Arctica || 2 || 3 || 4 || Final

​

Dihydrogen monoxide is a versatile, frightening thing. Commonly known as H20. And most commonly known as water or ice, is also a gas. In its liquid form it has the ability to squeeze things until they collapse, by the sheer weight on its shoulders alone. In its gaseous state, it can reach temperatures capable of flash steaming a grown man alive. And as ice, it robs all things of heat, pulling the warmth right out of a person's bones until they can no longer move.

That's the thing about the Antarctic. No matter how many layers I've put on, or warm drinks, and blankets up to my ears.

I. am. always. cold.

If I ever needed a reminder of how harsh these conditions can get, all I need to do is look at the landing rooms, they are the chutes which connect us to the outside. On either side there are two large steel doors, each with perfectly machined locking rods that had been balanced by state of the art equipment. Insulated and then lined with concrete over a foot thick all before it is encased in metal. Then stress tested in the best labs the world has to offer. And yet ice still creeps on its edges when the weather turns bitter.

First the ice blasts the outside and seeps through the pores of the concrete until it makes the steel on the other side so cold that it feels like it is burning. By now a gloss will have developed in one of the corners, like a flagpole left out in the snow. It's so shiny that it's nearly transparent, but if someone where to accidentally brush up against it with their bare skin, it would latch on like the back of a fly's tongue. Ripping the follicles right off an arm, taking the top layer with it, leaving behind only the soft, exposed pink underside that throbs bright red with frost.

It's usually the new guy's job to clear these rooms when the ice melts and the frame bulges enough for the snow to creep through until it piles onto the floor. Before it becomes a walking hazard. I was a junior structural engineer and hadn't had to do it in nearly 4 seasons. But at the Ross Research Foundation on Station 9. The company had recently decided that I couldn't be trusted with much else, so Dr. Kelsie Grant who is in charge of the daily operations - had stuck me on ice duty at London's request. London and I haven't spoken again since I first woke up, because all hands have been on deck ever since Dr. Grant gave me a strict debriefing.

I told her most of what I knew. Handed over the sample of blood that Chloe had collected from my boots, and apologized about a million times. I don't know why any of it matters. Once I get out of here. I am never coming back.

Fuck the job. And to hell with the money.

I had been clearing Chute 2 for about an hour now, and my hands were numb when I heard a familiar shuffling in the doorway.

"Chloe."

"Hey," she said. Half of her figure was covered by the doorway. I could see people behind her hurriedly passing by. "I just came from the lab, and I thought I'd come see you before I went back to my room." She stepped into the chute, revealing her other hand. It was wrapped up in bandages at the wrist. "They had to amputate." I could still see the fresh blood weeping underneath.

I didn't know what to say, "I'm sorry."

"At least we're still alive," she replied. She stepped into the chute and closed the door behind her, making sure it was shut. "We have to get out of here."

I threw the shovel on the floor, "You're telling me. First chance I get. I'm gone."

Chloe got so close to my face I could almost kiss her, "You don't understand. Something is extremely wrong."

I held my breath.

"Didn't you see Dr. Grant looking at the sample?"

I shrugged, "What of it?" I picked up my shovel. "Hopefully she'll find something that'll acquit us. I'd still like to get my last check."

She shook her head, "Didn't you see her?"

"Yeah, of course I saw her," I started getting annoyed.

"Didn't you notice?"

"What," I gripped the shovel tightly in my hand. I wish she wouldn't say it. That I could just ignore this feeling that's been stuck in the back of my mind ever since I noticed Dr. Grant's reactions. To us. To the 5 figures out on the ridge. To the way her face peered into the microscope before I was dismissed.

"She's seen this before."

"Chloe. I'm just a. You know I started in petroleum engineering and when my mom died. It was a real rough time for me. I had nobody else. Not a single person left in my family. So when they had a program to be as far away from the rest of the world as possible. I took it. I...love the science. But this? Look around us. This is bullshit. I'm going to do mine. And when they cart me back off to civilization. I'm going to the nearest beach, dig my fucking toes into the sand and be a beach bum. Working at the docks when I need money, fishing when I'm hungry, and sleeping in a tent on the ocean front. On some tropical island. For the rest of my entire life. And you should do the same. Keep your head low and your mouth shut."

Chloe slapped me with her good hand.

I could feel the cold sting on my cheek.

"You're going to die here if you don't check back into reality. You and I both saw the same things. And you know as well as I do, it's either those t-things out there that's going to get us. Or they will. Why do you think no one's ever said anything?"

I rubbed the cold out of my mouth, "Anything about what? What the hell are you talking about?"

"THink about it. THink. For a second. Something this big, hushed up?"

"Chlo-"

"Why do you think this is the only continent in the world where all the other warring countries suddenly decided to broker peace?" A look of determination appeared on her face, "Fifty-five nations. China. Russia. The Americas. Europe. Why do you think they all came together and signed the Antarctica Treaty? When they've never been able to agree on anything else? Why? It's because they found something out here. Something that made all of their bickering and politics seem so trivial that none of it mattered anymore."

I could feel my lower limp trembling, "Stop."

"You read the reports. You've seen the company's mission statement. You always knew something was wrong."

I was starting to get angry, "We all did. Okay? All of us. Me. You. London included. And still we came anyway. Don't try to pin this on me. Don't try and make me responsible for whatever the hell it is that's going on here."

"I'm not." She pleaded, "I just need your help to get out of here."

That was when the lights went out.

For a brief second it was only us and the cold, before the orange utility lights began flashing into the dark room.

"Chloe?"

The door leading into the station started shaking. I pulled her away from it. A deafening bang on the steel broke our silence. I almost screamed but the coldness in my throat caught it before I could cry out and alert whatever it was behind the door that someone was in here, that we were in here.

Another rattle caused the door to shake. Snow fell off the wrist thick bolts which secured the hinges to the concrete frame.

I took a step back and could hear the crunching of snow beneath my feet.

The two of us stood there, neither of us moving another muscle, waiting for the banging to continue. Except it didn't. What happened next was difficult to see. How does one see the cold? So I'll explain it to the best of my ability. The air fell around me. Suddenly the door to my back which led to the outside felt warmer than the door in front of me which led into the station. The orange flicker of light beat irregular to the thumping in my chest, as if it they engineered the speed to try and calm me. All it did was make every part of my body shake, because deep down I knew, something was very wrong here.

The bit of moisture left in my eyes began to harden, but still I kept my eyes glued at that door. I saw the ice crawl forward, off the door, into the corners of the wall as it swallowed all the heat in its path. I couldn't move. I was already so cold. And still, the coldness kept coming for me.

I would have died there, if it weren't for Chloe. She pulled open the door behind us and pushed me out into the frozen clearing. I didn't walk 10 steps before I stumbled. I watched Chloe as she shut the door and started running toward me. My arm was numb but I knew she was pulling on it.

My mind wasn't working but my feet found themselves kicking up the snow beneath my boots as the two of us ran. We were in nothing more than underlayers. I knew that we wouldn't survive long out here. But still I followed as Chloe led us around the complex.

The wind was already blowing, sheets of white in every direction. I could hardly see her in front of me. Several times I yelled at her to wait but her figure became more dim, the further away she got. I was shivering at this point. Each breath felt like a hiccup. My body shuddered and my teeth clacked in my head like a typewriter sitting in the middle of my brain.

In that dense sleet I ran into something. I fell backwards and landed in the snow. I could taste the blood in my mouth. They were like pennies by the time I spit them out. And I looked up, to my horror. A figure clad in snow and ice, dancing above my head. Her face was frozen, and her arms were crossed. Sheets of ice on her back almost made it look like wings.

The Snow Angel.

My hands blindly groped around, searching for a direction. The direction she was pointed, only steps away from her compound.

I followed her gaze and walked blindly into the snow until the gray concrete slabs came into view. I pressed my hands against it and edged toward a doorway. My trembling hands pushed against the steel door and I landed inside one of the chutes. It wasn't until I looked up that I read the number 4 painted on the wall. The lights had come back on. The generator must have kicked in.

A part of me wanted to stay here. Lay against the wall and just die. Peacefully go into the cold. I didn't want to be afraid anymore. Not in my last moments. But then I hear a scream. One that I recognized.

Against every instinct I hobbled to my feet and opened the door.

Bodies.

There were bodies everywhere.

Wind was blowing in through the windows. I could see ragged pieces of flesh frozen on the jagged edges. I couldn't tell if they were from things forcing their way in, or people forcing their way out.

The scream again.

I limped toward it, into a walk, until I was nearly at a run when I rounded the corner.

All of that speed left me when I saw it for the first time, clear as day with my own two eyes.

It stood so tall that its shoulders were scraping the tops of the hallway. Ice stuck out of its back and arms. It was grabbing a hold of a man I didn't recognize. The beast stuck a long chiseled spike into the man's chest. Pressing it slowly through the ribcage. I could see the man's eyes widen as he tried to scream, his hands helplessly trying to grip at the ice entering into his body, each handful slipping as it penetrated through him, painfully slow.

London screamed again. There was a fire axe in his hands and he was swinging it blindly.

I didn't know what else to do, so I started yelling at it too. Hoping to distract it.

It worked.

The thing turned toward me, and I saw the piercing blue eyes in its skull. The way the boulders on his shoulders flexed and turned like flesh as it looked down at me. I froze in terror as it stared. As its features started to melt away, growing smaller, becoming more like skin as it looked back at me with my own face.

From the corner of my eye, I saw London drive the axe deep between the creature's side. It howled, spitting out shards of ice that embedded itself into the walls. Shattering on impact. I shielded my face and started to run.

"Keep going," I hear London shouting from behind me.

I didn't look back. Not until I got to one of the doors that had thick steel walls, with a handle and a crank that had rods on its hinges thicker than my wrist. Not until I let London through and shut it with a thud behind him.

The two of us sat there wheezing as we tried to catch our breaths.

"Where are we," I asked.

"Not sure. Some part of the complex that's underground I reckon."

London broke a glowstick in his hand. Then he broke another and threw it to me, "Come on. We have to find a way out of here."

I nodded and followed him. The lights had completely gone dark this time. The generator must have failed. Only the eerie green light protruding from our hands, guided the way.

I don't know how long we walked for, or how many empty rooms we broke through, each time preparing for a fight before London asked me, "Do you hear that?"

"Voices."

He nodded, "I think the others are nearby. He began running, "Hey! We're over here." He was running so fast that I was having trouble catching up.

"London," I yelled. "London." Until he almost disappeared from view. "Hello?"

And it only happened a few times. Didn't even last several seconds. But as I sit here with the others in the storage area. I can't shake it out of my mind. Not even as sleep twitches my eye, and I watch him propped up against the corner. The way London's head twisted a bit when I called to him earlier, when it was just the two of us, when he responded back to me. "Hello. Hellohellohello."

​

S