Ice Cold

Day 14

           "This... This is..." Mardon stared down at the paper in his hand, his other a trembling fist.

           "Monstrous..." Grace finished for him. He slowly crushed the paper into a ball. As tight as he could manage. Were it within his power he would have burned it with his rage. "What do we do now?"

           "Bad news." Mardon replied simply. "We go." He wasn't sure how he felt... well that wasn't true. He knew he was mad. But at who? At what? The fact that his whole team now lay dead because of a stupid training scenario ranked high up on the list, though. As they left, Mardon reached over and turned off the radio equipment.

           Command would receive word in a couple of days. News that would probably hurt some of them. Hoping for them all to feel something was too much of a stretch, but some of them would feel it. There was some small satisfaction in that. He hated to believe it, but Mardon knew that they didn't matter to command. There were and would always be expendable.

***

           Kevin had used his armor,even with the broken arm. There was no way he could have done this with his own strength. Mardon cursed himself for not destroying Kevin's armor before leaving the radio room, even more so now that he saw what Kevin would be willing to do.

           With Grace's help, Mardon pulled the metal pipes from Chris and Shelly, letting them fall tothe floor. There was a creeping sense of horror as his eyes turned to the environment chamber across from them. The Hanger lay beyond. There was no way anyone could have survived more than a few minutes without a suit out there. And yet...

           Grace was a boon that Mardon could not have lived without. Though he found himself wondering, as she helped pull the bodies into the chamber, why Kevin would think he had killed her. He did specifically say he killed them all. No. He just said them.

           "Why are you alive?" Mardon asked. Grace dropped Chris' body and straightened.

           "Screw you, too!" She laughed. Only a soldier could manage levity in a time like this...

           "No, that's not what I mean." She nodded, then turned to put on the light suit.

           "He never even came looking for me... at least I don't think he did. I hate scuba diving." Mardon turned back from his own suit, a questioning brow raised. She just finished zipping up. The suit did resemble a wet suit... "I saw him stalking Will. Best word I could think of for it. That look in his eye was just pure insanity."

           "We have been through a lot. This was just the final straw." Finally dressed, the two opened the outer door and dragged the bodies out into the cold. Just as he thought... Megan sat curled up, frozen, to the bulkhead. She wouldn't have had long to suffer, but it could not have been comfortable. The fear in her eyes struck Mardon hard. He and Grace lay the bodies of Chris and Shelly next to her. "Get the heat going, I will bring up the evac." Mardon said.

***

           The sirens wailed outward onto the tundra, the amber lights glinting off of the ice and snow. Mardon would have traded almost anything for his Armor in that moment. Anything to make him feel even a little safer. There was noway that Kevin wouldn't have heard. That, wherever he was, he wouldn't come running. If nothing else, the fear of being abandoned again would drive him toward them. The evac ship would be safe, once they could get the hanger doors open.

           Grace pulled the cockpit door open and went in, Mardon would wait as she did the final checks. His rifle even, anything! He cast his eyes about the hanger for anything. Toward the back were the excess base and evac ship parts. One rotor blade was taller than he was, but there were plenty of replacement pipes. He grabbed one that felt comfortable enough to swing and returned to watching the door. The creeping cold was eating its way into his suit.