Antarctic ice beasts, p.2
Antarctic Ice Beasts, page 2
With her hands on her hips, Holli said, “How did you get so cynical?”
“Being a realist isn’t cynical. Just like being young and dumb isn’t a crime.”
“You’re not making any friends here,” Nichols interjected.
North looked around the room and chuckled. “Guess I’m not. That’s what happens when my beauty sleep is interrupted.”
“Okay, the earthquake is in the rearview mirror, right?”
“From everything I’m seeing, yes,” Sherm said.
“And this current storm is going to start dying out, correct?”
“Yes,” Jeannie said.
“No damage to the station?”
Holli and C-Rod shook their heads.
“And we’re all up and walking and talking, so that’s all good,” Rob said. “I say we call it a night and get back to what we were doing. In my case, it was drooling on my pillow. Any objections?”
When there were none, he called the meeting adjourned.
Everyone but Sherm shuffled out of the science pod. “I won’t be able to go back to sleep without keeping an eye on things for a while.”
“It’s a free country,” Rob said.
“I don’t know what the hell this country is, but it sure doesn’t feel free,” Sherm replied, his face glowing blue from the monitors.
Nichols thought he was right at that. From now until September, they were basically prisoners in here. He slipped his arm over Jeannie’s shoulders and they walked back to their room. She looked up and down the now empty hallway and said, “I’m still concerned about the sound that quake made.”
“Why? Even you just said the quake is responsible for it. It’s like being afraid of thunder.”
She looked at him as if he were the densest man alive. Compared to her brilliant brain, he just might be, but he’d happily resigned himself to that when he said ‘I do.’
“Thunder is air. That was the wail and cry of the Earth itself adjusting. God knows what the physical after-effects could be. It would be great to look around, but we can’t, not with this and the next storm beating the daylights out of us.”
They stepped into their dark room, the automatic lights flickering to life a few seconds later. Rob kissed her and pulled her in for a hug. “Our job is to make sure the scientific instruments, the base, and everyone in it remains in working order through the winter. When the sun comes up in a few months, we can explore and see if there are any changes to the surface. But until then, you’re stuck with me, our off-kilter crew and your curiosity. Okay?”
She patted his rump. “Not really, but it’ll have to do. You want a melatonin?”
He dropped his clothes beside a chair, slipping into the bed in his boxers and undershirt. “Unlike Dallas, I kinda like the sounds of the storm. Is it weird that I find it soothing?”
“With Dallas looking like he just saw a ghost, yes, it is weird. But I didn’t marry you because you were normal. What other man would come down here with his wife?”
Jeannie took off all of her clothes, tossing her bra on his face.
It didn’t take a genius to know what they would be doing for the next fifteen minutes, or more if he were up to it.
Chapter Three
Dallas could end his shift in another hour, but with the way his nerves were jangling, there was no way he could even think of sleeping. The steady hammering of the storm was like a stick poking him every time he got the slightest bit drowsy.
And that earthquake didn’t help matters much. It was only the second shaker he’d experienced at the Pole, and though he was grateful it hadn’t damaged the base, the eerie sounds it made still rang in his ears.
Walking the hallway of the resident section, he muttered aloud, “Keep it together, man. Everything’s good. We’re all warm and safe.”
But for how long? Another even bigger storm was headed their way. And from what he knew about earthquakes, the aftershocks could come much later and be worse than the initial shake, rattle and roll. Sherm said everything looked good for now, but that could change in a New York minute.
He turned the corner for the enclosed walkway that connected the resident hub with the common areas. He’d do another inspection of the kitchen, rec room and storage room just to be safe.
Knowing his unsettled demeanor was getting to the others, he’d sent Hols and C-Rod to their quarters, assuring them he had everything covered. By the time the rest of the crew was ready to start their day, he’d be heading off to bed where he could keep his wild concerns to himself. Sure, there was a heck of a lot going on outside in the bitter darkness around them, but that was a day in the life of the South Pole.
So why was he so freaked out?
His grandmother, God rest her soul, used to tell him he was born with a caul, an ancient sign that he was brought into this world with the special gift of ‘sight’. He’d yet to see into the future. If he really had the gift, he’d have picked the winning lottery numbers by now. Grandma had been a bit of a fruit loop, making pancakes in the shape of witch faces and jack-o-lanterns in the morning for him and reading Tarot cards for her friends and neighbors at night. She would have been right at home in some little cottage in the forest in a Grimm Brothers fairy tale.
Dallas hoped to hell and back that his so-called gift wasn’t kicking in now. He just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.
Maybe, back in his room, he’d knock back a couple of shots of Dewar’s he kept under his bed and try to zone out to old episodes of All in the Family. A comedy was definitely needed to lighten his mood.
The kitchen was just as fine as it had been when he’d been here an hour ago. He opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water and some cheese. With the water in his pocket, he munched on the block of pepper jack and flicked on the lights to the storage room. It was crammed with food and other essentials, with boxes on racks that went up to the ceiling. They’d be here for over five months, and they had stocked up for seven just in case. You could never be too cautious. It didn’t take much for something to go wrong and things to go tits up.
There you go again.
If this had been his first tour in the Antarctic winter, he’d write this off as first time jitters. Or the beginning of cracking under the isolation and constant realization that help, should anything go wrong, was not on the way. Even an infected toe from clipping your nails too short could kill you down here.
He made his way to the science pod. Sherm was gone, hopefully catching a few minutes of shuteye. Dallas looked at the monitors but couldn’t understand a single thing on them. Nothing was glowing red or flashing DANGER, so he had to take that as a good sign.
His stomach balked at the cheese and he tossed the remains in the garbage, rinsing his mouth with water. The walls rattled a bit when the wind kicked up, but all was well.
All but Dallas.
Maybe he would ask North for a pill. That and the Dewar’s should set him right. Maybe he was just tired. He hadn’t been sleeping all that well lately. Too many dreams about Paula, the woman he’d met a month before coming down here. She was a hell-cat in sheep’s clothing with legs that went on forever. They’d met in a farmer’s market, her flimsy prairie dress revealing a lot of her sumptuous curves. It took four dates over the course of two weeks before he got to see those curves up close and personal. That left them two weeks of intense getting to know you time. Now he was gone for months and she was free to meet any man who came along. She promised she’d wait, but could he really expect her to sit around for him when they’d essentially just met?
“A man without problems is a dead man,” he said, heading to the rec room. A single, low wattage light lit the room. It had been tidied up, most likely by Hols. C-Rod was a slob who left a trail of garbage in his wake.
There was a lone window in the wall by the bookshelves, the thick pane of glass revealing darkness blacker than tar. Dallas pressed his nose against the glass. The snow may have been swirling but he couldn’t see a thing. He flicked the wall switch to turn on the outside lights.
A pale, hairless man was caught in the harsh glare. He looked at Dallas with large, almost black eyes, before darting out of the arc of light and into the pitch.
Dallas stumbled backward, hitting the ping pong table and knocking it over. His mouth opened in a scream but no sound escaped.
Someone was out there! Someone that didn’t look quite right.
And he hadn’t been wearing any clothes.
Chapter Four
Rob Nichols sat on two stacked crates in the storage room, Dallas sitting opposite him. It was cold in the room, their breath mingling in the space between them like dancing snakes.
“You feeling better?”
Dallas knocked back his fourth shot of vodka, part of Nichols’ private stash. When he’d first knocked on his door, Nichols thought Dallas was there to tell him part of the base had been breached. His near-heart failure was replaced by perplexity, and now concern, as Dallas told and retold the story of the naked man outside their door.
“Not really,” Dallas said.
They’d been in here an hour. Nichols wanted to keep this away from the rest of the crew. If the vodka didn’t settle him down and his story didn’t change, it was likely he was having a break, which meant they were in trouble. The man knew every nook and cranny of Freedom Base. If he had to be put out of commission, that would leave Nichols, a first timer, to pick up the slack.
“Did you at least check for footprints?” Dallas asked.
“I looked outside and didn’t see any,” Nichols replied. “But with the way the snow’s coming down, any prints would be buried in minutes. Now, what makes you think this guy was naked?”
Dallas raised a bushy eyebrow. “Because he didn’t have any clothes on.”
Nichols shook his head. “No, that’s not what I’m asking. You and I both know, if we were to step out that door, naked as a pair of jaybirds, we’d be dead before we could say, ‘Oops, I forgot my coat!’ You understand why I’m finding this hard to believe, right?”
Dallas abruptly stood up, tossing the shot glass across the room. “I’m not making this up! I saw him.”
“Did you see what he was doing?” Nichols decided to let it play out. Maybe if he asked enough questions, Dallas would start to realize how ridiculous and impossible all of this was sounding.
Scratching at the stubble on his cheeks, Dallas said, “I think he was trying to look inside the rec room. Like, maybe he was seeing if it was empty.”
“And why do you think he’d do that?”
“Hell if I know. Maybe he wanted to break in, but not if someone was around to see and hear him. Maybe he wanted to catch Hols leaning over the sink so he could look down her shirt. I…don’t…know.”
“All right, all right. Who knows what goes on in anyone’s mind, right? Now, you said there was something off about his eyes.”
Wagging a finger at him, Dallas said, “No, I told you his eyes weren’t even human. They were big. Like twice as big as anyone’s eyes should be. And they were black.”
“There’s lots of people with oversized dark brown eyes.”
“Uh-uh. Not like this. His eyes…they had no whites. There were all black, like an animal’s. His ears, I think they were pointed. And he had no hair. Not a fucking whisker or eyelash. He was balder than a newborn baby. Except he wasn’t no baby. He was big, like me, only muscular.”
“And naked,” Nichols said, feeling like his plan had failed.
“And naked.”
Now Nichols got up. He capped the vodka bottle. Dallas had had enough. “This is a hell of a lot to lay on me.”
Dallas grunted. “Yeah, just think how I feel. I had to see the freak.”
But did you? Nichols thought but dared not say. “You know who I want us both to talk to next.”
The big man deflated. “I know. He’s just gonna stick me with a needle to calm me down, put me to sleep and say everything will make sense in the morning. I can tell you, ain’t nothing going to make sense to me ever again. No. Not after this.”
Nichols clapped him on the back. “Come on, buddy. Might as well get this over with.”
As they left the storage room, Nichols saw Holli heading for her quarters. Her eyes lingered on Dallas and it was impossible not to notice the recognition that something was up on her face.
“Heading off to bed?” Nichols asked.
Her smile couldn’t be faker. “A nice, hot shower first. I’m beat. You two up to no good?”
“As always,” Rob said, chuckling.
“Well, not much trouble to get into in this place. See you later.”
Nichols silently thanked her for not prying.
He and Dallas went the other direction, toward the medical unit.
“So?”
Nichols had been pacing outside the door like an expectant father. After he’d left Dallas in North’s care, he’d run over to tell Jeannie he was dealing with something but not to worry. By the look on her face when he left, he’d accomplished the exact opposite.
Terry North was a burly man with a black handlebar mustache and longish hair tied into a ponytail. He looked more like a biker than a doctor, but that was all part of his ‘I don’t give a shit anymore’ look on life. North cracked his neck and sighed. “That’s one hell of a story, I’ll give him that.”
“Is it the start of cabin fever?”
It seemed hard to believe Dallas could ever experience cabin fever, especially at this juncture of the winter season, but anything was possible.
“Could be,” North replied.
“Or…”
“Or a lot of other things. He told me he hasn’t been sleeping well lately. He left behind a new honey and the distance between them is working on his mind, especially at night when there isn’t anything else to do but choke the chicken, ruminate or sleep. I gave him a sedative and asked him to sack out here so I can keep an eye on him.” North rummaged around his pocket and retrieved a pack of gum. He offered a stick to Nichols, who declined. “He’s not fighting me, which tells me he’s very aware that protesting too much will make him seem crazy. So, he’s either rational and conscious of his actions and reactions, or he’s gone off the deep end but is clever enough not to appear bat shit.”
Nichols couldn’t help himself from laughing. “Bat shit? They teach you that in medical school?”
“Hell, they didn’t teach me anything about the human mind other than how to dissect a brain. I passed on psych classes because I didn’t want to get into people’s heads that way.” He blew a small bubble that popped quickly. “Big Texas is going to be out for a while. I’ll check in on him from time to time.”
“I hope he wakes up and realizes he was only dreaming.”
“You forgot one more thing,” North said.
“What’s that?” Nichols asked.
The doctor opened the door and looked in at the slumbering man. “In a world where reality stars become presidents, maybe Dallas is telling the truth.”
Nichols stared at North, a quiet game of chicken, waiting for the man to smile or laugh or do something to chuck that statement off as a joke.
When he didn’t, Nichols simply turned and walked away, wondering if insanity was contagious.
Chapter Five
Jeannie and Sherm spent the day shift, which was as dark and foreboding outside as the night shift, glued to their computers. She’d been worried about what her husband was up to earlier, but the work kept her mind busy and occupied.
Sherm had printed a map of the South Pole and tacked it to the wall. It showed the Freedom Base as a small dot, that dot surrounded by undulating wave patterns. Not far from that dot was a large, red dot, denoting the epicenter of the earthquake. It had been so close to the base, less than two miles, that it was a miracle they were still in one piece. The close proximity may explain the strange sound, as they were in the lone front row seat to one of the planet’s deadliest dances.
“All quiet on the southern front?” Jeannie asked, pinching the bridge of her nose and looking away from her monitor. To combat eye fatigue, she made it a point to focus on the blank ceiling for one minute every twenty minutes of screen time. She’d read somewhere that it helped, but today, the niggling headache at her temples wasn’t making things better.
“Praise Jesus, yes,” Sherm replied. “If I had wood nearby, I’d knock on it and say we should be good from here on out.”
“Religious and superstitious. Interesting,” Jeannie joked.
“I’ll be whatever I have to be to make it out of this endless freezer from hell. How’s that storm coming?”
“Oh, it’s coming.”
Faster and bigger than I first thought.
“Well, the hatches are already battened, so I guess all we can do is wait,” Sherm said. He was so focused on another earthquake popping up that the severity of the storm didn’t enter his full consciousness.
The storm had her full attention. The winds now could top eighty-five miles an hour and seemed to be climbing as it picked up in intensity instead of petering out as it moved further inland. It made no sense. If it kept up at this pace, all hands were going to have to strap themselves in and pray Freedom Base didn’t fly away to Oz.
When her walkie chirped, Jeannie jumped, knocking over her cup of coffee. Fortunately, it landed on the floor rather than the equipment.
“Jean Genie,” Rob squawked. He’d been calling her that after the David Bowie song since their second date when they’d watched Labyrinth together.
“I was wondering if you have a lunch date.”
Jeannie smiled. “I have had a lot of offers.”
“Ah, but I’ll bet none as good as soup and grilled cheese in our, hmm, utilitarian kitchen.”
“You had me at utilitarian. I’ll be right there.”
