Lost in Nunavut

This happened a few years back, I was with the military then. This story was told to a group of us by someone I knew. We had all just gotten back from a field EX (Exercise) and went out for some drinks to wind down.

I will tell this story from their perspective, staying as true to their words as possible. This person swears on their life that this is what happened.

They grew up telling stories, so I believe they were accurate in the retelling of this one. But I will leave that up to you to decide.

“I was posted in Shilo (Manitoba) for a while and every season my corps would train in the Winter. As you guys may know, Shilo is really cold in the winter. The temperatures can fall as low as -46 to -50 degrees Celsius in the winter, so we had ample experience in sub-zero temperatures.

One year, I and a few others who were well versed in winter operations were offered a chance to go up to Nunavut and participate in some winter survival training that would be capped off by a little combat exercise to test the knowledge we had gained.

It was almost like a mini-training course, I guess. The idea was that we would stay up there a few weeks, and learn from the Canadian Rangers. We then would bring what we learned back to Shilo, and teach it.

Let me tell you, these people that defend our northern border are some of the hardest people I've ever met. These guys and gals are so good at what they do, that they are able to take nothing but a parka, some boots, a hat, a scarf, and an old World War Two Lee-Enfield rifle out into the frozen wastes of the North and survive for weeks on end. They are some of the best soldiers I've ever had the privilege to serve with.

I grew up listening to stories of the nomadic Inuit People that lived off the frozen tundra and how they signed up to defend Canada’s frozen northern reaches.

I admired that, me being Ojibwe and everything, and when the opportunity for me to go up and learn from my brothers and sisters presented itself. I jumped at the chance, even though I hated winter ops with a passion. Ten of us accepted the invitation, we were told we had a day to be ready and we spent the night packing.

The next day I woke up around 0430 to get my uniform on and make it for breakfast at 0500. I figured once we got up to where we were going I probably would spend the majority of my time in a MOD tent patrolling the frozen tundra and eating MREs. So I really wanted a hot meal before I shipped off.

I remember stepping outside, it was still dark and the sky had an orange hue from the lights of the town reflecting off the grey cloud cover. There was a single eerie-looking light post outside my barracks that illuminated the street.

The wind was so strong that morning that I could barely see in front of my face due to the blowing snow and ice. It wasn't as cold as it normally was, however, which was a godsend.

I pulled my ICE coat and olive green scarf tight, shoving my gloved hands into the pockets.

Freaking combat gloves do little to insulate your hands out there.

I looked up at the flickering light as I headed to the mess hall, wondering if they would ever fix that damn thing...”

At this point in the story they had stopped talking, it was like they were lost in some sort of memory.

One of the others we were sitting with urged them to continue, it kind of looked like they were trying to decide whether or not to go on. Our friend sighed and began speaking again.

“You know, all my life I've had strange experiences with spirits and things. I'm like a magnet for the paranormal for some reason, so when weird things happen like flickering street lights I don't give them a second thought anymore. So don’t laugh.” We all nodded, taking drinks of our beers.

I remember that they had tried to tell me about their experiences before, I personally believe in spirits, energies, and other paranormal happenings. So when they told me about how their ancestors used to visit them when they were younger, I completely believed them.

The other guys we used to hang around with didn’t really believe that stuff, which is why they were hesitant in finishing the story.

“Okay then, just hear me out. I was walking to the Mess Hall and it was dark, but not a normal dark. It was like an inky dark like I was in some alternate reality. The only light on was that flickering street lamp outside the barracks, the posts that lined the street were off.

This was weird, but I ignored it and kept going. I finally got to the double door entrance to the mess and yanked on it. The door shuttered a bit, I tried again, but it seemed to be locked. I then noticed that no lights were on within. I looked at my watch and saw that it was close to 0500, which was when it was supposed to open.

I knew that I wasn't wrong, it opened at the same time every morning, weekend, or weekday. I wiped the glass with my sleeve, dusting off the snow and filth.

When I looked in I saw the light in the kitchen on and a few people hurrying around. I checked my watch again, getting a bit chilly and extremely irritated. I figured if they weren't ready to serve they weren't ready.

I remember leaning up against the door watching my breath evaporate into the air to pass the time when a native man tapped me on the shoulder, which startled me.

I had seen him around a lot, he wore a Canadian Forces uniform whenever I saw him so I knew he worked with us but I wasn't sure about his trade or what he did around the base. He smirked and lit a cigarette, then took a drag saying,

"You are one of the ones heading up North to train with The Rangers. I started out as a Ranger before I joined the Regular Force." I nodded and replied,

"Yeah, I heard you guys are pretty hard up there."He laughed and responded,

"Yea, that's something else up there. You gotta be careful though. The snow, tundra, and lack of sunlight can play tricks on the mind. Not to mention the wolves, polar bears, and of course, the lost spirits."

I looked at him strangely, I didn't normally talk about ghosts and things with the people I worked with, kind of kept that stuff to myself. He smirked, licking his fingers and putting out the cherry. He stowed the half-smoked cigarette back in his pack and put a hand on my shoulder,

"You are special, I can see it. When you are out there, be careful not to interact with them. They are tricky and will try to lead you into an endless night.

I've lost a few friends who've followed their singing or their cries for help, they all ended up freezing to death or just never coming back. When you are out there patrolling in the darkness and snow it's easy to get turned around."

He wished me luck before walking away into a wall of white.

There was a bit of a rumble from under my feet, then all at once, the lights flickered and turned on burning through the ink.

I turned back to the mess doors as one of the cooks from inside came out for a cigarette, he looked at me and said,

"Man, are you going to come in? Or you plan on standing outside and freezing to death. We are open. You've been out here staring at the sky for like 15 minutes, long night or what?"

He laughed and I laughed, then I went inside shaking my head thinking he was just being an idiot or I was being my absent-minded self.

Fast forward to about 0800, I lugged all my gear from my room on the second floor down to the parking lot outside my building where we were to muster for roll call and get on the bus to the airport.

All of us were milling about chatting when my buddy came over and asked me what was up.

I replied, "Hey, you know that native guy we all see around here. Do you know who he is or where he works? He came up to me at about 5 am and chatted with me outside the mess. Said some weird things. Just curious who he is."

My friend shook his head. "I think he's a Sig OP, keeps to himself, and has some sort of religious altar in his locker. That's all I know. Why? What was he saying?"

I shrugged not wanting to sound strange,

"Just some stuff about wolves and polar bears out where we're going camping. Said we should be careful, he was a Ranger before joining Reg force." My friend laughed and said,

"Dude, Polar bears? fuck that shit. Glad I got pulled. I'll take shitty Shilo weather over polar bears."

We chatted for a while longer before our Sergeant showed up to make sure those of us who were supposed to be on task were there. We all got on the bus and the conversation I had earlier faded from my mind as I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

After a long trip, we all touched down in Alert and reported in, we stayed in the signals base for a day before being shipped out to Frozen-Paradise-Wherever, Nunavut.

We rode snowmobiles out to The Ranger’s camp. It was bloody cold, being 817 kilometres from the North Pole, I shouldn't have been surprised. I immediately regretted volunteering for the exercise.

The first few days were hard, but once we got into it we were able to keep up with The Rangers. We ran a few combat exercises and patrols. Took part in search and rescue operations, a downed aircraft and stuck submarine being some of the scenarios we ran.

The last two nights out there we took part in a Northern Defence scenario, where some unnamed aggressor was trying to make an incursion into Canada through the North.

So we set up a FOB and patrol schedules. My fire team ended up with the trash shift, we were to conduct a reconnaissance patrol through the tundra to try and find where the enemy was camped out, in this case, it was an OpFor consisting of Rangers so we had no mother-loving chance.

This was in the middle of October so it was perpetually nighttime, which drove me nuts. I remember looking at the temperature before we headed out and it was about -22.4 Celsius.

So I prepared for the long trek ahead. I snapped my goggles on my face and slipped my snow camouflage over my parka, helmet, and ICE pants.

The fire team I was assigned to consisted of me, a girl from BC, one of my friends from Shilo, and our two Ranger guides. The snowfall had just started as we collected our maps and compass, heading out into the darkness of a budding blizzard.

The air was a wet type of cold, so frost and ice were a huge problem for our weapons. Every now and then we had to unload our magazine and work our action so the grease and mechanisms wouldn't freeze solid.

Why anyone would want to work, let alone live in that frozen wasteland I will never know, but good on them.

After about 20 minutes of walking the snow and wind picked up to the point where we were in whiteout conditions. Meaning we could barely see 4 feet in front of our faces.

The only thing that kept us from wandering into the wilderness was our hands on each other's shoulders and the small red tac lights we had attached to the back of our webbing.

About halfway through the patrol, our long-range radio shorted due to the extreme weather. If you want to know fear, you go out into whiteout conditions in the northern tundra without any long-range communication.

It quickly became a real-life survival scenario for us. The Rangers stopped the patrol when the comms went out and signalled an all-around defence. We huddled together while they explained the situation to us over the dreadful wail of the wind.

"Ok, this is real now. I'm not going to lie, this is worse than what was predicted. We are all soldiers, you all have the skills to deal with this so stay calm and we will dig in and wait until the storm calms down.

We have spare radio packs at our rally point and thankfully we managed to get a short-range message to OpFor requesting assistance. The good news is that we are not lost and are close enough to get a short-range signal. The bad news is, they won't be able to come and get us until this storm dies down."

We all exchanged concerned glances as he continued,

"Remember that live mag we brought with us for the marksman portion of this exercise? I want you all to load them. We are going to have to take cover in the crags over there,"

He tapped on the laminated map, wiping the melting snow from its surface,

"We know of a few old caves our Ancestors used that will be a great shelter, but these may have animals living in or around them, wolves and bears aren't things to be messing with.

Not that a 5.56 round will do much to an angry and hungry Polar Bear. You'd need a 30-60 for that, though our rifles might work."

He slapped the old Enfield slung around his shoulder chuckling

This was his attempt at a joke. It wasn't funny.

I was feeling quite concerned at this point, there wasn't going to be any sunlight for another few months and it was getting cold.

I took a deep breath and centred myself, remembering the countless hours of winter ops we ran and that the Rangers were masters of this environment. We all nodded and started to unscrew the yellow blank-firing adapters on our muzzles stowing them in our coats, loading the live rounds.

"Remember that this is a live-fire exercise now, trigger discipline and safeties on until we reach the ridge, I want all Tac lights switched to white light and attached to the front of your vests and we will move in a chevron formation.

It is imperative that you keep your fire team partner in your peripheral vision. We don’t want any of you getting lost out here." the other Ranger called out over the bluster before we all stood up.

"We are going to take this slow, so as not to lose anyone in the blizzard."

I was near the end of the formation so the Ranger's voice seemed to drift and get lost in the wind. We began to advance slowly through the storm.

After trudging through knee-high powder for a bit, and with the storm continuing to hammer us. We all started to find it harder and harder to push forward.

The cold had begun to creep into our bones and muscles, I remember feeling like I was going to collapse at any moment. The balaclava and goggles I wore protected my skin from the chilling wind, but did little to keep the warmth for more than a few minutes at a time.

The lead Ranger raised his hand and balled it into a fist, he lowered it and signalled the crouch position, quickly we dropped to one knee in the mounting snow.

This was the first break we had had in over an hour. It looked like the lead was checking the map with his second. I decided to plunk myself down and lifted up my mask, the air bit into my cheeks, and felt as though it was freezing my lungs with every heaving breath.

I tried to take a drink from my camel bak, but the thermal package that it was in couldn't take the temperature and the water had frozen.

I pulled my mask back over my face and readjusted my goggles cleaning the snow from the outside of the lens. Then yanked my thermos from its pouch and shook it.

Thankfully, it was full and the water was still warm so I lifted my mask enough to drink. I've never had a more satisfying drink of liquid in my life, when the water passed my lips it was like heaven. I screwed the top back on and shoved it back into my tac vest making sure I buckled it shut.

Suddenly, there was a loud and sharp whistle. I jumped a little, smirking to myself. The Ranger Lead signalled us to return to him, I quickly stood up and moved to join the rest of the team.

"Alright, this is a shitty go. But we are about 200 metres off of the ridge." Ranger Lead pointed into the wall of snow explaining.

His black beard had been transformed into a jolly white, and his eyebrows had mini icicles hanging off the end. We all squinted to try and see through the seemingly impenetrable ice wall, but couldn't.

"Safeties off and move out!”

This is the most vivid thing I remember about the story, two great and dreadful howls echoed across the tundra almost drowning out the storm.

I saw the Rangers cringe and drop low with fear, they backed off a bit snapping their rifles to their shoulders. They slowly pulled their ice-covered bolts back, charging the chambers.

It took a minute for us to react, as most of us had not heard anything like it. It froze us in place, I could feel my heart rate rising as I desperately scanned the blizzard for a glimpse of something, anything that could have made that soul-chilling shriek.

There were other howls in response, but they were far off in the distance, and not so disconcerting. Not like the two that sounded as though they were naught but a few feet in front of us.

The Rangers panicked a bit and started speaking in their people's language, while they signalled us to back off, shaking their heads.

"Wolves! Downwind, move!" The lead Ranger yelled as he tore past me, we all shifted position in unison, dropping to our stomachs. Hoping to whatever Deities were out in the storm with us, would help us through.

I wrapped two of my fingers over the top of the cocking handle of my C7 rifle, hauling back on it. The sound of frozen metal sliding against frozen metal echoed through the dark as everyone else around me followed suit.

I brought the scope to my eye and flicked the safety catch scanning the snowy darkness. I inhaled and exhaled, lowering my heart rate.

We were all so close to one another that we could hear the breath of whoever was next to us and could feel the other's body heat.

We slowly closed into each other, creating a sort of semi-circle of panicking soldiers all looking out for some unseen predatory force that felt like it was hovering around us.

I slowly scanned, squinting to try and see any movement. As the snowflakes slipped past my green glowing post-style crosshair, I found myself becoming mesmerised.

My buddy tapped me on the shoulder which broke my trance. I looked over at him and he pointed about 90 degrees from our position, I shifted my body and looked where he signalled.

I squinted through my lens lining my post up with what looked like someone's boots. I closed my eyes a moment then looked again, wondering if it was something in my eye, or my brain playing tricks on me. Those same sealskin boots were still standing there, legs stretching up into cloudy darkness.

I looked up from my optics and saw what seemed to be the outline of a woman with stubs for fingers standing a few metres away from us. I tapped The Ranger next to me and handed him my rifle so he could look through the scope.

"It looks like there is someone standing over there Master Corporal."

I leaned in close to his ear so he could hear me. He looked through the sight and nodded, handing the rifle back to me.

He turned to Ranger Lead and said something in the Inuit language.

I looked back towards the figure in the snow, she turned towards our position raising her mangled hand and started to walk towards us. The Rangers shook their heads before hauling us to our feet,

"Go!" they cried, We all looked at each other a minute strangely,

"Run damn it!" the Master Corporal screamed at us before dashing off into the storm,

I looked back over at whatever it was and saw they had gotten closer, she seemed to be accompanied by two massive, white and grey-furred arctic wolves.

They stood tall near her, their piercing blue eyes low and staring at us as they began to stalk closer. The woman turned and walked back into the wall of black and white static, disappearing from view.

I raised my rifle in terror and fired a few shots at the wolves, the other two soldiers near me jumped, raising their own weapons and firing blindly in the direction I shot in.

The Master Corporal stopped and turned, ducking his head a bit, he signalled us to follow him. Not wanting to get lost, we clutched our weapons close and ran.

We slogged through the snow as fast as possible. About 20 minutes after we started to run we came to a halt at the side of a rock face with a tiny slit entrance to a cave.

The two Rangers signalled us to line up against the wall,

"Sweep and Clear!" Ranger lead called,

We all raised our rifles and snaked through the small opening sweeping right to left as we went.

It was surprisingly warm, the cave went down on a slight angle with a turn at the end of the corridor.

The Rangers were the first through the opening. These guys moved so fast in the ice and snow, it was impressive. The rest of us were run ragged and panting, while they barely even showed signs of any exertion.

I was the last into the opening, going through these movements that had been drilled so deeply into my brain that I didn’t have to think about them.

I swept left to right, my breath heavy but steady. The boots of the team echoed loudly through the cave. My mind was far away, however, in another realm almost. I felt Panicked and scared, worried I had killed someone; or that those wolves were chasing me. Maybe it was both.

When I turned the corner, my eyes grew wide and I returned to focus on what was happening. The lenses started to fog up so I slung my rifle over my shoulder and pushed my goggles up to my forehead to get a better look.

The corridor opened into a very small vaulted cavern, about ten feet high. I lowered my weapon looking around in awe at the reddish-orange stalactites that mixed with melting icicles hanging from the ceiling. In the centre, there was a small pool of crystal clear water and a rock platform that formed a ring around it.

I collapsed against the wall, adrenaline still pumping through me, placing the rifle on the cold stone floor. I unclasped my helmet and took it off placing it between my knees and rolling my balaclava up to form a toque.

"What the hell was that... She had no fingers man!" I said, looking over at Ranger Lead who knelt beside the pool sipping water from his reindeer hide gloves.

The Master Corporal pulled off his patrol pack pulling out kindling, twigs, sweet grass from a small bag, and a zippo lighter. Organising them into a small fire pit.

Within a few seconds, he had a sweet-smelling blaze going. The rest of us stripped down as much as we could to dry some clothing.

Ranger Lead glanced over at the Master Corporal with a grim look, then continued to drink before walking a little further back into the cave without answering.

The Master Corporal sat down pulling some moss from the floor and tossing it onto the flame followed by his empty patrol pack. He looked at us a second, then started to tell a story,

"We have a tale within my people of the one called Sedna. It is said long ago that there lived on a solitary shore, an Inung with his daughter Sedna. His wife had been dead for some time and the two led a quiet life.

Sedna grew up to be a handsome girl and the youths came from all around to sue for her hand, but none of them could touch her proud heart. Finally, at the breaking up of the ice in the spring, a fulmar flew from over the ice and wooed Sedna with an enticing song.

"Come to me," it said; "come into the land of the birds where there is never hunger, where my tent is made of the most beautiful skins. Here, you shall rest on soft bearskins. My fellows, the Fulmars, shall bring you all your heart and desire; their feathers shall clothe you; your lamp will always be filled with oil, your pot with meat."

Sedna could not long resist such wooing and they went together over the vast sea. When at last they reached the country of the Fulmar, after a long and hard journey, Sedna discovered that her spouse had shamefully deceived her. Her new home was not built of beautiful pelts but was covered with wretched fish skins full of holes that gave free entrance to the wind and snow.

Instead of soft reindeer skins, her bed was made of hard walrus hides and she had to live on miserable fish, which the birds brought her. Too soon she discovered that she had thrown away her opportunities when in her foolish pride she had rejected the Inuit youth.

In her woe she sang: "Aja. O father, if you knew how wretched I am you would come to me and we would hurry away in your boat over the waters. The birds look unkindly upon me the stranger; cold winds roar about my bed; they give me but miserable food. O come and take me back home. Aja."

He filled a canteen cup when the Ranger lead returned with sticks and things he had found a little further in. They hung the cup over the fire and tossed a few ration packs into the water before the Master Corporal continued. Ranger Lead sat and stared into the crackling blaze.

"When a year had passed and the sea was again stirred by warmer winds, the father left his country to visit Sedna. His daughter greeted him joyfully and besought him to take her back home.

The father hearing of the outrages wrought upon his daughter determined to revenge. He killed the Fulmar, took Sedna into his boat, and they quickly left the country which had brought so much sorrow to Sedna.

When the other Fulmars came home and found their companion dead and his wife gone, they all flew away in search of the fugitives. They were very sad over the death of their poor murdered comrade and continue to mourn and cry to this day."

The girl from BC looked at the Inuit man with disbelief,

"So you're saying that was this Sedna? Ok, I'm going to go and try and fix our radio and let me know when the food is ready."

She picked up her rifle and moved to the back of the cave starting to tinker with the radio pack. The Master Corporal looked at her then looked back into the fire.

"Well, is that all?" I asked, seeing that he was a bit embarrassed about bringing the prospect of a Goddess wandering through a blizzard in Nunavut searching for souls.

I knew how he felt as I've opened up about my own experiences and have been shut down and called crazy. I was interested in the Inuit culture so I urged him to continue and showed him I was interested,

"Why does she have no fingers?".

He adjusted himself while taking a drink, obviously thinking about whether or not to continue. He nodded finally saying,

"Well, having flown a short distance the fulmars discerned the boat and stirred up a heavy storm. The sea rose in immense waves that threatened the pair with destruction.

In this mortal peril, the father determined to offer Sedna to the birds and flung her overboard. She clung to the edge of the boat with a death grip. The cruel father then took a knife and cut off the first joints of her fingers. Falling into the sea they were transformed into whales, her nails turning into whalebone.

Sedna was still holding onto the boat tightly, the second finger joints fell under the sharp knife and swam away as seals; when the father cut off the stumps of the fingers they became ground seals.

In the meantime the storm subsided, for the fulmars thought Sedna was drowned. The father then allowed her to come into the boat again. But from that time she cherished a deadly hatred against him and swore bitter revenge.

After they got ashore, she called her dogs and let them gnaw off the feet and hands of her father while he was asleep. Upon this he cursed himself, his daughter, and the dogs which had maimed him; whereupon the earth opened up and swallowed the hut, the father, the daughter, and the dogs.

They have since lived in the land of Adlivun, of which Sedna is the mistress.

"Sorry for the words he used, he had to translate it from our language to yours. Adlivun is the Inuktitut word for the underworld and the Dogs are meant to be Wolves in your language." Ranger Lead interjected,

I felt my stomach drop, and for some reason I remembered the conversation I had with the native man back in Shilo. I put my head in my hands, it was swimming from the sweet grass and the overexertion.

I chuckled, unsure if what we had seen was real.

"Oh great, I am the one that shot at her..."

The Ranger Lead and the Master Corporal laughed while flipping the ration packs.

The Master Corporal smiled saying, "Yes you did, and after you are done eating, you and Corporal (name omitted) will be the first to head up to the cave entrance and watch for any signs of our rescue party or Goddesses of the Underworld with Death Wolves. Don't worry too much about the animals, but watch for them too."

"Another terrible joke." I thought.

"These guys should be a comedy duo. They would take Nunavut by storm."

"Hopefully you didn't anger her, she was searching for lost souls in the blizzard to take back with her to the underworld."

Ranger Lead added smirking and tossing some more fuel on the fire.

After eating, the girl from BC--Corporal (Omitted)--and I made our way to the mouth of the cave to keep watch. Nothing too interesting happened during our first shift, which I was thankful for.

The snow was still blowing quite hard and the wind was still cold. I had lost track of time; the perpetual night made it hard to get a grasp of it. For all I knew we could've been in that cave for hours, or just minutes.

It's bizarre to think how much we rely upon the sun to tell the time, even with watches.

We returned to base after our shift, my buddy and Ranger Lead went up next. The fire bathed the dark cave in a soft orange hue.

The light reflected off the crisp pool in the centre of the cave made kaleidoscope-like patterns shimmer and churn on the ceiling. I watched them for a while, it was like they had begun to form shapes of animals and beautiful scenes of nature.

It made me think about how our ancestors lived in these places for long periods of time. How they may have been looking at the same types of patterns on the rocky ceiling, interpreting them as visions from Deities.

At this point, I realised I should try and get some sleep because I was now seeing things and thinking far too deeply about visions. The soft crackling of the branches in the flame lulled me to sleep. I'm not sure for how long, but I can tell you I was hoping that when I woke up OpFor would be here and we could go back to base.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

I felt I had only just fallen to sleep, it was like a blink in time, then I was woken up by one of the short-range radio's whistling and crackling noises.

The fire was low, Ranger lead, my buddy, and I were the only ones in the cave. It had gotten a tiny bit colder inside because we forgot to stick someone on fire picket, irritated and exhausted, I mumbled to myself,

"Two people sleep, two people guard, one is a fire picket. Come on, guys."

I decided to fight through the fatigue and stay up to watch the fire so we all didn’t freeze to death. I went to the back of the cave where some passing animal had made a sleeping area.

There were piles of an brush, dried grass, and twigs patted down into a nice oval shape. We were lucky there was plenty of fuel in there because believe me when I tell you, it felt like that blizzard and the darkness was going to last for an eternity. The cold was relentless.

We were in the cave so long that I began to wonder if we all had actually died out in the snow and Sedna had drug us to our own personal hell.

I tossed some fuel onto the fire and blew on it a bit to get it going again. After I was satisfied with the flame, I picked up the radio and listened.

On the other side, I heard garbled voices on the bandwidth. It took a second to click in my tired brain, but I quickly came to the realisation that it might be our rescue party.

My numb fingers fumbled with the dial, adjusting the channel to try and get a clearer signal. This didn’t help much, so I decided to run up to the mouth of the cave in an attempt to minimise the interference.

When I got up to the top of the corridor I didn’t see anyone guarding the door. My eyes went wide when I thought I heard Corporal (Omitted)'s broken and static-laden voice call for help over the short wave.

"OpFor, OpFor, this is Charlie 2, Charlie 2. Come in, over." there was no answer

"OpFor, OpFor, OpFor, this is Charlie 2, Charlie 2, Charlie 2, I need help, over." Again there was no answer, I decided to put out a call to her,

"Charlie 2, this is Charlie 3, I read you, what is your status? Over," I said, panicking a little. There was nothing but static on the channel so I repeated,

"Charlie 2, Charlie 2, this is Charlie 3, Charlie 3, What is your status, over" I spoke a little louder and waited, it was eerily silent. Once more I tried to raise her,

"Charlie 2, Charlie 2, Charlie 2, this is Charlie 3, Charlie 3, Charlie 3. What is your status and position, over!"

This time there was a garbled response. It was quite broken and full of static, however.

"Charlie 2, this is Charlie 3, I am reading you broken, repeat last, over," I replied.

I waited a minute for a reply. Just as I was about to try and raise OpFor myself, the radio crackled to life with a woman's voice. She said something that I couldn't understand, then a song played.

I was baffled, I thought I may have picked up one of those numbers stations or a music station from Russia somewhere, as it sounded like an old-time radio broadcast.

Her voice was haunting and I was petrified. I sat listening as the voice repeated her hypnotic sentence, followed by the same song clip. This went on for about 2 minutes, then the airwaves went dead silent for a solid 3 minutes more.

"Someone, help me please, I'm lost out here. I can't find the Master Corporal and visibility is zero, I have no idea where I am and my GPS isn't working anymore. My last coordinates are (omitted). Please, someone, help me. I think there's something out here..." the Corporal's voice broke the eerie silence, you could tell she was crying.

I quickly ran back into the cave and grabbed my parka and my rifle checking to make sure it was still loaded. I woke up the Ranger Lead and said,

"Sergeant (Name Omitted), Corporal (Name Omitted) just came in over the shortwave. She is in trouble at longitude (omitted) and latitude (omitted). I am going to need your GPS to go out and get her and bring her back."

I pulled my balaclava down then put my helmet on my head, quickly doing up the chin strap.

"Goddamn it! Where's Master Corporal (Name Omitted)!? And is this even going to work out there?" Ranger Lead questioned, clearly quite agitated as he rifled through his side bag, pulling out the GPS unit.

"Sergeant, I don't know where the Master Corporal is. (Name Omitted) said she lost him in the storm, it looks like it's starting to let up and we can't leave her out there alone. Maybe the Master Corporal went to find OpFor?"

I took the GPS from him and shoved it into my tac vest heading up to the cave mouth. I snapped my goggles onto my face and turned my flashlight on, ready to brave what was left of the storm.

The Sergeant came up behind me, holding his old Enfield. He checked its chamber, then our third followed behind.

“Where are we going? Does someone need help?” He asked, zipping up his coat and checking the firearm he carried.

The Sergeant spun on him, snappily ordering him to wait in case OpFor, the Master Corporal, or the Corporal wandered back when we were out looking.

“You, stay here and man this radio.” his voice was sharp, and my buddy nodded sheepishly, stepping back.

Ranger Lead looked back at me.

"Alright, Let's go, I'm coming with you so you don't get lost and die out there."

The wind was still going strong, but the snow seemed to have stopped falling. There was still little to no visibility, however, because of the blowing snow. We trudged through knee-high powder, our lights barely piercing the blackness.

About 15 minutes into our excursion, we approached her last known position. I saw the dark outline of someone crouched low in the snow and began to walk towards them.

The Sergeant pulled me back, shaking his head sternly. He put his hand across my chest as he stepped closer to challenge whoever it was. If it was her, she would have to respond with the answer, but they didn't.”

Those of you who don't know what my friend meant by challenging, it was what we used to have to do on exercises and operation zones to make sure the person you were approaching was someone you wanted to be approaching.

It is usually a phrase of some sort. The person being challenged needs to finish the phrase properly or is to be fired upon as an enemy. It’s something the Commonwealth and other military forces have done for ages to lessen friendly fire incidents.

“...Since we were in a live-fire situation I crouched low and waited, I didn't want to take a bullet because someone was on edge. When she didn't respond to the challenge, Ranger Lead put his hand over his light and tried flashing morse code to get her attention. Still Nothing.

We figured she was looking away or something and waited, trying to get her attention once again. Ranger Lead eventually backed off, coming over to me,

"I don't know who or what that is, they won't or can't respond to us. It is just sitting there."

We watched a minute more, then a light suddenly flashed on and copied what Ranger Lead did.

We looked at each other, Ranger Lead flashed another message and again it copied. At this point, we started to get weirded out. I stood up and moved closer, yelling over the wind

"Hey, hello! We are with the Canadian Armed Forces, are you okay? Do you need assistance?” It felt as though my voice flew away into the darkness, dancing across the whirling snowflakes.

The Sergeant and I looked at each other, wondering if this was someone else lost in the storm. There were Inuit settlements dotted about the area, so he was concerned someone wandered too far.

"We are going to approach, if you have a weapon do not fire!" Ranger Lead yelled. There was still no response.

Ranger Lead said what I can only assume to be the same sentence in the Inuit language for good measure.

Again, there was no response. At this point, I wondered if we might be talking to an oddly shaped snow mound reflecting our light or something.

I began to approach, the Sergeant reached for my shoulder and I put my hand on his. He let me go and followed behind me. As we got closer, the formless shadow still didn’t move.

Suddenly, my own light began to flash erratically, like someone was waving their hand in front of it. I took it off and tapped it on my weapon to get it to stop.

As I did this, I heard whispering coming from whatever it was that was sitting in front of us. Ranger Lead grabbed me and pulled me back. He seemed to be scared of it.

I began to feel that fear well up inside me again, I knelt and yelled, “(Name Omitted), if that's you, stop messing around. We need to get back, are you alright?”

I pulled away from the Sergeant and stood up when I, again, received no answer. I started to walk toward the whispering shape. When I got close, my light turned off and everything in front of me went dark.

The snowy wind began to pick up as I moved in on whoever was sitting there, still trying to fix my light. I raised my rifle with my free arm and stepped right, moving in a slow circle. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the Sergeant moving with me, covering.

As I rotated, I shoved the light back into my vest and grabbed the foregrip of my rifle. The form suddenly moved, standing up. It waited a moment and then began to walk away into the night. I followed it, trying to hear what was being said.

Ranger Lead then ran up behind me and hauled me backward with all of his strength. I fell to the ground as he dragged me backward across the powder and away from whatever it was.

He yelled something in Inuktitut and the form stopped, then it faded into the snow squall. I looked around confused, forgetting where I was for a minute. It was like I had been hypnotised or something.

"Hey! Snap out of it! You don't follow them into the storm!" The Sergeant yelled, angry with me.

I stood up getting ready to chase whatever it was but was pushed back down by Ranger Lead.

"Leave it, Let's get the hell out of this place before you end up a ghost. That's an order!" I stood up and stared into the darkness for a minute.

“Let’s go, Corporal!” The Sergeant ordered again, I nodded and turned away. Following him back to the cave.

I felt drained and dazed from what I had experienced. Ranger Lead was extremely angry with me, he was cold and silent on the walk back. This whole thing was like a giant nightmare I couldn't wake from. At this point, I just wanted it to be over.

As we walked our short-wave radios crackled to life with voices, Charlie 1 hailed us, I was too out of it to respond; so the Sergent did it for me.

"Charlie 1, this is Charlie 3 say again, over." The Sergeant replied, staring at me.

"Charlie 3, this is Charlie 1, where the hell are you? Charlie 2 has returned, over." My eyes went wide. A cold realisation washed over me, leaving me chilled to the core.

The Sergeant furiously hailed Corporal(Omitted)and Master Corporal(Omitted)

"Charlie 2 this is Charlie 3, Where the hell are you two?! We've been out here searching for you!" he screamed.

"Charlie 3 this is Charlie 2, we are back at base camp. We were just about to send the Rangers out to find you, you've been gone for nearly 2 hours now. Where are you? Over." Ranger Lead was speechless.

Hearing this, I pulled my helmet off and scratched my head. Ranger Lead looked at the GPS unit, then tossed it to me. I looked, and to my surprise, there were dead pixels in the form of three black fingers across a glitched screen.

I took the radio from Ranger Lead, "Charlie 2 this is Charlie 3, we have no idea where we are. We followed the last coordinates you gave us over comms and the GPS seems to be malfunctioning, over."

The Sergeant and I turned around on the spot not seeing anything we could really use as a reference for them. We were in a wide-open field.

"Charlie 3 this is Charlie 2, There has been no radio traffic for three hours now. There were no coordinates given out by me, I've been with the Master Corporal patrolling.

Just hold your position, Charlie 1 says he wrote down the coordinates you gave. We will come out and get you, over."

I was not sure what to make of what had happened, so I sat down, scanning the surrounding area with my optics.

"Roger that, Charlie 2. Charlie 3 will hold position, Charlie 3 out."

Ranger Lead and I sat, leaning on each other back-to-back listening to the wind and trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. He didn’t say much, be we continued to vigilantly scan the area anyway.

Eventually, the OpFor Rangers arrived with the rest of the team and helped us up from the snow. We headed back to the cave to grab the rest of our gear.

"What were you two doing out there?” My buddy asked, patting me on the shoulder.

“You guys left the cave saying something about someone in trouble on a radio transmission, you both walked out and right past Master Corporal (Name Omitted) and Corporal (Name Omitted) as they came back in then disappeared into the storm." I was completely lost for words,

"I don't know man, I swear we heard weird number station shit over the radio, then someone called for help. I went to help, the Sergeant came with me. I thought it was Corporal (Name Omitted). I swear, I didn’t see them coming back in when the Sergeant and I left. I don't know about him though, he seemed pretty angry that I dragged him out there.

The weird thing was when we got to the coordinates. There was someone there. I swear there was. The Sergeant will tell you, we tried to communicate and stuff. They whispered to us, flashed lights."

I was clearly distraught, to the point of rambling. I could hear Ranger Lead and Master Corporal talking low to the Ranger Scouting team in Inuktitut.

"I don't know man, you look like you need some sleep. That group of scouts said that the rest of the Rangers are on their way. You should close your eyes a bit. We got this. I'll take your guard shift and wake you up when the rescue crew arrives." he replied.

I don't know if I dreamt this part. But I remember when I got back to the cave, I looked back out over the tundra. I thought I saw a woman standing a few feet from the entrance with a pair of wolves sitting beside her. She smiled and a light flashed, then she was gone.

It looked as though the rest of the Rangers spotted the shining light as well. Everyone kind of looked at me, and we never spoke of it again. Shortly after, we came back here. I’ve signed my voluntary release.”

A couple of weeks after this story, my friend left the Forces. I kept in contact with them for a while and they said that they hadn’t been quite right since that night.

They were convinced that the Ranger Sergeant saved their life out there and they’ve been eternally grateful for their second chance in life.

“Lost in Nunavut” is a story that contains an actual Inuit Legend, and my friend was convinced they had met Sedna in that blizzard that night.

During my stint as a Canadian Forces Member, I had my fair share of paranormal things that happened where I was living. It became too much for me, so I left shortly after they did. I have heard of many soldiers telling similar stories, but nothing like the story my friend had told us that evening.