The Glaciermen #29: Rolf's Revenge
Early access prepublication manuscripts of "The Glaciermen"
Hello Dear Readers,
There was a massive storm where I live on the northern coast of Ohio—there may have even been a tornado somewhere nearby—so things were thrown into a bit of disarray. Thus the evening posting instead of the usual morning release.
I know many of you have been itching to know what happens next with Amanda and the science team, so you’ll be glad to hear we’re headed back to it for this segment.
Things get a little messy….
(Here’s the previous segment if you missed it, and the first chapter and index, if you’re new).
Recap: Back at present day at the science station, Amanda and Mikkel heard a noise. David is in denial about the danger. Lee is nowhere to be seen. The skylight started glowing blue, then burst apart as a tunlaq hunter made a shattering entrance.
Rolf’s Revenge
Time had slowed down for Amanda. She was still laying on her side, recovering from her mad dive backwards when the skylight had been smashed to pieces. Bits of scattered glass sparkled in the buzzing fluorescent light of the research station, casting glints of red and blue across the floor. David cowered in a corner, curled up against the wall and hiding his head under his arms. He might have been whimpering. Mikkel was still standing in the same spot as he was when the skylight had burst into a cloud of falling glass. His mouth was hanging open in his yellow beard, face frozen in shock and fear. Rolf was somewhere in the periphery, out of view. Lee was nowhere to be seen.
But it was there.
Tunlaq, Amanda thought, watching as the almost-naked man’s chest heaved in and out with violent breaths, veins bulging from pain and rage. Blood trickled from numerous glass cuts across his body, mixing into the blue glowing gel coating his skin that Lee had called ‘godseye.’ But what pierced her with fear were his eyes. Engorged black pupils ballooned out almost to the edge of his irises, and they were locked directly onto Amanda
Time began to speed back up as the tunlaq man took a step toward her. Then he lunged forward, but before Amanda could move or even scream, a flash of motion on her left turned into Rolf and slammed into the tunlaq, sending them both sprawling toward the bunk room.
Amanda seized the moment and surged into motion, scurrying across the broken glass toward the mess hall as Rolf and the tunlaq thrashed on the other side of the main compartment of the station. There were knives in the mess, and if Lee’s stories had as much truth to them as she believed, she was going to need a weapon.
There was a shout and a crash behind her as the tunlaq threw Rolf off and toward the main table, which collapsed into pieces as he crashed down onto it. In the mess, Amanda frantically yanked open drawers until she found the right one. It was filled with a variety of standard cutlery, including a few dull dinner knives and a single six-inch chopping knife. It wasn’t much, but the knife had a sharp edge and a tapered point, so it was better than nothing.
There was another yell from the main compartment, this one long and filled with pain. It sounded like Mikkel. Amanda whirled around to face the doorway to the main room. She was on the far end of the mess now, standing behind a small island countertop in the center, so her view through the doorway was limited. She could see Rolf on top of the destroyed table, but not much else. He was not moving. There was a loud sound of tearing fabric, and the cry of pain reached a new crescendo before cutting off.
After so much noise and commotion, there was a sudden quiet stillness. It was broken only by the distant thrum of a generator. Amanda gripped the knife tightly with both hands, holding it out toward the doorway on the other side of the mess.
The lights cut out. The silence was total. There was a small amount of illumination from the moon through the insulated windows of the mess, but with the sudden change from light to dark, Amanda’s eyes were not yet adjusted and she could not make out anything—anything except the blue glow spilling through the doorway.
She ducked down behind the island countertop to hide. Her grip on the knife was so tight that her hands were beginning to shake. Her heart pounded in her skull and her ears rang in the silence. Could the tunlaq see in the dark? She couldn’t remember. The adrenaline was too much—she could barely think at all.
Crunching footfalls on glass began to approach from the main compartment. Amanda felt like her heart was going to explode, wondering if it was beating loud enough to be heard, loud enough to guide the intruder right to her. She could only just keep herself from screaming in terror.
As the footsteps grew closer, the sinister blue glow began reflecting off the cabinet door opposite here. There was a bump, then a snarl, followed by a tumbling crash as everything on one of the counters behind her was sent flying across the mess. Amanda’s hands were shaking so violently that she could barely hold onto the knife despite her death grip on it.
The reflection grew brighter, illuminating Amanda’s side of the cabinet so much that she expected the tunlaq to come around it at any moment. Seconds passed. Nothing happened. Amanda steeled herself, then leaned as quietly as she could to peak around the edge of the cabinet. The walkway was empty. Confusion set in hard, adding to her terror.
A drop of something landed on her shoulder.
Her heart stopped for an instant, then she slowly angled her head back to look up. Above her, silently crouched on the counter, was the tunlaq. His face and arms were covered in blood, someone else’s blood. With an animalistic growl, he raised his arm, ready for the killing blow.
Just before the tunlaq struck, a jagged point burst out of his shoulder, and the growl turned into a cry of pain. Amanda jumped away, backing herself as deep as she could into the far corner of the mess and out of his reach.
Standing on the other side of the man-creature was Rolf. He had speared it from behind with a snapped leg from the broken table. He was attempting to yank it back out for a second go when the tunlaq jerked around to face him. Amanda saw the opening and lunged forward, plunging the knife deep into its lower back, pushing it in all the way up to the handle.
The tunlaq yelled in rage at this second unexpected injury, and with inhuman speed he flailed back at Amanda. One of his arms struck her on the side of the head. It was the hardest she’d ever been hit, snapping her head sideways and sending starbursts of color speckling into her vision. Before she or Rolf could react, the tunlaq picked her up and threw her across the room. She smashed against a wall of cabinets before collapsing hard against the floor, the wind completely knocked out of her.
The pain and violent change in location were disorienting. She was lying face down, but she could hear Rolf yell again and re-engage the fight. There were the sounds of scuffling, then another cry of pain from the tunlaq. Just as Amanda rolled over to get an eye on what was happening, she saw Rolf thrown like a rag doll, soaring back through the doorway into the main compartment to land with another loud crash.
The tunlaq was standing on the other side of the mess, gaping down at the handle of a butter knife sticking out of the left side of his chest. Then his eyes moved to Amanda. She wanted to run, but her body was still recovering from the violent tumble. She could barely breathe, much less get up and flee.
The tunlaq moved toward her, stumbling and gasping. Blood poured from the wounds in his shoulder and chest, and he looked weakened, but he still had enough strength to close his hands around Amanda’s neck and squeeze.
Full panic. She couldn’t breathe. Her throat felt on the verge of total collapse, like it would snap and crunch at any moment. First she tried to pry the rough hands from her neck, but she was too weak, and they were slippery with blood and gel. She resorted to pounding at the face above her, but the snarling tunlaq did not even seem to notice the blows.
The edges of Amanda’s vision were beginning to go black. How long did she have? In a final act of desperation, she punched her palm against the handle of the knife in the tunlaq’s chest. It sank a smidge deeper. She pounded again, this time something gave and it slid an inch. A final strike pushed it all the way in. The tunlaq gasped and coughed a dribble of blood, but he did not stop pressing down on her throat. Amanda pounded weakly at his chest. Her vision was closing fast, the darkness nearly total.
A muscular arm wrapped under the neck of the tunlaq, then a second arm came from the other side and wrapped around its head, hand gripping tightly against the far temple. There was a violent twist and a crack. The grip on Amanda’s throat went limp. She gasped and coughed as her lungs sucked air through her bruised throat.
As her vision began to open back up, she saw the arms lift the bloody corpse off her. It was Lee. He hefted the body aside and offered her a hand up. There were fresh bruises and deep scratches across his torso, as if he had just finished a fight of his own, but Amanda didn’t notice and didn’t care. He had come back for her.
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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Thrilling. This was a great transition back to the present day–right into the action.