Outpost H311

by Sara Jayne Townsend

  She thought of her father less and less often these days. He had been a comforting presence. She remembered his giving her a horsey back ride up the stairs when it was time for bed, part of their nightly ritual. He’d tuck her in and then her mother would come in and read her a bedtime story, and her dad would come back to kiss her on the forehead and say, “Good night, Princess.” She remembered all these things clearly, but she was disturbed that she couldn’t remember her father’s face. She could remember his hands, strong and calloused, and his bony knees, which he bounced her up and down on when she was small. But she couldn’t remember his face or his voice. She knew what he looked like only from old photographs in the albums she’d found when she cleared out her mother’s house.

  It seemed like a lifetime ago since she had been that small girl riding on her daddy’s back up to bed. So much had happened in her life since then, it was hard to remember that had been her; it could just as easily have been someone else. Her memories of childhood were like remembering a film she’d once watched that she couldn’t recall the name of.

  She was brought back to the present by the sound of water boiling. Using a scrap of cloth, she carefully lifted the battered tin kettle off the fire and poured water into the camping mug on the ground that was waiting with a tea bag.

  She stirred the tea and removed the tea bag, tossing it into the plastic bag they had been using for rubbish disposal. She would have preferred to add a little milk, but she couldn’t stand the powdered stuff and that was all they had. In the absence of proper fresh milk, Allison had resigned herself to putting up with black tea during her time in the Arctic. In actual fact she would have preferred her usual skinny double-shot latte, which she collected without fail every morning on her way to the office. But there were no such luxuries here, and beggars couldn’t be choosers. The tea was hot and comforting.

  A soft groan from the back of the plane made her turn around. Most of the others were sleeping soundly, but Daniel was awake, and probably in pain from his injury, judging by the way he was thrashing around. Carefully holding her mug of tea, Allison picked a path through the sleeping bodies to the back of the plane.

  She crouched down beside Daniel. His eyes were closed, and his face pale. She didn’t like the sheen of sweat on his face, despite the cold. He looked feverish. “Hey,” she said softly.

  Daniel opened his eyes and smiled weakly. “Hey.”

  “How are you feeling? Are you in pain?”

  “It hurts like a bitch.”

  “I can give you some more paracetamol.” Allison picked up the lantern that rested on the medical supplies box next to Daniel and set it to one side so she could rummage around inside.

  “Isn’t there anything stronger? That’s just not doing much anymore.”

  “Unfortunately not, that’s all we’ve got. Just hang on until we get out of here, and then we can get someone properly qualified to look at you.” Allison shook two paracetamol out of the bottle. There weren’t many left. She wondered whether they should cut back on the amount they were giving Daniel.

  She helped Daniel sit up, propped up by blankets, and handed him the pills and her mug of tea. He took a swallow and grimaced. “Tastes a lot better with milk and sugar.”

  “Do you want me to go add it for you? It was going to be mine, but I can always make myself another one.”

  “No, it’ll do. Thanks.” Daniel swallowed the pills with a mouthful of tea and then gulped down the rest. “I’m feeling really thirsty.”

  “Let me get you some water.” They had a supply of flasks. Allison went back to the fire and filled one of the flasks with the cooling water from the kettle, and took it back to Daniel, propping it up near his hand so that he could reach it easily. “There you go.”

  “Thanks.” He picked up the flask and took a few more gulps. Allison looked at him worriedly. Thirst was another sign of fever.

  She tucked the blankets around him. “You should probably try and sleep. We’re taking turns keeping watch, just in case.”

  Daniel put down the flask and lay down on his makeshift bed. “Have the others come back yet, the scouting party?”

  “Not yet, but I shouldn’t worry. They probably found themselves too far out to return, and are camping out for the night.”

  “But it’s so cold out there.”

  “They have Jake with them. He’s an expert on survival. I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

  She sat with Daniel until he slipped into sleep. Then she took the mug he’d been using back to the fire, rinsed it out and boiled some more water for another cup of tea.

  After she’d drunk it, she sat by the fire staring out at the darkness for a little while, listening to the soft snores of the others as they slept. Then she shook out her stiff limbs and stood up, pulling out the meal plan she had organised earlier in the day as a way of maximising their rations. It was time for her to organise breakfast.

  CHAPTER 14

  Allison checked her list. She had listed meals for the next three days, on the assumption that they’d be stranded with the wrecked plane for at least that long. But she’d also been aware of the need to ration food, since none of them knew how long they’d be stuck here. For breakfast today she’d listed tinned frankfurters and baked beans. They could also do some with some toast to bulk out the meal a bit. They had three loaves of bread which were currently in the snow outside, frozen to stay fresh. If they put slices of bread on skewers and held them over the fire, they should toast okay. The bread would not keep forever, even frozen, so they may as well make the most of it.

  She shone her torch on the box of supplies. As she rummaged around for the tins she needed, she was surprised to discover that a box of cereal bars, one they hadn’t opened yet, was nearly empty. There was also a suspicious space in the box. Allison pulled out her inventory list for the food. She had made careful notes of not only what they had, but where it was stored.

  There were two packets of biscuits missing. Allison frowned, inspecting the box. She noticed a trail of crumbs leading away from it. The crumb trail pointed towards Nathan, fast asleep in his sleeping bag.

  Allison stormed over to him and unzipped the sleeping bag, throwing it open. The two empty biscuit packets lay crumpled up inside, along with a small pile of crumbs. She roughly shook Nathan awake. He sleepily blinked up at her.

  “So while you were on watch you decided to help yourself to our food?” she said.

  “What are you talking about?” Nathan said.

  Allison grabbed the empty packets and threw them at him. “This is what I’m talking about.”

  “Oh.” Nathan sat up. “I was hungry.”

  “So is everyone else, but we’ve talked before about rationing our supplies.”

  “There’s rationing and there’s not letting anyone eat anything,” Nathan said. “What’s the point of saving the supplies if we all starve to death?”

  “So you decided to help yourself to the food when you’re supposed to be on watch?” Allison was aware that she was raising her voice. Behind her she heard rustlings and murmurings as everyone else woke up.

  “If you hadn’t been so obsessed with bossing people around and controlling the food supply like some kind of dictator I wouldn’t have had to go behind everyone’s backs.”

  “And if you weren’t so bloody selfish I wouldn’t have to be so firm. It’s not just you, you know. We’re all in the same boat. Cold. Scared. Hungry. I’m just trying to keep us all alive for as long as possible.”

  “By doing what? Sitting around here feeding people servings that wouldn’t even satisfy a mouse? Waiting for everyone to starve or freeze to death? I’m tired of just sitting around.”

  “Eating all the food is hardly going to heighten our chances of survival.” Allison looked around. Neeta and Pete stood behind her. Neeta had a blanket wrapped around her. Pete had his video camera to his face, filming the unfolding drama. “Would you turn that thing off, Pete? I have to get on with making breakfast.” All
ison turned her back on Nathan and went back to the food supply and gathered up the tins she needed. “I don’t have time for this.”

  No one said much over breakfast. Allison refused to let Nathan eat any of it, and he sat at the back of the plane glowering as the rest of them ate. After that, they cleaned up the crockery using hot water and cloths salvaged from the plane’s galley.

  The minutes stretched into hours, with nothing to do but try and glean heat from the meagre fire and stare out into the endless snow-covered wastelands of the Arctic. Then Neeta, who was sitting by the fire, called out, “I think they’re back!”

  Neeta stared out at the snowscape, pointing ahead with a thermal-mittened hand. “It’s the scouting group. I think I can see them.”

  Allison moved closer to Neeta, trying to see out beyond the snow. She scowled at Pete, who had muscled in ahead of her and had his camera trained out at where Neeta was pointing. The snow was falling again, obscuring the view. But Allison thought she could see a dark blur. It was moving.

  “There are two of them,” Pete declared. “I think it’s Ellen and Jake.”

  Allison frowned. “How can you tell?”

  “Zoom focus,” Pete said, not taking his eye away from the viewfinder. “There are definitely two figures. One is small, the other one is much bigger and taller. So I think it must be Ellen and Jake.”

  “So where’s David?” Allison asked.

  Pete fell silent, adjusting the focus of his camera. “They haven’t got the sledge of supplies with them,” he said eventually.

  “Maybe they found shelter, and they’ve left David with the supplies there,” Neeta suggested. “Maybe they’ve come back for us.”

  “Or maybe David and the supplies are lost,” Allison said, a feeling of dread sitting heavily in the pit of her stomach.

  CHAPTER 15

  It was late morning when Ellen and Jake arrived back at the plane. To Ellen, it felt like they had been gone weeks, though in reality it was only about twenty-four hours. The cold penetrated through to her bones, her feet were numb and her legs shook from the exertion of walking through the snow. Sitting down in the wreckage offered meagre comfort.

  Over a lunch of tea, tinned soup and crackers, Ellen and Jake told the others about the base they had found and how well stocked it was, albeit with supplies that were seventy years old. Most of the others were convinced that it was worth the trek through the snow to get there, as a place that offered better shelter than the wrecked plane. Only Nathan offered the dissenting voice. He was convinced that their present location was more likely to be spotted by an overhead plane.

  “But there’s a radio at the base,” Ellen said. “David stayed behind to fix it. He may have already got it sorted and radioed for help by the time we get back.”

  “Better to have focused his energy on fixing the radio in the plane,” Nathan said.

  “It’s beyond repair and you know it.”

  “We’ll survive less than a week out here,” Jake said. “The plane is too damaged to offer any real protection from the elements. The base can be powered. We’ll have light, and heat, and there’s food there too.”

  “I can’t imagine there’s much that’s still edible after seventy years,” Nathan said.

  “You’d be surprised how long things last in this kind of climate,” Jake said. “It’s too cold for bacteria to survive so things don’t go bad. There might be more edible food there than you think. And besides, the food we’ve got here won’t last very long.”

  “Especially not since Nathan has been helping himself to it.” Allison glowered at Nathan.

  While the others debated the pros and cons of going to the base, Ellen went to the back of the plane to check on Daniel. He opened his eyes as she approached, and smiled weakly.

  “Hey, Yank,” Ellen said. “How are you doing?”

  “I’ve been better,” Daniel said. “Good to see you back in one piece, though. How did it go?”

  “We found an underground base,” Ellen said. “We’re packing up now to head out there.”

  “But I can’t walk.”

  “We’ll pull you on one of the sledges. Don’t worry.”

  “That will take ages.”

  “Doesn’t matter. We’re not leaving anyone behind.” Ellen looked around, something suddenly occurring to her. “Hey, where’s Andres? I haven’t seen him.”

  An expression of sorrow crossed Daniel’s face. “He didn’t make it.”

  “Oh.” Ellen felt a sob rise up in her throat. She did her best to stamp it down. There would be time to grieve later. Right now, there was work to do.

  With the majority in favour of going to the base, the decision was made. It took some time to prepare for the journey. They had brought with them a total of three sledges to carry gear. One was back at the base with the supplies the scouting party had taken out and one of them they had to strap Daniel to, which left only one sledge to carry supplies.

  Everyone had a backpack. They transferred as much as they could from their suitcases into their backpacks and left the suitcases behind.

  Jake insisted only essential items should be taken. Neeta argued with him when he tried to stop her packing shampoo and shower gel.

  “You said there are showers there, yes?” Neeta said.

  “Showers, yes. But we might not be able to get the hot water working.”

  “How did the people who used the base get hot water?”

  “They probably used a generator. But we have a more urgent need of heat, and that takes precedence. We can use the stove to get hot water.”

  “I’m prepared to take a cold shower rather than spend weeks without bathing,” Neeta said. “You said yourself it might take ages before we’re rescued.”

  In the end, Jake relented and let Neeta pack the shower supplies. He was less lenient with Allison when he caught her putting her iPad and mobile phone into her pack. “There’s absolutely no point in taking electronic items,” he told her. “There’s no wifi out here, no signal for the phone and no way to charge them. They’re just dead weight.”

  “I’ve never been without my phone,” Allison said. “Being without it feels like missing an arm.”

  But Jake was firm, insisting she leave all the electronic items behind. “You can’t use them, so what’s the point?”

  Everyone wore as many layers as possible to free up space in the backpacks and to offer warmth on the trek through the snow. The equipment sledge was loaded up with as much as possible, including all the food, gas canisters and tools. The geological survey equipment, which Ellen and Daniel had taken such pains to carefully pack, was left behind as it was useless to them in the current situation.

  When Jake noticed Pete trying to pack his video camera, he said, “That’s going to have to stay behind.”

  “This is my livelihood,” Pete said.

  “Don’t be stupid,” Jake said.

  “Why is it stupid? This camera is essential equipment to how I make my living. The only reason I came out to this godforsaken ice cube was to film Neeta’s documentary.”

  “Wasn’t this documentary about global warming in the Arctic?” Jake said. “Seems pretty irrelevant now.”

  “Instead it’s now a gripping human interest piece about survival in hostile environments.”

  “We don’t have any way of charging it.”

  “I have a very long-life battery in it,” said Pete. “Besides, I can recharge power using the generator.”

  “It’s dead weight. It stays.”

  “If the camera stays, so do I.”

  “I’m sure that can be arranged.” Jake grabbed the camera from Pete and threw it to the ground.

  “You bastard!” Pete launched himself at Jake. But as Pete came at him, Jake simply ducked the camera man’s flailing arm and grabbed it.

  “Don’t think you’ve got any chance at being the tough guy with me,” Jake snarled, and punched Pete.

  Pete yelled and fell to the floor.

 
“Jake, stop it!” Allison yelled. “This doesn’t help anyone!”

  Neeta hurried over and helped Pete to his feet. The camera man rubbed his jaw and glowered at Jake, but said nothing.

  “If he really needs to bring the fucking camera, he carries it himself.” Jake turned away and went back to organising the equipment sledge.

  “That guy’s really an arsehole,” Pete muttered to Neeta. “My camera better not be broken.”

  Neeta picked it up from the ground and handed it back to Pete. “It looks OK.”

  Pete inspected the camera. “Lucky for him it is.”

  Neeta put her hand on Pete’s chest and studied his face. “Lucky for you Jake was pulling his punch. He could have broken your jaw. You might have a bruise later, but it looks OK.”

  Pete pulled away from Neeta. “I could have taken him.”

  “For my sake, please don’t,” Neeta said. “You know how I hate violence. You’re right about the documentary. A human interest tale of survival could be something award-winning. Just remember how as film makers we’re supposed to be impartial.”

  Pete sighed. “For you, Neet, I shall do my best to be professional. Still think the bloke’s an arsehole, though.” He began to pack up his camera and equipment.

  With two sledges to pull and backpacks loaded, the trek across the snow was long and arduous. Jake and Ellen pulled the sledge Daniel was strapped to. Neeta, Pete, Allison and Nathan (the latter grudgingly) took turns in pulling the one with the equipment.

  As they trekked across the frozen wasteland, Ellen took frequent glances back at the plane, a forlorn and broken outline breaking up the snow. Leaving it behind seemed so final. It was a wreck but huddling in the remains of the cabin had offered some reassurance, some link to the lives they all used to have. Now they were leaving it behind, heading off into unknown territory, into an uncertain future where their very survival was hanging in the balance.