by Alda Grand
“Did you hit one?”
Einar glanced over at her and said, “Nope I completely screwed up and missed. A bee buzzed close to my ear right before I pulled the trigger. I aimed high and completely over the herd,” he said.
“Were your father and uncle disappointed in you?” Lana asked.
“No. They got a good laugh from it, they teased me all summer about the bee and took any opportunity they could to sneak up behind me and buzz loudly in my ear,” Einar said smiling.
They drove on for an hour until they came to the road that lead to the glacier. The way to the cabin was a one lane mud and loose gravel road that snaked along beside a steep fall on one side and a high rocky series of bluffs on the other. The canyon floor below was broken up by a myriad of thin snaking glacier streams making their way to the sea. Bright purple lupins with their bell like flower heads grew from the thin sandy soil, pushing out most other plants and flowers and dominating the area. They turned a bend in the road and the glacier was visible ahead of them. Even at a distance of ten kilometres the scale of the wall of ice was impressive. It was flanked on both sides by tall cone shaped mountains and the leading edge of the glacier extruded through the gap like toothpaste from a tube. The piece being forced through the gap of the mountains crossed a span of a kilometre and sometimes sheep were seen to cross it to get to the fresh untouched grass on the opposite side. The rest of the glacier continued to the horizon, a vast uninhabited wasteland of ice.
“I thought it would be blue,” Lana said, “like in those national geographic pictures.”
“It depends on the weather. If it’s bright and sunny it looks like a blue gem glittering and sparkling. When its grey and overcast like today the ice takes on a darker hue.”
“You can see the cabin now,” Einar said pointing up ahead.
The cabin sat at the end of the road. A large boulder that had come crashing down the mountain a few years ago sat a few meters away from the house. Behind the cabin Lana could see a footpath wind its way towards the edge of the glacier. They pulled up beside the boulder and Einar turned the car so that it was facing the way they had come.
Einar got out and looked down the road and Lana joined him. “Thats the only way in now. We have a good view of the road and any approaching cars. Do you want to go up to the glacier to have a look?”
Lana nodded and helped Einar unload the bags from the back of the truck. He slung one on his shoulder and they headed up to the ice sheets edge.
Einar stood and surveyed the edge of the ice. It was a three meter climb to the top and he walked back and forth looking for the easiest route. He found a section with a large seam running from top to bottom at an easy incline. He grabbed his ice axe from the bag and said to Lana, “Stand back a little while I do this.” She stepped back and Einar started to swing the axe into the glacier. Ice chips flew into the air in a frosty arc until he had made a set of indentations from the gravel footpath to the top of the glacier.
He stepped back and admired his handiwork, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. “That should do it,” he said replacing the axe heads protective cover and putting it in the bag. “Hey Lana, sit down on this rock here and I’ll fit you with crampons. We can take a quick look around on the top of the glacier.”
After a few minutes they both climbed the ice stairs and stood atop the glacier marvelling at the wide expanse of dark grey ice. Einar showed her how to walk with the crampons, her legs burned with the extra effort of digging the spikes in with every footfall. Once she felt confident in using them he showed her the best techniques for using the axe to probe the ground ahead of her and what to avoid.
“Won’t you be here with me the next time we are on the glacier,” Lana asked.
Einar stopped walking and stared in the direction of the sea. “I’ve been thinking, if someone comes for you again you should make a break for it. I can hold them off by the cabin. You can cross here and then escape into the mountains on the other side. I have a map back in the cabin and I can show you the best routes to follow once your across.”
“Can’t we just run away together,” Lana said hearing the pleading tone in her voice.
“I want this to end. We can’t keep on running. If he comes for you again I want to stop him in his tracks. We can’t do that if we are on the run, trying to keep one step ahead of this guy. It ends now, he’s on my territory, in my country, and I intend to stop him from getting any closer to you.”
Lana wrapped her arms around him and said, “I don't know what I’d do without you.”
They held each other in a tight embrace as the distant cracking of the glacier echoed throughout the canyon.
Back in the cabin Einar stacked a pair of crampons and an ice axe at the front door and said, “Any sign of trouble you grab these and follow the plan.”
The cabin had fallen into disrepair since Einar's father had died and the summer hunting sessions ended. Two bunk beds sat in the corner covered in heavy wool blankets knit by a long dead aunt. A small wooden stove provided the heat and the cooking facilities for the cabin. Outside a once bright yellow painted hand pump provided the only source of running water. The front windows of the cabin looked towards the road and a side window looked out at the canyon and a small sliver of the glacier was visible if you craned your head. Everything was covered in a layer of dust and the windows were streaked and cobwebbed.
In the opposite corner to the beds was a small rickety table for two and three wooden chairs stacked on top of each other. An old shelf was nailed to the wall and a few dusty cans of green beans, their yellow label brown at the edges, sat in neat rows. Einar went out to the truck and brought in supplies and stacked them in the corner by the table. Lana took the heavy blankets off the bed and took them outside to shake the dust off.
Einar pulled a chair to the front window and wiped down the streaked glass with a rag. He unpacked his rifle and a pair of binoculars and set them beside the chair. Lana had been lost in the simple pleasure of setting up the cabin to make it inhabitable for them but when she saw Einar place the rifle by the window the reality of the situation came whooshing back in. Why am I fooling myself playing house when there is someone who's only task is to make sure I’m dead. The shoulder stock of the rifle gleamed obscenely its presence ruining what would have been a tranquil and happy scene. Lana hated the rifles existence in the cabin and cursed all she had done to get herself to this place. She wished she had never stepped into the gallery that night and met Gus. She imagined how different her life would have been if she had never met him and never got the chance to lead her down this sordid path. A deep ache was felt in her heart, if things hadn't turned out this way and as bleak as it all seemed, she would have never meet Einar. It was only a week ago when she first met him and now she couldn’t imagine him not being by her side. They were both the carrier of each others secrets, things they had held close to their hearts and allowed no one else to see their true selves. I must be strong she told herself and tried to ignore the loaded rifle sitting on the floor.
Einar rooted around a wooden chest bound with metal strips and pulled out a faded map. He spread it out on the table and called Lana over. “This is us here, you cross the glacier at this spot and then when you get across follow this trail here. That path will eventually wind its way out to safety,” he said moving his finger across the map. “This area here, we used to call it the boulder garden. It’s very easy to get lost in, but with the map you will be fine. Nobody will be able to track you through it. Where you come out on the other side it’s a straight line across to this farm. I know you don’t want to involve the cops. If things go this far and someone manages to get past me you need to get to the farm and get the family that lives there to call the cops. I know them they are good people.”
“I hope it doesn't come to that,” Lana said tracing her finger over the route Einar had shown her. She folded the map up and left it with her crampons and ice axe by the door.
Einar set up the w
ood burning stove and they had a simple meal of fish and vegetables. Lana couldn't help herself from yawning multiple times as they ate. The constant stress and worry of her situation was draining her and she needed to sleep.
“Do you mind if I go to bed early,” she asked Einar as they cleaned up after the meal.
“You get your rest. I’m going to stay up and keep watch. I can grab a couple of hours of shut eye in the morning when you’re up,” Einar said.
Lana went outside carrying a shallow tin basin and put it under the spout of the hand pump. After a few arm straining attempts to get it going, water began to sputter out and fill the container. Lana half filled it with water and set it down. She walked to the boulder the car was parked beside and leant against it. The sun was low in the sky and would soon pass behind the mountains trailing a cold shadow across the cabin and the canyon below. A pale outline of the moon was visible in the distance and the sky had turned a dark blue. Small silvery moths fluttered and twirled in a warm updraft coming from the canyon and a brown finch disrupted the beautiful floating dance as it flew through the gathering snatching moths from the warm air. The plaintive call of a pair of arctic terns rose and fell as they soared across the canyon. If Lana strained her ears she could her the faint hum of cars on the coast road and the low thrum of the waves crashing on the shore.
Lana could imagine spending summers here with Einar away from the noise and rush of everyday life. Leaning against the boulder and looking at her surroundings she felt like she was removed from time, existing in a place that was apart and separate from the venal needs of society. She thought that she could be really happy living a simpler life, a more honest and authentic life with Einar, better than any in the constant churn of New York. I could be happy here, truly happy she thought to herself. The glacier cracked and groaned as it moved and settled like a great beast that sat all knowing and all seeing.
Lana returned to the cabin and they washed up the dishes together, both silent in their separate worlds of mounting pressure. Einar pulled his chair in front of the window and lay the rifle across his knees. He sat staring out the window like an unmovable statue as Lana got into bed. Lana fell into a restless sleep filled with creatures made of snow and rock with sharp bloody teeth chasing her and Einar lying dead at the bottom of the canyon. Her dreams circled back, folded over on themselves, and repeated, trapping her in a repeating hall of mirrors as her worst fears caught up to her.
Chapter 24
Thursday
“How long do I have?” Brad asked Sara. They had slept for a few hours curled together in bed and Brad knew it was now time to finish his job.
“The battery should last a day or two more, three tops if it's not on the move constantly” she said sitting on the bed looking at him pace back and forth across the cabin.
Two days is all I have to find them before they are in the wind he thought to himself. As he had fled the clinic he had seen a battered pickup truck parked out front. It hadn't been there when he’d first parked across the street and hung back checking out the place. He had looked at his phone and the gps icon blinked in the corner of the screen. In the back of the bed of the truck were some scraps of wood and a heavy painters canvas covering them. He had jammed the phone under a stack of wood and fled.
“Can you track it,” he asked.
“If you know the number I should be able to find it through the phones gps app,” Sara said.
Brad walked back and forth across the small cabin rubbing his chin. He hadn't shaved in days and he was starting to look unkempt. “Fuck. I have no clue what the number is. I could barely use the thing. A contact got it for me new when I landed. Is there any,” he stopped suddenly and said, “hang on,” and left the cabin.
He returned a couple of minutes later holding the box for the phone. He had thrown it onto the back seat when he opened it. “Will this help?” he said taking out the information leaflets that came with it.
“Even better,” Sara said. She hesitated and said, “If I do this for you, you will put in a good word to Gus for me. Tell him I helped you.”
“If it works I’ll talk to Gus,” he said.
Sara opened the booklet and typed something into her phone. Brad sat on the bed beside her and watched as a spinning globe icon moved back and forth across the screen. “It’s searching,” she said. The duck shaped outline of Iceland filled the screen and then began to zoom in toward the south coast. “It’s working,” she said. The screen zoomed in and then stopped with a red dot blinking in the centre. Sara moved her fingers across the screen and the image zoomed out. “That’s us here,” she said pointing at the map, “heres the town of Vik and the red flashing dot is your phone. It looks likes it twenty or thirty kilometres outside of Vik.”
“Is it moving?” Brad asked.
Sara zoomed the image so that the flashing red dot was centred. It was flashing at the end of a winding road that lead off the main coast road. “Nope looks likes its stopped,” she said.
“Any way of showing how much battery the phone has left?” Brad asked knowing he was asking for the impossible.
“Sorry all it gives me is the phones position,” she said putting her hand on his leg and stroking upwards. “Can you make the call to Gus?”
Brad pulled away from her and stood up. “Once I finish this job I’ll make the call. Until then hang tight.” He went outside and checked the glovebox of his rental car. Inside was a wrinkled and folded map of Iceland. He took it out and smoothed it open on the hood of the car. The gps location of his phone looked to be around an hours drive from his current location. It’s time he thought to himself and he felt the old familiar throb in his skull. He knew that he had no other choice but to kill them both. Twelve hours after that he could be back home as if it never happened. He knew that no matter how far he got away from where their bodies were buried in some remote location he would still hear them whispering from beneath the soil as he tossed and turned in bed. Their voices would be joined by the deathly whispers from all the other unmarked graves he had dug and filled. He took out his notebook of debts and ran his finger over the crumpled pages, this time it gave him no reassurance.
Brad looked around before he popped the trunk open and took the rifle out from the bag. He raised it up and held it flush against his shoulder. He looked through the scope and followed the flight of a raven across the open field in front of him. He readjusted the scope and glassed the road off in the distance. An old man wearing a floppy straw hat was walking along the road. The distortion in the scope gave his head a slightly bulbous proportion. Cheap scope Brad thought to himself, I should have caught that. You’re getting sloppy the prodding doubts in the back of his mind declared. He followed the old man as he walked along the side of the road, Brad pivoted at the hips as he followed his target. He pulled the trigger, its action smooth and oiled. The man walked on enjoying the sunny morning. He took out some shells and loaded the rifle and placed it back in the bag, he threw a blanket over the bag and closed the trunk.
Sara looked at him when he entered the cabin. He suspected she had been watching his every move through the window. “We leave now,” he said, “grab your stuff.”
“I’m of no use to you out there,” she stammered,” what if Lana sees me?”
“That wont matter either way. I need you to man the gps. Lets go. No discussion,” he said standing in the doorway with his thumbs hooked into his belt.
Once in the car and back on the main road Brad said, “Can you calculate driving time to their location on the map?” Brad said.
“Give me a second,” Sara said as she typed a command into the phone. “Two hours away,” she said.
The roads were clear at this time of the morning but Brad kept well under the speed limit. He had seen some local law enforcement parked on the edge of town, watching the passage of tourist rental cars and camper vans stream by. Brad didn’t need a tangle with the local law if it could be helped.
They travelled in silence and
around an hour away from the location of the gps signal Sara looked up from the phone and said, “Their on the move. They have hit the main road and they are heading,” she paused for a second and Brad hoped he would catch an easy break, “they are heading away from us. Along the main coast road.” Brad cursed and increased his speed.
“Whats up ahead?” Brad asked.
Sara looked at the map, scrolling it and zooming in and said, “They are an hour away from what looks like a small village and then after that its maybe a few hours to the next town.”
“Any turns off the main road before the next village?” he asked.
She squinted at the map and zoomed out to get a better view. “There’s several roads that lead off from where they are now and the village.” She counted them out loud and said, “There’s ten or so roads they could take off the main road. Some seem to lead to dead ends, probably to farmhouses. A few go up into the mountains and others connect up to a road leading through the centre of the country.”
“Fuck,” Brad said slamming his fist onto the steering wheel. The centre of the country was a vast wasteland of arid dessert and the only roads through it were dirt. To take those roads you needed a vehicle with four wheel drive as many rivers had to be crossed. The land was harsh and inhospitable and as the pamphlet that came with his rental car informed Brad, the car he currently had was not suitable for a journey into the highlands. If they took those roads he’d have lost them, the time it would take Brad to travel around the country the long way would give them ample time to either flee the country or disappear completely.
Sara’s finger tapped on the screen several times and the colour washed out of her face. Brad glanced at her and said, “Whats wrong?”
She hesitated for a second and then said, “I’ve lost the gps signal. The battery must have died.” She shrunk back in her seat as if expecting a blow from his fist.
