Ice Man

by Samantha Winston

  A glance at his watch told him he’d better hurry. He took his bag then made sure the house was locked tight. Before he left, he put his key in a note and slid it in his neighbor’s mailbox. Jed would take care of the place for however long he was away. They’d had an agreement for years now.

  Snow had started to fall when he reached the airport, and by the time he’d gotten settled in the small twin-engine plane, it was coming down in thick flurries, driven by a chill wind. The plane bucked and dipped as it climbed, but Steele had never been afraid of flying, and he just held the overhead strap and stared out the window as the plane finally broke out of the clouds and rose above the storm.

  * * * * *

  The quiet woke him. The wind had stopped, and deep silence had settled over everything. Opening his eyes, he saw by the soft light penetrating the top of the tent that it was full daylight. He sat up and looked around. Allie sat near the brazier. Their eyes met and she grinned. He couldn’t help grinning back.

  “How was your rest?” She handed him a bowl full of steaming soup and a spoon.

  He took it and sipped carefully. “I had a good rest. Mmm. This is delicious. What is it?”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Cream of potato. Oh, that’s right. You wouldn’t know a potato if it bit you on the rear.”

  “Are potatoes dangerous beasts?” He’d never had anything like this. He would have assumed it was a sort of vegetable mixed with flour. He sniffed at it and took another sip. “It doesn’t taste like meat.”

  Allie burst out laughing. “A potato is a vegetable. They just didn’t get to Europe until after your time.”

  He sipped his potato soup and considered her words. “Where did they come from? Where are we exactly?”

  Allie set her bowl down and took a paper from her pocket. She unfolded it and showed it to him. “This is a map of the world. I took it when we were in the base. I wanted to show it to you.”

  There was nothing he recognized, but she patiently explained, starting with the Inner Sea, which she called the Mediterranean. Then she showed him Gaul, or France, and Iberia, which she called Spain. The British Isles he recognized, and with a flash of sudden comprehension, he traced the coastline north with his finger.

  “The Tenes are here.”

  “Yes, that’s Norway, and further up is the land of glaciers and ice, where the scientists found your body.” She paused and then pointed. “The Atlantic Ocean you know is here. And these two continents are North and South America, discovered long after your time. We are now here, in this part of the world.”

  It all looked unfamiliar, but he looked closely, and then pointed and said, “This is the island of fire and ice.”

  She looked surprised. “It’s called Iceland.”

  “Our people know it. We trade for sulfur there.”

  “Have you been there?”

  “Of course, I’m a trader.” He shrugged and finished his soup. “I like potatoes.” The silence settled once more over the tent and he cocked his head to listen. “The wind has fallen and we’re covered with snow. Shall I dig us out? We can’t stay here forever.”

  “All right. I’ll pack up. If we go straight east now, we should come to the coast in a day or so. But we have to be careful, because they will certainly be looking for us. The army and the scientists will do anything to get you back.” She looked frightened suddenly.

  “But why? Why will they search for us?” He couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that they were being hunted like beasts.

  “Because you slept in the ice for so long, and they want to know how you did it.”

  He pulled on the clothes she gave him, his hands lingering on the strange material. “I have no idea how I did it, so I can be of no help to them. You can just tell them.”

  Her expression grew even more frightened. “They don’t want to hear about it. They want to study your body to see how the cold affected it, and especially your brain.” She tapped her skull.

  “Why? My brain? All my intelligence and spirit reside in my heart, everyone knows that.” He wanted to take the fear from her eyes. “No, don’t say anything. I will learn how to manage the metal beast, and I will take you to safety.”

  They dug out of the snow and packed the tent. Allie showed Kell how the metal beast worked. She called it a snowmobile. He started to ask her words in her language. Allie looked at the horizon and shivered.

  “What is it?” he asked, putting his mittened hand on her shoulder.

  “The wilderness is so vast here, and so dangerous. It frightens me. I’m not used to being so far from towns or cities.” She turned her gaze to him, her dark eyes full of disquiet.

  To him it was home. “This place reminds me of my world. I loved to travel in the far north. The island of fire and ice was one of my favorite places to go. Perhaps we can make our way there and settle.”

  She looked startled. “Iceland. Why didn’t I think of that?”

  He imagined a place near the ocean, a small dwelling where they could be together. “I will learn your language, and you can show me your world.”

  “We have to get to the coast. There will be boats heading to Iceland, for sure. Why not? And we can apply for political asylum.” She patted the snowmobile and motioned for him to sit in front of her. “If you want to learn to drive, put your hands on mine and watch.”

  Kell found it easy to learn to ride the snowmobile, but not as easy to judge its speed. Twice they nearly tipped over. But he prided himself on his riding ability, and wasn’t about to let a noisy machine get the better of him. “I hate the sound it makes,” he complained, shaking his head to clear the buzzing from his ears.

  “We can’t do much about that, I’m afraid.”

  “You have invented a wonderful machine, but you have given it a terrible voice. Why can’t it run quietly, like the wind? How can you sneak up on your prey with this?”

  “We don’t need to hunt for food anymore. Animals are raised in huge farms and slaughtered for meat, and farmers grow vast fields of wheat for bread. Everything is sold in markets all over the world, and hardly anyone has to go out to hunt.”

  Kell digested this bit of information. “So, everyone lives like the Romans now. Heating in their houses, food in the markets, running water right to the apartment buildings.”

  “Did you go to Rome?”

  “Of course.” Kell nodded. “I went there often.”

  “Did you?” She sounded impressed, and well she should. Rome awed everyone who saw her.

  “The first time I set foot in the city, I couldn’t believe such a place existed. The tallest buildings I’d ever seen towered overhead, and the crowded streets never emptied until nightfall. Chariots thundered down the streets, and wagons loaded with goods from all over the world. The port of Otria teemed with boats, and the river jammed with barges and boats as traders arrived at the docks.”

  “Did you arrive by boat then?”

  “Yes, and I went back several times afterwards. Each time Rome seemed to grow bigger.” It helped to think of Rome, because his arms, legs, and head ached with the noise and vibration of the snowmobile. His stomach growled and he realized he was famished.

  “We should set up camp soon. Night will fall and we need shelter.” He had been keeping the needle pointed east. Allie seemed surprised he’d recognized the compass, but how did she think his people navigated? They had passed through the forest and out onto a flat plain. All around them stretched snowy tundra but up ahead he saw low hills. They could find shelter there. First they had to cross what looked like a large, frozen lake.

  “I’m afraid they’ll catch up to us.” Allie twisted her head to peer behind, and at the same time the snowmobile hit a bump and swerved. Kell felt her arms slip from his waist, and heard a loud thump. He suddenly realized he didn’t know how to stop the infernal machine. He let go of everything and dove off it, then he leapt towards Allie, lying face-down in the snow. She moaned as he reached her, but when he turned her over, he saw tha
t she was unhurt. Relief washed over him, but she cried out in pain when he tried to help her up.

  “My shoulder!”

  “What is it?” He let go of her arm and stepped back so as not to hurt her more. She sat up in the snow and held her arm cradled to her chest.

  “Is it broken?” he asked, worried.

  “I don’t think so, just a sprain. But it hurts.”

  Suddenly he heard a loud cracking sound. Whirling, he turned and saw the machine disappear into a hole in the ice. The supplies! He ran through the snow towards the hole and threw himself flat on his stomach, inching towards the gaping hole. No good--the machine and all that had been on it had disappeared into the icy, dark water. Cursing, he went back to Allie, still lying in the snow.

  White-faced, she stared up at him. “What will we do now?”

  “If you can walk, we will set out in that direction.” He pointed east. “When we get to the nearest hill, I will set up camp and you can rest.”

  She shook her head. “We don’t have time to rest!”

  “Don’t argue, woman.”

  They set out at a slow pace. The hills were closer than he’d thought, and soon they arrived in a small clearing in a depression surrounded by fir and larch trees. He glanced at the sky. He had an hour, maybe longer. He went to the forest, peeled off chunks of bark, and made crude paddles. Then he scooped snow into them and rapidly patted the snow into a few large bricks. That part was easy, and after stomping down the snow in a circle, he used another piece of bark like a shovel and dug a deep trench inside the circle. Then he dug another foot or so down and again stomped the snow flat.

  “Allie, if you stand still you will get cold. Can you try to go into the woods and find dry sticks? The best place to look would be under a fir tree. Bring me the pine cones too.”

  He watched to make sure she would be all right, and heaved a sigh of relief when she moved with no difficulty. Then he got back to work. Quickly, he set the snow bricks down, working in a spiral, and leaning each brick slightly so that the walls sloped inwards. He used the bark paddles to make more bricks, and piled them at his feet in the middle of the circle. Soon the walls were waist high.

  One more load of snow bricks, and he knelt in the middle of the circle, placing the bricks carefully until the top met over his head. Only then did he go back to the first bricks and carefully dug down and pushed them out, making a slightly sunken passage. He crawled out and saw Allie, standing with an armful of branches.

  “How did you do that?” Allie asked, shaking her head. “That is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”

  He shrugged. Everyone who lived in the far north had to know how to do it. He’d been trained from childhood to observe and learn. Nonetheless, he liked Allie’s admiration.

  “I’ll be right back,” he said. The igloo would not keep them that warm, and if they had to sit on the ground they would freeze. Already the temperature dropped alarmingly.

  Evening fell. He wished he had his knife, but he broke off branches from fir trees, as many as he could carry, and dragged them back to the igloo. Piling these on the ground, he made a sleeping area and left a spot in the middle free for a fire. He found birch trees and peeled off their smooth, soft bark to lay over the fir branches.

  He’d get more wood later. Right now he had to get Allie settled. She looked frightened and pale, and she’d started shivering.

  “Allie, can you crawl through the narrow door inside?” He helped her as much as he could; she had trouble crawling because of her shoulder, but she never complained.

  He thought he would have to spend another hour or so making a fire, but Allie amazed him. She pulled out a small box of tiny twigs from her medicine bag and proceeded to teach him how to make matches work. In no time a small blaze warmed the igloo, the smoke going out the hole he’d left in the roof near the center. Careful to keep the fir branches they sat upon away from the fire, he fashioned a pot from bark and filled it with snow, setting it on a forked branch to heat. He would have to go out two or three times in the night to find firewood, but already the air inside the igloo was starting to get warm.

  Once he’d gotten everything organized, he turned to Allie. “I know a little medicine. Let me see your arm.”

  He unfastened her tunic with the little tab she called a zip. Delicately, he extricated her arm from her sleeve and prodded her shoulder. “Does this hurt?”

  She nodded her head. “It hurts horribly.”

  “The bones are still in place, but it is swelling. Nothing is broken, but your shoulder has been sprained and I need to pack snow onto it as soon as possible. Do you have something in your medicine bag to ease the pain?”

  Her medicine bag hung over her shoulder and she called it a purse. The matches had been inside it, and she had a tube that shined light too. Very handy, in his opinion. The red stuff she put on her lips, on the other hand, didn’t appeal to him at all.

  “There should be aspirin. Look in the red box there. Thank goodness that didn’t fall into the lake too.” She closed her eyes and her face turned a shade paler.

  “What is it?”

  “I just realized that if I hadn’t fallen off, we’d have both fallen into the lake.” Tears gathered in her eyes and spilled onto her cheeks.

  A jolt of fear shot through him. She spoke the truth. The gods had been watching over them. “Hush, it’s all right. Don’t cry now. It’s all over, and you’re fine now.”

  “Thanks to you.”

  He opened her medicine bag as he’d seen her do before and peered inside. Nothing looked familiar to him, and Allie’s face got whiter by the minute. His fingers clenched on the bag as frustration welled in him. He’d never felt so helpless before. “Which thing is aspirin?”

  “Give me that bottle,” she said, and he did. She opened it and took two pills. “I’ll feel better soon,” she explained. Then her face brightened. “Here, try this I think you’ll like it.” She pulled a flat tablet out of her purse and tore paper from it. A delicious odor filled his nostrils as she handed him a square she’d broken off the tablet. “Go on, eat it.”

  He’d never smelled anything so tempting, but he hesitated.

  “Don’t you trust me?” She took a small square and nibbled it. “It’s very good.”

  He touched the tip of his tongue to it. Sweet. Rich. Intoxicatingly rich. His mouth literally watered. Sliding it into his mouth, he let the explosion of taste and scent fill his senses. It melted in his mouth, sliding down his throat--rich, sweet, and utterly satisfying. “What is that?” he cried, not wanting it to end. He licked his lips and looked at her. “Do you have more?”

  “It’s called chocolate, and I have a little more.”

  “Chocolate.” He sighed happily. “Over two thousand years, but it was worth the wait. Your people have invented a little piece of paradise to eat.” He grinned at Allie and kissed the tip of her nose. “Thank you for showing me that I have lots to look forward to discovering in your world. Now, I have to go outside and find some bark to hold the snow. I can use this webbed bandage too. Just relax and I’ll be right back.”

  Allie swallowed the aspirin and closed her eyes. She had no idea what Kell could do to help her. She couldn’t believe her bad luck. She’d fallen so hard she’d nearly pulled her shoulder right out of its socket. Thank goodness the bones hadn’t broken or the shoulder dislocated, but even so the pain was just about unbearable. And when they’d lost the snowmobile and all their supplies, she’d believed that they would perish. Only Kell’s calm assurance that everything would be all right had saved her from going into hysterics. That, and watching someone actually building an igloo in front of her eyes.

  Now she sat on a rather uncomfortable pile of branches, but she was warm, and she was alive, and she still had half a bar of chocolate. If he liked chocolate, just wait until he discovered the joys of hot chocolate and marshmallows.

  When the fire showed signs of dying she added twigs and sticks--not too many, just enough to ke
ep a cheerful little fire going. Soon steam rose from the bark container as the snow inside it melted and the water started to boil. The igloo’s walls melted a tiny bit and narrow rivulets of water ran down the sides, freezing it and smoothing it. Beneath her, the pine branches gave off a strong, spicy scent.

  She drowsed a bit, lulled by the fire’s warmth. What seemed like an hour passed, but when she checked her watch, she saw it wasn’t more than ten minutes. Then Kell slipped inside the igloo, his arms full of birch tree bark and snow.

  He didn’t waste time. “Lie down,” he ordered, and he took her arm and examined it.

  “Have you done this before?” she asked.

  “As a matter of fact, yes.” He grinned then, and she surprised herself by grinning back. For some reason, she trusted him. Besides, what choice did she have?