Bitter Cold

by J. Joseph Wright

  They called out again for help. Logan’s lungs felt on fire. Then he realized what had happened. A strong gust whipped up from the spoiled snow in a fine mist and he’d inhaled some of it. In his ideas of how the creature could get around, he hadn’t thought of it being carried by wind. His skin burned, too. Not enough to kill, but it proved the monster could find other ways to get them.

  He hacked up enough phlegm to wet his throat so he could yell for his dad some more. Jeff had to hear. The wind blew harder, making it impossible for Logan to keep up with the snowdrifts entering through the gaping maw where there once was a roof. The gazebo’s protected environment was now a broken, battered tangle of lumber. Only a matter of seconds before the creature found its way through the maze of frost surrounding them. He kicked some of it away, but as he did, more fell in its place.

  The stink became too much. He felt his stomach seize, yet he didn’t let it stop him from shouting and wiping away the snow. Then the full force of the cold sent his body into uncontrollable shivers. Through chattering teeth, he kept screaming, even as the dark creature crawled around the corner of the hot tub, where snow had collected on the floor.

  For a moment, he thought they were safe. The monster seemed to have nowhere else to go, no more snow to use as a conduit. But the euphoric feeling didn’t last long. Wedging between the floorboards, it found something he’d overlooked. He’d wiped away the ice on the floor, but he didn’t think about the residue it left behind, especially in the cracks between the planks. It didn’t seem important at the time. He was wrong. The monster only needed a tiny scrap in order to move about. As long as the path was uninterrupted, it didn’t matter how thin it was.

  It felt like a punch in the gut. No way could he scrape the snow out of the seams. There was too much of it. The blackness took several routes, each only millimeters thick, each leading toward him and Amy. He tried not to make a sound, afraid to let her know. She already knew, and let out a desperate cry. Nothing intelligible, just raw emotion. The dog mimicked her master, wailing along with her.

  On her butt, she kicked away from the encroaching darkness. Too late. The deadly creature grabbed her boot, sizzling into the rubber sole. She screamed again. Logan did, too. Nothing else seemed possible. The creature had them pinned in on all sides.

  “No! It hurts! It hurts!” she managed to get the boot off. Then the blackness got onto the other boot. She untied and slipped that one off, too, then examined the bottoms of her feet, finding no real damage. Her socks were singed, but she was in one piece. The danger wasn’t gone, though. The blackness was all around them, closing in quickly.

  Amy went quiet, presumably in shock. Crowded by the collapsed lumber, Logan crouched and held her. The only one who wouldn’t give up was Sadie.

  The German Shepard toed the line of darkness sweeping toward them. She backed up, barking quickly and forcefully, playing chicken with the amorphous predator.

  Then she began to whine, her paws inches from the creature. Logan thought she was hurt, but her next move proved him wrong. She squatted low on her hind legs, whined again, then pushed off hard, springing higher and farther than he thought possible, even for a dog. Twenty feet at least. An amazing leap.

  She landed under an awning, in untainted snow, but skidded into the blackness, skirting along the edge. Yelping wildly, she rolled on her side and tried to stand, though clearly her paws were killing her. She licked her pads, front and back, over and over.

  The blackness stopped its approach. Logan stared at it, questioning its motives. Amy lifted her head from her knees and watched. She started to speak. He stopped her. Maybe they could fool it.

  Back on all fours, Sadie dug her heels into the snow and was louder than ever, barking, growling, snapping her jaws. She even snatched a piece of the backyard gas barbeque, biting the tarp Mr. Mitchell used as a cover and toppling it onto its front.

  The impact shook the deck and the black stain reversed course. Sadie retreated, away from the gazebo. The wood beams and cedar shingles cracked and groaned as the creature slid off. The tiny structure seemed appreciative to be rid of the burden. Blackness slipped down from the house, dripping like hot wax, regrouping with the main bulk, then shifting toward the German Shepard.

  Man’s best friend, Logan thought. The canine backed down the steps. The dark snow moved as one, forming a wall around the stairs, closing all other exits, playing a game of chess by anticipating its victim’s escape. It seemed calculating, intelligent, and it made Logan cringe.

  Before descending the stairs, Sadie peeked over her shoulder, making sure the creature was still following. She then looked at Logan. Her soulful eyes conveyed only one message: Save yourselves.

  She scrambled out of sight and the creature chased her, tracing her path to the yard below, squeezing and funnel down the steps, pouring onto the lawn like a black waterfall.

  Logan saw the dog bounding across the snowy grass, howling and glancing back at the darkness just behind.

  Amy broke the silence, whispering. “I think it’s gone,” she started to crawl out. He wanted to stop her, but she’d already made it most of the way before he could react. His nerves were so deadened by the experience. Amy didn’t have a problem getting herself moving.

  “It is gone. My brave Sadie. What a good girl. That fuckin’ thing better not hurt her,” she started toward the stairs in only socks. “Oh, Daddy!” she sniffled. “Daddy! Daddy!”

  “Amy, we’ve got to go before that thing comes back.”

  She sniffed hard. She couldn’t breathe through her nose. “No! I can’t leave. What about Daddy!”

  “We can’t do anything, Amy. Do you understand? He’s gone!”

  She lifted her head and glanced down to the snow-covered back lawn.

  “AMY!” he made her flinch.

  “What?” she said meekly.

  “We have to get outta here!”

  She blinked, looking at the backyard again. Then she stared at the demolished gazebo, the trashed deck chairs and table, the broken planters and the gray tracks in the snow. Through her tears, she managed a shaky, “Okay.”

  He took her elbow. “Come on. We’ll go to my house.”

  They made it a few steps when she stopped. “Wait. What about Sadie?”

  He didn’t know how to answer. Honestly he thought the dog had been killed, probably trapped, cornered, and then devoured by the monster. He just hoped Sadie had enough sense to lead the creature far away. Still, there was a chance, however remote, that the dog had survived. He knew the odds were slim, but Amy needed some kind of hope. So he lied.

  “I’m sure she’s fine.”

  She eyed him, her cheeks glowing. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. Don’t worry. She’ll be okay.”

  He heard a sound sort of like thunder, only continuous, a steady, rhythmic drumbeat.

  “What is that?” he wondered out loud.

  “A helicopter—look!” Amy pointed up into the trees. She was right. A black chopper hovered above the woods, a vulture looming overhead.

  “LOGAN!” a familiar voice called out over the helicopter’s clatter. It was unmistakable.

  “My dad! He’s looking for us. Come on!”

  TWENTY-FOUR

  “TELL ME YOU got that,” Strawn stabbed holes into Armstrong with his eyes.

  “Yes!” Armstrong hit the playback button on the screen. “Yes sir! I got it!”

  Strawn reached and wriggled his fingers. “Give it to me!”

  Camera in hand, he tilted the screen to the proper angle and watched from the beginning. He wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen it all himself. The organism was astonishing. Coolly efficient, stealthy, fast, intelligent, tenacious. It wouldn’t stop until it had those children cornered. And the way it pursued the dog. Magnificent.

  The footage showed exactly what he’d wanted and expected. He smiled when his suspicions were confirmed, then folded the screen closed and put the camera in his pocket.

  “Circle
back,” Strawn ordered Henderson. He took out his Beretta nine-millimeter and chambered a round. “On top of those kids.”

  “What are you doing?” Armstrong sounded incredulous. “You’re not going to shoot those children!”

  Strawn turned and gave him a cool look. “Would you stop for one second and take a look at yourself? What do you do for this company? Huh? What’s your job?”

  Armstrong stared at the floor.

  “Last night, you and McCullah went on a job to eliminate someone, a reporter. And why? She was threatening our company. We’re like white blood cells in a human body. Only the body is the company. We seek out and identify potential threats, such as that reporter and those kids, and, like a white blood cell, we surround that threat, we bite at it and rip it apart and consume it. That’s what we do. We protect our body, because without it, we wouldn’t have life. Our body is everything, and we have to be willing to do anything to protect it.”

  Armstrong kept his head down. “But they’re just kids.”

  “Stop being naive, Armstrong. You knew what you were doing when you signed on to this. You live the life most people would envy. Your own kids are spoiled little shits. They probably wouldn’t give a damn about you killing those brats down there if they knew their lifestyles were on the line.”

  Armstrong’s face began to drip with sweat. He breathed deep and loud over the headset. He held on while the helicopter made a wide, sweeping turn over the Columbia River. “I know. Believe me, sir. You can look at my record. I’ve never had an issue with completing a mission. But that was before that fucking thing in the snow ate McCullah. Sir, if you could’ve seen it. If you just could’ve been there. This thing isn’t something we should be messing with. I don’t think we should be letting it roam free like this, and I don’t think we should be wasting our time chasing that reporter. We need to be calling the local authorities, evacuating the residents, setting up quarantine perimeters before this thing hurts someone else.”

  “You fucking idiot! That’s just the kind of shortsighted thinking that will prevent you from ever rising any further in this business. You fail to recognize the true beauty behind all of this. Where your simplistic brain sees tragedy, mine sees tremendous opportunity. It’s spectacular! It’s fast, it’s deadly. Biological warfare at its finest. And it’s mine!”

  “What are you talking about? What are you planning?” Armstrong shifted on the bench seat.

  “I’m going to do the only thing a shrewd businessman would. That creature will be contained and brought back to the lab for analysis and duplication. We’ll bottle it up and sell it to the highest bidder.”

  “But what about the people who live up here?”

  Strawn stared. “We can’t let any of them survive. That’s why I let the creature go. For now.”

  Armstrong’s eyes widened. He wiped the sweat with the cuff of his jacket. “You’re insane! You can’t just allow these people to die!”

  “You know what? You’re right,” he gave Armstrong a glance out of his peripheral vision, displaying his gun. “I can’t just let them die. That’s not a risk I’m willing to take. That creature looks like it can do the job for me, but it might not be fast enough.”

  “You can’t shoot them! Not children!”

  “Right again,” Strawn smiled. Between the seats, inside a weapons locker, he found an M14 rifle fitted with a Leupold scope. He presented it to Armstrong. “You’re going to shoot them.”

  Armstrong put up his hands. “No! Don’t make me do it!”

  “Armstrong, you’ve got to! It’s your goddam job!”

  The sobbing man took the gun. “But they’re children!”

  “Don’t look at this that way. Think of this as an infection. What if they’ve been exposed to something and they’re carrying a pathogen, or maybe they’re highly radioactive? They could contaminate the entire population. We have to stop them. I know it’s ugly, but you knew that going into this job.”

  Armstrong turned his head and lifted the rifle to his shoulder. He balanced it on his palm and adjusted the scope.

  Strawn directed Henderson. “Get us within range, and avoid the highway. We don’t need any more witnesses.”

  TWENTY-FIVE

  “DAD!” LOGAN FELL into Jeff’s arms. Jeff felt every ounce of trepidation over his son’s disappearance melt away, replaced by an overwhelming sense of relief. He was so overcome, his face flowed with tears. He normally didn’t like to let his son see him weep like that. He couldn’t help it, and he didn’t care. Logan was alive.

  He sniffled and wiped his eyes. Blinking, he noticed a girl. She was sobbing, too.

  “What’s wrong with her?”

  Logan let go of Jeff’s waist and stepped toward his friend. “Dad, this is Amy. Amy Mitchell. Dad, her parents,” he looked at her. She bawled harder. “The black snow got them. They-they…they’re gone.”

  Amy let loose a torrent of tears, leaning against Logan, beating on his chest. The boy took it, almost gratefully.

  April came closer, placing a hand on Amy’s shoulder. “What do you mean? What happened?”

  “There’s no time,” Logan told her. “We need to get outta here, fast. It’s chasing Sadie right now, but there’s no telling how long before it comes back.”

  April squinted. “Sadie?”

  “Her dog,” he motioned to Amy. “She led it away from their house.”

  “So it has come out of the canyon,” April turned to Jeff. “It climbed up the hill.”

  Logan nodded. “And I think I’ve figured something out. The…monster. It can only go where there’s snow. Or ice. Maybe frost, too, but that’s it. It can’t go where there’s no snow, so as long as we keep away from it, we’ll be fine.”

  Amy’s voice trembled. “But if we stay in the snow, it’ll…it’ll…Oh my God!” she buried her face in Logan’s shoulder.

  “Logan,” Jeff asked. “What happened to you guys?”

  “It was horrible, Dad. It came for us.”

  “Where?”

  “On Amy’s back deck. We saw it in the yard first. Then it chased us up to the deck and trapped us there. We had to hide in the hot tub gazebo, where there was no snow. It couldn’t get to us in there.”

  April sounded intrigued. “So then what happened?”

  Amy shot a glare at her. “Lady! We were almost killed…and I don’t have any goddam shoes! Let’s get the fuck outta here!”

  “All right!” Jeff commanded. “Back to the house, everybody!”

  Logan argued. “Dad, I don’t think we should go home.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because it tore down the gazebo. It can rip right through wood and everything. I don’t think the house’ll keep us safe.”

  “Bullshit,” Jeff waved his hand, refusing to entertain the idea. “It’s not gonna get into our house. Most of it’s brick. I’d like to see that thing eat through brick.”

  Logan shook his head. “It doesn’t eat through. It demolishes.”

  “And it’s terrible. I wanna GO!” Amy’s eyes were swollen. It was hard to tell if she had them open.

  April had to hold her up. “Calm down, sweetheart. Calm down.”

  She refused to be quiet. “What are we doing here! Why are we standing around like this is some kind of ski trip! Logan, tell them—tell them we gotta go!”

  He nodded. “We need to go. And not home. I’m telling you, it can destroy the house.”

  Jeff clutched his son’s hand. “April, take Amy back to the house. I want Logan to show me. I want to see for myself.”

  “NO!” Amy stumbled against him, sobbing. “Don’t go back there. PLEASE! Please listen to Logan! Let’s just get out of here before that terrible, terrible thing comes back and gets us. I never wanna see that thing again—EVER!”

  She tightened her grip on Jeff’s jacket, her screams muffled against his chest.

  “Okay, okay,” he told her. “Let’s go. We can fit in the Ford,” he patted his pockets. “I don’t hav
e the keys, though, I’ll have to—”

  Something stopped him. It felt like a tiny bird sweeping past his head, or maybe a giant bee. Then the sound came a second later.

  Pop!

  He knew exactly what it was, though for a moment he didn’t want to believe it.

  “What was that?” he asked no one in particular.

  “A gunshot,” April ducked, peering. Then her eyes got wide. She pointed. “From right there! Right there! The NWP helicopter! They’re shooting at us!”

  Jeff pulled the kids down. Another shot hissed above their heads.

  Clang!

  It impacted against a DEAD END sign fifty yards behind. Then one more hit at nearly the same spot, sending a loud, metallic tone ringing through the wintry landscape. Before anyone could react, Clang! Clang! Clang! the sign became unreadable. A second later, the reports rang out, three rapping noises from beyond the trees.

  “Let’s GO!” Jeff took both Amy and Logan by their hands. He wasn’t about to let them out of his sight.

  The small path leading to his property was only two hundred yards through the trees, yet it seemed miles. His mind flashed to when he was a kid. He used to take that trail over and over, so much he could follow it in his sleep, and did a few times. Never had it seemed to take so long, even though they were moving fast.

  He wasn’t sure if any more shots had been fired at them. He didn’t want to stop and find out. His only concern was to get everyone back, safe, in his house. Their escape would have to wait. They reached the yard on the house’s north side. Logan darted left, heading toward the driveway. Jeff yelled and stopped him. “Logan! No! We’re going inside! Come on!”

  Jeff steered the girls to the back door. Logan stopped in his tracks and flailed his arms. “Dad! We’re not safe in there!”

  Jeff slid to a halt, breathing hard, heavy steam around his face. “Logan! Those maniacs are shooting at us! Get inside, NOW!”

  Logan lowered his head and started for the house. Jeff whisked his sights along the trees, searching for any signs of the helicopter. Nothing, but that didn’t put him at ease. Not one bit. He snatched Logan and ran.