Antarctic Ice Beasts, page 5
Rob looked terrified.
And it rocked Jeannie to her core.
“Hey guys,” Sherm said, tying a band around his dreads to keep them in a long, ropy line down his back. “If you want to make out, I can come back later.”
Jeannie hadn’t realized how close she and Rob had gotten, her eyes searching his own, their arms on one another. Making out was the last thing on their minds.
“We have an emergency meeting in the rec room,” Rob said, working hard to keep his tone neutral.
“Emergency? Is the storm getting worse?” Sherm said.
“I want to tell everyone at the same time. Come on.”
Rob broke away from Jeannie, striding toward the rec room. She hurried after him, wondering if she should also bring up that the incoming storm’s intensity had increased and that they were in for one hell of a wallop.
Chapter Nine
Rob Nichols stood before what he realized, not for the first time, was a team too small to be left to fend off the winter. If there were more of those strange men outside, they were going to be grossly outnumbered. A chill ran through his body. He shook it off. Everyone looked concerned, Dallas standing at the back of the room and staring out the window. Even C-Rod wasn’t wearing his usual doofy grin.
He was the fist to speak up. “What’s going on, Nichols? Is there a breach somewhere? Just point me and I’ll fix it.”
Nichols waved him off. “No. No breach.” He took a deep breath. “Look, I’m not going to beat around the bush because that’s a waste of time. Dallas and I went outside because a man was spotted walking around the base.”
“A man? How can that be?” Holli asked. “It’s not like you can just take the wrong bus and end up at the South Pole.”
“I’m not sure what he is,” Nichols said before anyone could chime in. “Not only that, Dallas and I encountered five of them. They all look exactly the same, and they weren’t wearing a stitch of clothing.”
Now C-Rod chuckled. “Naked dudes in the South Pole? Yeah, right.”
Nichols motioned for Jeannie to pull up the image on the monitor. When the pale, nude, bat-like man came into focus, the sound of chairs scraping against the floor filled the room. Everyone but North leapt to their feet.
“What the fuck is wrong with him?” C-Rod said. “And how is he standing? He should be face down in the snow.”
Sherm cautiously approached the monitor. He turned to Nichols and asked, “You say there are four more just like him…out there?” He pointed to the wall. All heads swiveled to the window, the brightly lit snow mercifully devoid of the alien men.
“At least four more,” Nichols said. “They were staying just at the edge of the lights, waiting in the darkness. There could be more. I don’t know and I don’t think any of us wants to go out there fumbling in the dark looking for them.”
That was something on which they all could agree.
Holli clutched the bill of her cap as if she were fighting the wind to keep it on her head. “This doesn’t make sense. It’s not even possible.”
“It doesn’t and it is,” Dallas chimed in.
“How are they even alive?” Holli asked, looking to North.
The doctor sucked on his teeth, deep in thought. “I wish I knew. Nichols, are you sure you saw five of them, all identical? Maybe it was a reflection from the ice.”
“Trust me, there were five. I thought at first they were statues, not that statues appearing out of nowhere makes much sense. When they saw us, they opened their mouths and started to – well, not exactly scream, but they made a sound that was as inhuman as they look. That’s when Dallas and I hightailed it back in here. Luckily, they didn’t follow.”
North said, “Could be the light hurts their eyes. With pupils that large, it would feel like getting their skulls pierced by a lance.”
“The one on the video doesn’t look bothered by it,” Jeannie said. He just appeared, to her, to be scouting the base, perhaps looking for a way in. She wrapped her arms around herself.
North nodded. “That’s true.”
“Maybe we should go outside and fuck them up,” C-Rod said. “I don’t like the idea of someone or something that looks like that hanging around.”
“Genius plan,” Holli scoffed. “And what do you do if there’s ten of them, or more? You going to be able to punch your way through them?”
C-Rod made a fist, admiring it. “I’ve been through worse.”
“Worse? Look at him! You come across anything like that in the big, bad streets of Framingham?” Holli got in C-Rod’s face.
“Settle down,” Nichols said, his voice leaving no room for argument. “No one is going outside. Right now, we’re the ones in the safest place.”
“Maybe they’ll just freeze to death,” Sherm said. “What is the temperature headed down to?”
Jeannie said, “We’re looking at minus one-fifteen. Maybe colder by this time tomorrow.”
“No way they could survive that,” Holli said.
“I don’t know,” Dallas said. “They seem to be doing just fine now.”
“A lot of wind coming with it,” Jeannie added. “If they don’t freeze solid, they’ll get blown away.”
“It would be a shame not to get our hands on at least one of them before that happens,” North said.
Dallas stared at him incredulously. “You want one? Be my guest and go get one. I’m sure they’ll be happy to come inside for a hot bowl of soup and a blankie.”
“I’m just saying, in terms of medical science, they’re a wonder. Their bodies have perfectly adapted for an environment of extreme cold and darkness. If we could find out how, it could change not just polar exploration, but how we approach even space travel.”
C-Rod stalked to the coffee machine and poured a cup. “I think you’re in fucking space, doc. I wouldn’t want that in here, even if it was dead.”
Jeannie’s heart fluttered. “Speaking of which, do we have anything to defend ourselves with, just in case?” The deadliest weapons she could think of were some broom handles and ping pong paddles. Well, that and maybe Dallas’ meatloaf. But they wouldn’t have time for food poisoning to take effect if those men outside attacked them.
Dallas reached into his pocket and showed them the Glock. “We do have this, which is more than any other base down here.”
“One gun?” C-Rod said.
“Hopefully one gun is more than we need,” Nichols interjected. “For now, I just want everyone to be on the lookout. We’ll break up to man windows and the camera monitors. Once the storm comes, we won’t be able to see anything anyway.”
“And we can hope that our worries fly off somewhere over the rainbow,” Sherm said. “Or at least far enough away to never find Freedom Base again, especially in the dark.”
Rob asked Jeannie to stay with him, but she refused. Everyone else had to be on their post alone and she should be no different. She stayed close to the science pod, darting between it and the rec room to check on the incoming storm. They had about four more hours until it hit. No matter what those men out there were, she couldn’t see them surviving the storm. Not out there, unprotected without even a stitch of clothing.
The image of that man-thing made her stomach cramp. It terrified her. The view outside the rec room window was barren as always, but he/it could be just a few feet away, enshrouded in darkness, staring in at her at this very moment.
“What the hell are you?” she whispered, her breath fogging the glass.
Jeannie Nichols had never been a shrinking violet. Growing up a tomboy and a daredevil, there were very few things that scared her. Of course, that intimidated all of the boys, which made it hard for her to get that elusive first date. Rumors of her being a lesbian irked her but she daren’t lash out because she didn’t want to then be branded homophobic. All of that changed when she met Rob in her junior year in college. He liked to claim that he’d tamed the wild beast, but look where they were now. Living in the dark hell of the South Pole winter had been her idea, her passion, for years. While Rob had his reservations, she was ready to jump on the plane the moment she got the acceptance letter to be the base’s climatologist for the winter.
She’d been so excited. Compared to this, bungee jumping was as thrilling and death defying as jumping rope.
Was that a shadow encroaching along the wedge of light?
Jeannie stared, unblinking, until her eyes hurt.
It must have been the wind shifting the powdery snow.
For the first time in her life, Jeannie was scared. She wanted Rob beside her more than anything in this world. But she couldn’t give in to her fear. None of them could. If they did, it could mean death for them all.
Dallas kept to the main entrance. His palm sweat coated the Glock’s black grip.
As much as his initial shock at seeing that man outside had rattled him, he was inclined to agree with C-Rod. Better to take the fight to them, if indeed a fight was even necessary, than sit in here cowering like frightened children. His gut was telling him to sit tight, but his heart screamed for him to suit up and go out there with C-Rod, Nichols and Sherm. That bit of rekindled fire helped restore his balance. He’d never been so off-kilter before. It was like how certain animals behaved strangely before an earthquake. And there had been an earthquake immediately following Dallas’ moment of weakness.
What he wouldn’t give for his Adirondack chair, a cooler of beer and a warm day of clear, blue skies.
Living down here was not his ideal, but it paid extremely well. He’d been doing six months on and six months off, his free half-years spent lazing about and doing anything he wanted, for years. Maybe it was time to get off the Polar Express. This was a young man’s game and the days of his youth were well past him.
The one benefit to his stints at the Pole was the cessation of his nightmares. He didn’t know why they refused to plague him when he was on the icy continent and he didn’t question it. He was just grateful that working in no man’s land saved him, albeit temporarily, from the memories of that horrible day in Fallujah. Christ, what a fuck-up. He’d been forced to see a military shrink both while he was in and out of the service, but it did no good. Neither did drinking or sleeping pills. The only cure was Antarctica. Maybe because in the bitter cold, his mind couldn’t reach far enough to drag him back into the oppressive heat of an Iraqi summer.
He keyed his walkie talkie. “Hols, how’s everything looking?”
Holli was sitting behind the bank of monitors showing the outside camera feeds. She would most likely be the first person to see anything strange approaching.
“All clear,” she said.
“Everything still working?”
“Cameras are getting a little shaky from the wind, but they’re up and running.”
“Good. How about you, C-Rod?”
There was a pause, and then his tinny voice replied, “Nada.” C-Rod was in the kitchen, looking out at the rear of the base.
“Sherm?”
Nothing.
“Sherm, you read me?”
A crackle of static, then, “Sorry. I had to drain the lizard. I don’t see anything but snow.”
Nichols piped in. “Before you ask, there’s nothing much going on here.” Nichols had opted to keep looking out the windows of the living quarters in a constant rotation from room to room. “Just the way I want it.”
A gust of wind howled, rattling the station. Dallas looked to the ceiling as if he could see into the angry face of the rapidly approaching storm. His mouth hung open, the walkie temporarily forgotten.
“How about you, Dallas?” Nichols said.
Dallas shook his head to clear his mind and tapped the mic button. “Nothing out here but wind, ice and snow.”
He looked down at the gun. Nichols had stationed him here because it was the central and easiest access point to the station. Better the man with the gun defend their weakest link.
“I have a pristine view from my perch,” North reported. Dallas didn’t appreciate his flippant tone. This was as serious as a cancer diagnosis. He decided not to reply to him lest he said something they’d both regret.
“How about you, Jeannie?” he said.
“Clear,” she replied in a clipped tone. He wondered what worried her more, the men outside or the storm above.
Dallas reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a single stick of beef jerky. He put the gun down on a shelf to unwrap the snack, his mouth watering at the first salty bite. He wasn’t hungry, but he knew he had to keep up his strength, just in case. Chewing on the jerky, he kept his eyes peeled on the small, square pane of glass in the upper center of the door. Chewing on the jerky also helped to keep his senses alert. It would be too easy to be dulled by the boredom of staring at unchanging scenery, even with the thought of being surrounded by unknown beings. He knew full well from his countless hours on sentry duty, waiting for death to come at any second.
He was about to go for a second stick when Holli broke the silence.
“Holy crap, I see them!”
Chapter Ten
“Where? How many?” Nichols said.
Dallas dropped the jerky and picked up the gun, squinting into the light and dark.
The time it took Holli to reply felt like eons. “Eleven. No, fourteen. Wait, there are more coming.”
“They’re over here!” C-Rod shouted so loud it was almost impossible to understand him. “I see them!”
“Dallas, I want you to stay put,” Nichols said. “You spot any of them by the door, let us know.”
“Roger that,” Dallas said. With the base constructed on a multi-level raised platform, the kitchen area was the highest from the frozen ground. Those man-things wouldn’t be able to get up to the window. There were, however, steps to the door where he was stationed. If they were making their move, he assumed they’d find their way here. He wished to hell more ammunition had been provided. He’d just have to make every shot count.
“I’ll cover the door with Dallas,” North said.
Dallas took a deep breath, listening to the chatter on the walkie, and waited for the inevitable.
Nichols ran as fast as he could, getting to Holli before Sherm and Jeannie.
Holli pointed at the monitor filled with the identical men. There were more than fourteen now. Nichols estimated there had to be at least a couple dozen. They strode through the ankle high snow in an odd, jerky unison, their black eyes open wide and staring.
“What are we gonna do?” Holli said.
Nichols stared over her shoulder at the monitor. “We’re going to watch them, for now.”
Jeannie and Sherm ran into the room, followed by C-Rod, who knocked over a narrow rack holding boxes of spare electronic parts. “What the fuck?” he said.
The naked men were carbon copies of one another. They suddenly stopped their march, their faces turned upward toward the camera.
“They know we can see them,” Jeannie said. She nestled close to Rob. He could practically feel the electric charge of fear coming off her, which unsettled him even further. He put his arm around her waist.
“What are they doing?” Holli said. She gripped an iron bar she’d found earlier.
“I don’t have a clue,” Nichols said. “Sherm, I need you to get a distress call out now.”
“What do I say?”
“Tell them we have a few dozen men surrounding the base with what appears to be ill intentions. Do not mention what they look like. If you do, they’ll just think you’ve flipped your lid.”
“Gotcha.” Sherm darted out of the room.
Nichols knew that there was no way help was going to come. What he needed to do was have a record of what was happening here, even if the full truth was not revealed. If they ended up like the previous base, at least their deaths wouldn’t be an entire mystery.
Was this what happened to the Amundsen-Scott Base? That entire compound had been utterly demolished. Perhaps it was by the hands of those things and not a freak storm.
He could tell the wind was picking up by the speed and slant of the driving snow being picked up from the ground. The men stood motionless, unaffected. They didn’t even blink. How was that possible?
“If they’re waiting for an invitation, they can go scratch,” C-Rod said.
“Maybe they’re trying to figure out a way to get inside,” Holli said.
Despite their otherworldly appearance, Nichols detected an intelligence within them. They would know how to get in. This was all some kind of show.
A few of them staggered, finally breaking their tightly held ranks, as the wind rocked them.
“North was definitely wrong about the light hurting their eyes,” Jeannie said. “Which makes me think that black isn’t all pupil. Their entire eyes must be solid black.”
“One thing they ain’t got is shrinkage,” C-Rod said. Each man was well-endowed, and from what Nichols could see, the length of the appendage was the same for each being as well. He couldn’t spot a single difference between any of them. As crazy as it sounded, he was beginning to think of them as creatures not of this planet. How could they possibly be terrestrial? The Earth was a system of chaos, producing no two things alike, even among identical twins. There was always a difference.
No, these…people looked like something produced from a lab.
“Jesus,” he said.
“What?” Jeannie said.
“You think they’re some kind of experiment that got out?”
The South Pole’s residents were mostly scientists. Though studies like climatology and geology comprised the bulk of the research down here, another nation could very well be developing high-tech cloning far away from prying eyes. Antarctica was actually the perfect place to engage in activities that best remained secret and hidden.
“You think there’s some Frankenstein around?” C-Rod asked.
“You have a better explanation?” Nichols said.
“Yeah. I’m still asleep and this is all a freaking nightmare.”
