Ice Hunt

to life. It died.

Darkness fell around them, weighing them all down, pressing them together.

“Bane,” Jenny whispered.

She felt the familiar rub on her leg. Her fingers touched fur. She patted the dog’s side. A growl rumbled deep in him, silent but felt through his ribs.

“What now?” Tom asked.

“The flares,” Kowalski answered. “We can strike one of ’em, carry it. It might last till we find somewhere safe to hole up away from these monsters.”

Jenny clutched her flare gun. “I only have two charges left. What’ll we use to chase the creatures off?”

“Right now, we need to see the creatures if we have any hope of surviving down here.”

Jenny couldn’t argue with that logic. She cracked open the weapon and fingered one of the charges.

“Wait,” Tom whisped. “Look over to the right. Is that light?”

Jenny stared, straining to see anything in the darkness. Then she noted a vague spot of brightness. Something glowing through the ice. “Is it the station?”

“Can’t be,” Tom answered. “We should still be a ways off from the base entrance.”

“Well, it’s still a source of light.” Kowalski stirred beside Jenny. “Let’s check it out. Light one of the flares.”

“No,” Jenny said, staring toward the ghostly light. She reseated the flare and closed her gun. “The brightness will blind us to the source.”

“What are you saying?” Kowalski grumped.

“We’ll have to seek our way in the dark.” Jenny pocketed the gun and groped out for Kowalski. “Join hands.”

Kowalski took her palm in his. She fumbled and found Tom’s hand.

“Heel, Bane,” she whispered as they set off, Kowalski in the lead.

Like three blind mice, they crept down the tunnel, making the next turn that headed toward the light source. It was slow going. Jenny felt an odd tension in her jaw, as if she were clenching it, a minute vibration deep behind her molars. It had been with them ever since they entered the tunnels. Perhaps it was a vibration from whatever generators or motors powered the station above them.

But she wasn’t convinced. If they were far from the station, why did it seem to be growing stronger?

They made a few more turns, zeroing toward the light.

“It feels like we’re heading deeper again,” Kowalski said.

In the pitch dark, it was hard to tell if the seaman was correct.

“We have to be well off that marked trail we were following,” Tom said. “We could just be getting ourselves lost.”

“The light’s stronger,” Jenny said, though she wasn’t sure. Maybe it was just her eyes growing accustomed to the darkness. The inside of her head itched. What was that?

“This reminds me of my grandfather’s stories of Sedna,” Tom whispered.

“Sedna?” Kowalski asked.

“One of our gods,” Jenny answered. She knew they probably shouldn’t be talking so much, but in the darkness, it was a comfort to hear another’s voice. “An Inuit spirit. Like a siren. She is said to lure fisherman into the sea, chasing after her glowing figure until they drowned.”

“First monsters, now ghosts…I really hate the Arctic.” Kowalski squeezed her fingers tighter.

They continued on, sinking into their own thoughts and fears.

Jenny heard Bane padding and panting at her side.

After a full minute, they rounded a curve in the tunnel and the source of the light appeared. It came from an ice cave ahead — or rather from a crumbled section of the back wall. The ice glowed with a sapphire brilliance, piercing after so much darkness.

They let go of one another and edged forward.

Kowalski entered the cave first, searching around. “A dead end.”

Tom and Jenny joined him, studying the shattered section of wall. “Where’s the light coming from?” Jenny asked.

She was heard.

A voice called out from ahead. “Hello!” It was a female voice.

Bane barked in response.

“Tell me that’s not Sedna?” Kowalski hissed.

“Not unless she’s learned English,” Tom replied.

Jenny shushed Bane and returned the shout. “Hello!”

“Who’s out there?” another voice called, a man this time.

Jenny reacted with shock as she recognized the voice. “Craig?”

A pause. “Jenny?”

She hurried forward. The shattered section of wall revealed a vertical crack in the surface. The light streamed out toward them. Through a crack, only two inches wide, faces peered back at her. They were only a yard away. Tears rose in her eyes.

If Craig was here, then surely Matt…

“How…What are you doing here?” Craig asked.

Before she could answer, Bane began to bark again. Jenny turned to quiet him, but the wolf faced back toward the passage from which they’d come.

At the tunnel mouth, red eyes stared out at them, reflecting the feeble light.

“Shit,” Kowalski said.

The creature hunkered into the cavern, wary and snorting, coming toward them. This beast was the largest they’d seen yet.

Jenny yanked out her flare gun, aimed, and fired. A trail of fire arced across the ice cavern and burst between the forefeet of the beast. The exploding flare blinded them all with its flash.

Against the glare, the beast reared up, then slammed down. It backpedaled its bulk down the passage, away from the fiery display.

Tom and Kowalski edged closer. “We can’t trust that thing will stay gone for long,” the seaman said.

Jenny clenched her gun. “I only have one more flare.” She turned to the crack in the wall. “Then we have nothing to chase them off with.”

Craig heard her. “They’re grendels. They’ve been hibernating down here for thousands of years.”

Jenny pushed such matters aside for now and asked the other question utmost in her mind. “Where’s Matt?”

Craig sighed. He took a moment too long in answering. “We got separated. He’s somewhere in the station, but I don’t know where.”

Jenny sensed something unspoken behind his words, but now wasn’t the time to question him. “We need to find another way out of here,” she continued. “Our flashlight is out, and we’re down to one flare to defend ourselves.”

“How did you get down here?” he asked.

Jenny waved vaguely behind her. “Through a ventilation shaft back there. It goes to the surface.”

“Well, it’s not safe anywhere out there. We’ve some metal tools in here. Maybe we could hack the crack wider. Get you through to us.” His voice was full of doubt.

The ice was a yard thick. They’d never make it.

Another voice spoke from behind Craig. A woman, the same one who had called out earlier. “What about the fuel drums for the sea-gate motors? Maybe we could create a gigantic Molotov cocktail. Blow a way through.”

Craig’s face moved away from the crack. “Hang on, Jen.”

She heard muffled words, arguing, as the group beyond sought some solution or consensus. She heard something about the noise alerting the Russians. She glanced over to the flare as it began to fade. She would rather take her chances with the Russians.

Craig again appeared at the crack. “We’re going to try something. You’d better stand back.”