Page 44 of Escaping my Dragon

“No.” I forced the word through stiff lips.

You will obey. The voice snarled, and, despite me gritting my teeth and trying to stop myself, I took another two steps.

“Velma!” Vernon shouted my name. “I’m coming.”

The distraction didn’t loosen the hold the voice had on me. I advanced in jolting paces even as Vernon kept yelling. “Almost there. I’m gonna clip you to the ladder so you don’t fall when the captain pulls us from the hole.”

I couldn’t turn to look only stare in consternation as I neared the tunnel mouth.

“Velma? You listening?” Vernon’s sounded close, and when he put his hand on my shoulder, I shuddered. My friend and coworker stepped in front of me with a frown. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Help.” The word whispered from my lips. “Help me, Vernon. Something. Controlling me.” I had to force the words out.

Bless Vernon for not asking for clarification. He dropped a sling over my body even as I tried to walk through him. I heard a click as he somehow secured me.

Then he must have signaled because we began to rise. My feet left the floor.

No. You will not leave.

And it was only in that moment I realized I wasn’t crazy because a wide-eyed Vernon asked a shaky, “Who the fuck said that?”

Chapter Fourteen

Steady. Calm. A mantra I repeated as I hovered the chopper over the hole Velma fell in. I wanted nothing more than to be the knight in arctic camo armor dropping down to save her. Instead, as the only pilot, I had to keep the whirlybird in the air, with as little movement as possible, while Vernon climbed down the ladder.

While he did my job, Joslyn kept me apprised via our connected headsets. “Vernon’s made it to the hole, but for some reason, Velam’s walking away.”

I frowned. “Could be she’s disoriented from the fall.”

“Whatever the problem, it seems resolved. Vernon’s putting the sling over her now.” A pause, then, “He just gave me the thumbs up.”

My signal to start slowly rising. Too fast, and they might end up swinging and smacking the sides of the chasm or spinning.

“They’ve cleared the edge of the hole,” Joslyn declared, meaning time to shift sideways and lower the chopper. Not for landing, though. I didn’t trust the ground at this point, but I wanted to make it less of a climb for Vernon and Velma since we lacked a winch or hands to haul them aboard.

“I see Velma’s head,” Joslyn announced before grunting. “She’s on board and Vernon’s right behind.” “Vernon’s inside. Shutting the door.”

My cue to get us out of here. First, though, I couldn’t help but half turn so I could see Velma for myself. She knelt on the floor, head hanging.

Safe. No thanks to me.

I angled us upwards, away from the bloodied ice sticking up in jagged chunks and headed for the mountain. We wouldn’t be returning to McMurdo Station, though. Between the creeping magma, the thick falling ash, and the possibility of lethal poison-laced the air, it wouldn’t provide a safe haven. Instead, I headed for the Mario Zucchelli Station, about a ninety-minute trip or so, and far enough from the exploding volcanoes that we could hunker and wait for extraction.

“What do you mean you heard a voice?” Joslyn stated, her headset capturing her words but not Vernon’s or Velma’s.

Before I could find out what they spoke of, the mountain in front of me, the one I was still rising to cross over, began to shiver. Must be another quake. I pulled us upward, concerned by the amount of ice exploding, sending out missile-like shards.

“…get out of here.” Velma’s panicked tone came through my headset as she geared up.

“You’re safe now. We are heading for a station outside the danger zone.” Joslyn did her best to calm, but Velma remained distraught.

“You don’t understand. We need to get as far from here as possible. It’s awake.”

“What’s awake?”

Before Velma could reply, a deeply timbered voice bellowed—inside my head, I should add—How dare you leave!

The tenor of the exclamation actually caused my craft to wobble, and I fought to straighten us even as Joslyn yelped. “Did anyone else hear that?”