Cold Hell - 15. Chapter 14

Everest braced himself against the wind, miserable and cold. The gear he wore did nothing to protect him against the chill. The breathing mask he wore protected the lower half of his face, but the upper half was exposed even with the hood on. Snowflakes flattened themselves against the front of his jacket. Dinah had told him earlier in the week that the blizzard wasn't supposed to be here until tomorrow, but it seemed the snowstorm had already arrived.

She picked a hell of a day to do deliveries. Everest let the shotgun strapped to his shoulder hang down long enough to pull out the bottle of homemade bootie he kept in his jacket pocket, and screwed the top off. Even with his thick, black gloves on his fingers were numb. Even now this planet is trying to kill us, his father, Steig had said many times through the years. From day one, since the first colonists - our ancestors - were left on this frozen rock, the cold has been our greatest enemy. Even more so than each other.

The bootie stung Everest's throat going down. His lips puckered, his eyes narrowed down into slits as he waited for the burn to pass. Almost immediately a warmth rose to his face. The top went back on the bottle, the bottle back in his pocket. If Dinah were to catch him drinking, especially on a day as crucial as Delivery Day, she'd skin him alive.

Dark shapes kept fading in and out of the white landscape like wraiths from beyond the veil, loading boxes of packaged meat from the processing plant onto the truck. The air smelled of diesel fuel. The sky above was grey and empty. Glaciers to the right of them, opposing and monolithic, towered over them in an attempt to reach for the sky. Everest, like so many of the colonists on the planet, had grown up with the same ashy skies and hostile environment. Earth was nothing more than a myth passed through the generations or by the new colonists.

As if the approach of the blizzard wasn't cause for enough tension, there was the monthly Delivery Day. Delivery Days were the only time when Clans Lukas and Mureen were aligned. The leaders of each clan and the people they brought with them met on neutral ground at the Pavilion. Here goods were exchanged. Food, clothing, materials, and weapons, etc. Everest's job was two-fold: to make sure no one in Clan Wuxia started any trouble, and to keep Dinah safe. Without Mikael around, Everest had to be more vigilant.

Once the rest of the load had been loaded into the trucks, everyone climbed into the truck used for transportation. Everest was glad to get out of the cold and warm himself. There were several workers who had volunteered to help load the supplies for a full week's worth of rations. Dinah had invited Danni and his friend Calvin to come along for the trip. Of course Dinah had an ulterior motive. She was still trying to convince Danni to become her new squire. Natalia was also coming on the trip, leaving Skottalina to watch over the clinic while she was gone.

The cabin was full enough everyone had to sit shoulder to shoulder. Everest had no choice but to sit across from Danni and Calvin. Everest was still trying to process Mikael's death. Every time he saw Danni or Calvin or both, sent him spinning emotionally in every direction.

Thanks to Natalia's attention, Calvin's wounds had healed, but he would always have an ugly facial scar. There was no telling what mental effects his assault had laid on him and would continue to do in the future. Seeing Calvin unmoored feelings of immense guilt and shame in Everest. Everest had known about the kind of person Mikael was and the things he did. And while he didn't agree with him or partake in them, Everest had done nothing to stop Mikael. He was your friend but he was also a monster. He deserved exactly what happened to him, so why do you still mourn him?

Seeing Danni was even more confusing. There were moments when he wanted to approach him and try to make amends for threatening to kill them; then there were the other times when Everest thought he might strangle the man to death if he ever got a hold of him. So Everest tried to keep his distance as best he could.

After an hour of bumpy travel, Everest dozed off until they reached the Pavilion. A dozen trucks were already parked in front of the building; men and women were unloading the trucks and carrying the goods inside.

After escorting Dinah and Natalia into the Pavilion, he spotted Danni standing several feet away, looking around. The rest of the building was crowded with people from the different clans, marked with their clan's tattoo; each group stood well apart from the other, not wanting to intermingle with each other. Standing across from each other was as far as their neutrality went. If we were standing out in the open and not in the Pavilion we'd probably all be trying to kill each other, Everest thought.

He suddenly found himself remembering the day Danni had arrived in a CryoSleep chamber and the strange, unceremonial nature in which he'd been delivered; seeing his slender naked body; wanting to run his fingers through Danni's hair. He has beautiful hair, Everest thought. Before he could stop himself, Everest walked up to Danni, shotgun braced against his shoulder.

Danni turned his head and watched Everest approach. While his body appeared completely relaxed, his jaw was clenched and his eyes were hard.

"How is Calvin?" Everest rumbled. It was the only thing he could think of to say.

"Why do you care all of the sudden?" Danni asked. His voice was tight. Angry. Though his arms were crossed over his chest, Everest could see his hands were clenched into fists.

Everest floundered for an answer but couldn't find one.

Danni rolled his eyes. He said, "Physically he's fine. Apart from his scars. Mentally he may never be the same. Ever since Mikael and his friends assaulted him, he wakes up screaming and in tears. I'm letting him stay with me because it's the only way I can keep an eye on him."

Everest looked away, feeling culpable. He felt as if there was something heavy lodged in his throat. Danni was looking around, frowning.

“What is it?” Everest rumbled.

“There are only two clans here. I thought there were supposed to be three. Clan Wuxia - our clan - Clan Lukas, and Clan Mureen.”

Everest’s eyes circled around the room. Sure enough there were only two clans of people standing in the building. Dinah and Pasava, the leader of clan Lukas, stood in the center of the room, deep in conversation. Dinah’s mouth moved rapidly; her arms waved dramatically through the air. Natalia hovered at Dinah’s side, hugging herself in an unconscious effort to make herself look smaller.

Everest suddenly felt very uneasy. Something isn’t right, he thought. He crossed the space and stopped just within ear-range of the conversation. Pasava’s squires, the freak twins, were doing the same.

“Where the fuck is Adwele?” Dinah demanded. She set her hands on her hips, chest thrust out.

“I don’t know.” Pasava ran his fingers along his chin. “This is the second time he hasn’t shown.”

“We need him. We need his goods, especially with the blizzard coming. My clan is in a panic.”

“As are mine. Judging from the reports my weatherman has made, this blizzard is going to be a nasty one.”

“I don’t know what he thinks he’s playing at. We’ve been doing this for years, since the clans were formed. It’s part of the peace treaty...”

Everest tuned out the rest of the conversation. He didn’t need to hear anymore. Danni was still standing in the same spot, watching. Now he walked up to Everest, watching the two clan leaders talk things out. “Is everything okay?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

After another uneasy hour of waiting when Adwele and his tribe did not show up, Dinah and Pasava made their trades. When the crates Pasava had given to Dinah were loaded, everyone loaded back into the truck. Everest was thankful they were heading back to the colony. He had a headache. Dinah’s distress and lingering bad mood and the lack of supplies left a sour feeling in his stomach. He wanted nothing more than to go home to his father and fall asleep on the sofa.

Outside the window, he watched the rugged landscape pass by. The truck bounced and jolted. Everything was silent but for the droning cadence of the truck’s engine. The quiet sense of dread Everest felt seemed to have infected everyone else.

Suddenly, out of the gloom, a shape appeared off to the side. It was off the track, several yards to the right. From this far away Everest couldn’t be sure, but it looked like the wreckage of a vehicle.

He got up, carefully walked up towards the front of the truck to the driver. “Driver, stop the bus. There’s something out there.”

The driver eased on the brakes. The brakes squealed as the truck came to a stop.

“What are you doing?” Dinah demanded, alarmed.

“There’s something out there. Look.” Everest pointed out the window with a gloved finger.

Several faces crowded around the window to get a look.

“What is it, do you think?” Dinah asked.

“Not sure. It looks like a vehicle. Permission to check it out?”

“I guess you’d better,” Dinah said dubiously.

“I’ll be okay,” he assured her. “I have my shotgun.”

“I’m coming too.” Danni’s gaze lingered uneasily on the window.

Everest opened his mouth to object but before he could Dinah cut him off. “Take him with you, Everest. Just in case. But hurry, night will be here shortly.”

                    …

They moved slowly across the slippery, uneven terrain. The wind had picked up since leaving the Pavilion. The sky was quickly darkening, engulfing what little light remained; Planet Redemption’s three moons had begun to rise. Everest pulled a flashlight out, the beam casting a ghostly glow on the ground. The wind buffeted them, as if trying to keep them from getting to the object.

Danni trudged along beside Everest, arms tucked into the pockets of his jacket. Despite the below freezing temperatures he'd begun to sweat; he could feel it dripping down his back, in between his shoulder blades. He couldn’t quite explain to himself why he had agreed to come along; why he was torturing himself by walking through this frigid godforsaken wasteland. From the moment the truck stopped, he had felt an indescribable sense of dread. The fear only grew worse as they got closer to the object. Something bad was getting ready to happen, he could feel it. And when he had these feelings he trusted them because they were usually premonitions.

Slowly the shape began to take form, as if slowly being drawn by the invisible hand of a child: it was, indeed, the wreckage of a truck. Somehow the vehicle had crashed, flipping over on its side. Cracks spiderwebbed across the windshield, marked by dark blots. Danni felt his stomach clench. Everest didn't have to shine his flashlight on the windshield for Danni to know it was blood. The windows had completely been shattered in; jagged pieces of glass hung from the top of the window like sharp incisors.

Bit by bit, he light kept revealing more grisly details: a single leg covered in blood; the pant leg was torn. The flesh of the leg was shredded deep enough to reveal muscle and bone. Danni felt a shiver shoot up his spine - a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold.

Everest stooped over, shining his flashlight on the interior of the truck. "Danni, are you seeing this?"

Danni reluctantly peered into the interior of the truck, forcing himself to move. His muscles and limbs felt heavy, as if his insides had begun to freeze. The interior of the truck was covered in blood and a strange, grey looking substance. Multiple limbs were entangled together, sprawled across the bottom of the truck. He counted three bodies. He kept expecting something to pop out, to reach for them or attack, but everything inside the truck except for the ruffle of fabric was uncannily still.

"What is that stuff on the wall?"

"I don't know." Danni's voice was barely louder than a whisper. He swallowed the spit, which felt to have congealed into jelly, and forced himself to speak louder. "But whatever you do, don't touch it. Whatever it is, he thought, it isn't normal.

"Hey!" Everest shouted. "Can anyone in there hear me?"

Silence only answered back.

"They're dead," said Danni. He wanted to get back to the other truck, get back to the colony. He wanted to get out of the cold, away from this scene of death.

Suddenly one of the bodies was moving. "Help me!" a man's voice shouted. "Please help me! Don't leave me out here to die!"

A dark face appeared in the light. The man was pulling himself forward, trying to crawl out of the wreckage; glass crunched beneath him. He reached a gloved hand out towards Everest.

"Help me pull him out!" Everest said to Danni.

Danni grabbed the man's other hand, and together he and Everest pulled the man out of the overturned truck. The man managed to make it several feet before collapsing in the snow.

Everest cursed, looking down at the man with wide eyes.

"What is it?" Danni asked. His teeth chattered together. With each passing minute the temperature was dropping. His face was sticky with tears and snot that had frozen to his face. If we stay out here much longer we'll freeze to death, Danni thought.

"It's Adwele."

"The clan leader of Mureen?"

"Yes."

"What is he doing all the way out here?"

"Hell if I know. He's unconscious. We need to get him up out of the snow before he freezes to death. Help me lift him up."

Together they lifted Adwele out of the snow and began making their way back to Dinah's truck. The journey was slow. Adwele's feet dragged through the cold snow. There was a long gash on the side of his face that went from his cheekbone to his chin. The wound did not look fresh, but scabbed over as if it was in the beginning process of healing.

At last they made it to the truck. Dinah came running down the ramp. "Adwele? What happened to him?"

"We don't know," Everest grunted. "He was in some sort of accident. There are two dead bodies in the wreck back there. Something bad happened. There's blood everywhere."

"Get him on the truck before he freezes to death. Lay him out flat on the floor."

Danni and Everest dragged Adwele's unconscious body onto the truck. Several faces peered at them in amazement. Calvin stood up to help but Danni stopped him. "Don't touch him." He didn't know why he said this, only that it was right. The sense something bad was about to happen was still there - whatever it was it had something to do with Adwele. Calvin was smart enough to sit back down.

"Make room for him!" Everest barked.

Obediently everyone moved back as far as they could.

"Let me check him for injuries!" Natalia said, taking on her role as a doctor. "Dinah grab the med kit from up front!"

Dinah did as she was asked, grabbing the med kit, a plain yellow plastic box, from the glove compartment. Natalia calmly opened the box, pulling out bandages, syringes and vials of antibiotics. She unzipped Adwele's jacket.

It looks like he's been attacked by a bear, Danni thought. But what he was seeing was so unlikely as to be impossible. Something had taken a chunk out of Adwele's side deep enough to show bones. Something with teeth. There were slash marks along his midriff and more around his pant legs.

The wide-eyed look of shock on Everest's face reflected how Danni felt. "What in the world could have done this?"

"It doesn't matter," Natalia said. She was the only one on the truck who appeared somewhat calm. "He's in shock from loss of blood. We need to get him back to the clinic right away, or else he's going to die."

                     …

Adwele was still unconscious when they rolled him into the clinic on a stretcher. How he was still alive, Natalia didn't know. In her years as a doctor, ever since she started training to become one at the age of thirteen, she'd seen a lot: missing limbs, stab wounds, and gunshots.

But this - this was new. There was nothing on Planet Redemption that could have done this. The only animals on the planet were cows, pigs and chickens, and they were only used as a food source; they'd been shipped here along with the very first colonists. There was nothing on the planet with claws to do something like this.

She started with a round of penicillin to help with possible infection, and an IV drip with saline solution to help with blood loss. While she did this, Skottalina tested Adwele's blood.

"He's AB positive."

"Please tell me we have bags of AB positive."

Skottalina grinned. "Fortunately we do."

"Good. Grab some. He's lost a lot of blood. If he makes it, it will be a miracle."

Once the blood transfusion began, Natalia and Skottalina soon became lost in the task of saving Adwele's life. It did not matter that he was the leader of Clan Mureen, a supposed enemy - they would do everything in their power to save his life. It was simply ingrained in them.

Skottalina was in the middle of disinfecting the wounds when she looked up at Natalia, eyes wide. "Natalia, you need to see this."

"What is it?"

"There's something in the wounds. I don't know if it's some sort of bacteria or…"

Skottalina handed Natalia a magnifying glass. Natalia took the magnifying glass and a pair of forceps. Lining the inside of the wound was a strange grey substance. What could it be?

"Skottalina, get me a vial and a scalpel. I want to get a sample of whatever this is."

Skottalina grabbed a vial from one of the drawers, peeled it out of the wrapper, and handed a clean scalpel to Natalia. Adwele laid on the table, unconscious, and unaware of what was happening. The miracles of anaesthetics, Natalia thought.

She scraped at the edges of the wound, being careful not to do anymore damage. The mysterious mold-like substance broke away without much resistance. She scraped the blade of the scalpel along the inside of the vial. She set the vial to the side for later examination. Despite the initial mixture of disgust and fear she'd felt when Skottalina pointed the anomaly out, the scientist in her couldn't help but feel excited about the potential of a new discovery.

"Okay," she said, "let's finish cleaning the wounds and stitch him up."

Two hours later, after the surgery had been completed and the area sanitized, Natalia peeled off her gloves. She stepped out of the room where Dinah, Everest, and Danni had been waiting the whole time. She noted with a glance that Danni did not look good. He was pale, his skin was drenched in sweat, and his hands were shaking.

"How is he?" Dinah asked.

"Stable - for now. We patched him up the best we could." Natalia took her hand gently and led her to the end of the hallway where they were out of earshot. “We found something in his wounds - I’m not sure what it is yet. I’ll let you know after I run some tests.”

“What do you mean in him?” Dinah asked slowly. There were dark bags under her eyes. It had been a long day for her, a long day for the both of them.

“Like I said, Skottalina and I don’t know what it is. It looks like some sort of moss or fungus.”

Dinah shook her head, sighing. “Okay. I want you to keep me informed of his condition. Let me know when he wakes up.”

“What are you going to do when he does?” Natalia asked.

“What?”

“I said,” Natalia snapped, raising her voice an octave or two, “what are you going to do to him when he gets up?”

“Ask him some questions!” Dinah said in a voice that was very close to shouting level. “I want to know what the hell happened out there, why he’s all cut up, like something with teeth tried to maul him alive, and why the fuck he wasn’t at the Pavilion for delivery day.”

The air was tense between them and Natalia didn’t know why, or why she was afraid Dinah might do something to Adwele in his sleep - or pay someone a nice round of rations to do it for her. “Even though he’s from a different clan?” she asked.

“Yes. Why? Do you doubt me?”

I wouldn’t put it past you, Natalia thought. When you and I first got together I was a silly girl who thought you would do things differently. I looked up to you. But it turns out you're just like all the other clan leaders: power hungry and corrupt.

"You said there were two more bodies back at the crash site?" Natalia said to Everest.

The big man stood up; his head was just inches away from touching the light fixture. "Yes."

"It's a shame you weren't able to bring them with you. I wonder if they have the same anomaly we found on Adwele."

"There was….there was…something growing on the inside of the truck," Danni said. His face was chalk pale and his skin looked pasty. "It looked like moss or…"

"Mold?" said Natalia.

He nodded.

"Then Everest will return to the crash site and get them," said Dinah. "Before the blizzard hits. He has just enough time."

"I'll go with him," said Danni.

Three pairs of eyes turned to look at him. "You're not in any condition to go anywhere," Natalia said, giving him a critical look over. "You're going through withdrawals."

"I'll be fine." The steel in Danni's voice warned not to argue with him further. Natalia knew there was nothing she could say that could persuade him not to go with Everest. How is it I constantly manage to surround myself with bull-headed people? she thought with an internal sigh. Dealing with people - people who weren't under anesthesia, actually walking, talking people - had never been her specialty; she was good at saving their lives, but trying to communicate with them and understand their drives was more than her patience could bear.

"I'm going back to my office," she told them. "I have things I have to do."

                               …

Everest kept glancing at Danni, his face a ghostly expression of concern in the glow of the headlights. The tires of the truck could be heard grinding as it tore through snow and ice. Outside the windshield, other than the snow surrounding them and the three moons in the sky, it was completely dark.

Danni pretended not to notice Everest's attention. He kept his eyes focused ahead of him, tried to distract himself on the task at hand. But in the back of his mind he had his doubts. Maybe going wasn't the smartest thing after all. Maybe I should have stayed back at the colony.

He quickly pushed those doubts aside. Now was not the time to doubt himself. He had his own reasons for wanting to examine the bodies. Something was wrong. Wrong with Adwele, wrong with those bodies. If they were going to take the problem back to the colony, he wanted to make sure he was there to stop it.

He was sweating. He felt feverish. And even still, he had his doubts. I've done wrong before, even when I thought I was doing the right thing - not just for me, but for the people around me. For the people I care about. Yet all it did in the end was hurt everyone around me. And I hurt myself the most.

God, Juan, I wish you were here with me right now. You, Cookie, and Tinkerbell.

Just thinking about them made his heart ache with longing and guilt. Danni had spent the time since he'd come to Planet Redemption trying to build an ice wall around their memory. Forget them. Whether or not they're still alive is irrelevant, because you'll never see them or earth again - so they might as well be dead to you.

But every now and then fissures appeared in the ice-wall and the ice-wall fell away until he was as naked and vulnerable as an exposed nerve. You can't stop yourself from feeling, try as you might. After all you're only human, no matter how much you try to fool yourself into thinking you're not.

He wasn't aware that his eyes had been stinging with tears until Everest dumped something heavy in his lap. A canteen. Danni looked up, studied Everest's face, the broad, hard features illuminated so that it looked as if it were floating in the dark. There were lines around his mouth, crow's feet around his eyes. It made Danni want to look in a mirror at his own face. He was only twenty-five (twenty-six if you included the year he'd spent on ice, which he didn't), too young to have the lines of age carved into his face, but he wasn't so full of illusions or arrogance to not know those wrinkles weren't so far away. Life on Redemption5S77 was a hard one and it could age you faster than time itself.

"What is this?" Danni asked.

"Bootie. Drink it. It'll help you feel better." Everest looked at him without the usual expression of anger and disdain.

Danni's gaze lingered on him distrustfully before he unscrewed the top and took several swigs.

"Not too much at once." Everest snatched the canteen from Danni's hands. Liquid sloshed over the sides, onto his gloves.

Danni made a face, his eyes scrunched down to slits. The bootie burned his throat so bad it numbed it. "What the hell did I just drink?"

To his surprise, Everest laughed. "My own personal brew."

"Did you mix in a little battery acid? I can't feel my throat." Danni cleared his throat.

"It helps keep me warm and it makes the rest of the day pass by faster."

Danni thought of his old sponsor on Earth, Chuck. He wondered if the old man was still alive, or if he'd passed away. "In N.A. they tell you you can't drink while you're recovering - or at all for that matter."

"What's N.A.?" Everest asked. He looked genuinely curious.

"It's a program back on Earth - I mean back home. It's to help people with addictions recover."

Everest chuckled. "We don't have anything like that here."

"You people don't have anything here." Danni's face glowed with warmth. He watched Everest, fascinated by his smile. The man's face, hard as concrete, softened whenever he laughed or grinned.

"We do the best we can."

The wind buffeted the truck. Everest fought to keep the truck steady. Danni felt better, less nervous. He felt more comfortable around Everest, something he hadn't felt before. There was a weird fluttering sensation in his stomach.

Everest squinted through the windshield. "I can't see shit."

"We're getting close."

"How can you tell?"

"I can feel it." Danni could feel it. It was like black smoke, invading the warmth inside him. He shivered unconsciously.

"What do you mean you can feel it?" Everest asked.

Danni shook his head. "It's hard to explain. I've had this thing for as long as I can remember. My mother had it too. I can feel what other people are feeling...whenever I walk into a room, or touch someone. Sometimes I have these feelings when something bad is getting ready to happen…right before it happens. It's called a premonition."

"And you have that feeling now?"

"Yes. And it's getting worse. Stop!"

Everest slammed on the brakes, bringing the truck to a screeching halt. Danni managed to grab the dashboard before his face crashed into it. The wreckage of the truck was half submerged in snow. The wheels stuck out like tombstones.

Danni gulped, reminded of the uncanny scene. He forced his heavy limbs to move, hopping down from the truck into the cold. The world rocked back and forth. I drank way too much of the bootie.

Everest already at the truck wreckage, peering inside. Now he turned to look at Danni. There was an expression on his face Danni never thought he'd see: fear. He looked like a deer in the headlights.

"What is it?" Danni shouted, forcing his limbs to take him closer to the truck.

"The bodies - they're gone!"

That can't be right! Danni hunkered down, staring into the interior of the truck. Sure enough there were no signs of the bodies.