Everything Dies | Season 3

by Malpass, T. W.

  O.B.’s frown was even more apparent on account of his buzz cut. He looked Salty up and down to make his condescension towards him clear.

  Salty just smirked and carried on pushing his vehicle.

  ‘Good luck finding a whole lot of nothing again. Make sure you’re back before seven. Miller’s calling a meeting and she wants everyone to be there, including you and that drunken deadbeat of a pilot.’

  ‘Can’t promise I’ll be back before then, but thanks for the heads-up, kid. Really appreciate it.’

  Anna jumped on the back, and Salty started the ignition to the snowmobile, speeding away from the garage and kicking up the snow so it fell at O.B.’s feet.

  The young man almost curled his mouth into a snarl as he watched Salty leave.

  The roar of the engine broke the silence of the early morning, waking Raine from her half sleep. She sat up and yawned, noticing Jason was already awake and standing at the window in his vest and boxers.

  ‘That’s the fourth morning in a row he’s gone out there. What exactly is he hoping to find?’ Jason asked.

  Raine rubbed her eyes and yawned again, propping up her back with the pillow she’d slept on.

  ‘Just something to keep his mind busy, enough to stop him thinking about being cooped up in here with us,’ she said.

  ‘Charming,’ Jason said. ‘The feeling’s mutual.’ He moved away from the window and sat down on the edge of the bed.

  ‘It’s only natural. Not like we’d all have chosen to spend time together back when things were different.’

  ‘Some of us, maybe.’ A mischievous smile came over Jason’s face, and he slipped his hand under the sheets, running his fingers over one of Raine’s muscular calves.

  She recoiled from his touch, drawing her knees up to her chest.

  Jason looked at her and shrugged.

  ‘What?’ he said.

  ‘Nothing. I don’t feel… I just don’t want to right now.’

  ‘So, I can’t even touch you?’

  ‘You’re a grown-ass man. Do we really need to have a conversation about boundaries?’ she said, her tone hardened.

  ‘Of course not.’

  ‘Good to know.’ Raine pulled the sheets away and lay on her stomach so she could reach from the bed to search for her pants on the floor. ‘I’m gonna make some coffee. You want one?’ she asked.

  ‘I think I’ll pass,’ Jason said, slipping on his jeans and his knitted sweater. ‘I’ve got a flying lesson in half an hour, and it’s probably warmer out there than it is in here.’ He snatched his boots up because he didn’t want to wait to put them on before he left the room.

  ‘Jason, I’m sorry, all right? I’ve just got a lot on my mind, and the meeting is coming up tonight,’ Raine said.

  Jason paused at the door and his posture softened.

  ‘Sure. Fine. I’ll see you at dinner,’ he said.

  ‘Try not to crash the helicopter,’ she replied.

  They both managed to force a smile at each other before he left.

  7

  This time, Salty had chosen a westerly route from the compound.

  Six miles out and he had yet to come across another living creature, until he saw movement in a trough in the landscape where most of the snow had thawed.

  As he descended and the blades of the sled made their uncomfortable transition to the more rugged ground, he realised his tired eyes hadn’t deceived him.

  Four wolves were huddled around something that lay near the mouth of a small cave. They seemed to be feeding, but when one of the animals looked up from its meal, alerted by the snowmobile’s engine, it took off, and the other three followed, the white fur of their jowls stained pink from their prey.

  Salty cut the ignition and jumped from the vehicle before it had come to a halt. He kept his rifle handy just in case there were any remaining wolves inside the cave.

  Once he was certain the coast was clear, he glanced back to the snowmobile and saw that Anna hung back from the site.

  ‘What you waitin’ for, you chickenshit? They’re long gone,’ he said.

  The husky sniffed the air with caution, seemingly unconvinced by his assurances. After a few moments of scenting, she took some tentative steps towards the entrance of the cave.

  The carcass the wolves had left behind was so torn to shreds that it was difficult to distinguish what animal it used to be.

  Based on its colouring, Salty guessed an arctic fox. The first curious aspect he noticed about the reasonably fresh kill was the lack of blood.

  Due to the dismembering, the ground should have been soaked red around the corpse, but it was relatively clear, save for some fluids from its burst intestines.

  The second curiosity rested on Anna. When it came to animal remains, she would normally be right by his side, taking the scent. Instead, she had her back to him in a low stance, all her focus on the mouth of the cave, staring into the dark but shallow chamber.

  ‘What is it, girl?’

  He stepped away from the carcass and joined her, trying to circumvent the shadows to see what lay beyond them.

  A strong breeze blew over and into the trough, pulling the distinct hint of stale smoke from inside out into the open.

  It was enough to make Salty train his rifle on the entrance as he approached.

  As he’d suspected, he found the ashes of a modest campfire circled by rocks just inside. The ash looked fresh, no more than a day old. He knew there were likely to be Inuits in the area. He’d never seen one, but if anyone was able to survive in these conditions and avoid the dead, it would be them.

  It was then he witnessed the third and final curious thing—a discovery that chilled his bones the instant he laid eyes on it.

  A stand made from branch wood stood in the corner, anchored at its base with rocks. It was N-shaped, the separate elements entwined with what looked like fine plastic cord.

  Suspended between it by a piece of wire was another small animal. It was hanging upside down from its hind legs.

  He moved closer to it, having to crouch on account of the low cave ceiling. This carcass was also a fox, and as with the first, only a single drop of blood lay on the ground beneath it. Its skin had been peeled back, organs virtually white in colour.

  It was no method of hanging an animal he’d ever heard of. Its fur and flesh were unscathed. If it had been prepared for eating, no further process had taken place.

  He pinched the corpse by the scruff of its neck and turned its clouded eyes towards him. A small plastic tube protruded from the base of its neck. A hole just large enough to accommodate it had been cut into its flesh so the tube could be fed into its main artery.

  As far as Salty was concerned, this strange procedure could have only one purpose.

  He removed the tube and held it in a fist while he searched his mind for some kind of logical explanation for the discovery.

  Glancing over to his dog, he noticed she’d remained at the lip of the entrance, flatly refusing to follow him inside.

  ‘I wish you could talk right now, girl, but I’m afraid of what you’d tell me,’ he whispered.

  8

  Crawford tried to wrap her inadequate fur-trimmed jacket tighter around her body to protect against the cold wind of the evening.

  O.B. marched on in front, leading her from her cabin to the tractor garage and helicopter repair shop entrance to the main compound.

  Crawford scowled at the young man, still angry that he’d unceremoniously woken her by banging on her door as she was trying to sleep one off.

  When she got beneath the canopy in the tractor garage, she noticed the snowmobile wasn’t parked next to the Snowcat.

  ‘Salty not back yet?’ she said.

  ‘I told him we were starting at seven, same as you. It’s now five after,’ O.B. replied.

  He led her down the west corridor, past the kennels and workshop. Raine and Jason were waiting for them in the station man
ager’s office. Jason rocked on his heels in the corner, and Raine sat up on the desk table with one foot on the seat of the chair.

  ‘Where’s Foster?’ Crawford asked.

  ‘Good question,’ O.B. sniped.

  ‘She’s not coming,’ Raine said.

  ‘Why the hell not?’ Crawford asked.

  ‘She’s busy synthesising a new serum.’

  ‘A serum no one wants,’ O.B. said.

  Raine glanced his way and snorted indignantly.

  ‘Let’s just get down to it, shall we? I don’t think anyone here is under any illusions that we have a big problem,’ she said. ‘By my last calculations, even if we ration as conservatively as we can, we only have enough food to last another three weeks at best.’

  ‘The thaw hasn’t brought us any more luck either,’ Jason said. ‘We’ve talked about moving farther south before. Now that we can fly distance in weather, we could even try for Yellowknife.’

  ‘It’s too risky to take a small group like this into a city, even if we scout it out from the air first. Doesn’t mean we can’t check out the smaller towns nearby. A lot of the wildlife has probably moved inland in search of food,’ O.B. said.

  ‘I hate to be the one to piss on your parade, but my bird is running low on fuel, so wherever we go, we better be pretty confident we can replenish what we use getting there. Otherwise, we’ll be doing lots of walking,’ Crawford cut in.

  ‘I’m with Crawford,’ Raine said. ‘We don’t want to be flying around on an empty tank without a place to settle. Besides, Ethan’s in no condition to travel right now.’

  ‘Maybe that’s a separate conversation we need to have,’ O.B. said.

  ‘What’s he talking about?’ Crawford asked, looking to Raine.

  ‘Something that isn’t relevant or helpful to the issue at hand,’ she replied.

  ‘I beg to differ,’ O.B. said.

  They heard footsteps in the corridor coming towards them. The sound broke the tension in the room, and Salty and Anna soon appeared at the open doorway, covered in melting ice and snow.

  ‘Nice of you to join us,’ Jason said.

  ‘We were just talking about how to handle the food situation,’ Raine explained.

  ‘We start by being more organised with our searches. Mark out some grid references on the maps and work through it meticulously instead of winging it like we’ve been doing,’ O.B. said.

  ‘Can’t argue with that,’ Raine said. ‘And no more going it alone. From now on, we search in pairs.’

  ‘Fair enough. I don’t search alone anyway,’ Salty said.

  ‘I’m not talking about Anna,’ Raine replied.

  ‘You’d rather narrow the amount of ground we can all cover at once when our window of time keeps gettin’ smaller?’ Salty asked, removing his soggy hat and throwing it onto the table next to him.

  ‘It’s not like these solo runs are exactly bearing much fruit,’ Raine said. ‘How much food did you salvage today?’

  ‘I wouldn’t go settin’ the dinner table just yet,’ Salty said.

  ‘No surprise there, then,’ O.B. said. ‘Guess I can’t knock your dedication, even if it is misguided.’ He glanced across the room to Salty’s faithful husky, who remained close to her companion, transferring part of her weight against his right leg. ‘You understand the situation as much as anyone, Jake. If things carry on the way they’re heading, I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that some hard choices will have to be made.’

  Salty immediately forgot about his lowered body temperature and fatigue, eyeing O.B. with an untameable fire.

  ‘Listen up, Private Pyle. If I even sense that you’re thinking about bringing that subject up again, the rest of us are gonna have a much more exotic type of meat on the menu.’

  ‘You’d put your dog before any of us? That’s real communal of you,’ O.B. said.

  ‘Damn straight. Especially if that someone is your sorry ass.’ Salty’s body tensed with frustration, and O.B. showed he wasn’t afraid of him by raising his chin as an invitation.

  ‘Very entertaining. Now knock it off,’ Raine said, raising her voice. ‘We didn’t get together so you two could go at it. We need to come up with practical solutions to fill our empty stomachs before we’re too weak to do anything about it.’

  ‘I vote we do what O.B. suggested. We go over the maps and draw up areas to search, quadrant by quadrant,’ Jason said.

  ‘Before we do that, we might need to think about tightening the security around the compound,’ Salty said.

  ‘Why’s that?’ Crawford said.

  ‘I found somethin’ when I was out there today.’

  ‘Found what?’ O.B. asked.

  ‘A campsite about six miles west. They hadn’t long moved on. I picked up their trail enough to know they’re headin’ this way.’

  ‘May be a good thing,’ Jason said. ‘These people may have food. We’ve got plenty of weapons and medicine we could trade.’

  ‘I don’t think these folks have a mind to trade, Schaffer,’ Salty said.

  ‘What makes you say that?’ Jason asked.

  ‘Found some animal remains at the site. They’d been strung up and drained of blood with some amount of skill. They hadn’t removed the fur or used any of the meat either, just the blood.’

  They all looked at one another uneasily. All except Jason, who just shrugged.

  ‘Is that supposed to mean something?’ he asked.

  ‘It means we can assume they pose a clear and present threat to us for now,’ Raine said. ‘We’ll set up daily patrols of the surrounding area. Anyone strays beyond the markers around the edge of the site, they only do so in pairs. That includes you, Jake. All agreed?’

  ‘Sure,’ Jason said.

  O.B. nodded.

  ‘Crawford, you might want to consider grabbing your gear from your cabin and joining us in the main building,’ Raine said.

  Crawford shook her head.

  ‘Thanks for the offer, but I’ll take my chances,’ she said.

  ‘Suit yourself. Jake, you with us on this?’

  ‘I’ll take the first patrol tonight,’ he said.

  ‘Go get some rest. You’ve been out all day. O.B. can take the first shift. You can take over in the morning,’ Raine said.

  ‘I got it,’ O.B. said. He took one last defensive glance at Salty, then grabbed his gear and limped out into the corridor.

  Raine saw the concern scrawled across the craggy lines of Salty’s face, and it bothered her. She knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t worry over nothing.

  ‘Hey, we’ve got this. We know how to protect this place if it comes to that,’ she said.

  ‘You weren’t out there, Miller. You didn’t see it. Somethin’ ain’t right,’ he said.

  As always, everyone looked to Raine expectantly, and she knew she had to say something to make them feel they were in control.

  ‘I know everyone’s tired and hungry right now, but it’s more important than ever that we focus on what’s in front of us. Crawford, at first light, perform an aerial sweep of the area. Make sure we’re not gonna be entertaining company tomorrow.’

  ‘No problem,’ Crawford said.

  ‘In the morning, we’ll go out to search for supplies in pairs. Jason, you and O.B. take the Snowcat, and I’ll go with Jake in the sled.’

  ‘Sorry, girl. No room for you this time,’ Salty said, petting the back of Anna’s neck.

  ‘She can ride in the chopper with me,’ Crawford said.

  ‘We’ll coordinate the search and stay in radio contact the whole time,’ Raine said. ‘Try to get some sleep. We start early.’

  Salty, Anna, and Crawford filed out of the room to head to their quarters for the night.

  ‘You said we were cool earlier, and then you go and stick me with Oswald. No offence, but that kid creeps me out,’ Jason said.

  ‘Imagine if I paired him with Jake. Only one of them would co
me back alive,’ Raine said.

  ‘I’m not too confident either. Let’s hope he doesn’t get too hungry while we’re out there.’

  ‘You’ll be fine,’ Raine said. She smiled and traced her fingers along the outside of his arm. ‘Now come on. It’s bedtime.’

  ‘Yes, ma’am!’

  9

  Closing her eyes, Foster shuffled closer to the cascade of hot water emanating from the showerhead. It splashed against her face and ran down her body, soothing her aches and pains and washing away the grime of the dingy laboratory that had become her home over the last several months.

  The water felt like receiving a warm embrace. She wanted to remain under it for as long as possible, to keep her from a place she knew she had to return, but the hot water tank was relatively small, and she could already feel the temperature change on her skin. Her brief moment of solace was about to end.

  Rather than prolong the inevitable, she pushed the handle to shut off the flow and stepped out from around the screen.

  She quickly dried herself and slipped into her white robe to make the walk down the corridor to the lab.

  The secondary lights that were automatically triggered in the evenings as an energy-saving device cast a dull glow along the hallway. Foster hastened to escape the intermittent shadows they cast.

  When she’d been buried in the mountain bunker as part of the Lazarus Project, the isolation and emptiness of her surroundings had never bothered her. Her mind was always focussed on the job at hand, especially as she was working under her professional idol.

  In this new environment, being the only scientist amongst strangers who mistrusted her, the shadows in the corridors seemed like they could swallow her up whenever they felt the need to and no one would notice or care.

  Before she reached the swinging doors to the lab, she gathered her long hair together at her left shoulder and squeezed out some of the excess water with her towel. The tiny splashes on the floor were amplified by the quiet.

  She entered and gazed around the darkened room at the outlines of the workbenches and equipment. The distinct functionality of the place ignited her contempt, and she immediately wanted to turn back and retire to her quarters.