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Becker walked through the anomaly into a world of winter. He was standing partway down a steep snow slope. Below him, a river valley stretched both ways right and left under a clear blue sky. The whole landscape was made up of soft mounds of white. Even the hills in the distance just seemed to be made of piles of snow. The air was still and tin sparkling motes danced in the air in front of him.
It was piercingly cold. His exposed hands and face felt the icy air immediately.
‘Blood hell!’ Danny said, coming to stand next to him. ‘It’s a winter wonderland.’
Finn and Ditzy joined them.
‘I knew I should have worn my thermals,’ was Finn’s comment.
‘What’s the plan, boss?’ Ditzy asked.
Becker pointed to the tracks on the otherwise pristine snow. ‘Follow these, find the kids, get them back home.’ He paused and looked around at the snow slope above them. ‘And try not to set off any avalanches!’
‘At least they should be easy to find, Finn said and the four of them set off.
They walked in silence for a while. The children’s tracks were clear and led straight down as though heading to the valley floor.
‘You know this is weird,’ Danny said.
‘What do you mean?’ asked Becker.
‘Well, the tracks are just heading straight down.’
‘What’s weird about that?’ Finn said.
‘They’re kids,’ Danny explained. ‘They haven’t stopped. They haven’t wandered. They haven’t had a snowball fight. They’re ten and eleven.’ He gestured at the snowfield in front of them. ‘Could you resist a place like this as a kid? I couldn’t!’
‘Maybe something was chasing them,’ Becker offered.
‘What?’ Ditzy asked. ‘There’s nothing else here except us and them. There are no other tracks in sight!’
‘Well, let’s find them and we can ask them why, then,’ Becker said.
‘How big a head start have they got?’ Finn asked.
‘Maximum of two hours,’ Danny said.
Finn grunted in reply and they walked on again. They all knew that two hours was more than enough time for a couple of boys to get into trouble in the friendliest of locations, let alone this snowy wilderness.
They walked on down the slope that was starting to feel endless to Becker. He would have said that the valley bottom was no more than a couple of kilometres away but they had been walking for longer than that. He looked back at the anomaly which stood there swinging amidst the snow. It didn’t seem to be much further away than when he last looked at it. He knew that a featureless landscape like a snowfield or a desert can play tricks on you, things can seem to be far closer than they actually were. But even so, this place was starting to get to him. He felt like they were on a treadmill, that the land was revolving under his feet while he stayed still and that sooner or later they would come across their own tracks in the snow again.
The tracks ahead of them continued as straight as they had ever been. Two Paris of small footprints walking side-by-side, undeviating. Becker began to agree with Danny. This would have been strange even for adults. For children, it was downright weird.
Then two things happened at once. Ditzy spotted the children ahead of them and Danny fell through the snow.
Danny didn’t fall far. He disappeared up to his armpits but his face was pinched in pain and he was swearing.
Becker and Finn dropped to their bellies and crawled towards him on the lookout for the edge of the crevice he had fallen into. Becker got near and started to feel beneath the snow until he had mapped up out where the solid ground was. He edged closer to Danny.
‘Are you OK?’
‘My ankle, ‘Danny said. ‘Hurts like a fucker.’
‘Can you turn your back to me and we’ll pull you up?’
Danny did as he was bid and with some fumbling and swearing on all sides, Becker and Finn pulled Danny up until he was lying on solid ground.
Ditzy went to Danny’s feet and pulled back the trousers on his right ankle.
The medic hissed in his teeth as he examined it. ‘Nice break,’ he said. ‘That’s a thorough job.’
Becker went to have a look at it. He could see that Danny’s leg was grossly distorted above the ankle. He winced.
‘Could be worse,’ Ditzy said. ‘At least he hast’ broken the skin.’
‘It might feel better if I had,’ Danny said through gritted teeth.
‘What do we do?’
‘’Splint, painkillers, stretcher him out,’ Ditzy said. ‘No point in trying to set it here. We’ll leave that for the people with x-ray machines.’
Becker nodded and squashed down the worry he felt for his lover. He had a mission to complete.
‘Right, we’ll leave you to get the first bits of that underway while Finn and I deal with our runaways.’
Ditzy nodded and Danny gave him a thumbs up.
‘Mind your step, soldier boy,’ he said.
‘Duty noted,’ Becker gestured to Finn and they set off to where a cluster of bright colours tugged where the children were.
The two boys sat huddled together in the snow like a pile of discarded clothes. They were shivering a looked up at Becker and Finn with fear in their eyes.
Becker knelt down.
‘Hi,’ he said, ‘we’re here to get you home,’
One boy nodded but the other had his face on his companion’s shoulder and didn’t look up or respond.
‘I’m Becker, and this is Finn. What are you called?’
‘I’m Stevie and this is Dave. Are you really going to get us back?’
Becker reached a hand to touch Stevie’s face.
‘Are you both okay? Are you hurt? Dave? Can I see you? We’re not going to hurt you.’
It took a bit of coaxing but finally, Dave looked up at the men trying to help them.
‘I’m okay,’ he said. ‘Don’t let them get me.’
Becker and Finn exchanged glances.
‘Who?’ Becker said. ‘No one’s going to hurt you at home. They’re worried but that’s all. No one is going to hurt you or shout at you.’
‘No,’ Stevie said. ‘Here. There’s things in the snow. They’re following us. They’re waiting.’
Finn stood up and did a 360-degree scan.
‘Nothing,’ he said.
‘Do you mean under the snow?’ Becker asked.
Dave shook his head. ‘They’re out here,’ he waved his hand in a broad sweep. ‘They’re following us. They’re waiting.’
Becker felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. There was nothing there. He knew it but the boys seemed equally sure that there was.
‘Can you point to one of those things? What do they look like?’
‘They look like snow,’ Stevie said. ‘Bits of snow moving around. They disappear when you look at them. ‘ He looked around at the landscape and then looked Becker in the eye. ‘They’re still here. They’re waiting.’
‘Well, we’re here too,’ Finn said confidently. ‘And they’ll have to deal with us first before they get to you. How about we get them home, boss?’
Becker smiled at the boys.
‘I think that’s a good idea. Are you okay to walk? I’ve got some energy bars?’
The boys stood up and were soon happily munching on the cereal bars Becker kept in his pocket. Fin led the way, keeping to the children’s original tracks to avoid unseen pitfalls like the one that had claimed Danny. Becker kept his eyes peeled for any sing o movement or any indication that these ‘snow things’ were anything more than an optical illusion brought about by the monotony of the white landscape.
He saw nothing but he found he couldn’t totally dismiss the boys’ very real feat that easily. He’d never seen such a barren, featureless environment of snow even in his arctic training. The anomalies opened up to different times, could they possibly open up to different planets? This didn’t seem like any place on earth past, present or future. And who knew what might be out in the snow, waiting.
They quickly reached Danny and Ditzy Danny was sitting with his broken leg straight out before him. The soppy grin he gave Becker as they approached told the tale that he’d been given the good drugs.
‘Hi guys,’ Becker said. ‘Stevie and Dave this is Danny and Ditzy. Danny and Ditzy this is Stevie and Dave.’ Becker squinted up at the anomaly in the distance. ‘I don’t think we should hang around. How are we going to do this?’
‘Danny needs a stretcher,’ Ditzy said, ‘and these guys need to get back into the warm. So why don’t you and Finn take the kids back to the anomaly? When you get there send a stretcher party back. And I’ll keep Danny-boy company in the meantime.’
Becker nodded. ‘Makes sense, with one change. I’ll stay with Danny. You make sure the lads are okay on their way back.’
Ditzy looked puzzled at the change. Becker drew him aside.
‘I’m a bit worried about the boys,’ Becker whispered. ‘They’re talking about things in the snow following them. It could just be optical illusions or…’
‘Hallucinations, maybe, from the onset of hypothermia?’
‘Your guess is better than mine. That’s why I want you with them. They’re the priority.’
‘Understood,’ Ditzy nodded. ‘Danny’s on morphine. He’ll be fine for the time it takes us to get back.’
‘Let’s do it then.’
It was a good plan. It lasted for nearly an hour before it went wrong.
Becker had been monitoring Danny’s health while dealing with his lover’s attempts to persuade him to have sex in the snow. Danny had always been an affectionate drunk and a trip to the pub usually ended with him demanding kisses at odd times and extravagant declarations of undying love. Morphine, apparently, tuned this up a notch and Danny was now dissatisfied with the odd kiss and wanted a full make-out session. Becker found himself dealing with a companion who had permanent and persistent wandering hands as well as trying to keep an eye on the progress of the children towards the anomaly.
Apart from the cold, there were worse ways of spending his time.
And then it started snowing. Out of a clear blue sky, it started snowing Instantly Becker’s world shrank to walls of whirling white flakes.
‘Shit!’ Becker started rummaging in the backpack for the tarpaulin.
‘Pretty,’ Danny said, brightly, pointing at the snow.
‘Yes, sweetheart, very pretty. Now just hold the edge of this tarp for me.’
There was nothing to use the tarpaulin up so they sat huddled under it doing their best Russian peasant impression. The snow fell and Becker pulled Danny close to him.’
‘Are they here?; Danny asked suddenly.
‘Are who here?’
‘Them. The watchers.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘In the snow. They’re watching us. I can feel them waiting.’
Becker tightened his grip on Danny’s side.
‘It’s just the morphine, Danny. You’re seeing things. There’s nothing here except the snow.’
‘That’s what I mean. It’s the snow. It’s watching. It’s waiting.’
‘Sssh. We’re okay. Ditzy will be here with the stretcher soon. We’ll be fine.’
‘They’re still here.’
The next hour or so was as close to a living nightmare as Becker wanted to experience out of an RTI course. The snow fell steadily, relentlessly and Danny continued to talk about the watchers or the things in the snow.
Becker could see nothing, no matter how hard he looked. Whatever Danny saw out there, he was blind to it. He just wished he could hold on to his conviction that this was just a hallucination brought on by the dose of morphine Danny had taken.
Hallucination or not, Danny’s fear was real to him, growing stronger under the opiate haze.
The snow stopped as suddenly as it began and the two men found themselves under a crystal blue sky again. Becker was relieved in survival terms but the end of the snowfall did not seem to have calmed Danny’s fears He clung to Becker and seemed to flinch away from things only he could see.
Becker caught a flicker of movement up the slope of the hill. He stood up. A party of black-clad figures were making their way down towards them.
Becker waved and called out. There was an answering call and the figures resolved into Ditzy, Finn, Kermit and Blade. They were carrying a bright orange stretched between them.
‘See, Danny? They’re here! I told you we would be okay!’
Danny kept his eyes on the ground in front of him and just gave a brief shake of his head in reply.
‘How’s the patient?’ Ditzy asked when they got close enough.\
‘So-so,’ Becker said. ‘Hallucinating a little bit.’
‘Oh? Happy stuff?’
‘He was okay until it started snowing and then he started seeing things in the snow.’
‘Like the kids?’ Finn asked.
‘Yeah.’
Ditzy looked up from where he was kneeling beside Danny. ‘Well, whatever, let’s get you back and we’ll sort things out where it’s warmer, eh?’ He turned back to Danny as he spoke. ‘Let’s get you where there isn’t any snow to worry about.’
Becker walked beside the stretcher s they carried Danny back up the hill. He kept an eye out for anything moving in the snow but there was nothing. There was just the endless white with smooth humps which were always there lying still and cold under the blue sky.
Danny was bundled up against the cold. He kept his eyes shut for the most part and when he opened them, kept his gaze fixed on Becker.
On the right side of the anomaly, dusk was falling with the autumn leaves. Danny was being fussed over by the green-clad paramedics as they transferred him to the ambulance’s stretcher-trolley. Ditzy was telling the air ambulance service they could stand down. Finn shoved a mug of hot tea into his hand. Becker sipped it gratefully. There was no sign of the children. He presumed they had been taken away at the same time as the team had gone back through the anomaly. He would check up on that in a few minutes. For the moment he was content to sip his tea and recuperate a little.
It could, he reasoned, have been a lot worse.
A flash of white out of the corner of his eye made him turn his head. There was nothing there when he turned to look at it. He frowned and then shrugged. It was just the reflection of the ambulance in a car window.
That was all. It had to be. Didn’t it?
The End