The extreme arctic rescue crew sat in the cold, windy helicopter as it flew swiftly over the artic ice. The hood of my coat pressed into my face. I held onto it to stop it from falling down in the violent wind.
In the helicopter with me sat Michael Hatch, the team leader and experienced ice climber, and Penney Whittle, a former EMT. As for me, I was a combat medic in the Russia campaign before discharging and turning to arctic rescue.
“Alright team, you know the mission,” the pilot yelled into his headset, “I’ll be back here in two days at 0900. Drop zone in 400 meters.”
“Confirmed, Red Dove, we’ll be waiting for you,” Michael replied.
We readied our supply packs and prepared for the jump.
“Drop time, team. Go, go, go.”
We quick roped from the helicopter and began to make our way to the distress signal the final distance that the helicopter couldn’t cover. Soon we found ourselves in a kind of canyon, the cave coming into view.
“There it is team. We need to get down there, locate the old whaling station, find our lost explorer by the name of Antonio Tamez, and get out as soon as possible. We’ll set up camp outside the cave mouth after we locate him. Stick together until we find the town, then we’ll split up.”
“Affirmative,” Penney and I confirmed.
The cave was dark, so we all switched on our headlamps. As we entered, the temperature dropped significantly.
Even though I had been on many arctic cave missions, I couldn’t help but get a feeling in my gut, like someone was watching me. Like the cold had an intention this time. It was nothing, I was sure. Don’t be absurd, I thought, the cold cannot think.
After hiking in the pitch dark and almost total silence for well over an hour, we finally came upon the abandoned whaling station. I gave a low whistle as I took it in, “This entire town was just… buried in a cave? Wild.”
Penney shrugged, “The arctic does many strange things, I don’t pretend to understand them all. I just save people from them.”
I nodded. The eerie feeling I had earlier had intensified, like whatever watched me was now right behind me. Breathing on my neck, it felt like someone breathing on my neck. Chills ran through my spine. “Man, something about this place has me spooked, let’s find this dipshit and get the hell outta here.”
“Agreed,” Penney said, looking from side to side, “I’ll take the main street, you two fan out on the sides.”
Michael and I nodded and we all moved out, calling for Antonio. Snow crunched beneath my boots, noisy in the cavernous space. It only took about twenty minutes for Antonio to hear us and respond. I pressed the button on my radio, “I got a response from Antonio over here, regroup at the water tower.”
There was no response for a moment, then Michael said, “Uh, I have Antonio with me right now. Whatever you heard was not him.”
I called out again and once again got an answer. “Are you certain? Ask him if he had anyone with him.”
I stopped walking and loosened my emergency revolver in its holster. I could practically feel the heartbeat of that phantom watcher on my back, in my chest.
“Antonio said he was definitely alone. Wait… What the, oh shit, where did he go? Antonio is no longer with me, standby.”
Penney spoke over the radio, “Jack I’m coming to you, we’re going to go see if there’s a second man down here.”
“Affirmative, Penney.”
Crunching of snow told me she was approaching, so I yelled to tell her my position.
“Jack, stop yelling, I’m right here,” Penney spoke from right behind me.
I whipped around and barely stifled a scream, almost falling backward. Penney looked concerned, “Jack are you alright?”
I shook my head, trembling, “Something about this place, it has me freaking the hell out Penney.”
She nodded grimly, whispering, “Me too… it feels like something is here with us that doesn’t want us here.”
I breathed deeply to regain my composure and turned to point for her toward where I got a response, “It was over that way, stay close behind me. And I mean close.”
She nodded and we started to move toward the responses as I called out once again. The yells led to a building near the main street. I looked back at Penney and she was pale, pale as death and trembling.
“Jack… Jack I don’t want to go in there.”
I grabbed her hand, “Look at me. We’re going to be fine. We’re making stuff up in our own heads, the fear isn’t real Penney. Now come on, there’s someone inside here and we need to help them, okay?”
She nodded silently and shakily drew a breath, “Okay.”
“Jack, Penney, I can’t find Antonio. Ah, this bastard, where is he? I’m still looking, what’s your status?”
I replied, “We’re about to enter the house where we heard the second calls.”
I turned to look up at the window then turned back to Penney. She was completely still, totally calm. And staring at me.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
No response.
“Penney?” My voice shook as I said it.
She smiled. Not a pleasant smile. A terrifying smile, the kind a serial killer gives you before mangling your body. Her eyes were milky.
“Jack,” she said, her voice distorted, as if she were talking into a fan.
Oh my God, I’m going to die.
She took a slow, uncoordinated step forward, I took one backward.
“Jack.”
I blinked and she had vanished. My heart was racing. A bloodcurdling scream rang out in the cave. Penney’s scream.
I spun around and saw the origin of the sound. Penney was in the middle of the street.
She was impaled on a lightpost.
I ran. I ran and I ran and I didn’t stop until I almost knocked over Michael by slamming into him.
“What the fuck was that?” He asked, true fear in his eyes, “Was it…”
I nodded, “Penney.”
He drew his gun, mine was somehow already in my hand. When had I drawn it? I didn’t know.
A dark, formless shape slunk across the alley behind him. I shot all six rounds, hands too shaky to reload, dropping the rounds in the snow.
Snow. It occurred to me that we were underground, snow never could have fallen here. We never should have come here. Should have left when we arrived. We never should have come here.
“Whatever is down here can have this damned place,” I said, “We’re leaving, Antonio is probably dead.”
Michael shook his head, “No, I just saw him, he’s alive.”
“No, no, no, no, I saw Penney but she was already dead too.”
I sounded crazy, he would never believe me. Michael was a man of reason, he would never believe.
I sat down and tucked my head into my knees. Michael was yelling but I couldn't hear.
Suddenly, Michael wasn’t yelling anymore. It was perfectly silent. I looked up.
There he was: Antonio.
“Hello, jack,” It was the voice of Michael.
“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you,” It was the voice of Penney.
“Not physically, at least,” It was the voice of the helicopter pilot.
“But that might just be the worst part,” It my own voice.
Antonio smiled. That murderer smile. Blood was staining his teeth. He laughed. It sounded like a room full of children laughing, all with distorted voices.
Terror does not begin to describe what I felt as he crouched down and he morphed into a rotted corpse with the eyes of Hell. I could do nothing but scream as he reached out a putrid limb and touched my cheek.
“Jack, Jack wake up.”
I blinked myself awake and saw Penney smiling above me. “Wake up sleeping beauty, we’ve got a mission, remember?”
I smiled back at her, “Ah yeah, I remember. It’s the idiot who went down in that ice cave isn’t it?”
She chuckled, “Yeah, who cares about an old, buried whaling station anyway?”
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