Subhuman

by Michael McBride

  Jade ran down the corridor and into a large cavern, at the center of which was a self-contained modular clean room connected to the ceiling by a series of ducts that maintained the negative pressure. The door was closed, but there was a large square opening where the pass-through box had been. The smell was definitely coming from inside of it.

  Maybe she wasn’t too late. The scent of freshly spilled blood was drastically different than that of older blood that had been given time to congeal and commence with the onset of decomposition. It had an almost electrical scent that was more a sensation than a smell, like the lingering taste of touching a battery to the tip of your tongue.

  Jade’s footsteps echoed as she ran across the room. Grabbed the handle. Threw open the door. Hurried inside and shined her light onto the blood-covered floor.

  She’d expected to find Mariah bleeding out from her slit wrists. What she saw instead was infinitely worse.

  The clean room was roughly the size of a semitrailer with bare white polypropylene walls. There was a laminar flow hood beside a fume hood to her left and twin Class II biological safety hoods to her right, their glass enclosures and stainless steel surfaces freckled with crimson. The floor was sticky with blood belonging to the body heaped against a surgical storage cabinet with drawers full of sterile utensils and shelves upon which rested skulls with cranial deformations and intact bones of all shapes and sizes.

  “Oh, my God,” Anya gasped, and clapped her hands over her mouth.

  Jade immediately went into clinical mode, emotionally distancing herself from the horrific situation, and shined her light onto the remains.

  “Is this her?” Jade asked.

  “I don’t . . . I can’t be sure. There’s so much blood.”

  Jade crouched beside the lifeless woman, who lay on her chest, her arms pinned beneath her, facing the cabinet. The source of the blood appeared to be a gaping wound on her neck, inflicted with the kind of savagery Jade associated with predatory animals. The edges of the wound were ragged and avulsed. The sternocleidomastoid, omohyoid, and thyrohyoid muscles were torn and retracted to reveal the severed ends of the decedent’s common carotid artery and internal jugular vein, the cricoid cartilage, and the fascia covering the cervical spine.

  “Jesus,” Anya whispered. “What happened to her?”

  Jade carefully stepped around the remains, leaned against the wall, and shined her light into a face that left little doubt as to the identity of the victim. The geologist’s cheek had been lacerated from the corner of her mouth to her ear, revealing her back molars.

  “It’s Mariah, isn’t it?” Anya whispered.

  Jade nodded.

  “We need to tell the others,” Anya said.

  Jade ignored her and swept her light across the floor. Theirs were the only footprints. There was no blood beneath the hole where the pass-through box had been, nor was there any on the lip or dibbling down the wall, which meant that either Mariah had been killed in here—which Jade considered extremely unlikely based on the nature of the wounds and the lack of arterial spatters on the walls—or else she’d been transported here after the fact, before her body had yet to fully bleed out. If that was the case, then there was only one way she could have been deposited inside the clean room without leaving a trail.

  She shined her light up at the ceiling, at the point where all of the exhaust vents from the hoods joined to form a much larger duct. Someone had punched a hole through the aluminum from the inside. Congealed droplets of blood adhered to the sharp edges.

  “Where does that duct lead?” Jade asked.

  “Someone killed her!” Anya cried. “Someone who’s in the station with us right now!”

  “Calm down. Now’s not the time to panic.”

  “Calm down? We need to get out of here!”

  Jade took her by the shoulders and looked her directly in the eyes.

  “Get ahold of yourself. I need you thinking clearly. Look at the nature of the wounds. They weren’t inflicted by a man. There’s some kind of animal in this station, which means that causing any kind of commotion will only serve to draw it to us.”

  “You’re on your own.” Anya jerked her arm from Jade’s grasp. “I’m not sticking around to find out what did this to her.”

  “Right now this is the only place in this entire station where we know for sure that it isn’t. What we need to figure out is where it might be. So I ask you again, where does that duct lead?”

  “The hoods are equipped with HEPA filters that are nearly one hundred percent efficient down to three-tenths of a micron, so they’re vented right back into the system air.”

  “You’re telling me this ductwork runs throughout the entire complex.”

  “I assume so.”

  “Then right now it could be absolutely anywhere.”

  Anya started to cry.

  Jade steeled her jaw and tipped up the younger woman’s chin so that their eyes met.

  “Listen to me carefully,” Jade said. “We have to stay together. We can’t allow ourselves to become separated or we’ll be easier to—”

  Thump.

  Jade froze. Her heart rate accelerated and her pulse beat so hard in her temples that the corners of her vision trembled.

  Anya had been right about the sound, if not the mechanism of its production.

  “It’s up there,” Anya whimpered.

  “Shh.”

  Jade estimated the noise had come from somewhere outside of the clean room, but definitely within the perimeter of the cavern.

  Thump.

  Jade flinched and released a startled gasp. The sound was closer this time. Maybe just outside of the modular structure. Her autonomic nervous system kicked in with a surge of norepinephrine. Her muscles tensed, and her respirations accelerated.

  She shined her light toward the main duct overhead just in time to see the aluminum dimple.

  Thump.

  Jade whirled, took Anya by the hand, and sprinted back toward the station with her light slashing through the darkness ahead of her.

  43

  EVANS

  “The power should have been back on by now,” Evans said.

  The computer room had grown significantly darker in just the last few minutes as the snow started to accumulate on the skylight. It wouldn’t be long before the upper level of the station was as dark as everywhere else. Graves was searching for more flashlights in the server room, but the fact that he’d been in there for so long didn’t bode well. Then again, he could have just been trying to escape the growing tension among all of them.

  Mariah’s accusation that he was responsible for the deaths of the men in the elevator had devastated Richards, who sat with his head in his hands and only occasionally raised it high enough to check his watch. If McMurdo Station had understood the gravity of their situation before their communication was cut off, they undoubtedly would have set the wheels in motion to prepare for emergency evacuation. Connor estimated they could have a chopper overhead in as little as eight hours. Assuming the intensifying storm didn’t further complicate matters. It was always possible that McMurdo would instead elect to coordinate a response with the Norwegians in Troll Station, but despite their proximity, it would probably take them longer to reach AREA 51 by ground. Of course, Evans and the others could always drive out of there themselves. The problem was there was no telling what kind of damage the destruction of the power station and the resulting avalanche had done to the road, even if they could see well enough through the blowing snow to navigate the treacherous trail.

  They’d be able to see things more clearly when the power came back on, both literally and metaphorically. Until then, they just needed to remain calm and prepare for every conceivable contingency.

  It was the situation in the elevator that troubled Evans the most. Four men had boarded the car—three of them presumably in decent physical shape—and the only two who made it all the way to the top had died during transit. Roche hadn’t seen their bodies well
enough to identify them, and the only way the other two could have fallen through a hole that size was if they’d done so deliberately or if they’d been pushed. Something had happened inside that elevator, but for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out what.

  “Someone should have been back by now,” Friden said. “It shouldn’t have taken very long to find Mariah. I mean, where could she possibly go?”

  “I’m going down there myself,” Richards said and stood with the force of purpose.

  “No, you’re not.” Connor stepped into his path to the door. “You’re going to stay right there.”

  “What could possibly happen to me?”

  “Nothing as long as you do what I say.”

  Connor crossed his arms over his chest.

  Richards gently placed his hand on Connor’s forearm and spoke in a soft voice.

  “I have to fix this, my friend. You of all people should understand how heavily all of this weighs on me.”

  “And you’ll run off and do something rash. That’s why I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

  “I pay you for your protection, not for your counsel. And besides, there’s no imminent threat that requires your services.”

  “Then it’s my job to protect you from yourself.”

  “You know me too well.” The hint of a smile crossed Richards’s lips. “If I’d ever had a son, I imagine he would have been just like you.”

  “Isn’t that the sweetest thing you’ve ever heard?” Friden said.

  “I’m still not letting you out of this room,” Connor said, although it was obvious the words had an impact on him. “So please . . . sit down and try to be patient. The power will come back on any second and then we can worry about—”

  Thump.

  Evans hopped from his seat and turned toward the source of the sound.

  “What was that?”

  “Are you all right, Mr. Wolski?” Richards called.

  “You could run the bulls of Pamplona through there and still not wake him,” Connor said.

  Thu-thupp.

  Evans stepped far enough out into the room that he could see the open doorway to the library across the foyer. Little more than the vacant row of microfiche readers were visible in the wan light.

  “Joachim?” Friden called.

  Thupp-thupp.

  Evans walked through the doorway and into the open foyer, which was considerably colder than where they were all crammed into the computer room. There was no one on the stairs and the main entryway from the Skyway was still closed.

  “Are you all right in there?” Evans asked.

  He entered the library and glanced to his right, where he’d last seen the bearded man curled up with his bottle of vodka, but Wolski was gone. Books had fallen from the back wall and into a heap on the floor. Blood dripped from the shelves where they’d been. He looked from one shelf to the next until he reached the ceiling and the open duct, the edges of which were red with Wolski’s blood.

  “Sweet Jesus,” Friden said from behind him.

  Evans whirled to face him and caught a glimpse of the crimson arcs draining down the wall.

  “Everyone back in the computer room,” Connor said.

  Evans backed slowly away from the corner of the room, where it looked like an animal had been slaughtered and hauled up into the ceiling.

  “Yeah,” he said. “I think that’s probably a good idea.”

  He was barely through the doorway when he heard the thunder of footsteps on the stairs and turned to see two shadows racing straight toward him. Roche and Kelly emerged from the stairwell, breathing hard, their faces drained of color.

  “The engineers are dead,” Roche said. “Whoever killed them pulled them up into the ceiling.”

  “The same thing happened to Wolski,” Evans said.

  “Weren’t you right here the entire time?”

  “We were across the hall.”

  “And you didn’t hear anything?”

  “Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid.”

  “I’m not. I’m talking to you like you’re deaf.” Roche peered around the corner into the library. “How does something like that happen with you mere feet away?”

  “How the hell should I—?”

  More footsteps. Directly below them. Moving fast.

  “Out of the way,” Connor said. He shoved between them and drew a pistol from the holster under his jacket. Aimed it down the spiral staircase.

  Jade came around the bend at a sprint with Anya right behind her. She saw the weapon. Threw herself to the ground. Covered her head with her arms.

  “Don’t shoot!”

  “Jesus,” Connor gasped, and pointed the pistol down between his feet.

  “She’s dead,” Anya said.

  “Who is?” Friden said from the doorway to the computer room.

  “Mariah,” Anya said. “Her body’s in the clean room.”

  “There’s some kind of animal loose in here,” Jade said. “It went for her throat and nearly decapitated her in the process.”

  “Something attacked the engineers in the auxiliary room, too,” Roche said. “By the time we got there, all that was left of them was a trail of blood leading up to a vent in the ceiling.”

  “What in the name of God is happening here?” Richards asked.

  “I already told you,” Jade said. “There’s some sort of predatory animal—”

  “There aren’t any animals here,” Connor said.

  “I beg to differ. I’ve seen the evidence with my own eyes. It looked like she’d been attacked by a bear.”

  “There isn’t a single bear on this entire continent,” Friden said. “This is a marine ecosystem. The largest predators are whales. The only thing that hunts on land are the seals.”

  “Seals can be aggressive,” Kelly said.

  “But they can’t drag people up into the ceiling, for Christ’s sake!” Evans said.

  “Then what is capable of doing something like this?” Roche asked.

  No one answered.

  “All that matters right now is ensuring our safety,” Richards said. His voice was strangely calm, and the look in his eyes distant.

  “Predators in the wild don’t attack prey in groups,” Friden said. “They pick off the stragglers when they become separated.”

  “Then everyone stays together,” Richards said. “No exceptions.”

  “Is there anywhere in the station that isn’t connected to the main ductwork?” Jade asked.

  “Not that I’m aware of.”

  “Which room is the most secure?”

  “The server room,” Connor said. “It’s compartmentalized with its own fire walls and EMF shielding.”

  “We can’t hide in there forever,” Kelly said. “How long will it take for someone to get here from McMurdo?”

  “We don’t even know for sure that anyone’s coming,” Friden said.

  “They’ll come,” Richards said with complete certainty.

  “There’s no way anyone can get here in under eight hours,” Connor said.

  “Then all we have to do is ride it out,” Evans said.

  “But if whatever’s in here with us finds us first—” Anya started.

  “Then I’ll put a crater in its skull.” Connor held up his Beretta M9 semiautomatic. “If anything so much as sticks its ugly head into that room, it won’t know what hit it.”

  Evans liked Connor’s enthusiasm, but it didn’t make him feel better in the slightest. Something was terribly wrong here and they all knew it. Mankind knew no natural predator, and if Friden was right, there wasn’t even one large enough to be a viable threat on this entire godforsaken iceberg, which meant that either someone was lying and this animal had already been inside the station or they’d somehow brought it in here with them from the outside. And the only place they’d been where anything could have possibly survived was the biome under the ice.

  “Then we need to barricade ourselves inside,” Evans said.

 
He brushed past Friden and Richards on his way to the server room.

  “All right, kid,” he said as he opened the door. “Your secret hiding spot’s no longer . . .”

  His words trailed off.

  “What is it?” Kelly said from behind him.

  “Stay back,” Evans said.

  The banks of servers and equipment cabinets were spattered with blood.

  44

  KELLY

  Kelly had never seen so much blood in her life. It seemed like everything was covered with it. Not only was it hard to imagine that a single body could hold so much, it was terrifying to think that mere minutes ago the guy to whom it belonged had told her how much he liked her hair.

  Evans pushed her back out of the server room and closed the door, but it was too late. She would remember the way the blood dripped from the hole in the ceiling for as long as she lived.

  “The garage,” Connor said. “If we can get across the Skyway before it does, we can seal off all points of entry from this mountain.”

  “Where’s Dr. Bell?” Anya asked.

  “In the greenhouse,” Kelly said.

  “We need to establish a defensible position while we still can,” Connor said.

  “We can’t just leave him behind,” Roche said.

  “And we can’t split up the group.”

  “Then you do what you have to do. I’m not going without him.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Evans said.

  “If we break into two even groups, the numbers are still in our favor.”

  “Unless there’s more than one of whatever’s out there,” Jade said.

  Kelly looked at her in the dim light. Until that very moment she hadn’t considered the possibility.

  “There’s another option,” Friden said. “What if we’re not dealing with an animal at all?”

  “We don’t have time for this,” Connor said.

  Friden opened his mouth as if to say something but must have thought better of it.

  “I’ll go downstairs with them,” Kelly said.

  “Do what you have to do,” Connor said.

  “You secure the garage,” Roche said. “We’ll be right behind you.”

  “If you’re not there by the time we’re done barricading the ducts—”