Chapter 7

“Let’s just rest for a while,” said Chris, Rachel was alarmed to see that he was worried as well as nervous. “Arthur might be in the mountain or even dead and buried under thirty feet of snow on the surface,” said Chris, as Rachel leaned against Andrew for comfort she watched him began to shake with fear; the strange thing was that she enjoyed seeing him squirm with fear.

  “Something wrong,” asked Rachel with a grin on her face.

“I’m just a little claustrophobic, these tunnels look the same and we might get lost.” Rachel began to march around the cave they were in, she was grinning the way a school bully would. “Perhaps we should leave a trail of breadcrumbs,” she said while closing in around Chris, he began to make way for his strike. “Or maybe we should leave a trail of that machines circuitry,” said Chris glaring towards Andrew.

  If Andrew did have a mouth it would have dropped several inches by now. “Don’t blame him for you being so frightened of a talking machine, your pathetic Chris,” spat Rachel.

  Ann, who was still looking at the thin wall of ice, stepped in before Chris could make his insult. “Quiet the both of you! I can see something moving on the other side of the ice,” said Ann, this alarmed the group causing them to gather round the wall of ice.

  Sareena pressed her face against the ice and noticed three dark muffled objects moving around. “You’re right, there is something there,” she said as her heart raced with a mysterious sense of excitement. As she tried to focus further, the distorted objects seemed to distance until they were no longer visible.

  “They’ve gone,” sighed Ann as the rest of the group stumbled away from the wall. Ann then turned around and leaned back against the ice wall.                                                                              

  “Where is the Doctor,” said Ann in an angered tone. Silence then filled the air, the dawn of silence that occurs before horror strikes, and it did. The wall on which Ann leaned against smashed into a million pieces and three figures of terror marched from the wreckage. All of them were identical, all large giants covered in gleaming ice crystals.

  From the moment the wall shattered, one of the three figures of terror grabbed Ann tightly, she screamed and kicked in an attempt to free herself but it was no use, she was locked in its ice cold grip. As she screamed with fear, the remaining two creatures advanced towards Rachel, Chris and Sareena.

  To some comfort, Andrew trekked towards the creature holding Ann, he then proceeded to try and release its grip with his weak metal hands. One of the creatures caught sight of this and marched towards Andrew. It then raised its icy fist and with one tremendous strike, slammed it down onto the head of Andrews’s mechanical body. The force caused it to smash into pieces of wire and circuitry.

  “Andrew,” screamed Rachel as a slight tear dripped from her eye. Like a man possessed, the creature continued to smash up Andrew’s body of mechanical components. This meant that two of the creatures were now preoccupied; only one remained, this remaining creature quickly advanced towards Sareena, she backed away thinking she was nearing an exit, but she hit wall. To her horror she had landed herself in a corner, the creature leaped at her, trapping her in its ice solid grip. She screamed with fear as her heart raced so fast it seemed as though it was about to explode.

  “Come on,” shouted Chris as he grabbed Rachel’s arm, she was buried in tears and fear. “There’s nothing we can do,” roared Chris, as he dragged Rachel out of the cave and down an unknown passageway.

  The creature that had destroyed Andrew bent down and picked up the outer shell of his now battered head. “Let us go,” screamed Ann, she looked towards Sareena and saw the terror in her eyes as the creatures took them back through the smashed ice wall and into the unknown terror waiting them.

Footsteps could be heard echoing down from one of the ice tunnels leading into the cavern, the sound bounced off the walls and off the surface of the misty pool that filled the centre of the cavern. Large boulders of ice guarded the pool like soldiers; the mist that rose from the unknown liquid lifted up and vanished when several inches away from the surface of the pool. Beside the tunnel from which the footsteps were emanating from, there were two other passages, one of which seemed to trail deep down.

  The footsteps which echoed from the tunnel got louder and louder until the feet to which they belonged arrived in the cavern. It was Drast and Zenith lead by the Doctor; he stood firm and straight while the others bent over panting for breath.

  “That was a steep route, we must be far underground now,” said the Doctor scanning the cavern, he then slowly marched towards a small clearing in the ice boulders and knelt down beside the mist covered pool. “This is interesting,” said the Doctor as he stretched out his hand to touch the liquid that lay aimlessly in the ice pool.

  “No,” roared Zenith as he grabbed the Doctor’s outstretched arm and forced it away from the liquid. “This used to be one of our chemical pools, that’s liquid nitrogen in there,” said Zenith, the Doctor then shook his hand off and stared into the pool.

  “I see, nasty stuff,” said the Doctor.

“Why keep all your chemicals in pools like this,” asked Drast, now recovered from the long run down. “We don’t, we only use pools like this for unstable chemicals and all the rest is stored in a large automatic database.”

“Powered by electricity,” asked the Doctor.

“No, all the main machinery and computers are powered by a large store of pure energy; we have a small current of the electricity to power small things such as lights.”

“Why not use this energy for the lights as well?”

“It’s too unstable, if we used it on small and simple things they would overload and the energy would burst out.”

  “Why Doctor,” asked Drast feeling rather inadequate in the conversation.

“Nothing, I just had a hunch for second there, never mind,” he was then interrupted as Drast signaled for him to be quiet. “Listen,” he snapped as the three of them were shocked to hear a low pitched thudding noise, like a long and extremely slow march. “It’s coming this way,” whispered Zenith as he began to tremble with fear.

  “Behind the boulders,” ordered the Doctor as the three of them took cover behind the tall blocks of rock solid ice. Drast and Zenith cowered in fear trying stay well hidden, while the Doctor slowly peered his head round the side of the boulder.

  Drast dared not ask the question but to his horror he blurted it out, “what can you see?”

  The Doctor focused on the steep passageway where the thudding marching sound came from; slowly he saw a group of stumbling and even crawling figures. Each had a blank face like zombies while others were frozen into a look of pain. Frost had slowly rusted over their skin and ragged, torn clothes, but to the Doctor’s horror he discovered that every one of them had a distinguishing feature, whether it was on their hands, legs or the more popular face, there was an obvious patch of the ice crystals; each had been victim to the false evolution virus.

  Drast was surprised that he found himself eager to know the answer, “well,” he snapped.

“I’m not sure, take a look for yourself,” said the Doctor. Drast and Zenith carefully turned their backs from the boulder and slowly bobbed their heads up to get a clear view of the pool. A small shocked surged down Drast’s spine as he saw the lifeless figures slowly stumble and collapse to the floor.  

  “What are they,” he whispered.

“It obvious that they’ve all been infected by the virus but it seems their bodies weren’t strong enough to withstand the process, now they’re lost in the stage between life and a living death,” said the Doctor.

“Their mind seems to have gone, they act like children,” said Drast as he watched one of them picked up a small ball of frost and place it on its tongue. “Well it’s to be expected, the process is so unstable it’s affected their sanity. Take Oberon for example, he’s turned into a hell bent megalomaniac, won’t be long before he has a full mental breakdown.”

  “That’s another thing,” said Zenith, “why is Oberon different to the others, the others seem to have an extremely thick layer of crystals while he only has a thin layer.”

“Yes I wonder,” said the Doctor as he fished his hand into his pocked and produced the syringe he had stolen earlier containing the virus. “Hopefully I’ll be able to analyze this and maybe come up with a few tricks.”

  “Hey, look at this,” said Drast as he turned Zenith and the Doctor’s attention towards one of the rejects of the virus lying down next to the pool. It slowly stretched out its arm and shaped its hand into a cup, then carefully lowered its hand into the pool, when the liquid was up to its wrist it roared with pain. Its scream echoed through the cavern piercing the ears of all those present. It shot its hand out of the liquid to find it a frost blue color, then the air went silent for a second before a small shard of its hand fell off like a piece of glass smashing to the ground, then another and another until all that was left was a lifeless stump.

  Drast buried his face in his hands feeling sick as the Doctor and Zenith turned around and sat slumped against the boulder. “Did you notice what it was doing,” said the Doctor.

“What do you mean,” snapped Zenith.

“Well it was almost as though it was trying to drink the liquid, perhaps it still retains its human instinct to eat and drink even when infected by the virus.”

  “What do we do now,” asked Drast as he removed his face from his hands.

“Let’s go,” said the Doctor as he slowly crawled up off the floor.

“We can’t go out there, they’ll see us, maybe kill us,” snapped Zenith. “Look at them, they haven’t the strength to tap a pencil,” said the Doctor as he shot up from behind the boulder, none of the creatures reacted; it was beyond their strength to react.

*  *  *

The device seemed to be warming Elgin’s hand, the tracker was a very old and crude device, he accidentally dropped it in his mug of tea once and sent it to a rather shady dealer to be fixed, it was either that or pay for it out of his wages.

  Drimacus continually peered back to ask if the reading had changed while Greg ignored the two of them and concentrated on steering the snowmobile through the violent snowy landscape.

  Elgin fixed his eyes on the glowing display screen, in the centre of it was a small red triangle pin pointing where the device itself was, in the corner was a tiny blue dot indicating the presence of a snowmobile.

  “How much further,” pestered Drimacus struggling to turn his body around to face Elgin, he found this difficult with the heavy armor weighing him down. He was even more frustrated with the eye shield getting in the way of his vision.

  “About half a mile away, were almost there,” said Elgin starting to get rather annoyed by his continued pestering. “But the only thing in our direction is the ice mountain,” said Greg as looked through the glass and at the large jagged ice structure. “Of course, the perfect place to hide,” muttered Drimacus.

  “Look, there’s the snowmobile,” said Elgin as he shot his arm past Greg and Drimacus to point towards the large vehicle parked outside the mountain.

  “Are the weapons stored in the back,” asked Drimacus.

“Yes, I don’t see why we’ll need them; they’ll only slow us down. What harm can two little saboteurs do?” Both Greg and Drimacus were disappointed by Elgin’s comment. “That security droid had a built in distress signal that it would send out in any sign of trouble, even if it was attacked from behind it would have ample time to send the signal.”

“What if someone shot at it from long range?”

“It’s radar system would have detected it, gone berserk and sent out the signal as soon as you can say saboteur.”

“So?”

“Well you’d have to be invisible to get past it,” said Drimacus.

“Perhaps there was a fault in the droids system?”

“No, I had a word with the lab boys and they said the only thing wrong with the droid was the interference that the saboteurs had done.”

  “Could they be escaped terrorists, maybe they’re hiding in the ice mountain before their friends come to pick them up,” said Greg. 

“That is one possibility, all will be answered once we’ve arrested them and taken them back to the security tower, we can let the mind probe do the rest,” said Drimacus as Greg pulled the brake lever and the snowmobile stopped to a rather abrupt halt.

  “And when we do go in there, try not to start blazing like a trigger happy idiot, set the weapons on stun,” ordered Drimacus as he braced himself to open the door onto the ice cold surface.

Oberon closed his eyes to think as he lay back in his chair although to him it was his throne.

  His thoughts were then interrupted as one of the thick chamber doors swung open and his guards entered bringing two human women. He shot up out of his throne and marched menacingly towards them, the captured woman were both struggling for release in a useless attempt. He examined both of them; they were young and strong, suitable to be victims of the virus.  

  “You have done well; they will be most suitable for transformation. But what of the others, there was a droid and two other humans, where are they!” The creature that had destroyed Andrew threw its battered mechanical head to the ground, several screws and other objects fell out, Oberon let out an evil grin. “And the humans?”

“They escaped Oberon,” groaned the creature. Oberon felt his rage return, like a bad penny, it kept coming back. He then raised his leg and stamped down on the droids head, it shattered into a million pieces of wires and computer chips.

  “You disappoint me, I want them here alive. Especially the Doctor, his knowledge and strength are suitable to become one of us; perhaps he shall take my place as leader?”

  “The Doctor? What have you done with him,” roared Ann as her body became numb by the freezing grip of the creature holding her. “You know the Doctor? Tell me where he is,” snapped Oberon, his stare burned into Ann’s mind like a red hot poker. It was obvious who was in authority and who was the lower being. “I don’t know, and even if I did I wouldn’t tell you,” said Ann in a poor attempt of trying to turn the tables of authority. Her facial expression was the main downfall; she could see this as well as anyone else. Her fear was also displayed in her erratic loud breathing which was visible in the temperature.

  It was then that it hit her; there she was standing in a mountain made entirely of ice, being threatened by an alien, and she was not getting out of it. She had reached point of termination, her chance of living had gone, she kept on mentally beating herself; why did we come here, we should have stayed at Rachel’s, the Doctor might have come back, now you done it, were going to die and its all your fault, roared her subconscious.

  “That was a very foolish mistake may dear,” spat Oberon, “we’ve come too far to make mistakes! I will not have a pathetic girl and a Doctor get in my way!”

  “Please let us go, we’ve done nothing to deserve this, we just want to leave,” sobbed Sareena, she managed to display an angered tone in her voice, Ann whished she could have done the same. “You’ll never leave here the same way again, you shall become one of us, you shall become more than human!”

“NO,” roared Sareena, she began to kick and scream in an attempt to escape, even the creature holding her had difficulty containing her in his grip. 

  Oberon then clicked his fingers as a signal to the guards, Ann knew this was her final moment, what a pathetic life she had led, brought up by a family she hated, hardly had any friends, except for him, the Doctor. She shut her eyes, in someway she thought it might be quicker that way, it might be less painful. Any moment now, said her subconscious as though it were enjoying it. But nothing did happen, the moment did not come, why was she still alive.

  She then summoned the courage to open her eyes, she realized the creature had let her go, and it was marching towards Sareena. “No, keep back, get away from me,” cried Sareena as she tried to retreat backwards but the creature was still holding her. It then changed position and only took hold of her arm; the other creature did the same thing. Together they then took a few steps backwards and began to tug at her arms like a rope in a tug of war. 

  Sareena began to feel her bones stretching; the pain started as an ache, then a throbbing and now a storm of the most indescribable pain that would burn the soul of any living creature. “No, stop this please,” cried Sareena through gasps of pain and tears of fear.

  “Now Ann, where is the Doctor,” shouted Oberon taking pleasure from Ann’s disastrous dilemma. “I don’t know, for gods sake let her go!” Ann then back up against the wall, clutching her aching head as listened to the cries of Sareena. “Why did I come here, I don’t belong here! I DON’T BELONG HERE, FOR GODS SAKE, STOP THIS NIGHTMARE!” 

  Sareena’s cries grew so loud that they began to bruise Ann’s eardrum, the floor beneath her quivering legs was damp with her tears. Then, Sareena was saved from the pain spawned form the heart of evil; the guards quickly let her go and she collapsed to the ground unable to move her arms, as far she could tell they were either dislocated or broken, but she wasn’t bothered, as far as she was concerned, she was dead.

  “Say goodbye me dear,” roared Oberon as he raised his leg into the air. Suddenly he stroke it down and his foot crashed into Sareena’s skull. “NOOOOOO,” screamed Ann. Again she shut her eyes as she heard a loud crunching sound like the sound of a chunk being bitten out of an apple. The tears from Ann’s eyes were like a hose as she collapsed to the ground. She couldn’t take it anymore, she couldn’t take the death, she couldn’t stand living. She then felt her legs began to dampen with blood as she looked up to see Oberon, not daring to look at the corpse of Sareena. Just don’t look down, look down and your dead, don’t look at the corpse, don’t look at the desecration that Oberon had done, don’t even breathe. “YOU KNEW I DIDN’T KNOW WHERE THE DOCTOR WAS AND YET YOU STILL KILLED HER!”

“I needed some way of releasing my rage, and killing is a most satisfying act,” said Oberon as an evil smirk spread across his ice blue face.

  “YOU BASTARD,” roared Ann through the lake of tears.

“Lock her up, and clear this mess up, we can’t have such an important chamber flooded with the blood of a weakling peasant!”