Page 2

He glanced up towards the glacier, suddenly sure that he’s seen something change there, a shifting of the light, as if there were many things moving along the line of the blue-white cliffs. But that was surely ridiculous, wasn’t it? How could he see something move so far away?

He decided that he was probably suffering the effects of exhaustion and hunger. He opened up a couple of bars of chocolate, all he had with him, cursing himself for not having raided the stores earlier. They were almost tasteless in his mouth, but they would give him energy.  Then he returned to the window.

Now there was definitely movement closer to him, shapes of white ghosting along the ice, their outlines blurred and difficult to see. He remembered that there was a pair of binoculars in the cabinet across the room and turned away to get it.

Something slapped against the window, with a scrabbling thump and rustle. He just glimpsed it out of the corner of his eye, an idea of whiteness and movement, but it was already gone as he spun round. He thought he might have imagined it, but there was a smear on the glass.

Suddenly he realised that the ventilators were open. He had opened them himself, to get some of the stale air out of the room. Climbing quickly on the desk, he reached up to pull the first one shut. Fingers slipping on the latch, he fumbled it shut and pivoted, reaching for the second.

Something brushed his hand then, a feather-light touch, but chilling him like an ice-cold bolt of lightning. He slammed the ventilator to, almost falling in his hurry, something white and blurry filling his vision for a moment, too close to really see, and then the ventilator was shut and it was gone.

He stayed in the room all through the day, watching the white shapes twist and skitter across the white ice. Nothing more tried to get in through the window, but they were all around now, shimmering through the yard.

And then, finally, the night came.

This was the first time he’d stayed up in the control room during the hours of darkness, after the bad things began to happen. There was no longer power to spare for lights, so he sat in the dark, watching the ice glint in the starlight.

Sometime before midnight, something began to scratch on the door opening on the stairs. He had already barricaded it with some of the wrecked equipment, but he piled more on now, dragging broken furniture and one of the electronic consoles across until he felt reasonably sure he was safe. After that he sat there and listened to the scratching at the door until, some time in the early hours of the morning, he fell asleep.

Hunger drove him out of the control room two days later. He hadn’t seen any of the white things in a day, and nothing had scratched at the door the previous night. In any case his choice was stark – either get to the stores and find something to eat, or die where he was. The only weapon he had with him in the control room was the long-handled fire axe he had used to dispatch the vampire the ghoul had eaten. Holding it at the ready, he crept down the stairs, but there was nothing hiding in the shadows. Blinking, he emerged into the morning light.

As he had expected, the ice had begun cracking, and chunks of the ice sheet stood up here and there like jagged teeth. The ice around the station was still intact, but further out, he could hear crashing and creaking. A month ago, he and some of his colleagues had walked out there, drilled the ice and put down probes. He realised that he couldn’t even remember which colleagues had gone with him or what their names had been. He realised he could hardly remember anything about the past anymore.

He went into the store hut. There wasn’t that much food left, enough for a week or two perhaps. He loaded a rucksack, deciding to come back for the rest later. He rummaged through the cupboards for some ammunition, though, as he knew it would be, the search was fruitless. He had exhausted the last bullets for the one rifle the station had, a week ago.

On the way back to the control room, obeying a sudden impulse, he walked a little way away and looked back at the station.

[ Continue to page 3 ]