The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 326

Ten days later, Garrison packed his bags and prepared to leave Endurance Station.

He had arrived with only a carry-on, and he was leaving with the same bag, only now it contained a few extra tubes of frostbite ointment Vivienne had shoved into his hands.

He stood at the front gates of Endurance Station, taking one last look at the pristine, elegant structure.

It stood quietly on the ice, resembling a massive bird about to take flight, gazing compassionately at the sky, and down at him.

He stared for a long time before turning around. A snowcat heading for the port was waiting for him, its engine emitting a low roar.

The journey home was right in front of him, but he suddenly felt as if his soul was permanently lost in this desolate snowfield. All that was going back was an empty shell...

Ultimately, he climbed into the snowcat.

The engine rumbled deeply as the treads crushed the ice, kicking up fragments in its wake. He sat by the window, his forehead pressed against the freezing glass, staring at the unchanging white expanse outside. Time felt perfectly still here, and so did space. It was as if this land had remained exactly the same since the dawn of creation, entirely undisturbed.

The snowcat drove across the ice field for several hours before finally arriving at the expedition port at the northernmost tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

To call it a port was generous. It was merely a relatively flat stretch of icy shore with a few makeshift container waiting rooms and a simple pontoon dock.

But it was surprisingly bustling today. A colony of Adélie penguins had somehow commandeered the left side of the ice. They stood waddling in a neat line, like a flock of gentlemen in tuxedos partaking in a highly serious ceremony.

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