Stories from Canada

White Hell

I was wandering through the seemingly endless fields of snow. All around me were snowflakes in the air and surely enough they covered my head and backpack.
For days now I haven't seen any civilization or any human face since Mauve called me crazy and turned back. And yes, at this point I probably was crazy for searching on, but the data was clear. Somewhere in these endless snow planes was an oasis of life. Scans of the area showed a radius of green grass, a lake that wasn't frozen like everything else here and next to it was a small hut. Photos taken by drones from a distance would show a steady stream of smoke coming out of the chimney confirming someone or something was living there. But the team had yet to pinpoint the exact location of this oasis. It seemed to be moving, and even though we tried to track it with satellite or drone images, we never got clear location data. Mauve, Jenny and I agreed on trying to go there. Starting from the nearest city we walked out in the ocean of white, following a compass and a GPS. We started out with a snow car carrying us over the ice but after three days the gas was about to run out and Jenny, who had already lost her faith in the success of the mission decided to turn back. Leaving us with food, water and tools, she took the cart back.
Mauve and I were walking for another two days, always going north, before we found the spot the drones were taking photos from. From here we should have been able to see the hut or at least the smoke rising but in every direction we looked, we only saw the white plane and a high, cloudless sky. We adjusted our course to go after the hut but another day passed without results.
"This is pointless. Food will run out if we don't head home now", Mauve noticed.
"But we haven't found anything!", I exclaimed frustrated.
"Yeah. That's the problem. By now we should have reached the oasis. Or at least seen it."
"We could find it any minute now."
"No. Look around you, Pete", he opened his arms, "If you go on, you will get lost in this white hell. If our destination would be near we could see something, but here is nothing."
"I will not turn around. We are too close."
"You're crazy if you believe we are close!", Mauve cried out in frustration, "I will turn back. With or without you."
"Then go", I demanded. Mauve only shook his head. He stopped in his tracks and for a moment I could see him struggling. Then he turned into the other direction and left me.

Three days have passed since then and now I was starting to believe he was right. At some point I lost my way. The compass was spinning like crazy and there was no left or right, no east or west, no right way. There were only the tracks behind me and the all absorbing white around me. Even if I tired to go back now, I wouldn't find the way and if I would there wasn't enough food left for me to make it that far. I was talking to myself and praying to a god I never believed in, hoping I wouldn't collapse at some point and get eaten by the snow. But I felt the strength in my body, fading more and more as I tried to ration my leftover food.
At some point I noticed my vision has gotten blurry and every move felt like I was trying to climb the steepest slope in history. When I fell down in the snow I knew I wasn't going to go on any further. I made my peace with myself and looked for a last time on the rotating compass.

The first thing I noticed was the warmth around me. The air wasn't freezing anymore and my limbs weren't numbed by this chilly pain, I got so used to, anymore. The air didn't smell fresh anymore and instead an unfamiliar smell was surrounding me. For a moment I wasn't sure if I was still alive or if this was what came after. Opening my eyes didn't help shake that feeling since all I saw in the first moment was black. It was like I didn't open my eyes at all. With a rapidly beating heart I tried to move my body and a boulder fell from my heart as I pulled up my arm and laid my hand on my face. Slowly I realized there was a bed under me and a thick blanket over my body. Suddenly panicking I sat up and a dizziness got hold of me for a few moments. I hurried out from under the blanket, almost tripped and ran towards the small light ray shining in from across the room.
I literally ran against a wall and a splinter pushed itself under my skin as I tried to find an exit which would lead me out of the darkness. The coldness of a metal ring stopped my search and I pulled it hastily. The movement of the wall made me trip backwards and I fell down on a graveled floor. Sun was flooding the room, now that the door was open, and I felt like was able to breath again. Thousands of thoughts were speeding through my head and without really standing up I dragged myself outside. I felt warm grass under my hands and yet saw a wall of snow a few meters away from me. The air was warm and only now I noticed that I was only wearing the long underwear while my jacket, snow trousers, shoes and basically everything else was gone. Slowly I pulled myself up and walked a few steps out of the house. A single tree was growing next to the house and a small lake was sitting there, while being surrounded by a at least two meter high wall of snow. I had found the oasis.
As I was walking towards the wall of snow I suddenly heard barking and howling. An Arctic fox suddenly appeared from behind the house and threw me on the ground with a powerful jump. He growled at me until suddenly I heard a call. The fox let go of me and as I stood up again a girl, not much older than 12, stood next to the house. She had long white locks and wore a dark, ripped dress.
"Who are you?", she took the question from my lips.
"I- I- I'm Pete-r", I stuttered, being too surprised by her existence.
"It's good that you woke up", she spoke and her soft voice felt like it was singing it's own melody.
"Wh-a- What?"
"You were sleeping for three days after Serenelliana found you."
"Who?"
"The fox standing beside you", she explained and I felt the wet nose on the back of my hand, as the animal smelled on me.
I was only looking at the girl, unable to grab a clear thought and ask about her or the oasis. I felt like I was supposed to faint from being too overwhelmed, but I didn't.
"You have many questions", she noticed after a few moments, "Let us sit down inside." She went towards the door of the hut and almost automatic I followed here. Quietly she gestured towards a pillow on the floor in the middle of the room and I sat down as she opened blinds on three windows, I didn't notice before.
"Who are you?", I could bring myself to ask as she finished opening the third blind.
"I-", she started only to fall silent right afterwards. She sat down and sofly said: "I don't really have a name. I never needed one."
"Wha- How?", I asked more myself than her. "Do you live here?"
"Yes."
"But how is there a place like this in... A place like this?"
"I don't know", she responded, "I found myself here like you found yourself here. Just that I know how you got here but I don't know how I got here."
"But-"
"You are the first person to come here", she explained, "Why?"
"We found an irregularity in the data and when we looked into it, we could pinpoint it to this house", I answered, "We agreed to find this place to-"
I fell silent and jumped up from the pillow. Next to the bed was my backpack and with shaking hands I hurried to open it. I had to send a message to my team! I had to send them my location! I pulled out the transponder and tried to turn it on, but it didn't react. As any good technician would do I tried to hit it but it stayed dead. Next I pulled out the compass which was still spinning like crazy and suddenly discouraged I sank into myself.
"What is the matter?", I heard the soft voice ask.
"I can't connect to my people. My devices are dead."
"Dead? But there wasn't anything living or previously living with you."
"Yeah. It's an expression." As I spoke those words I thought to myself: "What am I even doing?"
I turned around again and faced the girl. "Am I dead?"
"No. But you almost were."
"Who are you?", I asked again and she sent me a long look.
"This all isn't possible. This place cannot exist. But somehow I am here", I quickly said.
"Maybe it's better, if you left", she said.
"No! I have to know what's going on! I have to-" Suddenly she stood next to me and lay her hand on my chest. She was burning hot and it felt like her touch was burning a hole in my shirt. Then I collapsed.

A steady beeping woke me and the smell of Sanitzer surrounded me. Slowly I opened my eyes and an IV-Bag was hanging next to me.
"Pete?", a unfamiliar voice asked but I didn't felt like it was talking to me.
"Pete?", a light touch on my shoulder and I looked over. A woman with brown hair looked on me with a sense of relief.
"Who-?", my own voice was faint and it sounded strange to myself. "Who are you?"
Her expression got uneasy and tears started swelling in her eyes.
"Don't you remember me? It's me Jennifer."
"Who are you?", I asked again and a tear began to roll down her face.