Dance or Die: a Fanfiction

Chapter 6 - Longyearbyen

The weather had stopped being inclement and blizzard-like for the time being, which the two were thankful for. They got out of the warehouse, the doorway finally unblocked courtesy of the force that had come and taken three of the five away. The temperature was still bitterly freezing, as it was only further into January on Svalbard.

Luckily Derek knew how to get to the capital, Longyearbyen, as the two were on the same island of the archipelago that the capital was located. However, the occasional pop-ups of snowstorms kept him guessing which way they were going, as they were without a compass. The expanse of white and the near-constant darkness of winter took a toll on them. Tephe kept alive fairly well, conserving his own bio-radiation to keep warm. Derek fared a little better than he had before, with the new-found powers he had keeping himself from getting frost bitten.

The journey was long and taxing. At times, they had to burrow into the deep layers of snow to sleep at night. It was about three days until they finally saw dim light in the distance from a city.

"I think that's it!" Derek said. The lights of hope were small at the moment but would soon be right in their faces.

The slow walk drained them of their energy, and it was about an hour and a half before they even reached the first home near it. Tired and looking for a place to sleep comfortably, they decided to knock on the door. A woman, probably middle-aged, opened it to a couple of snow-caked, frozen men. She glanced them up and down skeptically, made an attempt to speak, then slammed the door in their faces.

"That was rude," Tephe said, Derek nodding in agreement, "a couple of cold loners, and she turned us down!"

They trudged their way into the city, hoping to find someone kind enough to house them for a while, a night at least.

Sooner or later they came upon a man, rather tall, walking on the icy streets towards the two wrapped up in their jackets. He spoke English, luckily for Derek. The man, whose name, he told them, was Kline, walked them back to his house. Kline let them warm up a little once they were inside.

"What were you morons doing out in the weather? Any traveler or native should know it gets freezing outside in the winter!" Kline said, reprimanding them. Derek, being a little offended, spoke up.

"I do, though! I'm-" He paused a moment, thinking that saying he originally came from Sweden would lead to questions of how he doesn't sound Swedish. "I-I've lived in Sweden for a while now. Came over here from the United States."

"Ah... It's still no excuse to wander around in thin coats! How did you two not have anything more!"

"It's a really long story," Tephe interrupted.

"I'd like to hear it," Kline said. The two glanced nervously at each other. They told Kline that it was of no importance, and that it was indeed a very long story. Perturbed, Kline shrugged it off. He instead offered them some food, which the two ate gladly. He joined them a second later, sitting around a small table.

"What's your career?" Derek asked. Kline suspiciously paused for a moment, which made Tephe raise an eyebrow as if he was scanning the tall man's thoughts, who didn't seem so tall when sitting down.

"Meteorologist, I study weather," he said, but Derek could see that Tephe wasn't buying it. The glare he was giving Kline made him visibly uncomfortable. "So what do you do for a living?"

"I'm still in college," Derek said. Tephe remained silent, still scanning Kline's face with intense skepticism. Him and Kline didn't speak between each other the whole night, making for a lot of spaces in conversation. Even Derek started to adopt this mindset of not believing who Kline said he is, but brushed it off to keep terms friendly. Regardless, the thought that he may not be this Good Samaritan of a meteorologist kept nagging at the back of his mind.

Soon the time came when they thought it would be best to sleep. Tephe was relieved that he wouldn't have to talk to Kline for hours on end. The two decided to sleep on the couches in the living room rather than in the guest room where Kline insisted upon sleeping in. It was when they could tell that he was asleep that Tephe told Derek his thoughts.

"I don't think he's really a meteorologist," he whispered to him.

"I'm thinking the same thing."

At sometime late into the night they both fell asleep as well, both wrapped in blankets. Kline stirred, got up, and checked on the two. He grinned a little, then went back to his room. Picking up a small phone, he pressed a button and quietly said a few words in Norwegian into it, eyes darting to his living room and back. After setting the communicator down, he reached in his drawer and pulled out a couple metal cylinders.

Derek, who was drifting off slowly, heard footsteps coming and instantly awoke. He kept still, wanting to hear everything. He saw the obscure shape of Kline wandering over to where Tephe lay, stopping at where his head and neck were. He heard a slight metallic clatter, then a hiss of something releasing, the resting body flinching at the event. Derek quickly sat up, staring at the space where Kline was. He felt a hand slam his head onto the back of the couch, heard a whisper of apology, then felt a cold metal object swiftly making contact near the base of his neck. A tiny sharp stab followed an application of pressure and the same hiss of release, then the object was taken away. He began to feel dizzy and flopped headlong onto the couch, where he finally passed out.

Moments later, a small group of people came to Kline's door and took the two unconscious bodies away to a facility just outside of Longyearbyen.