Read Trial by Ice for Free Online

replied.
    “Where are you from?” Berry said as he sat forward.
    William cleared his throat. “Farshore.”
    “Bullshit,” Berry spat. “It burned.”
    “Yes, Corporal, it did.” William shifted the sleeping bag off his lap.
    “I ain’t got no pity for you boy,” Berry said.
    “Corporal, I’m not a ‘boy’,” William said as he stood. “We don’t have to like each other, but we’ve got to work together.”
    The two men locked eyes. William knew why he didn’t like Berry, but had no real clue why Berry didn’t like him. The wind slapped the side of tent. The tension broke and William walked to the door. “Corporal, get a detail together, get Grue whatever supplies he needs in case we find the striders.”
    He didn’t wait for a reply before walking into the white. He waited a moment and let his eyes adjust to the brightness. A man was running down the hill heading directly for the camp. William walked to the edge of the camp and waited.
    It was Private Avinash. He had the face mask pulled down below his chin. His dark brown face was burnt white on the cheeks and his breathing was heavy and raspy. “Sir!” He panted and covered his mouth with his hands. His breathing was labored and sounded painful. The cold air had been searing his lungs.
    “What is it, Avinash?” William asked, lending the man an arm.
    “Avi, sir, please.” He smiled.
    William smiled in return. “Okay, Avi, what has you so excited as to run back to camp?”
    “More survivors. A trio coming in, sir.”
    “Get inside,” William said, as he walked to the ridge that Avi had came from. The wind seemed to relent until he crested the stony rise. Before him lay the path they’d have to take. South. Beyond were low hills, scarred ground and snowdrifts that shifted daily. A dim capsule was visible on the horizon that they hadn’t seen when the weather was worse. A group of men stumbled forward, dragging a sled behind them. He rushed down the low slope to meet them.
    Selim and Aleksandr each pulled on the sled while the other two men barely stood on either side. It was heaped with sleeping bags and lashed tightly down with raw black electrical wire. William grasped the rope and pulled. The group was met by more men, one of the newcomers fell and was carried to the tents. A new wind was rising and the clouds darkening.
    The tents felt balmy in comparison to the outside where the wind drove the nails of frost. Though even indoors the walls fluttered and created drafts.
    They pulled back the sleeping bags expecting to find a corpse, and instead found a jockey. The man on the sled wore a heavy control suit. His temples were covered in the telltale darkness of a carbon interface. No patches were visible on his neck. A slender cord snaked along his body and was tethered to a stout looking box. A reactor.
    The second man was short and thin and crumbled in the middle of the room. The others stripped his mask off and draped a sleeping bag over him. He was shivering uncontrollably, almost violently. His body temperature had dropped near that point where hypothermia would roll in unchecked.
    The last man stood defiantly in the center of the room like a prize fighter. He pulled a shredded mask from his face and looked around the room. His eyes were dark brown and surrounded by worry. He stripped off a glove and held out a nanite tattooed hand to Sergeant Selim and then William.
    “I am Eduardo Gomes Rodriguez Gonzales, Technical Sergeant, and you have my thanks,” Eduardo said sincerely and in a low raspy voice.
    His lips quivered while he restrained himself from shivering. He shook the hand of each man around him, clasping tightly with both of his cold hands. His eyes burned brightly as he locked his gaze on each. The tattoo on the back of one hand was of an angel standing on a mountain and buffeted by winds. It shook and grew brighter with every handshake, the figure standing sternly. The other tattoo of a somber cross, dark and cracked.
    The