Desolate The Complete Trilogy

18



Dawn broke a few hours later as Howard and Carl got up from under their tarp. It was a miserable night to say the least. Both of them had lost all feeling in their feet and were afraid of what they might look like. They spent the night shivering under the canvas, not quite awake, not quite sleeping.

There was good news however; the clouds had broken and they were greeted by a clear blue morning sky. The bad news was the temperature had plummeted to below freezing. They gathered their meager belongings and climbed out of the crevasse.

The relentless and bitter wind picked up once again as each of their footsteps broke through the crusty layer of snow. After a few hours of frustratingly slow walking, they finally reached the edge of the glacier. They climbed down to the black sandy beach and followed the shoreline. According to the map, the research station was about four miles away. The beach was level, but the sand and rocks made for lousy footing and their travel remained slow.

Howard slipped into a semi-state of consciousness, walking on auto-pilot. With just a few hours of sleep and little food, his exhausted mind used all of its will on one simple purpose - putting one foot in front of the other.

Carl and Howard walked barely a mile before they made an unpleasant discovery. The beach disappeared and the island met the sea with steep bluffs and no beach for as far as they could see. They slowly climbed to the top of the bluff and faced yet another ridge blocking their path.

“Jesus, I can’t do it.” Howard sat down and tried to catch his breath.

Carl sat next to him and pulled out his last cigarette. He lit the smoke and tossed the crumpled pack and lighter into the dirt. “Cheer up, man.” He slapped Howard on the back. “We gotta be getting close.”

“What if we get to the top and there’s nothing there? What if there’s just more hills and valleys?”

“Then we’re in shit up to our eyebrows,” Carl said with a smile. “Then we keep going. You’re looking at a guy with retard strength. I’ll carry you if I have to, but we’ll get there.”

Howard admired Carl’s endurance but he felt weak and inadequate. He got to his feet, picked up the cigarette lighter, and put it in his pocket. It might come in handy later if they could find something to burn for warmth.

So they climbed. Carl led the way and they stopped halfway up the ridge. They sat in a slight depression and ate the last of their food. The sweat that broke out as they climbed quickly faded and Howard shivered in his damp clothes. He knew if they didn’t find the research station by nightfall he would be finished. He just didn’t have the strength to go any further.

Howard looked sadly in the general direction where he thought the farm might be and longed for it. He thought of the warm and cozy guard house. They’d only been able to enjoy it for barely a day and now they might as well be a million miles away. What a tease. He could feel his will breaking by the minute.

Carl sat in silence and watched Howard doze off. He let him sleep for five minutes and nudged him awake. “Come on, Howie. Rise and shine. I let you sleep for a half an hour, but we better get moving.”

They finally reached the peak of the ridge which may as well have been the top of Mount Everest. Carl reached the top first. Howard slowly lumbered up next to him and bent over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.

“Well I’ll be damned,” Carl said.

Howard looked in the direction of Carl’s gaze and saw it. Before them was an almost perfectly flat plateau. The horizon revealed not more peaks and ridges, but the clear brilliance of the ocean off in the distance. Most of all, he saw the only man-made object since they’d left the farm some thirty hours before. A flag pole proudly displaying a wind tattered American flag.

Carl shrieked, grabbed Howard, and hugged him so hard he thought he’d pass out. The two men fell to the icy ground and laughed and cried at the same time.

“We did it,” cried Carl. “Goddamn boy, we made it!”

“Come on, what are we waiting for?”

They got to their feet with all the new found enthusiasm in the world and walked toward the flag in the distance. It would take another hour before they reached it.