by Brian Smith
“Has he said anything?”
“Not a word. He just sits there and keeps staring at me as I walk about the room.”
The district chief pressed his lips together. It wasn’t the best of mornings. He had a bad headache that even several aspirins hadn’t managed to dissipate, everyone seemed peculiarly grumpy and now a dead man had come back to life.
“There’s something very strange about his eyes,” Dr. Courbet said.
“What do you mean?”
The doctor shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know how to describe it, you’d have to go in and see for yourself.”
The district chief pulled a face. He had no intention of going into a room to look at the eyes of a man who’d been dead for two hundred years and who had mysteriously come back to life. He shook his head.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, in fact Dr. Courbet, I would think it prudent to keep this man isolated until we know more about him.”
Dr. Courbet nodded. “I’ll try my best, but you have to understand that we’re not equipped to deal with anything contagious. At best I can keep him inside the room and not let anyone in, but if he tries to go out…” He shrugged his shoulders helplessly. “It’s not a prison you know.”
“What do you need?”
“Ideally he should be taken to a proper medical facility in France where he can be kept in isolation. Failing that we’ll need more supplies here.”
The district chief nodded. “I’ll contact Paris.”
He left the doctor in the little hospital. His head was still painful, in fact he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had such a bad headache. For a moment he thought of going back to ask Dr. Courbet for something against the headache, but then decided against it. “First I’ll go and talk to those two boys,” he said to himself. “Maybe they can tell me something.”
He had only gone half way to the canteen where he expected the boys to be having breakfast when he saw Alain Charpentier, the communications officer, running towards him. The look on Charpentier’s face already told him that there was more trouble.
“Well then, Charpentier, what is it?” he said with an air of resignation.
The communications officer stopped and took a deep breath. “It’s incomprehensible, I don’t understand it, I don’t know what to do,…I…”
“Now calm down and tell me what’s the matter.”
Alain Charpentier took another deep breath and said “All our communications equipment has stopped working.”
The district chief groaned inwardly and said “Then get the technicians to mend it.”
“That’s just what I wanted to do, sir, but they’re nowhere to be found.”
“They haven’t reported to work this morning?”
Alain Charpentier shook his head. “I’ve been looking all over for them, but nobody has seen them. They must have got up and left during the night before anyone else woke up this morning.”
“Are you telling me we have no way of contacting Paris?”
“Not only that, sir, we’re completely cut off.”
The district chief looked serious. It would be another two months until the next supply ship was due. He put both his hands on the shoulders of the communications officer and looked him in the eye. “Find me those technicians, and if they’ve really vanished then find me a radio, anything will do even if it’s just for sending a signal in Morse code, but I must get communications back. Is that clear?”
The communications officer nodded and hurried off.
“Now then,” the district chief said, “to those boys.”
When he entered the canteen there was the usual scene of people having breakfast. He stopped by the door and looked around. No one was talking. Normally people were cheerful in the morning, happy to chat before going about their various duties, but not this morning. He spotted Anthony and Edward and walked towards them.
“Good morning,” he said to them in an effort to seem friendly.
“Nothing good about it,” Edward snapped back.
Anthony merely looked annoyed and put his cup down on the table with a bang. He noticed a green pea on his plate. It looked offensive. He curled his forefinger against the thumb, aimed at the pea and shot it off the plate. It flew threw the air and hit a woman on the nose. There was no reaction.
The district chief sat down at their table. Normally the boys’ rudeness would have made him angry, but today he felt too exhausted. He opened his mouth as if to say something. He couldn’t remember what he had come for and just sat there with his mouth open.
Anthony noticed it and said “Look at the gormless fish mouth.”
Edward laughed. The next moment he slammed his knife on the table.
This jolted the district chief who suddenly remembered why he had come.
“I wonder,” he said and looked at Edward, “if you could tell me any more about that man you found. I mean is there anything else you know or…?”
“Nothing,” Edward snapped rudely. He pushed his half eaten breakfast away and looked at the district chief provocatively. “We just found him, we told you. That’s all. Now leave me alone.”
Somewhere inside Edward knew how rude he was being and he didn’t understand it, yet he couldn’t help himself.
“That’s right, gormless fish mouth,” Anthony added. “Go away!”
The district chief didn’t know what to say. No one had ever talked to him like that before. He wasn’t feeling well and decided not to waste time with the boys. He left the canteen. The door fell shut behind him and he just stopped where he was. What was he to do? The doctor didn’t know what to do, they had no communications equipment and the boys knew nothing. Suddenly everything seemed pointless to him, so he simply stood in front of the canteen and looked down the road.
5
Half an hour later Edward and Anthony came out of the canteen. The district chief was still standing there gazing into the distance. Seeing him suddenly made Anthony feel very aggressive. He went to the district chief, kicked him against his shin as hard as he could and shouted “Gormless fish mouth!”
There was no reaction from the district chief.
When Edward saw all this some strange emotions welled up deep inside him. His subconscious was telling him that something was wrong. He took Anthony by the hand and pulled him away. They walked along the road that led away from Port-aux-Francais out into the country.
It took some time for the vicious kick against his shin and the insulting words to work their way into the district chief’s mind. When he finally understood what had happened he came out of his torpor feeling furious. He rubbed his aching shinbone and looked about angrily, but the boys were nowhere to be seen. Feeling confused he looked at his watch and discovered that a lot of time had gone by since he had left the canteen, and yet he was still in front of it. Try as he might he couldn’t remember what had happened. When he remembered the strange man in the hospital he decided to go back there and talk to Dr. Courbet.
“Dr. Coubet!” he called loudly as he came through the front door of the hospital.
There was no answer. Everything was quiet.
“Where the heck is everyone?” he said to himself and looked into different rooms. There was only one room left he hadn’t checked, the room with the strange man. He hesitated. Should he go there on his own?
Suddenly he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He turned and looked out of a window. To his surprise he saw Dr. Courbet and the two nurses walking in the distance. He watched them for a minute. They were walking in a slow shuffling way as though they were half asleep. He shook his head.
“Where are they going to? There’s nothing out there.”
With a sudden pang his headache was back throbbing in his head. He abruptly turned and went to the room with the strange man. He looked through the window. “At least he’s still here,” he said and pushed the door open.
The man turned his head towards the district chief and smiled a little.
The man didn’t answer. He simply gazed at the district chief and kept smiling.
“Well,” the district chief said, “if you can’t talk you won’t mind if I check your pockets, do you? I only want to help you, to find out who you are and what’s happened to you.”
He put his hands in the man’s pockets one by one. There was nothing. Disappointed the district chief looked the man in the face. He wasn’t smiling anymore.
In a flash the strange man grabbed the district chief by the wrists. The man’s hands were icy cold.
“What are you doing?” the district chief said angrily and took a step back. He tried to pull his wrists free but the man held him with enormous strength. Slowly, ever so slowly the man pulled the district chief closer. The district chief struggled to get free but it was no use. His face came closer and closer to that of the man until their noses touched. The district chief noticed that the man’s nose was as icy as his hands. He tried to look away but couldn’t, it was as if his eyes were locked by some strange power into the eyes of the man. Then a shudder went through the body of the district chief. It became stronger and stronger until his whole body convulsed in a violent spasm.
Edward and Anthony wandered along the road for a long time. The sun was shining and a cool, fresh wind blew into their faces. Very gradually the peculiar torpor, the lethargy and the feeling of aggressiveness became weaker and faded away as if blown by the wind. Their minds became clearer and they remembered everything that had happened that morning.
“I can’t believe you kicked the district chief and called him a gormless fish mouth,” Edward said.
Anthony had a woebegone expression on his face. “I don’t know why I did it,” he said. “Everything was so strange this morning, don’t you think so?”
Edward thought about it. And the more he thought, the more he had to agree with Anthony. He realized that he hadn’t been himself all morning, no, more than that, it was as though he had been hypnotized. He stopped walking to look at Anthony.
“You know,” he said, “there’s something wrong. I wonder…”
“Do you think it’s that strange man? I heard he was alive this morning.”
Edward remembered hearing the same thing. He frowned. “But that’s not possible. He was totally frozen when we found him. Even the doctor said he was dead.”
“What shall we do now?”
They looked around. Port-aux-Francais was out of sight and all around them was the bleak Kerguelen countryside.
“One thing’s for sure,” Edward said, “we can’t stay out here. I suppose we’ll have to go back.”
Neither of them liked the idea, but they knew it was right. They turned back towards the island’s capital.
In the sky the sun was still shining, but out at sea, all around the island, an enormous mass of cloud was gathering. Clouds that heralded a storm which had encircled the island and which was closing in rapidly.
6
When Edward and Anthony came near Port-aux-Francais the town was eerily quiet. There was no one in sight, even birds, penguins and sea lions seemed to have abandoned the town. The only sound was a steady banging from a door being tossed about by the wind.
“Where is everyone?” Anthony whispered in Edward’s ear.
“How can I know?” Edward whispered. “Let’s check the canteen.”
They went in the canteen where they were met by the sight of half eaten food left standing on the tables. One or two chairs had fallen over and there was a weird smell in the air.
Anthony sniffed. “What is that?”
“How can I know!” Edward said feeling frustrated.
“Look!” They even left their anoraks here,” Anthony said.
It was true. Several anoraks were still hanging over the backs of chairs where they had been left earlier in the morning. It was clear that the canteen had been abandoned in a hurry. Yet what could have caused everyone to run away suddenly? So suddenly that some people had run out into the icy wind without their protective anoraks?
“Shall we look in the other buildings?” Anthony asked.
“You know,” Edward said, “it somehow feels different from this morning.”
“Of course, there’s no one here. It’s weird.”
“That’s not what I mean, how can I put it. It just feels different. Do you remember how you talked to the district chief? How were you feeling then?”
Anthony thought for a moment and nodded. “Yes, it almost feels normal now, inside me, I mean.”
The boys left the canteen to search the other buildings. They decided to start with the hospital. It was the obvious place where people would be if something terrible had happened. To their disappointment the hospital was abandoned too. They walked from room to room until they came to the place where the strange dead man had been taken the evening before.
Anthony pushed the door open and cried out “Edward!”
There on the floor lay the district chief. Edward quickly checked his pulse.
He shook his head. “He’s dead and his body is cold. He must have been dead for several hours.”
“Doesn’t that mean he died a short time after we last saw him?” Anthony asked.
“You’re right,” Edward said. “Remember how strange he was when you kicked him against his leg?”
“Yes, he didn’t even move. It’s weird.”
The boys left the hospital to search the rest of the town, yet wherever they went they were met by desolation. Port-aux-Francais had become a ghost town.
Just when they had almost given up hope of finding anyone they heard a whistle. They looked to see where it had come from and saw a very nervous Frederic waving to them.
“Come quickly!” the geologist called in an urgent tone.
They ran to him and he hurried them to the radar dome from where satellites and rockets were tracked. He banged against the stout metal doors that protected the facility.
“Who is it?” a voice called from within.
“It’s me, Frederic,” he answered. “Open quickly. I’ve got the kids, they’re all right.”
The door opened and they rushed in. Two soldiers quickly shut it again and secured it with metal bars. There was fear in their eyes.
The boys had never seen soldiers afraid before.
“But what has happened here?” Anthony asked.
“Come,” Frederic said.
They followed him to an underground room. As soon as they entered it a steel door fell shut behind them and was securely bolted and barred. There was a group of people looking at them anxiously.
“Have you seen anyone?” someone asked.
Edward shook his head. “There’s no one in town.”
“We saw the district chief,” Anthony said, “but he’s dead.”
“And where were you today?” someone asked.
“We were out of town. We walked away just after breakfast,” Anthony said feeling annoyed that people were asking questions and yet no one was telling them what had happened. “So what happened here?” he repeated.
“This morning,” Alain Charpentier, the communications officer, said “everything was strange. We were feeling bad and didn’t have much for breakfast, so some of us left the canteen early and were wandering about the town. Then HE came. You know, the man who was brought here yesterday, the dead man. Only he wasn’t dead today. I was at some distance when HE went into the canteen. My whole body was shaking when HE came into sight and, I don’t know how, I somehow managed to walk away backwards. A minute later, maybe less, HE came out of the canteen again followed by everyone who had been inside. They followed him, just like that, there was nothing anyone could do.”
“Captain Delors tried,” someone said.
“Ah, yes, that’s true,” the communications officer said. “He took his gun and shot HIM.”
“What happened?” Edward asked. “Did he kill him?”
Alain Charpentier shook his head. “Nothing happened to HIM. Captain Delors fired several shots but HE simply walked to the Captain and put HIS hand on the Captain’s head. Captain Delors put his gun back in his holster and followed HIM as though nothing had happened.”
“It was horrible,” a woman sobbed. “They were just like zombies out of a nightmare. They’re our friends, our colleagues and they simply walked away with that, that…I can’t say man, with that thing.”
Edward looked around. Sophisticated communications equipment was all around them, yet all the panels were dark.
“Have you radioed for help?” he asked.
Alain Charpentier shook his head. “All this has stopped working. I don’t know how to mend it and the technicians have vanished.”
“Along with more than half the people in the town,” someone said.
“Can’t you make a simple radio?” Edward asked.
“What do you mean?” Alain Charpentiers asked.
“Like on the Titanic,” Edward said. “Just to send a basic signal in Morse code.”
Everyone looked at the communications officer.
He thought about it. During his training he had learnt how radios were constructed. It was more than fifteen years ago. Would he remember enough?
“Well,” he said thoughtfully, “I’m not sure, and I can’t make any promises, but I’ll try.”
Several hours later he had managed to construct a simple radio transmitter. He connected it to a power supply.
“Right, here it goes,” he said. His finger began tapping out a call signal. He repeated this for some time until there was a crackling sound on the speakers. He listened and said “Good, I’ve made contact with a ship.”
Then he sent the real message “SOS, Kerguelen Island calling SOS. Under attack. Request urgent assistance…”
There was a loud bang and smoke came from the makeshift radio transmitter. The communications officer quickly turned off the power supply.
“Well, that’s that then,” he said.
“Who were you communicating with?” Edward asked.
“I don’t know,” Alain Charpentier said. “A ship, that’s all I know. All we can hope for is that they relay the message.”
The captain of the unknown ship passed on the unusual distress signal to French authorities who had already been puzzled by the absence of communications from their radar station in Kerguelen. The distress signal forced French authorities to take immediate action. They dispatched an aircraft carrier battle group to Kerguelen. The aircraft carrier was equipped with modern fighter jets and the supporting fleet carried thousands of troops.