Outpost H311

by Townsend, Sara Jayne

  “I was going to make tea,” Ellen said. “What have we got for breakfast?”

  Jake rolled his sleeping bag up into a neat bundle. “Powdered milk and dried oats. We can throw together some porridge.”

  “That would be great.” Ellen looked over at David, snoring away in his sleeping bag. “I guess he’s a deep sleeper.”

  “I’m sure he’ll wake up soon enough when he smells breakfast.” Jake secured his sleeping roll and set it neatly aside. “Why don’t you go find us some eating utensils and I’ll take over the stove?”

  They made porridge out of melted snow, sweetened with honey from their supplies and supplemented by tea. As Jake had predicted, David woke up as soon as the smell of sweetened porridge floated through the room. With powdered milk the tea tasted a bit odd, but it was hot and sweet. Ellen thought it was delicious. She had salvaged utensils from the cupboard in the complex – tin mugs and bowls and spoons. They rinsed them out in boiling water first, just to make sure they were sterile, but everything in the kitchen looked clean and well ordered.

  After they had finished breakfast, they washed up the utensils and tidied away their sleeping things. They melted another pan full of snow, which Jake poured into a bucket and took into the bathrooms. When the water had cooled down a bit they could use it for washing. Jake explained that although there was no running water, they should be able to use the toilet if they poured water down the pan. The store cupboard contained a plentiful supply of a very basic type of toilet paper. It was hard and scratchy and looked like grease-proof paper, reminding Ellen of the stuff they had in the toilets of her primary school in Oxfordshire, but it was better than nothing.

  After those chores were done, David announced that he was going to get started on the radio. By the time Ellen and Jake had followed him into the comms room, he had already started taking the radio apart.

  “I don’t think you should be starting that now,” Ellen said. “We need to start heading back to the plane. It’s going to take a while to get everyone moved.”

  “The sooner I can get this fixed, the sooner we can call for help and get out of here.” David peered at the innards of the radio.

  “I get the impression you’re more interested in gadgets than you are in people,” Ellen said.

  “Gadgets are way more interesting than people,” David replied.

  Jake opened up one of the drawers underneath the comms desk. “We haven’t checked these out yet. There might be something useful here.” He pulled out a manual for the radio, which was of course in German, and a generous supply of pencils and paperclips.

  Ellen opened another drawer and found a collection of low-value German coins. The earliest was dated 1935, the latest 1942. “I guess that narrows down when this place was built,” she said.

  “Hey, what’s this?” Jake retrieved a piece of folded paper that crackled as he carefully unfolded it. It was yellow and crumpled, with holes at the seams where it had been folded.

  “What is it?” Ellen asked. David looked up from his tinkering.

  “It’s a blueprint of the complex.” Jake laid the map out on the console. All three of them huddled over it. “Look here, this is the entrance to the tunnel that you fell down. Here’s the kitchen area.”

  Ellen pointed at the map. “There’s an infirmary just beyond the snow block.”

  “This place is absolutely huge,” David said. “We’ve only explored half of it.”

  “And look here.” Jake stabbed at the map. “There’s a hangar and a boat room on the lower level. We’ve got to find a way to access the rest of the base. If there’s a plane in that hangar that we can get working, we have a means of getting out of here.”

  “How are we going to get past the snow block? Can we dig through it?” Ellen asked.

  Jake frowned. “It’s pretty much a solid ice block so that would be difficult. If we could blast it with heat we might be able to dislodge it.” He stared at the map. “The generator’s on the other side. We might be able to get to it from that other above-ground structure we saw. And it looks like there’s a lift shaft.”

  “The lift won’t be working,” Ellen said.

  “Even if it isn’t, we might be able to climb down it to access the hangar.” Jake checked his watch. “We should set off fairly soon. It will take several hours to make the round trip back to the plane wreck, especially when we have to collect all the kit.”

  David looked up from his radio, which was now in pieces spread out all over the console. “Look, why don’t the two of you go? I’ll stay here. I’d like to get on with fixing this.”

  “Are you sure?” Ellen asked. “It’s a long time to be alone in this creepy place.”

  “We’ve established there’s nobody here but us, and I’m not afraid of my own company,” David said. “There’s plenty of food, I have air, I have heat. Besides, I might even have this thing working by the time you get back and then it’s just a matter of getting through to someone who can come rescue us.”

  “What about light? Until we get the generator going, there’s no light,” said Ellen.

  “We brought enough torches, and there’re a few kerosene lanterns,” David said. “I’ll have enough to see by. Besides, I might even be able to get the generator working while you’re gone.”

  “I suppose it would save time to leave you here to work on that radio,” said Jake. “As long as you’re happy with that plan.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” said David. “If I’m fixing stuff, I’m happy.”

  Jake patted David on the shoulder. “OK. Take care, buddy. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

  Ellen looked over at the collection of parts spread out over the console. “Do you have everything you need to fix that radio?”

  David grinned at her. “Until I can figure out why it’s not working, I can’t tell. But be assured that there’s nothing on this planet I can’t fix as long as I have the right parts. And if I haven’t got the right parts I can improvise.”

  “OK, then.” Jake folded up the map and put it carefully back in the drawer. “When we get back we’ll work on the problem of getting past the ice block and trying to explore the rest of the base.” He looked at Ellen. “For now, though, we need to kit up. Make sure you’re wearing as many layers as possible. We’ll need food and water, so take a backpack. Everything else we can leave behind. Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER 10

  “We can’t just sit here doing nothing,” Nathan said. “We need to go for help. If we just sit here we’re all going to die, like that guy outside.”

  “The others have gone to find help,” Neeta said. “We can’t do much until they come back.”

  “How do we know they’ll come back? For all we know, they’ve been eaten by a polar bear or something. What’s the point of us sitting around waiting to be its next meal?”

  “Polar bears don’t eat humans.”

  Nathan smiled. “And you would know, I suppose, being a tree hugger and all.”

  “Enough!” Allison snapped. “Arguing amongst ourselves isn’t helpful. We need to get organised.”

  “Who put you in charge?” Nathan demanded.

  “I’ve been a project manager for ten years,” Allison said

  “So what? Creating spreadsheets and flow charts hardly gives you the survival skills to rough it in the Arctic. The only person with useful skills here and now is the marine, and he’s the one being eaten by a polar bear.”

  “I told you polar bears –”

  “Neeta,” Allison said in warning. Neeta glared at her but shut up. “Sitting around bitching isn’t going to get us anywhere.”

  “I quite agree,” Nathan said. “We should sort out some food, for starters, before we all starve to death.”

  “I told you before, we need to ration the food,” Allison said. “We don’t know how long it has to last. But we should try and start a fire. We’re burning through the generator, and it will run out of fuel.”

  “And what do you
suggest we start a fire with? There’s something of a shortage of wood around here.” Nathan gestured at the frozen landscape.

  “With whatever we can find. Pull the fabric off the seats of the plane. Look in the luggage, see what we can spare. Books, papers, files, will burn.”

  “Clothing?” Neeta said.

  “Remember we need to wear lots of layers, so don’t get rid of all the clothing. But burn anything we don’t need.”

  “Let’s find the pilot’s suitcase. All of his stuff can go first,” Nathan said.

  “Don’t be so disrespectful,” Neeta said.

  Nathan shrugged. “He won’t be needing it anymore. If you’re squeamish about burning his clothes, how will you feel about eating him when we run out of food?”

  “I’m a vegetarian,” Neeta said.

  “I guess you’ll starve to death then. Not many vegetables growing out here.”

  “Stop it, both of you,” Allison said. “Go see what you can find to build a fire. And Pete, put down that damn camera and help, will you?”

  Pete reluctantly set his video camera down on one of the seats and moved to help the others.

  They managed to get a fire going using a sheet of metal torn off the fuselage as a make shift fire pit. They set it up near the edge of the breach in the plane’s hull so that it would be well ventilated. The fire gave out thick black smoke and somewhat noxious fumes – undoubtedly due to the chemicals in the foam seat covers from the plane, which they were obliged to use as fuel – but it gave off a welcoming heat. Once the fire had settled in, they set up a grill over it and used the tin kettle from their supplies filled with snow to create boiling water.

  The activity served as a distraction, but once it was all done and everyone was huddled in the shelter of the wrecked plane, bundled in blankets and sleeping bags, time passed unbearably slowly. It was impossible to tell what time it was from the position of the sun because it wasn’t there. The sky was a uniform grey, in a state of perpetual twilight.

  And there was nothing to do to pass the time. All of the electronic gadgets Allison generally used to occupy her time – laptop, iPad, Kindle – were useless out here without power. All of the paper books they had found in people’s luggage were relegated as fuel for the fire. Allison hated the idea of burning books, but with no wood in sight they had precious little to burn and keeping warm was essential.

  She stared at the fire, which had settled down to a comforting crackle. She’d worked so hard to get where she was in her career, but out here, when the only issue was survival, it all seemed so pointless. Was there anyone out there missing her? Her parents were dead; her ex-husband hadn’t spared her a moment’s thought since running off with his secretary five years earlier; she had no siblings, no children. The only people whose opinions mattered to her were those of her superiors.

  And now here they were, stranded somewhere in the Arctic. She wondered briefly whether her bosses at Head Office knew that contact had been lost with the plane and whether they assumed everyone on board had been killed.

  Neeta returned from the back of the plane, her arms full of supplies. She crouched down and dumped a box of tea bags on the ground, along with two tins of tomato soup. She looked at Allison. “I thought we could make tea, to warm everyone up. And we should eat something. I know we want to save supplies, but we don’t need to starve. While we have the fire we can heat up soup. We’ve also got a box of crackers back there. If we give everyone some crackers with a bowl of soup, that should keep us all going till morning.”

  “Morning? Why, what time is it?” Allison asked.

  “It’s just past six pm. I’m worried about the people that went out. What if they don’t come back tonight?”

  “Jake knows about survival,” Allison said. “If they’ve found someplace to shelter they might stay there all night and come back in the morning.”

  “Let’s hope so.”

  “Good idea about the soup and the tea, though.”

  “We’ve got some tin mugs and plates and stuff amongst the supplies,” Neeta said. “I’ll go get them and sort out the tea.”

  “Sounds good,” said Allison, watching Neeta bustle busily back to the rear of the plane where the supplies were lined up. Allison picked up the folder where she had stored the inventory lists and took a look through them. On top was the personnel list, followed by a list of available equipment, and then food supplies. At the back, a list of the clothing they had taken from the luggage, with notes about any items that were being used and what was spare. Finally, at the end, an inventory of miscellaneous items taken from the suitcases including a pack of playing cards and a game of Travel Scrabble.

  Playing games would take people’s minds of their predicament. Allison went off to locate these items in the supplies.

  CHAPTER 11

  Without the sledge to pull, Ellen and Jake made good time on the journey back. The backpack Ellen carried contained only some energy bars and a flask of water, along with a spare pair of thermal socks. It wasn’t heavy and initially she kept up a good pace, keeping up with Jake as he strode along through the snow. He didn’t speak for a while and she found it awkward to walk along in silence.

  “David seems happy amongst his gadgets,” she said, trying to engage Jake in conversation. “He was paying more attention to that radio than he was to either of us.”

  “Just as well. The sooner he fixes it, the sooner we can get out of here.”

  “It’s a stroke of luck finding that base out here and so well stocked too.” Ellen was falling behind and stepped up her pace to keep up with Jake. Walking was difficult in the thick snow. They had been out less than an hour but Ellen’s legs already trembled from the exertion.

  “Don’t be too pleased about that. We still haven’t given the place a thorough investigation. Who knows what surprises are lurking?”

  “I suppose. Half the place is sealed off, we have no idea what’s there.” Ellen added hopefully, “Maybe they just achieved their objective and left.”

  Jake snorted. “The place is huge and fully stocked. It must have taken a long time to get it set up. And it’s not charted. Whatever they were doing there, they kept it off all official records. I’ve got a couple of theories as to what that base was for.”

  “Do tell.”

  Jake paused for a moment to let her catch up. “It’s well known that Hitler had an obsession with the occult. It’s never been proven, but widely rumoured, that he channelled a lot of funding into researching the paranormal. Didn’t you notice on the map there are laboratories and scientists’ quarters marked? They were researching something.”

  “You don’t believe in any of that stuff, do you?”

  “Of course I don’t. But Hitler did. So maybe he had his goons looking into it.”

  “Paranormal research. That’s a pretty way-out theory,” Ellen said. “But I have to admit, there’s something creepy about the place.”

  Jake glanced over at her. “You had bad dreams last night, didn’t you?”

  “Well yes. I told you. You said it was down to post-traumatic stress.”

  “I had them too. What did you dream?”

  Ellen hesitated. “My brother. He was ten years older than me, and he died in a car crash when I was nine. It wasn’t a nice dream.”

  “Neither was mine.”

  “What did you dream about?”

  He muttered something. She had to hurry after him and ask him to repeat it. “Afghanistan,” he said. “I had a rough time there.”

  “You were in combat there?”

  Jake nodded. “There was a lot of bad shit going down. One time we were being hit by this sniper in the desert. We couldn’t see the son of a bitch, but he was good. He’d already taken out two guys in the platoon. I lobbed a grenade in his direction. It exploded, the shooting stopped. When we went after the guy to finish the job we found out he was just a kid. No more than fourteen years old. He was lying there, half his face burned off, one leg gone, his arm still cl
utching his rifle. I thought he was dead but when I got close to him he opened his eyes and stared at me and started crying for his mother.”

  “And you dreamed about him.”

  “Yeah.” Jake increased his pace.

  Ellen hurried to keep up, but her legs burned with effort. “Can we stop for a moment?”

  “This is Arctic survival,” Jake said. “If you can’t handle it, you shouldn’t have volunteered for the scouting mission.”

  “Just a few sips of water, that’s all I need. And a few bites of an energy bar.” Ellen hefted the items from her pack and used the pack as a seat cushion. “Don’t worry about me. Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I’m a fragile little flower.”

  “Just a couple of minutes, then.” Jake sighed and took his own water flask out of his pack.

  Ellen took a bite of an energy bar, savouring the sugar hit. She watched Jake as she munched. He loosened the scarf covering his face to take a drink of water and then he fumbled in his pockets for his cigarettes and lighter, turning away from the wind to light up. He inhaled deeply and let the smoke out in a plume, and she studied his face. There was a cold cynicism in his eyes, the eyes of someone who’s seen a lot of tragedy. She thought about the boy sniper and wondered how many other war traumas Jake had endured.

  CHAPTER 12

  David was quite happy alone in the base, able to focus on fixing the radio without any distractions. When he was six years old he had taken apart his mother’s transistor radio to see how it worked. He spread all the parts out on the kitchen table, and then his mother had come in and caught him. Of course he hadn’t been able to remember how all the parts went back together again. His mother had cried. The radio had belonged to her own mother. For over forty years it had played BBC Radio 2 to generations of women preparing dinner for their families. Although his father had eventually managed to put the radio back together, it had never worked again after that. David felt that his mother had never completely forgiven him.