The Glaciermen #45: Jailbreak (Part Two)
Early access prepublication manuscripts of "The Glaciermen"
Hello dear readers,
If you’re in the midwest US, you know the absolute dumping of snow many of us are dealing with—unfortunately my shovel-the-driveway time overlaps with my write-enough-just-to-get-by-to-the-next-week-because-I’m-actually-not-that-disciplined-about-writing time.
But I did get an external keyboard and monitor, which if you do a lot of typing in the same place, I highly recommend. It really beats out having to hunch over the ol’ laptop like a cave troll. (Quick hack: get a cheap “gaming” monitor instead of a cheap “office” monitor—gamers have higher standards for screen quality so it’s usually a better quality screen vs. the office one for roughly the same price.)
Without further ado…
(Here’s the previous segment if you missed it, and the first chapter and index, if you’re new).
Recap (spoilers!): Joined by the viking, Amanda, Lee, David, and Rolf stormed the holding pens of the tunlaq, freeing Runa and Erika—and encountering an unwanted guest.
Jailbreak (Part 2)
Rolf gave the binds a hearty tug to make sure they were tight before pushing off the half-burnt captive whom Lee had identified as Muktuk, then dragged him into one of the open pens and dropped him unceremoniously onto the hard ice. The disfigured man grimaced in pain, but did not speak. Meanwhile, the viking went from pen to pen, levering off each gate one-by-one with his axe while the rest of the crew listened to Runa telling her story of what had happened.
She had been jumped while she was setting up the lights in the cavern near the surface, and after that she could only remember disjointed snippets—hanging upside down, being dragged through tunnels—until she woke up in the pen with a badly injured Erika next to her. The guards never paid her any mind besides sliding a bit of food and water through the door once, which she refrained from consuming because of its rank appearance and smell.
Once Erika was awake, Runa had been able to determine that she had broken her collarbone and was probably concussed, so she had torn up one of her layered undershirts and tied a sling to stabilize the joint.
“And that is when the burnt man came,” Runa said. “At first he just looked at us from behind the gate like some hungry animal, speaking and laughing as if we were supposed to understand some kind of joke he was telling us. After some time, one of the guards came to him and told him something.
“I have never seen a smile turn so vile as the one that came over him when he heard what was said. The guard opened the gate and the disgusting man entered into the pen with us. He went straight to Erika.I tried to stop him, but then guard beat me down from behind and then held his spear to my throat, so I could do nothing but watch.
“At first, he only put his hands over her, but she struggled, so he started slapping her. He took his time, talking and laughing between each blow, pacing around like some sick tyrant. You came for us just in time—I fear what would have happened if his advances were not interrupted by our rescue.”
During her recounting, Lee quietly slipped into the pen with Muktuk. He crouched low next to him. His blistering, blackened flesh was a horrifying sight, made only worse by the shimmering sheen of a sparse layer of godseye coating his body. The poultice packing the wound in his shoulder had come loose when Runa had flipped him, and now the wound was dribbling blood and puss.
Lee whispered into his ear, “I shouldn’t be surprised to find you here, you degenerate piece of shit. Are you ready to pay for what you have done?”
Muktuk opened his eyes and looked at Lee. His face wore a signature smirk. He chuckled, then grimaced as the movement stung his broken ribs.
He said, “I only came to collect what was mine, boy. The masters finally recognized my worthiness after I did them the favor of removing the stink of the outsider among us. I should never have waited so long to have Aguta de—”
Lee punched his fist against the wound in Muktuk’s shoulder. Muktuk winced and gritted his teeth, but he did not cry out. He almost looked like he enjoyed it.
“You do not get to say his name,” Lee said.
After a few heavy breaths Muktuk raised an eyebrow, then replied, “See, boy? You are no different than I. You hurt. You kill. We are the same, dominating the weak to get what we want.”
“I am nothing like you,” Lee said, disgusted.
“We shall see,” Muktuk said before looking around the pen and letting out an exaggerated sigh. “Oh, if only they had let me have the bright haired one instead of that broken wench. It took all the fun out of it. I would have enjoyed having my way with her. You must have partaken while you two were hiding like rats in your little cave, no doubt. Tell me, how did it feel to—”
Lee punched Muktuk in the face this time. Muktuk responded with a masochistic cackle, his face a mixed expression between pain and something else. When he settled down, he spat a bloody gob onto the ice. Lee was going to hit him again, but a grasp on his shoulder stopped him. It was the viking. His face conveyed a look of warning.
“Tyra is not here,” the bearded man said.
“What do you mean?”
“The other pens are all empty. She is not here.”
Muktuk began to snigger.
“What’s so funny?” Lee said to him.
Muktuk smirked again before saying, “I pity you, outsider. You surely must not know the true scope of the power you are turning against—the spirits do not like to be questioned. I see them now, dancing all around us. They have given me their blessing. You cannot harm me.”
The pen was empty except for Lee, Muktuk, and the viking.
“Where’s the girl?” Lee asked, raising his fist in warning.
Muktuk just began laughing, his chortling cackles echoing around in the icy pen.
“Tell me!” Lee shouted, and punched him in the shoulder.
Muktuk’s laughs became a howling chorus of pain and pleasure.
“Where is she?” Lee demanded again, grabbing the hysteric man by his shoulders and shaking as he yelled inches, but the laughter only continued.
Lee pulled his fist back to punch him again, but the viking hooked him under the arms and dragged him from the pen, then closed the gate on the maniacal captive.
“It’s no use,” the big man said, “His mind is lost—and you would only end up doing things you would regret. Best to let the cold take him.”
The disquieting laughter continued to echo out from the pen.
“Shut up,” Rolf said, then stepped up to the gate and launched a stream of fire into the pen.
The laughter increased in pitch until it was a hysterical screeching. It lasted for a disquieting fifteen seconds before finally going quiet.
“Did you at least learn where they took your niece?” Amanda asked the viking, trying to change the subject from the brutality of the death cries.
“No,” he replied. “We will have to find her without him.”
“But there’s no time,” David said, “Those freaks could come back at any minute, and I don’t know about you all, but I feel like we got pretty lucky taking this place without anyone getting hurt, and it’s a long way back to the surface.”
“So are you saying we should just abandon the girl?” Runa said.
David squirmed. “No, I just mean… look, Grognar the viking here will save her. He knows his way around.”
The viking shot him a look of annoyance. “My name is not Gro—”
“He’s right,” Lee interrupted. “You should all get out of here while you have the chance. Save your people and go. All of this will be for nothing if you don’t get out and prove to the world what is happening here.”
“But what about—” Amanda began to say, but Lee cut her off.
“What about nothing!” he snapped, a fierceness coming over him. “There’s only one place Tyra can be if she isn’t here, and I am a hundred percent certain most of you would not make it back if we all went there together. I’m not even sure the viking and I can make it out, but we have to try.”
He crouched down to the ice floor and pulled out his knife.
“Follow the symbols that look like this,” he said, scraping an upside-down semicircle with a dot above it. “This is the sign for the surface. Between Rolf’s flamethrower and the rest of your weapons, you should be able to handle a tunlaq scout or two if you run into any. Whatever you do, do not come after us. Your mission is to survive.”
Rolf and Runa nodded, then began to usher the others toward the exit. Amanda was silent, and her feet were slow to move, but David showed no reluctance to leave. The viking looked expectantly at Lee, resting his hands on the pommel of his axe.
Lee said to him, “Are you ready to kill a shaman?”
Until Next Week (ideally)
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
Author, The Glaciermen
©Xavier Macfarlane 2024. All rights reserved.
Jailbreak was a pretty shattering chapter. I loved it! Muktuk is a horrible character; sadistic, masochistic and vile. His death by fire, as you described it, was hair-raising. Well done. The excitement just builds and builds.