Rescue at the North Pole: Chapter 1

Vice-Captain Bill’s log: 7.27pm 7th November 2005

Our helicopter flew through the winter tundra as fast as it could. We’d been assigned to investigate the disappearance of some scientists who had set up their experiments deep in the heart of the North Pole. Why they decided to hold a scientific operation, there we didn’t know,, but that was the least of our interests as we flew over the white blanket of snow engulfing the surface. We were here to find and hopefully rescue them from whatever or whoever had hurt them.

It was bitterly cold, with temperatures dropping to minus -20. Inside our helicopter there was just silence, not because anyone had fallen out with each other but because it was so cold we could barely move our mouths. Our medic Louise was dressed like Kenny from South Park and she was rocking back and forth in her seat just trying to keep warm.

Only one member of the team wasn’t feeling the cold and to us it was absolutely no surprise who that person was: Our cool, calm, collected totem of a squad leader: Captain Albert Redstar

It was missions like these that showed why Albert was our leader. He’d been around this game for so long and he was still only 32. He’d joined the Police academy when he was just 16 years old and impressed with his speed, sharpness and tactical brain from the off. At 20 he was given a chance with S.T.R.I.P.E.S as the youngest member of the team ever and from there he never looked back. Vice-Captain at 25 and then Captain at 29. I look back at this mission and realise how much his leadership got us through the tough times.

7:45pm

We touched down upon the Winter tundra’s and Albert ordered our pilot Wesley to go back into the air and survey the scene from above. We all knew how valuable this was going to be, considering the surface was just covered in white wherever we looked essentially making it a cold version of the desert. Wesley could alert us of dangers below in advance. My biggest fear was how much ice was hidden underneath the snow, just waiting for one of us to make a mistimed step and freeze to our doom.

I took one look at Albert and immediately knew our mission had started. I’ve learnt from working with him that sunglasses don’t just have to be used to keep the light out your eyes. My best friend, who’s a musician, uses them to keep his confidence high and avoid stage fright. In Albert’s case, it’s our cue to know he’s in work mode and there’s no fooling around.

With it being just a sheet of white in front of us, Albert decided we stick together for the moment and just keep heading forwards. Our weapons man Jim had provided us with the standard pistol and also a flamethrower, as he believed this would come in handy for the snow getting thicker as we progressed

Despite sticking together, we spread out in a formation to try to better protect ourselves. I was watching our backs with Louise while Albert led centrally, with Jim and Mike either side of him. When we trained, Albert worked us to death relentlessly on our attacking and defensive formations. We often found it tiresome, but I look back at this mission and realise just how valuable it was he did this.

The dark night sky and whistling fog engulfed us as we made our way further across the tundra. I’d never liked the freezing cold snow when relaxing in Winter time let alone on a rescue mission in the North Pole. A strong breeze blew from all sides and combined with the snow getting deeper, the mission was threatening to turn into an attritional sludge.

Everything was going smoothly until we passed a large mound of snow banks which were flanked by a couple of small hills. As we got halfway through this section, a huge shadowed creature suddenly appeared on top of one of the small mountains of snow. My heart almost froze when we realised it was a giant polar bear eyeing us all up for a tasty meal. But Albert wasn’t too concerned. He knew the bear couldn’t attack us for as long as we didn’t move and kept our weapons pointed, the bear wouldn’t try anything nasty.

Sadly though, the fear got to Louise, who suddenly let out a shrill screaming noise and ran. That was all the bear needed to attack. It knocked us aside as if we were bowling pins before it butted Louise about 10 feet forward into the snow. She says even to this day that she was certain to be polar bear food and she would have been too as the bear blocked her from getting up.

Just as it was about to tear her to pieces, I took the initiative and charged behind the bear before I tasered it in the back. Our smiles at stopping the bear were soon wiped however as 3 hungry snow wolves had also appeared and charged us down. We tried to escape but with our feet feeling heavy combined with the thickness of the snow, we knew it was hopeless. The lead wolf jumped to take a bite out of us but suddenly we heard a gunshot, which saw it drop to one side.

“Bill, Lou this way".

It was Albert that had rescued us. While the Wolves were distracted in going after him, I put my arm around Louise as she seemed to be in some discomfort. We started running again with Albert mounting a single handed rearguard. It was then I happened to make out a faint shadow in the foggy distance and I realised it was an abandoned log cabin.

“Head for that log cabin”. I screamed

We just about had enough to fend off the advancing wolves and barricade ourselves inside

“Is everyone alright?” The captain asked.

I was fine. So was Albert. Louise, however, was in pain. We found she had twisted her foot,, so we lay her down gently to rest. That’s when I realised something worse had happened.

“Where are Mike and Jim?”

We’d been so busy trying to escape the wildlife that we hadn’t noticed our team had split up. But we couldn’t just leave Louise on her own.

“I’ll go out and find them”. You stay here and protect Louise,” Albert told me.

I didn’t want to lose my captain,, but I knew if anyone could survive the harsh environment it was Albert. I barely settled myself down when I heard a thud of the door and we realised Albert had already gone.

I rested Louise up against the wall and poured her a warm cup of tea. We always made sure we carried a lot of supplies with us and they were going to be more useful than ever. My only thought right now was that I hoped my captain and missing members would come back alive...

End of Chapter 1