SSSD - Search outside

“We can search outside,” Signe says. Her stoic expression and bearing probably conceal how she really feels about it. “You should stay,” she adds to Alison.

“You serious? I’m with you.” She takes Signe’s hand, which seems huge. “We’re a set.”

Signe appears to appreciate that.

“Thanks for doing this.” Renee hands Alison a handheld radio. “OK, look here.” She leads them to the far wall, where a wrinkled map is tacked up with lots of highlighting and markers. “This is us, here at the outpost.” The map shows the main building and the surrounding structures. The paper crinkles noisily as Renee prods a spot that’s circled in purple marker, marked Weather. “That’s our weather setup. That’s Margot’s. You should check there.”

“What about this?” Alison points to an unmarked structure between the outpost and the weather setup.

“Don’t worry about that. That’s the shack. It’s an old wreck. Nobody uses it. So then,” Renee goes on, placing her finger on Weather and dragging it up and to the left, “…you can go from there to the dig site. There’s nowhere else she’d be. Now, you’ll have to use your compass to do this, but if you’re at Weather, the dig is due north of you. And then we have lights that guide you straight back from the site. They’ll bring you right to the warehouse out back. You can see the lights from the shack, but you’ll save a lot of time if you go straight north.” She glances toward the window. “And you might not have a lot of time. You have to be back here before the storm hits.”

“Understood,” Signe says.

Alison almost can’t handle how attractive Signe is at this moment. She’s hot all the time, but when she’s all calm and in control like this? Alison contains herself and hopes that Signe doesn’t notice her blushing. She feels like one of the horny freshmen that show up on CCL’s doorstep full of hero worship for Meri. Like, well… how Ro probably feels around Alison. Only more so. Much more so.

“Notice me sempai,” she mutters ironically.

“I’m sorry?” Renee says.

“Nothing. Let’s go,” Alison says to Signe, who nods. “We’ll hit the garage on the way out. You got the rest?”

“Got it,” Renee calls after them as they head down the hallway.

Signe helps herself to the equipment on the wall as they’re putting their gear back on. Alison peers out the narrow window by the door, tugging at her boots. The snow’s pretty thick out there and there won’t be much more daylight.

“We’ll have to keep moving out there,” she predicts.

“Yes.” Signe unfolds an ice axe and clips it to her harness.

“She was talking about a dig. You know anything about that?”

Signe shakes her head. “Bring another light.”

“Roger,” Alison says with a salute. She grabs a huge flashlight off the rack and checks it to make sure; it’s blinding.

They push out into the snow, slogging along the side of the outpost. The cold is bitter, but this is what passes for warm. The temperature will only drop.

“Hey!” Alison calls out as they enter the garage through the open doors. It’s dark and cold, but at least it protects them from the wind. Not too much snow has blown in, so the door hasn’t been ajar for a long time. However, some of the windows are broken and the tarps, plastic, and boards used to cover them have let snow and ice into other parts, mostly near the ceiling.

“Margot?” Signe asks, shining the beam of her flashlight around. Her accent is so sexy.

Most of the space is occupied by a gigantic snowcat. The rest is all fuel drums and building materials. Alison bangs one of the drums, finding it hollow. It doesn’t take long to determine that nobody’s here. This is an unfamiliar place, and it’s not spotless, but nothing is obviously out of place. Someone must’ve just needed to get a tool or something and not wanted or forgotten to haul the big, heavy door shut.

A metallic creak draws Alison’s attention, and she makes her way to the snowcat, where Signe has lifted a metal panel to expose… the engine or something.

“What’s going on?” Alison asks.

Signe points her light at the ground. There’s some snow on the floor. Then she goes back to looking into the engine. She shines her light and gives Alison a meaningful look.

“What? What is that?” Alison asks. It’s an engine.

“No…” Signe grimaces. “I do not know the word in English. A piece is missing.”

“Oh. They probably have more,” Alison says, looking over her shoulder. The garage has tons of tools and parts in it.

Signe frowns at the latch on the panel; it’s badly bent, as though this was pried open.

“Did you do that?” Alison asks.

Signe shakes her head.

“Not our problem. We have to keep moving,” Alison tells her, pulling on the taller woman’s sleeve. “We’ll run out of daylight.”

Signe nods and they leave the garage. Together, they pull the door shut and lower the latch. They trudge north, and a faint line of red lights becomes visible. So the dig is that way. To their right, up the slope, another structure is visible, although it’s faint.

Signe points. “It’s on the way,” she shouts over the howling wind.

Alison struggles up the hill after her. There’s a bit of a path in the drifts that the Americans must be responsible for, but it’s quickly filling with snow. Coming back this way will be dangerous, so it’s just as well that Renee planned this as a sort of circuit.

Alison’s joints and lungs burn while her body freezes. She’s out of breath by the time they reach the modest summit, and her breaths are freezing in the scarf that she’s using to keep her face covered. She should’ve taken one of those neat pairs of goggles; the snow is blinding her.

Signe is just ahead, stationary. The shack is just over there to their right. The weather setup should be a little farther up the hill, to their left. Signe’s indecision is obvious.

Investigate the shack?

Or push on with the search for any sign of Margot?