A Blizzard of Polar Bears by Alice Henderson

Author:Alice Henderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: William Morrow
Published: 2021-11-09T00:00:00+00:00

Nineteen

The next morning they donned their boots and parkas and crawled out of the tent, blinking in the overcast day. The cloud ceiling was low, covering the ice in a dense layer of fog. There was no way a search and rescue helicopter would be out that morning.

“What do you think?” Casey asked as mist swirled around him.

“What’s your watch say?”

He looked at the barometer. “No signs of letting up. Should we continue to make our way west? We don’t have a lot of food. We’d be closer to rescue if we headed that way.”

“We also might be closer to our two attackers.”

Casey pursed his lips. “True. But SAR will be searching the area nearer the downed helicopter first, and that’s west. It might be our best bet. They might not sweep this far east. They might even think we’ve fallen in and drowned.”

Alex bit her lip. He had a point. “Okay. West it is. We’ll just keep an eye out.”

They packed up the tent and supplies. Alex took the first turn with the backpack.

As they worked their way west, trudging along the ice, the cloud ceiling began to lower. Casey checked his barometer. “We’re in for another storm.”

Bundled in her parka and multitude of layers, Alex was warm now, carrying the pack. But she knew when they stopped to rest, the cold would seep in. The mist descended, swirling around them. The wind picked up, pressing against her clothes. Her hood flapped against her ears.

The wind droned, a low, mournful sound, and she perked up, stopping.

Casey fell in beside her. “What is it?”

“I heard something . . .”

She put her hood down, tensed. The low groan wasn’t the wind. It sounded like an engine, somewhere far off. “Do you hear that?”

He frowned, trying to pinpoint the direction. “Yeah.”

They stood together, listening, as the sound faded away.

“Snowmobile?” she asked.

“I think so.”

“Maybe just one, though.”

“That’s what I was thinking.”

They stood motionless a few more minutes, listening, but the sound didn’t come again.

Finally she lifted her hood, grateful for the warmth. Her eardrums ached from the cold wind.

“I’ll take that for a while,” Casey offered, gesturing to the pack. They traded. The cold moved into the middle of her back where the pack had been.

They continued west, and soon a dark smudge in the distance attracted her gaze. She pointed it out. The fog was so thick she couldn’t make out what it was, but it was immobile. They made their way toward it, and she saw with a sinking feeling that it was another set gun. As they drew closer, she saw with relief that no polar bear lay sprawled at its base. Another large chunk of narwhal meat was attached to the wire leading to the trigger.

“Goddamnit,” she cursed, staring down at the frozen whale meat. “How many of these things are out here?” Carefully, she detached the wire, bracing herself at the thought of accidentally setting off the gun.

They had nowhere to keep the evidence this time. She removed the gun from the box, then unstaked the entire contraption from the ice.

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