Cabin Fever
Part 2: It's a River in Egypt
One
"Face, you warm enough to try picking this one?" Hannibal asked.
The team had gone exploring the station, which seemed much friendlier with the lights and heat turned on. Every door was unlocked, except one at the end of a long narrow corridor, tucked away beyond the boiler room.
Face stepped up to the door and checked the lock. "No problem." There were probably keys around somewhere, Face figured, but it was always good to practice. The lock presented no challenge and Face picked it in twenty seconds.
The room beyond it was tiny; in fact all four men couldn't fit in. It held only a workbench and above that, fixed to the wall, a gun rack with four hunting rifles. Face checked drawers under the workbench and found ammunition and cleaning tools.
"Nice." Hannibal took a rifle down. "All Winchesters."
"I thought that Mountie said they was scientists who stayed here," BA said, peering into the room, past Murdock. "Why'd they have guns?"
"Maybe there's game around in the summer," Hannibal said. "Caribou or something."
"Er, Hannibal," Murdock said. "I can't see a bunch of professors and grad students dragging in and butchering a caribou. The rifles are probably for defence, you know against bears or wolves."
"Wolves?" BA sounded alarmed. "There's wolves around here?"
"Maybe. Maybe not this time of year though. What's wrong BA?" Murdock grinned. "You afraid of the big bad wolf?"
"Shut up, fool."
"We, um, we going to mention this little collection to Decker?" Face asked.
"Oh, I don't think there's any hurry for that." Hannibal put the rifle back on the rack. "Come on, let's get out of here before he comes looking for us."
They met up with Decker coming out of the radio room.
"Baker said he's going to see if he can find a pilot willing to attempt the trip up here."
"Great!" Hannibal said, grinning. Decker didn't smile.
"He wasn't optimistic. Presumably the local pilots aren't insane, unlike..."
"Watch it, man," BA snapped, scowling at Decker. Decker didn't look intimidated, but he didn't finish his remark. It seemed he'd already worked out that only BA got to insult Murdock.
"Have you found the station manager's office?" Decker asked Hannibal.
"Yeah, other end of the corridor. Face and me were just going to check it out and find the operations manual. Murdock and BA are going to get some food started."
Decker nodded. "Agreed."
"I wasn't asking for permission. But you can tag along if you want."
"Tag along..."
"Let's go, big guy, I'm hungry." Murdock ran off to the kitchen. BA followed, grousing to himself about wolves.
The station manager's office was really a cubicle, sectioned off in a room with four other desks.
Face wandered around the room. There were several filing cabinets and many shelves, full of books and scientific journals. He opened a tall cupboard to find it held stationery supplies. Three of the desks had electric typewriters on them, the fourth a computer terminal.
While Face explored the rest of the room Decker and Hannibal went straight for the manager's desk. Face saw them go into the cubicle and then both spring forward fast. Now what had they found to fight over?
Decker was fastest this time and held up a large bunch of keys, making them rattle and clank. He turned to Hannibal smirking. Hannibal scowled.
Here we go again, Face thought. Fearing another scene like in the radio room when the two had struggled for the gun Face started opening and banging desk drawers, making the colonels look over.
"Everything okay there, Face?" Hannibal asked.
"Yeah, just seeing if I could find a ruler. Had an idea it might be useful about now."
Hannibal shook his head a tiny smile on his face. Decker just frowned.
"Okay, Decker," Hannibal said with a shrug. "You hang onto your rattle, if it makes you happy. It doesn't matter. You've got your keys, I've got Face and his lock picks, so we're pretty even."
"Is the station manual there?" Face asked. If they were going to survive the night those two needed to stop bickering and get to work.
"Yes." Decker held up a large folder.
"Better get studying then."
~~~~
BA and Murdock made dinner, out of cans and boxes and frozen food and they ate at a long table in the dining area, a room between the kitchen and the rec room. Pages from the station's operations manual had been removed and distributed to them all for study.
"Says here," BA said, "that we can get some of our heat from an under floor system, using hot air created by burning stuff in the incinerator."
"I saw cords of wood in the shack where the fuel drums are stored," Face said.
"Eight bedrooms," Murdock said, looking at the floor plan. "A big workshop, BA. Ah, a kennel, so at least Billy has some place to stay." He grinned around but got no reaction from the others who were too intent on their food and studying. Murdock turned back to the floor plan. "Ooh, an indoor greenhouse! We can grow some fresh food."
Hannibal glanced at Murdock. "I wasn't planning on staying long enough to plant a garden."
"Oh, I know," Murdock said. "But, well, if we can't get out..."
"We'll get out."
"Okay, Hannibal." Murdock looked at Hannibal, looked worried. "Do you think Baker can really find a pilot willing to fly up and rescue us? Thing is I'm not sure I want him to. If it's really that dangerous I don't want some guy risking his neck for us."
"Me neither," Hannibal agreed. "That's why I think we have to get ourselves out. We have to walk out of here."
"You heard what Baker said," Decker reminded him. "About frozen corpses?"
"Baker doesn't know us," Hannibal said. "He doesn't know what we can do."
"No, but he knows this country. He knows what it can do."
"You're welcome to stay behind," Hannibal said. "Though how you'll tell your CO later that you just let the A-Team walk away from you..."
"Yeah, so come along, Rod," Murdock said, teasing. "Consider it as being in really, really close pursuit. Also if we run out of food, well you look like you could be damn tasty with some Cajun spices."
~~~~
Hannibal jerked awake as a mug of coffee was banged down on the station manager's desk right beside his head. He sat up as Decker sat down opposite him.
"And when exactly were you going to tell me about the rifles?"
Hannibal peered at him, and then rubbed his eyes, dislodging a Post-It note that had stuck to his cheek when his face settled onto the desk sometime during the night. The little yellow square fluttered down onto the pile of paper and maps.
"Huh?" Hannibal said thickly.
Decker tapped on a floor plan of the station. The small armoury was marked. Hannibal shrugged and picked up the mug of coffee.
"What makes you think we were even in there?" He sipped the coffee nonchalantly
Decker snorted at that. "I could smell Peck's cologne."
"Funny," Hannibal said. His head was pounding from the late night and his neck was protesting about him sleeping with his head on a desk.
Decker glanced over at the papers Hannibal had been using as a pillow. "So I assume you have one of your usual foolproof plans?"
"Oh you mean like the ones that we've used to escape from you so many times?" Hannibal matched Decker snark for snark.
"Not any more, Smith." Decker got out a cigarette and lit it. Hannibal wondered how many cigarettes Decker had left. He knew he himself had only two cigars left. Oh boy, he thought, we need to get out of here real fast.
~~~~
BA had been in the workshop since breakfast, building their sled. Decker, at BA's direction gathered wooden slats from shelves in the store rooms and helped him in the workshop. They made an unlikely team, but Hannibal let them get on with it, appreciating that Decker was mucking in. Face and Murdock were gathering supplies.
Hannibal himself continued plotting the route he planned to take. Late in the afternoon he got on the radio again and explained his plans to Captain Baker. Baker stayed silent until Hannibal finished.
"So, what do you think?" Hannibal asked finally.
"You'll make sure to wear those name tags I suggested?"
"That wasn't funny the first time, pal."
"All right, let me see. The journey you are describing is nearly two hundred miles. How many miles do you think you can do in a day?"
"I've calculated five."
"Er, even if you could do that, which you can't, then it would still take you over a month. Do you really think you can drag enough food for a month? And the community you're aiming for is no more accessible than you are there. Even in the summer it can only be reached by air. Right now it's as cut off as that station."
Hannibal hadn't thought of that. Still it was a town, people, plenty of food. Had to be better than just the five of them staying here.
"But..."
"Colonel, listen to me." Baker's voice went very serious. "I strongly advise you to stay where you are. If you attempt this journey you will die."
"We could die here, if there's not enough food or fuel to see us through to spring."
"Could beats will in my book, Colonel." His voice softened, became persuasive. "You can ration your food and fuel. I can give you advice on that. If the fuel runs low you have a lot of wood there to burn for heat." He was appealing to Hannibal now, almost pleading. "You can burn every stick of furniture in the place and I'll pay for it myself, if you'll just, please, stay there."
A sound at the doorway made Hannibal look up. Face was looking in at him, leaning against the door jamb, arms folded. How much had he heard? Hannibal wondered.
"I'll get back to you later, Captain." Hannibal closed the connection. He looked at Face. "Baker doesn't know us, Face. He doesn't know what we can do."
"Decker knows us and what we can do. And he doesn't think we should try it either."
"Oh, so Decker's in charge now?" Hannibal snapped.
Hannibal regretted his tone at once as Face pushed away from the door and turned and walked away.
"Damn." Hannibal muttered. He should have slept properly last night. His head and neck still hurt despite pain killers and he was irritable as hell. That conversation with Baker hadn't helped. Was Baker right? Was Decker right? Was this a suicide mission? Maybe Hannibal needed to face facts.
Murdock burst into the room.
"Hannibal, come and see!" Murdock was as excited as a kid. "BA's finished the sled. It's a beaut!" He ran out again. Hannibal grinned and followed Murdock out.
Next
Previous
Cabin Fever Index
Home
Send Me Feedback
© Elizabeth Charles 2006