by Ben Hammott
Rozovsky moved to the front and led the men forward.
*****
EV1L paused when the thunderous roar shook the walls, ceiling and floor and continued when it had passed. A few moments later, EV1L passed the room without noticing Richard's unconscious form and continued along the corridor towards the distant muffled bangs. When it arrived at a pile of wreckage blocking the corridor it turned into a side room filled with darkness and headed farther into its dark depths. It halted and stared up at the higher level as it listened to the sounds of approaching footsteps filtering through the upper open door. It waited for the creatures making them to arrive.
*****
The force of the explosion rippled through the ship, struck the hull and radiated through the ice. The vibrations reached the large fissure and dived down the crevasse's sheer walls. The ice barely holding the two large pieces together relented to the pressure and splintered. It parted with the sharp crack of a deafening thunderclap that rumbled through the ice.
The men in the hangar and the cargo hold froze as the growling tremor struck the ship and shook it violently. The unsalvaged alien vessels shifted and loose storage pods screeched along the floor. The chaos spread through the spaceship's weakened structure. The transparent pods containing the tall aliens cracked and exploded, sending turquoise liquid and the long dead aliens flying across the room. Metal beams and supports shook free and fell, collapsing walls, ceilings and floors. Alien monsters from all over the ship screeched and howled anxiously at the disturbance.
Outside, one of the men organizing the lifting of a recently filled shipping container was struck by a lump of ice falling from the ice wall and killed instantly. A forklift skewed and skidded across the ice shelf when the iceberg tilted, forcing the driver to abandon the vehicle when it tipped over the edge and splashed into the ocean. The shipping container tethered by one cable linked to the large cargo helicopter slid and for a moment balanced half over the ledge before slipping into the sea. The pilot struggled to control the uneven weight as his vehicle was dragged towards the waves. The co-pilot in the back reached for the button that would detach the cable dragging them to their doom but when the helicopter suddenly tilted to the side, he rolled out of the open door and fell onto the ice ledge. Though bruised by the fall, he wasn't seriously injured. He then saw the helicopter heading straight for him and screamed. The helicopter landed hard on the ice and the co-pilots chest, the skid almost cutting him in two. Blood exploded in a wide arc across the ice. As the helicopter skidded and started leaning over the edge the pilot released his harness and dived out the door. He groaned on striking the ice and turned to watch his helicopter dragged beneath the waves.
*****
The weapons and flashlights held by the anxious Russians heading across the room jerked back and forth, probing dark areas for the threat they sensed was somewhere near. As the room shook and loosened more of its structure to rain down around them, they again dodged the falling debris.
When it settled, Mikhail walked backwards with his weapon shifting from one dark patch to another and stopped when he thought he glimpsed movement. His weapon-light jerked back to the source of his concern and focused on the darkness between rows of foot-wide cables and pipes stretching from the lower level up to the ceiling. His eyes tried unsuccessfully to make sense of the dark shape that seemed even darker than the shadows outside the ring of light.
When Babinski noticed Mikhail had stopped with his attention focused on something back along the path, he walked up to him and followed his line of sight. “What do you see?”
Mikhail turned and grinned nervously at Babinski. “Nada. This damn place is playing havoc with my nerves.”
Babinski cast his gaze over the area Mikhail had stared at. He also felt a sense of unexplainable foreboding, but saw nothing to explain it. “Da, mine too.”
The two men turned away and went to catch up with the others.
*****
EV1L had watched with interest when lights had pierced the darkness and the creatures holding them had entered the room. If it had a tongue and lips to lick, it would have done so in anticipation of the feast it would soon enjoy. There was more than enough food on offer to bring it to its full strength and then nothing would be able to stop it. Unconcerned by the latest batch of falling debris, it slunk through the darkness nearer to its prey and remained still when one of the creatures turned and bathed it in light. Its form, dark and shapeless, all but indistinguishable from its surroundings, had concealed it from its prey. It was a creature of stealth, an assassin without conscience or remorse for the terrible pain it wrought upon its victims. Its survival was its only concern. When the creatures turned away, it drifted from its place of concealment and moved without sound―and at a speed that had caught many off guard―to claim its next victim.
*****
When the weapon clattered to the floor, startling the anxious men, all turned towards the sound and stared at the rifle. Weapons held in nervous grips scanned the area for danger. Though all sensed a malicious presence and an acrid smell, musty and noxious, none were able to pinpoint its origin.
Brusilov looked at Babinski. “Where's Mikhail?”
Babinski shrugged, his eyes darting all over the place for a clue of what had just happened. “He was right next to me and then…he wasn't.”
Sergei picked up Mikhail's rifle. “There's no blood.”
“He can't have just disappeared,” argued Babinski, gazing back along the path for his missing comrade.
“In this alien hellhole I wouldn't be so sure,” stated Rozovsky, who peered over the rail and roamed his light below. “Nothing down there either.”
Brusilov glanced at the ceiling. It was also clear.
“Mikhail!” called out Babinski.
There was no reply.
“If he was still alive he'd let us know, somehow,” said Nikolay, worriedly.
Sergei turned in a circle, his eyes searching for the menace. “We're being hunted.”
When the next man was taken, Babinski noticed something and fired. “It's taken Rozovsky.”
Surprise appeared on the men's faces when they looked at where Rozovsky had stood a moment before, but saw no sign of their comrade and, thinking Babinski knew what had taken Rozovsky and where it was, copied him in firing into the darkness.
“Cease fire and keep moving,” ordered Brusilov. They couldn't afford to waste their limited ammo by shooting randomly into the darkness hoping a lucky bullet would kill whatever hunted them.
“This is too fucking weird,” said Babinski. “How can they disappear without a sound?”
Though Brusilov wondered the exact same thing, he wasn't prepared to waste time debating it. “Let's move.”
They rushed through the room and reached the far exit without losing another comrade. Sergei closed the door they had rushed through.
While they rested, their thoughts were preoccupied with their latest losses. Two men lost without more than a fleeting glimpse of what had taken them. What made their disappearances even more eerie was that it had been carried out so silently; neither Mikhail nor Rozovsky had uttered a sound. No screams, no sounds of struggle and no blood to shed light on their fate.
Brusilov approached Babinski. “What did you see when Rozovsky was taken?” If they could learn something about the creature it might help them to defend against it.
Babinski shook his head. “That's the thing, I saw him taken, but I saw nothing. It was as if the dark swallowed him. He was there and then…he just disappeared.”
Brusilov found the man's account hard to believe. “You must have noticed something.”
Babinski shook his head again. “It was as if Rozovsky turned into a shadow, absorbed by the dark.”
“Whatever it was, it's now on the other side of that door,” said Nikolay. “So at least we'll hear it enter if it comes after us.”
“How can we be sure they are dead,” argued Sergei. “There was no blood and no bodies.�
�
Babinski humphed. “I think that's extremely unlikely given all the other murderous monsters we've encountered.”
“Dead or alive, there are only four of us left and we can't risk more lives finding out.” Brusilov glanced around at the surviving men; all wore fearful expressions and some seemed near to panic. “We have to keep pushing forward. The men we have lost will not be forgotten and we will mourn our lost comrades, that I promise, but not here and not now. That time will come when we return to the Motherland and where we will toast them with the finest vodka, the foulest jokes and the greatest pride. But first we have to get off this damn ship.”
Brusilov turned and gazed around their new surroundings. They were on a metal platform that stretched across this end of the wide square room. A large machine with four pistons connected to chunky metal arms rose almost to the ceiling of the straight-edged arched ceiling. Three of the pistons rose up and down with a slick suction sound and a loud hiss at each end of their movement. The forth piston was broken and dangled from its supporting arm. At one end of the machine, a blue light sparked like a bolt of electricity in a glass tube, and small red lights dotted the machine. At the far side of the machine a corrugated circular tube compressed and expanded like bellows with each rise and fall of the pistons.
Brusilov turned to the man standing beside him. “Any idea what that is?”
Nikolay shrugged. “My best guess is its pumping air through the ship, perhaps scrubbing it clean and recycling it.”
“Whatever its purpose, it's not going to help us complete our mission,” said Sergei, keen to press on so they could leave the ship before more deaths occurred.
When they crossed the walkway and opened the door, a blast of cold air assaulted the men. They pushed through and entered a room filled with whirring fans. Each of the six-foot-wide fans positioned at the end of an opening fed cleaned air into the ducts that snaked through the ship. One fan had a failed bearing and clacked with every wonky rotation. Blasts of cold air forced through the round opening in the wall by the bellows in the previous room whooshed through the room.
The men passed through the chilled room quickly and paused in the corridor the far exit led them to. What they saw wasn't an encouraging sight. Dark stains covered the six sides of the hexagon corridor.
Babinski shone his light at the nearest spatter. “Is that blood?”
Every man was certain that it was. Whatever had been killed here it had been killed by something that might lie ahead, but they couldn't go back, not with the silent shadow killer behind them.
*****
When the spaceship settled to ominous silence and a gentle rocking, McNally checked on any casualties and learning of the loss of the two men and the helicopter, he knew it was time to leave. He was about to contact Starlight Control to let them know, when his radio crackled.
“Control to Salvage team, is everyone okay?” enquired Corporal Norton, who like all others on the bridge, had witnessed the iceberg breaking in two.
“We lost a man outside, a co-pilot and a helicopter, so no, we are not okay. I'm calling a halt to the salvage operation. We've already pushed our luck too far and I'm not willing to risk anymore lives.”
Norton glanced at the Admiral, who reluctantly nodded.
“Acknowledged. Sending the remaining helicopters to evacuate your men.”
McNally gazed around at his men. Take whatever's ready to load and let's get out of here.”
The forklifts already loaded with storage pods, headed for the ice tunnel and the men followed.
As they walked across the hangar, Cassidy nodded at the bulldozer. “Are we taking that?”
McNally glanced at the large machine and shook his head. “Leave it. I'd rather use the little time we have left to save the alien artifacts we have ready than to waste time with something so easily replaceable. Leave it.”
When the salvage team had left the spaceship, McNally gazed around the hangar and let his eyes linger on the remaining cargo vessels for a moment before turning away and heading back through the ice tunnel.
*****
The motivation for the one-eyed Hunter's journey towards the rear of the spaceship was freedom. Because the tunnel they had dug through the ice was now blocked, it had decided to again seek the cause of the draft of cold, fresh air that wafted through the ship. It glanced at and ignored the Clicker corpses the humans had killed and moved down the stairs. It sniffed at the foul stench rising from the open floor hatch it arrived at a short distance later and carried on along the corridor.
When it entered a large room with a layer of mist hugging the floor blown by wind from an unknown source, it slunk across the room in the direction it came from. Wary of the human weapons that spat death from afar, it moved cautiously nearer to the large opening and peered into the next room. Though it detected the lingering scent of humans and their distant voices, none were in its line of vision. It cautiously entered and moved towards the opening where the fresh gusts of air entered. The next room was also empty. It followed the sounds of the humans drifting through the ice tunnel and arrived on the ledge as one of the humans' noisy flying machines rose into the air and headed out over the raging sea. It watched it until it had landed on the distant ship before it turned and headed back into the spaceship it had hoped to escape from.
*****
Sullivan arrived at a staircase and without hesitating led the way along the bone-columned corridor it led to. When they arrived at a junction, they halted briefly while they checked it was clear before taking the route straight ahead.
When Jack reached the turnings he called out, “Stop, you're going the wrong way.”
The SEALs halted and Colbert walked back to speak with Jack. “Are you sure?”
“Pretty much.” Jack pointed along the corridor leading off to the left. “If there's a right-hand turning along there that leads us to the junction where Haax killed the Hunters, then we'll see their remains and know I'm right. From there it's an easy jaunt to the hangar now there are no insects to worry about.”
“I think Jack's right,” said Jane, vaguely recognizing the junction route they had taken before.
“That's good enough for me,” stated Colbert. “Our guide that led us through the ship before took so many wrong turnings I've no idea which is the correct route back.”
Following Jack's directions, Colbert led the team along the corridor.
When they entered the insects' domain, Jane and Jack remembered the last time they passed through and became anxious.
“Are you sure all the insects were killed?” asked Jane, her eyes flitting around the foggy room for any sign of survivors.
“I was told all were gassed,” reassured Colbert.
Jane reached out for Jack's hand as they moved through the mist.
“We're here, Commander,” called out Sullivan when he spied the cargo bay ahead. They entered the cargo bay, which was now almost half empty. Crates, open and sealed, were scattered about the floor or stacked to one side. Colbert, who had expected the room to be a hive of activity, was surprised by its abandoned state. When they passed through the airlock into the hangar, they found that too was vacant.
Colbert's radio crackled. “SEAL Team Five, are you reading me, over.”
Colbert replied, “Commander Colbert here. We have just arrived in the hangar.”
“It's great to hear your voice, Commander,” replied Corporal Norton. “Was your mission a success?”
“If you mean do we have the merchandise, then yes.”
“Well done. I'll arrange extraction, but it's going to be dicey. The storm's hit and it's a big one. How many for retrieval?”
“Six. That includes Jack and Jane.”
There was a pause as Norton was surprised by the news. “Acknowledged, six for retrieval. Make your way out to the ice ledge. The helicopter's on its way.”
Escape
THE RUSSIANS RETRACED their steps back along the corridor, down two levels and paused at
a T-junction they recognized. Because they couldn't return the way they had come, they headed in the opposite direction. They followed the corridor, opened the door it led to and stepped into a room with four exits. After a brief consultation, they decided to keep heading towards the front of the spaceship until they believed they were past all the blockages and monsters that prevented them from travelling back the original route. They would then turn right and hopefully arrive at the maintenance room from the opposite direction.
They passed through the selected door into a green, ghostly-lit corridor, different than those journeyed through before. This one had curved walls with matching supports set at intervals along its length. Light was provided by a glowing green transparent tube running through the center of a two-foot-wide tube with sides fashioned from metal mesh that ran along the middle of the curved ceiling.
They rushed along it and stopped after covering only a short distance when the mesh tube started vibrating. They turned towards the squeals that drifted along the corridor and saw the cause. Small creatures, the size of baby rabbits, but with none of their cuteness, rushed along it. Though the tube acted as a cage to keep them confined, the Russians had learned not to take anything for granted in the hell-spawned alien vessel and ran.
Rounding a curve, they reached a section that had all but collapsed. Girders and debris was strewn along its path, but worst of all, sections of the tube cage had broken free and lay on the floor. They jumped over the obstacles and kept running as the creatures poured from the missing section and dropped to the floor.
Brusilov glanced behind. The creatures were gaining. He glanced ahead and spied an opening on the right with its door partially open. “Turn right through the door,” he yelled.
Babinski dashed into the room. The first thing he noticed was the amount of debris littering the long tall room. The second was the buckled door would never close. “We need to block the door.” He grabbed a metal panel and when the last man entered he slammed it against the door. It only covered the bottom half. Sergei and Brusilov piled pieces of metal against it. Nikolay carried another panel over and as he placed it over the top of the gap, he glimpsed the creatures arriving. The men kept piling scrap and props against the door until the panels were held in place.
