Bitemarks 1.1

Bitemarks 1.1

Dr John Keibler shuddered. It wasn't the freezing cold surrounding him, standing ankle deep in the loose snow of the Arctic. It was the shudder of excitement. Both the excitement of discovery as he peered into the hole that they had created just this morning and also the excitement of knowing that they were on the verge of something awesome. Yuri Khudi might have found a woolly mammoth calf in Russia but this dig held the prospect of something better. So far three bones had been found, belonging to three different mammoths. Expectation was high that they might find a fully intact adult mammoth buried beneath the ice. That's why they were here. That's why they'd used dynamite to blow a huge hole in the ground. That's how they'd found the extraordinary cave network and that's why Dr Keibler was shuddering with excitement. Scott had already made a preliminary recon of the caves and they were safe enough for the team to go down. That was today. Now. It was exciting enough thinking about the possibility of a full mammoth being found but for the last few hours all Keibler could think about was the caves. Actual caves. Naturally formed and artificially sculpted. It raised a lot of questions. Keibler liked questions but he liked the answers even more.
"Ready Dr Keibler?"
Scott stood by his side waiting for him to make the first move and enter the caves. Keibler nodded.
"Yeah. Let's make history, gentlemen."


A couple of hours later and the excitement had started to wear off. The thing about ice is that it's boring. The cave walls were covered in layers of it so thick that there was no evidence as to how the caves were formed. Keibler didn't even know if there was rock under there or whether the walls were formed of solid ice. Worse still, they were smaller than anticipated. They'd explored them all with the exception of this last one. He presumed it to be the last. The tunnel that led towards it was far longer than the others and no doubt this would be the biggest chamber, the final one, set much further back than the others. Whatever was in here he doubted it would be a mammoth. The tunnel wasn't large enough for a huge beast to fit through. It was still a discovery nonetheless and there could still be something of interest to find but Keibler wanted that mammoth.
The tunnel came to an abrupt end and spilled out into a massive chamber just as he'd predicted. Stalactites hung down from the roof and huge thick columns of ice twinkled in the torchlight. Scott held his torch close to one of the ice columns, examining it for unusual composition. Keibler shone the beam of his light to his left and walked over to the cave wall. He followed it round, running his gloved fingers over the surface. Even through the gloves he could feel the lumps and bumps rising out of the smooth patches of ice.
"Dr Keibler!"
That was Lewis. Keibler's head snapped round. Lewis was over the very far side of the chamber, hidden behind ice columns. He made his way over there, careful not to lose his footing on the icy floor. He could see Lewis now, shining his torch at something just out of view behind that last column. He'd heard excitement in his voice but Lewis' face, like everyone else's was hidden beneath mask and goggles. What was he looking at?
Keibler rounded the last column, looked at Lewis, and followed the torchbeam with his eyes. There. In the wall. Keibler exhaled deeply.
"Holy... shit..."
This was it. The moment that would make his name. Fuck the mammoth. This was a discovery beyond all others. The ice was thick but there was no mistaking what was beneath it. Imprisoned there in the wall in front of them was a person. A humanoid. He could make out their shape, see their arms slightly splayed near their side and... breasts? He squinted at the ice.
"It's a female."
"I think so." said Lewis. "She could be well preserved in there."
Keibler stared at it a while longer as the other men assembled behind him, each one expressing their awe.
"We need to excavate the body." said Keibler. "This could be huge. I mean look at that pose. It's like..."
"Like she was put there intentionally." said Lewis as Keibler's voice trailed off.
"Maybe some sort of ritual..." said Scott.
"Scott, Lewis. You stay here. Check the ground for anything else of interest. I'll go back with the others, prep the lab and get tools."