Phantom Frost

by Alfred Wurr

  I followed him to the kitchen. He opened the freezer door and pulled out a small cooler.

  “What’s with the box?” I asked.

  “The crystals need to be kept below freezing or they disappear. Don’t worry, the cooler is mine. I bring my lunch in it sometimes.”

  He reached in like a magician performing a trick and pulled out a glass tube shimmering with an inner iridescence.

  “You took some? Won’t they notice?”

  “Nah, I switched them with a couple of empty bottles and swapped the labels.”

  I reached out and took the test tube in hand, staring at the substance within. “I can’t believe you did that. Thank you, Scott.”

  “Here’s another one. Sorry I didn’t bring more, but it was risky taking even these two.”

  “I’ve got to get in there somehow,” I said. “Maybe you can smuggle me back in.”

  Scott was already shaking his head. “It won’t work, not today. Security is too high. No telling when it’ll settle down.”

  I nodded absently, pondering. He was right. Sneaking in was unlikely to work, and getting caught with Scott would risk him being arrested as my accomplice. He’d be lucky to just be fired, but more likely he’d be sent to some secret government prison for commies and other enemies of the state—or worse. He’d already taken extreme risks to help me thus far. I might be able to sneak close enough to gain the advantage of surprise and fight my way in, but not without casualties, and getting back out would be near impossible if military forces were called in.

  “So, what do I do with these two?” I asked, glancing at him. “Drink them?”

  Scott tossed his shoulders. “I guess so. From what I understand, your body should reintegrate it. Maybe just drink one for now, see how it affects you. Does that jacket have an inside pocket?”

  I unzipped my jacket and felt around inside. “Yeah.”

  “Put one in there to keep it cold against your body.” I did as he suggested and studied the other, the first that he’d given to me. Then, before I could change my mind, I popped the stopper and downed the contents in one swallow. The substance slid from the test tube into my mouth like it had a mind of its own, leaving the glass clean as if it had been scrubbed. “Now what?”

  “Now we wait,” Scott said, studying my face.

  I resealed the test tube and handed it back to my friend. “How long—” I began before a wave of vertigo rushed over me, and I leaned against the wall for support. A rainbow of colour flashed through my mind’s eye, dazzling me with its brilliance and washing away the room around me. The inchoate colours coalesced into locations and faces but disconnected from each other. At once I recognized faces of people, knew them to be friends and enemies, and knew their names, but in many cases without any history to go along with it.

  It was like knowing Scott was my friend with absolute certainty, knowing his name but not knowing anything of how we’d met or become friends—knowing only the now. In addition to faces of people, I saw vast landscapes of snow and ice stretching as far as the eye could see, followed by scenes of battle in burning forests among fiends and freaks of fire, mist, spirit, wood, stone, and flesh. Lightning crackled and wind raged over it all, and roiling black smoke rose into the sky as creatures out of myth clashed and died and cried in pain and rage.

  I flew over the devastation at breakneck speed, suspended above the ravaged earth on a disc of frost, encased in a bubble of energy that shielded me from harm, as I shouted a rallying cry to my allies. Moments later, balls of white frost swirled in my hand, which I bowled in all directions. Where they passed, snow burst up from the earth, dousing flames and causing some of the oncoming horde to falter. Moaning with the recollection, I crumpled to the floor. The cavern in the Great Basin Desert, or one like it, came next, only this time it looked different. The same tholos stood there, along with the dais and sphere floating above it, but frost and ice covered the cavern walls, ceiling and floor, and I knew it to be bitterly, wonderfully cold within, much colder than it had been in recent days.

  I woke sometime later with Scott kneeling over me. “Jesus, Shivurr, are you all right?”

  I sat up slowly, rubbing my forehead. “Uh-huh, maybe. Yeah, I think so.”

  “Looks like you fainted,” Scott said. He extended a hand and pulled me to my feet. “That’s potent stuff. Do you remember anything?”

  “Yeah, bits and pieces,” I replied. I paused, thinking. “Images, mostly. Visions. Some of them from a long time ago, I think, but there are too many gaps to make sense of it all.”

  “Do you remember why you came here? Why you came for help?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. I saw what looked like a huge battle, fought by…well, creatures, monsters really. You wouldn’t believe it. It was crazy stuff.”

  “What kind of monsters?” Scott asked, regarding me keenly.

  “Walking trees, giants, demons,” I replied.

  “Demons? You’re kidding? Where were you in all this?”

  I smiled, raising my brows. “In the midst of it all. I seemed to be leading a charge of some kind on a huge disc of pure frost.”

  “Wow,” Scott said. “Do you think it was real?”

  “Maybe. If it was, I’m not sure if it was the past or the future. A week ago, I’d have dismissed it as a dream, but after fighting those fire elementals…I just don’t know.” I paused, reliving the memories. “If they’re real, then maybe that’s got something to do with why I came here in the first place.”

  “I haven’t seen anything in the news about monster battles. If what you remembered actually happened, my guess is it was probably a while ago.”

  “Maybe what I saw wasn’t Earth,” I said. “I still don’t remember where I came from, so it could be, couldn’t it?”

  Scott nodded, slowly. “Yeah, I suppose. Maybe the frost place you always talk about. The Ever Frost.”

  “Underfrost.”

  “Right, maybe that’s your planet.”

  I shook my head. “That’s not…I don’t know why, but I think this was a long time ago. Hundreds—no, thousands of years ago…maybe longer.”

  “Do you want to take another?”

  I rubbed my face. “Not sure. I’m feeling pretty queasy.”

  Scott stroked the thick stubble on his chin, then bobbed his head. “Okay, let’s give it a rest for now. Maybe you’ll remember more in time.” He looked at his watch. “For now, let’s head back to the Schmidts’ place. I’m sure you’ll want to say goodbye. We’ll leave early tomorrow for the safe house.”

  Chapter 15

  Are Those Flames?

  As the garage door opened and Scott drove out, another car pulled into his driveway, blocking the path to the street. My friend hit the brakes, stopping the vehicle just beyond the garage door. He leaned on the car’s horn as I ducked beneath the dash.

  “What the hell?” Scott said, leaning out the open driver’s-side window, waving to the intruders. “Hello? Can I help you?”

  The sound of the doors of the other vehicle opening followed. “Stay here,” the computer expert whispered before exiting the Mustang. “Can I help you?” Scott repeated.

  “Sorry to intrude, sir,” said a voice I recognized as belonging to one of the agents from the hotel room in Tonopah. “I’m Grant. This is McGregor. I believe we’ve met a few times before…at work.”

  “Oh, right, you’re both in security,” Scott said. His voice grew fainter as he moved to the front of the vehicle. “What can I do for you?”

  “May we come in?” Grant asked.

  I crouched lower, trying to disappear under the dash. I’m busted, I thought. The agents had to know I was here and had come to reclaim me and return me to the Institute.

  “Look, gents, as you can see, I’m heading out for the night, and I’m in a rush. I’m back at work Monday. How about we talk then?”

  “I’m afraid it can’t wait, sir. May we discuss this inside?”

  “Not until I know what t
his is about,” Scott said.

  “I’ll get right to it, then. We’d like to search the premises, if you’d be so kind,” Grant said. “The security director has tasked us with searching employee homes in search of a lab animal that went missing recently. I’m sure you’re aware of the incident. There’s concern an employee may have been involved with the escape or may be harbouring the creature.” I glared at the dash, making a gesture with my middle finger that the agents couldn’t see. Who’re you calling a lab animal? I thought.

  “You can’t be serious,” Scott said, outrage in his tone. “Don’t you need a warrant?”

  “Not if you grant us access,” another voice interjected. I recognized it belonged to McGregor, the other agent from Tonopah. “You can refuse, but that’d be mighty suspicious.”

  “The only thing that should make you suspicious of is that I might just be a citizen of a free country who knows his rights and who doesn’t want a couple of jack-booted…uh, strangers invading his domicile.”

  “Now, now,” Grant said. “No need to be like that.”

  The whup-whup of helicopter blades chopping the air drowned out further conversation.

  I leaned back and peered up through the windshield and saw one of the air tour helicopters fly past. Flames and smoke trailed from its tail.

  “Holy hell,” Grant said, raising his voice. “Would you look at that?”

  “Are those flames?” McGregor said.

  Neither Scott nor Grant replied, presumably both still looking skyward at the struggling aircraft. While they were distracted, I crawled to the driver’s side, scraping my stomach on the parking brake and gearshift, and crept out the still-open door, hoping the agents overlooked my bright white rear end rising above the dash as I moved.

  It was risky but a gamble I had to take. I wasn’t going to sit and wait to be discovered. The odds of Scott convincing the two men to go away without conducting a search weren’t good.

  I felt confident that I could subdue the agents if they spotted me, but it would mean big trouble for Scott. They’d know he’d helped me, and his career, freedom, and life would be on the line then. Even if I put the agents down permanently—something I wasn’t willing to do—other agents would come looking for them. Either way, they’d be on my trail again, and I’d have no one to help me from here on. Alone in the desert, I wouldn’t survive a week.

  “Looks like they might have put down all right,” Grant said as I wriggled out onto the concrete driveway. “We should get back to the matter at hand.” I scurried toward the back of the car, holding my breath.

  “What is that?” McGregor said, sounding baffled. “Over there.”

  They’ve spotted me, I thought. I plucked frost from the Underfrost, its bright glow mixing with the red of the Mustang’s taillights, and prepared to fight.

  “Looks like a man on fire or…,” Grant said, trailing off.

  “It’s coming this way,” Scott said a moment later. Confused, I risked a peek over the trunk. All three men were looking away from me, down the street.

  “Get down,” Scott shouted as a fireball hit one of the Bodhi Group security agents in the head. The man went down like a bowling pin, his hair on fire, making no attempt to break his fall.

  “McGregor,” Grant yelled. He pulled a gun and moved to use the black sedan as cover, glancing back to where McGregor lay, dead or unconscious. The fallen man’s hair no longer burned, but the stench of sulphur mixed with that of burnt hair lingered. The surviving agent’s attention was wrenched back to the street when a second fireball struck his vehicle’s driver’s-side window and crashed through it, illuminating the interior with firelight.

  Looking down the street, I squinted my eyes as two fire elementals moved like wildfire toward us. Their heads swivelled as they scanned left and right, searching for targets. A line of flame trailed in their wake, showing that they’d come from between two nearby houses to the northwest of our position. To my relief, the street was currently empty of foot and vehicle traffic—the occupants were probably having dinner inside or barbecuing in their backyards.

  Good thing or there’d be even more to worry about.

  Scott retreated to his car with the whites of his eyes showing. I waved to him as he came around the open door, and he ran to join me in a half crouch as the sound of gunfire erupted.

  Grant had taken aim over the hood of the sedan and was unloading his pistol into the approaching enemies in a controlled fashion, like he was at the gun range. In reply, several more fireballs whistled through the air like tiny meteors. Some flew over Grant’s head and others crashed into the vehicle’s side, dying in a flash of smoke and flame, leaving deep dents. Grant’s aim was good. The leader shrieked and staggered slightly with each impact but kept coming. Large flames leapt out of the shattered driver’s-side window of the black car as the fire within grew in ferocity.

  As the first elemental closed to thirty feet, Grant fled the dubious safety of the agents’ car and rushed toward the Mustang, behind which Scott and I cowered. He made it half the distance when a fireball crashed into his shoulder, staggering him. His gun clattered onto the concrete as he changed direction, running directly away from the danger into the neighbouring yard.

  Another fireball hit him in the back of the head. He stumbled to his knees, stood again, and was hit by a third fireball, going down face-first. The last one sailed through the space where his head used to be and crashed into the side of a stone fence a hundred feet away, where it briefly continued to burn and left the fence pitted and blackened at the point of impact.

  That target down, the frontrunner turned to its left, seeking new prey.

  The roar of the Mustang’s engine filled my ears, and a cloud of exhaust washed over my face as it raced away from me. A second later, it crunched into our approaching adversary as it came up the driveway, and the beast flew through the air and bounced off the hood of the burning black sedan.

  Nice one, Scott, I thought.

  I pushed myself to my feet and cast a frost ball at the creature as it recovered. The orb punched it in the chest and the fiend shrank back, screeching. I moved closer, hurling frost with each step. The creature flickered with each impact as the ice and snow quenched its flames, until it guttered like a campfire soaked with a bucket of water.

  Before I could revel in the victory, another fireball sizzled past my nose. My head snapped to the right, following the path of the projectile back to its source as the other humanoid inferno attacked. I dodged to the left as Scott threw the Mustang into reverse. Stumbling, I brushed against the burning black sedan’s front end and shrieked as my stomach rubbed against hot metal. Recoiling, I dashed to the right, trying to get away from the scalding heat.

  As I ran, I lobbed more frost at the approaching enemy. It blew up ten feet away from its target, colliding with fire coming from the other direction.

  The elemental moved forward once more when a deep, sonorous growl that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once filled the air. It felt like an ox sat on my chest while it blared. I covered my ears in a vain attempt to stifle the sound. To my relief, it stopped in its tracks at the sound and cocked its head as if listening, then turned around and moved down the street, northward.

  I moved down to the edge of the driveway and watched it flee. Scott exited the car and rushed to join me. “Where’s it going?” he asked. “And what the heck was that sound?”

  I shrugged, holding out my hands, palms up. “What’s that light at Wilhelm’s? Do you see that?” I asked, pointing. Yellow and red lights flickered and reflected off the houses in the vicinity of the Schmidts’ domicile, a few hundred feet away. “Is it burning?”

  Scott squinted, adjusting his glasses. “I can’t tell,” he said, wiping sweat from his forehead. “Maybe. It looks like that thing is heading that way.”

  “We’ve got to get back,” I said, grabbing the sides of my head. “They won’t stand a chance.”

  “Come on,” Scott shouted. We
turned and ran back to the Mustang.

  As he tore the door open, the first Bodhi Group agent to fall groaned. “Please, help me,” McGregor said.

  “Damn it,” Scott said, looking at me over the roof of the Mustang. “Go. Get over there. I’ve got to call an ambulance for these guys.”

  I nodded and slammed the passenger door shut. “I’ll see you there,” I said over my shoulder as I ran, skating north over the hot pavement.

  My opponent moved fast, now only about fifty feet from Wilhelm’s house. I tossed frost as it fled, hoping to turn the creature’s attention back to me. The frothing mass of white sailed to the left, missing its mark.

  The target of my salvo flinched and whirled to face me as I continued to close the distance. I’d covered only a few feet when one of the doors of Wilhelm’s garage started to open. The fire elemental glanced over its shoulder in response and turned back toward the house once again.

  I sucked in a breath of air and yelled a snarling battle cry, trying to keep its attention on me. It worked. The thing turned in response to my challenge and sent more molten fire my way. I collapsed into a slide, slipping beneath the incoming projectile, then popped back to my feet. Still coming, I deked left and right, closing the gap. The next attack came in low.

  Smart, I thought as I jumped to avoid it, launching a counter-attack in mid-air.

  My projectile caught it in the shoulder, crippling its throwing hand. Behind it, Brad’s VW van was backing out of the garage as I continued to pepper my fallen attacker until it finally collapsed and lay motionless.

  “Shivurr,” Brad yelled through the open driver’s-side window of the VW van. “Come on.” He waved a hand in a come-hither motion. The rest of the gang, mouths open and eyes wide, pressed against the van’s windows.

  I rushed to the side of the vehicle. “What happened?” I asked, looking inside. “Where’s Wilhelm?” Olivia had left for work hours ago, so I knew she wasn’t in danger.

  “The house is on fire. He told us to run,” Brad said, pointing at the house. “He said he’d get the dog and join us.”