The Glaciermen #20: Crazy Talk

Early access prepublication manuscripts of "The Glaciermen"

Happy Tuesday everyone!

It’s such an understated day of the week. It misses out on the hate for Monday (and the dearth of newsletters, apparently), dodges the hype of Hump Day, gets no one thirsty like Thursday, and, well, ‘Friday I’m in Love’ as the song goes.

So here’s to Tuesday, and a bit-o’-story for ya to liven it up a touch. Enjoy.

Mandela Effect Notice: the science station has of course, always, certainly, definitely had a skylight in the main room. I would never edit such a minor, passing, arbitrary, unimportant detail into a description chapters and chapters ago and then act like nothing was changed… nope, no-sirree-bob.

(P.S. It’s on the shorter side today, I know, but I promise I’ll make up for it next week. There’s big things in store.)

(Here’s the previous segment if you missed it, and the first chapter and index, if you’re new).

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Crazy Talk

Recap: Amanda and Mikkel were enjoying a quiet moment together outside on the station’s porch when they heard a sound. Now they’re back inside and having trouble.

“Calm down,” David said, “It was just a noise in the night—probably the wind.”

Amanda was furious. “Don’t tell me to calm down! I know what I heard, and it was not the wind. You just don’t want to admit that you don’t believe Lee… or me.”

“I heard it too,” Mikkel said.

David splayed his hands in front of himself as if somehow holding out the obvious, “Of course it was the wind! It’s a tent! The wind blew and knocked something over.”

Rolf spoke, “No thing fell over. I secure all crates with straps. No thing loose.”

“Oh good grief! You too now?” David said.

“No thing loose,” Rolf repeated, face serious as ever.

“Am I really the crazy one here?” David asked, looking pleadingly around the room.

“Yes!” Amanda said, exasperated.

David threw up his hands and scoffed.

She groaned loudly. How could he be so dull? Of course her dad had to pick a fight at a moment like this—no wonder her mom had left him. He always had to be the hyper-logical scientist academic. Well, she had the evidence. There was a sound. She heard it with her own ears. Twice! And so had Mikkel.

She glanced nervously at the door to the station, then around the room.

“Wait,” she said, “Where’s Lee?”

“What do you mean? He’s right th—” David said, stopping as he pointed to an empty corner of the room.

“See!” He said emphatically, “there’s your explanation. He snuck out and made the noise. Case closed.”

“Oh right,” Amanda said, “And I bet you watched him walk right out the door with some pots to bang together so he could give me and Mikkel a good scare, have some fun. That really sounds like something he would do.”

David just shrugged. “Maybe he’s trying to make us believe his crazy stories.”

“They’re not crazy,” Amanda said.

“Listen to yourself, Amanda. That boy, Lee—if that’s even his name—told us there’s a hidden civilization of glowy blue monster men living underneath a glacier. Underneath a glacier, Amanda. That doesn’t sound crazy to you?”

Amanda was hurt. “What about Erika? And Runa? Where are they? Are they playing hide and seek down there? I saw those blue men, dad. I saw them. You think I’m crazy, too, don’t you?”

“You know I didn’t mean it that way. Don’t twist my words.”

“Boy was here,” Rolf said, interrupting, “Not leave until girl and fat coward come back.”

It took Mikkel a second to realize that he was being referenced, his face playing out the short transition from confused to hurt as the insult found its mark.

David put a hand on his hip, glaring as he pointed a finger at the others. “You people are impenetrable. No matter what I say you’ll never see reason. I’m just try—”

There was a thump. It came from the ceiling.

“There he goes again,” David said, though his voice wavered. “It’s just Lee trying to scare us by throwing things onto the roof.” He didn’t sound convinced by his own words, ending them with an awkward high-pitch chuckle.

There was a scratching, scampering sound, then another thump. Then a slow rhythmic creaking as the clear sound of footsteps began traveling across the roof, moving toward the skylight in the middle of the ceiling. Everyone watched with held breath as sound approached the three foot square of triple-thick insulated glass. The panes were dark, blemished only by the reflected glare of scattered light from the station’s lamps.

The sounds arrived at the edge of the skylight. David gasped. A dim blue glow expanded into the darkness of the window. 

Then a smack. Loud. A hand pressed against the glass. A blue hand. Then it was gone, and so was the light, except for the dimmest residual glow from a smudge of something on the glass.

“Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod…” David muttered, slumping into a crouch before scampering backward on his hands to get as far away from the skylight as possible. 

“Sshhh!” Amanda hissed at him.

She heard a crackling sound to her left and she jerked her head toward it, her whole body tense as a whip. Then she let out a breath. It was just Rolf, cracking his knuckles and looking mean. She turned to Mikkel to whisper something. 

The skylight exploded. Instinct took over as Amanda dove backward from the rain of shattered glass, covering her face with her arms. She landed hard on her back, knocking the breath out of her. After a gasp for air, she lowered her arms from her face. They stung from a dozen small cuts from the glass, but she didn’t notice. Her attention was elsewhere.

In the center of the room, crouched on a pile of glass, glistening blue and streaked red from bleeding cuts all over its body, was a snarling nightmare shaped like a man.

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And that’s it for now folks

Thanks for reading! I’ll try to post another segment by next Tuesday, so keep an eye on your inbox.

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– Xavier Macfarlane

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