winter in greenland

Chapter 32

At the same time, August felt a slight earthquake on the soles of his feet, which was hardly noticeable in less than half a second.

August stood still, his hands still resting on both sides of the keyboard in front of the computer, his brows were tightly frowned, and he almost suspected that it was his hallucination.

"Just now...is there something wrong?" Dan's voice came from the door.

He looked back, and Dan didn't know when he had gotten up, standing by the door frame, with a somewhat uncertain expression on his face.

"When did you wake up?"

"About... 10 minutes ago? I feel like something is wrong. Is there a storm outside?"

August nodded: "Did you notice it too? Did you feel a shock just now?"

Dan nodded, with a confused expression on his face: "Earthquake?"

August's expression was a little dignified: "It doesn't look like it. But it really didn't look like a hallucination just now. Something is not right."

Dan walked to him and looked at the computer screen: "Another cursor called the police?"

August nodded: "Just before you came in, the temperature was abnormal. But the data of the two alarms are obviously contradictory. It is unlikely that the temperature in one place will rise sharply in such a narrow range, and the temperature will drop sharply in the other."

"Have you sent the data back to the scientific research station headquarters?"

"Sent it, but there is no response yet. At this time," he raised his wrist and looked at his watch, "it's probably closed over there."

"Then shall we evacuate?"

August shook his head: "Don't act rashly for now. There is a heavy snowstorm outside, and it is more dangerous to go out before you know what the situation is. I will send it again through the emergency contact channel. See if you can contact the base."

Dan responded.

The emergency contact channel is unblocked, but there is still no response for a long time after the message is sent, only the symbol showing "sent successfully" flashes on the screen.

August hated this feeling of being unable to control the unknown. He knocked on the table with his fingers a little anxiously, and turned to Dan and asked, "Can you contact the base?"

Dan's expression was a bit serious: "The signal is very unstable. I tried four times, but I managed to get through only once, and it was cut off without hearing a response from the base."

"There must be something wrong..." August paused, and said decisively: "Set the communicator to automatic mode, keep in touch with the base, and only send our current coordinates. I still have a data request here. Pack and send, you go to check the supplies, and we will leave once the wind speed outside drops down."

However, the weather didn't seem to want them to leave so easily.Nearly 9 o'clock in the evening, there was a sudden crackling sound from the upper glass window.

August sat in front of a computer screen, and Dan fiddled with his wristwatch on the chair opposite him.Hearing the sound, the two raised their heads at the same time——

"What's going on?" Dan stood up.

August stared at the high place for a moment, then jumped up and walked towards the gate, Dan closely behind him.

None of the sled dogs in the porch was lying on the ground to rest, and they all turned around in the narrow aisle rarely.August stroked the heads of the few at his feet reassuringly. He kept walking, walked to the door, turned the doorknob, and carefully pushed the door open by a line.

The wind speed was a little lower than before, but it still howled and swept from the sea level in the east. With a crackling sound, crystal clear ice particles hit the concrete steps at the door.

it sleets.

"This is—?" Dan followed behind him, looking at the scene in front of him with some surprise.

August stared at it for a while, and said in a deep voice, "Proof of a sudden change in temperature. It seems that something happened in the sea to the east."

He turned and closed the door, went back to the office, and rummaged through the dusty drawers and bookshelves.

Dan followed behind him, a little confused: "What are you looking for?"

"Map. I hope they didn't take everything away..." August didn't turn his head. After a while, he found a tattered map folded into A4 size from the third shelf of the bookshelf: "Thank God there's another copy here. Do you have a pen?"

Dan pulled the pencil out of his notebook and handed it to him.

August returned to the computer screen, opened the topographic map with one hand, opened the old map in his hand with the other, drew a circle with a pencil in the eastern sea area, and murmured in a low voice while comparing:

"Our current position is-here, compared with the position on the hydrological map...the buoy points with abnormal temperature are here and here...the straight-line distance from the scientific research station...the average depth of the nearby sea area...less than 100 meters. Suppose there is an earthquake on the bottom of the sea, the seismic waves... Damn it! At the average speed of sled dogs, the furthest we can escape..."

Not knowing what conclusion he came to in the end, he put the pen aside and clicked on the emergency contact channel again: "Why is there still no reply? Have you received it? Damn it!"

"How likely is it that the recorder on the buoy is malfunctioning?" Dan's voice sounded abruptly behind him.

As if remembering that there was another person beside him, August took a deep breath and shook his head: "I'm not sure, this has never happened before."

Dan shrugged: "Since we can't be sure, we can't leave now. It seems that we have to wait."

August turned around and saw Dan's two long legs resting on the table, only the back legs of his chair supported the ground, and his posture was relaxed and relaxed.

"Aren't you afraid?"

Dan smiled: "What are you afraid of? The current situation is unknown. Instead of imagining the worst possibility, it is better to think about the good possibility. After all, I think my luck is generally good. Of course, you can also Think of it as the audacity of the ignorant against nature."

After being interrupted by him, August's originally tense nerves relaxed a little. He stared at Dan for a few seconds: "What is the worst possible thing you have imagined?"

Dan looked meaningless: "Here to die."

August narrowed his eyes: "Aren't you afraid of death?"

Dan didn't answer right away, his green eyes looked straight at August, and after a few seconds he showed a faint smile: "As long as a person has something attached to him, he can't be afraid of death. For now For me, this situation seems a bit untenable.”

"You mean there's nothing here to keep you yearning for?" August raised his eyebrows.

The smile on Dan's lips widened a bit: "No, I didn't say that. I mean, I probably don't have much to hold on to, compared to most other people in this world. So... ...If something unexpected happened today, I will accept this fact. After all, I am not here alone now. As for the things that make me feel nostalgic... I seem to have got it." Speaking of the back, he looked at August's eyes became a little dark.

August is a little confused by the meaning of his words, it's like someone is playing a riddle to your face, and you think you should know the answer, but there is something pressing on it, which just keeps it from breaking ground out.But this feeling is not offensive, but has a power that seems to calm people's hearts.

After hesitating for a second, August directly ignored the feeling and cleared his throat: "I have to admit that among the people I have met, there are not many who can be as calm as you."

Dan opened his mouth, and at that moment a name seemed to come to his mouth, but he endured it and suppressed the urge.

There was a moment of silence in the room.

"Are you sure you don't need to rest for a while?" Dan broke the silence first. "I mean, if you really need to leave in the middle of the night. After all, the wound on your arm hasn't healed yet."

August moved his right arm and said indifferently, "No, this little injury is nothing to me."

Dan frowned slightly, but forbearance did not refute.

August, on the other hand, listened intently for a while, then turned his gaze to the window above: "The hail seems to have stopped." He got up and walked out.Dan didn't follow.

He came back a few minutes later, still with some uncertainty in his eyes, but his tone to Dan was short and firm: "The snowstorm has stopped temporarily, it seems that we can't wait for the response from the scientific expedition team. We are now Let's go, and try to get closer to the interior before midnight."

Dan keenly heard something else: "This position is not safe?"

August shook his head: "It's too close to the sea. Although it looks like this area is an ice shelf, if something happens, we won't have time to evacuate."

Dan nodded.

There are not many materials that need to be sorted and packed, and the sled is parked in the open space outside.While Dan cleaned up the hail particles on the sled, he repacked and packed the equipment on the sled. On the other hand, August had put the reins on the sled dogs.

The wind has dropped a lot, the hail has completely stopped, and there are still sporadic snowflakes floating in the sky. It is dark above the head, and the night sky is covered by thick clouds, and the original blue of the sky cannot be seen.

After everything was sorted out, August shook the reins on his hands, stood on the front of the sled, and looked back at Dan—Dan's hat brim was pushed down very low, and his chin was blocked by a scarf , only revealing a pair of bright eyes.

"Ready to go."

Dan nodded.

August turned his head and drove the sled dogs towards the west.

About 5 minutes after they left the hut, a communication request suddenly popped up on the right side of the screen of the computer recording the hydrographic topographic map. After flashing for about 5 seconds, the communication was automatically connected, and a somewhat anxious female voice came out. : "Is it the Sirius patrol team? We have compared and analyzed the data you sent. Computer modeling shows that the reason for the violent temperature fluctuations is an abnormality in the nearby sea area. Our researchers analyzed that it may be that the Safi volcano in the nearby submarine basin has changed. , Modeling predicts that a slight earthquake may occur in that area of ​​the sea, and the ice shelves in that area are unstable, please evacuate inland immediately. Repeat, please evacuate inland immediately..."

The sound echoed in the empty room, spreading layer by layer, like water waves.