North Pole

By Edward Punales

The Macready Air Force Base base in Greenland is hunkering down for one of the worst snow storms in recorded history. But when the base receives a mysterious SOS, Dr. Martin Jules and Sgt. Bill Arthur must brave the arctic winds, and come to face-to-face with horrors of this frozen wasteland.

Word Count: 10,000

This story can also be found in the short fiction collection, Worlds on Fire.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Edward Punales
• Release date: Mar 17, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311664808

Edward Punales

I’m a writer, poet, filmmaker, and lover of mythology, science fiction, art, and cheeseburgers.  I’ve published three short story collections, written and/or directed a handful of short films, regularly publish new work on my Medium page, and have spent way too much time on the internet watching old vine complications. I used to write under the pen name Edward Lange, but I switched to my real name in 2015. I live in South Florida.

Book preview

NORTH POLE

Edward Punales

© 2016 Edward Punales / All Rights Reserved

Smashwords Edition

Cover by Edward Punales

© 2016 Edward Punales / All Rights Reserved

This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of the copyright holder.

All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to any persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

Dr. Martin Jules sat in his office at the Macready Air Force Base, trying to keep warm.

His office, which doubled as his sleeping quarters, was a small trailer that sat next to one of the hangers on the base. Normally the hangar would be filled with the sound of people running about, and aircraft preparing to take off. But not tonight. Greenland was preparing for one of the worst snow storms in its history. The windows on all the buildings had been boarded up, and everyone was ordered to stay indoors.

This sat well with Jules. Being the base’s chief physician, he was regularly inundated with patients. Hypochondriacs mostly, worried that every blemish or blotch was a sign of frostbite. He normally didn’t mind these amusing visits, but today was different.

He stared at the picture of Karen that sat on his desk. She smiled at him through the glass frame, her round happy face sitting under a head of long brown hair.

He could still hear his sister-in-law’s voice, crying over the phone as she gave him the news. That had been only a few days ago, but it felt like a lot longer. He’d spent most of the last few days sitting in his office alone. He barely ate anything, barely slept, and the only people he interacted with were his patients. Most of the time, he just sat and stared at that picture, as if doing that would make everything better.

A knock at the door took his mind from his thoughts. He got up, and opened the door. A rush of cold wind smacked Jules, and he had to cover his face. Standing in the doorway was an old man in a military uniform, with gray hair and a black scarf across his face. The man at the door quickly ducked inside, and Jules closed the door behind him. The small shed suddenly felt colder, and Jules began to rub his hands.

We have an SOS. The man said, his voice hoarse and raspy. He stood next to Jules’ desk, brushing snow off his uniform. Even before he took off his scarf, Jules knew who it was; Sergeant Bill Arthur, head of the motor pool. He removed the scarf, revealing the thin gray moustache underneath.

From who? Jules asked.

We don’t know. The signal came from about a hundred and fifty miles north of here.

Who the hell is stationed out there? Jules said. He was glad