Below Zero

4 OUTPOST ZERO, ANTARCTICA ^NOW

Engines whined. Alarms screamed. Warnings lights blinked.

Staring through the cockpit window, Zak couldn’t tear his eyes from the swirling void as they descended into the storm. The plane shuddered and rattled. It dropped and buffeted, lurching to the side. Zak tightened his grip and clenched his teeth as he wished for a miracle. If only Dima could see the landing strip. If only the lights would—

A sudden intense pain flashed in his head as if a hot spear had pierced his right eye. It exploded in his mind and blossomed like black fire. He’d had pains before – a symptom of his condition – but never anything as awful as this. This wasn’t just a physical pain; it felt alive. His breath faltered, his eyes squeezed shut, and he was the pain. That’s all he was. There was nothing in his mind but a vast black sea of pain.

And then it let go. The fiery grip relaxed and his thoughts returned to what had been running through his mind before the attack. He had been wishing for a miracle… for the lights to come back on.

‘Brace!’ Dima was shouting. ‘Everybody brace! The ground is coming up on us. We’re going to—’

Zak opened his eyes and the lights at Outpost Zero burst into life. In an instant, the main building lit up like a beacon, and bright beams chased along the length of the landing strip as they ignited one by one.

‘Thank God!’ Dima said under his breath.

The storm continued to shake the plane like it was in one of the snow globes Grandma sent May every Christmas from Hong Kong. It reeled from side to side, the wings tilting first one way then the other. Zak’s stomach churned with every sudden movement of the aircraft. His adrenaline spiked with every shudder and rattle, but Dima held it on course as he took them down. There was an awful grinding from beneath the fuselage as the skis lowered into place, and a few seconds later they touched the ice with a heavy crunch.

As the Russian pilot slowed the engines and brought the plane sliding to a standstill, nobody spoke. Zak supposed they were grateful to be in one piece. May’s crossed fingers must have brought them luck.

Dima sighed and took off his headset. He rolled his neck from side to side and turned to his passengers. ‘Welcome to Outpost Zero,’ he said. ‘Welcome to the Exodus Project. The outside temperature is minus forty degrees Celsius, your pilot’s name is Dimitri Alekseyevich Milanov, and he is as relieved as you are to be on the ground. I hope you had a pleasant flight and that you will fly Dima Airways again in the future.’

‘I don’t think so,’ May muttered under her breath.

‘Well done, Dima.’ Dad’s voice was shaky and he had to clear his throat. He took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose as he collected his thoughts. ‘Let’s get everyone inside, shall we?’

Zak unclipped his seat belt with trembling hands and turned to the window. He stared through the storm at the orange glow of lights. It looked strange out there; nothing but white and orange and—

The lights went out across Outpost Zero. The landing lights, the windows, everything. The base plunged into darkness.

‘What’s going on now?’ Dad said, but Zak took no notice of him because exactly as everything went out again, he saw something move out there. Something large among the flickers of ice and snow. A black shape passing along the length of the plane.

‘What’s that?’ He pressed his face closer to the window, peering left and right.

‘What’s what?’ May asked.

‘I dunno. Something… Hey, you don’t get polar bears here, do you?’

‘Polar bears?’ May had recovered from being close to death and was unbuckling her seat belt. ‘That’s the North Pole, doofus. We’re south. In fact, we’re about as far away from the North Pole as you can get, you freak.’

Yep, she had definitely recovered.

‘I know,’ Zak said. ‘But I’m pretty sure I just saw—’

‘The only animals out there are penguins.’ She came to stand beside him, pressing her face close to his as she looked out. ‘Nothing else. You know, this is the only place in the world that doesn’t have spiders – unless you count those horrible drones Mum and Dad built.’

‘What about all those creepy things we saw online? Sea spiders and worms and things? All those freaky creatures with too many legs.’

‘They’re in the sea. Duh.’

Zak pulled a face at her. ‘I knew there was a reason why you’re my favourite sister.’

‘Lucky for you, I’m your only sister.’

‘Lucky for you too,’ Zak said. ‘You get me all to yourself.’ She was being moody, but Zak could hardly blame her. They weren’t supposed to be here, in a place that didn’t see daylight for months on end. They were supposed to be in sunny St Lucia, lying on a beach, which was where they had been two days ago. Two weeks of relaxing family time before… well, before Zak’s treatment. The doctors said it would be unpleasant – the treatment, that is, not the holiday in St Lucia – but Zak had a feeling it was going to be a whole lot worse than ‘unpleasant’.

‘Ugh,’ May complained. ‘Whose stupid idea was it to come here?’ She glared at Zak.

‘What? It wasn’t my idea.’

‘Yeah it was. When Mum and Dad got that call about their stupid Spider things, they weren’t going to come. Because of your… thing.’ She tapped her head. ‘But you persuaded them.’

‘They wouldn’t have come if they didn’t want to,’ Zak said. ‘No one ever does what I want. No one ever listens to me.’

‘That is so not true. We’re here because you said we should come. And everything is about you.’

The actual reason for coming to Outpost Zero was for Mum and Dad to fix a problem with the Spider drones they’d built for the Exodus Project. A couple of years ago, when the Spiders were the only thing Mum and Dad talked about, May used to say they probably wished they had drones at home instead of kids. That was before C-Day, though, the day they found out about Zak’s condition. Since then, everything was about Zak, or rather, it was about ‘what’s best for Zak’.

When the call came from the Exodus Project, saying the Spiders were malfunctioning, Zak knew Mum and Dad were frustrated. They wanted to give him one awesome, memorable holiday before his treatment began, but they also wanted to take care of their drones. The way Zak saw it, Mum and Dad wanted to fix him, but couldn’t. But they could fix the drones, so he persuaded them to come. He told them it was a chance for him to see the thing everyone was talking about. The first mission to colonize Mars. They wouldn’t be there for longer than a couple of days, he argued, and the base had doctors and equipment, so what harm could it do?

Oh yeah, and there was another reason why he told them to come; something a bit more selfish. Outpost Zero was the closest base to The Chasm – a huge rift that had opened up in the Antarctic ice. It was two hundred kilometres long, and at least fifteen kilometres deep. Zak thought it would be just about the most amazing thing he could ever see. A bottomless rip in the Earth. Imagine that. He was far more interested in what might be down there than what might be on Mars, and he was hoping he might have the chance to see it. That way, he could have a real, proper adventure at the end of the world.

‘I’m sorry,’ May said.

‘Hm?’

‘About what I just said. That everything’s about you. It was mean.’

Zak sighed. ‘Don’t worry, I’m used to it.’

‘Hey, I’m not mean all the time.’

‘No,’ Zak said. ‘Not all the time. Just most of it.’

May gave him a sarcastic smile and moved away. ‘I still don’t see why Zak and I couldn’t have stayed in St Lucia.’ Saying it loud enough for everyone to hear, she glared at the floor, getting the expression right before turning it on Mum.

‘Do you seriously think we’d have left you there on your own?’ Mum said. ‘A fifteen-year-old and a twelve-year-old? And Zak’s not well, remember.’

Zak hated it when she talked like that; like he was some kind of invalid. The brilliant thing about May was that she didn’t try to wrap him up in cotton wool. May was just as moody with him now as she had always been.

‘I’m old enough to be responsible.’ May thought twice about the scowl, and softened it to a more vulnerable expression. ‘You and Dad could have come on your own. It’s not fair we have to—’

‘I don’t want to hear it. We’ve been through this enough. And Zak wanted to come, remember.’ Mum switched off her cell phone and stuffed it into her coat pocket. ‘I guess we’re out of reception area now.’

‘But really,’ May went on. ‘You even got a message to say everything was sorted. Your Spiders are fine. They don’t even need you here; we could have turned around and gone back to St Lucia and—’

‘We were already at the South Shetland Islands,’ Mum stopped her. ‘It made sense to keep going.’

‘It was supposed to be a holiday.’ May sighed harder than she needed to. ‘When do we ever get a holiday? You and Dad are always so busy with your stupid drones, and then Zak—’

‘Enough.’ Mum fixed May with one of her looks. ‘We’re here now. Anyway, this’ll be interesting for you. How many other people can say they’ve been to Outpost Zero?’

‘Oh, I dunno, thirty-two?’ May said. ‘All of them families, training to spend the rest of their lives on Mars. I mean where do they find these people? They must be mad. Who’d want to take their kids to Mars for, like, for ever.’ She rolled her eyes at Zak, making him smile.

‘Actually, it’s a few more than thirty-two.’ Dad had unbuckled his seat belt and was stretching his back. ‘Mum and I have been here, remember. Other scientists too. And the people here aren’t mad; they’re highly intelligent, highly qualified, and highly trained. Even their kids are well above average.’

‘No hope for me and Zak, then.’

‘Think about it,’ Dad said. ‘They’re like the early pioneers in America. They’re going to find a new way to live. Eventually we’re going to use up all our resources on Earth and we’ll need somewhere new. The Exodus Project is about finding a way for humanity to survive beyond the small planet we live on. This is just the beginning.’

‘Maybe we should be thinking about ways to live on our own planet without destroying it,’ May mumbled. ‘Anyway, I still think they’re mad.’

Zak didn’t want to listen to them argue any more, so he pulled up his hood, zipped his coat higher, and tucked his chin into the lining. They’d had to buy Extreme Cold Weather gear on the way here. The coat was a little too big, but he liked the way it smelt. New and fresh.

‘So,’ Dima climbed through into the main cabin, ‘everybody is in one piece?’ Without waiting for a reply, he made his way along the plane and opened the door, flooding the aircraft with freezing air.

The others followed, but Zak’s legs felt as if they were made of rubber, and he stumbled.

‘You all right?’ Mum took his arm.

‘Fine.’ He forced himself not to pull away because he didn’t want to hurt Mum’s feelings.

‘Dizzy? If you get any more headaches, you must—’

‘I’m fine. Honest. Why does no one ever listen to me?’ He wanted her to stop babying him so he had to show he was strong. With a little more force than necessary, he grabbed his backpack, slung it over his shoulder, and headed for the door.

The tiny hairs inside Zak’s nose prickled when he took his first breath of Antarctic air, and the cold tightened the skin on his face. It made him feel more alive than he had felt for weeks.

Dad was the first on to the runway, turning round to offer Zak a hand.

A month ago, Zak would have taken it, but now he didn’t want to show any sign of weakness. ‘I’m fine,’ he said, ignoring Dad’s hand and jumping down.

Zak stood on the compacted snow and stared out into the swirling storm.

‘Makes you feel like Scott of the Antarctic, doesn’t it?’ Dad shouted over the howling wind.

‘Not exactly.’

‘Didn’t he, like, die?’ May yelled as she jumped down behind them. ‘And everyone else who was with him? Starvation and exposure, wasn’t it?’

‘May-Ling.’ You knew she was being warned when Mum used May’s Sunday name.

‘What?’ May said. ‘It’s true.’

‘Well, maybe this isn’t the best time to hear about it,’ Mum told her.

‘Yeah, May-Ling,’ Zak shouted, and gave his sister a wicked smile.

‘Whatever, freak.’ May stuck out her tongue at Zak and pulled on her goggles.

‘Quite the adventure story, though, eh? Scott, I mean.’ Dad wasn’t bothered by May’s grumpiness. He was used to it.

‘Yeah.’ Zak crossed his arms over his chest. ‘I guess.’

‘Anyway, nothing like that would happen now.’ Dad leant close to Zak’s ear so he didn’t have to shout so loud. ‘This place has everything you could possibly need. Food, light, warmth—’

‘Light?’ May said. ‘I can’t see any light. Everything’s switched off.’

‘— and there are experts here who would put your doctors to shame. Some amazing equipment too.’

‘No welcoming committee, though,’ Mum said. ‘You think they know we’re here?’ She pulled her hood tighter as the wind tried to rip it away.

‘Maybe we are not welcome,’ Dima shouted. A nervous smile wrinkled the saggy skin under his eyes. ‘I am joking, of course. Come on, we see what is going on.’ He jumped on to the ice and closed the door. ‘I leave the plane lights on to help us.’

In the weak glow from the Twin Otter’s windows, and keeping together for warmth and safety, they trudged towards the cluster of buildings. The blizzard battered them, rushing beneath their hoods and forcing its way into their coats, but they leant into the wind and battled on towards the place where they were to be stranded.

Alone.

In their own cold, dark, nightmare.