Chapter 2
Ice Planet Earth set, Slovakia
The wolf Boris pushed his nose into Stefan's hand, its breath warm against the coldness of Stefan's fingers.
Stefan tried to keep his hand very still, just in case the animal mistook his fingers for a chew toy. The animals in the movie
were supposed to be highly trained and perfectly safe, but still, a wolf was a wolf. "Um, good boy," he murmured.
"Nice wolf." Boris licked his hand like he was testing its flavor potential. "Trust me," Stefan said.
"You'd rather have wolf kibble."
Jeremy
Cline, who played his younger brother, shifted around, bumping into Stefan. "Sorry, your sleeve is tickling my face,"
Jeremy said.
"Hold still," Raine Randolph
hissed. Raine was supposed to be playing their demanding sister, and from what Stefan had seen, it wouldn't be a stretch for
her. They were already behind in the filming schedule for the day because of Raine's fit about the placement of the metal
barrette things in her hair. She'd made the hair person shift them around several times. Then she had complained about the
boots she wore, because they didn't make her look tall enough. He knew famous stars were used to getting their way, but he
hadn't expected a thirteen-year-old could get away with acting like she was queen of the world.
"The ramp is slippery! There isn't enough room," Jeremy said. The three
of them, along with two wolves and the actor playing their grandfather, were crammed into the doorway of a mock spaceship,
waiting for the director to tell them what to do. It wasn't even a whole spaceship, just one side of it, held up by wooden
supports. Mark, the director, had explained it was too expensive to build a complete one for the exterior shots, but Stefan
was still a little disappointed.
"I just want
close-ups on the kids' faces," Mark said to one of the cameramen. "Capture their emotions when they see all the
snow and the desolation." He turned toward them. "Okay, kids. Let's get in the mood here. You're the first humans
to come back to a post-apocalyptic Earth in eons. You're devastated you were forced to leave your parents and your own planet
behind, and you don't know how long you're going to be stuck on this frozen world. Earth is now in another ice age, and you
don't know what you're facing. Up until the spaceship door opens, the reality of it hasn't hit you. All we want today is the
looks on your faces when you realize just how bad the situation is.
"We'll put the ramp back up before the camera rolls. Then, when I call for action, the ramp comes down,
and Stefan, you're out first with Boris. Raine and her wolf, Inky, go to your right, and Jeremy to your left. Jeremy, we'll
get an establishing shot of you with your wolf later. There just isn't room on the ramp for all of them. The wolves will move
to their marks, those bits of cloth fastened to the ramp, so follow their lead." He gestured to the other cameraman.
"Alan, I want good coverage of the lead wolf early on. Boris is going to rock the screen when we do his fight shots.
He is one mean-looking wolf when he snarls." As if to disprove that, Boris licked Stefan's hand again and wagged his
tail.
Stefan laughed and patted the wolf again, then
acted like he was grabbing an invisible microphone. "You ain't nothing but a hound dog," he sang. Boris wagged his
tail harder.
Jeremy giggled. "I recognize that
one. It's the guy named Elvis who wore those sparkly white suits. My grandmoer loves him." Raine didn't laugh. She hadn't
laughed at Stefan's Elmo the Muppet imitation either, when they were having their costumes checked. She'd given him that "you're
so immature" look girls perfected early on.
"Can
you teach me how to do imitations?" Jeremy said, looking up at Stefan.
"Um, maybe," Stefan said. Jeremy was already showing too many signs of latching on to him,
tagging after him and asking questions. The last thing Stefan wanted was some kid following him around all the time. He got
enough of that at home from his little brothers. On his very first movie, he was going to take advantage of being on his own.
"Hold still boys, please, so we can finish the light check,"
Mark said. "Stefan, remember, you're supposed to be the oldest. Without your father here, you're the leader of the group.
The troops with you are loyal to your family and expect you to be in charge, so look confident." Stefan liked the idea
of being in charge of his own troops, even if none of them were actually on set yet. It was easy enough to imagine a whole
squadron of men behind him in the spaceship.
"Get
the snow off the ramp before you take it up," Mark told one of the crew as he brushed the snow off his beard. The crew
were all quickly turning to snowmen. The snow had been falling steadily, fine powdery flakes that coated people and surfaces
within minutes. Stefan was glad he didn't have to be one of the people shoveling snow. That was usually his job back home,
so it felt nice to watch someone else have to do it.
When
the ramp was clear, Mark motioned for it to be taken it up. "Okay, let's try this."
Behind the raised ramp, Stefan closed his eyes, trying to envision being in a real
spaceship. He heard Mark's muffled voice from the other side call, "Roll sound." Then silence. "Roll camera.
Action!"
The ramp came down with a soft thump
on the snow and Hans, the wolf trainer, signaled the animals to move. Stefan knew he wasn't supposed to look at the trainer,
but the signal distracted him, and for a split second his eyes shifted to the man.
"Cut!" Mark said. "Raine, that was perfect. Stefan, maybe a little less dismayed,
please, and don't look at Hans. You are afraid, but you don't want anyone to know. Put your hand on Boris's neck; the wolves
are the symbol of your family's power and he's also your best friend. Hold on just a minute. I want the camera shifted a bit."
Stefan tried to think of how someone would look acting brave and confident.
His mind went blank. He stared up into the mountains surrounding the set. At least it didn't take too much acting for the
dismay part. The set was in the middle of nowhere, a nowhere buried in several feet of snow. When he'd finally gotten the
word he had been cast, and that they were going to start filming on location in the country of Slovakia, in Eastern Europe,
he'd had to look it up on a map. The set was at an old ski resort in the Carpathian Mountains that had been closed for years.
The whole place was stark and forbidding, a flat plateau halfway up a mountain, surrounded by other mountains and accessible
only by a narrow switchback road cut through a cliff.
The
muscles on Boris's neck tensed underneath his hand and the wolf strained toward the snack truck. Stefan was puzzled. The array
of food was incredible, bagels and chocolate and yogurt and granola bars and fruit, but he didn't think there was anything
there a wolf would want, no platters of deer burgers or sheep steaks.
"Let's try again," Mark said. "Once the ramp is up, get the snow off their hair and faces so
it looks like they have just arrived."
This
time when the ramp came down, Stefan moved forward and glimpsed something peering around the side of the snack truck. It looked
like one of the wolves but was too shaggy, and it was gray. All the set wolves were black, or at least all the ones he had
seen. Had one of the spare ones gotten loose?
"Cut.
Stefan, don't look like you see something," Mark said. "Remember, there's nothing but snow and ice."
Boris growled, his attention focused in the direction of the food truck,
and Stefan could tell he had seen the animal too. The animal ducked behind the truck and Boris crouched down like he was getting
ready to take off after it.
