Last man standing / part 5/ draft 1

Last man standing / part 5

fiction
edward w pritchard

"The last man standing must step over the corpses of his fallen friends"
ed pritchard " Last man standing"  2013

see parts 1 to 4

Note- Shackleton stories are a compilation of facts, and more than some amount of fiction -author


Nord was found dead in his sleep, now it is just me and him,  Me,  Southey and him, Laufter. Laufter drug Nord's body alone to the crevice for burial, the same as he had done for the dead Frank West. I am too sick to help. I am afraid I will be next to die. Unless Shackleton returns in a few days I shall be dead soon.

Before he died Nord told me that he had proof that Laufter was the Devil. I don't believe in such nonsense but Nord made an interesting case. It was nothing I hadn't thought of myself, although of course not in a religious context. A man who is never cold, never hungry and never tired in a survival situation naturally causes suspicion and strange musings.

Laufter listened to what I had to say that I heard from Nord. Then Laufter did something that surprised me, floored me so to speak. Lafter said Nord was correct. Laufter said he had come here to obtain my soul, me as the last man standing. Laufter says he is the devil. 

I know Laufter is just trying to motivate me to live, to survive until Shackleton returns. He is playing head games with me. Anything to keep me going, to keep me grasping for life.

I answered Laufter that instead of giving him my soul in trade for my survival I will hit him with the oar laying there under our boat. He answers, "that's unlikely, I can't stand up, I am weak and dizzy, and besides he says you are no killer."

Laufter says if I will just consent to the transfer of my soul to him verbally it will be a contract and I will survive this desperate survival situation and have a long successful life after this, far from Antarctica.

Me and Laufter. I have made no decision on his proposal. He sits at that end of the upturned boat and I sit at this end, my end. I sleep lightly now and wait and wait for Shackleton's return. I wait for Shackleton to rescue me. 
end part 5