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by Scott Normandin
That was
three years ago. Now Alex was in a helicopter
above the Artic Circle somewhere. A flight
he had chartered himself. It took more than
two years to shave up for the unusual charter,
but he passed the time with the research
he needed to do to decided exactly where
he wanted to go, and now he would have closer.
The pilot
turned to him and yelled, "I am setting
down right here, this wher you told me to
land."
Alex nodded
and reached under his seat and produced
a small knapsack. He clutched it tightly
against his chest as the helicopter came
to a gentle landing on the snow and icy
terrain.
"I'll
be back in two minutes," Alex yelled
to the pilot and hopped out of the helicopter
and ran about a half a block from the plane
with his knapsack. He found a small crevasse
in the glacier and dropped to his knees,
opening the knapsack.
He pulled
Brannigan's severed head from the bag and
propped it up in the snow between himself
and the deep crack in the ice, they were
finally face to face again.
Alex had
been preparing for this moment and spoke
to the head, "You know I remember what
you said, about the brain never dying until
it rots away to nothingness. I have no clue
if you can tell the passage of time since
you lost your body, but you have been in
my freezer at home for three years."
Brannigan's
eyes rolled and his brow lowered. He was
angry, Alex could tell. Brannigan's mouth
moved, but n sound came out, as there was
no body that could force the air through
his voice box to make audible sound. Alex
smiled at him.
"I
found a doctor that had been infected and
figured out a way to treat it. I have an
artifical ventilator implanted that aerates
my blood, and I take six injections a day
and I never have to feed, to kill, and I
can still live forever.
"As
for you, Brannigan, I chose this spot for
you. It has been subzero temperatures here
for thousands of years. I picked this spot
because this very glacier is the slowest
moving glacier known to man. It will take
thousands of years for this
spot on this glacier to move south enough
to thaw, in the meantime you can use this
time to think about what you have done to
me, and remember that I won over you.
"As
long as you remain frozen, you will never
rot, and therefore your brain will always
work. Remember as well, you will never have
another victim, no more blood, just thousands
of years of constant pain."
Alex pushed
the head into the deep glacial crack, watching
it fall deep inside until if fell
out of view into the darkness below and
made his way back to the helicopter. Inside,
the pilot asked, "Is that it?"
"Yeah."
"Look,
I never brought anyone here for two mintues
before, it's always some expedition, you
know? Some kind of supply run or another.
Do you mind if I ask why you wanted to come
all the way out here? What was that?"
Alex looked
at the pilot and answered, "Just the
remains of someone that always wanted to
live forever, I suppose some people are
entitled to a final wish. I just wanted
to make sure that he will spend enternity
where it will make a difference to him,
you know?"
The pilot
took off and Alex kept his eyes locked on
the deep fissure in the snow and ice. He
was cold. Since he had lost his ability
to maintain a body temperature he was deeply
affected by the temperature around him,
and it was very cold. He looked at the pilot
and thought of the warm blood flowing through
his veins. Nice, warm blood that could make
him feel warm even if just for a little
while. Alex pulled Brannigan's tubes out
of his pocket. They were only a few minutes
away from the small isolated airstrip where
they took off from. No one would be around,
no one would notice the pilot was missing
for maybe weeks, and hey, just one more
person wouldn't hurt.
~The
End~
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