[ IP ] `` run ''

`` Professor, the dogs are gettin' agitated.'' 
 
 `` Give them some kibble or some shit. It's probably just a rabbit.'' 
 
 `` Sir, these guys are as smart as a four year old. I think they're trying to alert us to some danger.'' 
 
 `` You mean a four year old would n't be entertained by a rabbit?'' 
 
 I watched the professor snap another chem light and drop it down the crevasse. 
 
 `` We're nearing the site where that Dutch research team went missing. I think'' 
 
 The professor was rudely interrupted by the cracking of an ice feature off in the distance. I watched the dogs, all ears pricked up, all hackles raised. 
 
 `` Professor, I've got a bad feeling about this.'' 
 
 `` Your feeling is irrelevant. Are we not men of science?'' 
 
 The lead dog, let out a long obnoxious yowl. 
 
 `` Yes, yes Vera. Dogs of science as well.'' 
 
 More yowls, more snarls. There was something just beyond our perception. An imminent threat and the professor is content to stare into glacial chasms, chasing the ghosts of the scientific knowledge. I want to leave, turn back. Hit the base, eat stew and sleep. Problem is, the professor only shelled out the front half of my pay and it'd be ridiculously unprofessional to strand my employer on a glacier because I had a weird feeling. 
 
 `` Yes, perhaps this is enough for today. Let's return to camp and update the charts.'' 
 
 Snarls. Teeth bared in the direction of the professor. He got on the sled and I drew the shotgun. 
 
 `` Really? It's probably just a rabbit.'' 
 
 `` Just a precaution, sir.'' 
 
 We'd barely turned around when a beast the size of a house burst out of chasm. 
 
 `` Run! Fucking go!'' 
 
 The team did n't need any instruction, their instinct for self preservation would drive them back to base, the professor in tow, leaving me here to deal with this menace. 
 
 I want to feel bad, some unknown creature possibly the last of it's kind and here I am blasting it in its eyeless face with a shotgun. It closes the distance and I can smell its foul breathe. Out of ammo, I strike it with the butt of my gun, drive my cramponed boots into its stalky legs, hack at it with my adz. It's no use. An ice cold bony talon sweeps me up. I'm airborne for a moment before getting swallowed up by horrifically terminal darkness. 
 
 Looks like I'll find out what happened to van Roosmalen's team up close.
