Freeze

Freeze: A Cold Hearted Story - Chapter One

"The heavens are probably white ... too."

Freeze: A Cold Hearted Story - Chapter One

“Comms got cut off by the bloody blizzard again. I’m receiving, but they can’t. They’re stuck at the outer rim, due North North-West. Pick ‘em up, mate.” Rick said with a worry some voice, “I’ll go on foot, and we don’t have any vehicles anyways. Let me run through my equipment first.” I replied. I never knew why we didn’t have any reserved snowmobile, sure we have two haulers and two pairs of snowmobile for each hauler, but why can’t we have two more in case me and Rick have to ditch this place or at least one. I signaled Rick to open the bay doors, which is weird since we’re not on any bay nor even near one. The bay doors are huge, around ten meters high and 15 meters long. The ceiling of the bay is around 15 meters high from the ground. As the machinery pulls the heavy doors high enough for me to go out, they make this almost loud roaring, Rick said that they run on a gasoline based engine. The blizzards hitting harder now that its winter here in the South Pole, like summer makes any difference like maybe a beach or something, I struggle to walk out as the bay doors close down behind me. I have a knack for moving around blizzards “time to make use of that knack and head to the location.” I enthusiastically said to cheer myself but it never works.

I’m a multimedia artist and at some point I have enough know-how that I was appointed to check the servers and any hardware that I’m familiar with. I am permanent employee in the United Nations funded Extreme research Laboratory or UN-EXL for short. The UN-EXL is a large facility that does extensive research on the South Pole, in the South Pole, under the South Pole and itself as a whole, the South Pole. As large as it is, it only holds 28 employees. I am number 28 and Rick is number one, it all has something to do with the introduction and the way we are all organized, to put everything in perspective number 14 would be the boss.

“….shhh…is….moth 1…ome in… An…one…” My radio started to pick up their signal. In this blizzard, they are close. It’s been an hour since I made my way out here. The outer rim is one and one half hour trip by foot; the inner rim is about half an hour in time. As I walk harshly in the weather and deep snow, I start to see lights and a bit of shadows. Its nighttime and I am glad I have my military grade night vision goggles.

The change in green tint intensity is easy to tell, but the distance between them and me not so much. Just a few couple more of a hundred meters, I guess. “Why is it that they didn’t equip the haulers with an antenna array and a better GPS service?” Yes, I now complain when everything is nearly half done. The blizzard is not getting any weaker, though thankfully, I can still feel all my body parts, but my throat hurts and breathing has becoming a little hindered. My lungs and throat have probably frostbitten already, not thoroughly though.

As I get closer I hear the engines of the haulers, the snowmobiles’ engines are off, they probably think that it’s a good idea to conserve fuel. I tap on the glass of one of the haulers; it was loud enough for the people inside to get startled.

“What was that?”

“Is it hailing?”

“Maybe it’s one of the guys messing with us”

I got tired of waiting so I went up and opened the door and said

“Follow me. If you don’t, you all will die in this blizzard.”

“How are we supposed to follow you? Do you have a snowmobile?”

The person sitting at the driver seat asked.

My answer left him dumbfounded “I have my feet.” I then grabbed my light pole, turned up the nice neon pinkish light on it and rested it on my shoulder as the ones who were driving the snowmobiles got out I told them “Don’t ever leave the snowmobiles’ engines off in a blizzard unless you’ll enjoy pulling them on your back.” One of the snowmobiles fuel line froze so it had to be carried by the hauler. “Mammoth 1 and 2 haul in the wolves. They will just get lost and will be just troublesome. I am on my feet so speed is not necessary, just do not lose sight of me or you will freeze to death in this blizzard. Sub Zero out.” After that, I walked and they followed. Once we reached the inner rim where the snow was knee deep, I climbed on the front of one the haulers and pointed out the directions. “UN-EXL this is Sub Zero with the Mammoths and Wolves. ETA 5 minutes. Open the bay doors in 2 and give a warm welcome to the new crew, over and out.” I relayed to all channels so that everyone would hear, “Roger that, Sub Zero. Rick out.” Rick said with a dull voice.