Leoni, the other soldier – a dark and short boy, boxy skull and with a heavy Latin accent – seems uncertain. His eyes bounce from his colleague who prepares the charges, to the Major. “Sir, what about the men and women inside the base? We can’t blow them up too!”
“Look around. There are no survivors, and right now our main goal is to contain the infection and prevent the creature from reaching the outside. I’ll take my responsibilities. Howe, regulate the amount of explosives taking into account that we will place two other charges on the lower floors, one for each floor. If we find someone we will take him out, that’s all. We can’t risk that tomorrow this hell will break free in a town.”
Howe acts quickly, setting the C4 bomb. Finally he synchronizes its clock, setting the timer for the delay ordered by Macready. Leoni doesn’t seem entirely convinced and he is about to object something, but his sentence is interrupted in the bud by a noise that catches their attention.
The three men turn around in unison. Howe finishes placing the explosive, then gets up quickly and takes an incendiary grenade. The sound has come from their back, from a room facing the corridor they just walked through. Just next to the door, on the wall, there is a fissure about half a meter high and half as large.
“I could swear that it was empty until a minute ago”, Leoni whispers.
Macready signals to stay quiet, then with a nod of the head he points to one of the doors. The two soldiers move silently to the sides, while holding their weapons ready. The Major waits a moment, then he swipes his badge in the reader slot. The door slides to one side, revealing the inside of the room.
It’s empty, except for a desk flipped on one side, as to hide a corner. Something white is visible behind it for a few moments, then it drops with a quick movement, hiding behind the flipped desk.
Macready points the beam of the flashlight in that direction, signaling to Howe to be ready with the firebomb. “Okay, let’s keep it simple: I don’t know who or what you are, but believe me, better for you to come out and show yourself. Do it now, or I’m going to blow up your ass right now!”
The Major is about to order the soldier to throw the grenade into the room, when a voice, with a deep Russian accent, comes from behind the desk.
“Please, don’t shoot!”
After a few moments of tense silence Macready speaks: “Get up, slowly, and keep your hands in plain sight.”
Two bony and trembling hands sprout from the shady area behind the desk, while the lights of the spotlights under the military weapons illuminate a white silhouette that gets up slowly.
It’s Ivanov, pale as the gown he wears. His eyes are terrified and somewhat haunted.
Son of a bitch…
“Come on”, Macready hisses. “Slowly. No sudden movements.”
The scientist pushes the desk just enough to go by, then he reaches the center of the room.
“Kneel!”
The man obeys, his eyes bouncing from one soldier to another.
“What happened?”, Macready asks. “Where’s Dr. Moore?”
The Russian hesitates at first, then he sums up what happened, telling how he and the scientist were attacked by the creature. “After the explosions I haven’t seen her, she fled to the elevator. I was stuck on this floor. I walked through that opening in the wall and I hid here until you came.”
Macready stares at him. He doesn’t trust that man, much less now that he may be one of those creatures.
The scientist seems to realize the doubts in the soldiers mind. “Please, you must believe me. We have to get out of here. I… I know I’m human, and I’m the only one who can help you kill the creature. With Dr. Moore we have found a test that will work for sure.”
“What kind of tests?”
The scientist swallows. “A blood test, but I need chemical reagents, and the lab is destroyed.”
Macready appears undecided whether to believe or not to the Russian, time goes by slowly.
“Twenty-five minutes, sir”, Howe’s clearly nervous voice.
The Major lingers still for a moment, then takes his decision. “Howe, Tony, let’s bring Dr. Ivanov with us. Keep him at a safe distance and don’t take your eyes off him for no reason whatsoever.”
The four men make their way into the corridor, to the room with the armored door, when somewhere behind them resonates an indefinable verse.
A low and prolonged moan, issued by something inhuman.
BOEING CRASH SITE
The roaring of the main rotor of the Bell UH-1Y Venom gets louder while the propeller increases its speed, rising a circular sand wave all around the helicopter. Its powerful headlights illuminate the area below, drawing an oval, which widens and blurs on the ground as the chopper takes off.
Redmond sits in the pilot’s seat, Ironside occupies the co-pilot’s place. Behind them, lined up on two benches that run parallel to the sides of the cabin, there are some of the soldiers who were at the site of the Boeing crash, including one of the doctors, Matt Serum, and Lieutenant Samuel Bishop.
The helicopter rotates slowly on its axis, illuminating a small line of military vehicles which starts a slow procession to return to the base.
Ironside’s voice can be barely heard over the roar generated by the motor. “Still no contact with the others?”
“Negative, sir, we have tried repeatedly to communicate with them, but no answer so far.”
Ironside is tense and nervous. He has the clear feeling that the situation is worsening, and an imminent danger is hanging over them like a Damocles’ sword. The man closes his eyes for a moment, rubbing his temples and eyelids in a vain attempt to find a glimmer of inner stillness. A feeling of anguish and nausea makes its way into his subconscious, like a trickle of rotten and smelly mud that’s overlaying his thoughts.
He has seen what happened to the other helicopter. The remains of the pilots and passengers are still before his mind’s eyes. He can still see the chilling vision of the twisted creature, the deformed inharmonious limbs born out of a nightmare.
He turns back, looking at the interior of the cabin, and at the men that sit on the two side benches. He knows that inside one of them, or even more than one, one of those monstrous beings may be hiding.
The men sit silent, they’re exhausted.
Ironside turns back, taking a deep breath. He closes his eyes again for some moments, recalling to his mind the face of his wife, Taisha, and of their infant daughter, Darla. His world seems light years away. The man hesitates for a moment on the thought of those two, on that feeling of warmth, on the smell of home, of hearth, and shivers like a lizard craving a ray of sunshine on a gray and cold morning.
The feeling of unease pops out again in his soul, as if an invisible syringe is injecting a foreign element. For a moment he’s touched by the idea that the creature may reach a town…
With his mind’s eyes Ironside sees again the party in his garden: women chatting… children chasing each other while shouting out loudly… laughs, streamers and colorful balloons…
He’s watching the scene from the place where, in what seems another life, he hugged the stunning body of his wife Taisha, thoroughly savoring her scent.
His gaze falls on one of the guests, intent on chatting amiably with a group of people.
That face is familiar, but he can’t remember who he is. He’s certain he has already seen him, but where? He stops to look at the man, his expressions, his gestures, his dress, the way he stands.
Where have I seen you already?
Almost like feeling of being watched, the man turns to look back at him, straight in the eyes, smiling and raising a glass in his direction, as if to toast.