I slowly made my way between two of the numerous, small laboratory buildings dotting Toolik Station, the deep chill of the by then ferocious wind digging deep, as it whipped and churned through the narrow passageway. The wind carried something besides cold air. It ferried the sounds of pain and suffering. The first thing that came to mind was my friends, but that idea quickly faded as I listened more carefully. “Grays,” I uttered, not meaning to.
I was just about to move in the direction of the source of the wails when I noticed something out of place just up ahead. A faint humming sound could be heard. Then out of the shadows, a woman walked between two of the smaller laboratory buildings. She had a rifle slung over her left shoulder and something in her right hand. The way I saw it, I had two choices: either back up and hope to not get spotted while trying another path forward, or I could begin doing what I knew was required, which was to kill as many people necessary to save my friends.
It was an easy decision. I wasn’t wasting any more time.
The wind provided cover as I assailed my target. My leg pleaded with me to slow down, but I was on a mission. She still hummed even when I was close enough for her to feel my breath on the back of her neck. I was ready to grab her when she sensed something wrong. She turned just before I had a chance to slit her throat. Her eyes had only a moment to grow large as I adjusted my plan. I stabbed her as hard as I could in the chest.
People never die as quickly in real life as they do in movies. I thought she would just fall dead. Instead, she kicked and punched at point-blank range. Her head fell back, and I thought she was going to scream. I pulled her face close to mine. “Shhhh,” I uttered, looking her dead in the eyes. There was a moment of uncertainty, and I took advantage of it. I pulled her mouth in tight to the cheek the Gray mangled with its teeth. My face burned with pain, but she wouldn’t be able to scream. I then stabbed her until she was gone.
I quietly laid the woman on the ground. The agony that came as a result tempered any remorse I might’ve felt about what I had done. The moans and wails I heard more clearly further disenfranchised that guilt. I peeked around the corner of the green laboratory trailer, and what I saw trumped even the craziest of crazy things I had seen up until that point. There was a huddle of maybe thirty grays to my left, standing in a rough circle, underneath a security light. They smacked, beat, cried, and moaned, but didn’t move outside the ring. More than one looked at me with their dark, inhuman eyes, but whatever kept them imprisoned in the tight circle, worked well enough that my presence didn’t have any effect on them.
I had taken several steps when I, for whatever reason, ventured one last look towards the stricken Grays. That’s when I saw several green blinking LEDs at their feet. Upon further scrutiny, I saw a ring of dark-colored cubes, all blinking in synchronization with one another. It couldn’t be, I told myself. Kelley said they didn’t work. I sighed deeply. At least some Grays were controllable. That sure as hell wasn’t good news. The worst part was the bastards could be released at any moment. I needed to get moving.
I had checked the boat dock. They weren’t there, though. In fact, they didn’t seem to be anywhere. Hell, the whole damn place seemed deserted, but I knew that wasn’t true. My friends were there, and so was the Order. We were playing a game of demented hide and seek. I needed to find the Order before they found my friends or me assuming they hadn’t found them already. I only heard the couple gunshots while I was in the community center. I hoped all my friends were still playing.
I peeked around the corner of a long, rectangular building that Duane had said scientists experimented on birds for whatever reason, while he was giving us the grand tour of the grounds. The building was part of a smattering of structures that dotted the perimeter of what was an expanse of ground separating the scientific buildings from an old housing dorm on the other side.
I rubbed my cold hands as I looked in the direction of the housing dorm. Considering the proximity of the boat dock, I hoped that maybe they were in there. I was about to head in that direction when I heard faint noises somewhere close to the dorms.
My stomach sunk at the sight of someone being led by a rope. There were two shots earlier, and I had three friends. As the group got closer to a security lamp, though, and as my visual acuity improved, It became clear that what was on the end of that rope wasn’t one of my friends. I cursed again. I was almost positive that what was on the end of that leash was a Gray.
There was no time to square the absurdity of what I was seeing. If my calculus was correct that my friends were in the dorm, and the Gray was sniffing his way to them, like a sub-human bloodhound, then I had to stop it from happening.
In the dark confines of the trailer, I took a quick inventory. I had two full magazines for my M4 left, plus the one in the gun. I sat the two extra on the windowsill. I also made sure the butcher knife was handy.
“Fuuck.” They were just outside the entrance of the dorms, and the Gray was going crazy. This sent the group scrambling back away from the building, leaving the Gray to its own devices, which was to furiously pound on the closed door.
What a bunch of pussies, I thought. They weren’t very tough without their Grays.
Another bit of bad luck. I could see someone holding something up to his or her ear. It was hard to tell precisely what the person was doing, but I guessed that he or she was talking into a phone or walkie-talkie. Instantly, I was reminded about the guard I had killed. There was gesturing, and a man began to walk across the open space, gun at the ready, towards where I had killed the woman. “Shit, shit, shit,” I said.
I had my first target. I remember Sam telling me to, “Don’t try ta shoot somebody in the damn head. Shoot ’em in the chest.” The red dot of my scope found the man’s center mass. I took two breaths and fired a single shot. He fell to one knee before falling face-first in the snow. Wasting no time, I fired the remaining bullets in the mag into the startled group. I know I hit at least one of them, but no one fell. At least the Gray who was pounding on the door was no longer a threat. He charged the group as they tried to return fire and was blown to bits for his efforts. Other than that, I had managed to kill one of them. I silently cursed.
I ejected the mag and quickly slid another into the receiver. Now what, I thought.
After a minute or so of waiting, I saw a light blink from the upstairs of the dorm. That was confirmation that my friends were okay. I would’ve blinked back, but I didn’t want to make it easier for the Order to kill me. Instead, I waited out the unknown. I felt like I was playing a game I’d never played before. Like being asked to play chess without instructions. Except in chess, the pawns didn’t have machine guns. These bastards did.
I was about to fire as I saw a figure leave the cover of a building to the left of the dorm. I didn’t because her hands were over her head in a submissive pose.
She yelled out, “I would like to talk to you.”
“How about you stop right there,” I replied. I made the mistake of allowing her to pass into the center of the unlit space between us. There were security lights intermittently spaced around the perimeter of that part of Toolik, but there was a dead zone in the middle where there wasn’t much illumination. She was over three-quarters of the way to me by the time she came back into view. I cursed again.
She zigzagged as she charged my trailer. I took several shots at her but couldn’t manage to hit the moving target. Shots erupted. In the chaos, I wasn’t sure from where and from whom.