So history is running backwards now

I saw it in the eyes of the troopers, the soldiers, the helpers and then, eventually in the eyes of the wounded. The victims and the quarry, those on the wrong side for whatever reason.

"Why are we in this place, this situation? Time has ceased to be and now we are caught, neither one side of a thing or the other. "

A universal catastrophe in time is a hard thing to take in. To be honest nobody really got it. We just came up against a lot of reactions. A lot of extreme reactions, certainly below glacier level. That was where all the most dangerous people seemed to be gathered. Information was thin, scant, unreliable, people came to their own conclusions, some of them were just plain off the mark by miles.

My eyes adjusted to the space, I looked around. It was ghastly and I was afraid.

The area was lit by slow burning flares, red light, oozing on and fading off. There were crowds of people, agitated and waiting. Troopers tried to hold them in check. There was angry chatter and bursts of disjointed chanting. I found it hard to take in what was going on. This was my first time here, under the glacier. These people lived here, worked here and I presume froze to death here. Like some blasted, polished salt mine set in a huge tomb, the inner sanctum, the chamber was a noisy, eerie place. I took steps back as the noise grew. The words remained unclear to me, the language guttural.

The troopers were waving weapons now. That brought reaction. More shouting and random movements. Ranks would break and then reform almost in slow motion, some frozen manoeuvres and steps back and forwards.

"Every night it's like this" Said Tod. His voice filter through the half light and he stretched his arm in front of me. "Best we just observe from this distance". I wasn't about to argue. I understood the tensions and how, despite the posturing and cries, the lid seemed to be kept on the regular ritual. Stamping and name calling and then, once the cold bit harder there would be a retreat until the next time. It was all about showing force and solidarity, for both sides.