"How are we going to get around this?" asked Jove.
They'd ridden slightly further east along the crevasse, which extended far into the distance in both directions and posed a formidable obstacle.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out." Eve had the map and directions out and was actively frowning at them. "It doesn't make sense for us to be here in the first place."
"What do you mean?"
"We didn't see it on our way out," said Eve. "I would most definitely remember if we had."
"True enough. Did we follow the directions wrong?"
"That's my point and why I'm so confused by this," said Eve. "I know how to navigate off landmarks, especially out in the snow. While we technically could be off course, my gut is telling me otherwise."
"What's your point? Is the map wrong?"
"It could be," said Eve. "Which is significant, given that our mother told me that Andromeda was the one who created it for us based off data she copied from the ice drones."
Jove stared at Eve, feeling a sudden chill that had nothing to do with the frigid environment. "You think Andromeda could have set us up? Given us a bad map to send us to the bottom of a crevasse?"
"I don't know," said Eve. "I can't rule it out, which is worrying. It's also possible this crevasse formed recently, somehow. It's not as though ice is the same as rock or regular terrain. It does shift and thaw and do weird things, on occasion, but still…"
"Mom was so suspicious of her," muttered Jove. "I thought it was just her being her usual overanalytical self."
"We can't say anything for sure at this point."
"If Andromeda did try to send us over the edge of this crevasse, then Mom and Aunt Aster might be in danger." He looked at Eve seriously.
She frowned after a moment and gave an uncomfortable shrug. "We know for a fact that all of us will be in danger if we run out of fuel. Even if Andromeda has been compromised, we still need to reach Port Sirius and find propane."
"True enough."
They continued along the length of the crevasse. It did eventually start to narrow and, shortly after, seemed to come to an end. They headed another few hundred feet down before crossing, wary of the possibility that the smooth snow they'd be crossing might only be a dusting across a thin layer of ice over a gap.
Altogether, they'd lost about two hours of time and a quarter of a tank of gas. Jove tried to estimate how much they'd have left after making it to Port Sirius. They would be cutting it close if they tried to head back without finding somewhere to refill.
Eve glanced over at him as they took a break to check the map, clearly sharing his concern. Jove rubbed some blood back into his ears and fixed his scarf.
"We'll be able to find gas once we get to Port Sirius," he said. "Either a place to fill up directly or, at the very least, snowmobiles to syphon it from."
"You know how to do that?"
"I've seen it done before," he said. "Well, attempted. Andre got some in his mouth and threw up before we got much."
Eve chuckled and Jove shared in her mirth, despite still having some amount of fondness for his creepy old friend. The next stretch of the journey was blessedly uneventful, more a matter of attrition against the cold as they continued across a wide-open stretch of ice and snow with strong winds.
"That's it!" said Eve, pointing as they both came to a stop. "Straight ahead."
"I see it, but… what the fuck is that?"
Jove pointed to what appeared to be the wreckage of something massive, not as large as Port Sirius's main buildings, but a substantial field of debris. He realized as he retraced his memory of the outpost's exterior that it was more or less directly over the airfield.
"Remember how Ryan was talking about the last plane out of Port Sirius in the video message he recorded for us?" she asked. "Something tells me it didn't get far off the ground."
"Let's see if we can get the full story. Somebody has to be left."
They approached cautiously, and more concerning details quickly came into view. The middlemost of the large, mall-style buildings seemed to have suffered some damage, though it was hard to tell how extensive it was.
They parked their snowmobiles a short distance away and climbed off. Eve touched Jove's shoulder and gestured to a small warehouse off to the side of the main complex.
"See those tanks outside?" she asked, gesturing to a couple of large and partially rusted fuel tanks. "Those are what we need, except full."
"Those are huge," muttered Jove. "Are we really going to be able to tow them with snowmobiles?"
"We're looking for the 100-gallon tanks," said Eve. "We'll have to go slow, but we should be able to bring at least one back with us, according to our mother. Termina Station is supposedly fuel efficient enough to last six weeks on a single tank."
"Six weeks." Jove whistled. "Not that much time in the grand scheme of things, but in our current situation, that's an eternity."
"Let's see what's going on inside the main buildings before we assume we can just take one for free," said Eve.
They started with the one closest to where they were and furthest from the plane wreck. The first door they found was a locked side entrance. Jove doubled back for the crowbar and waved Eve aside as he made an attempt at prying it open.
It refused to budge with such stubbornness that he thought it might break off the crowbar's tip. He took a break, breathing hard and red in the face. Eve stepped forward with a crafty smile.
"Can I try?" she asked.
"If I can't get it, I don't see how you would be able to," he said.
She took the crowbar and simply banged it hard against the handle, clearing some unseen ice. Twisting it, the door opened without complaint, though only up until it caught against the windblown snow.
"Brains over brawn," whispered Eve.
"Oh, hush." Jove stepped forward as Eve pulled out a flashlight and began panning it around. "Hello?"
He called a second time, louder. The building was empty, just as cold inside as it was out in the open, and pitch black aside from a faint circle of light coming from a sky window that was covered with snow.
"It looks like it was used for storage," whispered Eve. "Might be worth coming back here to see if there's anything we can use sometime when we aren't already committed to haul fuel."
"Yeah, maybe," muttered Jove. The idea of simply taking whatever they wanted regardless of what they truly needed for survival brought him back to an earlier time in his life.
They took only a cursory look around the first building before moving on to the second. It was immediately clear as they drew near to it that something catastrophic had occurred. The roof had collapsed inward, and sections of the building were scorched, though the fire had long since died out.
"I think the plane struck this building as it crashed," said Jove.
"Looks like it," said Eve. "Worth going inside?"
"The door looks like it would be easy enough to get open." He gestured to another side door in the same place as it'd been on the previous building but charred to the point of being compromised.
Jove did get proper use out of the crowbar this time, snapping the door open and off its hinges. He took one step into the building before freezing. A corpse lay sprawled eagle on the ground, horribly charred all over. A melted watch with an orange covered band was fused to one incinerated wrist bone.
"Fuck," muttered Eve.
"Yeah," said Jove.