Then, they screamed. Nell, then Ted. The colossal chamber was miles wide, and they had entered from the top. They had already fallen some way, but they still had minutes to go. They were falling straight to the darkly undulating lake of fluid ice. The crestlets tore from the waves in stones that littered the beach like pebbles.

Click, Click, Click.

Nell stopped screaming, her throat raw. She reached for Ted, but he was either a foot away or a mile, for all she could do. Ted had stopped as well, but his eyes looked upward. She followed, and saw that rocks had plugged the hole where they had entered the cavern.

No funeral.

They looked down again – but with a spasm Ted reached into his parka. After rooting around, he looked up again. And he saw, not too far above, the blip of light from a weather-secured cell phone as it fell with them. He had voicemail.

Nell looked and waved, her voice thin and scratchy. “Are we the first?”

Ted looked down again. His eyes swept over the landscape. “It’s beautiful.”