by Greig Beck
Mikhail nodded and faced Nikolay. “How old did you say that cave art was again?”
The young Russian shrugged. “Marcus Stenson was the caving expert, and he thought it could have been up to 100,000 years old, based on the weathering to the surrounding rock.”
“Paleolithic period.” Mikhail tapped his chin with a knuckle for a moment. “So, the lake arrival was before Tunguska and was actually the first.” He sighed. “I’d love to see those pictures, but no time now. I’ll send a team in later if you give me the map coordinates.”
“So what now?” Sara folded her arms. “All we have is a spoonful of weird flesh from inside a bear. The thing that was in there is gone, and I’m afraid the bear isn’t talking.”
Mikhail smiled. “It’s actually telling us a lot, Mrs. Stenson.” He pointed at the bear carcass. “That empty gut cavity certainly has lacerations from the blast, but I can also see a definitive line in the fur and flesh indicating it was already open. Like a flap.”
“Yeah, I saw that,” Sara said.
“You were right to think something was in there. But I think the thing was living in there, riding around inside,” Mikhail said as he turned briefly back to the bear before facing her again. “Maybe like some sort of opportunistic parasite.”
“The idea that something was in there is extremely alarming.” Sara grimaced. “But the size of the cavity indicates a significant creature. That’s not any parasite I know of.”
“I agree. And no parasite I know of either.” Mikhail cocked an eyebrow. “Intriguing, yes?”
“Intriguing, and horrifying.” She exhaled loudly. “Why now? Why after 100,000 years is this happening?”
“No, I don’t think it has only just started recently.” Mikhail sat forward. “Think of all the legends, all the stories dating back centuries from this area. This has probably been going on for hundreds, thousands, and perhaps tens of thousands of years. Maybe the numbers were so small so as to not create too much of a panic.”
“The haunted mill,” she said. “They knew about it.”
Mikhail turned to Stefan. “Thank you, Stefan and Nikolay, you may return the bear to the freezer.” He began to pull off his gloves. “Let’s get another coffee and…”
Through the glass partitions, he saw Carter Stenson enter the outer room with two other men. They were all armed.
Carter spoke briefly to Yuri and then turned to point at Mikhail and waved him out.
Sara headed for the door. “Something’s happened.”
CHAPTER 35
Carter paced, waiting for Mikhail to join him. Sara was first out and rushed to him, her face twisted with concern.
“What is it? What’s happened?”
Mikhail joined them, his eyes going from Carter then to Red and Mitch. “Mr. Stenson?”
Carter exhaled through his teeth. “There’s been an incident; I think. Dmitry…”
“What has happened to Dmitry?” Yuri closed in on him, followed by Nikolay.
Carter eased the big Russian back a step and faced Mikhail. “We’ve been having some intrusions into the camp. And given our problem with the bratva, we installed some surveillance lights, sensors, and cameras. Last night, they were triggered and came on, looked like they followed something, but recorded nothing.”
“They were blank?” Yuri’s huge brow furrowed.
“No,” Carter replied. “The sensors registered movement and told them to record, but they didn’t pick up the thing that had turned them on.”
“Carter, we think now we might know why,” Sara said. “Mikhail…”
The Russian scientist cleared his throat. “We found some biological material inside your bear that is not visible within the normal spectrum. But shows up under ultraviolet light—blacklighting.”
“Bullshit,” Red said from behind them.
“Is true.” Mikhail folded his arms. “It may well be that the thing that was inhabiting the animal carcass might be the same; so for us, totally invisible.”
“Oh shit.” Carter shook his head. “Well, that’s just great.”
Yuri reached out and grabbed his arm. “Mr. Carter, what about Dmitry? Is he okay?”
Carter rubbed his forehead. “We went to his cabin and found, ah, evidence he might have been killed.”
“What?” Yuri gripped him again. “What happened to him?”
Carter tugged his arm free and stared at the ground. “Like the bear.”
“I don’t understand.” Sara came in closer to him. “What do you mean, like the bear? Is he in his cabin… his body?”
Carter turned to her and lowered his voice. “Yes, no… not all of him.”
Nikolay turned and raced for the door, and Carter spun. “Stop him.”
Red moved across in front of the door and held a hand up in the young man’s face. He shook his head. “Sorry, buddy.”
Nikolay spun back to Carter. “He is my friend. I must see what happened to him.”
“Not yet,” Carter said. “It might still be dangerous.”
“Dangerous?” Sara scowled. “Carter, you’re scaring everyone. What the hell is going on?”
Carter tried to organize his thoughts. “Okay. Like I said, the security tapes told us nothing last night. Except for it showing Dmitry coming out of his cabin, naked, and then heading up into the forest. We went there to check it out, and found his… insides.”
Nikolay’s face twisted and he cursed in Russian. “You said he walked into the forest. He’s alive. Remember, this man is a hunter.”
“He hunts naked?” Red scoffed.
“I don’t know, Nikolay,” Carter said softly. “I just don’t know.”
“Show me the tapes,” Mikhail asked.
Carter nodded, went to one of the computers, and restarted the camera recording from the beginning, displaying the first sensor light coming on and then passing down the line. The footage went light-to-light, and the associated camera-to-camera was triggered, but there was nothing showing.
“It’s tracking something it can’t see,” Carter said.
Until it got to Dmitry’s cabin.
The door was gently pushed inward. And then the time ran on.
“What’s happening?” Mikhail asked.
“Wait for it…” Carter sped it up.
Sure enough, the door was pulled inward and then Dmitry stepped out, naked. He stood on the small deck for a moment, stock-still, and with what appeared to be a totally blank expression. He then walked stiffly down the steps into the snow and then headed up to the forest line.
“Very interesting,” Mikhail said.
Mitch looked over the top of the group. “We thought that whatever it might have been could have flown in. Avoided the cameras somehow.”
“Not flying and not empty,” Mikhail said. “Bring it back to the beginning, and then take it frame by frame. I’ll show you where I want you to zoom in.”
Carter did as he was asked. “Rolling.” He played it forward again.
Mikhail squinted in at the footage as the sensor lights were triggered on the snowbound compound. One after the other, until he suddenly lunged forward.
“Stop.”
Carter froze the footage, and Mikhail practically had his nose pressed to the screen.
“Enlarge this section and play it forward from now, slowly, frame by frame.”
Carter fiddled with the computer, enlarged the screen, and did his best to improve the image clarity. It was still a little grainy, but it held together. He played it forward at an extremely reduced speed motion.
The footage quadrant shown displayed the snow as the lights came on and the different cameras recorded the perspective and angles as it moved between the camp’s geographic positions.
Mikhail pointed. “Got it. Did you see?”
“No, nothing. See what?” Carter asked.
“Back it up and play it again.” Mikhail stood aside, but kept his finger on the screen. “Watch down here.”
Carter played it again,
stopping at each frame this time, and the group all crowded around. There seemed nothing to see, until Mikhail tapped the screen. Marks began to appear in the snow, one after the other; small, but they were there. They were the exact same marks, or spindly tracks, he had seen before.
“Holy shit,” Carter said.
“Now do you see?” Mikhail grinned.
“I see it, but I don’t believe it. One of those bastards came right into our camp and wandered around.” Carter rewound and played it again.
Red straightened. “What was it doing?”
“What was it doing? What was it looking at, or looking for? And how long has it been doing that? Too many questions.” Mikhail’s brow was furrowed, and he slowly straightened.
“You were right; the fucking thing is invisible,” Mitch said.
“No, not invisible. Or at least not anymore if we used your blacklights, right?” Carter turned to Anna.
She nodded slowly. “Theoretically, if your motion sensors had our UV bulbs installed, then you might finally get a look at one of these things. It could work.”
“Good.” Carter grinned. “Then I hope you brought a lot of them.” He turned to Mikhail who seemed lost in thought.
“You okay?”
“Show me the footage again,” Mikhail said softly. “Where the man emerges from his cabin.”
Carter reset the film and replayed it. When he got to Dmitry emerging, he stopped it.
“Zoom in on him.” Mikhail leaned on his knuckles.
Carter enlarged the naked figure, and then allowed the computer to clean it up and improve the clarity.
The group stared. Dmitry’s face was slack and the eyes looked milky. But what was the most alarming was it looked like there was a line up the center of his belly that looked like a huge wound only just being held closed.
“Oh no,” Nikolay whispered, and Yuri turned away.
Mikhail made a deep sound in his chest. “Take me to this man’s cabin.” He turned to Anna. “And then I think we assist in installing blacklighting for Mr. Carter’s sensors.”
CHAPTER 36
Carter first led the group to Dmitry’s cabin where Mikhail confirmed what Carter already knew: the remains were human. He watched as Anna used the blacklighting and they were then able to see that mixed in amongst the blood was the familiar viscous fluid.
“This is where they met—Dmitry and the, entity,” Mikhail intoned. “Then both of them left, but I think only one was alive.” Mikhail’s face was stony as he turned to Carter. “Let’s see where he went. And upgrade your sensors.”
On the way, Carter led the group from sensor light to sensor light, and the ones he deemed strategic, he had Anna replace the normal bulbs with blacklight fixtures. It was a somber procession, with Carter, Mitch, and Red keeping their eyes on the forest line, alert for anything now. Anything they could see, Carter thought.
Mikhail then asked to be shown around a few other areas of the compound where they experienced anything unusual, and Red then took them up to where he and Mitch found the skirmish area at the tree line.
It was on the hill just overlooking their cabins and just inside the first stand of trees where they found all the snow churned up, tracks, and the sign of a cigarette being stubbed out on the tree bark… but then nothing else.
Mikhail then used a portable blacklight wand to shine over the snow, tree trunks, and surrounding foliage. There were myriad traces of the fluorescing material having been splashed or sprayed around.
“So, it was in here too,” Carter said.
“It, or them?” Red asked.
“Good question.” Carter turned to Mikhail. “What do you think?”
Mikhail switched off his light. “We still know next to nothing at this time. But my guess is there’s more than one.” He turned to Red. “You followed the tracks?”
“Yeah,” Red said. “They led all the way to the lake, and then kept on going. This smoking sucker just burrowed into ice over five feet thick… with his bare hands.”
“Maybe it wasn’t him. Or wasn’t him anymore.” Mikhail looked back out over the mill house compound. Yuri joined them and stood silently, listening.
Carter saw where he was looking. “Yeah, and if I was on a stakeout, I’d think this was a good vantage point as well.”
“Yes, it is,” Mikhail agreed. “Very good for observing… life.”
Red talked to Anna as she continued to investigate the surrounding brush, and Carter turned back to the Russian scientist. “When we found the bear and saw that something might have come out of it, my initial thought was it was a ghillie suit… a camouflage suit. Being worn by someone or some thing. A little like what you said about it being a type of parasite. Do you think… that’s what happened to Dmitry? He was taken to be turned into some sort of suit of clothing?”
Mikhail turned pale eyes on him for a moment before nodding once. “I have a theory.” His lips pressed into a flat line for a moment before responding softly.
“Remember when I postulated that it successfully arrived this time, in the water, instead of exploding over land like it did in Tunguska?” He turned away and exhaled, blowing a trail of vapor into the air. “Do you know how we, humans, enter the water? I mean deep water?”
Carter nodded. “Of course, in diving suits, submarines, submersibles, things like that.”
Mikhail nodded. “Yes, correct. Human beings can enter the water and dive down without any problem for short times. But for longer periods or for greater depths, we need to have a special suit around us and our own mix of air to breathe.”
Mikhail turned to look over his shoulder. “What if these things need suits to get around on dry land? They can tolerate it for a while, but to really move about for extended periods, they need something else.”
“The animal bodies… us.” Carter felt like someone was grabbing his chest as his heart started to beat a little faster.
Mikhail nodded. “For years, the people have been disappearing as well.”
“Ah, shit,” Carter said softly and felt a little nauseous. “These things have been watching us, and using the animals, and now us, as skin suits to get around. That is really fucked up.”
“Not just now, I think,” Mikhail said. “You know of the legends of this place?”
“Yes, it was called the haunted mill,” Carter replied.
Yuri grumbled into his beard for a moment, but his face looked pale and lined. “Remember when I told you about everyone vanishing here all those years ago? I think now we know what happened to them.”
“People go missing here, and have been for hundreds of years, and maybe even thousands of years. But there was another reason it was called haunted,” Mikhail said. “And that was because it was rumored that they used to see the specters of the dead here.”
Carter blew air from between his pressed lips. “It was them, wasn’t it? In the bodies of the missing people, and maybe coming back to watch some more.”
“Maybe watch, but who can really know what they want,” Mikhail said.
“I know what they want,” responded Yuri. “Us; our bodies, our souls.”
Anna, Mitch, and Red wandered toward the group. “There is another reason they watch us.” She lifted her chin. “Perhaps the reason they come back is to try and talk to us?”
“Why?” Mikhail shrugged. “Are they sentient? That is the question we need to find out. Because if they are, then they do not regard us as something to be valued, acknowledged, or even something on an equal footing with them.”
“They just see us as raw materials to make their potential diving suits,” Carter growled. “They haven’t even tried to communicate.”
“We don’t know that,” Anna shot back. “For all we know, they’ve been trying to speak to us for years. Maybe even hundreds of years.” She folded her arms tightly across her chest. “These things might be so different to us, that for all we know, us trying to communicate with them would be like playing music to someone who can’t he
ar.” Her eyes bored into Carter’s. “Before we declare war, I think we should at least try.”
“Seriously?” Mitch bared his teeth. “Lady, they just cut the guts and brains outta one of our people. I know how I’ll be communicating if one of those fuckers tries to get close to me.”
“That’s enough.” Carter sighed. “Step one, we determine what it is we’re supposed to be communicating with. Right now, we’re at an extreme disadvantage.”
Mikhail nodded, but Carter noticed that Anna’s lips were pressed into a hard line and her eyes blazed back at them.
Behind them, Red chuckled evilly. “Then, when we can see them and have evened-up the advantage line, we kill ‘em all.”
Carter didn’t disagree.
On the way back down to their compound, Mikhail grabbed Carter’s arm to slow him down.
“Mr. Stenson….”
“Carter,” he replied.
“Carter, thank you. We must capture a live specimen. It is imperative we examine it, and yes, try and communicate with it if possible.”
Carter looked at the Russian scientist for a moment. “Have to tell you, Mikhail, my first priority is keeping everyone alive and in good health. I think we both know that what happened to Dmitry wasn’t exactly their version of trying to communicate with us.”
“I know, but we need to try. At least once,” Mikhail said. “Please.”
Carter exhaled through bared teeth for a moment. “I’m pretty sure these things regard us as some sort of lower form of life. We don’t spend too much time on trying to talk to cows or chickens. They might not even want to communicate.” He shook his head. “But we can try and take it alive.” Carter held up a finger. “But if it looks like it’s going to put any of our people at risk, then you get second prize—to examine one that’s dead.”
“Agreed,” Mikhail said. And then. “So, how will you capture it… alive?”
“Cargo netting. We bury it under the snow and rig a trap,” Carter said. “Should work, as long as you’re right about them not flying.”