“Ben, my sister, my twin sister, Katie…” she walked closer to Ben, Megan, and Lacey, looked at them with terror in her eyes, “Katie died when we were born.”
20
The howls of the dogs sent a chill up Ben’s spine. The air was still crisp and cold, but the snow was slowly melting in the sun’s bright light. The days ran into nights here, as it was summer and Alaska was getting about twenty hours of daylight. Ben wasn’t sure if the lack of sleep was messing with his mind; or if he was simply imagining things, but as he stood over three grave stones he knew something very strange was going on.
Megan interrupted his silent thoughts, “So this is it, this is Katie’s grave?”
“Yes, my mother died while giving birth to us, shortly after, Katie died as well. My father raised me out here, and two years ago he died. I’ve been alone ever since.” Sarah answered. She dusted the loose melting snow off of Katie’s tomb stone.
“This grave so small, but have care, for a world of hopes are buried here.” Ben read the tomb stone’s engraved words aloud, “Katie Hunter, March 5, 1980.” He shook his head and looked toward Megan, “I wasn’t just dreaming all this was I, she was real wasn’t she? You saw her right?”
“Yes,” Megan answered quietly and shivered. She felt grateful for Katie’s help, but also strange that they had been conversing and spending the last two days with a dead person.
Ben turned to Sarah, “She looks just like you, the only difference is she has crystal blue eyes.” Lacey quickly turned her head and stared at Ben, “I know, right?!” He proclaimed at how strange this all was. Sarah dropped her head, and sighed as she wiped another tear from her eye.
“That’s just hard for me to believe, I’ve…I’ve been alone for so long, with only the dogs out here…”
“Well it’s true, I know it sounds like we’re making it up, but really Katie was with us, she built the snow cave, she pulled the dogs in, she took care of us. I think she was the reason the dogs went off course, if they hadn’t we never would have found the wolf pups. You’re not alone out here, Sarah.” Ben fell silent to let his words have impact. Sarah starting crying heavily then turned and walked away.
“Speaking of wolf pups,” Megan interrupted, “Do you think mom and dad would let me keep one?”
“What?” Ben paused, “You know what, they just might actually, which one do you wanna keep?”
“‘Compass.’” Megan announced. She opened the top of her coat and a small black nose poked out, “I named him, fitting don’t you think?”
“I think it’s perfect.” Lacey said as she rubbed her finger along Compass’ muzzle, “Wow! Look at his eyes!” Lacey said excitedly. She looked at Ben expectantly again.
Ben nodded his head, “This is what I’m talking about, so strange, right?!”
“Absolutely!” Lacey agreed, “We better call Trent, make sure he’s ready to fly us down South.”
“South?” Megan asked, as she zipped Compass back up into her coat.
“Oh yeah I forgot to tell you guys, the next geocache is on a glacier! It’s called ‘Mendenhall Glacier’ I talked with Trent he’s gonna have skis put on the plane for landing on the ice, wicked huh?”
Megan looked at Lacey, “No. I mean yes, that’s very cool, but you, well sorry Aunt Lacey, but you can’t pull off a word like ‘wicked’ you need to stick with ‘cool’ or ‘neat,’ just sayin’.” she giggled to herself then looked at Ben, “It’s crazy wicked!” she teased Lacey.
“Really?” Lacey rolled her eyes at Megan, then thought twice, “Okay, you’re right.” She relinquished. “Anyways’ it’s really neat though, right? Skis on a plane!”
“Very neat.” Megan agreed.
Ben motioned for them to follow him up to the porch of Sarah’s cabin, he tapped gently on the door. “Come in.” Sarah called out from inside. Ben opened the door and stepped into the small warm space.
“We’re gonna get going, is it okay with you if Megan keeps this one wolf pup?” he asked.
“Of course, just remember Megan that a wolf pup isn’t going to be as easy to train as a domestic dog, so be careful. I’ll take care of the other two, they’ll make great team dogs, I think.”
“Thank you.” Megan replied.
As the group stepped back out onto the porch, the entire group of sled dogs cried and howled. Ben looked over at them and saw Katie standing at the edge of one of the dog houses, she had her arms up, calming the dogs down, then turned to Ben and waved. Sarah stepped next to Ben and looked in the direction he was looking,
“It’s so strange when they do that, they’ll be so crazy noisy and then all the sudden they are silent and all looking a certain direction.” She paused for a second in thought, then with a questioning look, turned to Ben, “Is she…I mean is Katie doing that?” She shivered and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up.
“She is.” Ben answered, not sure if Sarah was ready to believe him.
Sarah shook her head then replied, “Amazing.”
Ben, Megan, and Lacey walked in the direction of the landing strip, in the distance they could see Trent standing outside the plane, waving excitedly. Ben and Megan looked back toward the small cabin and there they saw Sarah and Katie standing next to each other waving at them. They both waved in return, Ben yelled out, “Bye Sarah, bye Katie!” They both called goodbye back. Ben watched Sarah turn directly toward Katie, she paused for a second, almost as if she could see her, then continued toward the cabin. Just as Sarah stepped away, Katie disappeared.
Ben turned back around and caught up with Megan and Lacey. Trent was just starting the propellers on the small plane, their sound blocked out all other noise as it dominated the air. They all climbed on the plane and got buckled in. Megan immediately loosened her coat to allow Compass to stick his small head out and sniff around. As the plane took off, the only sounds that could be heard were the loud humming of the engines and the soft howls of the orphaned pup.
His cries brought a lump to Ben’s throat, “Thank you, Katie. For helping us find the wolf and her pups,” Ben whispered to himself.
“No worries.” Katie said back. Ben jumped and quickly looked to the seat next to him, Katie sat next to him smiling, then just as quickly as she had appeared, she was gone.
21
The bright glare of the ice was almost blinding. Megan quickly pulled her sunglasses down over her eyes. Her boots crunched on the thick ice beneath her feet. The spikes on her boots stuck an inch into the surface to prevent her from sliding. Every step was work, every step was incredible.
The group was walking on over one hundred feet of ice. This was once water that had flowed down and froze to form this glacier, perhaps millions of years before, carving out mountains and canyons in its path.
“Trent, you think the plane will be safe?” Lacey called back to him.
“Oh yeah, there’s no one else out here but us, we shouldn’t be long, anyways. Isn’t this geocache just up here another two hundred feet or so?” Megan suddenly knocked on the side of Trent’s head. “Ow!” Trent hollered, “What was that for?”
“Knock on wood, never, ever, never say ‘we shouldn’t be long, this is an easy one.’”
“You knocked on my head though!” He complained.
“Uh, yeah…do you see any wood around here, it’s the next best thing.” She giggled then said, “Seriously though, you’re gonna jinx us.”
Lacey looked back to them, “C’mon guys, I’d like to get done with this before dark…” she caught herself realizing it barely ever got dark here during this time of year, “I mean dinner, before dinner.”
Ben laughed then announced, “Guys another hundred feet and we should see something.” He walked faster, his boots crunched into the ice, ahead of the group. He continued in the direction Lacey’s cell phone indicated they should go. As the group hiked more, they followed a small pathway that seemed to be cut down into the glacier’s ice, after approximately seventy five feet the pathway dead ended and wa
s surrounded by walls of ice over twenty feet high.
“What should we do now?” Megan asked. They all stared at the walls of ice that towered above their heads. Streaks of blue and gray interrupted the white ice, as if someone had taken a paint brush and painted strips of color randomly on the white frozen canvas.
Ben peered up and noticed a small disturbance in the ice at the top of one of the ice walls.
“I think we have to climb up to get it.” He pointed to where he was looking, there on top the ice was the corner of a small black box. “How do we get up there?” Ben asked Trent.
Trent sighed and whipped out a large ice ax, “You use two of these for your hands, and the spikes on your boots to get a grip for your feet.” He turned to the opposite wall and drove one ax in the thick ice. It cut into it and stuck in place. Trent then wiggled it out of the ice by pulling up on it and handed it to Ben.
“Uh…” Ben looked at Megan, she sighed in annoyance and then grabbed the ax from his hand.
Megan took a step toward the icy wall which held the black box and slammed the ax above her head into the ice, she then raised her right foot and as if taking a forceful step up slammed it into the ice, she lifted herself up and took the other ax and cut it into the ice above the last ax, then followed with her left foot. She worked her way up, crunching and cutting the ice as she climbed. Trent, Lacey, and Ben looked up in awe of this little girl. She was small, but she was a powerhouse of strength, and had not one bit of fear when it came to heights.
As she came to the top of the wall, she peered over the edge, the ice on the other side was rugged and cracked. She now understood why they had to climb to this geocache rather than just hiking to it. Hiking on that unstable ice would have been crazy dangerous. Megan pulled herself over the edge and stayed laying on her tummy as she dug the black box from the ice. She used one of the ice axes to break the ice and snow away from the sides of the small box, then eagerly slid it from its frozen safety.
“Got it!” she called down. She looked over the edge then tossed the box down to Ben who was holding his hands out. Megan pivoted her legs over the side of the wall and quickly found her footing with her ice boots, once again creating her own steps as she kicked the spikes deep into the ice. As she lowered herself something in the distance caught her eye, there was movement to the left, at the beginning of the trail leading to where they were. She listened harder and squinted her eyes. Her mouth dropped. There in the distance were two men that she recognized, crunching through the ice on the same trail they had come in on, Henry and Eddy.
Megan turned her head and quietly called down to the group below her, “You guys, Henry and Eddy, they’re on the path, they’ll be here soon!” Lacey and Ben’s eyes grew wide in fear.
“Megan, jump down!” Ben called up to her.
“What? No! There’s no way out that way, you guys climb up!” she called back frantically. They all three looked at one another, “I’m gonna toss my axes down, watch out!” Megan yelled in a whisper. Trent stepped to the side, scrunched up with Lacey and Ben as Megan dropped her axes. He handed them to Ben who sighed deeply, closed his eyes, then moved quickly to the wall.
He followed Megan’s method and worked his way up, his forehead dripped with sweat, not from the exertion but from the fear building inside of him. Megan helped pull him up and over, then once again they tossed the ice axes down into the small area below.
“You, go ahead.” Trent motioned for Lacey, she accepted his offer without thinking twice and slammed the axes into the ice, quickly stepping and pulling herself up the wall. Finally, she threw the axes down to Trent, who was looking down the pathway, just as he heard the axes fall he also heard the crunch of footsteps in the distance.
Trent grabbed the axes and dug them into the wall, climbing up just as he had shown the group, he was just as fast as Megan, and barely frazzled at all. The group looked at each other and then looked at the ice field that spanned out before them. Jagged crevasses filled the landscape. The ice was weaker here, the top layer unstable.
“We have no choice,” Trent interrupted everyone’s thoughts. He grabbed Lacey’s hand, “Everyone hold hands, if one of us falls we’ll be like a safety rope.”
They each took a step forward, some of the ice broke beneath their feet, creating instant anxiety. Trent lead the way, they followed the jagged, narrow wedges of ice at the surface. They stepped gently and methodically. Trent explained that if the ice broke they could fall into a crevasse, which was a huge crack in the ice. Sometimes these crevasses went hundreds of feet deep, into the glacier below. Once in them, there was little or no way out.
Trent continued his methodical planning with each step he lead the group on, they were only thirty feet from the wall they climbed up when they heard a man’s voice in the distance.
“Well, looky here!” Henry yelled to them. Eddy’s head appeared next to Henry’s foot as he climbed over the edge of the wall and joined his friend. Lacey looked at Trent, who didn’t seem surprised.
“How’d they find us?” She asked. She glared at Trent and let go of his hand. He stared at her, not knowing what to say or how to answer her question. “How’d they find us, Trent?” She yelled at him, slowly pushing her niece and nephew back away from him.
“What? I don’t know?” Trent replied as he shook his head.
“You told them, didn’t you? You work with them, right?” She yelled at him.
Henry’s voice interrupted her, “Now, now Lacey, don’t be upset, you don’t wanna yell out here, you’ll crack the ice!” He took a step toward Lacey, Ben, and Megan, balancing himself on the narrow patches of stable ice. Lacey pushed Ben and Megan further away.
“Lacey, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Trent called to her. Lacey was pushing the kids harder now, making them move faster away from both Trent and Henry, who were both advancing in her direction. Eddy started to follow Henry as he eyed Trent.
Lacey began panicking, looking back and forth as Henry and Trent moved faster and faster toward them, “We trusted you!” Lacey yelled between sobs, just as she yelled a loud cracking noise rumbled below them, and suddenly the ice was moving. First Megan fell, Ben followed, and right as Lacey began to scream she started her free-fall into the crevasse that had opened up beneath them. It swallowed them whole.
Lacey landed on top of Megan in a heap on a cold icy floor. Around them, chunks of thick ice poured down, she instinctively covered her head. Looking around through the shower of ice she saw Ben laying on the ice next to them, he too was covering his head, Megan was moving under her, she knew they were both alive and for the most part, okay.
The shower of ice stopped and silence filled the space. It was long and narrow, dark and scary. Ben looked up and could see only a small sliver of light above them, he wiggled over to Lacey and Megan and whispered, “Are you guys okay?” They both nodded, afraid to speak for fear of the ice breaking below them and falling into another crevasse. “We can’t climb back up. We’ll have to wait for Henry, and Eddy, or Trent to throw us a rope or something.” Ben tucked his feet under his rear-end as he crouched next to his sister and Aunt.
“Was Trent really working with Henry?” Megan asked quietly.
“I think so,” Lacey answered, “How else would they have found us?” Ben thought for a second,
“I never would have thought he would be a bad guy.” They all fell silent as they realized the danger they were in. “But the good news is, they’ll have to get us out.” Ben lifted his hand out of his jacket pocket revealing the small black metal box, “If they want this, that is.”
Megan stood carefully and tested her legs, after the fall she was achy and in terrible pain, she wanted to insure nothing was broken, as she stood she noticed another fragment of light coming from the far end of the crevasse, “Hey guys, check it out, this might be another opening.” She motioned for them to follow her.
Carefully, Lacey and Ben stood, they each stayed to the side of the crevasse and cr
ept along, moving slowly. The walls of ice got closer together, and above them all light disappeared as they advanced down the narrow cave-like structure. They continued to walk in the darkness, Lacey pulled out her cell phone and pressed the screen button, it illuminated the space just enough for them to feel safe walking in the darkness.
After only another twenty feet in the narrow passage way of the crevasse, the group squeezed through a small opening and entered a large open space. The walls were thick ice of the glacier, above them light shown through a thick icy ceiling. Hanging from the icy ceiling were large icicles, each at least six inches wide and some over four feet long. The space was vast, the layers of ancient ice were a variety of colors ranging from deep grays to reds and then crystal blues. The silence was incredible, only a random drip from the icicles broke the stillness of the space every now and then.
“This is incredible,” Ben announced quietly. “These icicles could kill you if they fell, when they get this big they should be called the death cicles.” He paused thoughtfully, “Looks like our way out isn’t really a way out though,” he concluded solemnly as he looked above them at the thick ice ceiling.
Lacey looked back at the direction that they had entered from, “I think I hear something…” she held her hands up motioning for Ben to be quiet. They all listened, in the distance they could hear arguing and yelling. They heard Trent holler out in pain, then they heard Henry and Eddy yelp and next a thunderous echo entered their space, a sound they realized was that of the men either falling or jumping into the crevasse where they had fallen in. Ben grabbed his sister’s and aunt’s hands and pulled them to the furthest wall of the cave. They stood, knowing they were in plain sight, but hoping that somehow it would give them more time to react.
“What are we gonna do?” Megan whispered, trembling. A light shone down the narrow passage way they had just come from, it bounced and gleamed off the icy walls, it danced along the long icicles that hung from the ceiling. Ben looked around anxiously, he held Lacey’s arm tighter. Trent, Henry, and Eddy squeezed through the opening and stood at the opposite side of the cave. Megan asked again, “What are we gonna do?”
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