Cloud Field

by A M Russell

  It was snowing yet again. Pretty heavily. Marcia put the intercom onto the open channel. She kept navigating and telling us to course correct every five minutes. We appeared to be drifting off to the right.

  ‘Keep to the left Oliver!’ said Adam, ‘I can see the lake.’

  We all saw it. A dull mirror mostly coated with freshly fallen snow. Marcia was speaking again: “Ok boys! No time for sightseeing. We need to make the enclave in half an hour and get the dome up. The weather is going to get worse.’

  Oliver turned to me: ‘At least the advice will speed up the immanent application of biscuits to teeth.’

  ‘I think I feel off.’ said Curly, ‘Please don’t talk about Marcia’s sweet stuff just now.’

  ‘You got a baggie?’ I asked

  ‘Shut up Millie!’ Curly groaned.

  ‘I’ve got it.’ said Adam, ‘I won’t let him redecorate.’

  ‘What did he just call me?’ I had only just registered the nick name.

  ‘Millie?’ Adam said, ‘You really don’t know? “Millie the Moan”. Because your surname is…’

  ‘Alright! I get it. I’ll try not to get struck in the chops next time I fall down a hole.’

  ‘All that moaning was really very funny.’ said Adam.

  ‘Jared didn’t think so.’

  ‘That’s because he doesn’t like being put in charge of us lot.’

  ‘Jared is listening guys.’ said Oliver, ‘we’re on open channel.’

  “Don’t worry,” came Marcia’s voice clearly, “he’s concentrating”.

  I looked ahead. I could see the rocky enclave coming into view. Mercifully the wind dropped. We circled round to find the entrance that looked out towards the lake. It faced west. If there was any break in the clouds we would be seeing a wonderful sight. But not today. The small convoy slowed down even further and found that the drifts had mounted up since we last were here. We stopped. The enclave was blocked by big chunks of snow that had collapsed from one side or another. It took some clearing by the “volunteers”. I resolved to only follow Jared’s lead from now on. He was totally undemocratic, and completely right in how to approach a problem. He used simple logic to persuade compliance. I was shovelling snow with Oliver, Jared and Joe. Marcia and James got the Landy and the Buggy into the compound as soon as we’d got the gap big enough. They started on the dome construction. I needed three people minimum to get it up, so Joe went to help. Adam was in the driving seat of the big transport waiting for the gap to be enlarged to the right size. Curly was laid down in the back looking ashen. No one bothered with him until we’d got everything up, checked, rechecked and we sealed ourselves in for tonight.

  Jared was looking very tired and rubbed his temples in an intense way. He hadn’t stopped. There was the flowering of some unwavering determination in him. He was going to get us home. The single minded devotion to that one purpose eclipsed all else. We didn’t bother setting up the mini lab. Curly really couldn’t eat, and had developed a fever. Joe checked all of us to make sure we weren't getting any of the same symptoms. I had to stick my tongue out and say Arr!! Joe went “Mmm, Mmm…” in a doctorish way and told me to get an early night. I looked in my little mirror at my nicely developing whiskers. I thought I looked thinner. The superglue on my face was a bright blue. It was supposed to help stop scarring. Joe said it would eventually wear off. I hadn’t shaved because of the injury, and now I thought I might not bother. I might wait till I got home and ceremonially defoliate the adventurer in my own bathroom, where I could look out over the back garden through the open window. I didn’t want any advice on how to trim it from Alex. He kept very neat designer stubble on the grounds of some fish related camouflage device. So a clean sweep was the best thing. Anyway I wasn’t sure if I really liked looking at the new rugged outdoor me. It made me think that my job back at home really wasn’t the right one.

  I went back in to the main space. There was a flurry of excitement.

  ‘We got through to Main at last!’ said Joe to me.

  ‘It’s George on the line.’ said Adam.

  ‘Quiet. All of you.’ Jared was next to the radio. Marcia leaned over taking notes.

  “We have a transmission logged from Ms Janey Amber. Two days ago. We believe they are quite near to your current location. If we contact them again, we’ll inform Janey where you are. Stay there. We have a colossal storm coming on the scope. They’ll be a rise and then a sudden drop at about six tomorrow….’ George was in official mode now, and then said, ‘tell Davey that Janey sends her best wishes and her heartfelt apologies for not ringing….’ George was obviously trying to keep it formal and grinning from ear to ear as he said it; ‘Oh; and a message for Jared and Marcia; our Mutual friend is also in the area and will be around soon. The weather charts are being transmitted now. Study them well kids and have a good night. Over.’

  ‘We’ll take it all as said. All clear, camp is established fully, and present concerns alleviated.’ Jared paused as if to add something then simply said: ‘Over and out.’

  *****

  Twelve

  I watched Marcia stirring a pan and adding dried herbs into the mix. It was warmer in here. Curly was in his bunk asleep. Joe simply came in and said ‘I gave him a shot.’ and we left it at that. It wasn’t as serious as it looked. Just rest and time would do it. I was finding it hard to stay alert as well. Joe shortly pronounced ‘No duties today.’ and stomped off to check on the others. I was relieved; even while I felt (in the way I often did) that it was putting an unreasonable burden on them. There seemed to be so much to be done. James had been on the radio to Base. George had gone home and one of the technicians gave us an update on the weather report. There was indeed a storm coming and it would be sooner than expected. More like four o’clock than six. Everyone went into overdrive. The secondary dome was erected for the vehicles, instead of the taped down covers. Everyone was outside working hard to make sure the camp was ready. It was a bit like a pre-party atmosphere but a lot more ominous. James had asked about Janey and the others. There was nothing more to tell. Except that they had given a map reference from the last transmission. Then the signal started to drop. The technician tried to tell James something else: It came across as very unclear. James logged the words he thought he heard. But it didn’t made sense. “Underneath the surface… inside…” Underneath and inside what? Jared, who was in the foulest of foul moods grunted in an incoherent way and went to get his boots on. That was at nine in the morning. It was now One o‘clock. No one had stopped for a break. I asked Marcia what I could do to help.

  ‘Just keep out of my way.’ she said.

  ‘Oh....’

  ‘Davey… I know you feel like a spare part. But do me a favour, and stop trying to be helpful. You’re setting my teeth on edge.’ she turned towards me then, ‘actually, get the smaller boiler filled will you.’

  ‘Uh, ok… you sure about that.’

  ‘I’m… sorry Davey. But this is huge. The storm I mean. And we’ve got you two sick. And Jared is… Jared is…..’ her face screwed up and went red. She turned slightly. She had seemed unmoved by Hanson’s disappearance but now she was upset. Even I wasn’t so inexperienced in the ways of the heart to spot unrequited love when I saw it.

  ‘Dear Marcia… I’m sorry. Please… here,’ I handed her a hanky, ‘I feel rotten too. I’m worried about Jared. And I miss Janey....’ saying that made me feel queasy so I stopped speaking.

  ‘You and me both.’ she whispered gently, ‘I think… whatever happens we should look out for one another. I like you. You’re a good kid, and you helped Jared when he needed it.’

  ‘How did I do that?’ I was completely perplexed.

  ‘Well. Let’s just say that your accident provided the right amount of distraction for Jared. It stopped him taking a stupid risk in the storm. Trying to get back to End Base.’

  ‘Oh.’ I really did feel rather stupid. Getting pranged did what? ‘Can you run that by me again?’


  ‘No Davey. You just need to work it out for yourself. Just like I did. Sometimes the things that matter are so near, that we keep them as far away as possible. Only when they’re missing do we realise it was there all that time and we just didn’t see it.’

  ‘Marcia,’ I began trying to sound firm, ‘you know I’m no good with cryptic. I need it nice and obvious.’

  She looked up at me from the oven with a pair of thick gloves in her hands, and said: ‘It is obvious.’ and then she’d smiled and checked the buns. Nearly done.

  We’d been fastened in for only half an hour and all the light had gone. The temperature had tumbled outside; we could read this from the remote transmitters that had been rigged up earlier. The spikes weren’t being used as they might be ripped out by the storm. The others had worked harder than anyone thought possible to “batten down the hatches” as it were. They’d even put in a small dome in the entrance to the compound. So that when the storm was over there would be less snow to dig out. The scariest thing was the suddenness of it. I’d been standing at the entrance in just my inner suit nursing yet another tea. When Adam came running towards me. ‘I’ve got some amazing piccies!’ He yelled, ‘There’s one of those clouds that like a tidal wave about to roll over us.’

  He was followed by Jared yelling like a mad man: ‘INSIDE NOW!’ It was the sort of voice that you rarely disobey. There was a sudden stillness as if someone had inhaled and was holding their breath. And for one minute while that terrifying dark wave trembled on the brink above us, the others fastened the entrance dome. Then they ran into the bottom gap that Jared had left open for them to squeeze through. Joe, James, and Oliver practically threw themselves through the remaining gap, and then turned around and scrambled to fasten it down and seal it completely. We’d checked everything else. There was no place to the force of the storm to find a chink. The snow would slide over us like anchovies off a boiled egg. They had stepped back then, all breathing hard. Oliver pulled back his mask. ‘Let’s check it.’ he said softly. Carefully he and Jared felt round for any airflow, the indication that we might have left ourselves vulnerable. We were now just another pebble. Just another rounded greeny-grey shape on which the snow fell and lay; in layers and layers down. I saw in them all the fear, and the relief. We all went into the main area, in time for the buns that Marcia had extracted so lovingly from the oven a short while before. Then in started, a light whooshing sound. As if the wind where racing over our heads, almost horizontally. It was an eerie sound. Not comforting, excepting in the face of us being sheltered by the rocky enclave. It was going to last quite a while. No one spoke. Then Jared got a pack of cards out, and pulled up a folding chair round the little camping table. The others joined him. Joe, Adam, Oliver, and even Curly Pete, wrapped in a blanket with the score notes in hand. James decided in some kind of weird defiant way to try the radio. I followed Marcia into the kitchen area. She put some music on while finishing the dinner, Bach. She'd been making pies. I assumed they were some sort of meat inside. It turned out to be fish with a lovely sauce, seasoned delicately. We were on the mash too. I helped Marcia carry everything through. The music was a soothing counter to what was brewing outside. The edge of the storm was coming over, piling up drifts. As the centre reached us, the wind would drop to almost nothing. Then, however the snow would get heavier. Base had predicted that it could last three days. Jared was estimating up to five. Thank God for our supply tally. We were running a long way inside the safe margin on four people down. The food and supplies for the boundary camp and the sled had not been counted in the main quota. Jared had worked out that the sled supplies would stretch to two weeks. And they were near somewhere. I thought hard about what the message might mean as we ate Marcia's divine Fish Pie. "Underneath the surface...”? I pondered the possibilities. Then I thought about that last day at this place. The time that Nikolas and I saw the strange human figure. What was "inside" what? Base seemed perplexed too. They would have transmitted a report we could print out if it had been something more concrete. I needed that map reference. I excused myself and went and got a see-through sheet and an Ice lake map. With the pens I marked the position where Nikolas and I had been standing, and where the "visitor" must have been. I studied the map. Then I placed the slip of paper down with Janey's last known position as sent by Base. I took a red marker and put a dot on the sheet from the reference I had written down.

  'Not true.' I muttered. I went back and checked the printout. It was correct. I thought about any magnetic variance. But Base had pinged this off someone's tag from the last clear window with a satellite reading. I’d kept bugging James about why we couldn't do that. He'd had to explain to me patiently, yet again that it would take too much power. I didn't see how when we were receiving from an object in the sky, it should take more power. He got fed up and refused to say anything else.

  I picked up a green pen. I shook my head to clear the vision of Janey holding one of them and drawing round a heart shaped magnetic field. The position marked by the red dot was at the other end of the lake. Actually…. in the lake. There was water in the lake. I thought about the visitor and where he could have vanished to. The south side of the lake had a series of steep escarpments going up to another bit of rock strewn land that looked like the remnants of a giant's tea party. There were quite a lot of reedy and bushy looking plants on that south side all the way down to the lake edge. A perfect place from which to spy on us. The mapping of this whole place, while accurate, was known for its incompleteness. Some things were simply not marked. Like the big cave we'd discovered on the way in. I remembered the Bunny-holes. I can't say I'd noticed if they were all marked. There were that many of them. So then it's possible that there could be.....

  My train of thought was interrupted by Joe.

  'Shit! That's one of the vehicles!'

  There was a strange, high, whining creaking coming from outside. He was into the prep room and throwing himself into his outdoor gear, until Jared stopped him.

  'No. We need you in here. I'll go.'

  Joe didn’t argue, but immediately started to help Jared tog up. They didn’t unlace our main entrance, but used one of the “back doors”. This one was small and used for sliding equipment cases through. It was sealed and the wire lacing padlocked together at the ends. Just beyond there was the outer wall and a second double door with lacing and then a zipped flap.

  Jared crawled in to the small tunnel, he clicked on the torch and nodded, only his eyes visible. We sealed it behind him.

  We waited and waited, listening between dips in the gale swooping across our little eggshell world. Jared had been gone only a short time, when Marcia started to climb into the night view suit; with the on-board lights and extra tool pockets. She looked grim. James was frowning, and Joe shook his head. Marcia nodded when she was ready, and then we locked her out too. The suit lit up. It was shining through the material of the inner dome with a strange glow like the fungus. Then a moment later she too had gone out of sight.

  We all sat down. I shut my eyes. I couldn’t believe that Janey could be in the middle of a lake. There had to be something else nearby. Some caves or tunnels. But the signal that had been located, well… it was in the middle. I kept my eyes shut. I still felt occasionally queasy. Infection of some sort Joe had said… how any germs could be alive in this dreadful place seemed quite incomprehensible. Joe had said something about immune response coupled with shock. I thought it was illogical. I ached to be really warm again. I imagined the gardens in the street where I lived, with late flowering plants. I longed with all my heart to be home. I was still visualising my kitchen cupboard and the ingredients for a really good curry, when at that moment a cry startled me. I jerked upright and was looking towards the same lower hatchway. I could hear Jared and Marcia pounding against the rim. Marcia wriggled through as Joe undid the lacing. They all helped make it wider so Jared could follow, but Marcia flung back her mask.

  'Joe, get the med kit now! Adam, Oliver! Help me get
him though.' they started pulling a limp body dressed in full outdoor kit into the dome from the small tunnel, 'Davey! Stop gawping. Grab the rest when we've pulled him through. Jared's right behind stuck in the outside door.... There's not much room.'

  I knelt down. Jared must have been pushing something very hard. It hit me in the chest and I ended on my back. I scrambled upright and yanked the lumpy pack through the hole. Jared followed looking wide eyed and excited. It might have been the effort of getting the outer door fastened in such a small space. He stood up and shook himself like a great bear. I started to lace up the inner door opening, Curly took over. I turned to see two things: Joe and Oliver working on the person, trying to revive them, with Adam getting out the crash kit; and Marcia trying to get herself out of the gloves. Jared helped her.

  'Who is it?' I said, half to myself. Then I saw them ease the mask off. Pale as marble and still. Oliver got the oxygen over his mouth and nose. Joe felt for a pulse. He got the stethoscope out and tried to get it as far down the neck piece as possible. Everything on the clothing appeared to be fused together. A moment later Marcia brought a hand warmer and ran it on the fastenings. They got it open... Joe listened again.

  'Yes. It's there... We need to get him out of this suit. Davey! Take it to the drying cabinet when we get it off. I obeyed. They had him on a low stretcher now. The inner suit was ripped as if someone had used a knife. It had apparently been held together with tape. Marcia and Joe cut him out of it and got him down to basic shirt and leggings. Joe took one look at him and shook his head. They got out the heated blanket. They wrapped him up. We waited.