Without a Hope

Part I. Frozen wasteland

Prologue

It was a clean crisp -40 air, still as it could be. Snow crunching under my feet, the rap of snowmobiles and the whir of a helicopter not far behind. Running, running without knowing where to go. Stumbling through 3 feet of snow, trying not to fall. The snowmobiles getting closer every second. I hear a shot from a gun, I freeze thinking I was the one hit. I hear the crunch of plastic from a snowmobile. Someone ahead of me yells get on and looks down at his snowmobile. I get on and we speed off. Away from the other snow mobiles.

Chap one
More than we bargained for

It was cold. To cold. The Antarctic knew how to get on a mans nerve. -55 and massive blizzards and no sign of it letting up. I still don't know why I agreed to come play security man out here. Must be the money. Money always had that effect on me. After 4 tours in Afghanistan and being a mercenary for 10 years in mostly tropical countries I liked the heat. But my buddy, Bill, who happens to be running a program that I know nothing about, asked me to add some extra protection to his research team. Although he said nothing would happen. Plus side is he offered me a hundred thousand dollars for every two weeks we are out here! It's been a month so far and his team still hasn't found what there looking for, or so I've been told. It's been a nasty month but we made it through. We were supposed to have supplies bought in the beginning of this month but that was just when this storm got bad. So they couldn't. Five days later. Still no supplies and still no sign of a let up from the storm, foods running low and water too. Storm finally quit tonight. Supplies are expected to come in tomorrow.
I stepped outside the next day and took a breath in, cold and crisp. I saw three men walking up the hill to our building. Except they were dressed differently than normal. I walked down the steps onto the walk way and met the three men, one of them asked with an accent I couldn't place, "where do you want the supplies?". I replied, "in the back". one of the men went and piloted the helicopter and landed it on the heli pad just behind the building. I looked at the amount of supplies they brought and thought it didn't look like enough but I kept it to myself. I then showed and helped the three men carry the food and water and other supplies to the storage room in the back. Just before we finished a wind came up and blew one of the men's jackets up enough that I could see a handgun. Right then I knew something was wrong, the suppliers never ever had guns. So I took the last load to the storage room and went through the door to the main building and intended to warn my buddy but got met by ten armed soldiers holding my buddy, the other security guard and the other scientists at gun point. One of the soldiers pointed his gun at me and told me to put my hands up, so I did. Then I heard the door from the storage room open, and out walked the three men guns in hand. The one who I spoke to asked me my name, I told him to go fuck himself, but he laughed and shot me in the leg. I fell to the floor and yelled. The man looked at Billy and looked down at me and said: " well you've got a choice, either you tell me or I shoot you and him!" Gesturing toward my long time friend. "Ok fine." I replied through gritted teeth. "My name is Carson, who are you and want do you want from us?" The man who asked me my name laughed and said "my dear Carson, my name doesn't matter but you can call me the silver snake, as for what I want, the stuff in your laboratory will do nicely!" Pointing to the laboratory.
I looked towards Billy and asked what he meant. He replied, "Carson, I never wanted to tell you because I knew you'd leave as soon as I told you. But we are, well were digging into the ice to extract a virus that would... change the world and not for the better. We wanted to get it before someone like them got a hold of it and unleashed it." "You son of a bitch, You should have told me." I said in a low and angry voice. The "Silver Snake" shot a round into the roof and yelled shut up. "Now if you'll indulge me, I'd like to grab the virus and leave this god-forsaken frozen hellhole!" Said the silver snake with a rather disgusted voice. Billy looked at him and said, "Fuck you, you European cocksucker!" The first time I heard billy swear since he was 15. The silver snake looked at him, giggled and without hesitation emptied 13 rounds into his chest. I yelled, loud enough to startle the silver snake a bit. So I took the chance and tackled him and started feeding him left and right punches to his jaw. It wasn't very long and I was hauled off of the Snake and stood up. The Snake also stood up and gave me a look of surprise, then picked up his gun, put a fresh mag in and shot the other security guard then the other five scientists, leaving just me. "Now you have two choices, either I shoot you and break into the lab or you open it and I give you a coat and let you find your own way to civilization." The snake said. "There's no one out here right know. We had them kicked out." I replied. "Too bad for you!" The silver snake half laughed half said. "Well what are you gonna chose A or B?" He Asked impatiently. "I chose C, go fuck yourself." Just a half a second after saying that I spat in his face and broke free of the men holding me and sprinted to the front door and grabbed a coat while getting shot at. I felt one graze my arm then I felt one go into my left shoulder I winced and let out a little yell, but opened the door and jumped off the front steps and slid a little on the pathway but recovered and ran toward the snowmobiles and jumped on the one I left the keys in. A brand new 800 Ski-Doo, biggest and newest one we had. I started it up, revved it, put it into drive then pinned it. I flew down most of the hill, thankfully because I heard the guns going off. I heard the other five Ski-Doo's start up, I took a quick peek back when I reached the bottom and saw that they where flying down the hill to. I keep it pinned, speedometer said I was going 110. No way they could keep up, top speed the others have is about 100 and I haven't even reached top speed yet on this, speedo goes up to 180. I heard a whir and looked back and saw the helicopter. Shit, I thought to myself. I looked down at the skidoo to see if maybe there was a boost and right beside the ignition was a blue switch, I flicked it and in about three quarters of a second the skidoo hit top speed. Sending me sailing away from the European attackers. Bout ten seconds after I hit the switch the boost stopped and the machine started to slow down. I looked back to see if I lost them and I did, I cheered a little bit and looked forward and saw a cliff just ahead of me. I slowed down as quick as possible but it wasn't enough I went flying off and landed in some built up snow, the skidoo landed right beside just about catching my arm. I pushed myself out of the snow and stood up and started walking. It wasn't long and I heard the snow mobiles and the helicopter.