Crashed

by Eric S. Brown

  Wiggins was back on his feet, his own M-16 chattering. Colonel Dyvang jerked his head around to see what Wiggins was shooting at. There were three more monsters like the one had he had just killed coming toward the plane through the waves of falling snow.

  “Fallback!” Colonel Dyvang ordered Wiggins as he joined the soldier in shooting at the approaching monsters. The creatures moved with impossible speed. They closed the distance between their position in the snow and the rear door of the plane in what seemed like a mere heartbeat. The bullets he and Wiggins were pouring into their ranks were hitting them, but the monsters kept coming, their rage driving them forward.

  The fastest of the monsters reached Wiggins even as the one next to it fell. Ignoring its wounded comrade, the monster going after Wiggins grabbed him and lifted him from the floor of the plane above its head. With a yank of its thickly muscled arms, the monster tore Wiggins in half along the middle of his torso. Wiggins’ legs flew one way and his top half the other as blood splashed everywhere.

  Colonel Dyvang knew when to fight and when to retreat. He stopped shooting at the remaining two monsters and sprinted full-out toward the Hercules’ pilot compartment. Parker was waiting for him at the doorway, gawking at the creatures in sheer terror, and slammed the door closed behind Colonel Dyvang as he ran through it.

  Parker locked the door in place as Colonel Dyvang tried to catch his breath and gather his thoughts. The monsters refused to give him that time though. Almost at once, he heard the pounding of their giant, white-haired fists as they raged against the door behind him.

  “It’s not going to hold them, sir,” Parker warned.

  The front end of the Hercules had gone down into the snow. There was no escaping through its shattered forward windows. He and Parker were trapped, and it was only a matter of time until the creatures got through the door to get at them.

  Parker wasn’t armed and left all of his gear other than his tools in the plane’s rear compartment. Colonel Dyvang tossed Parker his rifle, drawing his sidearm.

  “It’s time to earn your pay, Parker,” Colonel Dyvang growled.

  The two of them moved as far from the doorway as they could and aimed their weapons at it. The door shook in its frame as the monsters on its other side continued to hammer away on it.

  “Get ready,” Colonel Dyvang warned Parker.

  The door broke loose from its frame and came crashing inward into the pilot compartment. It slammed onto the floor as the monsters burst through the doorway. Parker cried out in desperation and horror as he squeezed the trigger of the M-16 he had aimed at the monsters. Colonel Dyvang’s pistol cracked in rapid succession as he emptied it in a series of well-aimed shots. The first of the two monsters caught the worst of it. Parker’s bullets dug into its chest while the colonel’s shots blew out its eyes and ravaged the flesh of its face beneath the white hair covering it. Their combined fire was enough to bring it down, but its momentum carried its corpse forward into Parker. Parker screamed as the weight of the monster’s corpse drove him back into the plane’s control console and crushed him against it. Colonel Dyvang could see that Parker was just injured and not dead but couldn’t move to help him. His attention was focused on the second of the monsters as he ejected his pistol’s spent magazine and shoved a fresh one into it. Before he could make use of his weapon again though, the second monster was on him. Its claws sunk into his shoulders as the monster’s hands grabbed him. Colonel Dyvang gritted his teeth at the pain coursing through him but refused to drop his weapon. He cocked his wrist, bringing the barrel of his pistol up beneath the monster’s arms to blast away at its stomach even as it held him. The monster gave a pained grunt as the shots plunged into its body but continued to hold onto him. Slamming its head forward, the creature head-butted Colonel Dyvang with such force that he died instantly.

  Parker finally managed to heave the corpse of the monster that had crashed into him away just in time to see Colonel Dyvang die. He had lost hold of his M-16 and had no weapon to defend himself with as the monster turned in his direction. His eyes scanned the pilot compartment, desperately seeking anything within reach that he could use against the monster coming at him. Spotting his tools, he yanked a screwdriver free and wielded it like a knife. Parker stabbed at the monster with all the strength his adrenaline-flooded body could muster. The screwdriver sunk into the meat of the monster’s shoulder as it caught hold of him and yanked him closer to it. Parker felt his bladder release itself. A warm flow of urine ran down along the curves of his legs inside his pants. Unable to tear the embedded screwdriver free of the monster’s shoulder to stab with it again, Parker hammered at the monster with his fists. The monster didn’t even seem to feel the blows he was raining onto it. Opening its mouth, the monster drove its head forward at an angle to bite into the soft flesh of Parker’s neck. As the monster drew its head back, a chunk of Parker’s flesh dangled between its lips. Blood sprayed out of the hole in Parker’s neck with each beat of his heart, drenching the monster’s white hair with a bright shade of red. Parker’s screams had become pained, sickening gargles as his own blood began to drown him. The last thing he saw before his world went black was the monster’s head leaning to take another bite out of what was left of his neck.

  ****

  Kurt lay in the snow. He couldn’t move. As best he could figure, the monster had broken his spine. The upside to that was at least he couldn’t feel his body freezing, as it surely was. The temperature had fallen rapidly with the onset of the arctic night and continued to drop every hour. From how his head was positioned, he could see the trail of red in the snow along the path that the creature had dragged him before leaving him where he lay. That red was his own blood. He should have felt sick at the sight of it. Normally, he had a weak stomach for such things. Odd for a man who made his living on the battlefield, but true nonetheless. It was as if he was completely detached from the reality of his situation and was some sort of astral onlooker observing it all. The numbness of, well, everything, played a large part in that.

  The monsters or whatever they were had come out of nowhere, invisible in the swirling waves of snow to attack the Snow Beast he had been driving. They had smashed into the sides of the heavy vehicle and some of them had even climbed onto its roof, pounding away at its armor with their fists. Mark had put up a good fight once the monsters had torn away the Snow Beast’s side door and gotten inside, but it hadn’t been enough. He had died as one of the monsters ripped his head away from his shoulders. Kurt had tried to fight against them too but failed. A single shove from one of the monsters had spent him sprawling onto the Snow Beast’s console and snapped his spine. All he could do was watch as the monsters feasted upon the wounded soldiers in the rear of the heavy vehicle. Those men had apparently filled them enough to where they had decided to save him for later. The largest of the monsters had claimed Kurt as its own and dragged him from the Snow Beast out into the storm. Kurt didn’t know how long or how far it had carried him from the wreckage of the vehicle. It could have been forty yards or one hundred miles as his traumatized mind could no longer properly gauge the passage of time. Kurt didn’t want to die, but he didn’t want to live either. Not with a broken spine. Being an invalid in a wheelchair likely fed through a tube … He’d rather the monster eat him. Kurt just hoped it would kill him first.

  Whether or not the colonel still lived was something that Kurt wondered about. Only three men had stayed at the downed Hercules with Dyvang. The monsters were far stronger and fast than any man, but they also had numerical superiority too on their side if they did make a move against the colonel. Kurt had counted seven distinct creatures during the attack on the Snow Beast and there were likely far more than that in the region. Why they hadn’t attacked Zulu Base already was a mystery to him. It just made sense that if the monsters would go after a moving, armored vehicle like his Snow Beast, then the base would be an easy target. It was just sitting there for the taking. The base hadn’t been built to withstand an at
tack. It was a small, arctic training facility and nothing more. With the construction crews gone, there were fewer personnel at Zulu Base than there had been aboard the Hercules he had flown in on.

  All of Kurt’s thoughts came to a crashing halt as he heard the distant roar of one of the monsters. He would have trembled in fear if he could have but his damaged body couldn’t even manage that. The sound of large feet crunching their way across the frozen snow reached his ears. Kurt prayed a silent prayer that God grant him a merciful death and he didn’t have to wait long for it to be answered. The feet of the large monster that had dragged him away from the Snow Beast’s wreckage stomped up in front of where he lay. Kurt couldn’t turn his head to look up at the monster. He saw rather than felt that the monster was picking him up again. Kurt was so overjoyed to feel something, anything again, that he almost smiled as the monster sunk its razored teeth into his neck above where it was broken. His own warm blood splattered upward onto his cheeks as death finally came for him.

  ****

  Matt and Lorie met Major Dixon and Alex in the corridor as they were headed to her office. Their orders had been to report upon their return to Zulu Base. From the expressions that the major and Alex wore, something bad had happened in their absence.

  “What’s going on?” Matt asked and then quickly added, “Ma’am.”

  “This base is under threat of attack,” Alex told him. “We’ll be explaining it all at the meeting.”

  “What meeting?” Lorie asked before Matt could.

  “In the command center right now,” Alex answered.

  The four of them entered the command center. Dustin and Clay were already there. The other few members of Zulu Base’s staff filed in over the course of the next couple of minutes. There was barely room for them all in the small room. Alex and the major moved its center.

  “This base is now on full alert,” Alex told the small crowd. “As soon as this meeting is over, I want to see all of you at the armory. I’ll be dispensing sidearms and heavier weapons based on your ranks and skill sets.”

  “Is he for real?” Dustin whispered to Clay.

  “Shush it,” the comm. officer whispered back at the tech.

  “Hey, where are Valerie and Hawkes?” Lorie asked.

  “Alpha two has yet to report in,” Major Dixon answered, scowling at her. “It’s possible they have located Colonel Dyvang’s Hercules and are proceeding with rescue operations.”

  “It’s also possible that they ran into trouble with the storm,” Matt challenged the major. “That thing rolled in out of nowhere.”

  “Hawkes is just as capable of a pilot as you, Matt,” Alex said, trying to calm him down. “At worst, he decided to set down somewhere and ride the storm out.”

  “One problem at a time, people,” Major Dixon barked. “I didn’t call all of you here to discuss Hawkes’ copter or the Hercules.”

  “Then what did you call us here for?” Davis, Zulu Base’s engineer, grumbled. “Some of us have work to do.”

  “Show them,” Major Dixon ordered Alex.

  The security chief removed a flashdrive from his pocket and plugged it into the closest workstation. He loaded the footage it contained onto the command room’s primary screen so that all of them could see it at once. Murmurs and groans ran through the small crowd as the footage began to play. Those turned to gasps as the monster approached the camera and destroyed it.

  “What was that thing?” Matt demanded when the footage had played out.

  “It’s the reason we’re having this meeting,” Major Dixon said. “That thing is real and it’s out there somewhere in the snow. Worse, we believe there are more like it.”

  “You didn’t answer Matt’s question,” Lorie pointed out.

  “I don’t have an answer to it,” Major Dixon replied, shrugging. “Alex?”

  “The truth is we don’t have a clue as to what that creature is or where it came from. What we do know is that there are likely a lot more of them out there. Personally, I believe the storm or something else brought the creatures and very possibly more like it out of wherever they were hiding. As you can clearly see, the thing is aggressive and perhaps even an apex predator of this region,” Alex explained.

  Dustin spoke up. “It looks like a Yeti.”

  “That’s what I thought too,” Alex admitted. “I think these creatures are not only aggressive but also territorial. Now that they’re on the move from wherever they came from, I would wager they will make a run at this base in an attempt to drive us off their turf.”

  “You’re talking as if that thing and these others you believe are out there are some kind of street gang,” Lorie said, glaring at the security officer.

  “That’s not a bad analogy,” Alex said, chuckling.

  “Regardless,” Major Dixon cut in, taking control of the meeting again, “we believe that one or more of those creatures are headed here and we need to be ready for them when that happens.”

  “That thing looks pretty fragging tough,” Matt commented. “How many of them are we talking about?”

  “Again, we don’t know,” Alex answered. “But if it is a Yeti or something of the like, they travel and hunt in packs. I’d wager half a dozen at the very least. Quite possibly a good deal more.”

  “I don’t know what y’all been smoking but you can keep it to yourselves.” Davis shook his head. “That camera footage can’t be real. Somebody is messing with you.”

  “The footage is real,” Major Dixon said firmly. “I have no doubt about that.”

  “Neither do I,” Alex backed her up. “It would be far too dangerous to assume otherwise in any case. We need to get ready.”

  “What about the colonel and his men on the Hercules?” Clay asked.

  “Yeah, and let’s not forget that Hawkes and Valerie are still out there too,” Matt added. “What if those things go for them first?”

  “Regrettably, there is nothing we can do about that at the moment,” Major Dixon said. “Our priority has to be securing and protecting this base. If Zulu falls, they will have no place to run to if those things do go after them.”

  “The major is right,” Dustin agreed. “We can’t help any of them if we’re dead, and there’s a dang good chance of that happening if those creatures do come here.”

  “Clay, I want you to figure out what’s going on with the interference that’s scrambling the comms and get it sorted out ASAP. Dustin, I want you here in the command center too. Keep an eye on the camera feeds from the ones closest to this base. If you notice anything odd or out of the ordinary, you’re to notify either myself or Alex at once,” Major Dixon ordered.

  “What about the rest of us?” Matt asked.

  “I want everyone else to accompany Alex to the armory. Every one of us needs to be armed in the event that this base does come under attack,” Major Dixon told him. “I want every exterior entrance locked and guarded.”

  “We don’t have the manpower to guard all three buildings in such a fashion,” Alex said.

  Major Dixon shot an angry glance at the security chief. “Then we’ll limit it to the power generator building and this one. They are the top priorities. Besides, the less spread out we are, the better.”

  “Can’t argue that,” Alex agreed. “Okay then, folks, this meeting is over. Let’s get moving.”

  Zulu Base’s stockpile of weapons wasn’t very large. It contained only a few M-16s, a couple of shotguns, a couple of rifles, and an assortment of pistols. Still, compared to most other bases in the Arctic, that was a staggering amount of firepower. Most arctic bases had no guns at all, and if they did, they were limited to a single pistol often locked up with access to it available to the base’s CO or security chief. Everyone at Zulu had been through Basic. That meant they all knew how to handle a weapon safely, though it didn’t mean that they were good with it. The staff of Zulu Base, outside of Alex, were mostly specialists and techs. Alex passed out the weapons. Most of the staff took them reluctantly. When it was M
att’s turn, Alex offered him an M-16 but he refused it. Matt asked for one of the pump-action shotguns instead. Alex handed it to him.

  “Thanks,” Matt said, nodding at the security chief. “If those things get in here, I figure any fighting that goes down is going to be close quarters.”

  Alex smiled, approving Matt’s choice. “That’s a good point. I think I’ll keep the other for myself. There’s something to be said for up close and personal.”

  When the weapons were all dealt with and the small crowd dispersed to their posts, Matt was still hanging around with Lorie at his side.

  “Alex …” Matt said carefully. “You know the doors on this place aren’t going to hold if those things do show.”

  Alex nodded. “Yep. I’ll be guarding the main one myself until this storm is over with and the exterior cameras have a clear view of the surrounding area again.”

  “Smart move,” Matt said. “Even with the storm, there’s a chance Dustin will be able to give us some warning if those things head this way.”

  “What is it, Matt?” Alex finally asked, as he could tell the pilot wanted something.

  “I want to go back out,” Matt told him. “Hawkes and Valerie might need our help.”

  Alex shook his head. “That’s a big negative, Matt, and you know it. You wouldn’t have any more of a clue where to search for them than you did the Hercules by now. And you didn’t find it, did you?”

  “You can’t just expect me to sit here and do nothing,” Matt protested.

  “You’re not doing nothing, Matt,” Alex told him. “You’re doing what needs to be done.”

  Alex noticed Lorie watching him. “You want to go back out there too, don’t you?”