“Were those soldiers your friends? Do you guys have any idea what’s going on? Where have these creatures come from? Why are we all alive but everyone else was killed?”
Dominic replied gently “We don’t really know what’s going on either Laura. Or where these things have come from. All we know is that something strange appeared on a satellite image a week or so ago not too far from Amundsen-Scott. With regards to why we’re alive and everyone else is dead I don’t know – both Joe and I have lived through a previous attack just like you”.
“I though you said the coastal bases didn’t get attacked?”
“They didn’t. Joe and I were on an earlier mission to try to find out what happened to the central bases. My platoon was wiped out. Only Joe and I were left alive”.
“And you survived again a second time just like I did? Do you, do we have some sort of immunity?”
“I guess so. What that is I have no idea but I agree it can’t just be coincidence”.
He came in at this point. “You’re right Laura we do seem to have some sort of protection. I’ve been thinking, maybe we ought to try to use that to our advantage”.
Dominic looked over at him “What do you mean?”
“Well you’re not going to like this but I’m thinking that maybe we ought to see if we can find out a bit more about that black dot on the satellite image”.
“Seriously?”
“Yes seriously. Laura I’m assuming you’ve got some snow tracks here?”
“Of course. I didn’t bother trying to use them as they only have a couple of hundred miles of range and that’s not far enough to get off the plateaux properly but they were working fine last week”.
“We don’t need them to get off the plateaux. But we could use one of them to get closer to where the black spot was – I doubt it’s more than 50 miles from here.”
Dominic didn’t look too happy. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”
“Listen Dominic although it doesn’t seem like it right now I think we might have been thrown a bit of a bone here. For a start we have a chopper outside that I’m pretty sure we could use to get back to Halley. Do you think you can fly it?”
“I don’t know it came down with quite a thump after the pilots were killed. I’d have to give it the once over, check the systems, see if I can figure out how to fly it. I’ve done about three weeks training in a helicopter in my entire life and that was right near the beginning of my flight rotation. I’m more of a fixed wing pilot.”
“Ok I understand it might not be possible but I can’t see us getting out of here without it so that should be your number one priority. While you’re doing that I’m thinking I could take a a snow track out and see if I can get a bit closer to wherever those creatures came from. What do you think?”
“I think the meek and mild geologist I used to know has gone slightly crazy – but then again I can’t see anyone else getting closer than we are now. When do you want to do this?”
“Now. I don’t want to remain here a moment longer than we have to”
Laura had remained quiet while Dominic and Joe talked but she piped up when the conversation paused.
“Dr Harper I think you’re absolutely crazy and I’ve absolutely no desire to go any closer to wherever you think those things came from but you’re both talking like I’m not even here and I’m not spending another moment in this graveyard of my friends a moment more than I have to.” She shifted her gaze directly on to him “If you go in the snow track I want to come with you”.
Dominic shook his head. “Laura listen I don’t think that’s a good idea”. But Laura wasn’t looking at him she was looking at him. He looked at her for a moment or two and then nodded. “Fine you can film while I drive, I’m assuming there must be a couple of video camera’s round here somewhere?”
“There are. We use them to record puff pieces for the website but I think if I’m going I’ll drive – I know the area better than you do and you can film.”
An hour and half later he and Laura were in one of the Amundsen-Scott snow tracks heading towards where they believed the black structure was. It had taken them that long to drag the bodies of the Navy Seals over to where Laura had laid her friends and colleagues to rest. The ground was too hard to dig graves but there was an old lean to 30 metres or so from the main building that had been there since the early 20th Century. Laura had placed the 40 or so bodies to one side of it and covered the bodies with a tarpaulin weighed down with old gas canisters. He and Dominic had moved the bodies of Captain Harkin and his team to lie with the other Americans. They’d all stood for a moment in silence when they’d finished but no one felt moved to say any words.
He and Laura had left Dominic busily trying to work out whether he could get the helicopter off the ground and whether he could actually fly it if they got that far. Dominic had found a couple of flight manuals and seemed reasonably sure he could make an attempt at getting them back to Halley. Laura was driving the track; she’d given him a look that brooked no disagreement when he’d asked if she was sure she didn’t want him to. He held two handheld video camera’s picked up from the abandoned and forlorn looking desk of one of Laura’s Amundsen-Scott colleagues.
He felt tense but it wasn’t so much fear than a sort of anticipation. He was taking control of an out of control situation and that had given him some purpose and if not confidence at least some order that he was using to fend off the fear. They needed to try to find out what they could in order that everyone could try to understand what the hell was going on. When Laura had asked him which way to go he’d told her to head towards the still rising smoke on the horizon.
Laura was proving to be something of an enigma, she’d seemed completely fragile when she’d burst into tears shortly after they’d just met but he realised she was tougher than she looked. Despite being left alone at the South Pole surrounded by dead colleagues with no outside contact and what looked like an entirely hopeless situation she’d managed to hold herself together – he couldn’t help but be impressed by that. At the moment she was completely focused on the drive, her hair had been pulled back behind her in a ponytail and her pale, attractive face was fixed in concentration on the task in hand. The ground in front of the track was far from smooth and she kept her eyes ranging over the land as she manoeuvred the vehicle around the icy obstructions. He noted her smooth elegant hands gripping the track controls in a firm but professional manner.
“See anything you like?”
He started at the comment and for the first time in years he felt a slight blush come upon him. She’d obviously noticed him looking at her. “No no. I mean yes I mean sorry?”
“You’re staring. Shouldn’t you be looking out for signs of your black dot?”
“Yes yes I should” he picked up the camera to give the impression he was actually doing something and looked forward out of the cab window. A hint of a smile passed fleetingly across Laura’s face as he did this.
They reached the crash site shortly afterwards. There wasn’t much to see. Whatever had brought down the helicopters it had also set off all the choppers armaments and debris, mixed with bits of charred flesh, was strewn over a large area. Laura skirted round it as best she could while Joe filmed the wreckage – it wasn’t a pleasant sight. Laura tried to keep her eyes away from the still smouldering detritus. 20 minutes later he told her to stop. There was a black smudge on the horizon and the now familiar silvery lights had appeared from in front of it.
“Open your cab door Laura” he said as he opened his and the chill hit them both with a vengeance blowing the heated air that had previously surrounded them into the ether.
“Open my door?”
“Yes unless you want them to rip it off or cut through the glass like they did to the last snow track I was in. We want them to know we’re the ones they don’t kill.”
“Are you sure that will work?”
“No but I’m guessing it will prevent them from leaving us with
a freezing ride back - assuming they don’t kill us – third time’s the charm hey?” He paused. “If they do kill us it was nice to meet you Laura. I wish it could have been under better circumstances”.
Laura opened her door and then grabbed his ungloved hand with hers. “Same here Joe.”
They sat in silence as the metallic creatures approached at an incredibly fast but constant speed. Within a few seconds the creatures were clattering up the steps of the snow track and running across the roof of the cab but as they’d done at Amundsen-Scott they kept their distance. After assuring themselves of their harmlessness the metallic creatures retreated back the way they’d came. He had been holding the video camera in his right hand the whole time, when they left he stopped recording. Laura let out a breath. “Looks like you were right Joe. It doesn’t seem like we’ll be dying today.”
He took several breaths trying to slow his pounding heart. “I guess not. Ok let’s see if we can get any closer to that black smudge”. Even though he said this neither of them moved for a moment or two, their hands still clasped firmly together. He didn’t want to be the first to let go but with a sense of reluctance removed his hand from Laura’s and closed his door. Laura gave him a sideways glance and then did the same before moving the track along the path of the flattened snow, compressed by the footsteps of thousands of metallic creatures. He picked up both cameras and set them to record; one he kept in his hand the other he placed up on the dash of the cab.
Laura asked “Why two?”
“In case one doesn’t work and also to help convince others that what we’re seeing isn’t faked”.
“You sound like you speak from experience”.
“You could say that.”
They lapsed into silence again as the black smudge turned into a squat tower like structure. It was only when Joe did a range finding using a rifle scope he’d brought with him did they fully understand the size of it. Whatever it was it was massive. Even at more than two kilometres away it impressed itself upon them. A kilometre closer and he could see it was circular in dimension. Maybe 80 storeys high. When they were half a kilometre away he called a halt. He could feel both his and Laura’s confidence eroding. The structure looked absolutely terrifying. Not so much from its shape or size or look which were frightening enough but because it just felt wrong, Joe thought it just shouldn’t be here. There was no nation on earth that could have built this without someone noticing it way before they had which was only 7 days ago. “Laura. I think I’ve seen enough. I’m just going to zoom in on both cameras and then I think we’ll call it a day. Those creatures were terrifying enough but having seen where they’ve come from I feel like we may have pushed our luck far enough for one day”.
“Joe I can barely speak for how scared I’m feeling. I don’t think that’s been made by man Joe. Look at it. It’s completely black and there doesn’t seem to be any windows or doors or in fact any indentations of any kind. It’s like someone has got a black metal drainpipe magnified it a million times and shoved it into the ground. It’s also huge. Maybe 300 metres across and what a kilometre high?”
“Maybe more. We need to take what we’ve learnt and try and get back” At this he increased the magnification on the camera he was holding and pushed the zoom button on the camera he’d placed on the dash. “There don’t seem to be any flaws at all in the surface of it – it’s completely smooth. Ok that’s enough of this. Let’s turn round and head back.”
Laura turned the track around and brought the track up to its maximum speed. Her hands were white as a result of the pressure she was exerting on the controls. He kept his eyes firmly on the side mirrors attached to the track, watching the monstrous structure slowly grow smaller and smaller again as they put more and more distance between it and them. Only when it was once again a black smudge did he tear his eyes away from the mirror.
“That wasn’t built by the Russians for sure. That looked like it was….”
Laura interrupted him “…built by….”
They both said it as the same time. “Aliens.”
____________________________________________________________
The journey back proved as uneventful as the journey there had proved eventful. Neither Joe nor Laura had spoken much. Their brains still trying to process the sheer strangeness of the structure they’d seen. Arriving back at Amundsen-Scott they’d found Dominic hovering the helicopter off the ground about 50 metres above them. Even helmeted up Dominic looked extremely pleased with himself as he landed the chopper and waved them over. They jogged over and Joe indicated to Dominic that they should take off and head back to Halley. He and Laura then began strapping themselves in, Joe helping Laura to put on the necessary harness and show her how to put the headphones on and turn on the speaker and microphone. This all required a fair bit of physical interaction which he wasn’t sure what Laura thought about but she didn’t seem to react negatively to the fact that he was putting his hands all over her. Only as he leant back into his own seat and began strapping himself in did she look over at him and give him a shy smile. To distract himself from Laura’s gaze he flicked on his microphone and spoke to Dominic. “Dominic looking good. Do you think you can get us back to Halley without crashing?”
“Can’t promise anything Captain but I’ll give it a hell of a go. Hold tight I’m taking her up”.
Dominic pulled back on the rotor controls and lifted the helicopter off the ground slowly at first and then with increasing speed before he pushed forwards on the stick and initiated forward movement. They were airborne. Joe felt relief flood through him even though they were still over 500 miles from Halley in an American Apache helicopter being flown by a Royal Marine with three weeks training. Joe couldn’t explain it but he felt almost happy. Happier than he’d felt in a long time. He suspected that this must be some sort of a neurological effect given earlier in the day he’d watched a team of Seals be slaughtered in front of his eyes prior to discovering some sort of Alien structure slap back in the middle of the continent on which he spent most of the last two years working. Even looking at the awfulness of the situation, he felt alive. He felt more alive than at any time since he’d left the army 10 years ago.
Dominic came on the radio. “Ok I think I’ve got the hang of this to a greater or lesser extent and the further we fly away from Amundsen-Scott the easier it appears to be to fly. What did you guys find?”
“We found the end of the world as we know it.” Joe hadn’t meant to be quite so brutal but realised that actually maybe that’s exactly what they’d discovered.
Laura joined in “We found a huge black structure the size of a skyscraper which looked just like it had just come out of a sci-fi novel”.
“Are telling me those silver crab creatures are extra-terrestrials? Aliens?” Dominic sounded unconvinced.
Joe backed Laura up “Dominic I’d be the first person to tell you this was a crock of shit. But I’m telling you that unless the Russians have been hiding a construction company in the middle of Antarctica and have discovered as yet undiscovered new technologies there is a huge black cylinder of a building 300 metres wide and almost a kilometre tall that looks so terrifying an ex Special Forces soldier with nothing to lose was unable to get closer than half a kilometre without wanting to shit his pants.”
“You’re not fucking around with me are you?”
“No unfortunately I’m not. I’ll show you the video when we get to Halley. Hey wait a second what’s that on the ground below.” Joe unstrapped himself to get a better view – Laura moved to do the same but he waved her back to her seat – he didn’t want her breaking her neck if they hit a turbulence pocket.
“Joe I think that looks like our friends returning to whence they came. I’m turning on the video surveillance camera attached to the gun turret.”
“That is a hell of a lot of creatures. What do you think 10,000 more?”
O-Negative: Extinction Page 23