by Ben Hammott
“Maybe it needs to keep eating to retain its size,” suggested Krisztina.
“It just had a whole cow to feast on,” argued Svetlana. “No, something’s wrong.”
“Yes, yours and Luka’s overactive imaginations and proneness to exaggerate,” scoffed Stanislav.
Svetlana ignored the man and crossed to the intercom. “Luka, how large was the creature that entered the elevator?”
Out in the corridor, Vadim was about to retreat when the serpent grew near but held his ground when the snake stopped and lifted its front half into the air. He watched in fascination when a triangle head lacking any features formed at the tip. It looked around before staring straight at him. Though Vadim noticed no eyes on the menacing head unnervingly pointed at him, he had no doubts it could see him and probably smell the fear he radiated. It was damn creepy. Sensing danger when its head bulged four times its size, he took a step back. When a small rigid tube grew out from the front and aimed at him like a gun barrel, he turned and fled.
Observing the creature with interest from the safety of the control room, Stanislav had no doubts that it came from the alien spaceship in Antarctica. Though how it got here to the facility was still a mystery, it wasn’t something that concerned him. His thoughts were occupied by how he could advance his career from this fortunate event fate had seen fit to present him with. His name would go down in history. The first man to capture, study and prove the existence of extraterrestrial life. However dangerous it proved to be he had to ensure the others didn’t destroy it. As long as he wasn’t one of them, a few deaths were acceptable losses and might even prove interesting. Information on how it hunted and killed would be invaluable for his research on the alien.
“Big enough to cover the cow, why?” replied Luka over the intercom. “Have you caught it?”
“Not yet,” answered Svetlana. “It was bigger than a snake about half a meter long, then?”
“Hell, yes! A lot bigger. It covered the cow.”
Svetlana crossed to the glass wall, glanced at the snake and then the elevator doors sliding back and forth against the timber prop. The elevator was set in the side wall, making it impossible to see into the interior. She turned to Stanislav. “It’s tricking us.”
Stanislav scoffed. “I doubt it’s that intelligent.”
“Oh, my God!” Krisztina pointed through the glass wall at the snake creature.
The tube and front of the snake’s expanded head sucked into itself and then shot out, stretching forward. When small missiles of Black shot from the tube, the snake’s tail began to shrink, providing fodder for the missiles it spat out.
Unaware of what was happening behind him, Vadim’s only thought was to reach the chamber and exit from the far door safely. His first inkling that something was amiss was when he felt a tap on his shoulder. A turn of his head revealed a small black splat. Taps across his back signaled more hits. Buttons pinged to the floor when he ripped his white coat open. As he scrambled to remove it, the splat on his shoulder formed into a small worm and leaped at his head. Vadim screamed in fear when it slithered across his cheek and crawled up a nostril. The other splats became worms and leaped for his head. Vadim threw the coat on the floor and rushed for the far door. It closed before he reached it. He jerked his head at Stanislav in the control room.
“Stanislav, you bastard! Open this...”
Observing the worms crawling over Vadim’s face, Stanislav pressed a button on the console. “Sorry, Vadim, you are contaminated. We’ll do all we can to help you, but...”
Seeking out orifices, the worms crawled into Vadim’s ears, nose, mouth, and eyes. Vadim screamed when Black ooze seeped from the pores in his face a moment later. The hands he put to his face to claw at the burning pain sunk into his melting flesh, covering them in blood and scorching Black. Stricken with agony, he rushed erratically around the room, crashing into walls.
The snake, reduced in size now, slithered into the room and observed the human that collapsed to the floor. It turned its tip at the door closing behind it and then crossed to the writhing human. It crawled up the man’s trouser leg and started feasting.
Coming to his senses, Stanislav screamed, “The cameras, the cameras, switch them on!”
Stricken by shock at their colleague suffering an agonizing death, the two women ignored his request.
Cursing their unprofessionalism, Stanislav switched on the two cameras attached to the ceiling above the console. Aimed into the containment room they would record every stage of Vadim’s demise. The Black’s method of killing and devouring its victims was something his superiors would want to see. After checking the red recording lights were on, he resumed watching the Black consume his colleague. History was being made. He sighed and rolled his eyes when one of the women behind him screamed. He turned to order them to silence and froze. A Black column rose from the floor and spread out over the glass wall. It seemed Svetlana may have been correct after all. While the snake had distracted them, the bigger creature had crept up on them. It can separate. More information to add to his research. He could almost taste his fame and promotion.
“It can’t get in, can it?” fretted Krisztina, stepping back from the wall.
“I doubt it, but neither can we get out,” said Svetlana. “It’s turned the table on us. We’re the ones trapped.” She looked at Stanislav. “Still doubting its intelligence, Director?”
Though concerned by the unexpected turn of events, Stanislav was confident the creature couldn’t reach them. What went on down here, back then, depended on airtight seals in every room to stop contaminants spreading. No, they might be momentarily trapped, but they were safe.
Stanislav turned to Svetlana. “However intelligent it is, we have the greater intellect. We need to put our brains together and come up with a plan to defeat it. As I’m sure we will.”
Svetlana huffed. “Our first two plans didn’t work out so well, did they?”
Stanislav found it difficult to argue with that. His mouth dropped open when three faces appeared in the Black spread across the glass. He shifted his gaze to each in turn. The faces were perfect facsimiles of Krisztina, Svetlana and himself. He reached for one of the camera controls and turned it to face the creature. His superiors would never believe him if he didn’t back up his report with hard evidence.
“How is that even possible?” uttered Krisztina, staring into her greasy black face looking back at her. Her human face reflected in the alien facsimile was a creepy effect that was also fascinating.
“It’s alien and for the moment beyond our comprehension,” stated Stanislav, enthralled by the creature’s abilities.
Svetlana approached the wall and laid a hand against the glass. All of them watched in fascination when an identical hand formed in the Black. She pulled it back and made a fist. The black hand copied her. She flexed her fingers. The black fist didn’t change but instead pulled back and shot at the glass. The transparent wall shook with the force. Svetlana staggered back. Though she had witnessed it forming into different shapes, creatures, them, she had assumed its form was still soft, malleable.
Svetlana looked at the others. “It can make itself solid.”
“It’s remarkable,” uttered Stanislav.
“How’s it going down there?”
Stanislav crossed to the intercom. “Luka, though I’m reluctant to say it, we need your help.”
“Damn, you must be desperate. What’s the problem?”
“We underestimated the creature. It killed Vadim and has us trapped in Control Room 2.”
“Vadim’s dead?”
“Yes, but let’s not dwell on those beyond your help. You need to come up with some way of rescuing us.” To avoid holding down the talk button, Stanislav switched the intercom to conference mode.
“Are Krisztina and Svetlana okay?”
“We are fine but also trapped in the control room,” answered Krisztina.
A slight pause, then, “I’m not sure how I can help?
Do any of you have a plan?”
“Maybe you can distract the creature and lure it away,” Stanislav suggested.
“Sounds dangerous to me,” replied Luka. “Wasn’t that Vadim’s job, to distract and lure? Look how that turned out.”
“He was careless,” lied Stanislav.
“Anyway, how can I help stuck up here? The elevator’s the only way down.”
“There’s another way,” explained Stanislav. “An emergency ladder located in Storeroom 9 at the end of the hall leading past the elevator. Open the floor hatch and climb down. It leads to the main generator room down here.”
“Let’s get this straight, you want me and Pechka to...”
“Um, he didn’t mention me, only you,” interrupted Pechka.
“If I’m going, so are you,” argued Luka. “You still there, Kommandant?”
Stanislav ignored the slur. There would be time for repercussions later. “I have nowhere else to go.”
“Let me get this straight—you want us to come down there and what? Wave and yell at the creature to get it to chase us so you can escape?”
“You,” argued Pechka.
“A less grandiose plan than I envisioned, but it might work,” replied Stanislav.
“I was being sarcastic,” stated Luka.
“I know, Comrade, but unless you have something else...”
“There might be another way,” offered Krisztina.
Stanislav looked at her expectantly.
“Let’s open the containment room door and see if the creature enters.” She looked at the pulsating mass of Black smothering some parts of Vadim. “There’s part of it in there, so it might enter to be reunited or feed. If it does, we close the door, trapping it.”
“I like that plan a lot better,” enthused Luka over the intercom.
“As do I,” added Pechka.
“And if it fails to take the bait, what then?” questioned Stanislav.
“We let it in here,” said Svetlana.
Stanislav raised his eyebrows cynically. “And just how will that save us?”
“Assuming it will chase us as soon as the door is open, we flee through the attached laboratory, through Containment Room 6 and into the corridor. We close the far door as we exit and one of us nips back in here and shuts off its retreat, trapping it like we originally planned.”
Stanislav considered the merits of Krisztina’s and Svetlana’s variations of their original plan. “Though your plans lack the simplicity of Luka’s moronic proposal, I believe both have a far higher rate of success.”
“I agree,” said Luka. “Their plans are much better. Go with them.”
“We’ll try Krisztina’s less-hazardous-to-our-health idea first.” Stanislav reached for a button on the console and pressed it. The corridor containment door swished open.
On hearing the noise, EV1L focused its senses along the corridor. It peeled its form from the glass and flowed over to the door.
“It’s working,” whispered Krisztina, practically holding her breath.
EV1L peered through the opening and studied the room before focusing on the part of it that feasted on the human. Its energy would be added to its form when they were reunited. Sensing the humans were trying to trap it again, it formed into the two-legged beast and walked back to observe the humans.
Backing farther away from the terrifying monster peering in at them through the glass wall, Krisztina groaned with disappointment. “Why didn’t it enter?”
“It sensed a trap,” replied Stanislav, admiring the creature’s intellect. “Time for plan B.” He hovered his hand over the door control buttons and looked at the women. “Get ready.”
Krisztina and Svetlana moved to the far laboratory door, opened it and waited.
Stanislav opened the containment room’s second door and then pressed the control room door button. As soon as it began to open, the three of them rushed into the adjoining laboratory. They halted when the creature remained in the corridor.
“It’s not following,” said Svetlana, fearing their plan would fail.
Krisztina shot a glance at the Black in the attached containment room and was relieved to see it seemed unaware of them and continued feasting.
“It’s thinking,” said Stanislav.
Deciding on its course of action, EV1L shed a small pool of Black and entered the control room.
Svetlana led Krisztina and Stanislav into Containment Room 6. Taking a wide berth around the feeding Black, they headed for the far exit. While Svetlana and Stanislav continued along the corridor, Krisztina halted by the door with her hand near the exterior door control, ready to close it.
EV1L halted at the far entrance and stared at her.
What’s it waiting for? Wondered Krisztina. Come on, just a few more steps.
Along the corridor, Svetlana stopped so abruptly, Stanislav stumbled into her.
“Don’t stop,” he urged, glancing back through the transparent walls at the creature.
“We can’t go on. Look!” said Svetlana.
Stanislav peered past her at the black mesh stretched across the corridor. “Damn, that thing’s clever and too devious for my liking.”
“Hey, you two, we have a problem,” called out Krisztina.
Svetlana and Stanislav glanced back and saw the part of the Black that had killed Vadim rise from the partially digested corpse while the main bulk of the creature turned away from the far door and headed back through the laboratory towards the control room.
“It’s tricked us, again,” stated Svetlana fearfully. “We can’t go back, and we can’t go forward.”
Stanislav, desperate to survive, only had seconds to act before the main beast creature cut off their escape route. He glanced back at Krisztina when she closed the containment room door, her attention focused on the Black inside approaching her. He shoved Svetlana forcefully into the mesh. She screamed when the Black net touched her skin. Stretching like elastic when she fell against it, the mesh was pulled from the walls. Ignoring the woman’s screams, Stanislav leaped over her writhing form. A tendril shot out and grabbed his foot. Stanislav crashed to the floor, smashing his nose hard. When he spotted the tendril wrapped around his foot, he pushed off the shoe with his other foot and scrambled away. He climbed to his feet and sprinted for the elevator.
Gripped by fear from Svetlana’s terrible screams, Krisztina rushed to help her. She gasped at the small Black puddle seeping into Svetlana’s eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth, gagging her pain-wracked screams. She was beyond help. Krisztina glanced fearfully at the creature moving unhurriedly, it seemed, through the control room as she ran to catch up with Stanislav.
Stanislav entered the elevator, kicked the timber aside and pressed the Level 1 button.
Seeing the prop sliding across the floor and the closing elevator doors, Krisztina screamed, “Stanislav, wait! I’m coming!”
Stanislav ignored her plea as he silently urged the doors to close quicker.
The doors closed. The elevator jerked when it began its upward journey.
Stanislav sighed with relief. He was safe. He smeared blood across his face when he wiped the drip oozing from his smashed nose. Puzzled by the sound he heard behind him, he turned to look at the partly digested cow. Its hide moved as if something was inside. Fear spread across his face when a tendril of Black wriggled from beneath the cow’s flesh. He staggered back against the door as more appeared and stretched into the air with their tips pointed at him.
“Please, God, no! Not this!”
Stanislav turned away when the tendrils stretched towards him. His hand thumped the up button in the hope it would make the elevator rise faster. Fearing what he would see but unable to resist, he turned his head slowly. The tendrils wavered menacingly in front of his face. As one, they shot forward. They liquefied on contact with his skin and spread out, forming a tight Black mask around his head. Stanislav’s muffled, agonized screams filtered through the elevator shaft.
Though she kne
w her efforts were wasted, Krisztina pressed the call button and cursed Stanislav while she thumped on the elevator doors. She stopped when Stanislav’s tortured scream reached her. Gleaning a little comfort from the man’s suffering, she sobbed when she looked back at the black beast skulking menacingly nearer. It knew she had nowhere to go. Krisztina turned and fled along the corridor.
“I WONDER WHAT’S HAPPENING down there?” pondered Luka aloud, after failing to contact those below over the intercom. Already worried by the woman’s scream he’d heard a few moments ago on the open intercom, his unanswered calls had increased his anxiety.
“They are probably heading for the elevator,” said Pechka. “If I was being chased by that thing, I wouldn’t stop running for anything. They’ll be fine.”
Luka wasn’t as confident. He had a feeling something bad had happened.
Pechka cocked an ear to the doorway. “It’s the elevator. I told you they would be okay.”
They went into the corridor and waited by the elevator.
They looked at each other when a man’s terrified scream filtered from the lift shaft.
“That was Stanislav,” stated Luka.
Both men looked at the doors fearfully and backed away when the elevator arrived. The doors slid opened. Something fell out and thudded to the floor. It was Stanislav. Both men focused on what was left of Stanislav’s head being consumed by the Black smothering it. A glance inside revealed the remains of the cow but no sign of Katrina or Svetlana. The two men backed away from the feasting Black and ran.
“Do you think the girls are dead?” asked Pechka, glancing behind fearfully and pleased to see the Black wasn’t following.
Remembering the woman’s scream, which could have come from Krisztina or Svetlana, Luka nodded sadly. “I doubt anyone could have a survived an attack from that thing before it separated. Now there’s more than one...”
“Shit!” cursed Pechka. “What do we do now?”
“We save ourselves,” replied Luka. “We’ll call in the troops like they should have been as soon as that thing was first discovered and then get out of here before we become its next victims.”
