Frozen Fear

Far North of the Arctic Circle:

The explorers trekked slowly and silently across the vast, empty expanse of the tundra. They were returning to base camp, the four of them bundled in countless layers, trudging through the sub-zero winds and rock-hard ice. Their mission was to collect data on the shrinking ice cap, and they had spent all day collecting samples of the ice cores, which they pulled along in a cooler placed on a sled. It was impossible to tell what time of day it was. There was no sound except the wind howling by their ears. No footsteps could be heard, as the snow underfoot was too frozen to crunch.

They were about half an hour from camp when

CRUNCH!

The man walking in the back stopped.

"Did you guys hear that?" he said to the other three.

"I didn't hear anything." They all nodded in agreement and kept walking. The man in the rear just shrugged his shoulders and trudged

CRUNCH!

He spun around. His eyes darted across the blank canvas landscape. Scanning the wasteland, he saw nothing. He turned around and caught back up to the group.

"You guys sure you haven't heard anything?"

"You're getting paranoid, Clark. Make sure you get a good sleep in when we get back."

Clark sighed loudly and fell back in line. He looked from side to side, searching for whatever had

CRUNCH!

"I heard it that time," said the third man in line. "Clark's right. I heard a big crunching noise."

"Great work Clark, now you've got Hal going," said the first in line. "Seriously, guys. There's nothing

CRUNCH!

"Shit," said the first in line. "Whatever it is, it's big."

"Barry, I've been looking the whole time, I haven't seen a thing."

"That means it's either really fast or camouflaged," Barry responded. "Let's just hurry up and get back. No more stopping."

CRUNCH!

CRUNCH!

CRUNCH!

Finally, shaken and frozen, the team stumbled into the camp. They each had their own barracks, and they retired to them. Each had two bunk beds a couch, and a table. Barry shut his door behind him and pulled off his boots. He hit them together, dislodging the snow, and placed them by the heating vent. He then shed layer upon layer of clothing and tossed them on the bottom bunk of one of the sets of beds. He then climbed into bed on the other bottom bunk and pulled the sheets tightly around him. Barry began to drift out of consciousness when he heard a voice from above him.

"You shouldn't be here."