Chapter 8

Drast began to feel a stitch aching inside him; they had traveled through a maze of tunnels and passageways for at least ten minutes. All were the same, all with curved roofs and icicles draping down looking as though they were going to fall any minute.

  He thought things might be better if he went back home, it would be better than being hunted by a bunch of lunatics. But he was wrong, he remembered that the security guards would be after him, they’d lock him up, he had no alternative.

  The tunnel they had just entered was different, it had six doors, three on each side, and all of them were the thick wheel handled doors he had seen earlier.

  “Where do all these lead,” asked the Doctor as he caught a breath from the journey. “Some of them are laboratories and living quarters, this one leads to the power core and then to the laboratory where we met.”

“Good, so we can get the hell out of here,” interrupted Drast.

“No, there is an evil in this mountain that defies all the laws of human nature, tampering with the forces of creation is a crime, a crime that must be stopped.

  Anyway, Ann and Rachel are in here with us, they could be in the gravest of danger,” said the Doctor, his tone of voice remained in a constant beat of seriousness throughout his speech.

  “So what should we do? These ice tunnels trail for miles going round in circles, leading to dead ends and unstable caverns.”

“Sounds rather exciting, where’s your spirit of adventure?”

“It died a slow and painful death when the guards started shooting at us!”

  “Now, there’s a lot of things on my to do list that I want to get done. First we have to find Ann and the others, then examine the false evolution virus, then stop Oberon and his army of psychopathic ice sculptures.”

“Well there are some things on our lists as well Doctor! First, get the hell out of here, and secondly, get the hell out of here!” Roared Zenith, he could see that Drast and he shared the same interests; the both of them could see that the Doctor had paid no attention whatsoever.

  “But there’s one thing itching my brain, Oberon and the others have had several weeks to take over the colony and yet they seem to have done nothing.

  Where does this lead,” asked the Doctor as he pointed to the thick metal door to his right. “It’s a storage bay we haven’t had much use for it,” said Zenith. “Lets take look.” The Doctor clasped his hands around the wheel handle; the coolness of the metal surged through is body like your first dive into a new swimming pool. He gritted his teeth as he rotated the stiff wheel clockwise, as it became easier to move it began to squeak annoyingly. There was a large echoing bang and the door swung open ninety degrees.

  The Doctor squinted his eyes to see what stood in the room, only shadows were visible. He began to rub his hands together to bring some warmth back; he then took a deep breath and stepped in the darkness.

  He swung his arm out and spread it across the wall looking for a light switch, the wall was made of a slightly warm metal that was rough against his hands, eventually his palm hit a large object, plastic and dome shaped. He pressed the object inwards and a flood of light filled the room.

  The Doctor dismissed the word room, it was more of a warehouse, it was so big that one tap on the floor would echo off the surfaces. He noticed large metal gas canisters piled on top of one another, they were all in groups scattered around the chamber, the light reflected off their hard and smooth surface.

  “These weren’t here before, what are they doing here,” said Zenith as he raced around the chamber, looking around worryingly at the canisters. The Doctor stood next to a small pile of the objects and fiddled his fingers around the release mechanism at the end of one of the canisters. It had a tiny wheel that released the gas out of a small hose when twisted.

  “I have a very nasty suspicion of what these are, and it terrifies me to know that I’m almost definitely right,” murmured the Doctor.

  The three of them were unaware of a small security camera monitoring there movements, it remained stationary as a small light next to it began to flash, like a burglar alarm detecting their movement.                 

Oberon sat in his throne, not moving an inch; he sat gazing in a syringe he had picked up. It contained the false evolution virus; its blue glow hypnotized him as it slowly pulsated. Every time the glow calmed he could see through the transparent blue chemical and see the chamber, everything was a light blue; the walls, floors and computers.

  His eyeballs then turned away from the syringe and looked towards three of his fellow comrades sitting at a computer terminal watching the security images as two more stood guard by one of the thick metal doors. This was his time of calmness, recently he had many fits of rage and destroyed some of the science labs, it’ll pass, he would say to himself. He had only just managed to convince himself of this, he would dread that it might be a side effect of the virus. Perhaps it was a failure and soon he would collapse and die, for three days he had thought that they would pass, being a dictator can be over stressing, it’s bound to happen.

  But his world crumbled only twenty minutes ago, he remembered the Doctor’s words clearly, they had stuck with him like being branded by a red hot poker; ‘I won’t have to stop you; the false evolution virus will do it for me! Can’t you see that a transformation such as this is too unstable, it’s probably already destroying your insides as well as your mental state.’ There was truth in his words; perhaps soon it wouldn’t be his mental state collapsing, but his physical state, slowly his body would crumble like an old clay sculpture.

  “Sir, the intruders have been spotted in storage bay one,” shouted one of the creatures sitting at the computer terminal. Oberon felt his rage returning yet again, his calmness had been broken; this made him angry, so angry that he could kill. “Then get someone down there,” roared Oberon.

  The creature that had interrupted him had an obvious look of fear about him as he stumbled out of the chamber and through a plain automatic door that slid upwards.

  Oberon then took a deep violent breath before letting out an ear piercing roar as he threw the syringe to the floor and watched it smash into a thousand tiny shards in a puddle of the liquid held inside.

Just keep running, don’t stop, said Chris, quickly repeating the same words in his head. Don’t look back, just keep running, for gods sake don’t stop running! He didn’t dare to look back, for all he knew the creatures might be following him; he didn’t care about the others as long as he was safe, look after number one.

  He kept on hoping that the tunnel he was running along would lead him to a way out, he could go back to the colony and pretend that nothing had happened if the security troops came to question him he’d just say that he was at the pub, he could bribe someone to provide an alibi. Then, suddenly, his mind went blank, all his thoughts had vanished, the only company he had was that of his footsteps and deep breathing.

  The next few moments were a blur, he felt his boots hit something smooth and slippery like glass, his boots couldn’t grip onto it and he slipped violently and came crashing down. His head hit the ice rock wall and a small segment of concussion smudged his mind, pain swept through his body as he lay on the freezing snowy floor.

  His blurred vision began to focus on the ice ceiling of the tunnel, with its razor sharp icicles drooping down, this was no comfort.

  He diverted his concentration to what he had slipped on; with his gloved hand he spread it across the snowy floor until it smothered itself across a large frozen ice puddle. He then clenched his fist and hit it for his present situation even though this caused a slight bruise to form on the side of his hand. “Rachel, give me a hand,” he murmured. Then it hit him, he had only just realized that he was no longer with Rachel, now he was lost, alone, and hunted.

  He quickly summed up the strength to lift himself off the floor and stand up straight before stumbling down the tunnel in rush. He had to get out; this tunnel had to lead somewhere.                   

“You know what’s in the canisters,” asked Drast as he saw the look of terror on the Doctor’s face.

  “Remember the question I asked earlier,” murmured the Doctor.

“What Oberon had been doing all this time?”

“Yes, well now we know, these canisters contain a gas form of the false evolution virus.”

  “But there’s enough of the virus here to wipe out the colony,” said Zenith as he stroked his hand across the cold metal surface of one of the canisters. 

“Precisely, they could reduce the population in minutes, the result; an army of megalomaniac ice warriors.”

“But you said that the virus was too unstable and it wont be long before Oberon and the others collapse and die, so all we have to do is sit back and wait,” said Drast, on the inside he knew that it wasn’t that simple.

“We don’t know how long it is before they break down; in the meantime they could infect the colony within hours.”

  “That is precisely what we intend to do,” said a deep dark voice. Drast turned to see a victim of the virus standing next a pile of canisters aiming a small alien gun towards them.

  “Ah, social call,” asked the Doctor with a smug grin on his face, Drast was extremely irritated by his timing of humor. “Wait, isn’t this the bit where you say, ‘put your hands up and don’t make any sudden moves,’” Drast saw the anger in the creatures face; this made him even more nervous.

  “Put your hands up,” roared the creature. Drast knew its icy finger was tempted to pull the trigger on the weapon. “Don’t get so angry or your temperature with rise and you aren’t a fan of the heat are you?”

  The Doctor slowly raised his arms; Drast did the same along with Zenith. “You must have seen us on the security cameras,” said the Doctor as he slowly stepped towards a pile of canister on his right hand side. “Rather clever of you, but the problem is,” suddenly, in mid sentence the Doctor violently pushed over a pile of canisters and all of them quickly toppled onto the floor. The creature fell as one of the objects hit its feet hard, but its reactions were drastic, it squeezed the trigger and a laser bolt shot out and hit one of the canisters rolling across the floor.

  Drast was in a daze of confusion, he tried to make sense of the situation. The Doctor toppled a pile of the canisters; he must have done it to distract the creature so we could escape. Right, escape, time to escape. Wait, no, something happened after that, the creature shot at one of the canisters. If that happened, what happens to me, what do I do now? For a second, Drast was given extra time to access the situation. The only thing left to do was to see what happened next. His mind returned to reality, he noticed his eyes were looking at one of the canisters on the floor. There was a burn hole on its metal surface, he remembered, the creature had shot it.

  Drast then saw a stream of gas violently shoot out of the pierced hole in the canister. It was a light thick blue gas, it shot out and hit Drast directly in the face. Within a nanosecond he collapsed to the floor, clutching his face in pain. Stop the pain, for gods sake stop it, he begged as the gas slowly drifted into the air, quickly evaporating.

  Drast then heard a voice roar through the hissing of the gas as it bellowed out; “Zenith! Get out of here.” Drast knew it was the Doctors voice but he didn’t care, the pain he felt, the pain that ripped through his skin. He was curled up into a ball on the floor, his eyes were tightly shut, but he needed to know what was happening.

  He felt most of the pain surging into his hands as though they were on fire even though they were getting colder; he slowly managed to open his eyes and focus on his hands. Oh god, what’s wrong with my hands, please help me! His hands had turned a pale blue color as though they had been stuck in a freezer for hours. But that didn’t bother him, he watched in the utmost terror as the skin on his hands began to move and bubble, it was changing shape, sharp lumps began to form.

  Drast was suddenly interrupted; he looked up and saw the Doctor kneeling next to him. “Drast, can you hear me, we have to leave.” Drast could see the sympathy for him in his eyes; he was scared for him as well.

  “My hands, what’s happening to me,” stuttered Drast through the surges of pain. “Everything’s going to be alright Drast, don’t you worry.” Drast then looked back at his hands, his skin has completely vanished, it had been replaced by a cover of small jagged ice crystals. It carried on up his wrists and arms, he could feel them sprouting out of his legs, chest and head. “God help me, what’s happening to me!”

  “Just stay calm Drast,” said the Doctor as he lifted Drast’s upper body up. Drast could see the fear and panic in his face, this is the end.

“I’m turning into one of them aren’t I?”

“I, it’s too, I,” muttered the Doctor, he couldn’t face saying the words.

“AREN’T I,” roared Drast, it hurt him physically to do it.

“Yes, but I can help you, I can save you, it’s never too late.”

“It’s the end for me, no one can help me.”

“No, I’m the Doctor, and whatever happens, I don’t give up, I promise I can help you!”

“Don’t make a promise you cant keep, at least now I won’t have to worry about the security police.”

“Don’t say that, just work with me and I can save you.”

“Go, just go.”

“But,”

“GO,” screamed Drast.

  He felt his clothes begin to rip apart as his body mass increased as more ice crystals sprouted.

  He looked up at the Doctor’s face, he was speechless. “Come on Doctor,” said Zenith, Drast saw him standing in the doorway. “You’ve got a world to save,” said Drast. The Doctor then laid him back down on the floor and walked away.

“Sir, one of the gas canisters has been set off in the storage bay.” Oberon sat slumped on his throne; he looked up to see that one of the guards seated at the security terminal was talking to him. He was stuck in a daze of nothingness, like the first few seconds after you wake up.

  “What do you mean?”

“Unit four tracked down the three intruders but he accidentally set off a canister.”

“Were any of the intruders infected?”

“One, the other two escaped and have locked the storage bay door.”

“Which one was infected, was it the Doctor?”

“Negative, it was the unit called Drast,” the creature talking was quickly interrupted as a small alarm sounded from the security terminal he was positioned at. He looked up at one of the small monitors; it showed a black and white image of three figures walking into a small ice cavern.

  “Sir, three new intruders have entered the ice mountain. Identified as armed security guards, may pose a threat, what action is to be taken?”

  Oberon slowly pressed his icy fingers against his lips. “Ssshh, can you hear it?”

“Here what sir?”

“The sound, OF MY EMPIRE COLLAPSING! Now listen, we’ve gone too far to let our plans be ruined. The Doctor poses a threat, so does his friends. First, you two guards, deal with those security idiots, I don’t care how, just kill them!” The two creatures standing by one of the main doors marched off out of the chamber, not daring to arouse Oberon’s temper.

  “Next, you two, I want you to set up explosives all around the tunnels of the ice mountain,” this alarmed the two creatures seated at the security terminals, Oberon could see that they though he was mad. “Now I’m not trying to kill us, I’m just putting a pause to our plans. Well set up the charges and blow up the mountain, we’ll kill all the intruders, especially the Doctor. In our new bodies we can’t be crushed to death, we’ll eventually thaw out and our plans will continue.”

  The two creatures were still disturbed by his plans. “You heard me, now do it!” The two of them then rushed out of the chamber, now it was just Oberon, all alone, just him and his madness.