The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 178

The night was endless.

The road was endless.

This was an ice sheet, so painfully flat and desolate that it triggered a primal sense of panic in the chest.

No mountains, no rocks, no glacial crevasses. Just snow. An infinite, suffocating void of white.

Diego led the pack. At first, he kept his chin buried in his collar, but after half an hour, he started to overheat. He tugged his scarf down and began to sing.

He was horribly off-key, but out here in this silent, desolate wasteland, that painfully off-key singing was the only thing keeping them grounded.

"This used to be an ocean," Professor Harrison said suddenly, walking in the middle of the group.

Diego stopped and turned around. "An ocean?"

"An ocean from tens of millions of years ago."

Professor Harrison looked down at the ice beneath their feet, shining his flashlight onto the surface. "Look at the color. It's blue. The deeper it goes, the bluer it gets. The salt and minerals from the sea are perfectly preserved inside."

Diego stared at his boots, then looked back out into the suffocating darkness ahead. "Tens of millions of years ago," he muttered. "Does that mean there are fish down there?"

"Yes," Professor Harrison replied. "Frozen solid. They look like they're still alive. I actually collected specimens beneath a frozen lake on a previous expedition."

Diego stopped singing. He walked in silence for a few minutes before asking, "So, are we basically walking on top of fish right now?"

"We are."

Diego glanced down at the ice again. His footsteps suddenly grew incredibly light, as if he were terrified of shattering the floor beneath him.

Sloane and Josh brought up the rear.

Josh walked beside Sloane. He didn't rush her, and he didn't coddle her by holding her arm. He simply matched her pace, staying exactly one step beside her.

Sloane's breathing was steady, but her face was entirely drained of color. Her lips were deathly pale, and every breath she exhaled turned into a ghostly plume that quickly vanished in the glow of her headlamp.

She took a few steps, and suddenly her boot slipped. Her body pitched sideways. Josh shot his hand out, but instead of aggressively grabbing her arm, he merely brushed the back of his hand against her elbow, offering just enough support. The moment she steadied herself, he pulled his hand away.

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