Long time lurker and decided it was time to make a contribution.

This is a silly story from when I was a conscript in the norwegian army. I was stationed too far north of the Arctic circle, which is anywhere that's north of the Arctic circle. Part of the job was manning different OP's (observation post) in our ao.

This could be a full squad, but sometimes just two battle buddies. Me and my squaddie, who we'll call Alf, was one day sent to mann one of these op's in the middle of winter. The purpose of the op was to have a base from which we could patrol that particular area of the AO. The op is simply a cabin in the woods that's completely off grid.

You cook on a gas stove, fetch water from the river, wood burning oven for heat, and bathroom is outside away from the cabin to pee, and for pooping there was a bottomless toilet seat indoors that you placed a plastic bag over the seat and did your business in. Then you tied it off and dropped it into the bin below. In winter, the bag would freeze and not smell. In summer, it didn't freeze.

Since we needed radio we got electricity from a generator that was outside away from the cabin so the noise wouldn't reach us in its own locked shed. Since we had power we also had electric lights and a TV with loads of dvd's left by former conscripts. So one night Alf and I settle in to watch a movie after work. We chose 30 Days of Night. A movie about vampires murdering a small town in the Arctic. Seemed appropriate. About midway through the movie, when the vampires were doing horrible horrible things to the humans, the tv shuts off. The room goes completely dark except pale starlight coming in the window. Me and Alf looked at each other, or more like toward each other since we couldn't see much, and we both knew what had happened. The generator had died.

Both of us knew what had to be done. One of us had to go outside and fix it. That someone was me. So I step outside into the Arctic night. It's dark. Pale starlight reflecting on the snow provides a little illumination, but the forest a few meters from the cabin is a black, impenetrable wall. Silly as it sound, I scanned it for movement but saw nothing. The air is freezing. So cold breathing hurts. Tiny crystals of ice floating in the air and the world is completely quiet and still, like its holding its breath. A stillness you only get in the Arctic.

I move towards the generator shed, feeling exposed and a little paranoid. The padlock makes too much noise as I unlock it.

Now since I'm writing this, clearly I wasn't torn to pieces by vampires. I changed the oil on the generator and got it going again. But when I go back to the cabin, I see Alf in the doorway with a flashlight on his head and rifle in his hands, keeping a lookout.

Edit: Thanks for the gold!