Cold Hell - 19. Chapter 18

Natalia sat slumped in her chair. She rubbed at her burning eyes, hating herself. She couldn't believe she had just asked Danni to kill a man. What was I thinking? How could I be so cold?

But the truth of the matter was the infection scared her. In all of her time as the head of the clinic, she'd never seen anything like what Adwele had. She'd dealt with a bad outbreak with cholera…but this was outside her expertise and she had no idea what protocol she should implement. So far she'd done everything she could to keep the infection contained.

I should be doing more tests, doing everything I can to find out more about the infection rather than mope about. Adwele and those men found at the accident had to expose themselves to something. The question is what? There's nothing but snow and ice out here. Not much could survive on this cold rock.

Perhaps it was something new, something the human race had yet to encounter. Was it possible it could even be something extraterrestrial, something that didn't follow the laws of nature human beings were used to?

She stood up and looked out the window. The wind shrieked like a tortured soul, making the window shake in its frame. It was snowing so fast she couldn't see the other buildings outside. The blizzard was here. Natalia would be stuck here until the snow and winds lifted. Thankfully she had a room she could sleep in, and plenty of food to hold her over.

What if it lasts a week - or longer?

A sense of isolation crept in on her, as unexpected and shocking as a punch to the gut. Natalia was a native of Planet Redemption - she was used to blizzards, many of which could last days, sometimes even weeks. She had been conditioned to survive the planet's tumultuous weather patterns.

So why should this feeling, this sense she was alone, hit her now? Why did it feel as if the silence and the walls of her office were closing in on her? Why did she feel like putting on her layers and attempting to brave the blizzard, to find her way back home, when she knew doing so could be fatally dangerous?

Is this what it feels like for the colonists who first come here? she thought. Is this what it's like to start slowly going insane?

She pressed her hand against the pane. The moment she touched the cold glass, the palm of her hand went numb. Snowflakes flung themselves against the glass kamikaze style. She could almost sense the cold inviting her to step outside - to take a chance. Natalia could see herself stepping outside, stumbling through the snow, snowflakes clinging to her eyelids, the wind whipping her face with such fury it blew her lips back from her teeth; she could see herself falling, losing all sense of direction, stumbling around blindly…until she what, just gave up and froze to death?

Why do you want to die?

The thought startled Natalia. The question seemed to come from out of nowhere, as if someone else had asked it of her. I don't want to die.

She was lying to herself, this she knew. The feeling had been there, just burrowed deep and out of reach...until it snuck up on her when she didn't have her guard up. In those moments she chastised herself. I refuse to be one of those tragic souls who take their own life because they no longer have the will to survive. I am strong, I am made from better cloth...Sometimes the pep talks helped. Sometimes they didn't. Several times she tried to approach Dinah, to tell her lover what was going on inside her head, only to draw back. Why? Why did she always draw back?

"Because Dinah wouldn't hear me," Natalia said, unaware she had spoken out loud; her voice trembled with a mixture of resentment and hurt. "She's always off in her own little world, fantasizing about taking over the planet."

A sound split the silence. A howl. But not the howl of the wind, a different kind of howl. It made her jump. The sound had come from outside. Someone was out there, lost in the cold, freezing to death! Natalia's heart thundered in her chest. Should she go out there to try and find them, try to pull them towards warmth and safety?

No, Natalia reflected. The howl or scream hadn't sounded like a cry for help, nor had it been the wind. It'd been monstrous. Hungry.

She froze, listened, and waited for confirmation. Her mouth hung slightly open, ready to call for Skottalina. Then she remembered Skottalina had left the clinic just minutes ago, before the blizzard hit. Hopefully her assistant had made it home, warm and safe in her bed.

A minute passed by. Then two. Then three.

Nothing happened.

Natalia sighed, relieved. She laughed at herself. I'm losing my fucking mind.

She turned away from the window, deciding it was time to get back to work. Instead of wallowing around, she could be spending her time better by running more tests on the samples she'd taken from Adwele. Maybe, if she was lucky, she could come up with a solution.

Just as Dinah was ordering Everest to shoot Danni on the other side of the clinic, Natalia was locking the door to her office behind her. She knew there was no one around who would let themselves in and go through her things - it was habitual, she didn't even realize she was doing it. She turned once more, about to head in the direction of Adwele's room, when Skottalina came around the corner of the hallway.

"Skottalina? I thought you'd gone home." Natalina took a step towards the woman, frowning, then stopped.

Skottalina was frozen. The front of her coat was covered in snow. Her face was deathly pale. She didn't have her breathing mask. Worse yet was the look on her face. Her eyes were wide and glassy with fright. Skottalina was a capable woman, well on her way to becoming head of the clinic one day when Natalia was sure she was ready, but now she looked like a child. A child fleeing from something. A monster, perhaps. She lurched towards Natalia in jerky, half-frozen movements.

"It's behind me,"she chattered, coming closer. "Run. It's right behind - "

Skottalina never got to finish what she was about to say. A human shape barrelled around the corner towards the young woman. Natalia opened her mouth to warn Skottalina but it was already too late. The man leapt onto Skottalina's back, knocking her to the ground.

The man's face darted forward, Skottalina's head disappearing from view. Skottalina squealed, a sound that made Natalia think of pigs at the slaughterhouse, as they're being butchered. Natalia charged forward to shove the rabid man off Skottalina, but even as she moved there was a heart-wrenching tearing noise. Skottalina screamed, her face red.

The man's face fell back, eyes cast towards the ceiling. Something hung from his mouth. Flesh, Natalia realized, a large flap of flesh from Skottalina's throat. Blood rained onto the floor, dripped down his chin onto the tiles. More of it spurted from the huge hole in Skottalina's throat. She was sputtering, bouncing on the floor, her feet kicking.

Natalia shoved the man onto the floor as hard as she could. The man toppled over, only to bounce off the floor onto his feet. His dark-eyed fury was now focused on her. He snarled, blue-grey spittle flying from his lips.

Natalia turned and fled for the room at the end of the hall - the morgue. Somehow she managed not to slip on the puddles of blood that drenched the floor in crimson. The man's grunts reminded her he wasn't far behind.

She made it to the door and tried to slam it into his face, but he barrelled into the door face first, throwing it open with the strength of a bull. Natalia backed away. She flung a tray full of scalpels at him but they did little to slow him down.

Natalia was running out of space now, backing herself into a corner. Instinct told her she didn't have the strength or ability to fight this man. The large space cooler was directly behind her; it was closet-sized, big enough to fit up to three people. It had never been used before, at least not while she'd been at the clinic. Now it just might save her life. The door was made of thick, reinforced steel and had a latch that sealed on its own when you closed it.

With no options left, Natalia flung the door open, backed inside, and slammed it shut just as the man - she could no longer think of him as a man but a monster - hit it with a resounding thud.

She thought it would back away, lose interest and walk away, perhaps in search of someone else. It didn't go away. It pounded and kicked at the door, snarling and kicking and bellowing. It wasn't until she began to shiver that Natalia realized her mistake: the freezer was kept at a low temperature to keep the corpses from decomposing.

If the creature didn't go away soon and she didn't get out, Natalia would freeze to death.

                                             …

Another scream sounded from the hallway.

While Everest and Dinah turned their heads sharply towards the door, Danni tucked the scalpel in his back pocket. Everest was already through the door. Danni followed, while Dinah hung back in the crematorium.

What Danni saw was a tableau straight from a nightmare: the body on the floor belonged to Natalia's young assistant, Skottalina. She laid on her back in a puddle of her own blood. Her neck had been ripped open. (By what? a small voice in the back of Danni's head whispered. No man is capable of doing this.) Skottalina's eyes stared up at the ceiling, glassy and dull. Lifeless. Her mouth was rimmed with blood.

Danni swallowed. His saliva felt thick. His mind reeled, trying to take him to the past where he'd seen similar things. He remembered the young mother in Mexico, trying to wipe her son's blood off the street with a torn up rag; he remembered how the blood had seeped into the cracks of the weathered concrete, so red in the turgid heat of the Mexican sun.

He forced the memory out of his mind and forced himself to focus on what was happening now, in the present. There was a terrible sound coming from the room behind him: the sound of something heavy slamming into metal and hungry, throaty growls. Everest was walking towards it, being careful not to step on blood. He had the shotgun cradled in his hands, moving with the practiced, tactical grace of a soldier. His shoulders were squared, his head cocked slightly to the side. Danni followed. He'd much rather face the danger he sensed ahead of them.than stay behind with the body of the dead girl.

They crept down the hallway into the morgue. A man stood in front of the freezer door, slamming his fists into it with such force that he made dents in the metal. Everest exchanged a glance with Danni, pointing the muzzle of the shotgun at the man's back. His forehead was covered with a sheen of sweat.

"Get away from the door," Everest commanded.

The man turned around. He staggered away from the door, in their direction. Danni realized with a terrible plummeting sensation in his chest, that it was one of the men from the crash site. The last time Danni and Everest had seen him he was dead. Now somehow he was here in the camp, in the clinic, walking around.

Danni remembered the vision he had when he touched Adwele's hand, the feeling that had come over him. It had changed Adwele into something else. Something inhuman.

"Shoot it, Everest," he heard himself say through clenched teeth. "For God's sake, shoot it!"

Just as Everest pulled the trigger, the creature let out a throaty bellow and threw himself at Everest. It flew through the air, slamming into Everest. Everest backpedaled to keep from falling. His feet slipped on a scalpel, and he went down with the man on top of him. The creature's face darted towards Everest's jugular.

By this time Danni had managed to grab the shotgun and back up just enough so he was sure he could fire without hitting Everest; with the gun pumped, Danni fired just as the creature was about to tear Everest's throat out with its teeth. The creature's back exploded in a shower of torn cloth, flesh, and gore. Danni stepped forward and lashed out with a kick that knocked the creature off Everest. He followed the kick with a blow to the back of the creature's head with the muzzle of his shotgun.

Neither the shotgun wound or the hit to the head slowed the creature down. It climbed to its feet. Danni could see something moving beneath its flesh. Something alive. He pumped the shotgun again. A spent shell clattered to the floor. He waited. He wanted to see what the creature would do next, if it was capable of doing anything else other than attacking.

The creature turned to face him as something erupted from its stomach in a mess of torn flesh and blood. A dark appendage half a foot long shot towards Danni with blurred speed. Danni ducked, reacting from pure instinct. He backed smartly towards the door and fired a second time.

Still the creature came at him. Another appendage snaked from its mouth, snapping at Danni like whips. At the ends of these appendages were mouths full of razor sharp teeth. Danni had no choice but to flee down the hallway. The thought of the creature tearing into him, infecting him with parasites, frightened him more than anything he could imagine.

                                          …

Dinah had the door to the crematorium cracked open. She watched from the safety of her hiding place as Danni darted down the hallway with the monstrosity right on his heels. She'd never seen anything like it. It looked perfectly human, like a man, but there were limbs coming out of its chest and mouth.

She waited until the creature was out of sight before slipping out into the hallway. Just feet away was the body of Skottalina. There was blood. So much blood. Dinah stared at the nightmarish tableau for what seemed like minutes. Her eyes bulged from their sockets and her skin was as pale as the snow blowing outside the clinic. Then Dinah came to her senses.

I have to get out of here. I have to get to safety.

She ran for the exit hatch and slammed her hand into the pad. The hatch whooshed open, showing the chaos outside. She had a fleeting glimpse of driving winds and snow before a dark shape leapt out of the dark at her.

Dinah spun away as another creature crashed into the wall behind her. Snow flooded through the entrance. While the creature tried to regain its balance, she quietly slipped into the nearest unlocked door. She found herself in the pantry, a medium sized room with three triple tiered shelves. The shelves were stocked with labelled cardboard boxes of medical supplies, canned fruit, packets of powdered milk, and other dried goods.

She hunkered down at the back of the room behind a shelf.

Half a minute passed before the door opened. Dinah's heart skipped a beat. From where she sat, she could see the bottom half of the door and the creature's legs. Hyperventilating, she clamped a hand over her mouth to quiet the sound of her breathing. She closed her eyes and thought of Natalia. Natalia with her beautiful caramel brown skin, waist length black hair and dark brown eyes. Thinking of her made Dinah's heart ache. Oh God. I wish I knew where you were. I wish I'd been better to you. I wish I could tell you I loved you one last time.

Dinah opened her eyes. Where had the creature gone? Why was everything so quiet all the sudden? She looked to the right and screamed. The creature was looking at her with human eyes through the shelf. It held onto the metal support rods with its filthy hands, teeth bared in a barbaric grin. It began to push. Dinah had just enough time to stand before the shelf fell over with a groan.

The full weight of the shelf toppled on top of Dinah. Spasms of pain passed through her entire body. She tried to wriggle out but she couldn't lift the shelf. A snarling sound made her look up.

The man hunkered over her, its mouth stretched open. Droplets of its drool fell on her jacket. Something was moving inside its mouth.

A long, black, tubular protuberance stretched towards Dinah's face. At the end of the limb was another mouth with razor sharp teeth. Dinah could only watch, lips quivering, as the tongue's mouth peeled open, about to feast on her -

Danni appeared behind the man, pressed the muzzle of the shotgun against the back of the man's head and pulled the trigger.

Dinah heard the deafening report before the man's head exploded. Gore splattered across the top of her jacket and face. It felt warm against her skin. She could feel things wriggling around, wormy things. She didn't dare open her mouth to scream.

Mercifully the shelf was lifted off her enough so she could crawl out from underneath it. Dinah wiped her face frantically with her hands. Parasites no bigger than fly larvae hit the floor, dying as soon as they made contact. Next she peeled off her jacket.

Danni helped her to her feet. It hurt just to stand. Dinah had to bite her lip to keep from crying out. He leaned forward and whispered, "You have to keep quiet. The other one's still in the building." He nodded towards the door.

Dinah nodded.

He pointed at the ceiling at a vent above her head. "It's just big enough for us to be able to fit."

"I can't climb up there. I think I might have some cracked ribs."

"You'll live," Danni said unsympathetically. "Get up there. I'll help you."

A minute later they were crawling through the vents of the clinic with Danni in the lead. It hurt Dinah to keep moving but she did as Danni instructed for the sake of survival. Danni wasted no time in trying to decide where to go; it seemed he already knew the layout of the building.

When they came to a dead end, Danni peered through the vent into one of the emergency rooms. "Stay here," he said.

"Where are you going?" Dinah asked. Her voice came out sounding higher than she intended.

"To kill the other one." He spoke with the same infuriating calm he always did. Only the sweat on his face and the quiver of his hands gave away how frightened he was.

"You're just going to leave me up here." The idea of being alone made Dinah feel sick to her stomach.

"Everest is still down there. And so is Natalia."

"Natalia?"

"She's in the freezer. She's safe for now, but she won't be for long if I don't get out soon."

Dinah nodded shakily. She watched Danni slide the vent grid to the side. He climbed down, landing on top of the desk without making a sound. Then he was out of sight.

                                             … 

Danni crept down the hallway, moving with feline stealth. He held the shotgun carefully with both hands. He'd already checked the chamber. One shot. One shot was all he had left and he had to make it count.

He'd almost reached the morgue when an immense figure came around the corner brandishing a red fire axe. Before the figure could strike, Danni stepped smartly to the side and pressed the muzzle of the shotgun to Everest's temple. Standing behind him was a very shaken Natalia. In her hand she held a dangerous looking stainless-steel saw. It wouldn't do much good except in close quarters but Danni supposed it would be better than nothing.

Danni put the gun down. "You scared the shit out of me."

Everest smirked. "I didn't think anything scared you."

"Plenty of things scare me. I just do my best not to let it show." Danni looked at Natalia. "Are you okay?"

"F-frozen," she said. "But o-okay." She looked at Skottalina's corpse. Her face scrunched up; Danni knew she was on the verge of breaking into hysterics. "Oh Skottalina…"

"There's nothing we can do for her," Danni whispered. "There's still one of those things in the building and until this blizzard lifts we're stuck with it."

Natalia nodded and seemed to compose herself. To help, Danni took her hand in his. He closed his eyes and pictured in his mind the last time he'd seen Dinah. He sent these images to Natalia the way his mother had done to him on his eighteenth birthday. Transference. She's alive, he told Natalia, sending the thought through their touch. This seemed to calm her down even more.

"Are we going to wait for it to come to us?" Natalia asked.

"I'm not waiting," said Danni. He led the way.

They hadn't made it more than a few steps when the monstrosity came running towards them, limbs and appendages flying. Danni waited until it was almost upon them before he fired. The shotgun bucked satisfyingly in his hand. The shot took off the creature's head. Bits of blood, brainmatter, and jagged pieces of skull flew through the air.

But it wasn't dead yet. More appendages burst from its chest and body, rippling frantically through the air.

"You got to be fucking kidding me," Everest said.

Natalia leaned over and vomited on the floor.

Danni gripped the shotgun in his hands tighter. The thought of stepping towards the creature frightened him, repulsed him. All those appendages twitching and thrashing with primitive, parasitic life. But through the fear was the knowledge that this thing had to die. If not, once the blizzard ended, it could get out and wreak havoc on the rest of the colony. I thought you were the type of man who would do anything necessary to keep the people around him safe.

He strode forward, deftly dodging the wavering limbs, and began bludgeoning it, using the shotgun as a club. He stomped with his boots. A moment later Everest and Natalia joined him. Soon the room was filled with the sounds of hacking, squishing, and cutting. Gore arched through the air.

"I think it's dead," a voice said from behind them. It was Dinah. She leaned against the wall, clutching at her side. Danni looked down at the creature - or what remained of it. What remained was a mess of severed appendages, pulpy masses of guts and innards. Nothing moved. And yet Danni wasn't convinced the thing was dead, for tiny little parasites were starting to crawl across the tiled floor, trying to get away. Even now it's trying to survive in some way, Danni thought. Watching them move reminded him of walking along the streets of Roc City back on Earth on a rainy night, when the nightcrawlers sought refuge on the sidewalk; Danni would stop and watch them, repulsed by their simple impulses towards life, their twitching movements, but he was too fascinated to walk away.

A groaning sound interrupted his thoughts. He turned. Skottalina was twitching, her fingers skittering across the ground. Her eyes opened. The sound coming from her mouth was choked off by the large hole in her throat. Each time she breathed air whooshed out of the hole like air being blown through a straw. Somehow she was alive again, her body reanimated by whatever infection Adwele and those men had brought with them.

She's just a girl, Danni thought. She's younger than I am. She shouldn't have to die...not like this. She was starting to rise. When she stood up, the creature that had turned into Skottalina would try to kill them or turn them into something just like her. Danni knew he couldn't let that happen. As if he'd read his thoughts, Everest handed Danni the axe. Tears streamed down the big man's face. Behind him Natalia clung to Dinah, wailing. The sound cut through Danni like a blade - a cruel reminder of what had to be done.

He gripped the axe in both hands. The handle was made of wood. The weapon itself was reassuringly heavy. "I'm sorry," he said though he knew Skottalina couldn't understand him. The parasites inside of her had reprogrammed her brain. Turned her into something else. He brought the axe down.

The head of the axe buried itself a third of the way through her neck. Danni grunted. He had to use all of his strength to pry the axe from her throat. The axe came loose with a sick squelching sound. He swung the axe twice more. Each time the axe made a deafening thud. And still Skottalina's body fought to survive the way a worm might even after its been cut in half. Her arms flopped about. Parasites no bigger than Danni's fingernail leaked from the corners of her eyes, her nose; she puked them. It wasn't until the third and final swing from the axe and her head became severed from her neck, that Skottalina went still.

Danni threw the axe onto the floor. He leaned against the wall, exhausted. He couldn't pry his eyes away from the horrible thing he'd done; he didn't feel he deserved to. His hands shook uncontrollably. He closed his eyes, wanting nothing more than to feel the sting of a needle puncturing his arm, the euphoric rush when heroin shot through his veins. He wiped his face with bloodied hands.

"Here." Everest pressed something cold in his hands. The flask with bootie in it. Danni screwed off the top with trembling fingers and took a long swig. He took a deep breath, filtered it back out.

After several moments he began to calm down. "We need to burn the bodies to be sure "

Outside the clinic the blizzard continued to rage.