Ice Rift - Siberia

by Ben Hammott

  EV1L 2.0 looked at the bright light and snarled at the human that had spotted it. Flinching from the loud retorts reverberating throughout the level, it leapt onto the far wall, narrowly escaping the bullets peppering the floor. It sprung from the wall, crashed through the cracked glass and landed on the human’s chest. It savagely raked claws down the man’s face, shredding flesh until the panicked firing ceased. As he rode the screaming man to the ground, it focused on the human across the room.

  Buckner spun at the sound of gunfire and glimpsed a small vicious creature crash through the glass. He dropped the charge he was preparing when Kessler screamed, and snatched the weapon from his shoulder when the creature ripped at his friend’s face. As he brought the rifle to bear on the creature, it leapt from Buckner’s chest and rushed at him. His years of experience counted for nothing against the alien being. Fear gripped him. He frantically pulled the trigger before he had the creature in his sights. Bullets racked gouges in the floor, sending the creature leaping to the side. The creature moved so damn quick it was impossible to hit. He released his finger on the trigger when he lost sight of it. His eyes, weapon and light jerked around the room. His hands trembled. As black as the surrounding darkness, the alien could come at him from any direction. He glimpsed a light moving towards his position through the transparent walls. Colbert was coming to help.

  Buckner’s eyes raised to the ceiling. His weapon light quickly followed. Caught in the beam, the creature shrieked and dropped. Bullets passed harmlessly through the gaps that opened in the creature and struck the ceiling. Buckner screamed and grabbed a hand at the creature that landed on his head. His fingers found nothing solid, only a stretchy, glutinous mass that wrapped around his hand. He screamed again when his flesh melted and dropped his weapon when he collapsed to the floor.

  In agony from the burning pain dissolving his flesh, the last thing Buckner saw before the Black flowed over his eyes, was the red light of the explosive charge he had dropped. His remaining hand grabbed it and brought it to his chest. Fighting the pain and unconsciousness creeping up fast, he advanced the timer. His screams ended when merciful oblivion claimed him.

  RICHARD HALTED IN THE corridor and stared through the glass wall at the dark pulsating shape suspended from the ceiling.

  Richard jumped when Colbert touched his shoulder. “Is that a cocoon?”

  Recalling the slug monster he had encountered in the bowels of the spaceship, Richard scrutinized the hanging mass as a fearful shiver flowed through him. “We had better hope that’s all it is.” He turned to Colbert. “We should leave.”

  “We’ll leave when the charges are set, not before.” He nudged Richard into the laboratory. “We’ll plant the bulk of the explosives in here. It should be close enough to destroy whatever that thing is.”

  Colbert followed Richard through. He roamed his flashlight and weapon over the foul wriggling things trapped within rubbery pods on the floor in the adjoining laboratory before concentrating on the bulbous mass in the middle of room. Both men watched a slippery sack slurp from a tube attached to the cocoon. After a few seconds of inactivity, whatever monstrosity was encased within began to move, pressing its ever-changing form against its pliable prison.

  Richard took in the many eggs littering the room, all of which seemed about to hatch, and the glass barrier separating them. It seemed far too flimsy to hold back what he pictured would shortly erupt from the alien egg sacs. He looked at Colbert. “Again, we should leave.”

  Colbert ignored Richard’s request and slipped his weapon strap over a shoulder. “Hand me three charges.”

  Sighing, Richard pulled three explosive charges from the rucksack and handed them to Colbert. “Hurry, as I think some of those eggs are about to hatch.”

  “Trust me, I don’t plan on lingering.” Colbert made his way around the room planting the charges. He spun to face the weapon fire erupting from the far side of the laboratories. Bursts of rifle fire strobed Kessler’s silhouetted form and briefly highlighted the creature attacking him.

  When Richard heard the gunfire, he knew it signaled the slaughter had begun. He grabbed Colbert’s arm to halt him when the man moved to the exit. The damn fool was going to try and help them. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Buckner and Kessler are as good as dead.”

  Kessler’s horrified scream cut short reinforced Richard’s conclusion.

  Colbert shrugged away Richard’s grip. “Stay here if you want, but I’m going to help my men.”

  “What’s the point of going to the trouble of getting me here when you ignore my advice?”

  “Maybe I just like seeing you suffer.” Colbert rushed from the room.

  Richard had no flashlight. Unless he wanted to wait in the pitch black with the egg laying monstrosity and its soon-to-hatch brood close by, he had no choice other than to run after Colbert.

  As they sprinted towards a second burst of gunfire, Richard briefly thought of shooting Colbert in the back, grabbing his weapon equipped with a flashlight and leaving, but he decided it might be beneficial to his health to hold off until he’d first determined the level of the threat they foolishly rushed towards.

  Colbert entered the laboratory, cast his gaze over Kessler’s corpse, his ripped face and the pooled blood around his head, then across the room at Buckner. Black substance covered the man’s head and slowly oozed down his chest. His eyes focused on the red rapidly blinking light by Kessler’s hand and the bag of explosives too close to escape the blast when the charge erupted. He spun, almost stumbling over Richard snatching up Kessler’s rifle.

  Colbert shoved Richard towards the exit. “Run!”

  Glimpsing the prophetic flashing red LED, Richard was more than willing to obey the command. The damn SEALs were almost as dangerous as the aliens.

  They dashed from the room and sprinted along the corridor. When they reached the hall, a loud explosion rang out. An even louder, more violent blast followed in its wake. Glass, metal and pieces of unrecognizable scientific equipment broke into thousands of fragments to become deadly shrapnel spraying in all directions. Blown off their feet by the confined blast funneled through the level, Colbert slammed into Richard and both were thrown to the floor.

  Carried by the blast, shards fashioned from multiple material, all with edges as lethal as any blade or claw, shot over them. Debris rained down around the men, clanged down the corridor, became embedded in the walls, floor and ceiling. A few pieces pierced flesh.

  When the explosion subsided, Richard raised his head at the chaos around him and the smoke drifting down the corridor. Feeling the weight pressing him to the floor, he at first thought part of the ceiling had collapsed on him. When groans close to his ear indicated what trapped him, he squirmed and pushed Colbert off. As soon as he was free of the man’s weight, Richard sat up and examined his body for wounds. Miraculously, he had received none.

  Groans nearby brought his gaze to Colbert, who hadn’t been so lucky. A jagged twist of metal protruding from the man’s left shoulder and two long slivers of glass in his side and right leg were highlighted in Colbert’s weapon light, which had landed a short distance away. Colbert had shielded Richard when he fell atop him and took the full brunt of the shrapnel. Richard grinned. Lady Luck was still with him.

  With his ears ringing, Richard slipped the pistol Colbert had given him earlier into a pocket and retrieved the rifle he had taken from Kessler’s corpse. He climbed to his feet and aimed the weapon at Colbert, bathing the prone man in the tactical flashlight.

  Colbert opened his dazed eyes, painfully sat up and ran his gaze over Richard’s uninjured form and then at the three large fragments sticking from his flesh. “How in hell’s name did you remain unscathed?”

  Richard shrugged. “You fell on top of me, which I now assume wasn’t an intentional act to save me from harm.”

  “No, it damn well wasn’t! Geesh, you lead a charmed life.”

  “Not really.” Richard put a hand to his leg. “I didn’
t escape completely unharmed. I banged my knee when you knocked me to the floor.”

  “Quick, call a medic. Richard has a bruise on his knee,” quipped Colbert.

  “Oh, I don’t think I hit it hard enough to bruise.”

  When Richard noticed Colbert’s weapon a short distance away and out of reach of its owner, he sensed an opportunity he might not get again. His plan to head for the elevator and flee was thwarted by running footsteps heading nearer. Cursing inwardly, he noticed Colbert grinning at him, as if the man guessed what he had been about to do.

  Richard shrugged and looked at Sullivan and Dalton. “Colbert’s wounded.”

  “What the hell happened?” asked Sullivan, taking in the wreckage. “We heard the explosion.”

  The man’s accusing gaze wasn’t lost on Richard. “It was nothing I did. Buckner and Kessler were attacked and killed by the alien.”

  “That doesn’t explain the explosion,” argued Dalton. His weapon jerked along the corridor when an iron girder from the weakened structure crashed to the floor.

  Wincing from the pain radiating out from his wounds, Colbert glanced at the destroyed labs. Though the right-side labs had been destroyed and every pain of glass around the epicenter of the explosion had blown out or cracked, the left-side group of labs remained more or less intact.

  Colbert turned to Dalton. “As Richard said, Buckner and Kessler were attacked, and both were dead by the time we reached them. Buckner was responsible for the explosion. He must have advanced the timer on a charge before he died, probably an attempt to kill the creature that attacked them.”

  Sullivan gripped the twisted seven-inch piece of metal in Colbert’s shoulder. “You ready? It’s gonna hurt.”

  Colbert gritted his teeth and nodded. He grimaced when it was pulled free.

  “Did it work?” asked Dalton, staring at the wreckage for signs of movement. “Is the creature dead?”

  Richard shrugged and waved an arm at the destroyed laboratories. “You’re welcome to go find out, but an explosion killed one a lot larger in Antarctica, so hopefully Buckner’s death wasn’t a complete waste.”

  “I wouldn’t go down that route,” warned Dalton, stepping threateningly close to Richard.

  Richard stepped back. “You can cut out the macho bullshit, your friends are dead, end of story. We aren’t and have more important things to worry about.” He pointed back at the laboratories that remained relatively intact. “There’s a huge, alien, egg-laying monster back there and a roomful of eggs about to hatch. If you don’t want to suffer the same horrendous fate as your buddies, I strongly urge we take that elevator out of here ASAP.”

  “Great! The alien’s breeding,” moaned Dalton. “Can this mission get more fucked up?”

  “We’re not leaving until the mission’s completed,” stated Colbert, flinching when Sullivan removed the two shards of glass from his side and leg. “We still have the remaining charges to set and the egg-laying alien to destroy.”

  Sullivan helped Colbert to his feet. Though none of his wounds were overly serious, they seeped blood and needed attention.

  Aware the soldiers wouldn’t let him leave, and their chances of survival were slim if the alien eggs hatched, Richard knew he’d have to take matters into his own hands if he was going to survive. The longer he remained in the secret facility the more chance he had of being killed. Also, the Russians were on their way and could arrive at any moment. If they were discovered violating one of their secret bases he couldn’t see them letting them walk away. They’d be killed or interrogated and imprisoned in a gulag, events he wished to avoid at all costs. He picked up his dropped bag of explosive charges, set one of the timers for seventeen hundred hours and dropped it back into the bag with the others.

  Richard turned to the soldiers watching him. “Dalton, you’re with me. Sullivan, you help Colbert to the elevator and wait for our return.”

  “What are you up to, Richard?” enquired Colbert, suspecting bringing Richard along was about to pay off.

  “I’m going to complete your damn suicide mission for you. There’s a roomful of those aliens about to be born, and I can’t see how we can fight them all if one managed to take out your two buddies.” Richard nodded at the bag slung over Dalton’s shoulder. “How many charges you got left?”

  Dalton looked to his commander for guidance. When Colbert nodded, he glanced in the bag. “Nine.”

  “This is what we’ll do,” stated Richard with an authority that surprised the SEALs. “Because Colbert needs medical attention, whatever we’re going to do we need to do fast. Dalton and I will head to the alien birthing chamber, throw the explosives inside and return to the elevator. We’ll then head for Level 1, planting the remaining charges on the way, get Colbert patched up in the first aid station we passed earlier and leave this hell hole. The explosives will destroy the creature, its unhatched offspring and the facility, job done.”

  Expecting an argument, Richard was surprised by the commander’s reply.

  Colbert shrugged. “Well, Richard, as you said a short while ago, what’s the point of bringing you here if I’m going to ignore your advice.”

  Dalton glared at Richard and looked at Colbert. “We’re taking orders from a civilian now?”

  “Believe me, Richard’s not doing this solely for our benefit. He wants to survive and we’re just tagalongs, but if he survives, so should we. Also, his plan has merit.”

  Though Richard was far from enthusiastic for any plan that would take him nearer to the alien creature when he favored heading in the opposite direction, the foolhardy SEALs would only leave when they had completed their mission. If helping them increased his chances of survival, then so be it.

  “Okay, Richard,” said Dalton. “let’s get this done. You lead.”

  Richard slung the bag of explosives over his shoulder and headed for the laboratories and the alien birthing chamber.

  As Sullivan aided his limping commander to the elevator, Ramirez made contact.

  CHAPTER 21

  Hostage

  Fearing the nuclear bomb had exploded when what could only be an explosion set off on a lower level shook the complex, Krisztina halted in the corridor to await her annihilation. When all fell still, silent, and she remained alive and the building around her intact, she knew the atomic bomb hadn’t been the cause. Distracted by voices, she cocked an ear at the security office a short distance ahead.

  RAMIREZ WAS ALERTED to the explosion erupting from below by the muffled boom and the shockwave that rippled through the complex, vibrating the floor, the cameras feeding the screens and the CCTV monitors. After a few minutes of no contact, concern for his team creased his brow as he pressed a hand to his radio. “Is everything okay down there?”

  It was a few anxious moments before he received a no-nonsense reply from Sullivan. “Buckner and Kessler are down, killed by the alien. Explosion seems to have killed one creature, but there’s more. Commander and Dalton wounded. Heading for the elevator. I’ll update you when we reach the first aid station. What’s the situation up there?”

  “No activity yet,” replied Ramirez. “Shall I rendezvous with you at the first aid station?”

  “No, stay on watch for now. We’ll join you shortly.”

  Ramirez’s gaze flicked to one of the screens when he thought he glimpsed movement. It was a view of the corridor outside the security room. Though the corridor was empty, Sullivan had just informed him there were more than one of the aliens roaming the facility. Worried one might be creeping up on him, he grabbed his rifle and moved to the door. Cautiously he peered out. Surprise barely had time to register on his face before the female lunged at him. The fire extinguisher she wielded smashed into the side of his head. Dazed by the hard blow, his knees buckled.

  The extinguisher clanged to the floor when Krisztina dropped it and snatched the assault rifle from the dazed American soldier’s hands.

  As the bright pricks of lights dancing before his eyes began to fade, R
amirez turned his throbbing head to his attacker. He groaned at seeing his own weapon aimed at him by the female, who he assumed was one of the Russian scientists working in the facility. When the other SEALs heard of this, they would rib him about it for years to come.

  “My Russian not good. Do English speak you?” asked Ramirez in terrible Russian.

  Surprised the American spoke any Russian, however badly—in her experience the Americans, like the English, were language lazy and expected everyone else to learn their universal language—Krisztina nodded. “What you Americans soldiers doing here and where my comrades are?”

  “We received a report that you had an alien creature running loose killing those who worked here, which I expect explains the fate of your co-workers. My superiors feared that if it escaped into the outside world, it would pose a serious threat to humanity. They sent us here to ensure that didn’t happen. And we’re Navy SEALs, not soldiers.”

  Krisztina shrugged. “Soldiers, Marines, is all same.”

  Ramirez reluctantly let her comment slide.

  Suspicion clouded Krisztina’s next question, “Are you here to kill alien, or capture it and take back to America?”

  “Destroy it. Most definitely destroy it!” stated Ramirez firmly. “Unlike your Russian superiors who brought it here from Antarctica to study, we can see the danger the alien threatens to mankind and want to see it annihilated.”