He squeezed his hands together at his chest. A slight whine and beams of crimson light issued from the cap, spreading over the ground in a flickering laser-light grid.

He pushed the object into the snow and twisted the cap.

Though he was 99.9% sure of the lay of this land, his mission - and the harsh climate - left no room for uncertainty. He slid his glove off and jammed his hand into his pocket, producing a small, pen-like object. Stay here much longer and you’ll end up like the city, he thought, and knelt in the snow. The polar wind ripped across him, stealing the breath from his mouth. No obvious hints of the city’s presence jumped out to the eye, but a trained observer could pick them out: he was certain that the hillocks to his right concealed a fallen library, while beneath the flat plain to his left, buried many feet deep beneath the permafrost and snow, laid the ruins of a museum. Even the biting cold couldn’t erase his smile as he surveyed what remained of the lost city. He stood close to the location that had haunted his dreams for the past month, and somewhere on top of his longtime goal. He found it hard to believe that he had made it, but his hard work and determination had proven the equal to the barriers thrown before him. The Man in the White Cloak paused at the crest of the snowdrift. Table of Contents The Station The Airship The Guardsman The Station Thanks to my beta readers, Aleta Best, Mary Compton, and Aniko Carmean. Published by Qwendellonia Publishing/published at Smashwords To Randy, for putting up with the crap for close to 20 years. The Station A Prelude to City of the Dead Jonathan D.

The Station by Jonathan D. Allen