Cabin Fever Part 1 Chapter 4

Four

Hannibal and Decker froze.

Face, Murdock and BA stared at the radio for a long time. Then Face spoke.

"Er, say again."

"I said April. Or, well if you're lucky mid March, but that depends on -"

"April? April as in spring? April as in spring next year?" Face sounded like he was having trouble understanding.

"It's the weather systems you see. The storms come down off the glacier."

Decker scrambled out from under Hannibal and stood up. Hannibal stood up too.

"And now the days are getting so short too -"

"That's ridiculous!" Decker snapped. He took the microphone back from Face. "I have dangerous prisoners here! I demand -"

"Oh, be a man, Decker." Hannibal sneered. "We're not going to hurt you."

"You just attacked me!"

"Well..." Okay, he had a point, Hannibal thought, but then shrugged. He smiled, a tad smug. "Anyway, dangerous is disputable, but we're certainly not your prisoners any more." He nodded over to Murdock who was holding Decker's pistol. Not pointing, just holding. Decker scowled and turned back to the radio.

"Let me speak to your supervisor." Decker said.

"Well, okay. He's not going to tell you any different though. I'll go get him."

"Helpful these Canadian folks." Face said, dryly. He glanced over at the window. It was already growing dark again outside. Snow swirled. "Hannibal," Face went on, "I don't know about April, but I do know we're going to be here tonight. I think we need to find the generator, before dark."

Hannibal nodded. "Good idea, Face. You and BA go see what you can find, get us some heat and light."

Decker barely noticed them go. He stood by the radio looking as if he was fuming.

Your plan slipped a cog, huh, Decker? Hannibal thought, trying to keep himself from smirking.

A new voice came over the radio.

"Captain Baker here. Are you there, Colonel Decker?"

"Yes, now listen to me, man -"

"I'm sorry, Colonel. What the constable told you is correct. It's impossible to reach the area you're in before the spring. The only access is by helicopter and the days are too short and the weather too unpredictable. You should never have been flying up there in the first place."

"Yes." Decker glared at Murdock, who looked at the floor. "We know that. But you can't just leave us here!"

"You'll be fine." Baker sounded unconcerned. "Teams have stayed up there for the winter before."

"What about food and fuel?" Decker asked.

"Well, you'll have to check yourselves, but it's an eight man station and only four people were there over the summer, so there should be plenty of supplies left."

"Should be?" Hannibal said. "That's reassuring."

"I'll do that inventory, Colonel," Murdock said, a slightly forced enthusiasm in his voice.

"Good. Pay special attention to anything we can transport easily."

The other two looked at him.

"Transport?" Decker asked.

"Yeah. If the Mounties think I'm sitting here looking at your face until the spring they're nuts." The face in question warred between a smile and a scowl, as if Decker agreed with the sentiment, if not the way it was expressed. Hannibal stepped up and took the microphone.

"Okay, Baker. There have to be maps here, we can plot a route out, you can help with that. There must be survival gear too. My plan is simple. We build a sled and walk out of here. You'll need to tell me where we should make for."

"Who is this?"

"Colonel Smith."

"Er, two colonels? Which of you is in charge?"

"Me." Hannibal and Decker said together and glared at each other.

"Colonel Smith is my prisoner," Decker said. "I'm in charge."

"What do you think of my idea?" Hannibal asked Baker, ignoring Decker.

"A sled?" Baker said, sounding dubious. "You're going to build one?"

"We happen to be real good at that sort of thing." Hannibal grinned at Murdock and winked. Murdock smiled back, rather wanly.

"But you have no dogs to pull it." Baker said.

"We'll pull it."

"I see." Baker was silent a moment. "Can I make one suggestion?"

"Of course," Hannibal said. "Any advice you can give us that will help us out."

"Could you all wear name tags?"

"Huh?" Hannibal frowned. "How will that help?"

"Well it will make it so much easier for us to identify you when we dig out your frozen corpses in the spring."

They all heard giggling in the background. Hannibal and Decker looked at each other, frowning.

"We've got a real comedian here." Hannibal said to Decker, and then turned back to the microphone. "Listen, pal, we're all soldiers, war vets. We're trained in survival."

"A lot of snow in Vietnam was there?" More giggling.

Hannibal closed the microphone. "I can't wait to meet this guy. I'm gonna pop him so hard."

Decker looked as if he agreed. He gestured for the microphone, Hannibal handed it over.

"Look, Captain Baker, this just isn't acceptable. What if one of us gets sick, or hurt?"

Hannibal glanced from Decker over to Murdock. Yeah, what if one of them did get sick? How likely was the infirmary here to have that kind of medication?

"The infirmary should be fully stocked. We can bring in a doctor to advise you over the radio if you don't have one of your own there. Colonel, um, whichever of you is in charge. What you need to do now is find the station manager's office and find the station operations manual. The manual will tell you everything you need to know about living there, all the jobs you need to do. Getting the generator running must be your priority."

Right on cue a lamp on the desk came on. Murdock quickly ran and flicked on the overhead lights. He turned off the desk lamp.

"Yeah, looks like we got that part figured out." Hannibal said. He got up. He was tired of talking to Baker. Tired of being told to sit tight. "Come on," he said to Murdock. "Let's start that inventory." They left Decker arguing with Baker over the radio

"Hannibal," Murdock said as they left the radio room and headed along the main corridor. Hannibal flicked light switches as he passed and the corridor was flooded in fluorescent light. "Hannibal, I feel really bad about this." He passed Decker's pistol to Hannibal.

"Thanks." Hannibal put the handgun in his pocket. "It's not your fault, Murdock."

"Decker told me to head for Juno. I should have, but I thought I'd be smart. I wanted to land us somewhere in Canada."

"Logical. You figured that would buy us time. The Canadians would lock us up but -"

"But then the US would have to extradite us and that kind of thing can take months and meantime -"

"We could figure out a way to escape and get home." Hannibal nodded, following Murdock's thinking.

Murdock nodded too, looking sad at the word 'home'. He wasn't going home this time, Hannibal thought. Murdock moved jerkily, uncomfortably as they walked.

"I didn't crash on purpose, Hannibal. I swear. I just got lost."

Hannibal frowned. On purpose? He'd never thought Murdock had crashed on purpose. Why would Murdock believe anyone thought that? He put a hand on Murdock's shoulder.

"Captain, you were acting for the best. It's not your fault it backfired."

"It sure did that!" Murdock sighed hugely, shaking his head. "How the hell are we going to cope being stuck here with Decker till the spring?"

"We won't have to. I'm not sitting on my butt for four months. We are getting out of here, Murdock. I swear that to you."

End part 1

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