Chapter 16: Echoes Beneath the Ice
The hum of the helicopter blades was a soothing rhythm in Aarav's ears, but his heart refused to calm. As the white wilderness shrank below them, he pressed his forehead against the cold window, eyes searching the snow one last time.
The nightmare was behind them.
Or so he hoped.
Beside him, Karan was wrapped in a thick emergency blanket, staring blankly at the floor of the helicopter. Neither spoke. Words felt too heavy, too meaningless, after everything they had seen. After everything they had lost.
The pilot — a gruff, bearded man — glanced back at them."You boys are lucky. Storm's getting worse down there. Another hour and we might've lost you."
Aarav tried to nod but found he couldn't. His muscles ached, his mind fogged by exhaustion. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw them — the snow-creatures, the frozen faces of their friends, the shifting, snarling thing that had stalked them through the ice.
He wondered if those visions would ever leave him.
The helicopter continued flying over the frozen wasteland for what felt like hours. Finally, through the white mist, a base came into view — a small military outpost, its antennas and satellite dishes poking out like thorns from the ice. The place looked sturdy, solid — a sharp contrast to the broken ruins they had left behind.
As they landed, medics rushed toward them, wrapping them in warmth and checking their vitals. Someone asked questions — names, ranks, what had happened — but Aarav's brain only caught fragments.
"Expedition lost… Station destroyed… Unknown entity…"
The words floated around him like snowflakes, meaningless.
Later, sitting inside a heated cabin, a strong cup of coffee in his hands, Aarav finally found the strength to speak.
"It's still there," he said quietly.
Karan looked up sharply."You think so too?"
Aarav nodded.
"It's part of the ice now. It wasn't just a creature… it was something older. Something that used us. And it's not dead. We didn't kill it. We just… escaped."
The two of them sat in silence, the truth too heavy between them.
Across the room, two officials were talking to each other in hushed tones. Aarav caught a few words — "investigation," "classified," "containment."
He knew what would happen next.
The government wouldn't leave it alone. They would send another team. They would dig deeper. They would think they could control it.
But they couldn't.
No one could.
Aarav stood slowly, his body still trembling. He walked to the window and stared out across the endless ice fields stretching beyond the outpost.
The wind howled across the barren land, carrying with it a strange, faint sound.
Almost like a whisper.
Almost like a memory.
Deep beneath the frozen ground, buried under layers of ancient ice, the creature waited.
It remembered.
It dreamed.
And it hungered.
Somewhere out there, under the weight of a thousand winters, the nightmare was not dead.
It was patient.
It was eternal.
And one day, when the ice melted and men grew curious once again, it would rise.
Aarav closed his eyes, a shiver running through his soul that had nothing to do with the cold.
The story wasn't over.
It was only sleeping.