The Siberian Incident

by Greig Beck

  “What the hell is that?”

  It breached the surface and dark holes gaped open on it like orifices—it was a submersible, or some type of vehicle, but it was made from the living flesh of scavenged animals. There were long tendrils waving and whipping the surface and undulating below the waterline—obviously its primary means of locomotion.

  Carter thought it was just as Mikhail had hypothesized that the creatures saw us, and every living thing, as raw materials. Where we used machines, they used… us. If they won, then this was the future of the human race.

  Carter fumbled in his pocket for a moment and grabbed out his blacklight. He switched it on and pointed it—the light only just reached the weird submersible. But it now illuminated what was coming from the dark orifices—dozens of the many-legged creatures were pouring forth.

  “I don’t think they’ve seen us yet,” Red said hopefully.

  They, and the other beasts, were all heading in one direction—toward them. Carter pushed toward the front of the group.

  “No time for this shit.”

  “Got that right.” Mitch went to kick out when the sounds of the door being unlocked came from inside. The door was suddenly pulled inwards.

  “Papa.” Nikolay rushed in and grabbed his father.

  The old man looked confused. He hugged his son back, and then looked from him to Carter. “I saw Leonid. But he is sick.”

  “I know.” Carter nodded and helped everyone inside. He quickly pushed the door closed and locked it. “Okay, everyone, let’s lock this place down. Secure every window, door, vent, and crack you can get to.”

  Mitch pointed upward. High above them was still the broken skylight that the original creature had escaped through.

  “Got a 50-foot ladder?” Carter shrugged.

  “So we batten down what we can, and for the rest, we just defend like hell.”

  “For how long?” Red asked.

  “Mikhail?” Carter asked. “Will the cavalry arrive in time?”

  The older scientist grimaced as he hiked his shoulders. “I don’t know if my message got through.”

  Carter checked his watch. “Then in about five hours, it’s sunup. We can only hope that by morning…” He looked up, “… I’m hoping that by morning, we’re back in control.”

  “I think you’re right,” Mikhail added. “Remember the legend of the haunted mill, where all the people who worked here simply vanished one night? Everyone assumed they simply all went home. I think it’s obvious that something similar to this happened. But by morning, it was all over.”

  “Either the sun coming up forced them back to the depths…” Red smiled but with zero humor. “Or they went back because there was no more meat for them to harvest.”

  “That is fucked up.” Mitch scoffed. “Thanks for that, buddy.”

  “Think positive,” Carter said. “Besides, right now, it’s all we got.” He pointed. “Quick weapons check; see what you’ve got left.” He slapped both men on the shoulder. “Nothing can be allowed to get in here with us.”

  “You got it,” the pair replied forcefully.

  Carter then crossed to Yuri. The big Russian had carefully placed Sara in a large chair, and she started to mumble. Her eyes fluttered.

  “Water,” he said and reached out to grab her hand.

  Sara winced. “Ow.”

  Thank God, he thought. She could have had brain damage.

  Sara’s eyes were still closed, and she lifted a hand to her swollen left eye. The right one was almost as bad. “Where…?”

  “It’s okay, you’re safe now,” he whispered. He rubbed her hand, holding it in both of his.

  “What happened?” Her eyes opened as slits, and she winced again. “Oh God, my freaking head.” She sat forward. “That bastard Tushino.” Her eyes opened and were shot through with spidery veins of blood. “I’ll kill him.”

  “Already dead,” Carter said.

  “Good.” She eased back. “Good.”

  Yuri returned with a beaker of water and handed it to Carter. He carefully held it to her lips but she reached out to take it and drink. She drained it.

  “Thanks.” She blinked and then looked around, squinting. “Why are we all in here? And why is it so dark?”

  “Hey, yeah.” Carter noticed for the first time the main lights were out and Pavel had been sitting in the shadowed darkness. “Can we get the lights on?”

  Pavel shuffled closer. “I turn them off as I think it hurt Leonid’s eyes… when he came.”

  Carter frowned. “When he came? How close were you to him?”

  Pavel bobbed his head.

  Nikolay stood straight. “Papa, where is he?”

  Pavel turned and stared. In the darkest alcove of a far corner, and standing inhumanely still, was the form of Leonid. The old man crossed to him.

  “He no talk; he is very sick, I think.” Pavel motioned. “Come, Leonid.”

  Leonid shot an arm out and grabbed Pavel’s shoulder.

  “Shit.” Carter’s stomach knotted as what was happening clicked into place. “Eyes on; armor up,” he yelled.

  Nikolay put his hands to his head. “Papa, come away…”

  “Get the fuck down.” The old man blocked Carter’s line of sight.

  From the front of Leonid’s sodden shirt, the material rippled as if in a breeze and then began to part. Fluid leaked out and then the cavity started to bloom open.

  “It’s coming out,” Mikhail yelled.

  Red sprinted in and dove, taking Pavel down.

  “Fire.” Carter, followed by Mitch and then Red, opened up.

  Dozens of rounds poured into the figure of Leonid that danced and jumped from the bullet impacts. The room quickly filled with smoke and the smell of gunpowder, sulfur, and a hint of saltpeter.

  “Cease fire,” Carter yelled. “Blacklight.”

  Mikhail carefully approached, holding up the purple beam. There was no blood from Leonid, as the body’s flesh was like wax. The Russian scientist carefully lifted the light, following spindly tracks as they raced up the wall.

  “It got out,” he said softly.

  He kept lifting the light beam until they saw the tracks head toward the broken skylight overhead.

  “Fuck it,” Carter roared. “And now they know where we are.”

  Sara got unsteadily to her feet and hung onto Carter’s arm. “They’ll get in here. They’re smarter than us.”

  “We’ll be overrun,” Yuri grumbled. “By the creatures.”

  “We can defend it,” Carter replied.

  “All night?” She held her head for a moment. “How many are there?”

  Carter looked away.

  “Carter, how many?” she persisted.

  He turned back and gave her a crooked smile. “A lot.”

  “Then we need a fort.” She quickly turned about for a moment. “We should all move into the center of the lab. If push comes to shove, we can seal ourselves in the refrigeration room—it’s basically a steel box.” She turned. “Once in the central labs, we fortify every room on the way there. We create firewalls and defend each from the center.”

  Carter turned to look where she indicated—the central lab rooms were at the center of a nest of smaller rooms. All had heat-resistant and shatter-proof glass walls. It wasn’t exactly bulletproof, but they were certainly solid enough to create a good level of resistance.

  “That might work.” Carter nodded and grinned.

  “It will work.” She pointed. “Mikhail, Anna, Nikolay, see what we can rustle up in the way of extra weapons, blacklights, or anything else we can use. Everyone is going to have to pitch in.” She motioned at Pavel. “Pavel, find us some water. I hope we won’t be here long, but if need be, we’ll also be eating the sturgeon eggs in the chillers.”

  Carter grinned. “That’s my girl.” He grinned. “Glad to have you back.”

  She stumbled a little and Carter held onto her. Sara worked her mouth for a moment, her tongue running along her gum line
. She frowned. “Chipped teeth; that bastard.”

  “Don’t worry, he got everything that was coming to him,” Carter said ruthlessly.

  The huge wooden front doors of the mill creaked ominously as something large pressed against them.

  Sara clapped her hands. “Okay, everyone, let’s fall back.”

  CHAPTER 53

  The group pulled back behind the individually sealed doors, locking each of them as they went. They gathered in the center laboratory that acted as the main hatchery and where the huge refrigerators remained. They gave off a gentle hum, and Carter looked across to them.

  “Could they cut the power?”

  Mikhail shrugged. “They’re probably smart enough.”

  Carter walked along the benchtop tables, looking at what the group had gathered up. Red and Mitch were quickly doing ammunition checks, and had also been tasked with determining their defensive weaknesses.

  Carter saw that Nikolay still had his portable blowtorch; there were also large knives, multiple scalpels, and a few glass bottles of hydraulic acid.

  Carter called Nikolay over. “Keep the blowtorch ready—I think fire is a good option. As for the acid, put it out of the way—I don’t want a bottle of that smashing and splashing anyone in here.”

  Nikolay nodded and then looked from Mikhail to his father, who was filling water bottles. He turned one way then the other, and then back to Carter.

  “Where’s Anna?”

  “What?” Carter turned about. The central room they were in had several partitions, steel benches, large vats, and refrigerator units, but there wasn’t really anywhere to hide, and the refrigeration doors hadn’t been opened. There was nowhere to go unless she managed to fold herself into a small cabinet.

  Inside with them was the huge form of Yuri, also Mitch, Red, Pavel, Mikhail, Nikolay, Sara, and himself—eight adults. It was crowded so it was easy to lose one small woman.

  “We’re one short,” he said loudly to get everyone’s attention. “Anna!” he yelled her name, hoping she’d pop up from behind a desk or somewhere where she could have secreted her tiny frame.

  No one answered and Sara turned to him, her gaze level. Carter cursed softly. “Damn. We gotta find her.”

  The group set to opening cabinets, storage rooms, and looking under benches. Carter turned, looking out through the glass walls, trying to locate her.

  “There,” Mikhail said, pointing out through the multiple glass walls.

  Carter’s head whipped around. Sure enough, there was the small frame of the female Russian biologist, still out in the main entrance room.

  She held up a blacklight and stood before the huge wooden double doors.

  “What is she doing?” Yuri frowned and walked closer to the glass partition.

  “We have to get her,” Nikolay said.

  “She’s waiting for them,” Sara said softly and turned to Carter. “She still thinks she can talk to them.”

  “No, she’s not just waiting for them,” Carter said as he watched her walk toward the huge doors that were now bowing inwards. “She’s going to goddamn let them in.”

  “The hell she is,” Red yelled. “Once they’re in, they’re in for good.” Red spun back to Carter. “We need to stop her—take her down if need be.”

  “No.” Nikolay burrowed under Yuri and reached the door, dragged it open, and sprinted out through the warren of rooms toward her. Red lifted his gun, aiming it at the young Russian.

  “Stand down, Red.” Carter went after Nikolay. “Give me some cover.”

  Red charged after him.

  “Hey,” Sara yelled.

  Carter turned back at the second door. “Yuri, Mitch, cover the home base.”

  “Bullshit.” Mitch racked his gun and went after them.

  “You heard him, Yuri.” Sara sprinted out the door.

  Mitch caught up. “Permission to disobey that last order, sir.” He bared his teeth for a moment. “They get past you guys, we’re all just fish in a big glass barrel.”

  *****

  CHAPTER 54

  Nikolay unlocked and pushed open the last door to the main loading area. He slowed.

  “Anna.”

  She spoke over her shoulder. “Go back; they don’t know you.”

  Nikolay approached with his hands up before him. “Please, Anna.” In one hand, he clutched both the small blowtorch and the cigarette lighter.

  Carter, Red, and Mikhail, followed by Mitch and Sara, came into the room. Red and Mitch moved to either walls, guns up and pointed toward the groaning front doors. The wood now bent inward in a huge belly and the metal locks started to squeal and pop.

  Sara approached, hands up in front of her. “This is not the way, Anna. This is not controlled.”

  “Nothing ever is.” She smiled dreamily. “I felt it, felt its intellect.” She turned back. “I can talk to them; I know I can.”

  The door groaned louder, the bend in the center of its stout beams becoming impossibly huge.

  “They’re coming in—Sara, get back!” Carter yelled.

  “Anna,” Mikhail demanded. “Please, come back inside. Come with us.”

  Mikhail also held up a blacklight and switched it on. Carter still had his in his pocket but for now just had his rifle pointed. Nikolay edged even closer to the young woman.

  “Boss, we need to be out of here,” Mitch said over the top of his gun.

  “Sara.” Carter waved her closer, and she edged toward him. He couldn’t wait anymore. “Grab her,” he yelled to Nikolay.

  Nikolay rushed forward—just as the huge doors exploded inward.

  Like a vision of the gates of Hell, animals and people poured in, vacant milky eyes, gaping mouths, dry and black inside, and fur draped in lake weed or missing patches as the skin rotted away.

  “Engage,” Carter yelled, and he, Red, and Mitch fired, aiming for the core of the torso. Even Sara pulled out the handgun they had taken from one of Tushino’s men and held it two-handed as she fired.

  Some of the animals fell like empty suits, but it wasn’t the beasts that worried Carter. Instead, in the glow of the blacklights, they saw in among the paws, feet, and hooves, or even crawling on some of the larger creatures’ backs the spindly creatures looking like obscene spiders that glowed phosphorescently as they were bathed in UV.

  “Friends! We’re friends!” Anna yelled, still holding up her hands.

  But if they knew, cared, or even understood, it didn’t matter, as there were far too many and in seconds, Anna was engulfed as she stood there with her hands up in a universal sign of friendship, or perhaps surrender.

  “No,” Nikolay screamed as he saw she was tucked under the arm of a huge ursine beast and carried from the door.

  “Don’t you dare,” Carter yelled at Nikolay who looked like he was about to go after her. The young man held his ground, but his expression told Carter he was in torment.

  Carter gritted his teeth; he knew these things didn’t arrive here for talks—they came for more raw materials.

  “Fall back,” Carter yelled.

  Nikolay lit the blowtorch and set it on long flame. The tongue of blue flame with its orange-yellow tip still only shot out about 18 inches, but the creatures shrunk away from its heat.

  “Give ‘em hell,” Carter yelled.

  Carter’s team yelled warnings or war cries, the blasts of machineguns filled the air, and the door’s wooden frame groaned and cracked as beasts forced their way in. The animals themselves were deathly silent, which added to the surreal nature of the event.

  Red and Mitch got to either side of the inner door and waited for Sara, Mikhail, Carter, and Nikolay to pull back. Then Nikolay screamed.

  At first, he seemed to be in some sort of contortion with the hand holding the blowtorch stuck out straight in front of him.

  But then when Mikhail shone his light toward the young man, they could see one of the many-legged creatures had its long tongue wrapped around his wrist and began to drag him forward.


  It continually changed its position, its stilted legs moving almost in a blur and making it impossible for Carter to get a clean hit on it.

  “No shot,” Carter yelled.

  Nikolay screamed as a line of blood showed at his wrist, and Carter guessed the thing was using the cutting edge now, with the intent of removing the blowtorch hand altogether.

  Just then, Pavel burst into the room, calling to his son. In his hand he held a beaker of oily-looking fluid and he rushed toward him, tossing the liquid on the glowing creature and also splashing some of the animals.

  As it sprayed in the air, the blowtorch ignited it, and the liquid exploded in an orange thunderball.

  The creature holding him became a fiery comet as it skittered around the room, all the time making a squealing sound that was like screeching nails on a blackboard.

  The animals in flame also fell back; perhaps for the first time ever, the many-legged things from the lake depths felt the touch of fire.

  Pavel rushed to Nikolay who had dropped the blowtorch and was holding his wrist. He dragged his son backward while Red and Mitch lay down cover fire, and Carter also supported Mikhail as he backed up while holding up the blacklight to pinpoint the invisible creatures.

  In another second, they were all inside the next door, but Carter still urged them on.

  “This ain’t gonna hold,” Red said. “We should burn them all; that worked best.” He nodded at the still-smoldering corpses out in the larger area.

  “Yeah, it worked.” Sara urged everyone toward the next inner door where the huge form of a morose-looking Yuri waited for them. “The problem is, gentlemen, we’re basically inside a giant wooden barn. We set it on fire, we’re screwed.”

  CHAPTER 55

  They backed into the center laboratory room, and Sara stuck her gun in the back of her pants. Yuri came and hugged her.

  “I saw Anna.”

  Sara nodded up at him. She suddenly felt the enormity of what was happening to them, and shuddered at the horror of what lay in store for the young Russian woman.