Permafrost

Chapter 1: The Graveyard

The brush of cold tinted his face and nose a dark red as he looked out among the rows and rose of rocks. Graves, hundred of them covered in frost, snow, and the occasional growing moss. They had to be sitting there for days, weeks even to get the amount of moss on them.

But why? Staring at the arrangement, he couldn't comprehend it. As a veteran to the cold, he knew of the dangers that came with temperatures dropping and night falls over them all. However, he had never seen anything even capable of causing this much death around him. Not even the outsiders were capable of causing this much destruction with their primitive weapons.

So what caused this?

"Malin, earth to Malin."

He grimaced at the cracking of the intercom. Stupid thing. "What is it, Dean?"

"There's no sign of copper deposits here. We're all thinking about retreating to the base to regroup."

"Alright but be careful." Closing transmission, he stared ahead. "Pull up the map of nearby villages." Instantly, the grave flickered away as the hologram appeared before his eyes. No villages within 100 miles. The blue lights flashes over and over.

Cancel.

As the graves returned, Malin couldn't turn his gaze away from them. Shaking his head, he tried to ignore the sinking feeling in his gut as he made his way over to his hovercraft which purred to life when he pressed the ignition.

It glided across the frozen wasteland, kicking up snow and rocks as a destination laid far from his mind. While he knew he should get back to the base and regroup with the others, a stronger part wanted to stay out here and prolong the inevitable a little longer. The longer he could stay away from their fake smiles, boring meetings, and tight grips the better.

The sun shone over the horizon, calling to him like a moth to flame. Even with it's full and bright warmth casting over everything, it couldn't chase the chill of the permanent chill of the frost away.

Warning, debris up ahead.

Debris? He pulled to a stop, almost striking the decent size lump in the snow. Blinking once then again, he stepped off the mobile. Snow crunch under his feet while his hands brushed against the white power, unveiling the stone crumbled.

Looking close, he could see the stones were cut perfectly to fit one another, almost as if they...His eyes narrowed. A wall? Lifting his head, he moved through the snow, uncovering more stone mounds and piles of ashes underneath the fresh pile of snow.

The cold stung his hands but he continued to unveil as much as he could, stepping back to see the damage. It was a home, that much he could make off. A home that was burned down. He thought back to the graves of stones.

No. He shuddered. A village.

A village that was attacked and burned to the ground. But what could cause that much damage? He turned back to his snowmobile. Whatever it was, he didn't want to stay and find out.

The mobile roared to life as he made his way back to the base. Four large tents greeted him as he hopped off and made his way inside.

"About time you came back." A hand clapped his back. "We were worried we were going to have to drag your body back." A container was thrust into his hands. "Here, warm yourself up with that."

Sniffing the stew, Malin took a sip before he grimaced at the bland, flavorless taste. "It needs more salt."

Dean shook his head. "Without salt deposits, this is as good as you're going to get." Making his way over to the fire, he sat down among the others. "We're running low on everything now. Salt, Copper, Alloy steel. The factory's gears are starting to freeze up and we don't know how long before the dome starts to crack."

"I know." Malin sighed. "I know."

They needed metal ore and fast. Pushing himself up, Malin tapped his glass frame. "Pull up the ore deposit coordination." As the hologram screen to life, three red dots glowed across the Northen horizon. "There were three metal deposits located here. Based on their area, we can concluded that there should be more in this location."

"But we found nothing so far." Warren spoke up. He nodded toward the three. "Could be possible that only those three remained."

"No, not with these metals." Callum tapped his glasses. Instantly, a hologram flickered from his glasses, showing the large rock with copper bumps peaking through. "Copper isn't a metal that's found by itself that often. My guess is that if we can find some zinc or even silver, then we'll find our copper."

"Tomorrow we'll head along further north." Malin ended the hologram. "That means we'll head close to outsider territory so be aware." He nodded toward them. "I want all of you to stay hidden. The last thing we need to do is anger them."

"We wouldn't need to be angry then if we could just go blasting," Dean muttered. His hand brushed against his blaster.

"That wouldn't solve anything and you know it," Dean countered. "We're here to scout out metal deposits and get them back to the city. We don't want to make our or any other scouteres lives harder by aggravating the outsiders."

"But that hasn't stopped them from harming us!" Dean stepped forward. "Even when we do nothing, they attack first and ask questions later. We have to worry about constantly being slaughtered under their bows and arrows."

"We will not attack them." His glare met Dean's. "That's an order." The air flickered with tension as he refused to back from his sharp glare. Stepping forward, Malin waited for him to stand down. He didn't miss the way Dean's hand gripped at his blaster.

"Dean," Callum spoke up, cutting the tension. Dean's gaze snapped to him before he turned away as they softened.

"Fine," he muttered. Folding his arms, he turned away. "But if they try something, they're going to meet the other end of my blaster."

"Fair enough." Malin nodded. "But not until then." Dean glanced back at him, before he pushed out the tent. As soon as the flap closed, relief settled across the group.

"You should have left him behind," Warren spoke, stepping forward. "He hasn't been thinking straight since Natheline's death. He's not ready to be back out here."

"We need him." Malin folded his arms. "He's the best sharpshooter we have. Plus he has a point."

"A point? He could have committed anarchy right here."

"Dean wouldn't do that." Malin shook his head. "He wouldn't."

Warren's eyes narrowed. "You're too trusting, Malin."

Maybe. His hands clenched. But he never really had many people to trust in the first place. "Either way, something has the outsiders stirred up like hornets. There was a graveyard not far from here."

"A graveyard?"

"Yeah and whatever caused the damage took out a whale village." He nodded to them. "Keep your ears and eyes open."

I don't want that to be us next.