The Reluctant Warrior (2 page)

Jonathon had been watching him hopefully, “any good?”

“It’s not giving a reading,” Jed said quietly.

Jonathon seated himself on his sled. “That blizzard could have blown us anywhere. For all we know we may have just gone around in a big circle.”

Jed shook his head. “I checked the compass just before the blizzard struck and it was working fine. If we’d gone around in a circle it should still be giving us a reading.” He slipped the offending instrument back into his jacket pocket. “We’ve been blown any number of miles into the interior.”

Jonathon was unusually subdued, his normally cocky character having chosen to desert him on this occasion. “Well that’s it then,” he said in an air of defeat, “we’re going to die out here.”

Jed sat down on his sled in imitation of his friend. “I’ll grant you that things aren’t looking too good, but I’m not about to roll over and die yet.”

“So what are we going to do?”

“We’ve got enough food to last us three weeks if we go easy on it. If we just keep moving we might be able to walk away from this one.”

Jonathon stared out at him from behind cynical eyes. “Who’re you trying to kid?”

“Look,” Jed wasn’t about to accept any defeatism, not this early on in the piece at any rate, “if we’re going to have any chance at all we have to remain optimistic. Otherwise we’re…”

Jonathon suddenly sat bolt upright. “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

Jonathon craned his head forward. “Listen.”

As Jed sat perfectly still and listened a faint sound came drifting across the ice towards them. “Someone’s calling,” he said excitedly.

Jonathon pointed off into the distance. “It’s coming from that direction.” Taking off his sunglasses he squinted against the glare from the ice. “I can just make out someone on the horizon.”

Jed eased his aching body up into a standing position. “We’d better get ourselves over there and check out who it is. Might be Steve,” he said hopefully, “he’s the one Rex gave the G.P.S. to.”

As they trudged wearily towards the distant speck they silently prayed that the as yet unknown team member would be the one holding their only ticket out of this icy graveyard.

“It’s Rex,” Jonathon said glumly, as soon as he was close enough to make a positive identification.

“No sign of the others,” Rex said with resignation when they had joined him. “They must have had too big a head start on us when that blizzard hit.”

“So what do you want to do now?” Jed asked calmly.

“Jonathon’s the one with all the experience in polar regions,” Rex said sarcastically. “He’s the one you should be directing that question to.”

A look of panic invaded Jonathon’s usually fun-loving eyes. “I’ve never been in this position before,” he half pleaded. “I don’t know what to do.”

“So much for you being the experienced one,” Rex answered caustically. “The reason you were brought along in the first place was because you’re supposed to know all about survival out here.”

“I’m not a miracle man. I can’t be expected to get us out of a situation where we’ve got no idea where we are.”

Rex wasn’t in any mood to be generous. “And why not?” he snorted.

“Aw, come on,” Jonathon exploded. “If you’re so…”

“Knock it off the pair of you,” Jed barked. “If we’re going to have any chance at all of surviving this then we’re going to have to stop fighting amongst ourselves.” He looked sternly at one man and then the other. “So let’s concentrate all our efforts on coming up with a survival plan.”

Rex threw his hands up in an attitude of surrender. “All right, so what are we going to do?”

Jed’s eyes roved across the ice to the distant horizon. “All we can do is put in as many miles as we can until we reach a point where the compass start’s working again.”

Rex’s face was all exasperation. “But in which direction?”

“It doesn’t really matter. We just have to push ourselves hard and sooner or later we’ll make it to the coast or get somewhere we can take our bearings again.”

Rex huffed. “It all sounds pretty hit or miss to me.”

Jed’s usual good humor evaporated. “If you’ve got a better idea, then Jonathon and I’d like to hear it,” he said curtly.

“Okay, okay,” Rex relented. “I guess there’s nothing for it. I just hope we don’t end up wandering around in a big circle with our precious food rapidly running out.”

“That’s always going to be a possibility, Rex,” Jed said grimly. “But we have to at least try. And the way I see it, staying in the same place hoping to be rescued just isn’t an option.”

Rex rubbed his mitted hand across his tender shoulder blade. “That harness sure gave me a working over, and my legs are about done in.” He met Jed’s gaze with grim determination. “But if we’re going to have a crack at this then let’s make a start now.”

“Jed, Jonathon…over here.” Rex barked out the order with all the authority of a drill sergeant. With it being six days since they had been blown off course his mood had been getting uglier by the hour.

“What does he want now?” Jonathon grizzled, as Jed grabbed at his jacket in an attempt to get him moving.

“If you do as he asks you’ll soon find out.

“He could ask a little more politely.” Jonathon looked sourly at Rex’s retreating form. “A little politeness goes a long way.”

Rex was squatting down investigating a patch of ice at his feet when they joined him. “What do you two make of this?”

Jonathon reluctantly bobbed down beside him. “What’s the prob…?” He stopped in mid-sentence and stared at the marks on the ice in front of him. “I don’t believe it, those are fox tracks. There aren’t supposed to be any land mammals in Antarctica, so what are they doing here?”

Rex transferred his eyes to his startled companion. “Are you sure they’re fox? They can’t be husky?”

Jonathon shook his head slowly. “I’ve seen hundreds of fox tracks in the Arctic, and back home, and these are definitely fox. Besides, they no longer have any dog teams in Antarctica.”

Rex straightened up. “What could a fox live on out here?”

“No idea. I shouldn’t think anything could live in this bleak landscape.”

Rex turned to Jed. “Do you have any theories on how a fox came to be out here?”

“It defies all logic,” Jed confessed. “It must be hundreds of miles to either the coast or the nearest research station. It’s as if it just dropped out of the sky.”

“Well I don’t believe in flying foxes,” Rex said gruffly. “So there must be some other explanation for it.”

“Why don’t we follow its tracks,” Jonathon suggested. “If it does know its way around it might just be heading back to the coast.”

Rex looked at Jed who gave a simple shrug of his shoulders. “We’ve got nothing to lose. For all we know we may have been getting nowhere these last six days.”

“Right then,” Rex said brightly. “If you two are up for it then who am I to kick up a fuss.” If the truth be known the discovery of another living breathing creature in their general vicinity filled him with renewed hope. “Let’s get cracking.”

Hours later when they came across a fresh set of tracks that ran just to the right of the foxes Rex looked at Jonathon with a quiet expectancy.

“Hare,” Jonathon said, after examining the marks carefully, “and it’s a big one too.”

“Now we know what the fox has been living off,” Rex said, unable to disguise the excitement in his voice. “But what’s the hare living off?”

“Maybe there’s some lichen or moss growing on some of the rocks,” Jonathon suggested.

“There’s only one way to find out. We follow both sets of tracks until we discover where it is they’re heading to.” Jed unzipped his outer jacket. “Is it my imagination or is it getting warmer?”

Rex looked up at the sun. “It does seem to be a little warmer than usual. Isn’t that supposed to be a good sign?”

“It should be warmer nearer the coast,” Jonathon agreed. “Maybe we’re getting close.”

Jed knew it wasn’t supposed to be this warm, not even right on the coast. There was something very strange about all this. First they had come across fox and rabbit tracks, and yet Antarctica was a continent with no land mammals. Now it was getting uncommonly warm. Something very unnatural was going down here.

“Well, upwards and onwards then,” Rex said cheerfully. “The sooner we get to the coast the better.”

They both fell into step behind Rex, and as soon as their companion had pulled out of earshot Jed turned to Jonathon. “We’re nowhere near the coast are we?”

Jonathon’s eyes remained firmly fixed on Rex’s back, “nope.”

“Then what do you think is going on?”

“I’ve been turning that over in my mind ever since we saw those fox tracks,” he confessed. “But I can’t come up with any logical reason for all this.” He wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. “I never experienced a sun this hot in the Arctic. I just don’t know what to make of it.”

Jed flicked his eyes in Rex’s general direction. “Then what stopped you from telling him that?”

“I didn’t want to burst his bubble. He’s much easier to get on with when he’s cheerful. Besides, there’s no point in all of us feeling desperate until we absolutely have to.”

“That’s two very determined animals,” Rex remarked, when they stopped to rest several hours later. Pulling out his binoculars he put them to use checking the terrain ahead. “Hey,” he said all of a sudden, “that’s the weirdest mirage I’ve ever seen.”

Jed took the binoculars from him and checked it out for himself. “A red mountain,” he said, passing them on to Jonathon, “only, I don’t think it’s a mirage.”

“It’s real enough,” Jonathon agreed, adjusting the scopes to get a clearer look. “And it’s definitely covered in red ice.” He glanced up to check the angle of the sun. “Can’t see how that would be affecting it either.” Handing the glasses back to Rex he made a suggestion. “How about we go over and check it out?”

“What if we can’t pick up the fox tracks again?” Rex said. “They’re our only hope of getting out of here.”

“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.”