The Immortal Harvest (2 page)

“
Using a satellite with newly developed microwave radar system, they have discovered a large deposit of exotic metals in an unexplored area of Antarctica
.”

Matt’s heart raced at the prospect of being the first Geologist to provide the samples required to confirm the find. However, the breakdown of the find was both baffling and suspicious.

“According to this report you have apparently discovered an exotic metal compound containing Beryllium, Iridium, Cobalt and Titanium. That’s preposterous. It cannot exist naturally; your instruments need to be recalibrated.”

“That’s why we have invited you and Mr Webb here to this meeting. Our company needs solid evidence. We need you to go to Antarctica and bring back samples. We do not know how to proceed until we have had a chance to do a detailed analysis with actual samples. Now gentlemen, when can you leave?”

Matt was excited for the duration of the preparations to embark on this adventure. He had spent many nights with Bob arguing over the best type of equipment to take, the best time of year to leave and the best place to set up the base camp.

They had both decided the simplest way to make the journey to Antarctica would be to travel via military cargo plane from Australia to Davis station. Luckily for them it was summer.

From Davis they could then travel to Byrd Station in the unclaimed area of Antarctica, known as Marie Byrd Land.

Permission was granted by the US Department of Defence to use Byrd Station as their base. The following morning, they set out on the arduous journey towards the Sentinel Mountain Range that contained within it the mountain known as Vinson Massif. The exact co-ordinates of which contained the metal. Matt had set the co-ordinates seventy eight point three one south, eighty five point three seven west into the GPS.

He double checked all of their equipment. There was no margin for error in such a hostile environment.

They had started out using snow mobiles. Matt had made sure that they had sufficient fuel for the journey both to and from Vinson Massif. Unfortunately, on the third day of their trek they lost the snowmobiles.

Although it was midsummer, the weather had begun to close in. The bitterly cold Antarctic wind licked at whatever pieces of flesh it could access, like some ravenous wolf.

They had agreed to stop, make camp and hunker down for the duration of the blizzard. They barely had time to erect their tents when the blizzard struck. It prevailed for five hours and then eventually subsided. The tents were almost completely covered by the snow.

After successfully digging themselves out of their tents they discovered that, somehow during the night, the snowmobiles had disappeared. Bob was livid.

“God damn it! How could two snowmobiles just disappear?”

He kicked at the freshly dumped piles of snow, hoping to hear the sound of impacted metal. There was nothing but snow. Matt stood in the snow outside of his tent scratching his head. The disappearance of the machines was illogical.

“I don’t know Bob. You don’t think they were stolen do you?”

“What the fuck? Mate, I doubt if there’s anyone within a thousand miles of here. The only other living creatures we’ve seen have been seals and penguins. Do you think a fucking seal stole them? What about those pesky Penguins from Madagascar?” he asked sarcastically.

“Well, maybe the blizzard has blown them away from here. Maybe we should take a look around. They may not be too far away.” Matt tried to sound optimistic.

“Ok that sounds feasible, it’s been pretty blowy. We’ll each travel in a larger circle in opposite directions around our present position and see if we can find them, I need a piss anyway.” With that, Bob turned on his heel and stormed off away from the camp. Matt yelled after him.

“Ok but keep you’re walkie talkie on so we don’t lose each other.”

Bob waved his hand in the air in acknowledgement of Matt’s request and kept walking.

The area around where they had set up camp was flat with the occasional black glistening boulder protruding from the ice.

Like giant sentinels, the boulders cast eerie shadows across the surrounding ice and snow. In the distance, across the bleakness, loomed the ominous signs of further bad weather. Bulbous black lumps of cloud rushed across the sky as though they were sheep pursued by wolves. Matt shuddered and walked slowly outbound from the camp.

He scanned the horizon to see if he could make out any tell tale signs of where the two snowmobiles could have travelled, had they been swept along by the cyclonic force of the blizzard. There were none.

After trekking for approximately half an hour he decided to call Bob on his radio.

“Bob this Matt, come in, over,” there was silence. He tried again. “Bob can you hear me? This is Matt. Where are you? – Over.”

The eerie sound of static emanated from the radio speaker. Matt waited for a minute. He thought that Bob could have been out of range or behind one of the boulders. He tried the walkie talkie again.

“Bob, this is Matt if you can hear this transmission please respond, over.”

Matt could feel his blood pressure begin to rise as his heart started to beat quicker. His thoughts raced to find logical reasons for Bob’s lack of response. He began to doubt himself.

Did I check the batteries in Bob’s radio?

He went over his checklist in his mind. Satisfied that he had checked the radio batteries he turned back towards the camp. He needed a new plan.

He decided the best course of action would be to go back to the camp and follow Bob’s track in the snow and hope that any fresh snow flurries had not already erased them. He was cognisant of the fact that the weather was about to close in again. Huge black clouds were piling up, threatening to unleash more of nature’s fury. He picked up his pace as a flush of anger surged through him.

Damn it Bob! You better not be messing with me

It took twenty minutes for him to make it back to their camp. He surveyed the scene; there were no signs of disturbance. He left to follow Bob’s tracks which had led away from the camp in the opposite direction. He tried the radio again.

“Bob, this is Matt. Please respond, over.”

He left his finger off the button and listened intently for the slightest trace of a response. The radio was silent. He quickly flicked through the emergency frequencies and heard nothing but the background noise of the Universe. He angrily thrust the radio into his jacket pocket and stomped off across the bleak expanse.

After following the trail for a couple of kilometres Matt approached a cluster of boulders. The tracks were confusing. They appeared to be smeared. There was no distinction in the tracks as if they had been swept or rubbed out by something. It was then that he noticed the blood. An involuntary shudder raced up his spine.

What the hell has happened here?

His blood ran cold. There was lump in the pit of his stomach. He knew that something horrible had happened. He took a closer look at the ground around where he stood.

The ice was covered in a slick red stain. There was a definite trail leading away from the rock cluster that looked as if something had been dragged. He followed the trail.

Within fifty meters there was another cluster of rocks. He stopped. He could hear moaning coming from behind one of the boulders. He ran towards the noise. He could feel his pulse pounding in his ears.

As he rounded the boulder, he was terrified to be confronted by a massive leopard seal. It appeared to be gnawing on a bloodied mass of flesh and fabric. Matt’s confusion was overshadowed by a surge of adrenalin when he realised that it was one of Bob’s legs, the rest of his body obscured by the beast.

Running on pure instinct, Matt moved quickly, circling around the beast as he released the clip on the flap of the scabbard of his hunting knife and swiftly extracted the blade.

What I really need is a bloody elephant gun
, he thought as he finally had Bob in full view and he could see that he was writhing on the ground swearing, and trying desperately to kick the huge animal with his free leg.

“Get the fuck off me ya oversized tub of lard,” Bob screamed as he struggled to free himself from the growling giant.

The massive seal threw back its head. The movement tore further into Bob’s flesh and he screamed in agony. Blood spurted and splattered across the rocks and snow.

The adrenalin associated with Matt’s fear motivated him to action. He raised his knife and lunged at the animal, landing awkwardly on the beast’s blubbery back, using his momentum to plunge the knife into its bulbous shoulder.

The giant seal roared, instantly letting go of Bob’s leg as it threw its enormous body upwards in an attempt to dislodge his assailant.

He jumped sideways off the seal’s back, pulling the knife from the beast’s shoulder and then in one swift movement he plunged the knife into the beast’s side.

The seal roared again and swung its giant head around in an attempt to latch on to Matt’s arm. Luckily for Matt, the knife wound had proven fatal as the beast expelled one last breath of agony and despair as it collapsed on the ground. Blood spurted from its gaping wound. Miraculously he had punctured through layers of blubber and had lacerated the beasts liver. Within seconds the animal was dead.

Just to be sure, Matt grabbed the knife and slashed the animal across its massive throat.

“Die you bastard!” he screamed, as the blade sliced through the layers of blubber around its thick bulbous neck, causing a torrent of gore to discharge on the ice.

The adrenalin continued to course through Matt’s body. He gasped for breath as he tried to control his breathing. After several moments had passed, he had regained control sufficiently to render Bob assistance.

He grabbed his emergency medical kit out of his back pack and rushed in behind the boulder to where Bob was lying. He was covered in blood. Matt suppressed the urge to vomit as he tried to assess his injuries.

During Matt’s life or death struggle, Bob had passed out from the pain and by the time he had regained consciousness, Matt had managed to stitch up the jagged wounds on his leg.

He had melted ice using an instant heat pack and used the water to clean up the blood. He had to move quickly to cover the leg with a thick layer of bandages to prevent the wound from freezing.

In his struggle with the seal, Bob had had his balaclava torn off. Matt saw the familiar black headwear on the bloodied snow and as he went to retrieve it, he heard Bob moan. He turned and smiled as he witnessed the confused look on Bob’s face be superseded by contortion, as the pain from his injury invaded his consciousness.

He strode quickly back and pulled the balaclava back over Bob’s head. He placed his hand on Bob’s shoulder and held out his hand.

“You were lucky. I managed to patch you up. You don’t appear to have any broken bones.

“Here, take these codeine tablets, they will help with the pain,” Matt said as he handed Bob a cup of the melted ice water and poked the tablet under Bob’s balaclava.

“Thanks mate, I owe you one,” Bob said as he hurried to slurp the water before it resumed its solid state.

“I have been trying to contact you on your radio. What happened to it?’ Matt said as he looked around at the aftermath of the attack.

“I threw the radio at that nasty son of a bitch. It caught the bloody thing in its mouth and crushed it.

“The ugly prick caught me by surprise while I was taking that piss. Lucky you found me when you did. I thought I was a goner.”

Matt couldn’t help but laugh at the comical image.

“Come on we had better get you back to the camp. The weather is closing in again,” he said as he helped Bob to his feet. “Here, lean on me, I’ll help you walk.”

“Fuck off, I’m not an invalid. I can walk by myself,” Bob said angrily as he gingerly stood and placed weight on his injured leg.

“Ok suit yourself but you had better hurry up or we’ll lose our tracks back to the camp.” Matt said as he turned to leave.

“Yeah, yeah I’ll get there,” Bob said as he began hobbling in pursuit of Matt.

By the time the two geologists had returned to the camp, the first blasts of icy wind were beginning to increase in intensity. They had to shout at each other to be heard.

“I think it might be best to hunker down and ride this one out, we’ll head off again in the morning. Your leg should be a bit stronger by then,” Matt yelled as he made exaggerated arm movements and hand signals to make his point.

“Good idea. I could use the rest to recuperate. By the way, I’m starving; do you have any of those fancy rations on your sled?”

Matt struggled against the wind to retrieve the pack containing the instant heat meals or fancy rations as Bob called them. The large waterproof sack which contained the meals had been opened. The meals were gone. He turned towards Bob and shrugged and then began rifling through every pack on the sled. His search proved fruitless.

“They’re gone.”

“What do you mean? How could they be gone? I haven’t eaten them. Have you?”

“No of course I haven’t eaten them. Check your sled. They can’t just disappear.”

“First the snowmobiles disappear and now the food. There’s something strange going on. Maybe we should contact Byrd station and alert them to our situation,” Bob said as he opened each of the packs in his sled and scrutinised the contents His search also proved fruitless.

“I’ve already tried to contact them. I think the storm is interfering with the signal. I’ll try again in the morning. Have you found anything in your gear?”

Bob shook his head and yelled to be heard over the roar of the wind.

“We had better sleep in shifts. I think one of us should stay awake to keep an eye on our stuff.”

“That’s a good idea. You need to rest up and let that wound heal a bit Bob. I’ll take the first watch and I will wake you in four hours,” Matt said as he sat down on his sled.

“I’m not sure if I’ll be able to sleep. I am still hungry,” Bob said as he patted his gut.

Matt reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a muesli bar and handed it to Bob. “Here, eat this, it should be enough to help you sleep.”