“7… 8… 9…” John Ironside counts mentally. At ten he nods to Hawk, which opens the circuit again. Macready is still standing and still holding the electrodes. Moore and Ironside join him. The man’s eyes are closed, and he breathes deeply. After a while he spits away the piece of cloth with the marks of the bite and he opens his hands. The heavy metal rods fall on the ground, while the man opens his eyes and takes a deep breath, watching the woman.
“I hope it was worth it.”
Then it’s Ironside’s turn. He also passes the test without complaint, standing.
Hawk follows, then Brimley and two other soldiers, the last of which shouts and faints during testing.
“Damn you, this is downright torture, and doesn’t prove anything!”, Matt Serum shouts while taking care of the unconscious soldier.
“You are free to abstain, Matt”, Macready’s answer.
“Now it’s my turn”, Moore.
“It’s not necessary”, replies the Major. “I’ll guarantee for you. I know you’re human.”
The woman looks puzzled for a few moments with an unreadable expression.
“Thank you Major”, she says flatly. “But I want to be sure. There has been some time when I fainted while fleeing from the first basement. Moreover, Ivanov took me by the hand, while escaping from your room. There was a physical contact with one of the creatures.”
Hearing those words other soldiers step back from the woman, whose gaze moves back, as to observe the horizon. Only Macready stays in place, in front of her. Few tense seconds go by in the silence. They can only hear the slight wind noise.
Macready starts to say something, when Moore closes her eyes and swallows, raising her good hand. Her voice is barely a whisper.
“If I abstain from the test, despite the respect that your men have for you, they would never trust me one hundred percent.”
Macready’s lips contract in a grimace, then he goes away without saying a word and heading to Hawk, who is ready to close the contacts.
The woman bends, she collects one of the electrodes with the good hand, and pushes it in contact with the skin next to the bandage that wraps around her left arm just below the elbow. Then she bites the right lapel of her lab coat, clutching it strongly between her teeth. She takes the other electrode, stretching her arms sideways.
The woman glances at Macready, nodding her head, before closing her eyes.
“Do it.”
Hawk obeys, and Moore’s body is crossed by the electric current. A moan reaches the ears of the soldiers. The Major focuses in the mental count. At ten the woman faints, and the electrode slips from hands as she collapses to the ground.
Macready shouts to Hawk to open the contact, and he rushes to the rescue of the scientist lying lifeless on the ground.
He leans toward her.
Not breathing.
“Matt, bring your ass here”, Macready shouts.
“Stand back Major, for God’s sake!”, it’s the response of the terrified doctor.
The Major doesn’t answer, cursing mentally and thinking to send the doctor to meet God in person at the first opportunity.
Macready checks the pulse of the woman, her eyes open showing white: no beat.
Heedless of the fact that the scientist may have been infected by the creature, he bends down to give her artificial respiration, alternating with series of vigorous pressures on her chest.
Wake up…
He has seen many men die, he has lost the base, his brother, that little bit of serenity that he tried to put together over the years…
Please, breathe…
He doesn’t want to loose anybody else. Not after seeing that unnamed horror making a massacre and an almost total devastation in a matter of hours.
Live!…
While working frantically to revive the woman, Macready clings with all the forces of his spirit to every little piece of something for which it’s worth to exist: positive mind, innocence to the brutal side of the world and to the war, to deal with big and small problems with a smile and good will, despite of their own faults, and also their fears. The hope that the best is yet to come.
“Christ!”, the Major shouts, after having felt the pulse of the woman for a second.
On the third attempt to blow air into the woman’s body, her chest rises and her back is arched backwards giving the impression that the entire body is peeling off from the ground.
“Be careful, Major!”, one soldier shouts nervous.
After the spasm, Moore’s body relaxes again on the ground. The man gets away, just enough to look at the face of the scientist. She coughs, then opens her eyes, looking at him for a few moments with a bewildered air. Suddenly the awareness flashes in her eyes and her skin turns red. With a quick movement of her right hand she gives a loud slap to the soldier.
Macready looks surprised for a moment, pretending to fix his jaw, purposely exaggerating his movements.
“Anyway, it was worth it”, he concludes squeezing one eye. She is about to reply, but her mouth opens in a contagious smile that turns quickly in a short laugh release.
He smiles too.
“Come on, let’s finish this thing once and for all.”
It’s the turn of Samuel Bishop.
The soldier is strangely shy and quiet, apparently in a bad mood. Macready has noticed immediately.
Understandable…
Nobody reacts the same way, and each of us has been through a lot…
The Major congratulated him for having saved the life to the surviving team, succeeding in piloting the helicopter. The man replied with a nod, keeping his eyes down and retreating to the sidelines.
Now Bishop approaches the two electrodes, taking them from the ground. He stands up silently, spreading his arms like the others before him.
At a command by Macready, Hawk closes the circuit.
The man’s body shakes violently. Eyes open, his jaw clenched with the effort. The time seems to run very slowly. At ten seconds, the current is stopped. Bishop is still standing, although at first glance he doesn’t seem to be breathing.
Macready approaches him.
“You all right Sam?”
The other looks at him by three-quarters, nervous. Bishop takes a deep breath and finally seems to relax, moving his head to loosen the neck muscles. His vertebrae crack while rotating the head.
“It’s all right sir”, he says, snapping his tongue. “But I’d rather have another kind of shake, or at least one of Ugo’s coffee cups.”
Bishop walks, moving away with his head bowed. His joke draws a bitter smile on Macready’s face, who turns to look toward the deserted and silent hangar. It seems impossible that Ugo, the eccentric Italian cook, the boys in the cafeteria service, always smiling and ready for a tug of war challenge, the other people who worked at the base and many of his soldiers, colleagues and friends don’t exist anymore.
The only remaining thing is an inhuman silence, so indifferent to our pain…
Suddenly the cries of Matt Serum draw Macready’s attention, distracting him from his sad thoughts.
“It’s useless, can’t you see? This test doesn’t prove a fucking thing.”
“Come on Matt”, Hawk’s answer. “You are a marine, you can’t act this way!”
“The woman doesn’t have our training, but she passed the test without a blinking”, Brimley intervenes.
“Keith is right”, Hawk continues, “that woman has two balls way bigger than yours.”
The doctor is going to reply, when his gaze locks in one direction.
The others turn to look, noticing that someone appeared on the threshold of the side door of the armored vehicle.
McKinnock observes the scene for a few seconds, then jumps to the ground, walking toward the group. The soldier is pale, his skin glistening with sweat. His face is full of scratches and abrasions, and so are his hands.