<strong>Cubicle Field<br/>??<br/>Somewhere in Antarctica</strong><br/><br/>The shockwave slammed into the unsuspecting group of stranded explorers.<br/><br/>It appeared on northern horizon moments before it struck, a bulbous white mass of swirling snow and compressed air.  It raced towards them at Mach 2, and when it struck, it hit hard.  For those still outside -- Aibhlinn, Kyari, and Carl -- the world suddenly went white and quiet.  Gravity vanished, and a great invisible hand slapped their body like a cat batting at a dangled toy, knocking the breath out of them.<br/><br/>Standing as they were waist deep in snow, they were not thrown by the blast wave.  The<em>whoomph</em>of the impact made their ears sound like they were full of cotton, and Carl and Kyari suddenly found themselves chest-deep in snow, their cheeks bleeding from thrown ice.  Aibhlinn was shielded by the cubicle and suffered the less for it, with no cuts or burial in snow.  However, had the cubicle not been in deep snow, she likely would have been crushed when it tipped over.<br/><br/>The air was white with swirling ice kicked up by the shockwave.  Visibility had been reduced to a handful of meters: good enough to see each other and the other cubicles, but bad enough that the rest of the world could have blown up and they wouldn't know it.<br/><br/>A woman began shouting in the cubicle next to Aibhlinn.  It sounded distant and muffled, as if the shouter was standing opposite from her across a football field filled with cotton.  The door vibrated repeatedly, and she'd likely realize that someone was pounding on it from the inside.<br/><br/>In cubicle #18, Kinkaide and James found themselves well protected from the blast.  The cubicle prevented them from being deafened, but they nonetheless heard the shockwave as a painfully loud thunderclap.  Aside from the contents of the room being shaken about for a few seconds and the ringing in their ears, they were almost entirely unaffected.<br/><br/>The injured man had not fared well.  The surprise of the meteor's impact had sent him to his feet with a surprisingly loud shout, whereupon he tried to run outside despite his significant blood loss.  His face was incredibly pale, and he swayed as he ran towards the door, one hand clamped to James' makeshift bandage.  "No, no, no!" he moaned as he tried to shove past the two men.