As the six young men ran back towards the mine, they took out the white sheets that had been hidden in their jackets and draped them over their shoulders. Rounding the bend, last in line, Paco and Radar risked a quick glance back. All they could see were the two guards lying still on the ground, and in the distance some vague, white forms disappearing through the veil of falling snowflakes. They smiled to each other before putting their heads down to lean into the blizzard, as those in front were doing.
For the six escapees it was hard going but at least the wind was behind, pushing them along. Kaden and Ash wore the visors so they could keep their eyes open, leading the way. They were all tied to each other with the ropes they had brought so nobody would get left behind or wander off in the wrong direction. It had already been decided they should walk through the night. The exertion would keep their blood circulating and their bodies warm. A search party would find it difficult to spot them in the dark, and they had the white sheets to hide their brightly coloured clothes.
Hours passed by, yet the boys did not tire out, adrenaline giving them that extra bit of strength they needed. The blizzard had become so thick, Kaden was afraid they might be walking in circles so he signalled Ash to stop, which made the ones behind bump into them. They needed to get their bearings but it was no use checking the sky for stars, as they could not see anything but falling snow. The only thing they could go by was the fact that the wind was still on their backs, pushing them forward. Hoping it hadn’t changed direction, the boys decided to keep on going.
A few hours later, they almost bumped into a large mound that seemed to go on forever. It was as good a place as any to rest. The blizzard had intensified and they were beginning to freeze. Huddling together under the snow covered sheets, one by one, the boys fell asleep.
Tuck was first to wake up, pins and needles in his right foot.
He shook Kaden.
“If we don’t keep moving we’ll get frostbite. The wind has died down a bit. I think we should walk some more, until we’re exhausted.”
Kaden agreed and helped wake the others. Some of them had pins and needles, too, so they stamped their feet to warm them up, before continuing their journey.
As the sky brightened and the weather cleared, Harley spotted a hill just ahead to the left. The group steered towards it and as they got closer something moved about fifty yards away to their right.
“It’s a polar bear, run,” Wolf yelled.
The other’s didn’t even wait to see the animal, but ran in the same direction as Wolf, circling the hill when they reached it. At the back they found a narrow slit in the ice which looked like the entrance to a cave.
Each boy squeezed into the opening, but Harley got stuck leaving Smokes outside, the bear catching up fast. He was desperately pushing the trapped young man while the rest were pulling him on the inside. Smokes took his rucksack from his back and pulled out a protein bar, throwing it at the bear. This stopped the animal in its tracks. Just as it had eaten the snack, paper and all, Harley fell into the cave, Smokes squeezing through after him.
The huge bear stuck his head in through the gap and sniffed. He reared up on his hind legs growling, then stood on all fours, pawing at the ground outside. The boys didn’t move an inch, but stayed as far away from the entrance as the cramped space would allow. The bear turned around in circles, then curled up on the snow.
Tuck and Ash slid down the wall of ice and sat on the cold ground, waiting until it was safe to leave. The others followed suit. They all just sat there, cold and silent. Wolf decided to share some wildlife facts with his companions.
“Polar Bears are not native to Antarctica, you know. They were brought in because the Arctic ice shelf was shrinking with global warming. There’s lots of room for them here, but their numbers are strictly controlled so that the other wildlife won’t get eaten up and disappear. About ten years ago wealthy hunters could come here and get themselves a trophy, but that was eventually stopped by animal rights groups. Now they just make sure the population of bears doesn’t get out of hand, by sterilizing some of the females and a lot of the males. It makes them less aggressive too. That one outside could be a neutered male.”
“Well now, which one of us is willing to go out and have a look?” Smokes asked.
That made them laugh and eased the tension a little. As the time went by, one by one, they became drowsy, mostly due to the cold.
A few hours later, a loud noise woke Tuck from his sleep and he elbowed Kaden in the ribs.
“Hey Teach, I was dreaming about a huge piece of steak and you ruined it with your snoring.”
The sound continued and Kaden looked around the sleeping faces.
“It’s not any of us. That noise is coming from outside,” he said.
It was the polar bear.
“When on earth is he going to get a move on?” Tuck asked, “I can’t feel my feet. How are yours doing?”
Kaden was stamping his boots off the ground, shaking his head.
“Not good, I think we should wake the others and get them to check for frostbite,” he said removing his boots.
His toes were completely white, even when he pressed them hard.
“Tuck get the boys up, quick, they need to rub some snow into their feet. They could get frostbite, and if that happens we’ll be in big trouble.”
There was a small pile of snow just inside the entrance to the cave. Tuck shook the others awake and they were surprised to be told to do something so strange. Seeing Kaden vigorously massaging his toes with a handful of snow, they realized it was no joke. They did the same and dried their feet with their socks. Getting back into their warm, fur lined boots was sheer bliss. At least the blood was circulating again. Nobody risked falling asleep after that.
After a while, Kaden had an idea.
“What’s that bear doing now?” he asked.
Smokes had a look.
“He’s sitting with his back to me just outside the entrance, waiting for his supper to come out. Anyone else feel like a frozen ready meal in an icebox?”
Kaden picked up one of the rifles, turning it around in his hands, inspecting it. Wolf stepped forward and grabbed it from him.
“You can’t just shoot him like that, he’ll get fed up and go away. He’s bigger than Harley so there’s no chance of him getting in here.”
“I wasn’t going to shoot him,” explained Kaden.
“I was going to take the bayonet off the rifle. We need to cut the tracking devices out of our necks, or we’ll be found soon. The signal might not get transmitted over too great a distance but if they come this way it will be picked up. Who’s first?”
Harley stepped forward. He barely flinched as the tiny metal device cut out from his neck. The rest came, one by one, to stand in front of Kaden and let him remove theirs too. Then he handed the knife to Tuck.
“Try not to slit my throat,” Kaden joked.
Having put all the bloodied pieces of metal into a small pile on the snow, Kaden asked for his rucksack to be passed over. Unwrapping one of the protein bars, he held it in his hands for a few minutes. It was soon soft enough for the small devices to be pushed into its centre.
“Here Wolf, do you think you can get the bear to eat this?” Kaden said.
The young man smiled and took the bar.
“I see where you’re going with this, Teach, but what if we get out and he decides to follow, he’ll lead them straight to us.”
“If we keep them with us in here it’ll be worse. At least there’s a chance he’ll get fed up out there and wander off, taking the devices with him,” said Kaden looking around, “Agreed?”
They all nodded their heads, so Wolf walked towards the gap they had squeezed through.
He could have put his hand out and touched the animal, it was that close. He made a strange, groaning sound and the bear turned his head, listening. Wolf threw the bar onto the snow at the huge white paws. The bear looked down at the tasty snack. He bowed his head, sn
iffing, then picked it up in his mouth. Licking his lips and smacking them together, he swallowed the lot.
The boys cheered, then stopped abruptly, realizing the animal had heard the noise. Lumbering over to the entrance of their cave he put his paw in, sweeping it from side to side, almost touching them as they flattened themselves against the opposite wall.
After a while, the bear seemed to get bored with this and yawned. He turned around and without as much as a backward glance, waddled off in the direction he had come from. Almost afraid to breathe in case they made a sound, the boys waited for a few moments then Wolf looked out, throwing a protein bar onto the ground outside. Not seeing any sign of the animal, he took a chance and squeezed through the gap. He could see the great white shape in the distance and beckoned the others to join him. Kaden picked up some snow and held it against the wound at the base of his skull to stop the blood from trickling down his neck. The others did likewise.
“Don’t use any yellow snow, if you know what I mean,” he said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Because of the blizzard it wasn’t until the work party had reached the base that the rear guards were missed. The two men in the lead stepped aside at the door to let their prisoners go through and when the end of the line got nearer, they realized some of the boys and the two guards were not there. The men ran inside, one of them setting off the alarm, the other pushing Paco and Radar against a wall, shoving the rifle in Paco’s ribs.
“You two were last in line, what happened out there?”
Paco was winded and started coughing, so Radar shouted at the guard to leave him alone.
“How could we see anything, the snow was blinding us, we had to hold onto the guys in front just to get back here.”
This seemed reasonable enough so the man stepped aside, yelling at the boys to get to their rooms.
The doctor decided not to inform headquarters straight away as there was nothing anyone could do till the blizzard eased up. When the storm died down a search party could take off in the helicopter, and he knew they were bound to pick up a signal sooner or later.
“Let’s see if we can locate them first,” said the doctor. “Maybe they got separated from the line in the blizzard and had to turn back, so the first place we should look is the mine. I know the guards aren’t answering their phones, the weather must be interfering with the signal.”
“The phone has been ringing on and off for the last thirty minutes, but it keeps cutting out. The blizzard is definitely affecting it. They must have gone back to the mine, that number came up several times too,” said the base administrator.
Deciding this was most likely the case, the doctor ordered a search party to set out in the snowbus and another by helicopter as soon as weather conditions permitted.
Much later, while it was still quite dark, the blizzard began to ease off and the search parties got under way. The one travelling on the snowbus made straight for the mine, but halfway there they met up with the two missing guards.
“There are six boys unaccounted for, are they back at the mine?” asked the driver.
“They jumped us, robbed our rifles and knocked us out, broke our phones, too. We were almost frozen to death. I don’t know how we managed to regain consciousness. The blizzard was so bad the only choice we had was to drag ourselves back to the mine.”
The guards said they had tried the main phone but the connection kept breaking up, so they waited the storm out.
“Those brats even took our snow visors, without them we couldn’t risk setting out for the base.”
Both men had bruising on their temples and one of them had dried blood on the side of his face. They were helped climb up into the vehicle.
A report was radioed back to base and the helicopter sent northwards, as this was most likely the direction taken by the escapees. Soon a weak signal was picked up but it seemed to be coming from an unexpected area. Thinking the boys must have wandered off course in the blizzard, the crew followed the signal, which was getting stronger. There was no sign of any life below but the bleeps and lights on the screen were showing something. Mindful that the boys were armed, the pilot landed carefully in an open area.
“There are a lot of caves around here,” he said.
“They could be holed up in one of them, so we’ll need to search thoroughly. Remember, they have weapons.”
The four men headed towards the raised ground to the left of the clearing but the signal got weaker, so they changed direction and went right. As they approached the first cave the signal was quite strong. Their weapons aimed at the entrance, one of the men cautiously stepped forward. He called for the boys to throw out the rifles and show themselves, one at a time. There was no response. Warning that he was going to count to ten before filling the cave with tear gas, the man moved back towards his group, counting as he did so.
“…eight, nine, ten.”
Still no sound or movement. The only noise was the loud bleep of the signal being picked up from the tracking devices that had been planted in the boys’ necks.
“Okay, you leave me no choice. Put your masks on, everyone.”
The four men, gas masks covering their faces, ran to the entrance of the cave and threw two cylinders into the dark interior. Instantly, the signal grew weaker.
“They’re on the move,” said the man holding the machine.
“The cave must go back quite a long way, judging by how quickly the signal is weakening.”
The men entered the cave, putting on their night vision goggles. As they made their way through the darkness the beeping got louder, and louder, until the signal showed up on the screen as a group of dots packed tightly together, just in front of them.
“I don’t understand this reading,” said the guard holding the machine, his goggles up on his forehead as he tried to see the screen better.
“It’s like they are all on top of each other. Hold on, what’s that moaning sound, it’s coming towards us, and the signal is getting louder.”
“Arghhh!” screamed the man in front of him as he fell back, knocking both of them to the ground.
A huge beast lunged at the last two men, standing with their rifles aimed. They fired simultaneously. A deafening roar filled the cave, as the creature slumped to the ground. Having made sure it was dead, the men helped their companions to their feet. The man who had been in the lead was shaken but unharmed. They stood for a moment around the massive form, realizing it was a polar bear.
It was then they noticed how loud the signal had become. Obviously the devices were inside the animal lying at their feet. The man holding the machine started to laugh, nervously. One by one, the others joined in until the cave echoed with their laughter. Tears streaming down their faces, the men couldn’t stop until they became breathless, their sides hurting.
“We had better report back to base. Those kids are clever enough to have headed in the right direction,” the pilot said, wiping his face.
The snowbus returned to base and the guards made their report. The doctor had already informed the surrounding towns and ports about the missing boys.
“They won’t get far, the helicopter will spot them,” he said with confidence.
“I’ve questioned the two boys who shared a room with them, but they say they weren’t aware of any escape plan the others had made. I’m inclined to believe them. They are quite young so I’m not surprised they weren’t included. Let’s just wait for word from the other search party.”
When the helicopter crew radioed the base informing them of their findings, they were immediately dispatched to the nearest port. It was assumed the boys would head for there. A description of what they were wearing was sent to Port Patrol, along with photos. The fact that the boys would have numbers tattooed on their necks would not seem too strange to the authorities on Antarctica. It was generally believed the base was some sort of juvenile correction centre. The clothes they wore would also identify them as prisoners. Being confident of their capt
ure, the doctor decided not to inform his superiors of the situation.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The boys continued their journey, guessing it was northward, leading them to a port. They hoped the polar bear was headed in the opposite direction, with the tracking devices in its stomach. They dragged their sheets behind as they walked. Using large chunks of ice to weigh them down, they swept the sheets from side to side, wiping out their footprints in the snow.
At one point the sound of a helicopter in the distance forced them to crouch down with the white sheets covering them, hiding their brightly coloured clothing. They stayed very still until it could no longer be heard, then carried on walking, erasing their tracks as they went. Every few miles they came upon signs of civilization - a discarded rubbish bag, a broken sleigh, a couple of abandoned shacks.
Taking a chance travelling during daylight hours had been worth it. Just as they were nearing exhaustion the lights of a town shone like a beacon in the dusk. The long days labouring in the mines had toughened the boys up and they pushed themselves to keep going. Kaden wanted them all to get their stories straight. Even though they had no ID on them, it wouldn’t draw too much attention, as Antarctica was under American rule and no visas or passports were necessary.
On the Continent of America there was freedom of movement, too. The only problem was explaining why they were there with no money, phones, cash or cards, items a tourist would have on them.
“How about we say we were on a camping trip and got chased by a polar bear, then got lost in the blizzard. When it eased off we found our way here. We could ditch our backpacks to make our story look real. With a bit of luck and sympathy, we might get on board one of the supply boats that link up with the trawlers,” suggested Kaden.
Tuck wasn’t sure, “I don’t want to risk getting caught, what if they are already there waiting for us?”
“Surely the base would have sent word to the ports telling the authorities to keep an eye out for six escaped prisoners?” Ash said, agreeing with Tuck.
Finding 01 Finding Kaden Page 14
