Free Surviving Antarctica by Andrea White Page A

books. “Three groups of four men carried two hundredpounds of supplies per man up its slopes. It was really rough going.”
    “Do you always sound like an encyclopedia?” Billy said.
    Polly sighed and fought the impulse to turn around and rush back to her cabin. Why were these boys so rude? Didn’t Billy realize that to win the game, they all needed to get along?
    Billy figured that if he ignored Polly, maybe she would leave. He studied the next map. It showed the placement of depots. They were in a straight line to the Pole, but since compasses didn’t work well in Antarctica, he’d have to keep track of the longitude and the latitude to calculate the distance traveled.
    Polly stirred beside him. Why hadn’t she left?
    “Billy, Robert’s made me navigator.”
    What an idiot! She was going to tell him to get out of her map room.
    “I guess he thought that because I could read books, I could read maps.” Polly laughed. That’s right. Keep your voice light. You need Billy.
    It was obvious that Polly couldn’t navigate her way out of her bathroom. Billy could have told that to Robert, but the fool hadn’t asked his opinion.“I can’t,” Polly concluded. “I mean, I’ve never even tried.” A part of her wanted to kick Billy in the shin, but she managed to say, “So could you help?”
    “I was planning to do it anyway.” No one could keep Billy out of the map room.
    Polly sighed with relief. Holding her tongue had paid off.
    “And …” Billy turned back to stare at the maps.
    “And?” Polly said.
    “I don’t need any help, so you can leave,” Billy said.
    Polly turned around and walked out the door. She couldn’t stand to be in the room with that boy another instant. “We have five days to bond together,” Robert had said at breakfast. Five days to hurt each other’s feelings, Polly thought.
    The kids had been so busy that they hadn’t sat down for lunch, but for dinner Shipchef spit out sandwiches, chips, and concentrate from real oranges. Billy had never had real fake orange juice before, just orange drink. He took a sip of the juice. It was not as sweet as the drink, which he liked better.
    “Polly, how many motor sledges did Scotthave?” Robert asked. Robert and Billy had been making an inventory of all the gear before deciding what to load into the big sacks that were going to be strapped to the sleds.
    “He started with three,” Polly said. “But he lost one unloading it from the ship on the thin ice. I think I told you, the motor sledges weren’t reliable.”
    “It will be great if the Secretary has given us three,” Billy said. “Otherwise I don’t know what we’re going to do with all our stuff.”
    “If Scott had them on board,” Robert said, “I wonder why the Secretary didn’t put them on the ship.” He took a bite of his peanut butter sandwich.
    “She’s not always accurate,” Polly said. “I read that the Alamo guys carried guns that weren’t invented until the Civil War.”
    “It’s probably that simple,” Robert said, “but I keep looking for meaning behind everything. For instance, did any of you guys think that DOE clinic was spooky?”
    “What do you mean?” Andrew asked. He had liked sleeping in the clinic, with its fresh sheets on the beds and a television mounted on the wall.
    “It’s like they knocked me out.” Robert tore into his bag of chips.
    “Now that you mention that clinic—” Polly said, biting into her sandwich.
    Billy interrupted her. “I thought I was the only one. The whole stay seemed like one long dream.”
    “I remember doctors standing over me, talking. One came toward me, holding a long needle pointed at my eye; then everything went black,” Robert said.
    A needle aimed at his eye, Grace thought. She had cut tendons and muscles with her scalpel, but she couldn’t imagine puncturing an eye.
    Billy involuntarily touched his eyelids. They felt normal.
    “I just remember voices,” Polly said. “I kept trying to wake up