Below Zero

21 OUTPOST ZERO, ANTARCTICA ^{21 HOURS AGO}

Sofia lay on the ice watching the shadow fade from black to grey. When it was gone, she stared at the emptiness of the swirling blizzard.

Another person, in the same situation, might have despaired. They might have given up. They might have decided it was easier to stay where they were and wait for the Spider to return for them. What else could they do?

The thought crossed her mind, but no, Sofia Diaz was not the kind of girl who gave up. She did not lie back and accept what was happening to her. Sofia had been in difficult situations before. She enjoyed danger, she loved the thrill of adventure, and she liked to be in control.

As a Scout, Sofia had learnt the meaning of ‘Be Prepared’. She had printed it out on a piece of paper and stuck it on her wall so she would never forget it. Right underneath it was another motto that had served her well when she had been rock climbing or on survival weekends in the Outback. Being prepared was great, but sometimes things go wrong. And whenever that happened, she had a back-up; the unofficial motto of the United States Marine Corps.

Improvise, adapt and overcome.

That’s what she had to do now. She told herself to get a grip, sort herself out and get on her feet. There was no excuse for lying there doing nothing. Not ever. She might not know what was going on, but she was going to do everything she could to find out, and to warn anyone else who came to Outpost Zero. She would improvise, adapt and overcome.

She opened her mouth and screamed into the storm. She shouted so loud and hard that her voice was like broken glass when it ripped from her throat. It was a battle cry, tearing out of her; her promise to the storm that she was going to fight.

She scrambled to her feet and pulled the tracker from her pocket. A blue dot – all that was left of Peters – was travelling away from her at high speed, rushing across the airstrip towards Storage, but Sofia couldn’t afford to waste time thinking about him; there were two other Spiders out there somewhere and she had to reach safety. She shoved the scanner back into her pocket, snatched up the camera Peters had dropped, and hurried across the landing strip, keeping the guide rope in her left hand as she ran. The tightness of the rope was reassuring. It would get her back. It would lead her to—

The rope slackened and slumped into the snow behind her. Somewhere in the storm, something had cut it.

The Spiders. They’ve come for me.

Forcing the panic down, Sofia kept hold of the loose rope and battled on through the storm as shadows gathered. Hidden by the weather, more monsters were moving in the darkness, cruising, testing, waiting for the right time to strike.

‘Get away!’ Sofia yelled at them. ‘Leave me alone!’ There had to be something she could do to protect herself, something that would give her time to get to The Hub.

The flare gun!

It was still in her pocket. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing, and it might give her the time she needed – it might be the difference between life and death. Using her teeth, she pulled the glove from her right hand and flicked it away. Without the glove, she was able to move more freely, but it wouldn’t be long before the cold bit into her skin and turned her fingers black. She had to be quick.

She dug the flare gun from her pocket, thumbed back the hammer, and aimed at the main cluster of shadows.

When she fired, a sharp pop! punctuated the wind, and sparks jumped from the barrel of the pistol as the flare shot out. It travelled no more than a few metres before hitting something hard – ting! – and coming to an abrupt stop. The flare bounced away and dropped into the snow, bursting into a bright dance of red sparks that illuminated the surrounding area like brake lights on a foggy motorway. In the red glow, Sofia saw the silhouettes of two Spiders identical to the one that had taken Peters, but they didn’t come forward to attack her. Instead, they recoiled from the bright light of the flare, jerking away as if it had caused them pain.

It’s the way they see.

The Spiders were equipped with cameras allowing them to see in different ways. That’s why they had found it so easy to track her and Peters in the storm. They had heat-vision, night-vision, infra-red, microscopic. And the brightness and warmth of the flare had interfered with all of those. If she could keep them blinded, damage the camera, she might have a chance.

With her left hand hindered by her thick glove, and her right beginning to go numb, Sofia fumbled as she reloaded the gun. She cursed her clumsy fingers as she struggled to push the flare into the chamber, then snapped the gun closed and fired another shot. This time she aimed at the ground directly in front of the two Spiders. Pop! The flare sparked and burst into a bright flash of red. Smoke filled the air around it, creating a swirling cloud to hide her escape.

Sofia fired once more before reloading, pocketing the gun, and reaching for the guide rope. The Spiders were turning this way and that, trying to locate her, but she had stolen a few precious seconds and didn’t have much further to go. She kept the loose rope in her left hand, following it until it grew taut as she came to the place where she had tied it to the Magpie.

The silhouette of The Hub filled the storm in front of her, and she knew she was almost there.

I’m going to make it.

But the Spiders were closing in. A few more seconds, and they would have her.

Sofia pushed harder than she had ever pushed before. She forced herself to keep moving. She drew on every last reserve of energy, calling on every muscle to work harder. Reaching the stairs, she grabbed the handrail to haul herself up. At the top, she ripped open the panel beside the door and yanked hard on the emergency lever. The door clunked, hissed and slid open. Sofia lunged inside as the first Spider reached the bottom step. Its legs clattered, metal against metal. She spun around, slamming her fist hard against the lock, glimpsing the Spider trying to climb the stairs as the door slid shut.

‘And stay out!’ She flicked the lock, sealing the door.

Sofia shook the blood back into her numb hand and, in the darkness of The Hub, fumbled her way towards the door at the back of the room. She checked the walkway was clear, and headed across as fast as she could. When she reached Refuge, she went into the office and dropped into the chair in front of the desk. It was the same chair robotics engineer Dr Adam Reeves would pull out to access ViBac less than a day later.

Sofia was out of breath when she directed the camera at herself and started recording. Her cheeks were red raw from the cold. Pushing back her hood and lifting the goggles on to her forehead, she stared into the lens.

‘Somebody will find this,’ she said. ‘I don’t know who; but someone will, and I’m hoping it’ll help. Everything I know is here. Somehow the Spiders have… come to life. Sounds crazy saying it out loud but it’s like they have a life of their own. There’s those things on the back of everyone’s necks, and… something in Papa’s nose. Something grey, like the thing Doc Blair found in the ice core. I reckon the others will have them too, but I didn’t have time to check, we just had to get out of there, me and Prof Peters…’ Sofia looked away from the camera and wiped her nose. ‘Yeah. Prof Peters is probably one of them now.’ She closed her eyes and banged her closed fist against her forehead a couple of times before turning to stare at the camera. ‘It’s got to be something to do with those guys from BioMesa. They brought something up from The Chasm. This has to be something to do with them. It has to and…’ Sofia shook her head. ‘And I brought it back here. This is my fault. I did this. I’m so sorry, I…’ She stopped. ‘I’m going to fix this. I’ll… I don’t know how… I’ll try to get the comms working, get a message out, then I’ll see if I can get my head round what’s going on here. Power’s off and it’s getting colder, I can’t sit here doing nothing. Improvise, adapt and overcome. That’s the way forward. That’s what I’ll do; head out to where they were bringing up the ice cores. There must be something there to explain all this. Maybe…’ She looked down as something occurred to her. ‘OK. I’m going to upload this video to ViBac, and then I’m going to try comms and see what I can find out. Wish me luck.’