Below Zero

28 OUTPOST ZERO, ANTARCTICA ^NOW

The monsters were coming.

A line of red-jackets was moving towards the plane, while the Spider waited by The Hub. There was nowhere left for Zak and May to run. There was nobody to help them. They might as well have been the only people left on earth.

May was swearing. A lot.

Zak gripped the shovel in both hands and moved along the plane. He was determined not to let anything happen to her: not just for her sake, but for his sake too – the last thing he wanted was to be left out there alone. He went to the ripped-open cockpit and squinted at the airstrip. The red-jackets were close, and Zak could hear the sound of their boots shuffling on the ice. It formed a kind of ugly beat along with the tick-tack-tick-tack of the Spider.

Zak leant the shovel against what was left of the instrument array and tugged one of the flares from his pocket. He popped off the cap and used it to scrape along the top of the red stick, as if he were lighting a giant match. The flare sparked first time and burst into life. It fizzed and hissed like a firework, bathing the cockpit in bright red light and white smoke. Zak threw it out on to the airstrip in front of the army of red-jackets who stopped as soon as it hit the ground. Zak lit two more and threw them out. They sputtered and popped, shedding a sinister red light across the ice. The smoke engulfed the red-jackets in an eerie, swirling cloud.

‘The flares make them stop,’ Zak shouted to his sister as he grabbed the shovel and planted his feet firm. He swung the weapon back over his shoulder, like a baseball bat, ready to smack the first person who tried to climb on board the trashed aircraft.

He watched the line of monsters standing in the red light and the churning smoke and, for the first time since seeing them, he realized they were not all wearing red jackets. Two of them were wearing orange jackets, just like his, and when he looked closely at their faces, his heart faltered.

Mum and Dad.

It was too horrible to think about. Attacked by his own mum and dad. The two people who were supposed to protect him. The people who should be keeping him safe. How could he defend himself against them? Would he be able to use the shovel against his own mum and dad?

It’s not them, he told himself. They’re not Mum and Dad any more.

Except, they were still Mum and Dad. And maybe this could be reversed. In his vision he had seen something big, a vast sea, and the more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that, whatever it was, it was under the ice. There was something down there that was doing this, controlling his mum and dad. And if he could find out what it was, if he could stop it, perhaps he could bring them back.

‘Join us.’

Zak felt a darkening around the edges of his thoughts. A pain tightened behind his right eye. His vision wavered like he was dizzy, and he blinked hard, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment. ‘No,’ he whispered. ‘Not now.’

The pain softened to an ache and Zak felt something probing at his thoughts. It was them. It. The hive. Whatever was under the ice was reaching out to him again, shuffling over his thoughts, trying to control him.

‘Join us.’

‘No.’ He wouldn’t join them. He refused. He tightened his grip on the shovel and concentrated on pushing the darkness away. ‘Get out of my head.’

But it pushed harder into his mind, like a black sheet pulling across his thoughts. The ground fell away from beneath his feet as the familiar woozy floating sensation began to take over.

‘Get out!’ he shouted. ‘Leave me alone!’

A blinding white light flashed in his mind and the darkness receded. Zak felt something trying to keep hold of his thoughts, but he was forcing it away, taking his mind back.

‘We can’t fight them,’ May called from inside the plane. ‘There’s too many of them.’

On the airstrip, the flares were beginning to fizzle and die. Zak shook himself back into action. He held the shovel under his arm while he pulled another flare from his pocket, lit it, and threw it out on to the ice.

Only three left.

‘Get up here quick,’ Zak shouted to May as he struck another flare and threw it out. ‘The flares are keeping them back. We still have time to jump down and run. If we can get to The Chasm, to the BioMesa place—’

‘We don’t know where it is!’

‘What else can we do?’

The red-jackets stared at Zak. Their nightmarish slack faces, their skin tinted red in the light from the flares, their blank eyes reflecting the glow.

‘Join us.’ When they spoke, their words came out as one. Their breath puffed out around their heads and mingled with the smoke spiralling around them in the cold, cold air.

‘Get back here,’ May shouted. ‘There’s a door.’

Zak heard his sister moving about and he snatched a glance back into the plane. He could see her silhouette at the far end, struggling to push open the rear door.

Zak watched her for a second then turned back to the red-jackets. He pulled out one of his last two flares, preparing to light it.

‘Mum.’ His voice sounded small. As if Antarctica swallowed the words the moment they left his mouth. ‘Dad. Please. Please stop doing this. It’s me. Zak. You’re scaring me. You have to fight it. Whatever’s controlling you, making you like this, you have to fight it.’

Nothing. There was no change in their expression.

‘The door!’ May shouted. ‘Come on!’

The flares stuttered and died and the ice was dark once more. The monsters took a step forwards. Advancing. This was the final attack.

‘The door!’

Zak stuffed the unlit flare back into his pocket. He held the shovel tight as he ran along the length of the plane towards May. Skidding to a halt, he put his shoulder to the door and, together with his sister, they pushed as hard as they could. With a click and a thump, the door swung out and Zak and May tumbled on to the airstrip.

As soon as he hit the ground, Zak felt the pain probing in his head again. It was like a thick, blunt drill grinding into his skull, vibrating through his body. He tried to shake it away as he stumbled to his feet, reaching out to hold on to May. He grabbed her arm, hauling himself up, but when he opened his eyes, he saw he wasn’t holding on to his sister.

Dima stared at Zak with a blank expression. ‘Join us.’

They were waiting for us!

Zak pushed him away, sending the pilot stumbling into the other red-jackets trying to surround him. He whirled around to see May struggling to free herself from the grip of two teenagers – a boy and a girl not much older than fifteen or sixteen. Already their jackets were writhing with movement and the bugs were beginning to emerge from their cuffs and hoods. They swarmed over their faces, pouring out from the warmth of their jackets and smothering Zak’s sister.

‘Help me!’ May was shouting, but already the bugs were on her face, shedding their black armour, searching for a way in.

Zak shoved at a red-jacket who tried to attack him, and swatted at the bugs swirling in the air around them. He dropped low to grab the shovel. The blackness pushed into his thoughts again, the sound of the bugs amplifying by the second until his head was filled with the terrifying scuttle and buzz of a thousand legs and wings.

‘Get out of my head!’ he screamed as he swung the shovel hard.

The flat side struck something solid, sending a shock wave through Zak’s body, but he didn’t let it stop him. He swung again and again, turning in circles, insects thudding off the blade. ‘Leave us alone!’

But there was no ‘us’. Now there was only Zak.

May was gone. In his mad crazy dance of twirling and swiping, surrounded by insects, Zak saw May stop fighting. He saw the bugs push into her mouth and nose, and within seconds, she was one of those things like Mum and Dad.

He fought harder. He was the only one left now. With his mind, he tried to push out the darkness that wanted to take him away and hang him over the awful sea of writhing insects. And with the shovel, he swatted the bugs out of the air in front of him. And when he felt hands grabbing for him, clawing and pawing, he turned and hefted the weapon as hard as he could.

Zak hit one of the red-jackets square in the chest and the air went out of her. Her legs collapsed and she fell to the ice.

‘Leave me alone!’ he shouted as he swung at Dima, hitting him hard in the shoulder, the shovel sliding up and catching him against the side of the neck. The pilot’s head snapped to one side and he collapsed like a felled tree. For an instant, Zak thought he had killed him, but as soon as he was on the ground, the pilot tried to get to his feet once more.

‘Join us.’

Zak spun round and stared at his sister.

May’s expression was blank. She was covered with bugs, but they were slipping inside her jacket, searching for the warmth.

‘Join us,’ she said again as hands reached for him, grasping at his arms.

The darkness was back, spreading over his thoughts. He was too close to them. He had to get away. He had to.

Zak turned and swung the shovel once more. He hit a teenage boy hard in the stomach, sending him reeling back. A girl came in to take his place, so Zak hit her and moved forwards, swinging the shovel left and right, whacking the flat of the blade against whoever or whatever got in his way. And as soon as he was free of them, he ran out on to the ice.

Escape. Escape.

He ran and ran and ran.