Chapter 14

21 July, 2554, 1349 Hours, Unidentified Icefield, Harvest System, Planet Harvest

Asher shivered as he chopped the snow and ice that had built up in the nuclear winter for the last few decades.

It was cold work, specially without the equipment necessary - not even a shovel. He used a metal stick and his hands, which were turning blue.

"Look at this!" shouted John from about fifty metres away.

Slowly, Asher got up from his work and followed Kelly to John's position.

It was a rocky outcrop, forming a mound with a few loose stones sticking out the top and snow and ice covering it on all sides.

Asher frowned. "I'm trying to dig an ice cave but I..." He stopped, rethought, and began hacking away at the ice next to the outcrop. Suddenly, he broke through and hit snow. Shovelling it away with his blue hands, he had a small cave, big enough for someone his size to fit in.

John pursed his lips. "Move, Asher." He nudged the boy out of the way and dug his big hands into the snow, pulled, shoveled, and pulled again. Kelly and Asher cleared the snow outside.

"Ow," John grunted, and retrieved his hands. Through the numb cold, he'd been rubbing it against the rock and almost torn his fingernails off. Blood dripped from his fingers, freezing onto the ground.

Asher finally gave in, took his plasma pistol out, held it up to full charge, and melted the snow and ice inside, carving a decent sized cave - it was just wet. Kelly drained the water out. Asher crawled in. As Kelly entered, she shook her head.

"This was dumb. Isn't there a better way of getting to Settlement 1A?"

Asher thought, "If you want to risk getting arrested..." he knocked on the stone thoughtfully. It was flat and smooth.

"Or not," he said, and examined the outcrop. "Concrete," he mused.

"Meaning?" Kelly asked, flapping her arms around in a vain attempt to warm up.

"It's not an outcrop," interjected John. Asher took out his plasma blade and in a neat move, slashed the concrete in one swipe. A metal grating stood in front of him.

"I might have known," he said to John. Scooping snow onto the places where the concrete was boiling hot, he crawled in.

"What are you doing?" frowned Kelly.

Asher locked eyes with her. "Surviving. Let's get out of this storm."

Fred barrelled out of the doorway and into the streets, lugging Ash on his back, Mark and Olivia in tag. "Linda!" shouted Olivia. Fred turned, but only saw shouting soldiers.

"Too late," hissed Ash. The company exited the settlement, meeting snow and ice.

"We're screwed," mumbled Mark.

Twelve guards with assault rifles were fanning out. One raised his rifle. "Come on!" he shouted, and fired a sustained burst.

Olivia dropped, bleeding. Mark pulled her back up.

Fred put Ash down, and in a series of delicate knife manouvers that he constantly practiced, used his club to knock out two of the guards. There was a burst of 7.62mm rounds, and Fred felt a bullet brush his ribs, when he met a glowing plasma ball and -

A quartet of shots rang out and four guards dropped dead.

Linda dropped from a roof. "Sorry I'm late. Sir."

Fred didn't return the greeting. "Stow formalities, soldier. Grab some weapons and go."

Mark looked disgustedly at the collection of plasma ordinance and MA5s. Finally, he took a plasma pistol and M6C*.

Ash, who was looking slightly better, rubbed some snow into his hand and picked up an MA3 in one hand.

Fred looked at his team. Kelly... He hadn't seen her. Was she even alive?

Pushing that thought out of his mind, he walked out into the snow.

Asher landed with a gooey *plop* in the mud and waste. Snapping on a light, he looked around.

Kelly and John slowly lowered themselves in. "Ugh," muttered Kelly. "What- where are we?"

Asher waved the light around. "Looks like one of the side-passage sewers. Better than dying lf cold out there."

A snowflake trickled down onto his shoulder. "Or not," he growled. "Let's go."

Slopping through the mud, he climbed put onto a concrete ledge and looked at an emergency exit sign, glowing faintly. John examined it and shrugged. "Which way do we go?"

Asher looked left, then right, and thought for a second. "Right," Kelly put in.

Considering for a second, Asher shook his head. "This is a side passage sewer. We want to find the cargo train or the main sewer.

Quietly, Kelly wondered what the main sewer might look like. She checked the burn biofoam on her right calf, wondering if it would be suseptible to the who-knows-what floating around. Infection was not what she needed here.

I can't finish it. But I'll just go on with the next chapter. No groundbreaking info there.

Kimjel, out