This, That, and the Other

“Three more months,” George said.

“Are you talking about how much longer we’ll be in residence up here, Chief?” Charlie asked.

“Of course he is,” Anita chimed in. “Chief has always been a big pussy about spending a year up here in the Arctic Circle.”

“Ever the flippant one, aren’t you Anita,” George said. “You’re one of the reasons I’m so over this goddam assignment. The only thing colder than the fucking ice and snow in this godforsaken place is you.”

“Okay people,” Charlie said. “As Chief said, there are only three months left and then we’re all outta here. In the meantime, let’s try not to kill one another.

“That’s easy for you to say, Charlie. I know you’re tappin’ into that,” he said, pointing toward Anita.”

“Fuck you, you bastard!” Anita screamed as she jumped up and started going after George.

Charlie stood and placed himself between the two engineers. “Cut it out you two,” he said. “Just three more months, remember?”

******
From a control room in Nebraska, Lieutenant Harris smiled and looked at Captain Kowalski. “You owe me five hundred bucks, Hal,” he said. “I told you nine months would be their limit.”

“Fine,” Kowalski said. “I was wrong. I thought these three would make the full year. Turn off the monitors and call in the extract team. We need to get them out of there while they’re all still breathing. We don’t need yet another isolation homicide on the books.”

Written for these one-word prompts: Your Daily Word Prompt (residence), Scott’s Daily Prompt (chief), Ragtag Daily Prompt (chime), Daily Addictions (arctic), Word of the Day Challenge (flippant), and Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (over).