14 years ago

The people of the North Pole heard it before they saw it. The massive rumbling submarine cut through the water faster than a bunny skips through grass. The people fled their magnificent ice city, and swam for the caves nearby. The submarine stopped. The scientists occupying the submarine originally came to study the sparse North Pole life, and if it even existed. Now, a more interesting task lay ahead: to find out more about this strange and mysterious underwater civilization. While the scientists plotted how to proceed with the new unplanned situation, chaos ensued within the underwater caves, which were not adequately prepared for a disaster like this.
Meanwhile, the scientists finally decided to dive into the below zero degree currents to explore the intriguing city. When they reached the town, they combed the once bustling streets, quaint homes and little shops to find anything to take home and study. Little did they know, after they left with their goodies, the families swam up to the surface to start new hidden lives.
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Now

I awoke to the usual early morning gray of Dawson City greeting me. I pulled the thick curtain beside my bed open. Fresh snow blanketed the world. I rolled out of my ultra thick fleecy comforter and padded down the stairs.
"Morning," my dad said absentmindedly, absorbed in his newspaper.
"Good morning," I replied. I walked to the fridge and poured a glass of juice for myself. After taking a couple swigs, I returned to my room, where I pulled on a tee shirt and shorts, despite the cold weather. It's weird, I hate warm weather. I utterly despise it, in fact. After running my brush through my long blond locks a few times, I ran back down the stairs, eager to go to my best and only friend's house and start a snowball fight.
"Can I go to Amanda's house?" I asked my dad.
"Not in what you’re wearing, you could get frostbite," he exclaimed sternly before turning back to his work. His job as a scientist demanded him to work a ton, even on weekends.
"Why don't you stay inside and read a book quietly?" my dad questioned, "It's too cold outside anyways."
"But Dad...."
"No means no. I bought you a new Kindle for a reason, you know." I sighed in defeat, knowing that arguing was not an option when he used that tone. That evening, I took a nice cold bath, finding distaste in the warmer alternative temperature. I curled up in pajamas and went right to sleep.

I woke bright and early, determined to sneak outside to get a walk into my day. I hurriedly but silently, dressed, and rushed out the front door. The fog blew in thick today, smothering out any hint of sunlight. Snow still laid upon the ground, causing it to be riddled with unevenness. I stumbled slightly, grogginess overcoming me. I pressed on, pushing through the walls of fog. Finally, I tripped over a particularly icy area, tumbling to my knees. Youch. I slowly sat down on the ice the examine my knees. Instead of normal red blood like I saw on my favorite horror shows, a blue substance seeped through the cut. The whole situation was odd, because I never remembered falling like this before. I turned my attention back to my knees. The sticky blue substance covered them now, causing me to freak out. I didn’t know blood in real life could be so… disturbing. My head hit the ice and I passed out.


I opened my eyes slowly to find that I was no longer on the ice, but in my bed. My dad sat next to me.
"Oh good, you're awake," he said, relieved.
"What happened?" I blurted out, confused. I remembered seeing blue blood on my knees and hitting ice, but that's where it ended. "And why do I have blue blood?"
"Well," he began nervously, "Our family is different. We used to live in the North Pole before scientists came swarming through our ice city. That's why we fled."
"What?! Are you really saying that we are supernaturals? Are you really that crazy???”
"And your late mother and I moved to Canada because it is cold enough for us to survive. The scientists are looking for people like us to study.” he finished, ignoring my outburst.
"Let me guess, you probably would not have told me had I not scraped my knee, huh?" I accused, my eyes narrowing as I glared.
"Uhh, yes?" he looked sheepish
"So that's why you were always so distant? Because you wanted to keep your precious secret? Thanks a lot, Dad," I huffed and attempted to roll out of my bed but he stopped me.
"I only wanted to protect you," he attempted to cover for himself and failed.
"Whatever! Just get out of my room!"
"As you wish. I'll be downstairs cooking up some breakfast for you," he replied and walked out, wanting to give me some space.
Tears I didn't even know I'd held came spilling out faster than I wiped them away. I cried because he lied to me, kept my past a secret. A good ten minutes of crying ticked by before the sobs slowly turned into sniffles. I wallowed in my own self pity for a while, curled up in bed. But then, a new determination came upon me. I refused to give in to the feelings of hopelessness and betrayal.
After a while, my stomach started to demand food, so I went downstairs. A pile of pancakes and bacon waited to be devoured at my place on the table. I gobbled them up. My dad was nowhere to be seen. I creeped to his office to apologize for yelling at him. Sure enough, he sat typing, back hunched, at his computer.
"Oh good, you're here," he said, looking a little worried.
"What's wrong?" I asked, confused at his tone, and forgetting to apologize.
"It looks like we are going on a little road trip. Don't ask any questions please. We have to hurry."
"Um.. Ok."
He hurried me to the car and urged me inside. I was still really confused, but asked no questions. He started the car and wove through the freeways lanes at a steady eighty miles an hour. In less than ten minutes, we found ourselves in what looked like the middle of a tundra but warmer feeling. Driving a little further revealed an imposing white building with towering fences topped with razor wire. Scary.
"Here we are," my dad said nervously.
We got out of the car and I followed my dad to the entrance. He typed in a code and the giant steel door opened swiftly. Two men dressed in pristine white coats stood by the doorway, grinning creepy smiles. They looked eerily like evil scientists that only belonged in my favorite horror scenes. I shivered at the thought.
"We will take her from here," one of the men said.
"That's fine," my dad replied smoothly.
He pushed me gently forward. I asked no questions, because somehow I knew this was non-negotiable. The scientists grinned with false reassurance of safety. One took my hand and pulled me through the doorway. White seemed to be the trend here. Big white tiles made up the floor, and the wall was painted white. The stench of sanitizer permeated the air. Gosh, you could eat food from the floor here. The door slammed shut behind me. Dad didn't even get to say goodbye.
The scientists guided me through the maze of white to a small room, furnished only with an iron wrought bed and a lone wooden chair. A small dusty window in the top right boasted no decent view, but instead the razor topped fence. The men showing me through shoved me in carelessly and slammed the steel door shut behind me.
Almost immediately after their departure, I searched the corners of the room’s cement floor for a rock of decent size. No luck. I climbed swiftly up the chair and pounded at the window. Dust swirled around me as I made cracks in the glass. With a final blow, the glass shattered. Without another sound, I made my way through the window’s frame and scurried across the snow towards the fence. Not quite fast enough, however. Guards I did not know even patrolled the area leapt toward me with a speed unimaginable. Before I knew it, I was cpatured in one of the guard’s strong arms. He dangled me over his shoulder and treaded through the white fluff to the entrance. He continued to carry me through endless hallways to what looked like an office. A beautiful but menacing woman sat at the desk in the (you guessed it) white-clad room. He sat me into one of the metal chairs that occupied part of the room.
“May I help you?” She obviously came from another country, based on her exotic accent. “This little one was caught trying to escape,” he replied gruffly, his baritone voice suiting his imposing demeanor perfectly.
“Well, what do we have here?” She strutted on her impossibly high red heels to me and crouched, again doing the impossible with her tight black mini dress. “A new one I see.” She stroked my fine blonde strands.
“Take her back to her room.” she commanded. “As for you, my sweets, don’t try a trick like that again,” she warned, and resumed her furious typing at her computer.
The guard led me to a new identical room, pushed me in, and slammed the door shut, leaving me to ponder escape once again. Since the sky showed off its evening colors, I laid on the bed, thinking. Was Dad blackmailed into delivering me here? I hoped so, because I don’t know what I would do if he gave me up without being threatened.
A guard suddenly opened the door and beckoned me to go with him.
“Dinner,” he commanded in a gruff voice that seemed to be common here.
I sat up and walked toward him, aware of the pains my stomach sent me. He took me to a dining hall, already filled with other children going through the buffet line to get food. I followed them, and mushy green beans, lumpy mashed potatoes, and mystery meat drumsticks filled my tray when I reached the end. I sat at a lonely table. Only one other girl eventually joined me.
“Hey, I’m Georgia,” the little girl almost whispered. “What’s your name?
“Wynter.”
“You are new here. Have you had your first experiment yet?”
“Nope, not yet,” I said. Experiments? Yikes.
“You’re lucky. They hurt. What makes you special anyway? There’s nothing that looks different, no offense.”
“Well, I am of the South Pole, apparently, or the sea near it. My dad told me a few days ago, I think, that we have blue blood, and that when I was a baby they raided my ice city, and we fled. What’s makes you special?”
“I am part polar bear. Somehow, polar bear and human DNA got all mixed up together. ” She showed me her legs, which actually morphed into polar bear paws. She sat down and looked me in the eye. “Also, I can smell super well, to the point where I know that the guard way over there has not showered yet.” she pointed.
“Listen, I’m planning escape.” She ducked her head towards me and whispered even softer. “Do you want to help me?”
“Well, what did you have in mind?”
“We run to the nearest city, using the phone you you will get, and book a flight to wherever you live now and the South Pole where I live.”
“Wait- Where am I going to get a phone?” I asked, puzzled.
“You are going to get in trouble, and the guards have a phone in their back pocket. You will steal the phone,” she explained, as if it were the easiest thing on the planet. “You will wait until he takes you back to your room, and activate a secret signal that you have to type a code to see, which I’ll explain in a minute. Then, I will steal my own phone, and using the signal, I will get your phone number and text you. Sound simple enough? Oh, and you do the signal thing like this.”

She explained to me how to do the secret signal and what the code was going to be. Then dinner ended, and guards led us back to our rooms. I plunged into sleep.

I woke up and started pounding at the window again like I did on my first day. The glass shattered once again, and I climbed out, ran across the snow. I then got caught again. Surprisingly enough, stealing the phone was not hard at all. I stuck it in the back pocket of my jeans. The lady scolded me like last time, but let me off the hook. The guard showed me to my newest room. Boy, I really felt deja vu today. I pulled out the phone, sent out the secret signal as quick as possible, and waited. An hour later, Georgia texted me to wait until midnight because of the little guards, sneak out using the window, and get to the entrance of the building.

Midnight came. Once again, I pounded the window and thought of my dad. I missed him. Then, the window shattered. I snuck through the window and jumped down quietly. Hugging the wall, I crept to the entrance. I saw no guards, but instead, Georgia, waiting for me. Not wasting a moment, we ran for the fence, and both of us slipped through the bars. We jogged away for a long time, probably more than a mile, then checked our phones for the nearest city. It was Dawson City, my home! And only ten miles away!
“We can walk there,” I told Georgia.
“Yep, but first, let’s get rest.”
So we crashed right there in the snow. I woke Georgia up at dawn and we started walking using the GPS. By afternoon, we arrived at Dawson City, albeit a little thirsty and starved. We said our farewells and I started walking back home. I knew the way pretty well, considering I was near the grocery my dad and I so often went shopping at. Once I arrived at my house, I prepared myself for endless questions and accusations. But when I gathered the nerve and knocked on the door, my dad greeted me with a hug and explanation.
“I was blackmailed, the scientists told me that they would kill you if I didn’t follow their wishes.”
“We escaped, Dad.”
“You are full of surprises, Wynter.”