Below Zero

by Dan Smith

  ‘What if we can’t get inside?’ Zak panted.

  ‘What? Why would . . ? What do you mean?’

  ‘They can control the doors; they’ll stop us from getting in.’

  ‘No.’ May slowed down. ‘No way.’

  ‘Or they’ll be waiting for us, like before.’

  ‘They won’t be. We’ll get inside and find a place to hide and . . . just come on.’ She grabbed him and pulled him with her, dragging him the final few metres to the edge of The Hub and out into the open.

  May didn’t waste any time. As soon as they emerged from beneath the building she hurried to the steps and climbed to the front entrance. Zak was right on her heels as she pulled the emergency lever and the door swished open.

  The light and the blast of warm air were a welcome relief that lasted less than a second. In an instant, Zak caught a snapshot of the interior of the base, and put out a hand to stop May who was about to blunder inside.

  At least fifteen of the red-jackets were standing by the spiral staircase. They were in a line, facing the entrance, eyes closed. As soon as the door opened, their eyes flicked open to stare at the two intruders.

  ‘Join us.’

  The room was different from the way Zak had seen it before. Instead of being pale blue, the floor was now covered with large patches of shining black insects. They were on the furniture, on the walls, smothering the kitchen, covering the staircase. The smell coming from The Hub was musty and rank.

  Almost immediately, the insects rose into the air as one – as if a silent communication had passed among them – and they began to twist and flicker in the light.

  Zak pulled May back, and together they tumbled down the steps on to the ice.

  Whatever those things were, they were overrunning the base.

  They scrambled to their feet and sprinted into the night, heading away from The Hub. Zak could only think of one other place where they might be able to hide. ‘The plane!’ he shouted. ‘Head for the plane!’

  So they tore across the open ice, terrified, running for their lives.

  Zak didn’t look back. He didn’t dare. Instead, he concentrated on the shape of the wrecked plane on the dark airstrip. If they could reach it without being seen, they had a chance.

  But, as if something had read his mind, the strip lights flared into life along the length of the runway. All at once, the powerful beams shone into the clear sky, glaring in Zak’s vision. Now it felt as if he and May were running towards a wall of bright light, but once they broke through it, the plane was within reach.

  They raced past the bent door lying beside the discarded pilot’s chair, and hurried to the place where the cockpit was torn open. They clambered inside and scrambled along the metal floor, keeping out of sight.

  When they reached the place where Zak had been sitting during their flight to Outpost Zero, he stopped and risked a peek out the window.

  The Spider that was chasing them had now made it right around the base to the front of the Hub, where a black cloud of insects was pouring from the open door. They spun and twisted as if they were one creature, and as they moved, fluorescent yellow spirals flickered in the centre of the swarm.

  ‘They’re coming,’ May said. ‘They know we’re here.’

  Zak watched them with horror, and the events of the past few hours burned through his head at a thousand miles an hour. There was something he had missed. Something important. Something that—

  And then it came to him. As crazy as it sounded, it suddenly made sense. ‘They know what I’m thinking,’ he whispered.

  ‘What?’

  Zak kept his eyes on the swirling mass. ‘When we first came here, and the lights were off, I was sitting right here, in this exact seat, wishing the lights would come back on . . . and they did.’

  ‘We were all wishing for that.’

  ‘But later, in the base, when we needed the power to come back on, the same thing happened. And just now, when I was thinking about coming to the plane, the lights came on, like they knew.’

  By The Hub, the Spider stood beside a swirling mass that was growing more and more agitated. The bugs were probing out into the cold, moving one way then another. And as Zak watched, a group of red-jackets passed through them, coming down the steps and standing on the ice.

  ‘It’s a coincidence,’ May said.

  But the red-jackets were coming in this direction, and Zak was more and more convinced there was something to it. They knew he was here. ‘I’ve been seeing things too. And it’s not my imagination. It’s real. It’s like something’s trying to get into my head. To tell me something . . . and . . . I think it’s the bugs. The visions are stronger when they’re close.’

  ‘The bugs, Zak? The bugs are talking to you?’

  ‘Not talking. They’re . . . look, I know it sounds crazy, but don’t some bugs have, like, a hive mind or something?’

  ‘A hive mind?’

  ‘Yeah, like one big mind made up of loads of smaller minds. Like a swarm of bees working together. They move at the same time, all go in the same direction . . . they all know what the others are going to do. You know – a hive.’

  ‘I know what a hive mind is, Zak. But bees use smells and funky little dances. They’re not actually—’

  ‘OK, so maybe these bugs do it in a different way. They use their minds to join together or . . . I don’t know, but we’ve seen what they do. They’re smart. So maybe they got into my head and now they know what I’m thinking . . .’ He shuddered. ‘Maybe I’ve got one inside me right now.’

  ‘If you had one inside you, you’d be like them.’ May looked at the red-jackets approaching across the ice. ‘And you’re not a bug, Zak, so why would they try to communicate with you?’

  ‘I’ve thought about that.’ He raised a hand to the side of his head. ‘Maybe it’s because I’m different. My brain is different. It’s sick.’

  ‘Oh, Zak.’ May shook her head.

  ‘Don’t look at me like that. I’m not making this up. It really feels like—’ He looked at the red-jackets advancing towards the plane, surrounded by a swarm of insects, and he had an idea. Maybe there was only one way to find out for sure. So he closed his eyes and emptied his mind. He pushed away his fear, and pictured himself and May in Refuge. It wasn’t difficult; they’d been there a few minutes ago. He was careful not to think about what had happened there, and instead imagined him and May going into the office. He imagined they were tired from running, feeling clever for having outsmarted the red-jackets. They went into the office and locked the door, ducking out of sight in the shadows.

  ‘They’re going away,’ May said.

  Zak kept concentrating on the image. Him and May in the office. Safe. Warm.

  ‘They’re leaving.’ May nudged Zak and he opened his eyes.

  It was difficult to keep hold of the image in his mind while he was watching from the window, but May was right. The swirling cloud of bugs was moving back inside The Hub. Some of the red-jackets were heading back inside too, while others were making their way around the base. Zak could see the Spider that had bashed itself dizzy. It was steadier on its legs now, scurrying back the way it had come.

  ‘Where are they going?’ May asked.

  ‘Refuge,’ Zak said. ‘Because that’s where I just sent them.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘I’m imagining us being there, so that’s where they’re going. It really works. They really are reading my mind.’

  OUTPOST ZERO, ANTARCTICA

  NOW

  As it turned out, the inside of a wrecked plane wasn’t a great place to hide.

  The storm might have gone, but a biting wind still found its way into the metal fuselage, moaning through the ragged tear in the front of the aircraft. It stole any body heat that escaped their ECW gear, and carried it away into the Antarctic desert. So, despite their layers of clothing and their thick coats, Zak and May shivered against the cold as they kept their faces close to the windo
w, watching the exterior of Outpost Zero.

  For now, the place was deserted. The airstrip beacons had gone out, and the only light was that which spilt from The Hub windows.

  Zak felt as if he wasn’t on Earth any more. He was somewhere alien and cruel.

  He shifted in the seat, moving closer to his sister. ‘You OK?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Me neither.’ He dug in his pocket and pulled out the Snickers bar he had put there when they had been looking for food to give to Dima. Thinking back on it now, it seemed like a hundred years ago. He tore open the wrapper and offered it to May. ‘If we eat something, it might help us stay warm.’

  The chocolate was frozen solid and May struggled to bite off a chunk. She held it with both hands and used the teeth at the side of her mouth. Like a dog chewing a bone, she managed to bite off a chunk and start crunching.

  The chocolate wasn’t much, but it made things feel a little better. A little more normal. She tore off another bite and passed the Snickers to Zak. When he took it, May stood and walked deeper into the plane.

  ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘Dima said we had emergency camping gear.’

  Zak gnawed at the chocolate and listened to May rummaging about somewhere in the semi-darkness. When she came back, she was carrying a bundle under each arm.

  She dropped the bundles at Zak’s feet. ‘Sleeping bags. They’re probably a bit stinky, but they should keep us warm. She went back towards the tail of the plane and returned with a holdall stuffed with gear. ‘We might need these too.’

  She opened the bag and took out a mean-looking claw hammer. She weighed it in one hand, then put it on the floor and dug into the holdall again. She pulled out an ice axe, a short-handled shovel, and a waterproof bag filled with red tubes that looked like sticks of dynamite from a cartoon.

  ‘Flares,’ May said.

  They each stuffed as many flares as they could into their pockets.

  ‘You want this?’ May picked up the hammer.

  Zak shook his head. ‘You keep it.’ He took the ice axe and turned it over in his hands. It felt weighty and deadly, like he could definitely use it to protect himself. But could he sink that serrated point into a person to defend himself? Into Mum or Dad?

  He put it on the floor and grabbed the shovel. ‘I’ll have this.’

  They unrolled the sleeping bags and put them over their legs as they sat side by side. They didn’t dare climb into them, just in case they needed to leave the plane in a hurry.

  When they were settled, they finished the Snickers bar in silence, checking for any sign of movement outside. After a while, May looked at her brother. Their faces were close, and when she spoke, he saw his breath around her head.

  ‘They really know what you’re thinking?’

  Zak watched her. He was trying to decide if she was making fun of him.

  ‘I mean it,’ she said. ‘I’m not winding you up. Seriously.’

  Zak lowered his eyes. ‘Yeah. I do think they know. And it’s really creepy, but it kind of makes sense. It explains so much.’

  May waited for him to go on.

  ‘The whole time we’ve been here I’ve been getting this feeling like something was inside my head. Or trying to get inside my head. Right from before we even landed. I’ve been seeing, like . . . ghosts. Of things I recognize. Things I’ve been thinking about.’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘Like when we first arrived and we were talking about polar bears—’

  ‘I remember.’

  ‘So when we were going towards The Hub, I saw one. A polar bear.’

  ‘There aren’t any polar bears in—’

  ‘I know that. But we’d been talking about them, and then I saw one.’ Zak rubbed his face. ‘I know how it sounds, but it looked real. I mean, it wasn’t real, it was in my head, but it felt like it was there. I saw an explorer too, exactly like I’d seen in an old photo. Dad was talking about Scott of the Antarctic when we landed, so I was thinking about explorers and . . . it’s like something rummaged through my head and found those thoughts. Like it was trying to break into my mind, so it used my freshest thoughts to make me understand it was there. Maybe it can’t use words, so it uses pictures. And remember when the Spider attacked me in the Drone Bay?’

  ‘How could I forget that?’

  ‘It didn’t hurt me, though, did it? But it was so weird, May, I had, like, this vision of a sea of those bugs. The Spider was close’ – Zak put his hand in front of his face – ‘right here. So maybe the communication was stronger. Same as when I got close to the live bugs in the lab. And just now in Refuge. They felt stronger in my head, and . . . and I had this feeling like it wanted to tell me something, like there was something under the ice.’

  ‘We know there’s something under the ice, Zak.’

  ‘But something important.’ He paused. Maybe he’d said too much. The way she was looking at him, she probably thought he was going mad; that his illness was eating his brain and he’d finally lost the plot.

  ‘You don’t believe me,’ he said. ‘And don’t give me that “I believe you believe it” rubbish—’

  ‘I’m not!’

  ‘— we both saw what those bugs did to Mum and Dad. And we’ve both seen those people out there acting like they’re being controlled. The Spiders too, May. Those people found something under the ice and—’

  ‘And now it wants to kill us,’ May said.

  Zak stopped and watched his sister. ‘But it hasn’t killed anyone yet, has it?’

  ‘Not that we know of. So maybe it just wants to turn us into zombies.’

  ‘But why?’

  ‘Who cares why? To keep us for whatever’s down there. Maybe it’s some kind of alien.’ May stared at Zak. ‘And when it comes out, it’s going to be hungry, so those bugs are making sure we don’t go anywhere.’

  Zak tried not to think about being eaten by aliens. ‘Thing is, though, when we got here, the lights were out. If they wanted people to come here to get eaten, why would they make it difficult for us to land? And those emails . . . it’s like something was trying to stop people from coming here. And when we needed heat, we got heat. When we needed light, we got light. So it doesn’t make sense. Why would—’

  ‘None of this makes sense, Zak.’ There was frustration and fear in her voice. ‘Bugs, zombies, robots coming to life. None of this makes sense. All I really want to know is how do we get out of here? How do we get Mum and Dad back?’ May turned round and pointed her finger against the window. ‘And how do we stop ourselves from either freezing to death or from getting turned into one of those things out there?’

  Zak closed his eyes and took a deep breath. May was right. They were both getting cold. They wouldn’t survive for long out here in the plane. But he tried not to think about the plane, because if he was right, something was watching his thoughts. The red-jackets would know by now that he and May weren’t in Refuge, so they would be searching for them somewhere else. He pushed any picture of the plane from his mind and imagined them hiding in The Hub, on the upper level. He imagined them piling chairs and tables across the top of the stairs to barricade themselves in. It was difficult to keep the thought in his mind when there were so many other things to think about. He’d never realized how hard it was to think of two things at the same time.

  Zak hung his head. It was such an impossible situation. Maybe it was time to give up. They’d be better off joining Mum and Dad and the others instead of being so scared all the time. It seemed so long ago that he was sitting in the plane, reading his book, hoping for an adventure.

  Zak unzipped his left pocket and pulled out the paperback. He held it in both hands and stared at the cover. It was frayed now, from being stuffed in his jacket. The right corner was bent over, and there were a few scratches where he’d caught it on the zip. Jackson Jones would know what to do. He would have faced this whole nightmare with a witty remark and a few mishaps, but he wouldn’t have given up. Jackson Jones
never gave up.

  Zak ran his fingers over the cover before shoving the book back into his pocket. ‘OK, so we might not be able to figure out what they are or what they want, but I’m not going to let them take us without a fight. That’s what Jackson Jones would do.’

  ‘He’s not real, Zak.’

  ‘I know that, but we have to think like him. And the first thing he’d do is arm himself.’ Zak raised the shovel. ‘And I reckon the next thing he’d do is find a way to attack them. We’ve done nothing but run so far. Now it’s time to find a way to fight.’

  ‘How? There are too many,’ May said. ‘We can’t fight bugs.’

  ‘We have to go right to where they came from.’

  ‘We don’t know where they co— Wait, are you talking about the Storage place we saw on the video?’

  Zak shook his head. ‘Do you remember the map on the wall in The Hub?’

  ‘Uh-huh.’

  ‘On the right-hand side, it said “To The Chasm”. I didn’t think about it until just now but that’s where they were taking the ice cores from. Sofia said that on the video. So if that’s where the ice core came from, it must be where the bugs come from. There might be some kind of hive.’

  ‘Oh, Zak, really? A hive?’

  ‘I’m telling you, I’m right. That’s where we have to go. That’s where we destroy them. You have to listen to me. For once, you have to listen to me and do what I want.’

  ‘Zak, it could be anywhere out there – if it even exists. And what are we going to do? Swipe them to death with our hammer and our snow shovel?

  ‘All right, so maybe there’s something else in here we can use. I don’t know, May, I’m trying to be brave here. Trying to make a plan.’

  ‘And I’m trying to be realistic.’

  Zak was losing concentration. There were too many things to think about. ‘I’m as scared as you are but we have to do something. We can’t just sit here and freeze to death. We have to find a way to stop them; to get Mum and Dad back. We have to do something.’

  May’s face was drained of colour, and her lips were pale. Her teeth clicked gently as she shivered. ‘You are brave, you know.’