The thief

That thing didn't come for them again. Nothing else was out there now, besides the three. Even in the cold nights, nothing else bothered them. No wild beasts or shadowy things. The day Elucid was killed, Ryan stopped talking. He didn't know why he stopped; he just did. Where did his words even get him? Where did any of their words get them?

He wanted to save him. But he couldn't. Even after trying so hard. It was futile. Ryan didn't know why Elucid tried to kill him. Was it his hatred for him or was it the infection? He didn't know. All he knows is that another teammate is dead, and he couldn't do anything.

At times, he would look to Virgil and Roberto, and he would wonder who would be next. Would it be Virgil? He has gotten better, but he is still feeble at times. Would it be Roberto? Roberto always seemed to rely on him, not that relying on Ryan did any good. Or would it be Ryan himself. The one who's probably going to lose it the fastest.

They tried to talk to him, but everyone always fell short as they tried to speak with each other. The silence was growing longer even then the nights themselves. They were getting tired more in spirit than physical movement.

One morning, Roberto opened Ryan's tent and said, "Something's wrong with the dogs." Ryan didn't say a word, just followed him as he showed him the sickly dogs. They were laying on their sides, hardly breathing. Ryan noticed greenish blotches on the fur. A similar hue onto when Elucid had. They didn't even think to check the dogs for any of those injuries.

Roberto spoke again, his voice more tired, more distant, "I hate seeing them like this. I've lost so many. So many I was supposed to look after. But I didn't. I couldn't. I should have just kept them all to myself. Then they would have been safe. All for some fucking money."

Ryan said nothing, just soothingly pet the dogs. Roberto continued, "My partner. The one who died. It was my fault you know," Ryan turned to look up at him as he spoke, "I was drinking that night with some buddies. I met her and pissed her off. She hardly spoke to me, hardly said anything. Didn't tell me about taking that trip with those dogs. Didn't ask for my help. She was mad at me, and I thought we had time to fix things."

Ryan stared, he pitied Roberto, but he didn't say a word. Roberto sighed and changed the subject, "I don't know what this is. I can't help them. If they get worse, we'll leave them." Ryan turned to him, a bit in shock that Roberto out of all people stating such a thing. "Let's separate them from the others. Then I'm going back inside. Tell us when to move when we get there."

After they tied the contaminated dogs away, Roberto went back into his tent, leaving Ryan outside, alone in the cold. He pet the dying dogs as he saw in the distance was what his tired eyes interpreted as a mirage.

It looked like Colby but was quickly gone. He sighed and went to enter his tent too but saw Virgil inside.

Virgil and Ryan both stared at each other, and when Ryan was about to pull away, Virgil called to him, "Wait," Ryan turned back, eyes tired, "Please, come inside."

Ryan sighed, went in and sealed the tent. He approached Virgil, and Virgil took his hands to Ryan's face. He whispered, "I miss you," Ryan quirked up an eyebrow. "I know. We see each other every day, how can I miss you? But I do. I miss you terribly. You won't talk to anyone. Not to me or Roberto. You won't say a thing. I miss your voice. I miss you so far away. Please, won't talking ease the pain?"

Ryan stared at Virgil then leaned his head forward. Their foreheads gently collided as they closed their eyes to listen. Listen to each other breathing. Ryan sighed into Virgil and kissed him. Virgil gazed at him then kissed back. They let go and there were tears.

-

Virgil was cooking their breakfast on the portable heater and Roberto was taking care of the sick dogs. Ryan was in his tent, skimming over the map again, trying to find any other paths they could use to go through. That's when he heard a scream and dogs barking. Ryan leapt off the tent and saw a darkly cloaked figure with flaming red hair. He turned to Ryan; it was Jack. When he completely faced him, he saw that Jack had a knife to Virgil's throat.

"Hi there again," Jack chuckled. "You guys killed a lot of me, didn't you?" Roberto was standing near Ryan's left, watching this mad man speak.

"You assaulted one of our own!" Roberto shouted.

"Assaulted?" Jack snickered. "He was a bastard. You all hated him. I could feel the hate from all four of you."

"Four?"

"What?" Jack instigated. "You think Elucid loved himself?"

Ryan glared at the psychopath, ready to pounce on him. But Virgil was still in harm's way.

"Let him go, Jack," Roberto commanded. "Nobody needs to get hurt."

"Wrong, my dear friend," Jack smiled. "We all need to get hurt. It is the way of life. The way to continue is pain."

"You freak," Virgil growled. "You know nothing about life. You're already too far gone. You're basically dead."

Jack stared at Virgil, that mask looking right at him. He laughed, "You're right! I am dead! I have experienced all there is to life and more. But I am still here. Why am I still here?"

"How should I know, you fucking creep," Virgil scathed. "I can only guess it's because of all the supernatural shit that is going around."

"Going around, going around, going around," something seemed to dawn on Jack's face, because he grabbed Virgil's wrist and threw him onto the ground. Ryan and Roberto went after him, but suddenly from behind them were two more Jacks. They grabbed Ryan and when Roberto saw this, he kicked one in the head. As they fought, Virgil struggled under the original Jack and watched as the psycho took his knife and sliced into Virgil's arm. Virgil screeched and smacked Jack away, but Jack persisted as he took the injured arm and sliced something else into it.

Virgil was screaming at his Jack as Roberto and Ryan fought the two others. Roberto went into his tent as quickly as he could and grabbed the shotgun. One Jack looked up at Roberto and he shot him in the cheek. That Jack fell to the ground and he tried to hit the other Jack with the butt of his gun, but that one grabbed it instead. Though tearing that second Jack's focus away, gave the opportunity for Ryan to clock him in the stomach, having him keel over. Ryan dashed away from that Jack as he heard Roberto behind him fire at the freak.

He rushed to the first Jack and threw himself at the man. Them both tumbling to the ground as he used his arms to strangle him. He choked him out, noticing that the knife had fallen out of his hand during impact because he wasn't being stabbed with it. The man slumped out of his hands and Ryan immediately turned to Virgil.

He saw him lying on the ground, unmoving, his wrist bloodied, "Virgil!" Ryan called as he dashed to his side. He moved his face to his, "Virgil! Virgil!"

Virgil coughed and his eyes fluttered awake. As he slowly rose, he muttered, "That bastard headbutted me." Ryan smiled in relief at that, until Virgil turned to him with his own smile, "You called my name."

Ryan's shoulders jumped at that, but he didn't really seem to mind that much. Roberto moved them to clean up and they left the three Jack bodies behind.

-

They continued sledding down south until they got to this elevated area. They would be close to their midway point. The wind was picking up and the friction was getting colder. Virgil glanced behind them to see the shape of a dog.

"Hey!" they stopped as he pointed to it, "Do you see that dog?!" The other two glanced back to see the definitive shape of one. Another dog walked towards it past an icy wall. Ryan peered through his binoculars to get a better look at these strays. In his binoculars, he could see them sniffing around. One turned up to him and he could see it had freshly lost an eye. Its skin on its arm was ripped off, leaving flesh and bone. Further down the canine's body was an open wound that should be fatal.

Ryan pulled back and said, "Those are no dogs."

"What do you mean?" Roberto questioned.

"Just believe me for now," Ryan nodded forward. "Just keep going."

-

They sled up this cliff-like structure for days, stopping at open inclines to rest. A night came when Ryan was yawning from traversing all day, he went to go look into their inventory. They had enough, especially now that they had Elucid's rations. But could they make it back by the turn around. He heard his tent door unzip and saw Roberto coming, "Hey man, can we talk?"

"Sure," Ryan had him come inside as the snow hailed around them.

"There's a couple of questions I've been wanting to ask you," Roberto chuckled. "I guess, first um... Are we friends?"

"Huh?"

"Are we friends?" Roberto repeated. "Are we good enough on those terms?"

"Yeah, course," Ryan stated.

"Good," Roberto smiled. "Then as my friend, I want to tell you something."

"What is it?"

"I've been hearing those whispers," Ryan's eyes opened wide.

"...What?"

"I've been hearing them, every night," Roberto snickered. "I keep hearing them, but none of you guys have said anything. So, I guess if it's those shadowy beings, they're just targeting me."

"Roberto..." Ryan held his shoulder, "Why didn't you say anything to us?"

"Oh, I don't know," Roberto chuckled. "Maybe I wanted to know what they had to say. Or maybe I figured you guys would hear them soon too."

"No, I haven't heard them," Ryan said. "I thought we outran them."

"No, no we didn't," Roberto sighed, then cleared his throat, "I wanted to tell you something else too. Something I haven't told anyone."

"What is it?"

"My partner, Shannon," Roberto said. "Our argument that we had. Well, she had previously stolen some money from our organization. I found out and was mad. She gave a good reason though, said it was to help the ones she loved. Then I told her, this money is to help the ones I love. God, that's why I'm on this god damn trip to hell. But she said the only thing I care about in this world is dogs. But that's not true. I care about people; I want them to do well. I don't just care about dogs... I thought she cared too. I thought we both cared. To share that in common. But she lied... and she stole. And I got drunk and she met me when I was drunk and angry at her. We argued loud and proud, and she left.

I didn't fire her yet, cause I didn't want to lose her as a partner. But then she did that stupid stunt and got herself killed. I don't know if it was me that made her do it. Was it me Ryan? Was it my fault?"

Ryan listened and nodded, "I think you guys should have had the chance to talk it out more. I don't think it was your fault, if she stole from you."

"But maybe if I didn't yell at her so badly, maybe if I didn't sound so scary," Roberto sighed. "Maybe she wouldn't leave. And maybe if I paid attention to her problems sooner, she wouldn't have stolen from me. Wouldn't have gotten those dogs killed and herself."

Ryan sighed and before he could say anything, he heard something out. It wasn't the whistle of the wind; it was a crunch of footsteps. Two at a time. Roberto and Ryan stared at the tent and then there was barking. Lots of barking and howling.

It sounded like a symphony of dogs. Roberto was the first to head outside, followed by Ryan. Ryan saw in the corner of his eye, that Virgil was now coming out of his tent too. They looked outside to see decaying dogs growling at them from outside their tents. They circled the area with gnarling and gnashing fangs, rotting flesh and bleeding eyes. They did nothing but stare daggers into the trio. Roberto glanced to the side to see another figure, a human figure carving into the remaining dogs of his sled. Ryan and Virgil's dogs were huddled back, staring at this intruding figure.

Roberto screamed at them, seeing that they were dissecting the dogs as they have seen throughout Antarctica, "Stop it! Stop it! Leave them alone!"

The person stopped than rose up. They turned around to reveal a tan skinned woman with black hair and dead eyes. She was wearing winter attire like the rest of them, except hers was torn and bloodied. Certain parts of her body had fatal wounds that she was not succumbing to. Once Roberto saw her face he immediately gasped, "Shannon...?"

Ryan glanced to Roberto than to the woman who stared with the dead, but hatred filled eyes, "Roberto I-"

"Roberto!" her voice boomed. It sounded like the crackling of thunder. "How dare you, Roberto?!" Her face had skin falling off and her nose was broken. She called to him, "You left me, Roberto! Left me in this sorry state! You left us, Roberto!"

"No, that's not true!" Roberto shouted. "You stole, you ran off, and did something stupid!"

"Why did I steal Roberto?!" Shannon echoed into the wind. "Why did I take from you, when I should have had everything?!"

Roberto's words fell flat, he held himself back, falling silent.

This angered the apparition, "You used up every piece of money we earned on those stupid animals. We hardly got by with what we had. Hardly could live!"

"You didn't have to stay!" Roberto exclaimed. "You could have worked elsewhere!"

"I wanted to stay!" the spectre cried. "But you lied and cheated us out of our earnings! Told us it was for the better! But you didn't think of the better for us! You were kind, but only for what you wanted. You selfish man!"

"No!" Roberto howled. "I'm not selfish! I care about others! I am a good person!"

"Being a good person is subjective," the ghost stated. "Especially when you only focus on being good in one place and damn everyone else!"

"No!" Roberto sobbed.

"Stop it!" Ryan intervened, standing between the ghost and Roberto. "He may have failed you in life, but the doesn't mean you get to take him down with you! You also made wrong choices! And that got you killed!"

"What got me killed was the lack of funding to our equipment," Shannon confessed. "My sled wouldn't have broken apart like that if he wasn't so selfish, cheap, and greedy."

Ryan turned to Roberto who shied away at that, "No... Roberto..."

"It doesn't matter," Shannon sighed. "Who is right or wrong. Those who are lost in the snow are taken by it. And I was taken. Now I am the snow and you Roberto..." he looked up to her as her eyes glowed, "You are lost!"

The dogs leapt towards Virgil and Ryan, having them dash out of the way. The dogs were trying to bite and claw at the men as they dodged their attacks. Roberto stared at Shannon and said, "I fixed things though. When you died, I made things better."

Shannon tilted her head at him, "And why did my death have to trigger that?"

Two more dogs lunged and bit into Roberto. He yelped as they pulled him forward. Dragging him away from the tents. He thrashed and kicked, but then more of them came to bite into him. Ryan and Virgil went to aid him, but those animals jumped them and pinned the two down. Ryan yelled, "No! Leave him alone! He's a good man! He's a good person!"

Shannon glanced his way, saying, "...I was a good person."

The dogs dragged Roberto, who was screaming and crying. Grabbing at the snow and punching the dogs away. He sobbed out to them, "Ryan! Virgil! Help me!"

"Roberto!" Virgil shouted. "Let him go!"

"Leave us alone!" Ryan screeched. "Stop it! Stop this!"

The dogs pulled Roberto towards the edge, his voice ringing in their ears. The monsters tugged him further and he fell off the edge. Their bodies falling down too.

But Roberto held onto that edge with dogs hanging off of him. He held on so tightly, his face straining to keep up his strength. Until Shannon stood in front of him, and with her foot she stepped on his fingers, "Goodbye, Roberto."

His fingers let go, and he plummeted into the darkness of the cliff. Ryan and Virgil lay there, in shock of what just happened. They watched Shannon turn to them, her body silhouetted by the full moon. She then walked backwards and fell off the cliff too. All the dogs holding Ryan and Virgil let go of them and chased after her, jumping off the cliff, into the darkness.

Virgil and Ryan lay there, now only having each other.