by Nick Thacker
“All set,” he said to the other man. The other guard had placed a loop of leather around his upper body and was now fiddling with another set of straps at Colson’s feet. He looked up and nodded when the other guard spoke.
Colson felt his hands being strapped to the bottom of the long shelf, each guard working one of the leather straps and cinching it tight. His feet were next, and within five more minutes Jonathan Colson was completely incapacitated, lying prone, fully clothed, inside the box.
“Okay,” the second guard began. “Initializing air mixture now. He’ll be out in a matter of seconds, and it’ll start to snake him then. Plenty of time to log it and have the stasis protocols prepped for him.”
The first guard laughed. “Spooky, isn’t it? How they’re able to keep these guys alive for so long?”
Colson could barely see the man’s face, but he recognized the guard’s shrug. “I guess. I don’t worry about that crap. Just do the job, get paid, go home.”
The guard who had applied the swim cap to Colson’s head stepped up to the end of the cabinet and began to push. Colson felt his body slide backwards into the depths of the massive shelving unit, the lights inside his tomb slowly fading at the same speed as he was being pushed.
The last sliver of light he saw came from the dim ceiling light fixture outside the box and far above them. Colson watched the guards’ eyes disappear into blackness as he heard the cabinet click shut.
Immediately, a gentle hissing sound emanated from somewhere above his head, and he could smell the addition of a cocktail of chemicals float through the air.
He breathed in, trying to calm himself down. He held the air inside his body for a few seconds, then let it out gently.
He had never known he was claustrophobic, but the hot breath bouncing off the ceiling of the tiny, cramped space and back onto his face caused the feeling to set in instantaneously.
This is it, he thought. This is how I die.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Ben
BEN STRAINED TO SEE WHAT Kyle had pointed at, but Julie added her own flashlight beam to the mix as the group standing on the upper snow bank illuminated the cliff wall next to Kyle and Hendricks.
As the area lit up, his eyes focused on the small square that was suddenly revealed to them.
It was a rectangular shaft, large enough for two of them to fit through side-by-side, but barely tall enough for one. It seemed to be sunken into the surrounding ice, as if it had been placed there by melting the ice around it and pushing it through the hollowed-out hole, then allowing the ice to freeze back around it.
The front of it was covered with a simple metal grate, fastened to the shaft behind it on four corners and the two longer sides with small bolts.
“You think we can get into it?” Julie asked him.
Ben shrugged. “Definitely not from here.”
Reggie, Mrs. E, and Joshua were already working their way down the snow bank and onto the lower platform. There was no need for ropes and ice axes for this drop, since the snow offered a cushioned landing.
“Bennett,” Hendricks yelled up at him, “why don’t you and Julie stay up there until we’re sure we can get in this way? It’ll be a lot easier to get back up on your snow bank if someone’s already there to pull us up.”
Ben gave him a thumbs-up and waited as the three others finished slide-falling onto the lower ledge, then watched and pointed his flashlight as they attempted to open the grate. Hendricks withdrew a small multitool from a pocket, and started working on the bolts with the built-in pliers. After a few minutes, the grate popped off and fell forward onto the soft bed of snow. Hendricks looked around at the group surrounding him, then pointed his light down the now-open shaft.
“Looks clear to me,” he said.
“How far can you see?” Mrs. E asked.
“Only about twenty or thirty feet. It’s straight, but I can’t tell if there are drops or turnoffs anywhere along the way.” He turned again to Mrs. E. “Any volunteers?”
Joshua stepped forward. “I’ll do it.”
Hendricks hesitated a moment, then replied. “Sure, sounds good. Just get to the end, then give us the signal.” He flicked his light on and off, demonstrating. “Two flashes to tell us it’s all clear.”
Joshua nodded, and crouched and entered the hole headfirst. Ben saw the man’s feet disappear into the chamber then waited. Another few minutes passed and Hendricks turned to the group.
“All clear,” he said. “Nowhere else to go but down, right?”
He didn’t wait for anyone to answer the question, and immediately started into the shaft. It took another minute for everyone to enter behind him, each person still carrying their rifle on their back or pistol on their belt, shimmying their pack behind them to fit through the rectangular space.
By the time Ben and Julie made it down to the lower snow bank it was their turn. He told Julie to move ahead, opting to enter last. Julie did, and had little trouble fitting her thin frame into the narrow space. Ben had a bit of a struggle placing his pack in an easily maneuverable spot, but eventually had it dragging along behind him.
The space was dark. The cold metal of the shaft was the temperature of the ice just beyond its sides, and the thick gloves Ben was wearing were still having trouble keeping up. He felt the below-zero surface through the fabric, already creeping upward into his skin.
Julie stopped, turned around, and lay on her back. Ben saw that just past her the rest of the group was stopped as well. As his eyes adjusted, he could see faint light emanating upward from somewhere ahead.
Joshua’s voice tumbled through the air, barely reaching Ben’s ears. “There’s another grate here, a vent I think. I can feel the air coming out of it, and it’s a bit warmer, which is good news. The bad news is that it looks like we’re right above a huge open space. I can’t see too far inside, but there’s a little bit of light coming from the room.”
He paused, and Hendricks spoke. “Let’s keep moving. We’re looking for some sort of closet, or just a smaller room, if there is one. Let’s not take our chances with a huge space like this.”
Ben heard shuffling, then the train of people in front of him disembarked once again. Julie rolled over and started crawling on her hands and knees, catching up. Ben followed behind her, longing to stand up and stretch out. He wasn’t claustrophobic, but the space did seem to be pressing in on him, growing smaller and smaller with each hand and knee he placed forward.
Finally they stopped again, and Joshua once again addressed the others. “Okay, I think we found a spot. This might be the same room, but there’s no light. I stuck my hand on the grate before I even knew it was there. I can’t see anything.”
“Okay, let’s get to work on the vent cover then,” Hendricks said.
A little more shuffling, and then Ben heard the sound of a screw pinging onto metal. He waited another minute, finally hearing the sound he’d been waiting for.
The grate scraped away from the ice, and he saw the top edge of it floating about Joshua’s head as the two men finagled it out of the way.
“We’re in,” Joshua said. “One at a time. Use your axe, hang it over the edge like this, and lower yourself down.”
“Keep the noise to a minimum,” Hendricks said. “We don’t need anyone else knowing we’re here.”
Ben waited his turn, helping Julie descend by holding her arms as she went over the edge feet-first. The floor was a good twenty feet away, and now that Ben could see the shadows of the others down in the room, and how small they seemed from this distance, he felt the anxiety creep up again.
When Julie finished, Hendricks whispered up toward Ben. “Okay, your turn, Bennett. When you get down a few feet, see if you can move the grate back into place for the most part. It’ll hopefully be close enough so it won’t draw anyone’s attention.”
Ben followed the instruction and got the cover situated nearly perfectly in place, leaving a few inches for the axe and rope. He slid to the ground
, then shook the rope enough to dislodge the axe and flick it over the edge and down through the crack. It fell straight down toward Ben, and he caught it with one hand before it hit the floor.
“Nice job,” Hendricks said. “I thought you were just going to let it hit the floor, ruining any chance we’d have of staying undetected.” He offered Ben a smirk, but Ben just shrugged and rolled the rope up and stuck it in his pack.
“What is this place?” Reggie asked.
Ben looked around, trying to piece together what he was seeing. There were endless rows of tall shelving units, stretching as far as he could see. The room was remarkably dim, not completely pitch black but certainly close. A few tiny lights dotted the ceiling far above their heads, only bathing the top few feet of each shelf in enough light to discern any detail. Ben squinted, trying to pull the upper levels of the shelves into focus, but still had no idea what was on them.
“It looks like a server room,” Julie said. “A massive server room.”
They began walking, following Hendricks, Kyle, and Joshua down the edge of the room, looking down each of the long rows as they passed them by. Ben took in everything and tried to process what he could see, which wasn’t much, as the lighting in the room was little better than pitch black.
After a minute of walking, Mrs. E stopped in front of a row. “These are not servers. There would at least be status lights on each box. And besides, these boxes are huge.” She stepped forward to examine the first set of boxes directly in front of her. “They are not the right shape, and —“
The sound of voices cut her off. The noise came from the side of the room they were walking toward, albeit still far off. All sets of eyes looked in that direction, but here was no way to see anything. Only walls of black boxes on black shelves stared back at them, but Ben looked anyway.
The voices subsided, but Ben thought he could hear shuffling and shifting, as if someone was working nearby. He heard a louder clicking noise, then the sound of footsteps.
More than one set of footsteps.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Ben
HENDRICKS DIDN’T PAUSE FOR LONG. “Let’s move,” he whispered. “Like I said, keep the noise down. Move as silently as you can.” He began walking toward the noises.
“What if they come this way?” Julie asked.
“Then we’ll need to make sure we stay a row away from them. They’re not expecting anyone else to be down here — the footfalls aren’t heavy or fast enough for them to be running, or even in a hurry, which means it should be pretty easy to stay out of sight.”
It was apparent after a few seconds that the footsteps were traveling in the opposite direction as they were, down another long hallway in the center of the room. Thanks to the dark lighting, they were able to pass by undetected, reaching the corner of the huge room.
“This is where they were,” Hendricks said. “Any idea what they were doing?”
“Yeah,” Joshua said. He pointed at one of the boxes near chest-level. “There’s a green light on that one. I’m guessing it had something to do with that box.”
Ben took a breath. He had a feeling opening boxes at the bottom of a subterranean Antarctic base would not lead to anything good, but he remained quiet.
Mrs. E stepped forward and reached her hand out. “Anyone want to take a guess at what we will find inside?”
Ben wasn’t sure if she was joking or not.
“10-to-1 it’s a dead body,” Reggie said. “Or a really raunchy porn collection.”
“You’re disgusting, you know that?” Julie said from behind Reggie.
“Hey,” Hendricks whispered. “Knock it off. This isn’t a vacation. We get caught, we’re dead, and we go in the boxes. Got it?”
“You think opening the box is a good move?” Julie said. “There’s a green light on it, which means it’s very likely connected to a computer system somehow. If we open it, an alarm could go off.”
“We came here to see if there’s something they’re trying to hide,” Joshua said. “If I wanted to hide something I didn’t want anyone to see, I’d put it in a box and bury it under a bunch of ice at the bottom of the earth.”
To her Mrs. E paused, considering Julie’s hesitation. Then she looked at the rest of the group. Ben couldn’t see Hendricks gesturing, but he caught the tail end of a nod from Mrs. E just before she slid the box open.
It made a hissing sound as the airtight cavity was relieved of pressure, and bright white light began filtering out, growing in intensity as the box slid forward. Ben blinked a few times as his eyes adjusted, and he saw the outline of a man’s lower body laying in the box. The shoes were brown leather, like typical work shoes worn by a desk jockey. Khaki pants gave way to a brown belt, much darker than the shoes, as if its wearer had given little thought to matching his shoes and belt together and instead settled for the category of ’brown’ as close enough.
Finally Ben caught sight of the man’s torso. He wore a thin, stretched white shirt, buttons still buttoned all the way up. His skin was pasty white, his neckline more of a collection of fat that had previously provided a cushion for his head. His eyes were closed, his face turned upward in a sleeping expression, completely indifferent to the newcomers.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Hendricks said. “Looks like Reggie wins this one. Good call, son.”
“Not quite,” Joshua said. “Look. He’s not dead.”
Ben stared down at the man’s chest and watched it rise and fall slowly, nearly fifteen seconds between breaths.
Joshua leaned in over the man’s face and brought his hand up and toward his cheek.
“What are you doing?” Julie asked, her whisper shrill and barely subdued.
Joshua reached in and slapped the man — hard — on the cheek. The man exploded upward, his torso arched as his swim cap-covered head nearly hit the top of the shelf. He gasped, a huge sucking sound coming from his wide-open mouth, followed by a gentle moan as his eyes shot open.
Ben reacted involuntarily, jumping backwards and reaching for his gun. He felt Reggie’s hand on his wrist, already assessing the situation and maintaining control. He locked eyes with Ben, then turned to the man in the cabinet.
“The… I was… the snake,” he said between fits of wheezing.
After a few more seconds of incoherent rambling he was breathing heavily, gasping for breath, but was awake and mostly lucid. He blinked a few times, his nostrils flaring, then finally stopped, realizing that he wasn’t alone.
“Wh — who are you?” he stammered.
No one spoke.
“Please help me,” he said. His voice was barely a whisper, and still Ben thought he heard it crack. His pupils were huge against the whites of his eyes, and they were clearly trying to help the man focus. He breathed a few heavy, labored breaths as if trying to work something out that had gotten into his bloodstream. “My name is Jonathan Colson. I work here, as a developer and program manager.”
“Well, that doesn’t matter much to us,” Hendricks said, the gruffness and edge in his voice exaggerated for impact. “But maybe you can tell us something that does matter?”
Colson frowned. “I — okay. I can tell you what I know. Can you get me out of here?”
Mrs. E and Joshua moved to lift the man, but Hendricks stopped them. “Hold on. What is this place, and what exactly were you doing here?”
“Please,” Colson said. “Get me out of this box, and then I’ll —“
“I’m not sure you’re in a very strong position to negotiate,” Hendricks said. “So just answer my question first. Where are we right now?”
“This is a station. My company owns it, and I just work here. I don’t know why it’s here. I mean, in Antarctica. But I don’t know what this level is for. I never have — we weren’t told what any of this was for, really.”
Hendricks frowned, while Ben and the others silently measured the man’s testimony against his situation.
“Okay, fine,” Hendricks said. “You don�
��t know anything about this place. But why are you in the box?”
“It was punishment,” Colson said. “I think. Maybe they don’t need me anymore. I test and compile subroutines, for a larger program. I found something I think may have upset them, and I told them I wouldn’t work anymore. They took me down here.”
Hendricks looked around. “Well, Mr. Colson,” he said, “judging by how many coffin cabinets they have down here, it seems as though quitting is a common occurrence.” He nodded once, and Mrs. E and Joshua began helping the man out of his bindings and out of the box. They carefully helped him find his feet, continuing to hold him tightly.
Colson was standing on his own now, and Ben got a good look at him. Middle-aged, thinning hair, and not much to look at from a physical perspective. Ben thought he fit the description of a stereotypical corporate employee, especially one who claimed to be a programmer.
Colson didn’t try to fight or break free, and Ben wondered how a man like this could end up here in Antarctica. He seemed broken, completely at the mercy of the group around him.
“All right, Colson,” Hendricks said. “We’re going to get you somewhere we can talk, in private. No funny business. Got it?”
Colson nodded.
“You have any idea how to get out of here?”
Colson nodded again, then cleared his throat. “Stairs are that way, and there’s an elevator. I’m not sure it’ll work, though. I think you need a code to get to —“
“We’ll take our chances,” Hendricks said. “Lead the way, Jonny boy.” He pushed forward with an arm, his gun held tightly in his other hand. Jonathan Colson stumbled a bit then started forward, leading the rest of the group around the edge of the large room.
“It’s around this corner, all the way down the other side. You’ll see the indicator light as we get closer —“
From the other side of the room, about where Colson said the elevator was located, Ben heard shouts. Men’s voices rang out into the tall chamber, bouncing off endless rows of cabinets. They were angry, hurried, and focused. As they spoke, Ben thought he could hear four distinct voices. He couldn’t make out any more specifics, but he knew one thing for sure.
