Jon Merz - Prey

The weight of her responsibility for the safety of her team suddenly crashed down on her. Their lives rested on her shoulders. Sure, Mick, was the solider who could protect them all, but Julia’s primary mission was to achieve her exploration objectives and bring her men home alive.

Funny how the appearance of danger suddenly made that responsibility all the more real and all the more overpowering. She took another breath and resolved herself to making sure the rest of them came home safe. She’d mourn Vikorsky later.

Finally, Mick’s arm moved again and they resumed walking. What had he seen? Julia frowned. Part of her wanted to be up front, leading the way. She wanted to see and hear what Mick did.

She grew used to walking on the uneven floor. Her footsteps rolled along, while she maintained an upright posture. The rifle felt a bit heavier than she remembered them being in the Scouts. But then again, she’d only ever fired a small. 22. The M16 was a heavier assault rifle.

The grips even felt a bit slippery, even though she still wore her gloves.

Was she sweating?

Under the coat, she felt warm suddenly. Like she’d just begun to perspire heavily.

A breeze tickled her face.

Breeze?

It was warm.

Something didn’t compute. They were at the South Pole virtually. A howling raging snowstorm blizzard raged outside these walls, and yet…the breeze was definitely warm.

The air around them started to grow almost balmy.

Wilkins had noticed it, too. She could tell from the way he moved that he was trying to figure it out as well. Mick, however, just kept plodding along.

Then suddenly, his arm shot up. And for some reason, Julia could see it clearly. She hadn’t been able to before. But was the cave getting…brighter?

Wilkins and Julia both stopped. Mick signaled them to stay out and then he crept ahead. He moved like a ghost. He made no noise at all. After about five minutes, he returned.

He cupped his hand and whispered to them.

“You won’t believe this: there’s a light up ahead.”

“What kind of light?” Wilkins looked incredulous in the distorted light of Mick’s flashlight.

There’s a fissure between some rocks. There’s light coming from the other side.”

“Artificial?” asked Julia. “Or natural?” It was tough to believe there’d be any type of sunlight coming from the hole, given the storm raging outside, but perhaps…

“I can’t tell without prying up the rocks and getting a closer look.” Mick shook his head. “Damnedest thing, though. There’s a warm breeze coming from the other side as well.”

“Is that why the cave got warmer?”

Mick nodded. “It’s steady, too. Like there’s an entirely different atmosphere on the other side of the rocks down there.”

“Different atmosphere?” What could possibly explain that? They were down in the freezing barren landscape of Antarctica. It seemed silly to think about the possibility of balmy temperatures down here.

Mick shrugged. “Just letting you know what I saw down there. I haven’t got a clue as to explaining it, but it’s there anyway.”

Wilkins glanced back in the direction they’d traveled. “Should we get the others? Move them on up here and set up a camp? It’s warmer and even lighter.”

Julia glanced at Mick. “You’re the tactical guy. What do you think?”

“May as well. It’s pretty obvious this is going to be our starting point for exploration. And I’m fairly confident there’s something interesting going on up there.”

“Okay, Wilkins will go back and get the rest of the team. Bring them up here. We’ll wait for you before we do anything else. I want us all situated and secure before we start prying any lids off of boxes. Got it?”

Wilkins nodded and moved back down toward the entrance. Julia looked at Mick. “What do you think it is?”

He smiled. “What — you think I was waiting for Wilkins to leave before I let you in on some deep dark secret?”

“We are at the bottom of the world. Seems as good a place as any to have a secret.”

He shrugged. “No secrets. What I reported is what I saw.”

“What else is in the weapons cache?”

“What?”

“How come you wouldn’t let us help you when you opened it? And don’t give me that bullshit about security and state secrets. It doesn’t wash.”

He smirked. “I thought perhaps there might be something else in the cache. Something that I’d heard about back in the service. It was a rumor, really. Nothing substantial. But those rumors and whispers seem to take on a life of their own when you’re suddenly confronted by a changing reality.”

“What was the rumor?”

He frowned. “That we’d stored small ADMs down here.”

“What’s an ADM?”

“Stands for ‘Atomic Demolition Munitions’.”

“Atomic?”

“As in nuclear. Yeah. They were originally designed to be small suitcase nukes capable of punching a big hole in an urban area. Or a ship. SEALs used to carry them on specialized missions. They never used them, but they did enough training that in the event of war, they could slap on to the hull of a ship and it would go bang and sink pretty damned fast.”

“And you thought we had them down here?”

“When that cache was established back in the early 80s, we had a cowboy for president, remember? Some people thought the Cold War was going to freeze over it got so bad. We were storing crap like that all over the world. Hell, the NATO storage facilities outside of military bases had the things.”

“I don’t get it.”

“NATO didn’t just use military bases for their weapons storage. They had secret places all over western Europe designated hides. Old farmhouses, empty fields, you name it and they were used. The idea being that in case of a massive Soviet attack, the resistance fighters would have a ready store of arms from which to draw and fight from. We stowed a mess of pocket nukes all over the place.”

“Wonderful.”

“Trouble is, some of them went missing.”

Julia swallowed. “I’m thinking there was almost no security on those secret hides?”

Mick nodded. “How could there be? They were supposed to be secret. A security force would have tipped people off to the presence of something besides a farmhouse or shit-strewn field.”

“So we stow nukes all over the place with absolutely no one to watch over them?” Julia shook her head. “Our capacity for stupidity amazes me sometimes.”

“Again, it was deemed necessary to ward off the growing Soviet menace. I’m not pretending to defend it, because I think the whole thing sucks, too. But you need to be able to view it from their position in order to make a fair judgment.”

“If you say so.” She glanced around the tunnel. “Do you think this area is good enough to camp in?”

Mick laid a hand on the rough ground. “It’s not going to be fun sleeping here, but it will do.” He pointed out some larger boulders. “See there? We can hide down behind them. Anything comes down the tunnel, we can pick it off pretty easily.”

“We’ll have to stay quiet.”

He nodded. “Definitely.”

“And tomorrow you want to go and see if there’s really something behind those rocks up ahead?”

“That’d be my plan if I was in charge.” He grinned. “But I’m not. You’re making the decisions here, Julia. Not me. I’m just a dumb soldier who unfortunately has some knowledge you and the others need right now in order to stay alive.”

“I appreciate your input.” Julia tried to smile. “Did you hear any other rumors while you were in the service?”

“Like what?”

“Like whatever might be hunting us right now?”