Sacred Ground

Annja could see the water sloshing farther ahead as it crept out of the cracks in the ice like some black viscous blood seeping over the ice itself, dragging smaller chunks under.

“Just how good is this truck at four-wheel driving?” she asked.

Godwin grinned. “I think we’re going to find out.”

Annja nodded. “Do it.”

Godwin guided the truck over toward the bank of the ice road, and then Annja felt the tires bite into the frozen tundra and pull them up off the ice. The truck bucked like a wild horse under them as they hit bumps and dips in the landscape.

“Hang on!” Godwin shouted. “It’s going to be rough.”

Derek pointed back at the ice road. It looks like it’s fine about a hundred yards farther on.”

Godwin nodded. “We’ll have to chance it. If we stay on this stuff, we’ll blow the tires and do worse to the engine.”

Annja would have preferred to take her chances with the ground, but she could see Godwin’s point. The truck was taking terrible damage from the undulating countryside. They had to get back onto the ice.

Then she heard the sudden pop.

She looked at Godwin. He shrugged. “Looks like we lost one of the tires. Maybe two.”

Derek pointed. “The ice looks fine up there. Try going back now, Godwin. We can’t take this anymore.”

Well beyond where the fissure had forced them off the road, the ice looked as solid as it had been before. Godwin aimed the truck and Annja felt it lurch and buck again as they took another hard hit on the underside of the chassis.

And then she felt the vehicle almost skid as it suddenly zoomed back out onto the ice. Godwin fought to control it as the popped tire’s rim bit into the ice and cause them to skid wildly. He turned into the skid and then brought the SUV to a halt about a hundred yards farther on.

Annja caught her breath. “This is turning out to be some kind of trip.”

Godwin kept the truck idling. “I need to check us out for damage.”

He slid out and Annja joined him. Derek unfolded himself from the backseat and followed them around to the back of the truck.

Godwin squatted by the right rear tire and looked at the rim. “Doesn’t look like it got bent, fortunately. It should take a new tire from the back okay. The tire’s shredded, though. We can’t use that anymore.”

Annja could see where the rubber of the tire had been cut to ribbons against something out on the landscape. Probably a rock had started the damage, then the punishment the truck took bouncing all over finished off the tire.

The cold wind blew in to greet them. Annja shivered and zipped up her hood. “How long until we can get going again?”

Godwin opened the tailgate and rooted around in the back, finally heaving out the replacement tire. “Maybe twenty minutes.”

Derek nodded. “Good. We’ve got a schedule to keep.”

Godwin rolled the tire over and then went back for the jack. He set about getting it into position and then cranked it up. Ever so slowly, the truck frame lifted off the ice road until Godwin judged he had enough room to do his work.

“Annja, can you get the tools from the back?”

Annja fetched the tool bag and then left Godwin alone while she walked around. It was the best way she knew how to stay warm. As long as she kept moving, she figured she’d keep warm.

Well, somewhat warm.

Derek came up next to her and put his hand over his brow, studying the horizon. “I think our turnoff should be only a mile farther on. We’re almost there, I’d say.”

“So close we could almost walk,” Annja said. “Except if we did that, we’d freeze to death from exposure, huh?”

“Yeah. We need the truck. That’s for sure.”

Annja walked farther up the ice road, studying the ice underneath her feet. It seemed so weird to be standing on the middle of a huge river like the Mackenzie. She could see deep cracks and fissures in the ice, and yet, none of them looked as ferocious as the one had that had forced them off the road.

She wondered what could have caused it. Was it the giant rig from earlier? And if it was, how had it managed to send a fissure rocketing at them like that?

Maybe it was the wave that built up under the ice like the man at the inn had explained to her.

Annja shook her head. If getting there was half the fun, she must have been having the time of her life so far.

She heard Godwin swear and walked back. “You okay?”

He was sucking his thumb. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just been a while since I tried torquing bolts off in the frigid tundra, that’s all.”

“Let me help,” Annja said.

Godwin smiled at her. “You?”

Annja cocked an eyebrow. “Don’t even think about saying anything you might really regret.”

Godwin held up his hands and stepped back. “Hey, be my guest.”

Annja walked over to the shredded tire and picked up the wrench. She clamped it over the closest bolt and then twisted. Godwin was right; the bolt was frozen solid in place on the tire. He joined her and together they were able to loosen the bolt. They worked quickly and removed the remaining bolts from the tire. Then she stepped back and let Godwin take over again. He heaved the tire off and it toppled away. It slid some distance before at last coming to a lopsided stop in the snow.

Derek was still looking at the horizon. Annja approached him. “You all right?”

He nodded. “Thought I heard something.”

Annja frowned. “What now?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. Just thought it sounded vaguely familiar.”

“In a good way or a bad way?”

Derek shrugged and walked back to the SUV. “Maybe I’m imagining it. I don’t know.”

Annja watched him go. She smiled. The trip was getting to Derek as much as it was her. Godwin, despite the moments of intensity, seemed all right, all things considered. But then she figured there must have been something about him that kept him pretty even-keeled. She wondered if his father had something to do with it.

Maybe I’ll ask him later, she thought.

“Got the tire mounted,” Godwin said. “Another five minutes and we’ll be on our way again.”

Annja smiled. The sooner they got off the ice road and back onto dry land, the happier she’d be. Their brief respite on the shore had shown her how impossible it would be to travel over land unless there was a road.