have someone on the other side to bring it over for them.
It took nearly twenty minutes for Kim to get across the gorge, she didn't want to try any heroics, not at this height, but Ron's voice made her feel comfortable as she shimmied across the rope, when her feet touched solid ground again, she let out a sigh of relief,
"Thank God that's over with." Kim said,
"Oh, the fun's only started, K.P." Ron said, a slight grin on his face, Kim knew what he was saying, they would have to navigate the gorge during the decent, but something about his voice meant something entirely different,
"What do you mean?" she asked,
"Well, the weather, it's cold, and snowing out, that means there's bound to be hidden crevasses as we get higher." Ron said,
"Yeah," Kim replied, "not to mention, several covered holes dotted all over the mountain, if our feet come into contact with any of them, it's broken bone city."
"Got that right." Ron said, remembering his encounter with one of these covered holes a couple of years ago.
They had arrived at base camp two about five hours ahead of schedule, the first thing Ron did when they arrived, was to call the ranger's station, and ask for a weather report,
"Clear as a bell tonight, Ronnie," the ranger said, "so you're good to go to camp three."
"Roger that, Paulie." Ron replied, when he came out of the tent, he looked over at Kim, and motioned over to another large tent near the comm tent,
"Mess hall," he said, now leading Kim to the large tent, as soon as they went in, they found a small man inside, his blond hair was blindingly white, as though it were made of freshly fallen snow, his light blue eyes looked as though they were made from chips of sapphires, and his body was well built, if not a little pasty looking,
"Ack, Ron Stoppable, you made it, Paulie said you should be coming, so I had a meal prepared for you, and your party, how many?" the man asked, in a thick Scandavian accent,
"Just the two of us, Sven." Ron said, gesturing over at Kim, then, to himself,
"That is good, please, take a seat, your dinner vill be shortly." Sven said, now disappearing to the rear of the tent, Kim was looking at Ron, a question seemed to be forming in her head,
"How did they get a mess hall at two thousand feet up?" Ron asked, noticing Kim's puzzled look, Kim nodded, "They made it when they erected the camp." Ron said,
"What about Sven?" Kim asked,
"He's harmless, he's one of the search, and rescue workers that stays in a cabin located about a few hundred yards to the east of here, he's always the first to arrive at this camp, he cooks the meals, and keeps the camp in order, Joe works camp one, and Wayne works camp three." Ron said,
"How come we didn't see Joe at camp one?" Kim asked, but Ron didn't answer that question, instead, it was Sven,
"He vas sick, there vas no one vorking camp one." he said,
"Okay, sick with what?" Kim asked,
"Pneumonia." Sven replied,
"Wow, is he over it?" Ron asked,
"Ja, he is fine, now, my friend." Sven said, smiling, revealing dazzlingly bright teeth,
"That's good, tell him, Ron sends his best wishes." Ron said,
"Ja, that, I'll do." Sven said, still smiling.
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Kim and Ron left camp two about two hours later, the sun was still up, and the temperature seemed to be holding for now, but in the north, little to Kim, and Ron's awareness, one of the worst blizzards to hit Middleton was starting, it had already buried Denver, and several other cities to the north, in more than two feet of snow, and stopped much of the air traffic in the area, passenger flights had been rerouted to other airports, and all flights in the areas had been grounded, and according to the forecast, if the storm maintained its current path, it would hit Middleton by tomorrow afternoon, unfortunately for Kim, and Ron, they had left the camp before Sven could give them the bad news.
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Kim and Ron were going to make camp in a clearing about a quarter mile from camp two, there, they would dig in for the night,
"We're almost there, K.P." Ron said, but when he turned around, Kim was nowhere to be seen, he retraced his steps, and found a hole in the mountain, that he was sure wasn't there before, as he made the descent down the hole, he looked down, and saw Kim, lying at the bottom, she was holding onto her right leg, and shouting out in pain,
"Ron, get your ass down here!" she was yelling, Ron was suddenly nervous, Kim was injured, and this might stop his ascent up the mountain,
'Even if it did,' he thought to himself, 'it's the furthest I've gotten in five years, I can't complain about that.'
As Ron made it to the bottom of the hole, he noticed that Kim's right leg was folded underneath her, and a red substance was staining the snow around her. As he slowly moved Kim's leg straight, he realized what the red substance was, it was Kim's blood, it had stained the leg of her snowsuit, and he was pretty sure that Kim's leg was broken, he just didn't know how badly, but he didn't want to find out here, something was telling him to get out of the hole before nightfall, so he laced Kim's left arm over his shoulder, and around the back of his neck, then, attaching Kim to his climbing harness, (Kim was wearing her harness as well) he climbed out of the hole, and found a small, flat area where he could set up camp, and assess the damage that had been done to Kim's leg.
"Easy, K.P., I got you." Ron said, laying Kim on the floor of the tent, he was removing her snowsuit, and preparing to remove Kim's broken leg from the leg of the suit, as soon as Kim's right leg was free, Ron looked down, what he saw made him sick, the bone had broken the surface of the skin, ('No wonder there was so much blood on the ground.' Ron thought) and was showing itself clearly through the leg of Kim's pants, as Kim got up to look at the damage, Ron's hand came down swiftly on her shoulder,
"Lay back, Kim, you don't want to see this." he said, quickly covering the injury with a cloth, and pushing Kim into a laying position,
"So not the drama, Ron," Kim replied, "it's just a broken leg, how bad could it be?"
"How about an open wound." Ron said, not hiding it any longer, he knew that Kim would remove the cloth as soon as he was out of sight, so he took it off her leg, and showed it to her, resigning himself to the worst, if Kim were to see it, she would go into shock, and he would need to get them off the mountain within the hour, and if not, he would have three days before Gangrene set in,
"Holy shit!" Kim said, looking at her mangled right leg,
"I told you not to look." Ron said,
"That's not what's worrying me, Ron, do you know enough to sew it up, and get us off the mountain?" Kim asked,
"I hope." Ron said, there was a complete absence of confidence from his voice.
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Ron had sewn up the wound as best as he could, and had set Kim's leg, when he had set the bone, Kim screamed, and shouted out a bunch of obscenities that he was sure, she didn't learn from anyone in her family, after that was done, he bound the leg in a splint, and fashioned a crutch for her to walk with, he had thought, if she were able to move under her own power, they would be able to make down the mountain faster, and get her to the hospital,
"I only hope this works." Ron said, looking over at Kim, her snowsuit had been returned to her, unfortunately, Ron couldn't get out the blood that stained it, so she would have to deal with it, he had also sewn up her pants, the tear in them had happened across one of the seams, so it made it easier to conceal the tear. Tomorrow, they would start the descent down the mountain.
That night, while Kim and Ron slept, the blizzard that had been threatening Middleton, hit with the force of a runaway freight train, thirty mile an hour winds, topped with heavily falling snow, had covered the valley in about two-and-a-half feet of snow in under an hour, all flights in, and around Middleton had been grounded, including, the search and rescue helicopters that the National Park Service used to patrol Mt. Middleton with. At the Possible home, Mrs. Dr. Possible woke with a start,
"What's wrong, honey." Mr. Dr. Possible asked, looking at his whey-faced wife,
"Something terrible's happened to Kimmie." she said,
"Ronald's up there with her, she'll be fine." Mr. Possible said,
"I hope you're right." Mrs. Possible said, laying back down, listening to the wind howling outside their house, but the worry over her daughter didn't die off, instead, it got worse, she quietly got out of bed, and walked into the kitchen, where she poured herself a cup of coffee, and sat down at the table.
'Please, God, let her be alright, let her come home to us, safe, and sound.' she thought. She went back to her room, and got back into bed, her dreams tormented by the fact that her only daughter was out there, in all that snow, and that terrible storm that was raging outside their home right this moment, and there was nothing she could do to stop it, for the first time in her life, she felt helpless, like there was nothing she could do to bring her daughter back home.
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Up on the mountain, Ron remained awake, a protective arm around Kim, he was watching her closely, he knew it was a matter of time, he only had a small window to get Kim off the mountain, and to the hospital, otherwise, she could loose her leg to Gangrene, that was, of course, the worst case scenario, if all went well, she would be fine, the doctors would work their magic, and she would be back to her normal self in no time,
'But what if she did loose her leg?' Ron mentally asked himself, 'Would she blame me for it, would she never want to see me again, would I blame myself for it?'
These thoughts swirled around his head, as he drifted off into a fitful sleep, just as the winds began to pick up, and the snow began to fall.
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A/N: Now, it's getting interesting, I thought I should add the parental instinct in there, it wouldn't be right if the elder Possible's didn't react in some way to Kim's injury, Kim's mother would be the one to worry the most.
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