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Tuska and her team were quick to set up their own tent and transferred Kojak to it with blankets, food, and water to ease his suffering. But despite how much was given to him, he hardly took any of it. That was because of his entire five dog team, there was only one other survivor other than himself. A female malamute named Chastity was barely clinging to life, of whom her team leader had given the remainder of their supplies. She was wrapped in a thermal blanket and then another one of wool and transferred via Arthur into the new enclosure.

Once inside and given a blanket of his own, Kojak was finally able to calm down and talk clearly. "The storm was so much worse than we expected. It was too late when we realized that we had been blown off course. We doubled back twice and we tried to get our bearing but...I don't know, our compass never settled." Kojak took a sip of warm water that had been heated by a chemical bag. It was tasteless but it did the job of warming him up. Chastity was similarly drip fed the same until she had come around enough for her to sip at the canteen by herself.

"What had happened to your team?" Tuska asked quickly in the hopes that they might be able to discern a way to find them, as no bodies had been discovered around Kojak's campsite. It was the first sign that there was some more hope for the situation but it was quickly dashed.

Kojak gave a slow shake of his head and clenched his eyes shut as if remembering what had happened was physically painful. "We hadn't realized that we had just been going in circles for hours. I pushed everyone too hard, I thought that if we oriented ourselves with the sun we could get back on track but as soon a sit got dark that plan was trashed. I didn't stop until..." He grit his teeth and let out a low, shuddering growl. "Taylo was the first to go...the cold had gotten to him and without food or water he just collapsed. We tried to resuscitate him but the cold had eaten through the thermal covering of our supply so our water and food reserves were rock solid.

We had completely underestimated this blizzard. We were so desperate for anything, any slight glimmer that we might make it out of the situation alive that some truly horrific ideas were born out. Brian and Reese...they thought that if we were to eat Taylo we could at the very least make it through the blizzard. I don't blame them, they were panicked and not thinking straight. I banned the idea from ever being considered again but they conspired against me and demanded that I step down from my leadership. I tried to reason with them but they weren't having any of it. When I refused they fought with me and poor Chastity tried to come to my aid but they beat her down as well. I was too tired to defend myself, and when I came to, the sled had been ransacked of our supplies and destroyed. Brian, Reese, and Taylo were nowhere to be found."

Kojak looked over at Chastity who was slowly eating from a hot MRE. "That was a day ago. I don't know if they are still out there running around but they didn't take the tent so I set it up as best I could and gathered Chastity inside to stay warm. There were a few supplies that they hadn't quite taken so I did all I could to give them to her. I didn't care if I died, but if I could keep her alive just enough for a rescue team or something to find us then it was the silver lining that I would be okay with."

Tuska and the others sat in stunned silence as they listened. Chastity did all she could to not listen to his words as they brought back too many painful memories. Kojak continued, "This was all my fault. You were right, this was a suicide mission and I should have never gone on it. I hope that God might forgive me for what I have done." Kojak's own MRE had sat hot and ready to eat for several minute in front of him. He hadn't bothered to open it and to eat because he thought that he didn't deserve it.

"Do you think you can still pull a sled?" Tuska asked after several minutes of silence.

Kojak looked up at the other leader and then gave a slow nod. "After I regain my strength, I suppose so. Why?"

"We will be returning with the vault. We've got a plan laid out, we're less than a day away from the airport and the vault's medical contents are in danger of being destroyed by the weather, so we're on a time crunch. That's why it's important for you to get your strength back," she explained roughly and grabbed his MRE and forced it into his paws. He looked down at the warm bag and slowly nodded. He opened it and grabbed the provided plastic spoon.

"Are we really only a day away from the airport?" Kojak asked as he pushed a spoonful of beef stew into his mouth.

"Less, actually. If we run by compass we'll get back in a few hours, and Webber said he would have medical staff on standby for when we returned. It'll go a lot faster if we have everyone working together," Arthur said as he watched the other large dog.

"I'll do anything that you ask of me, but please, Chastity has been through enough as it is. I don't want to risk her life anymore so I ask that you don't make her pull. I'll follow your command to a tee if you grant me that." Kojak stared hard into Tuska's eyes and she saw how hurt he was and was reminded of her own pain almost a year ago when she had made her own fatal mistakes. He had already been cost three times over, it seemed as though Chastity's life was the only thing keeping him from walking out into the blizzard to never come back.

"That's not fair," Chastity suddenly spoke up from the side. Jenko and Reggie were sitting beside her and encouraging her with as much food and hot water as she could take, and after eating three MREs and drinking a liter of water she seemed to be back to normal.

"We don't actually know what affects you might still be under due to your hypothermia. We can't risk you being out in the cold any longer," Tuska said as she turned to the other woman and then back to Kojak. "I am commandeering your mission. I am now your leader and as such you will have to eat more to get your strength up." Tuska grabbed her own supply of MREs and shoved them towards the muscular dog. "You have thirty minutes to eat all of these."

Tuska had to give it to Kojak, he was at least agreeable and knew when he had to bow to someone else's leadership. Thirty minutes from her order, Kojak dutifully opened his MREs, prepared them, and ate them without another word and within the time he was ordered to. Once finished, Kojak, Tuska, Arthur, and Jenko all went out into the howling blizzard to prepare the vault and the far sturdier sled.

The vault turned out to be larger than Tuska remembered when first coming upon it but that was likely because it was partly buried in the snow. It resembled a safe that might have been kept at a bank. Its corners and edges were flat as if it's concern was whether or not it might cut someone. On the front of it there was a keypad and a flat screen that displayed diagnostics, particularly about the contents. When Tuska looked at it she was able to discern that the contents were kept at twenty five degrees Celsius and that it had seventeen hours left to its battery. The leader felt very confident with that time frame, but it would still be cutting it far closer than she would have ever wanted.

The four huskies gathered around the fault after they had pulled the new sled around to it and each one stooped to grab a corner. The flat edges made it easier to take a hold of since the bottom of it was pretty deeply covered. The unfortunate thing about it looking like a safe was that it was about as heavy as one. With as muscular as Kojak and Arthur were, they still strained considerably to ease it up from the ground. Jenko and Tuska looked out of place between the two but nonetheless their effort was greatly appreciated.

With their combined exertion and despite of the ravenous blizzard, the team managed to maneuver the huge thing onto the sled, of which groaned under its weight. The four of them repurposed the original straps to keep the vault in place, and once everything was done it was if the whole thing had never strayed from its original sled.

Read the full chapter here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/warmth-in-arctic-21123491