Day 1 [read only - status till 22 september]

[Dave Syrinx]

Background

Station 10 have personnel with a service record for different time spans. Some of you have only a couple of months on the base, while others have a couple of years. So, you are pretty much up on everything that usually happens on the base.

Mainly Station 10 is a supply station to the surrounding research stations. That´s how it is able to run without a major lab and scientific grants. As a buffer station, the two doctors have six beds available for surgery and emergency treatment. However, George Price is conducting micro biology tests of ice core samples.

Price is interested in, some would say obsessed with the prospect to find something astonishing in the ice. He has had his share of small finds but nothing extraordinary.

So, primarily Station 10 is a refueling, resupplying hub. After that it´s a medical clinic. Lastly, it´s a research lab, a small one.

A team of four (Janet, Dwayne, Johnny and Eric) have been on vacation over winter. This is the first contact for four weeks they´ve had with anyone from the ice. Except the brief hello to the people at McMurdo and their helicopter pilot, Peter Shavez.

The rest of the crew at Station 10 have had quite a busy winter. More on that later.

[Dave Syrinx]

Last goddamned day of the winter

1982-09-20 14.30

Above Station 10, Silent Spirit – McMurdo Bell transport

It’s been a long journey, but now you are almost there, your workplace and your temporary home: Station 10. The monotonous sound of the helicopter’s rotor blades is almost the only thing you have heard throughout the helicopter trip from McMurdo. Outside the helicopter the sun is shining, even if it just hangs right at the horizon’s edge, it will not be higher at this time of year. It causes the great white waste to glitter, almost as if it were a sea of diamonds.

Apart from the rotors it has been a quiet ride. None of you have said anything special, all have more or less been in his your own thoughts. Johnny, who usually acts as station pilot, sits on one of the two rows of seats facing each other behind the pilot´s seat staring out at the landscape below. Those who know him could guess that he is a bit annoyed because he is not at the controls. Next to him sits Eric, research assistant to George Price at the base and reads Charles Dickens’ book Great Expectations. He seems to be deeply immersed in the book and has not taken his eyes off the book for the entire helicopter trip. On the seat across from him the mechanic, Harrison sits cuddling with his wife Janet who is leaning against his chest while sitting in his lap.

Silent Spirit is suddenly interrupted by the pilot’s communication with the tower at Station 10. Even if you can not hear his voice you know that it is your co-worker, Bailey the pilot is talking to. The pilot informs him that the helicopter soon reaches Station 10. A few minutes later the main building is visible as a blue dot on the white snow.

The helicopter slowly drops down and starts blowing up swirls of snow around the landing site. Four men are visible through the haze standing a short distance away from the helicopter in front of the main building. The four are all dressed in thick parkas and their faces hidden by fur hood linings. With short intervals their breath are seen as small white clouds. They stand still and observe in silence while the helicopter is landing.

[Dave Syrinx]

Eric looks up calmly, smiling, and closes his book. To him the long helicopter ride seemed to take no time at all.

Johnny analyzes the landing critically. Although the landing is near perfect he sneers to himself then, “Here we are folks, welcome to Sunny Side Down, don’t forget- aqua aerobics in the bar-side pool first thing tomorrow! Hope you brought your bikini!” He smirks at Janet.

Janet sticks her tongue out at Johnny, then reaches up and tousles Harrison’s hair. Then she extricates herself from his lap, and gets ready to unload her medical equipment.

[Dave Syrinx]

The landing is so smooth it´s barely affects the helicopter. The winding down of the rotors is the only real giveaway. They are only winding down, not stopping.

Raring to get off the ride and being seated closest to the exit, Eric pushes the door to the side and jumps out. Janet, Harrison and Johnny follow him out in the cold arctic air. Now, the relative warmth of the helicopter feels preferable.

As Johnny exits, the pilot shouts after him. “Tell your colleagues to hurry up with the cargo! I have to get back to McMurdo before dark.”

Eric and Janet reach the welcome committee consisting of Carl, Xavier, Walther and Robert.

“Welcome back! You had a good time?” Janet´s co-worker Carl says.

As far as the new arrivals can see, the station looks the same as when they left it about a month ago. Some repairs have been done to the solar panels on the front of the station, Harrison notices. Eric sees that Arthur must be working the pots and pans of the pantry as there´s smoke coming from the kitchen vent.

As Johnny exits the helicopter his attention is drawn to the rolls of cables scattered next to the base. Apparently Xavier had had a new brilliant idea to make some improvements and only gotten half way done.

Eric smiles in response to Carl’s question. “Of course.”

Johnny shrugs his parka closer around him and pulls up the hood. He hurries over to the welcoming committee and shouts over the noise of the motors, “Pilot wants the cargo loaded ASAP.” He nods to the cables,“What you bin doing while we’ve been away Xavier? Rigging fairy lights?

Janet follows Johnny’s nod. “What have you guys been doing?”

“Quite a contrast to us, then. Here we had -40 degrees and snow storms all week. Though we have had other things to think about than the weather. The past week has not exactly been a normal week.” Carl explains to Eric.

Picking up the cue from Johnny, Carl nods and excuses himself, pats Robert on the shoulder. The two run back to the station to get the cargo.

Xavier picks up where Carl left off, answering the follow up question. “Hah, we´re setting up a new ice drill and were to get the scaffolding up and make sure all wiring for the heating were set when the shit hit the fan.” He extends a hand to help Janet with her equipment. “Maybe we should do this inside? Don´t want you softies to catch a cold, do we?”

Coming out the stairs of the station, Carl and Robert carry two black plastic bags, about two meters long (6 feet), between them. The bags have a zip along the length of them. The radio operator shouts at the crowd outside. “Smells real good from the galley! Arthur must be cooking up something real extra for you tourists!”

The McMurdo pilot has exited the helicopter and jogs towards the team. Looking hurried when spotting the cargo he asks Walther. “My god, is that what I think it is?”

Walther stares surly at the pilot. “No idea of what´s in your head, dude. It aint groceries. Two of the missing guys from Station 31, due for McMurdo.” The logistics foreman walks away from the pilot and heads for one of three semi domes buried in the snow twenty meters east of the main building.

Harrison relieves Janet of some of her luggage before Xavier gets his hands on anything.
He starts to walk towards the station, not wanting to hear another word from the station manager. It´s all the same. Always smooching to Janet. “You coming?”

“Good to have you back, Harrison!” Walther shouts from the door as he opens a padlocked door to the storage area. The other two semi domes hold a garage and spare parts for the station´s equipment and life support. There´s also a large container sitting on the west side of the station acting as food storage.

[Dave Syrinx]

Johnny loses all interest at the mention of an ice drill and frowns as the two body bags are lifted into the helicopter, “Creepy.” He swings his duffel bag onto his shoulder, “Damn I’d forgotten how cold it is here.” and hurries towards the steps of the life support taking care to used gloved hands on the metal stair rails.

OOC:Generally, how deep is the surrounding snow; is it mainly ice and we can just walk from one building to another or do paths need to be cleared every morning by snow plough/shovel?

OOC: Weather- Barring any storms, the ground is walkable for days. To keep the white death at bay, Harrison usually takes a round with the snow plow every morning. Now the job has been set back and it takes some raised knees to walk anywhere except through the shoveled path. (Marked with grey on the site plan. If not cleared, the snow layer is about 60 centimeters. Then there are kilometers of ice below that…

Janet calls out, “Hey Walther, did Carl get a look at the bodies?”


As Janet jogs after Walther he answers. “Yeah, died of hypothermia. Boss, George and Robbie flew out on a survey and found them stone cold.” He opens the door to the workshop revealing a snowmobile directly inside. He squeezes past it and asks. “Want to come with for a welcome drink?”

Carl and Robert gets a hand from the McMurdo pilot to lug the body bags up into the helicopter. While they are working at the helipad, Xavier ushers Harrison and Eric towards the stairs where Johnny is entering the station, giving them a recap.

"A week ago we got a call from McMurdo about one of their research stations, Outpost 31 having got silent and wanted us to fly over and check out what had happened. When we arrived we found the base completely destroyed by fire and some explosion. We found Childs and McReady sitting back to back, quite dead. We searched the base but found none of the other staff. I flew the poor souls back here and Carl made an autopsy on them. There has been some traffic over here the last couple of weeks. Now, McMurdo wanted the bodies brought back to them. Guess they are saving the fuel cost by using your ride… More on this when we get inside."


Childs

MacReady

The pilot speeds up the engine gushing a cloud of powder snow over Carl and Robert who are ducking away from the hurried pilot.

Entering Station 10, Johnny feels the warmth spilling out of the air lock. He notices the red sign saying CLOSE – ALWAYS! on the steel door. As if someone would forget…

The corner between the two doors, one leading upstairs the other to the social are of the station, holds a rack for parkas and overalls. Even in the airlock, Johnny can tell Arthur is doing Chicken Curry. Besides Arthur, George should be indoors somewhere. Seeing George´s parka on the rack, he deduces that he hasn´t wandered outside.

[Dave Syrinx]

Janet politely declines Walther’s offer and heads indoors to unpack and check the clinic.

Johnny shrugs off his outer wear and wanders into the dining area. He dumps his bag in the corner and sticks his head into the kitchen, "Hey Arthur, how’re you doing? Smells good, have we got any beer to go with?"

Walking past Robert´s hideout underneath the stairs Johnny can hear the humming of he generator to the right and music from he kitchen. When he puts his head through the kitchen door he finds himself alone. There´s no room to hide in the kitchen, should one not dare to stay in the cooler that is.
Only a pot with chicken simmering in curry is cooking. A cassette player at a side board is playing Light my fire with The Doors. At this he hears the front door slam shut. Turning around expecting getting jumped by the new cook, Johnny sees a splash of milk on the floor.

Janet heard Walther giggle from inside Harrison´s workshop as she left him to his business whatever that was. Mostly he and Harrison were up to no good and only pretended to do real stuff. Inside the air lock, Janet starts to regain some feeling of her cheek bones again. The helicopter had not had proper heating and the weather wasn´t making it any better when she walked over here. Dropping her pack in the corner Janet leaves the air lock through the left door leading up the stairs to the clinic. Before she heads up she watches through the small window of the airlock and sees movement from George Price´s lab.

On the second floor she finds the six vacant beds. Carl had cleaned the place up good after the autopsies.

Janet goes down again and wanders into Price’s lab…

When the cook doesn’t appear, Johnny assumes Arthur has gone to the john, he stares at the splash of milk; it seems a little incongruous. Then he shrugs and goes to the cooler in search of a beer. He pulls opens the heavy door. (If he finds some he’ll get out two bottles- one for him, one for Arthur.)

Eric drops his stuff back in his room and goes to find George Price.

Johnny finds two six packs of Australian beer and grabs two cans, closing the double doors of stainless steel afterwards. Jim Morrison finishes the song and the cassette player clicks off.

Walking to the lab doors, Janet watches through the glass and sees George working by the microscope. She enters and he turns around. “Hi Janet! Great you made it so speedily. This is amazing… A whole new variant of bacteria frozen inside this sample! Look it makes the ice look like it has crimson veins. Incredible. I can´t wait to get this analyzed. Is Eric there?”

Evidently, being both non-scientific and a woman make Janet a mere bystander in George´s opinion.

Eric and Harrison enter the station along with Carl, Xavier and Robert. They spend some time getting off their gear and cold weather clothes. Then they all except Eric arrive in he dining room, grabbing chairs and start to seat themselves.

“Can we order?” Robert jokes with Johnny.

“Now, let me fill you in what have been happening. You surely missed an adventure going on vacation like that.” Xavier starts. Eric walks up the stairs instead of to the kitchen.

Harrison cranes his neck and says. “Is that cooking over, Chef?”

Meanwhile, Walther opens the door to the back room of the workshop.

Up on the second floor, Eric leaves his gear and trots down to the lab, where George and Janet are checking out something under the microscope.

[Dave Syrinx]

As the music stops and he hears the bustle from the dining room, Johnny opens a can and takes a gulp. He saunters back into the dining room, “Anyone seen Arthur? "You could help yourself but you know how he likes to dish up himself. ”

“He was in here when we went out and waited for you guys. Ten minutes ago… He might have gone out to the container for something.” Carl says.

“Let me start from the beginning. Two and a half week ago, a Norwegian helicopter went past here to check on one of their stations who had been out of touch. After that an American task force was sent over here too. They stopped and stocked up on all kinds of supplies. Lots of fuel for sure. From their badges and uniforms they represented the US pharmaceutical company Sonar Medical and Hawken Engineering, a medium sized weapon manufacturer. This team consisted of ten researchers and three Hawken mercenaries. The team leader was a Norwegian, Lars Amundsen.” During Xavier´s speech Robert gets up and helps himself to a plate of curry and the second beer Johnny picked out of the cooler.

George salutes Eric when he comes to the lab. “Ah, hi there. This is great fun. A new strain of red bacteria. After dinner we can examine it closely. Just have to thaw it and run some tests.” He looks from Janet to Eric. “You must be hungry? Arthur has been earning his fee in the kitchen for hours. Surely it will be delicious. Shall we?” He pulls he sample from it´s stand below the microscope and puts it back in the freezer following Eric and Janet over to the dining area. They hear Xavier continue.

“Then, a week ago we got that radio call from McMurdo to inspect outpost 31. We arrived with Childs and MacReady. Amazingly, MacReady had a bottle of J&B in his hands as he died. We also retrieved a flame thrower Childs had on his back. It was in bad condition, though and we though maybe Harrison could fix it? From what we saw there it seems like Childs and MacReady went all out crazy and burned down the entire station. We reported back to McMurdo and they asked us to wait for further instructions. Just yesterday they said we should get ready to send the bodies over for them to ship over to the US.”

Carl adds.”Seems peculiar that they didn´t send someone from the Amundsen team. But they might be busy with securing something big…” He glances at George arriving. “You´d really like to get in on that one, huh?” George smiles at him doubtfully. “Don´t think so, Evans. I have something of my own in the lab. You´ll see. Me and Eric are analyzing a sample after dinner. Nothing you ever seen before!”

“Yeah, right. Like that dormant crab you found last year in that sub glacial lake?” Walther cuts in as he takes a seat at the short end of the table. The German has an uncanny way of sneaking back and forth unnoticed.

Robert tastes the curry and says. “This one´s a ten pointer.”

[Dave Syrinx]

Johnny goes to point out that the beer is for Arthur and then shrugs instead, he continues to listen while he goes back to the kitchen for some curry. He brings in a huge plate of food and sits down to eat. “No doubt they went crazy. Anyone would all the way out there.” He continues to eat, “What’s an American weapons manufacturer doing mixed up with Norwegian researchers?”

Hawken is known to back up US interests everywhere in the world. They seem to be a sub contractor to CIA. Them being present at the Norwegian base is nothing to frown upon as the US see Norway as an ally. (They, the US, probably built the site and the Norwegian team uses it and share information on the research.)

Xavier picks up on the question. “I´m surprised they didn´t drop off support here. They tend to want to have their backs free. And I guess they use the remote wastes as some kind of testing grounds. They just need to dig a deep hole and deposit some bomb along with sensors on the ice and start reading the output.”

“And what about space weapons! They need to work under deep cold environs.” Robert says. “Star wars and all that, ya know.”

“Hey yeah, I went to see ‘Return of The Jedi’ whilst on vacation. Cool film!” Johnny jumps up and light-sabers his way back around the table with his empty beer can. He stops by Eric, “The force is strong in this one!” Then he returns to his seat grinning. “Well let me know if you want me to fly ‘The Falcon’ out there for a nose.”

Eric looks at Johnny and says, “I don’t know, I thought the Heart of Gold was better.”

“That ship in that weird English book? Man I couldn’t work that man out. You won’t catch me zipping around in a bath robe. I prefer to a movie over a book any day.” He realizes where he is, “God it’s going to be dull here. Not even tv.”

“We made some recordings of the storm two weeks ago. You can watch that on the VCR and wish you´d been here.” Geroge offers. Xavier looks at Walther. “Head out and check on Arthur, you know where everything is stored. You might have hidden some key ingredient to our new chef,”

“I never hide stuff, Just keep them where I need them to be. Makes me feel appreciated.” He winks at Janet and pushes his chair back. “Don´t you guys eat all the food while I´m gone.”

Outside a wind is picking up and large white clouds float in over the horizon making it hard to discern where the clouds go over into snow and ice.
“As I said, we don´t really know what´s going on with the Norwegians and the US. Do we want to know? I´m good with the situation as it is. The more traffic the better margins we get on our bottom line. That goes into your pockets as well.” Xavier smiles at the station crew around the table.

Everyone hear the front door slam shut as Walther is yet again outside the warmth of the station.

Johnny finishes his food and dumps the plate in the kitchen, aiming to avoid any washing up. He saunters back into the dining room, takes his cards from his bag and slumps into a chair furthest from the kitchen. He shuffles the cards over and over while he listens to the chat.
Johnny gets bored flicking cards. “I’m going out.” He throws the cards down and stalks out to the hallway. He puts all his gear on and heads out to the store room to hang out with Arthur. (He shuts the door.)

Outside it´s blistering cold, as before… Through his snow goggles Johnny can see the door to the container standing ajar. Snow has piled up behind the door as it has pushed the snow to the side when opened. A light shines inside. Even though it´s ten hours left of daylight the container needs lighting as it´s windowless. From the landing, Johnny looks to the left as well.
No one is outside. The door to Harrison´s and Walther´s workshop and storage are properly closed as is the garage.

Walking down the stairs, he sees a red smear on the inside handle of the container door.
The only sound comes from the wind blowing against his fur lined hat.

Inside Station 10-
Carl puts away his dishes and leans towards the counter. “Janet, when I performed the autopsy on MacReady and Childs, I found something odd about Childs´ blood values. He seemed to be suffering from some virus. That didn´t kill him, though. That, the cold weather took care of. I wonder if you could help me analyze the sample? I stored it up in the clinic fridge.” He turns around and starts fiddling with a coffee cooker. “I hate to end up doing half a job, but I really can´t pin point what it is. Never seen anything like it… Where are those filters?”

Eric sees something move over at the control tower when he turns towards Carl. The word virus caught his attention.

Having trouble to start eating without having the cook present, Janet still hasn´t touched the food. She looks at Eric and Harrison.
This whole thing with returning to the station hadn´t turned out as she had planned. She had hoped it would be different. The place still was a shoe box in the middle of nowhere. Even more so after the vacation.

Outside-
Johnny jogs over to the container, he thinks the red smear is probably ketchup. He reckons Arthur and Walther are probably testing some fine whiskey and plans to catch them in the act before joining them.

Inside the station-
Eric turns toward Carl and says, “I can give you a hand, if you want.”

Carl gets the coffee machine going with the aid of Eric. At the table George asks, “What´s Walther doing by the tower?”

He looks out the dining room window.

Xavier follows his example and says, “Probably getting some contraband from a secret stash. I´ll talk to him about following protocol more closely.” Xavier pasues. “When he gets back inside.”

Outside at the flight tower a shadow can be seen climbing the ladder up to the glassed room above.

The radio speaker in the kitchen sputters to life. “This is ZX-241 I´ve reached McMurdo. The flight went fine. Have a nice stay guys!”

Outside-
Almost jumping up to the open container door, Johnny stares in to an empty unloading room. There´s a splatter of what most definitely not is ketchup on the latched cold storage three meters into the room. By Johnny´s judgement it looks as if someone got his head decorated on the stainless steel canvas.

What´s odd with the picture is that there are no body in the room. This could of course be a clever way to play out a prank by the two witty colleagues.

From the roof of the container Johnny clearly hear footsteps moving from the rear towards the front.

“What the…” Johnny mutters as he takes a step into the room. “Hey Guys! Stop pissing around alright?” He hears the steps on the roof and heads back outside. He moves away enough and cranes his neck to see who is on the roof.

Johnny sees Arthur walking towards the edge of the container. From his elevated position, he looks huge to Johnny. “Hey chap! I freakin slipped on the bleeding floor. Almost poked an eye out.” He has a mean bruise on his right cheek bone. He wears his mess hall uniform, jeans and white frock – now sprayed with droplets of red. He more resembles a butcher than a chef.
“I heard something up here, but there´s nothing here.” He sits down on the ledge and braces himself to jump down the 15 feet to the snow beside Johnny. “Does it look bad? It hurts like a mother.”

Inside the station-
Harrison and George go to the living room chatting about a chess game left unsettled.
Xavier swaps tape in the recorder and soon, Abbey Road fills the corridors of Station 10.

Outside-
“Man, you look a mess, do you want I get you a ladder or something?” He notices Arthur is not wearing his outdoor gear (??)“Walther came out looking for you, how long you been out here?”

“Nah, I´ll rough it down there.” Arthur slides over on his stomach and lowers himself down to the packed snow. He looks at Johnny and says, “Good to have you here again. Got boring as hell with those scientists babbling all the time. Let´s get some of that whiskey of Walther´s. I´m freezing.” He laughs, bellowing a mist of breath in front of him. “Didn´t expect to stumble around out here.” … “Walther? Not seen him…Maybe he´s in the garage? He takes every opportunity to slack.” Arthur doesn´t wait for Johnny and starts to walk towards the station´s main building.
To Johnny it´s odd that the cook isn´t bothered about the temperature. Possibly due to chock?

Inside the station-
Robert, Carl, Eric and Janet get two decks of cards out and prepare a round of Canasta. The steaming pot of coffee sits on the end of the table. Eric almost slips on a puddle of spilled milk. George Price picks up a report from the pool table and starts discussing numbers with Harrison.

Outside-
Johnny shrugs, anything odd about Arthur’s behavior he puts down to being being stuck on the station for too long. But at least Arthur is now walking back to the warmth. “I’ll catch up with you in a minute buddy.” Johnny steps into the storage container properly to check everything is okay, to see is Walther is there and to look for whiskey. As he is looking around it crosses his mind that Arthur did well to get 15’ up onto the roof without a ladder.
Arthur walks the last bit up to the station. Walking up the stairs he looks back before opening the door.

Walking inside the container Johnny reflects on how Arthur might have accessed the roof of the container. There were a couple of plausible explanations: Walther might have skipped the 360 around the storage when shoveling, the other day. He could have used some equipment or tool as a stepping stone. Either way, he most certainly had gotten up there, and down, without any trouble.

Inside the container Johnny opens the cold storage and flips the light switch. Three rows of shelves line the length of the container, leaving the outer walls for stacking crates against. At the far end a top fed deep freezer stands humming. Anything stored for more than five months intended for eating is being stored there.

The relative warmth of the 7 Centigrade air in the container feels like an embrace to Johnny. The only thing missing was that inner warmth from a glass of smoky amber. Most probably, Walther would have hidden the whiskey in some container for something else. The order of the larder left more to wish for as Walther wanted to feel needed. Hence, there was no way of knowing where anything was stored. Just rows and rows after each other with various supplies.

There´s no sign of Walther inside the container and no disarray of things. The lights flutter as Johnny goes through the contents of the shelves, but gains strength quite rapidly. Milk, flour, Twix bars, mash-mallows, Norwegian beer, meat, peanuts and almost anything needed for running a smaller diner. Ten minutes later, Johnny tries a crate to the left side of the larder, he comes upon twelve bottles of Loch Lomond Single Malt.

[Dave Syrinx]

Inside the station-

Geroge and Harrison changes subject to the recent red bacteria of the ice core samples of Price´s. “Those strands might be exactly what I´ve been waiting on, Dwayne. I´m really excited about this find.”

Harrison flicks through the old report and says, “Much like this one from ´76, right?” He smiles and puts a hand on the professor´s shoulder. “Better pick this up with Eric, he´d listen better. And understand too. I´m heading out to the garage to see if I can get something done before dark.”

The Canasta players gets cards by the hand of Xavier who cuts slightly above the target number. Upon receiving the hands, Janet is graced by two red threes. She puts them on the table and draws two bonus cards, folding a four of clubs.

Robert Bailey comes back out from the radio room beneath the stairs. He exits just as the front door is slammed shut. From the air lock, Arthur walks out with a busted cheek bone and a cold stare. He has his moon boots on from having walked outside. His clothing is white with frost and powder snow as if he has been crawling in the snow. Blood drips down on his left arm from the gash on his cheek. “Damn, it´s cold. I fell and hit my head on the handle to the larder. Got a band aid Evans?”

Robert almost takes a step backwards but decides to just stop in his tracks. Evans leans backwards on his chair and glances at Arthur. “What the..?” He topples the chair as he stands up and runs up to the Arthur Ward. “Arthur, you´re not in Brighton beach anymore. What were you thinking? Eric, get some warm water and towels! Janet, get my bag!” He gets Arthur around the back and maneuvers him to the lounge area and lays him down on one of the sofas.

Outside-
Johnny lifts the crate lid and his heart warms at the sight within,“Bingo!” He reverently takes a bottle and slips it inside the inner pocket of his parka, “Wouldn’t want you to get too cold now,lovely lady.” he turns and makes his way back to the front of the container, pausing to look at Arthur’s blood splashed on the wall. “Clumsy beggar, what a dolt!” He turns for one last look around and then switches off the lights. Johnny closes the door securely behind him as he bends his head into the cold outdoors and stomps back towards the station. He keeps a look out for Walther on the way.

Checking the surroundings from the shoveled path, Johnny sees no sign of Walther. Walking up the stairs he turns and gazes at the horizon.



Inside the station-
Arthur passes out as Evans dresses his wound. “Wonder why he went outside without his parka?”, he says and finishes the job. “Janet, can you get me an IV from the med?”

Eric dashes to get the towels. Upon returning, he helps Evans out with the patch-up job.

Johnny shivers as he gazes at the cold and deadly beauty of the Antarctic. He enters the station, pulls the door behind him, goes through the airlock and shrugs off his outer gear. Leaving the whiskey in his parka for the moment, Johnny saunters into the lounging area.

Eric arrives with the hot water and towels. Seeing that the gash is bandaged he puts down the items. “Thanks, start to douse the towels and drape him with them. Just leave a gap over his mouth.” Evans says. Janet arrives with the IV and a bag of saline. Evans puts the needle in Arthur´s arm.

When Johnny gets his gear off, Harrison is gearing up. “Out to the garage. See ya later, dude.”
Xavier nods at Johnny when he enters. “Did you see Walther out there? We saw him entering the control tower. What do we have out there?”

At the question, Robert laughs. “Only Harrison and Walther know where anything is on base.”

“We should get a gurney and move him up to the infirmary.” Janet offers.
“Sure, get one from upstairs.” says Evans.

Janet leave the rest of the team to fetch the gurney.
As Eric puts hot, damp towels on Arthur´s face Ward exhales and then breathes in deeply and continuously. Seemingly unconscious and stable.

Janet passes Johnny as she´s passing the air lock. “Getting a gurney..”



[And there is where we are when the game starts at 22 September!]