Monster of Ellesmere Island

Chapter 2

The snow does subside enough, by noon the following day, for the crew to load up their gear and supplies into the Bandvagn 206: the military vehicle provided for them on arrival. The vehicle is a dirt brown color, like the color of the soil on an old dirt road in the south. It has four continuous track wheels that are separated into two equal units.

The USPA crew suited up in their, grey on white camouflage, arctic tactical uniforms for the mission.

"Are you ready to see this?" Nickoli asked Joad.

"Yeah, just about. How about you?"

"I'd say that I'm ready for a surprise. But until then, I'm just going to be skeptical about it" Nick replied to Joad.

"Well, we'll see if you're singing a different toon in a few hours." Joad said back to him.

Taken from the Journal pages of Nanci Montez (Day 3)

Everyone that I work with is highly educated and/or decorated. You are required to be if you even want to be considered for a job like this. Commander Mcdougall is a decorated military official with all the training needed to be an EMT, Nickoli is also a fairly decorated marine with master's in Mechanical Engineering, Brian has sturdy a military background in the Army and a master's in Sociology, Joad was a Marine and graduated with a Master's in Biology. Last but certainly not least is me! I stayed in the Army reserves and graduated with a Master's in Spanish and a Bachelor's in International Studies.

When we arrived at "the scene of the crime" there was a big red flag planted high above the polar bear remains, just as the scientists had left it. We parked our vehicle a few yards away from the flag to ensure that we didn't damage the remains.

Then came the digging. Our team rummaged through the snow around the flag lightly, with rakes at first, then uncovered the rest of the remains with our hands. Once it was uncovered Brain snapped a few pictures of the remains for later examination.

It was really true, this polar bear was torn to shreds as if it were eaten in just a couple of bites and then tossed to the side like trash, to decompose. But it hasn't decomposed much at all. Since it's literally like an icebox here, things tend to decompose fairly slowly.

The cave was about a quarter of a mile from the polar bear remains. It was almost like driving down the length of about three or four holes of golf. This cave wasn't just a measly cave either. The opening to this cave was massive! It was at least four stories high. The only reasons that this cave laid undiscovered is because it's on a lower elevation and faces away from civilization, in an area that is mostly unexplored and undiscovered.

The opening to the enormous crevice was lit by the sunlight reflecting off of the snow but the diffuser of light only illuminated the cave for a few yards. After that, it became sheer darkness and desolate for as far as the eye could see. Which wasn't that far because the darkness beyond was darker than the black that dwindles inside of your pupils.

Brian was the first one to remove his nightstick from his velcro pocket and step into the darker half of the cave.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

"Jeez, it sure is dark in here." Brain said as he stepped further into the darkness with Joad following not so closely behind him. Commander Mcdougall followed beside Joad, waiting for the moment that she needed to push past Brian to take the lead. Nickoli and Nanci followed behind them with Nick bringing up the rear of the group.

The charcoal blackness of the gravel that cascaded the floor and the rounded black lines that swirled along the walls added even further to the darkness of the cave.

"Could the big and scary Brian be a little frightened?" Joad asked with a smirk.

Brian turned his head back to Joad while keeping the stream of light emanating from his flashlight pointed forward and said, "We were sent here to contain a possible threat, Joad. I'm not frightened. I'm just cautious" and returned his gaze ahead of him.

There are stalagmites spread out on the floor some of them knocked over creating what looks like a path. But, behind one of the larger ones off to the side of the cave, Brian sees something that seizes his gaze.

"Hey, Commander." He shouts back "You should come take a look at this."

Mcdougall pushes past Joad, flashlight in hand, to get to where Brian is to have a look. She shines her light on it and finds herself looking at what appears to be a revolting pile of arctic wolf bones all belonging to multiple wolves. She follows the trail of wolf bones with her flashlight up and up to find the remains of a second polar bear further back in the cave. Being the animal lover she is, she feels a slight churning in her stomach when seeing this. But she stays strong and doesn't show it. She is their fearless commander after all.

"Take a few more pictures Hensley, we need the evidence." Mcdougall says.

He did as commanded and took multiple picture of the scene while the Commander explored the cave even deeper.

Nickoli examined the walls of the cave. Within the beam of light, he could see the outlining of ancient cave art. The old withered away paint revealed the outlining of the ancient Inuit tribes, some kneeling and some bowing towards something. But when he followed the path of what they were facing, due to the age of the painting, there wasn't anything there but a few stray lines that outlined what looked like something very large.

"Hey Brian," he said, "I found some cave art that you might want to have a look at when you get a chance."

At this moment, the commander who is a few paces deeper in the cave found something that made her heart sink further.

Lying just in front of her was a human skull on its side, propped against a rock, with its jaw lying just beside it.

She quickly looked back at Brian and yelled, "Hensley! You'll want to get pictures of this."

Turning his attention from Nick to Sierra, Brain approaches her position and is aghast. He takes pictures of the human remains, while Mcdougall observes. Joad manages to slip past the both of them and takes a few steps past them, unamused for some reason and bends over to pick up a rock. He then chunks the rock into the shadows and listens to the *click, clack* as it collides with other rocks. Joad then whistles and says, "Wow, this cave probably goes on for miles"

Irritated Commander Mcdougall walks toward him and says, "Ackerman! That was completely out of line!"

Understandingly Joad apologizes for his actions saying, "I'm sorry commander, it will never happen again."

Mcdougall scowls him and replies, "You can bet your ass that it won't" and looks him angrily in the eyes once more before turning and marching for the exit of the cave.

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At the MSRS, the three scientists: Dr. Allan Jost, Dr. Martin Tamura, and Dr. Elwood Summers do their usual rounds around the research station. Dr. Tamura, being their Botanist and Horticulturist, tends to the plants in the greenhouse with the assistance of Dr. Summers. Who after spending a few months in the research station has obtained quite a bit of knowledge on how to take care of the majority of the plants. Dr. Summers a doctorate in Astrobiology, does have the knowledge to assist in the greenhouse and is a very quick learner.

Doctor Jost monitors all of the systems and does a system check on everything to make sure that everything is running smoothly. The MSRS has airlocks, air regulators, air monitoring systems, a water reclaimer, climate monitoring systems, everything that you would need to live on a planet such as Mars. Dr. Jost, having a doctorate in Astronomy with a minor in Computer Science, is really just here to observe and report back to his supervisors whether or not a cold and desolate place like this is really habitable without an environment with air or resources.

The scientists lived in fear during the polar night time of the year before The USPA was sent here. All of the strange animal noises, that sounded like an above ground whale. The dead animals popping up. It's all very nerve-racking for them. After Dr. Gerald Bingham returned home and it was just the three of them, it became even more nerve-racking. Yes, the military base was just 30 miles away but these scientists were almost completely alone in a secluded and unpredictable area.