Moore’s gaze glides over the human figure sitting a few meters from her. Macready is standing, not far away, intent on looking at the sky toward the helicopter noise.
A tiny blinking dot in the dark sky.
The woman stands up, slowly. “It’s over…”, she murmurs, turning a tired smile to the Russian, and walking toward Macready.
Ivanov’s gaze follows her. “I’m afraid that this will never end, Dr. Moore. Sooner or later someone will dig down there…”, nodding toward the hangar, “…or in Antarctica as well. The creature can wait, it has all the time it needs. The control that it exerts on each individual cell allows it to slow down its metabolism almost to a stop, and this for an indefinite time. It’s true, the base below us was destroyed, but it’s sealed and there isn’t enough oxygen to burn everything. If we consider that only a single cell… well, draw your own conclusions.”
Moore approaches Macready. Without thinking she takes down her glasses and moves a lock of unruly hair that falls on her face.
The soldier turns to look at her, reading the concern in her face. With a twinkle in her eyes, the woman nods to the Russian, showing the soldier the small explosive vial in her hand.
Macready gets it and turns to face Ivanov. The Major move the spotlight of his assault rifle on the Russian and takes a few steps toward him. Moore follows him, staying a step behind him.
The Russian raises one arm up to cover his face, bothered by the light.
It’s Moore to speak: “Dr. Ivanov, when we were in the base you said to have a bio mechanical implant. Can you show it to us?”
The man doesn’t answer, he raises slowly to his feet, watching her with a surprised look. “There isn’t any prosthesis. It was a bluff to push the creature to come out into the open. I thought you understood that.”
A few tense moments follow the last words. The helicopter is approaching.
“I helped you to escape the creature when my clone attacked the soldiers, why would I have done that if I was one of those beings? Moreover… you have been alone for a long time in the base”, the Russian keeps speaking. “And your hand isn’t at all as it should be…”
Those last words rekindle doubts in the mind of Macready, who appears indecisive and distances himself from the woman too. His gaze alternates between the two scientists.
“The blood of the true Ivanov had a bluish tint, due to a poisonous chemical compound that he used to absorb regularly. Look at the bruising on his neck. It’s red, as the cut on his hand. Nobody survives a direct contact with the creature.”
The Russian stay silent. His gaze is distant, as though he’s watching the scene from a very remote place.
“Wait”, says Macready. “What poison?”
“Lies, nothing but lies to confuse and trick you. Don’t let yourself be deceived!”, Ivanov’s voice gets louder.
“How could it make a perfect copy of Ivanov if had not assimilated him first?”, Moore insists. Those words seem to convince Macready, who turns to point the rifle at the man.
The Russian faces the Major. “It’s true, it may have assimilated some of my cells when it grabbed me, or it may have taken them from the traces of blood when I had a cut on my hand, or from my toothbrush, and who knows how many other ways. Just one cell can give complete access to the DNA of a living being, and she knows these things well. This however doesn’t mean that I am one of those creatures. Come on… Moreover, if I was one of those beings… Well, you know very well that your gun would be completely useless…”
“Kneel down, you jerk!”, Macready’s answer. The soldier raises his left arm as to hold Moore back. She is ready with the last firebomb.
The Russian doesn’t bat an eyelid, he takes a step toward the two.
His face is shaken by facial tics.
“You don’t understand what we’re talking about, Major. Secretary Ironside himself promised me guarantees. We have a deal.”
Before he finishes saying these last words, the pupils in the eyes of the Russian seem to enlarge.
Within a few moments his eyeballs turn into two black spheres crossed by a network of purple capillaries. His mouth opens wide, as if to scream, but no sound emerges from the darkness of his jaws. His chin keeps sliding down, beyond the extent possible for a normal human being. Ivanov’s skull begins to lengthen, while an alien hissing comes to life, and it seems to come from the remote corners of the mutating creature.
Moore won’t lose heart this time. She launches her last bomb. The vial hits the creature in the chest, but the impact isn’t enough to detonate the tiny explosive left on its cap. It falls to the ground, untouched. With a ripping noise Ivanov’s body separates longitudinally in half, as to divide into two separate beings.
Macready opens fire, while new offshoots emerge, sprawling limbs of uncertain shape from the two beings.
The first barrage of blows, exploded by the Major, misses the vial, raising puffs of sand.
“Damn, stand back!”, he shouts at the woman next to him, who looks terrified by the extraordinary mutation that is starting to split the creature into two symmetrical parts.
The Major illuminates the dual creature with the spotlight of his rifle. The time seems to slow down, as he holds his breath while taking aim, trying not to look at the transforming monstrosity a few meters ahead of him.
“Shoot at that bomb, for God’s sake!”, Moore shouts.
A yellowish mucus regurgitation bursts from the creature, but Macready is quick to step aside and takes good aim on the incendiary vial.
“This is for my brother, asshole!”
The sound of the shot is lost in the desert, bouncing through the dunes. The vial gets shattered, and a blaze of fire envelops the creature, roasting it.
The monster squirms in flames, it shakes its many tentacles in the air, letting out screams and inhuman sounds. It quickly falls to the ground, writhing and keeping crawling towards Macready, who steps back a few meters. Slowly, however, the creature seems to lose vitality. Within seconds the being collapse to the ground, almost like a balloon deflating. The remains keep burning.
The helicopter noise is very strong now, and after a while the scene is lit by an oval of light.
Ironside has witnessed the evolution of the last events from the helicopter cockpit. Albert Macready and Emily Moore have just set fire to one of the creatures.
Why aren’t they in the base?
The helicopter lands with some jerk. Bishop does his best, although the machine seems to want to rebel to commands.
Ironside is the first to jump out, quickly followed by the other survivors.
Bishop remains on board for a few moments, watching the other soldiers on their way towards Macready and Moore. The pilot seems undecided on what to do, when his eyes fall on the aircraft’s control paneclass="underline" the fuel is almost finished. With a grimace of disappointment he commutes a series of switches, slowly stopping the rotor.
Meanwhile Ironside, walking bowed to leave the area swept by the blades of the helicopter, walks briskly the thirty meters that separate him from Moore and Macready.
The man suddenly stops, as soon as he sees the woman’s hand, deformed by swelling and the broken bones.
“She’s okay”, Macready exclaims, noticing the suspect in the eyes of Ironside. “If she had not thrown a bomb at that thing…”, he nods at what remains of the creature that burns at about ten meters from them, “…we wouldn’t be here talking now.”
“And the Major has shoot it to blow it up”, the woman adds.
Meanwhile, the other surviving soldiers join them.
“Where’s the rest of my men?”, Macready asks, feeling that he won’t like the answer to that question.
“Lieutenant Bishop is on the chopper, and the only truck left, carrying Brimley and McKinnock, is on the way”, Ironside’s answer. He and Macready update each other rapidly about the events of the last hours. Meanwhile Matt Serum takes care of the woman’s hand.