“We’ll leave a sled here,” Jonathon suggested. “We’ll easily pick it out with the binoculars, and that way we can start out exactly where we left off.”
Rex was heading for the mountain before Jed even had a chance to either agree or disagree, and he had to chuckle at his friends childlike enthusiasm to check on anything out of the ordinary. It was a trait that Rex Ferguson had always possessed and Jed guessed it was the reason his pal had given his life over to exploration. The possibility of discovering something new and astonishing was always waiting just around the corner, and for Rex that was something he just couldn’t resist.
As always, Rex was the first to the scene. “It’s not the sun shining off the ice at all, it’s some sort of powder,” he said, excitedly rubbing some of the substance between mitted thumb and forefinger.
“It looks like pollen to me,” Jed said in a puzzled tone. “Though from what plant and from where I have no idea.”
Jonathon raked his fingers across the mountains icy slope. “Could it have blown across from Asia?”
“Nothing could ride the wind that far except maybe volcanic dust,” Jed said emphatically, “and this is definitely not dust.”
“Spores from lichen or moss?”
“There’s too much of it. A few scattered rocks couldn’t sustain enough moss to emit a shower of pollen large enough to cloak an entire mountain.”
“It just gets curiouser and curiouser,” Rex said gleefully.
Jed scooped up a sample and fed it into a flask before popping it into his pack. “I’ll get the lab to analyze it when we get back to base. But for now I think we’d better get back to the sled and get a few hours sleep.”
Jed’s mind was still abuzz with it all as he zipped himself into his sleeping bag. Somewhere out here, not too far away was a plant that grew in abundance and puffed out huge quantities of pollen. If only they could find where it was it might hold the answer to their survival.
He didn’t know how many hours he had been asleep before he and Jonathon were woken by a loud shout. Sitting up and wriggling free of his bag he emerged bleary eyed from the tent to investigate. It was Rex.
“Jed…Jonathon, look at that.”
Clouds of red pollen that only a few hours before they had touched on the mountain came billowing up over the horizon, settling not only on the mountain but also blanketing the plain that stretched out before them.
“There’s the answer to where it comes from. It’s coming from just over that ridge. There’s something growing over there that man has never laid eyes on before.” He looked at the other two, his eyes full of appeal. “How about we go over and see what it is?”
“Well I’m game to check it out,” Jonathon said.
“Might as well,” Jed conceded. “The fox tracks look to be heading in that direction anyway.”
Over the ridge Rex stood in wide-eyed wonderment at what greeted them. “I don’t believe it. It’s a lake, and it’s free of ice.” He scrambled down the ridge to investigate. “The lake and shore are all coated in the stuff.” Kicking at a patch of pollen he watched it with fascination as it swirled gently into the air before cascading gracefully to the rocky shore.
“The lake must be a volcanic crater Jonathon observed. “That’s the only way to explain it being free from ice.”
Jed didn’t think so. “It’s too large to be a crater lake. I can’t even see the opposite shore.”
“What other explanation can there be?”
“I don’t know,” Jed said reflectively. “But this pollen is coming from the far shore, and I think that is where our answer is waiting for us.”
Rex’s face took on the excited features of a schoolboy. “You’re suggesting we cross the lake?”
“Why not we’ve got a raft on the sled? Let’s inflate it and go see what’s on that far shore.”
Jonathon’s face registered alarm. “We’re low on food, the crossing could take days,” he argued.
Jed gave him his full attention. “You know better than I that the chance of us making it out alive is almost zero. Over the other side of this lake is a plant that grows in abundance, if this pollen is anything to go by. Maybe that plant is edible. Maybe there are other things over there that are edible.”
“But…”
“You can keep your buts. I’d rather die discovering something nobody else has ever seen than die out here in this frozen wasteland.”
“What he says makes sense,” Rex chipped in.
Jonathon’s resolve crumbled.
“All right, I guess it is our only hope.”
Rex was already getting out the raft to inflate it. “Behind every cloud is a silver lining. Getting lost might just turn out to be the best thing that’s ever happened to us.”
Grabbing a handle on the raft Jed helped carry it to the water’s edge. Discovering something over the other side of this lake that no one had ever seen before did hold a certain appeal for him. But it would all be for nothing if they couldn’t make it back to civilization.
They were about half a mile across the lake with the tiny outboard motor the only sound piercing the stillness of the Antarctic air when Jed first noticed it. Not much more than a ripple that gently disturbed the placid water, and for a moment he wondered if he had merely imagined it. That was until he spotted it again off the starboard side.
He looked at Rex. “Did you see that?”
“See what?”
“Something was moving through the water beside us.”
Rex glanced briefly over the side. “Nope, probably just the boats shadow.”
“It was too big for that.”
Rex leaned over for a longer look. “I don’t think anything could survive in an environment as hostile as what this lake dishes up,” he said eventually, satisfied that Jed had seen nothing more than the boats own shadow that up till now had frolicked playfully alongside the rubber vessel.
“That’s what we thought about the fox and hare,” Jed pointed out.
He had barely finished speaking before a long scaly back broke the surface of the water for a few seconds and then plunged back down into the inky black depths of the lake.
“Well I jolly well saw that,” Rex spluttered, sitting bolt upright on his seat.
Jonathon’s eyes danced nervously in the direction of the disturbance. “I hope it’s friendly, because if it’s not we don’t stand a chance in this little rubber thing.”
An eerie silence descended on the three, and with the seconds ticking away the tension in the small vessel reached fever pitch.
“Something’s coming up,” Jonathon said, as a large bubble burst noisily on the surface less than five feet away. For what seemed like an eternity the surface boiled like the contents of a witch’s cauldron, stopping only when a huge head burst uninvited through the foam. Rex rammed the tiller hard over as the tiny boat sped past. “Good grief,” he shouted, “what the dickens was that?”
“Some type of prehistoric sea creature,” Jed guessed, surveying the spot where the animal had just dived and hoping against hope it wouldn’t resurface right beneath them.
“What is it doing here,” Rex growled, “this is Antarctica, not some dreadful B grade movie.”
The other two were too busy watching the water around the boat to answer. The problem being, if the creature decided to attack or come up beneath them then they wouldn’t stand a chance in their flimsy craft.
“There it is again,” Rex yelled, hauling the boat over again. “What’s the crazy thing playing at?”
“I think it might just be checking us out,” Jonathon said.
Rex maintained a tight grip on the tiller and did his best to steer clear of the creature. “As long as that’s all it does.”
Jed studied the animal as it kept pace with the craft. Huge eyes set well back on a large streamlined head, and a long body that must have measured at least twenty five feet did nothing to help him classify it.
“Any ideas?” he asked Jonathon.
“None whatsoever, I’ve never seen anything even remotely like it before.”
“I still want to know what it’s doing in Antarctica.” Rex was still staring warily at the sea monster when the boat shuddered suddenly as if it had hit something. Then it shuddered again.
“Fish,” Jonathon said excitedly, “a whole school of them.”
The monster stopped its race with the boat, and as they pulled away the water around it came alive as it thrashed and bucked in a violent frenzy of feeding.
“Fish,” Rex said in a daze. “Foxes, hares, sea monsters, and now fish, just what is going on here?”
As Jed peeled off his outer jacket and tossed it into the bottom of the boat Rex stared at him in bewilderment. “Will someone please tell me what’s happening here?” He gazed down at the discarded jacket. “Out here you should be dead within ten seconds if you take that off.”
“The way I figure it we’ve stumbled across a belt of intense volcanic activity,” Jed explained. “Somehow that’s created this warmer environment we’re experiencing.”
“Kinda like an oasis in the middle of the Antarctic wasteland,” Jonathon added.
Rex wasn’t convinced. “But mammals and marine life, is it possible?”
“Apparently it is,” Jonathon said. He pointed across the bow. “I think I can just make out the shoreline ahead.”
Within forty minutes they were close enough to see the outline of the high rocky cliffs that towered above the tranquil waters of the lake. Jonathon’s face dropped. “How’re we going to get up that lot?”
“If we want to live we’re going to have to find a way,” Jed said philosophically. “And we all want to see what’s on the other side of those cliffs…right?”
Both men nodded, only Jonathon less enthusiastically than Rex.
Another thirty minutes on and they were dragging the boat up onto the stony shore. “Right,” Rex said, rubbing his mitted hands together, “let’s tackle that cliff.”
Surveying it from top to bottom Jed could see it was completely devoid of ice. That was a blessing at least. He pointed to a cleft in the rock. “Looks like a way up through there.”
Jonathon shuddered at the thought, “if you’re a mountain goat maybe.”
Rex’s eyebrows moved downwards immediately. “If it’s the only way, then it’s the only way.” He strode towards the cleft and attacked the rock aggressively with his ice pick. “It’s soft enough for me to cut some footholds,” he called confidently over his shoulder, as the other two followed in his wake, a shower of rock fragments raining down on them at regular intervals. It was Rex who made it to the top first. “Good grief.”
Jed hauled himself up the last few feet to stand beside him, and what he saw struck him with awe. “I wouldn’t have believed it possible.”
Rex turned to him with a grin. “Ah but it is. We’ve stumbled on a whole new world that no one else in the history of mankind has ever seen.”
Jed couldn’t help noticing the masses of red flowers that clothed the forest canopy. “There’s the source of that pollen we saw,” he said with satisfaction.
“Come on,” Rex urged, already moving towards the shelter of the trees, “our adventure awaits.”
Chapter Four
This was the moment Jed had dreamed of his entire life but never thought possible. Ever since he as a nine year old school boy had read stories of explorers stumbling across new lands he had wanted this. To discover a new land that no man had ever set foot on before. That was why he had come to Antarctica, though not seriously believing he would lay eyes on anything more than endless ice and an occasional mountain range to break the monotony. But here he was, walking in a pristine forest gazing up at gigantic trees that hosted a tantalizing array of exotic birdlife that neither he nor Jonathon could identify. It had his emotions running the gamut from fear to exhilaration and back to fear again.
What frightened him the most was not the vast variety of plant and bird life they were witnessing, but rather the impossibility of it existing in such an inhospitable environment as Antarctica could dish up. It was as if they had passed through to some parallel dimension. Not that he actually gave that theory much plausibility; he wasn’t much into those sorts of controversial theories. But could it really be they had stumbled into an area of intense volcanic activity that caused the ground and surrounding air to be so warm that bird and plant life could flourish? If so, where were the steam vents and volcanic rock that should pepper the area? He hadn’t seen any so far.
There was something so wrong about this. It was as if in the midst of this natural beauty there was something decidedly unnatural going on. That was the point when his fear had really kicked in. That very moment he realized that if this oasis could exist in an impossibly hostile landscape then what else could he expect to encounter up ahead? Anything, he now decided, was possible.
Emerging from the canopy of trees they set foot upon a huge grassy plain that stretched away before them as far as the eye could see.
“Some type of primitive prairie grass,” Jonathon commented, reaching down and plucking up a handful to examine it.
“I don’t believe it.” Rex was staring intently into the knee high grass. “Come and look at this.”
The two men strolled over and gazed down at a huge pile of animal dung.
“Elephant, if I’m not mistaken,” Rex said. “Only, it’s a big pile even for an elephant.”
Jonathon snatched something from the grass and handed it to Rex to inspect. “Might not be an elephant after all.”
Rex examined the long course hair Jonathon had found. “I could be wrong, but I think this might be mammoth hair.”
“You’re kidding me?” Jed took the evidence from Rex’s hand and checked it out for himself. “This is crazy, how can something that large exist here?”
“It appears Antarctica is not all snow and ice like we’ve been led to believe.” Rex pointed down at the dung heap. “We’ve stumbled upon a temperate region that can sustain creatures as large as that, and where there are large animals there will also be smaller ones.”
“But how, even intense volcanic activity couldn’t create an environment suitable for such large creatures to thrive?”
“I’ve no idea. All I know is that it’s here, and it’s real, and we’ve been blessed with the opportunity to explore it.” Rex looked from one to the other. “I think we should press on. If there’s more to see we won’t see it by standing around here.”
The plain was sparsely dotted with prehistoric looking trees, but even after three hours of slogging their way through the tundra they hadn’t come across a mammoth, or any other animal for that matter.
“Hang on a minute,” Rex said in a puzzled tone. “If that’s the sun,” he pointed up at the ancient globe, “then would someone please tell me what that is?” His companions locked their eyes onto the object of Rex’s concern. A dull red ball hung in the sky like a well lit Chinese lantern.
“How can there be two suns?” Rex asked.
“Might be a reflection of the real sun,” Jonathon suggested.
“But it’s actually giving off heat,” Jed postulated. “Even the real sun isn’t as warm as this one.”
“How can there be two suns?” Rex said again.
“Nothing here is making any sense,” Jed said. “I suggest we stop and sleep. We’ve travelled far enough for the time being, and who knows what dangers lurk out here.”
“Or how cold it’ll get,” Jonathon chipped in. He squinted at the sky. “That new sun looks to be getting a little dimmer as we speak.”
“Good point,” Rex said. “How about we collect some wood from around a few of these dead trees and get ourselves a fire going?” He playfully tossed a lighter in the air before catching it. “Bet you two are glad you brought a smoker along with you, aren’t you?”
By the time they realized the new sun wasn’t going to disappear but had merely grown dimmer they had a reasonable fire going. Although, with th
e weird sun still perched up in the sky the air did have a nip to it. Jed figured it must have something to do with the smoky haze that had developed around it. Somehow this smoke, or whatever it was, was blocking out some of the sun’s heat. As he cocooned himself in his thermal sleeping bag and lay back staring up at the new sun he accepted that by all accounts he should be dead by now. That blizzard left them hopelessly lost in the most inhospitable place on earth. And yet, here they were, not exactly breaking out in a sweat, but not freezing to death either, which is what they should be. In fact, they should have been reduced to three crystallized corpses somewhere out on the ice by now.
Not that he was complaining, this definitely beat being dead, it was just that he didn’t know what to expect next. This was a whole new ball game and he didn’t know the rules, so anything could happen, and as he had pointed out to the others, they didn’t know what dangers lurked out here.
As Jed slowly opened one eye it gradually dawned on him that he must have drifted off, then rolling over he stared into the most frightening pair of red eyes he had ever had the misfortune of encountering. “What the…?” He sat suddenly and violently upright, all thoughts of sleep now gone.
Rex joined him in the land of the living. “What’s wrong?” he half growled.
“Some type of animal…it was sniffing at me.”
“What did it look like?” Rex was beginning to shake the sleep from his head now, and Jed noted a hint of excitement in his voice.
“Didn’t get a really good look at it because it was off the second I yelled out. But it had huge red eyes and two ridiculously long teeth. I could almost believe it was a…no it couldn’t be.”
Rex’s interest was definitely peeked now. “Go on,” he urged. “What do you think it was?”
“Well,” Jed began hesitantly, “I know this sounds crazy, but it looked like a saber-toothed tiger.”
Rex chuckled with glee. “It’s like that movie was based on fact, first a mammoth and now a saber-tooth.”
The Reluctant Warrior Page 3