Nik blinked against the abrupt coldness, his heart still pounding in expectation of an engulfing firestorm. It was replaced, however, by a chilling wave of wintry air. He took in his surroundings — he was nestled in a shelter that resembled a tent.

  "Oww." He heard a groan from below. Nik looked down, reminded of the teenager he had rescued before. Nik shuffled out of the STM and helped the kid to his feet.

  "Are you hurt?" Nik asked, studying the teenager who quickly stood to scrutinize himself for any visible wounds.

  "Yeah, aside from some bruises, I think my ankle got twisted from that stupid battery cart," he said. "Where are we?"

  "I don't know," Nik replied. "We could be anywhere for all I know." The radio tower ranged 50 miles, but the frigid air suggested the two had been tossed to the wireless cosmos. They may have hit an old cell tower repeater network. If that were the case, they could be anywhere, especially if any repeaters had satellite uplinks. A freezing gust of wind sliced through the empty tent causing the two to shiver.

  Teeth starting to clatter, Nik moved towards the tent's open flap. As he peered out, he was confronted by an endless winter forest. Snow had enveloped the entire vista, blurring the lines between objects and space. A few other tents were nearby, but the camp seemed eerily abandoned.

  "Where is everybody?" Nik wondered as the eeriness of the desolate encampment settled in. He looked back to see the kid opening drawers and cabinets.

  "I'm looking for something to put on," he explained. Nik suddenly remembered how cold it was. This kid was pretty quick. He took a moment to give the boy a look over.

  He was tall for his age. Couldn't have been older than sixteen. He had dark skin, a slim build, and energetic eyes, which he was using to search everything he could reach.

  "How's that ankle of yours, Aydin?" Nik asked as the kid rummaged through a tall cabinet filled with discarded coats.

  "Please, call me Edy." He replied while putting his arms through the sleeves of a heavy parka. A moment later, he tossed a second fur to Nik. "I'll be fine, and now that we've prevented ourselves from being barbecued, we should figure out how to avoid becoming human icicles.

  Edy muddled over to one of the computers in the tent. He fiddled with it for a bit before the monitor went dark. "Dead." His lips pursed with disappointment. "I think the last bit of juice in this place was used to re-materialize us."

  "You know your way around STM systems, don't you?" he said.

  "You could say that," Edy shrugged. "Doesn't do us a lot of good at the moment."

  "I guess not." Nik peeked back outside. "We need to figure out where the hell we are."

  "Ssh." Edy suddenly sounded afraid. "Don't you hear that?" he whispered.

  Nik instinctively hunkered down, straining to hear. A subtle hum was audible just outside the tent. Nik caught a glimpse of something flitting by the foggy plastic window.

  "Drones," he mouthed silently to Edy. Month after month, Nik had received more reports of drone swarms attacking people. The one outside must have been scouting. The wiry kid suddenly waved Nik over. Nik crept silently to the back of the tent, where Edy had unzipped an airflow vent.

  "We can't let it find us," Nik whispered.

  "Oh really? I had no idea," Edy retorted quietly before peeking out the flap. "It's clear this way, captain."

  "Captain?" Nik whispered as Edy crawled through the little hole.

  Edy’s whispered quip floated back to him, “Short for Captain Obvious.” Nik stifled an indignant sniff before quickly catching up to Edy as he cut a low path through the snow. The icy powder was already creeping into his shoes. "Look. There's a river over there we can follow." Edy pointed to a small stream just outside the encampment.

  Nik looked around, trying to spot the drone probing about earlier. He heard its hum but couldn't find the little craft among the tents and trees.

  "Don't worry, captain," Edy whispered. "If we stay below the snowline, it won't see us. Those little drones usually have simple thermal sensors and crappy microphones nowadays."

  "My name is Nik, by the way," Nik corrected.

  "I know who the hell you are, captain," the kid whispered back. "Now, will you kindly shut your face before getting us caught?" His words ended in a little squeak.

  They continued their crawl through the deep snow toward the sound of water. Nik felt his hands and toes start to grow numb. He looked back at the tents. The snow hid everything, but he still heard the humming of the drone. He turned to see Edy disappear downward in front of him.

  Nik followed as fast as his frozen limbs would carry him over the icy ground. When he reached where Edy disappeared, he found an edge sloping down to a river below. At the edge of the fast water, Edy stood frantically beckoning for him to follow.

  "Will you hurry up, old man?" he spoke faintly.

  "Old? I'm in my thirties."

  Soon after he quieted his thoughts and descended to the embankment, Nik found himself running in a low crouch behind Edy. Despite having a rolled ankle, that kid was quick. They ran for a few minutes before stopping to catch their breath.

  "Did we lose it?" Edy asked.

  Nik crept up to the embankment ridge and quietly climbed to peek over the snowline. The tents were far away now. He also couldn't hear the humming anymore.

  "I think so. Let's keep going, just in case," Nik said, climbing back down. The two continued downstream. After another hour of quiet movement, they rechecked their surroundings.

  They decided that the coast was clear enough to stand upright. Nik held his sore lower back and stretched for a moment. Edy wrapped himself up tightly in his coat. Nik could hear his teeth chattering.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  "We need to find someplace warm before nightfall," Nik said, looking around.

  "Aye, captain," Edy retorted, rolling his eyes. "Do you have any brilliant suggestions on how we could achieve that without any semblance of a map?"

  Edy annoyed Nik, but he had a point. Without a map, they had no idea what was out there. What could he do? The two sat at the water's edge, trying to find a way out of their predicament.

  An idea popped into Nik's mind. It was a long shot, but those seemed to be working lately.

  "We need to look for powerlines," he said. They could follow them to a settlement if they found them.

  Edy nodded and began to climb out of the embankment quietly. "Coast looks clear," he said quietly. Nik followed closely behind. The lonely woodline stretched as far as the eye could see. Edy peered around. "Which way?" Nik was glad Edy didn't say, captain.

  "Up," Nik said, pointing to a hill towering above the trees in the distance. They began their trek through the deep snow. Reaching the hill was easy, but climbing it proved difficult.

  On more than one occasion, Nik had to scrabble on the wet edges of the hillside before finding some purchase. Edy's luck was worse. Nik saw him wince in pain whenever he had to catch all his weight on the injured foot. The higher they climbed, the shriller the gusty air became. By the time they reached the top, the sun was already beginning to lay low over the horizon.

  Nik and Edy peered all around them, trying to find anything useful. All Nik saw was a seemingly endless ocean of trees. His hope started to wane when Edy pointed something out.

  "There, I think I see smoke," he said. "And look, it's hard to see, but there's a landline leading towards it. That must be a settlement." Nik let out a sigh of relief. The two memorized the direction where the power lines crossed a small clearing and began their way back down the hill.

  As the two crept through the unsettling woods, the shroud of night descended. A stifling silence enveloped the air, interrupted only by their feet crunching in the snow. Nik's straining eyes kept darting upwards, hoping to discern the powerlines. Their sighting would be a welcome sign.

  "There," Edy whispered. He pointed over to a small field to their left. They had nearly missed it. Nik quickly led them over to it, where they found the power lines crossing overhead. They followed them for a couple miles before Nik stopped. His voice was barely above a whisper.

  "I see lights ahead.” He and Edy examined the distant lights for a few moments.

  "How do we know they won't kill us?" Edy murmured through chattering teeth.

  "We don't know," Nik shrugged, uncertainty tingeing his voice. These days it was hard to know who would take you in and who would kill you and take all your belongings. "We'll have to get a little closer."

  Edy sighed but didn't complain. They moved stealthily for another few minutes getting quieter the closer they were to the lights. Eventually, Nik could make out shapes of people in the dark.

  "I still can't tell from here," Edy whispered. Nik couldn't either. He could see a road leading to the camp and a single watch tower, but that was about it.

  "I don't see anyone carrying guns," he pointed out.

  "Good point," Edy said. "So now what?" Nik thought for a minute. It was a delicate situation.

  "You stay here. I'll go on ahead." Nik said. "If you see me throw my hands up, that means stay the hell away. If you see me waving with one arm, then that means it's safe."

  "That's your grand plan?" Edy hissed an edge of panic in his voice. "You'll just waltz in there and 'hope' for the best?"

  "Do you have any better ideas?" Nik asked. Edy remained silent. "Okay, that's what I thought. Just make sure you're close enough to see. I'll go around towards the road and enter through the front of the camp." Edy nodded quietly before creeping forward.

  Nik gave Edy a final glance before turning to start his stealthy tour around the camp. He stopped less than twenty feet from the road.

  Nik whispered a prayer into the icy wind, his voice barely a murmur. "Just let this end well," he pleaded to the unknown. His heart raced as he attempted to fix his hair. After a deep breath, he set foot onto the snowy road and began to walk carefully towards the camp.

  He was less than a hundred feet away when a bright spotlight blinded him. Nik instinctively stopped. What should he do next? He needed to show he wasn't a threat. With deliberate slowness, Nik shed his coat and held it at arm’s length. He turned in a slow circle with his arms outstretched. When he faced the camp again. He waited for some kind of response.

  Met with silence, Nik continued his slow approach, his arms outstretched like a lonesome scarecrow amidst the desolate cold. His teeth began to chatter. Nik wasn't sure if it was due to the cold wind biting his ass or the anxiety welling in his stomach. He was less than twenty feet from the small watchtower when a voice called out from behind the spotlight.

  "Stoy!" a heavy accent rumbled out. Nik froze. What now?

  "I mean no harm. I am seeking shelter from the cold." Nik spoke as clearly as he could through chattering teeth.

  "Angliyskiy?" The voice sounded confused. "Vy govorite po-russki?"

  "Umm," Nik stammered. The voice sounded Russian, but he had never handled any diplomacy in Russia. Nik didn't know how to respond. "I uh... I c-can't understand you," Nik floundered. A sharp gust of wind cut through his body like a vicious ghost.

  A few moments later, another shape emerged from the camp. A man in a heavy coat approached with a gun in one hand and a walkie in the other.

  "Don't Move," he commanded. Nik did his best to obey despite the tremors running through his body. The man stopped short and examined him. Nik felt pitiful.

  "Do you speak Russian?" the figure asked through a heavy accent. Nik shook his head.

  "Is fine," he grumbled. "Purpose? Name?" He kept his pistol trained on Nik.

  "S-s-seeking Sh-shelt-t-ter. N-niklos K-k-krylov," he stuttered out. Even in the dark, Nik could see the man's silhouette shift strangely.

  "Niklos Krylov!?" He pocketed his pistol and babbled into the walkie. Moments later, he rushed over to Nik. "Put on your coat Dr. Krylov. Come this way." The man led Nik into the camp towards a fire in the center. The man sat him before the warm flames before rushing off to one of the tents.

  After a minute, he returned with another person following closely behind.

  "You're THE Dr. Krylov?" the new man asked. He seemed to speak English fluently.

  "Yes, I am Niklos Orrin Krylov." Nik rarely used his middle name. He was glad his world fame had finally come in handy. "Please, my friend and I just escaped an attack, and we have been walking through the cold all day."

  "Yes, yes," the man nodded. "Go, get your friend. We need to get you up to speed on events surrounding this area. They haven’t been pleasant." Nik nodded and scampered to the edge of the camp. When he was about to wave over Edy, Nik heard the man in the watchtower shout again.

  "ВХОДЯЩИЙ!" Nik barely managed to whip around in time to see the watchtower obliterated in a cloud of fire and debris. Moments later, a hailstorm of bullets began to pour into the camp. Nik dove for the ground and began to crawl toward an old truck.

  Just before he reached safety, another explosion turned the vehicle into a pile of flaming scrap, flinging Nik into a snow embankment. People had begun to scatter when a convoy of transport trucks plowed their way through the main entryway. Men with assault weapons followed closely behind.

  In the span of a minute, chaos had seized the quiet night. Nik found himself crouched in the snow, hands bound by zip ties and vision obscured by a thick, dark bag. Still reeling from the shock of being rag-dolled, he heard shouting and gunfire. He couldn't understand anything being said.

  Heavy footsteps crunched through the snow all around him. A moment later, Nik was hoisted up by both of his arms. He felt himself being dragged back before getting tossed into a vehicle like a side of beef.

  He squirmed around for a moment before finding a metal box-like object. As Nik struggled to work the bag off his face, he heard the thuds of more people being hurled into the vehicle. After cutting his face on the box's sharp corners, Nik could finally see out of a corner of the bag. He looked back just in time to see the flaps of the vehicle being drawn shut, casting him into darkness.

  The truck lurched, causing Nik to fall backward and hit his head on the rigid box knocking him unconscious.