Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
We made it to the Italian station without issue.
The sky, while riddled with clouds, remained ash-free since the wind blew the pollution the other way.
No one remained at the station, the mess left behind indicated the personnel had hastily departed.
At least they’d left behind their supplies.
We had food to eat. Clothes, if we wanted to change. We also got our choice of rooms.
Despite Noah’s conviction he’d have nothing to do once we got there, he immediately located the abandoned communication system and began sending and replying to messages.
My satellite phone needed charging, so, while it juiced, I made a mug of coffee and stood by a window, staring at the dark plume rising in the distance.
We might be over three hundred kilometers from Erebus and the other spewing volcanoes, but the miasma could still be seen, as could the ominous mountain.
Every time I glanced at it, I couldn’t help but shiver.
Joslyn joined me. “What an adventure thus far. Giles is going to be in his glory putting the next episodes of the show together.”
“Sorry you didn’t have a chance to load all your equipment.” In their rush to rescue me, they’d not bothered, and now McMurdo Station couldn’t be accessed. “Guess it’s a good thing you and Vernon were uploading your footage daily to the cloud for storage.”
“You only have to lose one memory card with a week’s worth recordings to realize backups are necessary.” Joslyn grimaced. “I’m still shocked you didn’t fire me for that fuck up.”
“We all learned a lesson that day.” One, you couldn’t always trust the locals.
Two, even if you did recover the equipment that had been stolen, that didn’t mean they hadn’t already wiped the storage.
And three, mishaps happened, and when they occurred in interesting places, you got to vacation for longer.
“You do realize the story you’re going to be able to produce from this might get nominated for awards.”
“What story? Volcanoes explode.” I took a sip of coffee.
“Wasn’t talking about that, but the alien hiding in that mountain.”
“Don’t assume it’s real. I might have imagined it all.” Far from the pit of ice, I found it easy to convince myself I’d hallucinated.
“We all heard the voice.”
“It could have been a random message received through the headsets. Or maybe one of those fissures that opened up released some type of gas that made us think we heard something.”
A very unladylike noise escaped from Joslyn.
“You’re really stretching there. I know you prefer to debunk the heeby jeeby stuff, but even you have to admit, something is going on.
Too many people are experiencing the exact same thing.
Although, I find it weird how your dream features an eyeball, but everyone else seems to get the ice cave. ”
“Not true. Last night, people dreamt of volcanoes.” Which, in hindsight, I should have heeded.
“I gotta ask, why did it choose you as its baby mama? Why not someone at McMurdo that would have been wetting her panties at the chance?”
While I wish I could retort that no women would ever want to be used in such a manner, I didn’t, because Joslyn had a point. The voice, alien, whatever, could have convinced at least one female to be its egg donor.
I cradled my cooling mug and shrugged. “Honestly, nothing makes sense, and I’m still not convinced any of it is real.”
“Still going with the mass psychosis theory.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time in history a bunch of people exposed to an environmental contaminant convinced themselves of something.”
“I hope not. I mean, how cool would it be if there was an alien?” Trust Joslyn to sound excited.
“So cool. I mean, forget the fact it plans to eat people and to make babies with my eggs.” My reply emerged a tad dry.
Joslyn grinned. “I’ll bet they’d be cute. As for devouring some of the population, the talking head know-it-alls are always claiming that to save the planet, we need fewer people. Could be a win, especially if we started by giving it the assholes first.”
“Pick and choose who dies?”
“Sacrifices are known to appease gods, so why not an alien?”
“How much Aztec blood have you got running in your veins?”
“None. But I am part Viking,” Joslyn proudly declared.
Noah joined us, looking grim.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Bad news. Word is, we aren’t being rescued anytime soon.”
“Why not?”
“All inbound aircraft have been ground due to the detection of several unidentified aerial objects moving rapidly towards Antarctica.”
“UFOS?” Joslyn exclaimed, practically bouncing.
“Maybe, although, word is three of them are rather small for that and their shape is all wrong. The Air Force is scrambling some recon jets to see what the hell is in the sky.”
“As if we didn’t have enough to deal with,” I grumbled.
“Might be nothing, but they’re being cautious.”
“I don’t suppose you’d repeat that for the cameras?” Joslyn asked.
Noah shook his head. “I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it, but given the situation concerns us all, I thought you should know.”
“Bummer.” Joslyn gave a moue of disappointment that lasted a half second. “Wonder if I can charm one of the comms people into spilling.”
“No getting the married ones in trouble,” I admonished.
“I’m not going to sleep with them,” Joslyn exclaimed, only to grin. “Just use my phone sex voice to get what I want.”
Off she went, with sashaying hips, and I shook my head. “Sometimes I wonder if she’s the one who should be conducting interviews. She’s got a knack for ferreting information.”
“And you’re good at making sense of it and getting to the truth.”
“Not currently. I’ve never been so confused about anything.” I wasn’t used to not trusting my own senses.
“You’ve had a rough day. Why not lie down for a bit? Clear your head.”
“Will it help, though?”
“Worried you’ll have another dream.”
I hesitated before nodding my head.
“Want some company then to keep the nightmare at bay?”
“What I need is some stress relief.” Having almost died today, I thought I deserved a prize.
His lips curved. “I think I can help with that.”
The room we selected didn’t have much in the way of comfort. A bunk bed with a narrow mattress, but neither of us cared.
When he dragged me into his arms and kissed me, the urgency of his embrace matched my own frantic need.
He held me close, pressing my body against his.
His erection pressed against my belly. I slid my hands down his back, frustrated by his bulky jacket.
We peeled off our outer layers and spent a moment removing our snugly laced boots.
The interruption didn’t lessen the passion.
We soon came together again, lips locking with wild abandon, my hands stroking the firm muscles under his shirt before I tugged it free from his pants.
Sliding my hands up under the fabric, I reveled in the feel of his smooth flesh and raked my nails lightly over his abs to the button on his pants.
I flicked it out of the hole and tugged down his zipper, but before I could grab hold of him, his lips trailed sensually down the side of my neck.
Teasing the skin, nipping it, sending shivering pleasure through me.
It took careful maneuvering to get into the narrow bottom bunk. I lay down and perused him through passion-lidded eyes. What a physique. Toned all over. The scars peppering his flesh only adding to the canvas. I hoped one day he’d confide in me how he’d acquired them.
Apparently, my staring didn’t bother, because his cock swelled and twitched. I licked my lips and murmured, “Come closer.
He growled, “I won’t last if I let you have a taste.”
Instead, he chose to yank me sideways so my legs dangled off the bunk, and he knelt between them. He tugged at my pants, revealing me to his increasingly smoky gaze. Once he’d removed my slacks, he kissed his way up to my thighs.
He blew hotly on my sex, and I fisted the woolen blanket. He licked me, and a low guttural moan rolled free. His tongue teased and toyed, lapping at my clit, flicking it as I mewled. He fingered me as he worked my sensitive button, and a small orgasm hit.
As I trembled with it, he covered my body with his, the head of his cock nudging. He pushed into me, my still undulating muscles gripping him and reacting to this sudden thick rod. I dug my nails into his back as he seated himself deep, my hips angling to pull him deeper.
He began to pump, slowly, too slowly for my still pleasure coasting body.
“Harder,” I panted. “Faster.”
The resulting piston had me soundless as the blissful friction stole my breath. Triggered another orgasm. A big one this time that had me rippling around his cock, dragging forth his own climax.
He shuddered before collapsing on top of me. I stroked his back and hair, holding him to my breast.
“Fuck. Sorry I was so quick.”
I snorted. “I came twice before you did.”
The soft heat of his chuckle made me shiver. “Yeah, but I’d kind of hoped for a third.”
“Three? I’d probably die.” A joke, but he stiffened and uttered a soft apology.
“I’m sorry I left today.”
To soothe his obvious agitation, I traced my fingers over his flesh.
“You didn’t have a choice. If you’d landed that chopper, and it got sucked into a hole, we’d have all been screwed.
Leaving me for a little while to hit McMurdo for the right equipment was the smartest move.
Obviously, since I’m right here.” I wiggled my hips against him.
“You wouldn’t have almost gotten killed if I’d been more careful.”
“Pretty sure you had nothing to do with earthquakes and volcanoes exploding.”
“I should have kept you close to the base. I knew something was up.”
I rolled away from him and sat up. “Are you done with the self-flagellation? We made a rational decision with the information we had at the time. Second-guessing now accomplishes nothing.”
Expression still sober, he tucked an arm behind his head. “I realize I can’t change the past, which is why I’ll pay more attention in the future.”
“Pay attention to what? It’s not like the scientists gave warning,” I reminded as I snared my shirt.
“I should have listened to you when you questioned all the sensors going offline pretty much at once.”
“You said it’s happened before and not because of an eruption.” I threw back his argument.
“But that combined with the increased quakes and the dreams should have been my wakeup call that we needed to evacuate.”
“Pretty sure telling your higher-ups that people were having nightmares wouldn’t have been a convincing argument.”
“They would have laughed at me and likely reassigned me and ordered I see a therapist.” He stood and raked fingers through his hair, his taut body a thing of beauty to gaze upon despite his agitation. “I have to wonder if Greenfield had been better vetted, if all this could have been avoided.”
“Even if he did somehow wake those volcanoes, doesn’t matter. We should be concentrating on finding a way out of here.”
“Without a boat or a plane, we’re stuck.”
“What about relocating to another station?”
He shook his head. “Only if we have to. Here we have plenty of supplies and shelter. Who knows if we’d have the same elsewhere.”
“In that case, if we have to wait, I say we go for that triple.” I winked, and his expression instantly turned smoldering. We might have made an attempt right then and there but for a knock at the door to our room.
“What is it?” Noah barked even as he bent to grab his pants.
“Um, sorry to disturb, but we’ve got a visitor.” A discomfited Vernon stated. “He’s insisting on speaking with Velma.”
“Me?” My eyes widened. Who would be looking for me here?
“Where did he come from?” Noah asked, opening the door a crack but blocking it with his body while I scrambled to finish getting dressed.
“Dunno. Joslyn’s sleeping, and I was bored so I went outside for some air when he just suddenly appeared, walking around the side of the building.”
“Surely you heard the engine of whatever brought him.”
“No-pe.” Vernon popped the P. “Which is why he just about scared the piss out of me when he said hello.”
I buttoned my pants as Noah muttered. “This base was empty. I’d swear it.”
“Probably a refuge from McMurdo or Ross Station,” I suggested as I tugged on my boots.
“Maybe.” Noah didn’t sound convinced. “But why would they ask for you specifically?”
“To get on my show. People will do and say crazy stuff for their five minutes of fame.” I snagged my jacket. “Let’s go find out who this person is.”
“I’m more interested in knowing how they knew you were here.” Noah stayed slightly ahead of me as we headed for the exit outside, his stiff stalk, and even more rigid back, showed his wariness.
“Offended they asked for the civilian and not the captain?”
He shot me a look. “You don’t find it odd they’d want to speak with you and not someone who’s lived and breathed this continent for years?”
A valid point.
We exited to find the aforementioned stranger looking towards the mountain.
A man wearing way too little clothing considering the temperature outside.
Trousers, a sweater and a leather jacket, not even zipped up.
Shoes on his feet rather than proper boots.
No hat or gloves. He should have been freezing.
The stranger turned at our arrival, his features handsome enough, if you didn’t mind sharp edges. He offered a cool smile. “Evening, and sorry to disturb. You are Velma Jenkins?”
“Yes. And you are…”
“Alistair Graham.”
“Where did you come from?” Noah didn’t bark, but the query didn’t emerge very polite either.
“Originally Scotland, but I made a few stops to gather some companions before flying here to stop the coming calamity.”
“I think you’re too late. The volcanoes already blew,” I verbally pointed out while hugging my upper body.
“Even if they hadn’t, I’m not sure it would have mattered, given he’d already awoken. It was only a matter of time before he managed to free himself.”
Before I could think of formulating a reply—and stop playing ominous violins in my head—a mighty rumbling drew our gaze to the mountain. Rock tumbled and exploded as the entire ridge shook. A cloud of dust and snow expanded outward and obscured the range but not the terrifying noises it made.
“What’s happening?” Joslyn murmured, stumbling from the station.
I pointed to the mountain. We stared without speaking, waiting… Would a tidal wave of snow and ice race forth to crush us? Had another volcano exploded? As the haze dissipated, Veron exclaimed, “Does anyone else see what I’m seeing?”
Kind of hard to miss the movement of something massive rising from the debris. Tall enough for us to see more than a hundred miles away. It stretched its arms to the side, like I often did after a good nap.
My blood turned to ice and through numb lips I whispered, “Fuck.”
Looked like my alien nightmare had broken free.