The Reluctant Warrior

by Pete B Jenkins

  Jed didn’t bother to answer. What was the point? He never had been able to win an argument with Rex yet. Instead, he concentrated his efforts on unlashing his kite.

  “Good steady wind now,” Rex noted, fastening himself into his harness. “I didn’t expect to be using the kites so early on.”

  “Sooner the better,” Jed answered, looking around at the rest of the team. “Is everybody ready?”

  They made good time for the rest of that day and used the unusually moderate wind to great advantage for the next six that followed, and by the end of the first week they were well ahead of where they had hoped to be.

  “This has been a dream run,” Rex commented, as they broke camp on the morning of the eighth day. “Wouldn’t have believed it possible…but here we are.” He threw his arms open wide to take in the great expanse of icy terrain ahead of them. “And according to the G.P.S. we are on the verge of entering the zone where no man has been before.”

  Jed grinned. “Captain Kirk would be proud of us.”

  Rex laughed at his friends little joke. “I would have preferred to have come here in the Starship Enterprise,” he said drolly. “But I guess these kites are a pretty good substitute.”

  Jed nimbly clicked the last buckle together on his harness before stealing a glance at his chum. “You’ve waited a long time for this haven’t you?”

  Rex nodded. “Ever since I read Byrd’s account of his flight over the pole,” he admitted. “I suppose I couldn’t have been more than thirteen at the time. But I knew after reading it that I would someday be here myself.”

  “And here you are.”

  “And here I am,” he said blissfully, handing the G.P.S. to one of the team members.

  “That thing’s going to revolutionize polar exploration,” Jed said, as he watched it being calibrated.

  Rex scrutinized his friends face for a moment. “Glad you came now?”

  A grin broke out beneath Jed’s eight day old growth. “I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.”

  “Not even Cassie?”

  Jed shook his head. “John’s welcome to her. And you were right,” he said soberly, “we weren’t right for each other.”

  Rex chuckled. “I don’t think anyone’s right for Cassie.”

  The winds long icy fingers snatched crossly at Jed’s kite. “Looks like another good one for travelling.” He scanned the bleakness of the never-ending Antarctic sky. “Wonder what this new territory holds for us?”

  “Nothing more than ice, ice, and more ice,” Jonathon said drearily, bringing his sled up alongside Jed with an air of exaggerated apathy.

  Rex’s eyebrows formed an irritated scowl. “Why do you even bother to come on these expeditions?”

  Jonathon sneaked in a quick wink at Jed. “Because boredom is good for a man,” he said, in mock indignation, “it makes him appreciate what he’s left behind.”

  Jed winced. Jonathon liked nothing better than to wind Rex up, and his favorite ploy had always been to pretend he wasn’t having a good time. It was something that never failed to rattle Rex, and now his face displayed all the signs of an exasperated man. “Sometimes I wonder about you,” he grumped, before turning to the rest of the team. “Let’s go,” he said brusquely.

  Jonathon’s attention was on Rex’s kite as it filled its wings with the polar breeze and began to lazily drag his sled across the hard ice. “Hasn’t lost any of his charm, I see. He’s still the same bad-tempered fellow I seem to remember.”

  Jed shook his head in disapproval. “You shouldn’t goad him like that you know how seriously he takes everything.”

  Jonathon grinned broadly. “Call me sadistic if you like, but I just can’t seem to help myself.”

  “It’ll backfire on you one day,” Jed warned. “Then you’ll live to regret all the times you’ve needlessly provoked him.”

  “It’ll be a truck load of fun until then,” he joked, as he followed Jed’s example and let his kite take charge.

  The pair skied along in companionable silence, the sound of skis on ice the only sound disturbing the solitude.

  “What do you think we’ll find beyond the point of inaccessibility?” Jonathon asked eventually.

  Jed considered the question for a moment or two. “There’s bound to be a few new mountains, and maybe an active volcano or two, who can say?”

  “I suppose it is exciting going somewhere no one has been before,” Jonathon conceded. “But it’s nowhere as exciting as finding a lost city in a South American jungle, or hunting for dinosaurs in the Congo like we did a few years back.”

  They must have struck a particularly good pocket of air as they were rapidly gaining on Rex, and Jed cast a furtive glance ahead to gauge whether it was possible for him to overhear them.

  “For goodness sake,” he whispered tersely, “don’t let him hear you say that he’ll have a hernia.”

  Jonathon laughed heartily. “Don’t worry, Rex and I never…” he stopped mid sentence, deep concern clouding over his usually jovial blue eyes.

  Jed tracked his friends gaze and barely stifled a gasp. A blizzard of enormous magnitude was racing across the sub-zero wasteland threatening to engulf them in the horrors of its icy cold grip.

  “No time to unclip the kites,” Jonathon yelled, fear now taking over from where concern left off. “It’ll be on us in seconds.”

  The last thing Jed saw was Rex’s sturdy frame being shunted savagely sideways as the first blast of cold air slammed into him. Then all was darkness, and he was aware of nothing other than the hard ice beneath his skies and the breakneck speed his kite was dragging him along. He weighed the situation up; if he became separated from the rest of the team then he was dead, for without the G.P.S. he didn’t have a snowballs chance in hell of getting back to civilization alive. The problem was he could barely see his hand in front of his face let alone spy out where the rest of the team was, so there was nothing for it but to hunker down and try to ride this beast out.

  He had no idea how long he had fought to stay upright before the blizzard began to abate. It may have been two hours or it may have been four. Time held little relevance when one was being carried along in the tentacles of a hurricane. But now, with the wind rapidly subsiding, he managed to struggle free of his harness and for the first time take stock of the situation.

  He was devastated to discover as he keenly scanned his surroundings that he was alone, all alone. Unless… what was that dark spot on the horizon? He hollered as loud as he could and then prayed for a response.

  The faintest cooee drifted back across the barren void, and he silently gave thanks that at least he wouldn’t die out here alone. The problem now was how to gauge the distance between him and the unidentified team member. With no distinguishing landmarks to help him calculate distances it was an impossible task. It might be a mile, or it might be several. He would just have to knuckle down and urge his exhausted body to drag the sled in the direction of the other fellow in the hopes that he in turn was heading towards him. He eventually got close enough to recognize the team member was Jonathon. “Have you spotted any of the others?” he hollered.

  “No,” Jonathon shouted back. “They could be miles away.” He waited until he was within easy speaking distance before continuing. “The thing is,” and Jed was close enough now to see the fear in his friends eyes, “they’ve got the G.P.S., so unless we find them soon there’s no way out of this predicament.”

  Jed turned it over in his mind, without the G.P.S. they were definitely doomed. Pulling out his compass he was disappointed to see no reading, it had gone haywire, so they had obviously reached a point beyond the pole where no instrument other than the G.P.S. would give a true reading.

  Jonathon had been watching him hopefully, “any good?”

  “It’s not giving a reading,” Jed said quietly.

  Jonathon seated himself on his sled. “That blizzard could have blown us anywhere. For all we know we may have just gone around in a big circle.” />
  Jed shook his head. “I checked the compass just before the blizzard struck and it was working fine. If we’d gone around in a circle it should still be giving us a reading.” He slipped the offending instrument back into his jacket pocket. “We’ve been blown any number of miles into the interior.”

  Jonathon was unusually subdued, his normally cocky character having chosen to desert him on this occasion. “Well that’s it then,” he said in an air of defeat, “we’re going to die out here.”

  Jed sat down on his sled in imitation of his friend. “I’ll grant you that things aren’t looking too good, but I’m not about to roll over and die yet.”

  “So what are we going to do?”

  “We’ve got enough food to last us three weeks if we go easy on it. If we just keep moving we might be able to walk away from this one.”

  Jonathon stared out at him from behind cynical eyes. “Who’re you trying to kid?”

  “Look,” Jed wasn’t about to accept any defeatism, not this early on in the piece at any rate, “if we’re going to have any chance at all we have to remain optimistic. Otherwise we’re…”

  Jonathon suddenly sat bolt upright. “Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what?”

  Jonathon craned his head forward. “Listen.”

  As Jed sat perfectly still and listened a faint sound came drifting across the ice towards them. “Someone’s calling,” he said excitedly.

  Jonathon pointed off into the distance. “It’s coming from that direction.” Taking off his sunglasses he squinted against the glare from the ice. “I can just make out someone on the horizon.”

  Jed eased his aching body up into a standing position. “We’d better get ourselves over there and check out who it is. Might be Steve,” he said hopefully, “he’s the one Rex gave the G.P.S. to.”

  As they trudged wearily towards the distant speck they silently prayed that the as yet unknown team member would be the one holding their only ticket out of this icy graveyard.

  “It’s Rex,” Jonathon said glumly, as soon as he was close enough to make a positive identification.

  “No sign of the others,” Rex said with resignation when they had joined him. “They must have had too big a head start on us when that blizzard hit.”

  “So what do you want to do now?” Jed asked calmly.

  “Jonathon’s the one with all the experience in polar regions,” Rex said sarcastically. “He’s the one you should be directing that question to.”

  A look of panic invaded Jonathon’s usually fun-loving eyes. “I’ve never been in this position before,” he half pleaded. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “So much for you being the experienced one,” Rex answered caustically. “The reason you were brought along in the first place was because you’re supposed to know all about survival out here.”

  “I’m not a miracle man. I can’t be expected to get us out of a situation where we’ve got no idea where we are.”

  Rex wasn’t in any mood to be generous. “And why not?” he snorted.

  “Aw, come on,” Jonathon exploded. “If you’re so…”

  “Knock it off the pair of you,” Jed barked. “If we’re going to have any chance at all of surviving this then we’re going to have to stop fighting amongst ourselves.” He looked sternly at one man and then the other. “So let’s concentrate all our efforts on coming up with a survival plan.”

  Rex threw his hands up in an attitude of surrender. “All right, so what are we going to do?”

  Jed’s eyes roved across the ice to the distant horizon. “All we can do is put in as many miles as we can until we reach a point where the compass start’s working again.”

  Rex’s face was all exasperation. “But in which direction?”

  “It doesn’t really matter. We just have to push ourselves hard and sooner or later we’ll make it to the coast or get somewhere we can take our bearings again.”

  Rex huffed. “It all sounds pretty hit or miss to me.”

  Jed’s usual good humor evaporated. “If you’ve got a better idea, then Jonathon and I’d like to hear it,” he said curtly.

  “Okay, okay,” Rex relented. “I guess there’s nothing for it. I just hope we don’t end up wandering around in a big circle with our precious food rapidly running out.”

  “That’s always going to be a possibility, Rex,” Jed said grimly. “But we have to at least try. And the way I see it, staying in the same place hoping to be rescued just isn’t an option.”

  Rex rubbed his mitted hand across his tender shoulder blade. “That harness sure gave me a working over, and my legs are about done in.” He met Jed’s gaze with grim determination. “But if we’re going to have a crack at this then let’s make a start now.”

  Chapter Three

  “Jed, Jonathon…over here.” Rex barked out the order with all the authority of a drill sergeant. With it being six days since they had been blown off course his mood had been getting uglier by the hour.

  “What does he want now?” Jonathon grizzled, as Jed grabbed at his jacket in an attempt to get him moving.

  “If you do as he asks you’ll soon find out.

  “He could ask a little more politely.” Jonathon looked sourly at Rex’s retreating form. “A little politeness goes a long way.”

  Rex was squatting down investigating a patch of ice at his feet when they joined him. “What do you two make of this?”

  Jonathon reluctantly bobbed down beside him. “What’s the prob…?” He stopped in mid-sentence and stared at the marks on the ice in front of him. “I don’t believe it, those are fox tracks. There aren’t supposed to be any land mammals in Antarctica, so what are they doing here?”

  Rex transferred his eyes to his startled companion. “Are you sure they’re fox? They can’t be husky?”

  Jonathon shook his head slowly. “I’ve seen hundreds of fox tracks in the Arctic, and back home, and these are definitely fox. Besides, they no longer have any dog teams in Antarctica.”

  Rex straightened up. “What could a fox live on out here?”

  “No idea. I shouldn’t think anything could live in this bleak landscape.”

  Rex turned to Jed. “Do you have any theories on how a fox came to be out here?”

  “It defies all logic,” Jed confessed. “It must be hundreds of miles to either the coast or the nearest research station. It’s as if it just dropped out of the sky.”

  “Well I don’t believe in flying foxes,” Rex said gruffly. “So there must be some other explanation for it.”

  “Why don’t we follow its tracks,” Jonathon suggested. “If it does know its way around it might just be heading back to the coast.”

  Rex looked at Jed who gave a simple shrug of his shoulders. “We’ve got nothing to lose. For all we know we may have been getting nowhere these last six days.”

  “Right then,” Rex said brightly. “If you two are up for it then who am I to kick up a fuss.” If the truth be known the discovery of another living breathing creature in their general vicinity filled him with renewed hope. “Let’s get cracking.”

  Hours later when they came across a fresh set of tracks that ran just to the right of the foxes Rex looked at Jonathon with a quiet expectancy.

  “Hare,” Jonathon said, after examining the marks carefully, “and it’s a big one too.”

  “Now we know what the fox has been living off,” Rex said, unable to disguise the excitement in his voice. “But what’s the hare living off?”

  “Maybe there’s some lichen or moss growing on some of the rocks,” Jonathon suggested.

  “There’s only one way to find out. We follow both sets of tracks until we discover where it is they’re heading to.” Jed unzipped his outer jacket. “Is it my imagination or is it getting warmer?”

  Rex looked up at the sun. “It does seem to be a little warmer than usual. Isn’t that supposed to be a good sign?”

  “It should be warmer nearer the coast,” Jonathon agreed. “Mayb
e we’re getting close.”

  Jed knew it wasn’t supposed to be this warm, not even right on the coast. There was something very strange about all this. First they had come across fox and rabbit tracks, and yet Antarctica was a continent with no land mammals. Now it was getting uncommonly warm. Something very unnatural was going down here.

  “Well, upwards and onwards then,” Rex said cheerfully. “The sooner we get to the coast the better.”

  They both fell into step behind Rex, and as soon as their companion had pulled out of earshot Jed turned to Jonathon. “We’re nowhere near the coast are we?”

  Jonathon’s eyes remained firmly fixed on Rex’s back, “nope.”

  “Then what do you think is going on?”

  “I’ve been turning that over in my mind ever since we saw those fox tracks,” he confessed. “But I can’t come up with any logical reason for all this.” He wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. “I never experienced a sun this hot in the Arctic. I just don’t know what to make of it.”

  Jed flicked his eyes in Rex’s general direction. “Then what stopped you from telling him that?”

  “I didn’t want to burst his bubble. He’s much easier to get on with when he’s cheerful. Besides, there’s no point in all of us feeling desperate until we absolutely have to.”

  “That’s two very determined animals,” Rex remarked, when they stopped to rest several hours later. Pulling out his binoculars he put them to use checking the terrain ahead. “Hey,” he said all of a sudden, “that’s the weirdest mirage I’ve ever seen.”

  Jed took the binoculars from him and checked it out for himself. “A red mountain,” he said, passing them on to Jonathon, “only, I don’t think it’s a mirage.”

  “It’s real enough,” Jonathon agreed, adjusting the scopes to get a clearer look. “And it’s definitely covered in red ice.” He glanced up to check the angle of the sun. “Can’t see how that would be affecting it either.” Handing the glasses back to Rex he made a suggestion. “How about we go over and check it out?”

  “What if we can’t pick up the fox tracks again?” Rex said. “They’re our only hope of getting out of here.”