Below Zero

by Dan Smith

  Zak had been so worked up, so crazed, he hadn’t realized how far out he’d come. Now that he turned to see them rushing towards him, he realized he was halfway along the walkway. The wind was whistling around him, snatching away his cloudy breath.

  ‘What were you thinking?’ Mum said again as she threw her arms around him. ‘You could have been—’ She stopped, but Zak knew what she had been about to say.

  Killed. You could have been killed.

  ‘You went completely nuts,’ May said. ‘I mean, brilliant, but bonkers.’

  Zak grinned at her, adrenaline still firing through his body. He was on a high now, feeling strong. On top of the world. He felt as if he could take on a whole army of those things. Just him and his fire extinguisher.

  ‘Don’t run off like that again,’ Dad told him. ‘I think you’re starting to enjoy this a bit too much.’

  ‘Someone had to do something,’ Zak said.

  ‘Yeah, well.’ Dad shook his head. ‘It should have been me.’

  ‘I was fine. Look what I did.’ He pointed to the smashed-up Frankenstein’s monster lying at his feet. There were bits and pieces of it scattered across the walkway.

  ‘I guess we know what happened to the plane,’ May said.

  ‘How many more of them d’you think there are?’ Mum asked.

  ‘We need to check the other back-up files.’ Dad turned towards Refuge. ‘Maybe find out what happened to Sofia, see if there’s anything about BioMesa. We need to find a way to stop this.’

  Mum followed Dad back to Refuge, but Zak and May stayed where they were, fixated on the dead monster.

  ‘I really kicked its butt, didn’t I?’ Zak said.

  ‘Hey, don’t get cocky. The fire extinguisher was my idea.’

  ‘True,’ Zak admitted. ‘You were totally owning those creepy little things.’

  ‘I just imagined it was Vanessa and her clones.’

  Zak looked up at her. ‘You really hate her.’

  ‘Hate’s a strong word,’ May said. ‘But don’t forget, we’re talking about the girl who posted that picture of me all over social media. The one where I was dressed as Angelina Ballerina when I was, like, five or something.’

  ‘Good point.’

  ‘You did good, though, little bro.’ May punched his arm. ‘Come on.’ She shivered. ‘Let’s get inside.’ But when she turned to head back to Refuge, she stopped and reached out to grab Zak’s arm.

  ‘What?’ Startled, he spun around and immediately saw what was wrong.

  There were two people inside Refuge, heading along the corridor towards the office – but it wasn’t Mum and Dad. From their build, Zak thought they were both women, and they were wearing the same red jackets he had seen the settlers wearing in Sofia’s video. They must have climbed up the stairs from the ice, without anyone noticing.

  Zak looked at May, and she looked at him. She opened her mouth but didn’t say anything. The two of them stared at each other for several long seconds before May managed to get her words out. ‘Mum and Dad.’

  And that broke the spell.

  Zak dropped the fire extinguisher and they started to run, clomping along the walkway.

  ‘Hey!’ Zak shouted. ‘Mum! Dad!’

  They raced towards the two figures in red jackets.

  ‘Behind you!’ May yelled.

  When Zak and May were level with the steps descending to the ice on the right, the red-jackets reached the office.

  A few paces closer, and the door slipped open.

  By the time Zak and May reached the entrance to Refuge, the figures had entered the office and the door had closed behind them.

  ‘Mum! Dad!’ Zak’s voice was ragged from shouting. He thumped along the short corridor and slammed into the office door. He punched the button, but the door remained shut.

  ‘No! No, no, no, no!’ Zak hammered at the door opener.

  May banged her fists against the window.

  ‘No!’ Zak fumbled to pull open the emergency manual release, but still the door remained shut. All he could do now was watch helplessly through the window at the horror unfolding inside.

  Sofia’s mama and papa were inside the office, along with her brother, Pablo, and another one of the red-jacketed zombies. Crammed into the small space, two of them had grabbed Dad. They were holding him tight, as if they were hugging him. Or trying to squeeze him to death. Another two were doing the same to Mum. Both Mum and Dad were struggling, trying to move and shake them off, but the red-jackets were too strong.

  ‘Stop!’ May was shouting. ‘Please!’

  Zak yanked the emergency lever again and banged on the release button, but nothing worked. Giving up, he joined May, hammering on the window, but the red-jackets were not distracted from their task.

  ‘Break it,’ May shouted at Zak. ‘We need to break it!’

  Zak grabbed the fire extinguisher from beside the entrance. He turned it endways on and smashed it as hard as he could against the window – THUD! The reinforced glass was too strong, and the fire extinguisher bounced back, hitting him in the face.

  ‘Give it to me!’ May told him.

  THUD! This time Zak was ready for the impact but still the window wouldn’t break.

  Inside, the red-jackets held on to Mum and Dad as insects began to emerge from their cuffs. Black and shining, the first ones scuttled out from Pablo’s sleeve and ran across his hand.

  Zak hit the window again.

  Insects crawled out from the neckline of their jackets, from beneath the hems, pouring over their bodies, covering their arms, turning them black.

  THUD!

  The bugs scurried over Mum and Dad’s shoulders, rushing up their necks and smothering their faces.

  THUD!

  More and more of them poured out from inside the red-jackets’ clothes. Some of them took to the air, shimmering in a translucent dance, swirling together, moving in the same way Zak had seen inside the lab. Like he had seen in his vision. And after a few seconds, some of them displayed fluorescent yellow spots and began to move faster and faster, creating a hypnotic double spiral pattern.

  THUD!

  ‘What are they doing?’ May shouted. ‘What’s happening?’

  The bugs on Dad’s face began to shed their hard casings, the armour falling away to reveal the ugly translucent things inside. Narrow, soft and segmented, with too many legs, and an earwig-like pincer at the end of their bodies.

  The same was happening to Mum. The insects crawling over her mouth and nose began to emerge from their armour. Mum and Dad were shaking their heads, fighting against the red-jackets, but neither of them could break away, neither of them could dislodge the creatures clinging to their bodies.

  Zak was filled with horror and revulsion when he saw one of the soft insects try to push into Dad’s mouth. Dad bit down, cutting it in half with a splurge of goo, but when he tried to spit it out, another slipped between his lips and disappeared beneath his tongue. Beside him, one of the monsters extended its segmented tail into Mum’s nostril, the pincer-like tip feeling its way into her nose. It latched on and constricted, pulling itself inside.

  Smash! The window gave in, shattering tiny fragments into the office and letting out a blast of warm air, but Zak was too late.

  The red-jackets released Mum and Dad, leaving them both standing bolt upright, arms by their sides. Their eyes were wide, their chests heaving with fear and exhaustion as the remaining armourless insects pushed into their mouths, disappearing from view.

  The rest of the insects spread their wings and joined the others in that hypnotic, spiral dance.

  Dad tried to speak. His mouth opened and closed, like a fish out of water, gasping for life. His eyes bulged, his body trembled and . . . he stopped. His eyes softened and he stared ahead, his face blank. His breathing slowed to a steady beat, and his jaw slackened. ‘Join us.’

  ‘Oh no.’ May stepped back. ‘No. Please. No.’

  Mum’s breathing returned to normal. Her expression r
elaxed and her eyes glazed over. ‘Join us.’

  Zak couldn’t move. His mind was swirling. His muscles were numb.

  ‘Join us.’

  ‘Stop saying that!’ May screamed.

  The black cloud of insects buzzed and clattered and flickered with colour. It spun in the air inside the office, gathering itself together, shifting direction and swarming towards the broken window.

  Zak’s thoughts darkened. An ache pulsed deep inside his head, beating in time with his heart. The world around him began to disappear and he saw faded images in his mind. He saw a sea of writhing insects begin to form. He saw ancient explorers on the ice, beckoning to him. He saw mountains and forests and creatures crawling from boiling seas.

  The feeling in his legs began to slip away, his body becoming weightless and—

  May wrenched the fire extinguisher from his grip, her sudden movement breaking the spell that held Zak in place. Without even thinking, he moved out of her way as May lifted the nozzle of the fire extinguisher and pointed it at the jagged hole in the reinforced glass. She stepped back and squeezed the handle.

  As the insects streamed out into the corridor, May hit them with a long jet of carbon dioxide. The force of it was strong enough to break up the swarm, scattering bugs everywhere. They pitter-pattered like hard rain as they spun away into the walls and fell to the floor.

  May didn’t stop until the extinguisher was empty and the corridor was filled with a fog of carbon dioxide. The white cloud surrounded them, but it quickly dissipated into the cold air, revealing the insects on the pale blue floor – some crawling in a daze, others on their backs, struggling to turn over. Zak crushed two under his boot, but before he could do it again, May dropped the spent fire extinguisher and grabbed him by the arm, trying to pull him away.

  ‘No, wait.’ He pushed her off. ‘We have to kill them.’

  ‘There’s too many,’ May told him. ‘And look.’

  Zak glanced into the office and saw the red-jackets advancing towards the door. Mum and Dad had joined them, blank-faced and terrifying.

  On the floor, the insects were recovering, opening their wings and buzzing like wasps as they began to take to the air once more.

  ‘We have to run,’ May shouted. ‘Now!’

  OUTPOST ZERO, ANTARCTICA

  NOW

  So they ran.

  There was nothing else for them to do.

  Zak and May left Mum and Dad behind, and they ran for their lives. With insects filling the air behind them like a diseased cloud, Zak and May retreated through Refuge and burst out on to the walkway. It was difficult to run in heavy boots and layers of clothing, but they were fuelled by the terror of what would happen to them if they stayed still. The thought of those insects crawling on them, working their way inside them.

  The clatter of wings was drowned by the sound of their boots on the metal walkway, but Zak knew the insects were there. He knew they wouldn’t stop until everybody at Outpost Zero was . . . what? Infected? Controlled? He had no idea what the insects were trying to do, but he was sure of one thing: if he ended up like the red-jackets – like Mum and Dad – there would be no one to help. There would be no one to put this right. So Zak pushed himself as hard as he could, trying to keep up with May. But as they came close to the end of the walkway, the door to The Hub slid open and light spilt out towards them.

  May came to a stop, her boots skidding on the icy metal, and Zak collided into her, getting a faceful of his sister’s coat. The two of them stumbled forwards, grabbing the railing for support, startled by the red-jackets waiting for them inside The Hub. Zak reckoned there must have been at least ten of them standing there, all with their hands out, insects crawling over their arms and necks.

  ‘Why won’t you leave us alone!’ May screamed as the red-jackets stepped out of The Hub and into the cold.

  Zak’s first reaction was to run the other way, but when he turned round, he saw Mum and Dad, and the others advancing towards them, insects swirling above their heads in a cloud.

  ‘We’re trapped,’ Zak said.

  ‘I’m not going to end up like them.’

  Zak scanned in both directions along the walkway, then leant over the handrail beside him. ‘Only one way out of this.’ The ground was about five metres below and looked like a bed of snow.

  ‘Over there?’ May said. ‘You’re serious?’

  ‘You got a better idea?’

  ‘I guess not.’ May pulled up on to the railing and swung her legs over. Zak climbed up beside her.

  They sat on the railing with their legs dangling over the long drop to the ice below.

  ‘You ready?’ May asked.

  ‘No.’ Zak forced a smile. ‘Definitely not.’ Then he pushed himself off.

  The fall was brief. There was just a moment of weightlessness before Zak hit the ground. He had expected it to be soft, but he was wrong. The wind had blown some of the snow into shallow drifts around the walkway supports, and Zak was lucky enough to land in one of those, but it wasn’t much more than a few centimetres deep. As soon as he touched down, he bent his knees to absorb the impact, letting his energy take him forwards into a roll. But what he thought would be cat-like and agile, actually turned into a face plant. His legs crumpled, his arms folded beneath him and he slammed forward into the shallow drift.

  A second later, May came down with a thump and collapsed on top of him, knocking the air out of his lungs. ‘Oof.’

  As soon as he regained his breath, Zak pushed his sister off and got to his feet. He held out a hand to help her up. ‘You OK?’

  ‘I think so.’

  His knees ached from the landing, and his ankle was hurting from a mild twist, but he had other concerns. Above them, the sound of boots on the metal walkway had stopped. Zak stood back and craned his neck to see the underside of the punched metal, the dark shapes of the red-jackets.

  ‘What now?’ May said. ‘Where do we go now?’

  ‘Hub.’ He turned to his sister. ‘Yeah. The Hub. We’ll go underneath, then in through the front.’

  Zak glanced up at the walkway one more time, and began trudging across the snow as quickly as he could. May hurried alongside him as they headed towards the struts supporting The Hub. To their right, the Drone Bay skulked like a shadowy presence, and Zak half expected the lift to whir into action, but it remained silent.

  ‘Are they following?’ May looked over her shoulder.

  ‘I don’t think so.’ Zak picked up his pace, pushing himself harder. The thought of those zombie people out there, hiding in the shadows, filled him with terror. He and May had to find somewhere safe and warm. Somewhere to hide. Somewhere to defend themselves.

  But as he grabbed May’s coat sleeve, encouraging her to hurry, he heard a steady rhythm beating on the ice. A Spider.

  Tick-tack-tick-tack. Tick-tack-tick-tack.

  ‘Oh my God, it’s coming!’ May’s voice was tight and high. ‘It’s coming!’

  They thought they were already moving as quickly as they could, but when they heard the sound behind them, they found something extra. They pushed themselves harder and fixed their eyes on the nearest corner of The Hub.

  The sub-zero air hurt Zak’s lungs with every breath he sucked in.

  Almost there.

  The Spider was gaining on them.

  Tick-tack-tick-tack.

  It was so close now. Zak could hear its metal parts working; the hydraulics pumping in and out, the joints clicking and clacking.

  Keep going.

  Ahead, a thick steel strut rose from the ice, supporting The Hub a couple of metres above the ground. All Zak had to do was get to it. Not much further and he would be safe for a while at least. The Spider would be too big to follow them under there.

  Usually, Zak laughed at May’s peculiar, legs-out-to-the-side running style, and she laughed along with him, exaggerating it when they played on the field near their house. But right now, the unusual running style was helping her. Instead of having to dra
g her boots through the snow, she was clearing it with every step, and she managed to forge a few paces in front of Zak. When she reached The Hub, she threw her legs out in front of her and skidded to safety.

  May picked herself up and turned to watch Zak approach. ‘Run!’ she screamed at him. ‘Run!’ She waved her hands, beckoning as if it might somehow make him run faster.

  But Zak didn’t need May to tell him. He could feel the Spider coming closer and closer. The ground was shaking beneath him; the sound of its clicks and whirrs were echoing in his ears. He felt the warmth of its batteries and the approaching darkness of another vision just before he planted both feet on the ground and pushed off with as much force as he could muster.

  Zak put out his hands and dived under The Hub. He landed in the snow and skidded to a halt beside his sister. Behind him, there was a heavy thud as the Spider collided with the lowest edge of building, and the dark vision that had threatened to suffocate Zak disappeared. He sat up to see the machine reeling as it tried to maintain its balance.

  In the light from the now clear sky, he could see the muscle and sinew glistening on the underside of the Spider.

  ‘We have to keep going.’ Zak took May’s hand and they helped each other to their feet. ‘I’m not waiting for that thing to come to its senses.’

  They left the Spider reeling from its collision, and hurried along beneath The Hub, heading towards the front where it faced the airstrip. When Zak had been inside the building, it hadn’t felt so big, but now he was outside, and in a hurry, it seemed enormous. Zak felt as if he was in a bad dream, running towards something that never gets any closer.

  Halfway across, Zak heard a thump and glanced back to see the Spider scurrying over the ice behind the Hub. It was too big to crawl beneath the buildings, and had to make its way around the entire base, but it was still desperate to catch its prey. It moved quickly, so close to the back of the Hub that it banged against it with every third or fourth step, skittering and slipping as it changed direction to stumble past the Science labs. But it wouldn’t be fast enough. Zak and May would reach the front before it completely regained its senses and caught them.