Nichols had his hand on the doorknob, but before he turned it, he said to Sherm, “You think that oversized toothpick is going to stop one of those from stomping or eating you?”

  Sherm thought it over and his shoulders slumped.

  “If it makes you feel any better,” Nichols said, ”I have the gun.”

  What he didn’t add was that his gloves were so thick, he’d never be able to get his finger inside the trigger guard. He’d have to remove his glove to shoot, and the moment he did, his hand would have seconds before it froze solid.

  “You all ready?”

  Holli nodded.

  Sherm said, “Not now, not ever.”

  “Okay then.”

  He opened the door and they were instantly slammed in the face by the wind. The cold knifed through their layers, chilling them.

  Nichols attached them to the guideline. They’d have to turn the right corner to get to the nearest of the bat men and their beasts. It was only a few feet, but it would feel like a mile. A powerful gust of wind almost took his legs out from under him. Holli slammed into his back, Sherm into hers.

  “We look like the Three Stooges,” he said, but his words were ripped from his lips and scattered into the ether. It would be impossible to hear one another out here.

  Nichols paused to make sure he had his footing, and then proceeded slowly.

  As he inched around the edge of the massive pillars that supported this end of the building, his light fell on a smooth, alabaster face. The man didn’t even blink his solid black eyes or raise a hand to shield them. In fact, he didn’t move at all. Nichols was inclined to poke the man with his flashlight to see if perhaps they had lucked out and he had turned into an ice sculpture. Then he saw the man’s chest move with a shallow intake of breath and he was grateful he’d held back.

  The wind didn’t care about what was happening out here. It bullied Nichols, Holli and Sherm. They teetered and tottered, looking like weak babies learning to walk. With verbal communication impossible, they were not presenting themselves in the best light.

  Show them you’re not afraid, Holli had said. And you’re not a threat.

  They had the latter down in spades. As for not looking afraid, the only thing the bat men would be able to see was their eyes, and the goggles would make that hard to do.

  We must look as alien to them as they do to us.

  He worried about making any wild gestures that could be misinterpreted. With the wind trying to constantly knock them down, it was hard not to flail their arms.

  Hugging the supports, they fought for a few more feet, coming face to face with the phalanx of men and monsters. The creatures were the most terrifying things Nichols had ever seen. Now that they were up close, he could see their mouths were crammed with huge, sharp teeth. Their oversized eyes were so crystal, they pierced the endless night like headlights.

  Just what in the holy hell were they?

  Nichols stopped, his legs straining, knees locked. He stared back at them, Holli and Sherm doing the same. None of the bat men came forward. Nor did they attack, which was a good thing.

  There were other packs like this at other points around the base. Nichols wondered if he’d chosen the wrong one. Perhaps the man in authority, if such a thing existed, was elsewhere.

  Holli raised a hand in greeting.

  The bat men reacted by tilting their heads in unison, intrigued by her hand’s movement.

  Nichols didn’t know what was more unsettling – the ferocious looking creatures or the hive behavior of the men.

  He took Holli’s cue and did the same. The heads tilted the other way.

  One of the animals pawed the snowy ground, mimicking a bull before it charged. Nichols felt his stomach fold in on itself. If it rushed them, they would be stomped to bits.

  A screaming gale shoved Nichols sideways. He, Holli and Sherm toppled to the ground.

  The bat men’s heads snapped upright. Their eyes grew even wider. The animals snorted.

  Holli grabbed Nichols’ hood as he struggled to get up. The simple gesture urged him to do so slowly. He took a deep breath, the cold stabbing his lungs, coughed, and got on all fours. With some effort, he rose to his feet.

  One of the bat men strode toward them. Nichols saw he had no nipples or navel. He was as smooth as a doll, with the exception of his pendulous, swaying member.

  Nichols braced himself. He wanted to reach into his pocket for the irrational comfort of the gun but didn’t want to make any suspicious moves.

  He also desperately wanted to be able to talk to Holli and Sherm, but it was impossible.

  The man stopped just a foot away from Holli. To her credit, she didn’t back up. He raised his hand, his index finger pointing at her, and tapped her goggles. Nichols almost lunged at him, but a sharp breeze practically sent him sprawling in the other direction.

  Holli flinched, but stood her ground.

  He then moved to Sherm and did the same. Sherm made to swat his hand away and the bat-man shot a glance at his rising arm, as if to say, ‘I will break your arm if you touch me.’

  Sherm checked himself.

  Rob waited for the man to do the same to him, but he turned his back on them instead.

  Now what?

  Rob considered approaching the bat-man when their collective mouths opened. Swirling mist flowed from their open maws as they tilted their heads back as far as they could go. The eerie, high-pitched screech they made overwhelmed the storm’s fury. All Rob wanted to do was run like hell and get back inside the base. The tug on his line showed that was exactly what Sherm was doing.

  The howling of the men was joined by the strange beasts.

  Rob’s heart pounded as the Antarctic night was ripped in two by the wailing creatures that surely were not men.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Jeannie Nichols could hear the army of men and creatures through the base’s walls.

  “That doesn’t sound good,” C-Rod said from his perch behind her.

  She scanned the monitors and saw that the mysterious interlopers from all sides of Freedom Base had joined in the chorus.

  “No, no it doesn’t,” she said. “Come on, Rob, get out of there.”

  Why wasn’t he moving? It looked like Sherm had attempted to get back inside, but Holli and Rob were holding firm.

  “I can go out there and get them,” Dallas said. He was already tugging on his wool hat and slipping a headlamp over it.

  “Wait,” Jeannie said. “Not yet.”

  Rob had told her that he would give her a sign if they needed any help. That sign would be him tapping the top of his head. His arms were by his side, flailing out every now and then to fight the wind. She wished to hell he had let her go out with him. As terrifying as it would be, she’d rather be next to him than watching helplessly through a camera feed.

  “What are we waiting for?” Dallas insisted.

  Jeannie said, “Please. Just wait.” She couldn’t hide the tension and irritation in her voice.

  Her heart flipped when the men and their chimeric animals stopped at the same time.

  “Jesus, how do they do that?” C-Rod said.

  “It’s like they have one mind,” North said. He’d been drinking from a flask he’d gotten from his room. Jeannie wasn’t sure what was in it, but judging by his breath, it was high octane. She knew there was no point telling the doctor how ill advised it was to hit the bottle now. As a matter of fact, she was finding it increasingly difficult to not ask for a hit. “I can see members of the same species having some sort of link, but not two disparate species. Maybe we’re just not quick enough to see those things taking their cue from the men. But to my eyes, it looks like they’re acting as one at the exact same moment.”

  Jeannie zoomed in on Rob, Holli and Sherm. Their backs were to the camera, their bodies wavering back and forth as the wind pushed them around. “I want to know what that all meant.”

  “I don’t think that was the Antarctic version of Kumbaya,” Dallas said. “I’m getting them.” He angrily jammed his arms into his Big Red coat.

  The floor began to vibrate.

  Jeannie looked to the monitors. The bat men weren’t moving.

  “Aftershock,” she said.

  “Come on, C-Rod,” Dallas shouted, running out of the control room.

  “Right behind you.”

  The shaking grew worse.

  Jeannie watched in helpless horror as Rob fell backwards, pulling Holli and Sherm with him. “Please don’t touch them,” she whispered. She jumped when North clamped a hand over her shoulder.

  “Look,” he said.

  The bat men and the creatures were dispersing, walking backwards and out of the light.

  The aftershock kept intensifying.

  “Maybe the earthquake is scaring them off,” North said.

  Jeannie thought she was going to be sick. “I don’t think they’re scared of anything.”

  She had nothing to base it on other than the fact that they were the most frightening things she’d ever beheld. What on Earth could scare something that belonged in your worst nightmares?

  Instead of leveling off, the aftershock, like the storm, grew worse and worse. Jeannie heard things falling off the shelves but couldn’t tear herself away from the monitors to look. Then the image on the monitors started to grow fuzzy and blink.

  “Crap, the tremors must be loosening the connections.” She unleashed a string of expletives that would have made her husband blush.

  Now the rack where the monitors were mounted was swaying. Something popped and fizzled behind them. She smelled the acrid stench of burning wires.

  “We need to get under a doorway,” North said, trying to pull her from her seat.

  Jeannie watched her husband as he tried to get up. Each time he got close, the shifting earth sent him back down.

  And then the monitors blinked out. Crashing and clattering echoed throughout the base. The lights dimmed, came back on.

  And then went out.

  All Sherm wanted to do was get off his ass and double time it back into the illusionary safety of the base. The waves of aftershocks weren’t helping one damn bit. At least it had frightened off the un-welcoming committee.

  “Come on, Holli,” he shouted, but there was no way she could hear him. His balaclava was starting to freeze over. Once it did, it would be increasingly harder to breathe.

  The ground kept rumbling and he was beginning to think this was no aftershock, but another earthquake. If he could get inside and to his equipment, he’d know. He tugged on the line that connected him to Holli. She was on her side, rolling in the snow.

  An enormous thump directly under them sent Sherm onto his side as well.

  What the hell?

  He’d never experienced anything like that during a quake. It was like having an angry old man underneath them banging on the ceiling with a broom. A very, very big broom.

  Sherm looked around them, resigned to the fact that this is where he was going to be riding out the tremors. The pale men and their ugly pets were gone. Of course, they could just be twenty feet away, cloaked in darkness, watching.

  Glancing up, he watched the light pole sway, the cone of light roving over the icy, snowy ground like the spotlight at the circus.

  When it started to flicker, Sherm somehow managed to jump to his feet, a jolt of adrenaline making his heart gallop like a thoroughbred. He grabbed Holli’s Big Red and yanked her to her feet, pulling her close so she didn’t fall again. He spread his legs apart, riding the shifting ground like a surfer.

  “Take my hand!” he screamed at Nichols, who may not have heard him, but understood. Sherm had no time for wonder and pride when they were all back on their pins. This time, he led the way, pulling on the guideline, fighting the biting wind and time, inching toward the door.

  When the lights blinked out, he cried out, grateful Holli and Nichols couldn’t hear his less than manly reaction. Their headlamps and flashlights seemed utterly insignificant.

  Why couldn’t I have studied earthquakes in Indonesia or Mexico? The worst I’d get there is a sunburn and a few hangovers from cocktail hour.

  The allure of the South Pole had been too great a pull for him. How many seismologists would get this chance? At the time, he couldn’t say no. He’d always felt like a bit of a misfit, and this place was custom made for misfits or adrenaline junkies.

  He could certainly say no now.

  Holli shoved into his back and he turned to see Nichols pushing them all forward. Sherm got moving, leaning into the base’s outer wall for support. He was afraid to swing his flashlight into the gloom lest he see those things had come back.

  Just concentrate on getting back inside and figuring out how to get the power back on.

  If the lights were out, so was the heat. The interior of the base would get as cold as the exterior before they knew it.

  Sherm picked up his pace. He punched at his balaclava to break up the ice and allow more air, as much as it hurt, into his tired lungs.

  When his light touched on the door just five feet away, Holli slapped his shoulder. He whooped with relief.

  The earthquake must have sensed they were getting close, so it sent up a powerful wave of convulsions, nearly toppling them all over.

  Sherm refused to go down. Not when they were this close. The wind joined in, making it impossible to take another step. It held them in frozen limbo.

  His arm reached out as far as it would go, fingers desperate for the latch to open the door.

  He spotted one of the flashlights angling to their right.

  It just caught one of the great white beasts charging them. Sherm didn’t have time to react.

  The creature grazed his outstretched hand. Instead of hitting into them, it bashed the door to the base. The steel barrier folded in on itself, the frame cracking and widening. Half of the creature was in the base, its back legs still pumping to drive it in further.

  There was nothing they could do to stop it.

  They were, for all intents and purposes, dead.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Dallas was glad he had his headlamp. He turned it on, the lone beam slashing through the sudden darkness. C-Rod was already hugging the doorframe. North had ahold of Jeannie, both of their eyes wide and round as frogs looking through thin ice.

  First things first, they needed to be safe so they could ride out the quake.

  “Come to me,” he said, settling beside C-Rod. “Follow my light.”

  North and Jeannie smashed into the computer rack when a massive tremor nearly knocked the base on its side. Dallas gripped the doorframe to keep his footing. A chilling tendril of wind burned his face. The cold air must really be screaming through that rent in the wall in the storage room now. Or perhaps there was another break somewhere else. Dallas didn’t even have time to worry about those men scrambling through the opening.

  He put his hand out for North and Jeannie. She lashed out and grabbed his wrist. He pulled her to him. C-Rod managed to grab North. They huddled together in the tight space, listening to the base break apart.

  “When is this gonna stop?” C-Rod exclaimed.

  Only Sherm would be able to answer for sure, but Dallas was certain earthquakes didn’t last too long. Hadn’t he read that they typically only went on from ten to thirty seconds? This one was much longer than that, and it didn’t feel as if it were losing steam.

  What could only be described as an explosion rocked the base. Everyone stumbled out of the doorway, falling to their knees.

  “What now?” C-Rod lamented.

  It was followed by more concussions. The wind was now howling down the hall, freezing everything it touched.

  “She’s broken,” Dallas said, referring to Freedom Base. “Get your gear on, now.”

  They grabbed their coats, hats and balaclavas, which wasn’t easy in the dark. It took Dallas precious minutes to find their goggles that had fallen and slid under a table. They were going outside whether they liked it or not. If the entire base was compromised, he figured they wouldn’t have long to panic…or suffer. They’d be dead soon enough.

  He shined his light on spears that Holli had carved. They had fallen from the corner of the room and were splayed at their feet.

  “Do we even bother?” North said.

  “Hell yes, we bother,” C-Rod said, grabbing one. He handed another to Jeannie who gratefully accepted the makeshift weapon. “If those things are outside, I’m taking as many down with me as I can.”

  Jeannie gave a solemn nod.

  At least there were no illusions about survival with those two. Dallas was all for not going out quietly as well.

  North plucked a spear from the floor. He didn’t say a word and Dallas could barely see his face. But there was resignation in his body language.

  “We have to go to Rob, Holli and Sherm,” Jeannie said.

  If they’re still alive, Dallas thought.

  They weren’t faring so well inside the base. He couldn’t imagine Nichols and his welcoming committee holding up under the unholy trinity of the earthquake, weather and the invaders.

  “Now I know how Custer felt,” he said, squaring up to face his fate. “You all stay behind me.”

  He expected to find a hallway filling with fine snow. His intention was to head for the entrance while assessing the damage. Did those men have dynamite? It sure as hell had sounded like it. If there was an off-chance Dallas could repair whatever had been damaged, he would stay behind and work at it while the rest went for Nichols, Holli and Sherm. Keeping the base alive meant hope for keeping themselves alive.

  What he found instead was a corridor choked with the rushing bodies of the alabaster bat men. They came in a silent rush that scared Dallas more than anything else he’d seen in his entire life, combat missions where he was sure he was going to die included.

  He tried to push his way back into the control room, but with the forward-moving bodies behind him, it was like coming up against a brick wall.

  “Get back!” he screamed. “They’re coming!”

 

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