It's a cold day, as expected when working in one of the world's coldest areas: The Arctic Circle.
The research team, led by lead researcher Emily Walker, recently arrived in a remote area of the Arctic Circle and finished setting up a temporary camp the previous night.
Gradually, the team begins to awaken and prepare to exit their tents for the mission ahead: retrieving a frozen corpse from the ice.
Emily recalls the exact details of the findings. A different team was monitoring the speed at which the ice was melting when a section of ice collapsed from a glacier, revealing a body encased in a block of ice. Since the previous team lacked the equipment to free the body, Emily's team was dispatched to assist.
"Why would someone hide a body so deep in the glaciers all those years ago?" She can't help but ask this question aloud to herself. Michael, another member of the team, overhears her.
"Perhaps the individual possessed unique traits during an evolution phase that are considered normal to us today," he suggests.
"Whatever the reason may be, we still have a job to do," Emily replies, eager to escape the cold. "All we need to do is retrieve the body and bring it back to inspect it."
Sam, the equipment technician, walks up to the two, wielding an ice saw over his shoulder. "The equipment is ready for use," he grins, excited to start working.
Emily rolls her eyes at Sam's excitement but holds back her annoyance that he can't act professionally even if his life depended on it. "Great, let's get going, I want the corpse extracted by nightfall."
They take down their temporary base and begin trekking to the glacier. Emily walks in front, and Michael and Sam are next to each other behind her.
Sam is holding the ice saw as if it were a toy instead of a piece of precision equipment, with a smug grin on his face.
"Ya know, Ya gotta admit it's not every day you get to cut in ice to retrieve a corpse in the middle of nowhere!" His comment was directed to Micheal. "Type of story you tell your grandkids."
"That's assuming you'll survive long enough to have any," Emily mutters, loud enough for Michael to hear, cracking a smirk, but not loud enough for Sam to hear.
By the time they arrived, it was already afternoon, the researchers saw their destination in the distance, and then Micheal's voice broke the silence.
"Ugh, finally,"
The group stops to inspect the glacier before them. The ice spread before them, forming a twisted, shapeless, bluish circle, above which the light shone fiercely. Beneath the great ice, the body lays in the glacier, their black outlines barely visible below the surface.
Sam turns his attention from the glacier to the ice encasing the body for a moment before speaking. "To avoid damaging the corpse, I'll need to leave some ice around it, which we will have to melt back in the States."
"Very well, then. Let's get to work," Emily replied.
Sam revs up the saw and begins cutting into the chunk of ice. Meanwhile, Michael and Emily keep a close watch on the glacier, knowing that if a part of it collapsed once before, it could easily happen again.
Fortunately, their assumption was incorrect, as Sam successfully cut the block of ice free after a hour of carefully cutting around the body.
"It's like taking candy from a baby!"
Emily looks over at Micheal. "Micheal, call in the helicopter so we can get the block of ice out of here."
"Roger that" Micheal pulls a radio out of his backpack. "Micheal Ryder here, mission complete, helicopter can be sent in."
A voice crackles to life on the other end. "Understood. They're on their way."
When the helicopter arrives and drops the ropes. The research team has already placed the ice block onto a cargo sling. They tie the ice block to the ropes before climbing into the helicopter, but by the time everything's said and done to leave, it's already starting to get dark.
"Fuck yeah, mission accomplished!" Micheal smirks.
As they fly back to the States, Emily can't even hear herself think over the loud sound of the helicopter blades, until Sam speaks up.
"How long do y'all think that guy has been frozen in there for?"
Emily doesn't reply as she leans over the edge to look down at the corpse. She is lost in thought; something about it seems off, but she can't put her finger on what it is.
Sam, oblivious to Emily's zoned-out state, laughs. "Doesn't matter, I'm just curious how much we'll get paid when we crack this mystery!"
"You sound like you just found gold instead of a human body," The pilot said, having heard their conversation.
Sam raises his hands with a chuckle. "My bad, respect the dead or whatever. This still is a massive find though,"
Emily finally speaks up. "Let's not celebrate until we know what we are dealing with, I've a feeling something's odd about that corpse."
An hour later they arrive at the research station, they land the helicopter, and other researchers who are at the station help to move the corpse to a lab, where they start to warm up the body by aiming a few heating lamps at it.
"Good," Emily speaks up. "Let the ice melt for a while, we'll start our research tomorrow, for now, let's head to sleep, it's been a long day."
The team nods in agreement, they put the gear used for the mission away while chattering, mainly questioning if they'd find something significant.
Emily is the last one to leave the lab, but as she is about to close the door, she hears the ice crack.
"What the hell-" She thinks, as it should take a few more hours for the ice to crack.
She peaks through the crack at the block, but she can't seem to hear anything else next to her heart pounding in her chest as if expecting something's about to go down.
However, nothing happened.
Emily sighs. "It's nothing Em, you're losing your darn mind." She tells herself, knowing the late nights of researching are getting to her. The researcher gave the block a final glance before shutting the door and walking away.
The security cameras capture the ice breaking and chunks falling on the ground, and then the corpse's eyes…
Opened…