Gabriel Hunt - Hunt Beyond the Frozen Fire

Nils appeared then, crawling through the narrow tunnel the rest of them had exited in an uncontrolled, headlong rush. He began to say something but Gabriel held his finger to his lips and shook his head. Nils nodded and remained silent. Even the faint sound of their breathing was amplified, every facet of every crystal humming with each exhalation. Scanning across the room silently, Gabriel could make out a tall, narrow opening in the opposite wall. It was the only way out he could see. They were going to have to make their way across to that opening—and they’d have to do it without uttering a single sound.

The razor-edged stalagmites made a straight shot across the cavern impossible, their jutting facets turning the ground of the cavern into a particularly nasty labyrinth. After seeing what a tiny one had done to Millie’s thick parka, Gabriel was quite sure he didn’t want to brush against any of them by accident. Carefully, he began to pick his way along a circuitous, spiraling route that avoided the densest patches of crystals. He waved for the others to follow.

They followed, and spoke not a word. But even their cautious, sliding footsteps were amplified to an accusatory racket by the singing crystals.

They’d made it nearly three-quarters of the way across when Rue lost her footing on the slick ice. She reached out instinctively for balance and gripped one of the nearest stalagmites. The sharp edge sliced open the palm of her glove and slid deep into the flesh of her hand. A high-pitched yelp of pain escaped from her throat before she could stifleit.

For a second, the team stood frozen as the sound doubled and qua drupled into a jagged siren wail echoing through the crystalline chamber. First the smallest crystals and then larger ones began to detach and drop all around them.

“Run!” Gabriel spat in a harsh constricted whisper that was immediately snatched up and echoed back by the crystals.

They made a break for the narrow opening, tearing at top speed through the deadly rain of crystal blades. The clashing racket had become so loud and piercing that Gabriel had to cover his ears as he ran, the pain in his ear drums outweighing even the sting of the cuts inflicted by the falling crystals.

When Gabriel made it to the shelter of the tunnel opening, he reached out to grab Velda and Rue, pulling them to safety. Millie was close behind but Nils had fallen about twelve feet back, a foot-long crystal piercing his calf like an arrow.

Millie turned back, dodging the falling crystals, and swiftly hauled the silent, bleeding Swede up in his arms. Gabriel clenched his fists as Millie darted and weaved, eyes cast up at the ceiling, trying to guess where the next deadly missile would plunge.

One fell directly in front of him, smashing to shrapnel against the ground, the sound of its impact setting off sympathetic vibrations in the crystals all around the point of impact. Millie kicked a large fragment out of his path, put his head down, and barreled forward. He made it into the tunnel just seconds before a truly massive stalactite, as wide around as Millie himself and twice as tall, came crashing down. It fell against the tunnel entrance, sealing it. The terrible screaming of the resonating crystals was muffled at last.

Gabriel looked around as Millie set Nils down on the ground. This tunnel was also roofed with the glittering red ice—but here the ice was smooth and flat, not lined with crystals. He laid one palm against the nearest wall. No vibrations, even when he quietly whispered, “Testing…testing…” He tried it louder. Nothing happened.

“It’s okay, we can talk,” Gabriel said. His voice sounded muted and distant in his ringing ears. “Everybody all right?”

“Man, that stings,” Rue said, holding up her cut hand and poking at the slash in her glove.

“I’m okay,” Velda said. “How’s Nils?”

The team gathered around the fallen Swede.

“I am all right,” Nils said. “It is not so very bad.”

Gabriel bent close and examined the crystal protruding from Nils’s calf.

“I need to pull it out,” Gabriel said. “But first I’ll need something to handle it with so I don’t cut my fingers.”

Millie unslung his bedroll and pulled out a heavy pair of pliers. Gabriel took them from him and positioned the jaws on either side of the crystal. “Good news is,” he told Nils, “something this sharp ought to come out cleanly. You ready?”

The Swede nodded. “Yes. I am ready.”

Gabriel gently squeezed the pliers closed. He pulled on the crystal and it came free with a moist, smacking sound. A heavy flow of blood followed. Gabriel motioned to Velda.

“Quick,” he said. “Get the first aid kit out of your pack.”

She dug through her pack while Gabriel rolled up the leg of Nils’ freezer suit and applied direct pressure on the wound. When Velda handed him the first aid kit, he was able to quickly clean and bandage the cut.

“How about me, doc?” Rue said, holding her palm out to Gabriel.

Gabriel spent the next half hour playing doctor, checking and cleaning everyone’s slices and scratches, including his own. By the time he had everyone bandaged up, he was beginning to feel light-headed and exhausted.

“We need to eat again,” Nils said from where he sat propped up against one wall. “And rest.”

Gabriel didn’t argue. Millie set to work chipping ice while Nils rationed out a handful of energy bars he’d salvaged from his pack. They laid out the three sleeping bags they had—Nils’s, Velda’s and Millie’s—and agreed that they would sleep in shifts. Millie volunteered to take the first shift up and handed his sleeping bag over to a grateful Gabriel. Rue offered to join Millie and the two of them sat huddled together by the blocked mouth of the tunnel, talking softly about their favorite food while chewing the dry, tasteless energy bars and washing them down with ice melt.

Gabriel looked over at Velda, but she did not return his glance. She seemed sealed up inside herself, utterly single-minded and driven. There was certainly no hint of invitation as she bedded down on the far side of the tunnel and rolled over with her back to him. It was as if Gabriel had imagined the intimacy they’d shared back at the research station.

But he was too tired to give Velda’s behavior a second thought. The instant he pulled off his boots and zipped himself into Millie’s huge sleeping bag, he fell into a deep and comforting dreamless sleep.

Chapter 12

When Millie woke him, Gabriel felt disoriented and dehydrated, a feeling not unlike a bad hangover. He dragged himself upright and slipped his altitude-swollen feet back into his too-tight boots, grunting wordlessly as Millie slid into the sleeping bag in his place. Staggering down the tunnel to empty his aching bladder, Gabriel still felt foggy and half asleep. He kept going till he was a good, respectful distance away from the others and leaned against the wall with one hand while he struggled with the other through far too many layers of snaps, buttons and zippers. By the time he was able to begin relieving himself against the wall, Gabriel found that he was flushed and damp with sweat from the effort. He realized that while it was certainly still cold here, it was substantially warmer than it had been back by the tunnel’s mouth. The wall against which he was leaning felt like rough stone beneath a thin crust of ice, not the solid ice of the section in which they’d slept.

Curious, he headed farther along the tunnel, head cocked and listening. He could have sworn he’d heard—yes, there it was, at the edges of his hearing, a delicate trickling sound.

Running water.

He came around a bend and discovered a tiny, winding stream flowing along a deep groove in the ice.