Chapter 1
The Artic winds blew dispassionately across the frozen wasteland. The night would not end for a few days as the first storm of the season was coming. An aged wooden sign creaked as the violent gale continued. It read in faded black letters:
"United States National Science Institute Station 4"
The base was isolated from the rest of the world. Even though lights could be seen coming from inside the base, it felt abandoned by humanity, a forsaken compound left to waste away in the Artic. The weather towers and Airfield Tower looked like skeletons in the night.
Inside the compounds laboratory, a pudgy gentleman in a yellow button up and pea green suspenders sat at a computer. Blair opened the desk drawer in his office and pulled out a bottle of Smirnoff Vodka. He took a drink, set the bottle on his desk, and then wiped his glasses on his shirt. They fogged from sweat and fear.
The computer beeped and whirred to life as its starting processors warmed up. Blair stood up and walked over to the door of the laboratory. He closed it slowly, the lock clicking louder than he wanted as the dead bolt clicked into place.
It was time. Blair needed privacy.
The computer start up complete, Blair returned to his seat and took another shot from the vodka bottle. It was half empty now. Not enough to last the winter.
The laboratory was large but comfortable, out of the way and private, with a computer to suit Blair's needs. The microscope to his left contained a sample of the dog's DNA, which Blair had thoroughly analyzed. Now was the time to collect data to see how bad the situation was.
He began to type feverously into the computer, only stopping to take a swig from the vodka or wipe the sweat from his brow. When the preliminary variables had finally been typed into the computer, Blair leaned back in his chair to rest for a moment.
"Damn it, it can't be Clark," he thought to himself. Clark had spent most of his time with the husky, but had alerted the rest of the men when the… whatever it was… had begun to assimilate the other dogs in the kennel. That would accomplish nothing, except to make the alien presences know to the rest of the men. And no one watched the dog… it… as it had wandered freely about the cabin. Any one of the elven man crew here could already be…
With any luck at all, Blair would be wrong and wake up from this nightmare. He reached over the desk and picked up his green pencil. Blair then reached into his right breast pocket and produced his father's golden pocket watch. It was his favorite memento. Blair always kept it wound tight and precise, often using it to time experiments. The watch would work nicely to time the computer simulation for Blair today.
Blair typed a few keys on the keyboard, and the computer program started. The screen illuminated to show two blue cells of the normal dogs DNA, and one red cell to denote the alien virus. A timer in the left hand corner of the screen counted up from 17:36:00 the computer program labeled the red cell "Cell, Intruder".
The pocket watch started, and Blair began to write furiously down on a note pad of graph paper on his desk.
Both the timer and label for the virus disappeared, and was replaced as a blue cell at the top of the screen was labeled "Cell, Dog" The label disappeared on the monitor and the cells began to drift. The red cell drifted slowly toward one of the blue cells at the top of the screen. As soon as it made contact, the blue and red cell drifted into each other. The cell became completely red. The program labeled this process "Assimilation". Once complete, the two cells combining to make one larger blue cell. The program whirred as it explained to Blair what he already knew. "Assimilation Complete, Cell, Dog, Imitation".
Blair looked down at his pocket watch and back up to the screen. Even with the slower simulation, the virus had only taken thirty seconds to eat and become one of the dog's cells. Blair didn't want to imagine how quick the virus spread in real time. Blair began to write slower on the pad.
The monitor continued as the imitation cell drifted toward another normal cell, unaware of the imposter. Once it was close enough, the imposter struck out a thin red tentacle into the core of the normal cell. The normal cell was then consumed by the imposter, who then floated as if nothing had happened.
Blair stopped writing on the graph paper with the pocket watch still open in his left hand. The monitor faded to black for a moment. He tapped his pencil eraser on the desk in nervous anticipation.
It came back to life as it outlined a blue box on the screen. Blue letters typed themselves out inside the box. They said:
"Probability that one or more team members may be infected by intruder organism: 75%"
Blair's worst fears had been realized statistically. Even science had forsaken him. The florescent lights of the lab grew in intensity, and the glare off the steel instruments and tile floor began to give Blair a headache. To make matter worse he was out of Vodka.
Blair set his pocket watch down absentmindedly and stared at the screen for a couple of seconds. His mind couldn't… no wouldn't process. A thought more terrible than this news crossed his mind. The concept was staggering.
He typed on the keyboard with the green pencil still in-between the thumb and fingers of his right hand. The monitor went black, then re-animated with new text. Each word sank heavier and heavier in Blair's chest as he read them. The new message on the monitor said:
"Projection:
If intruder organism reaches civilized areas…
Entire world population infected 27,000 hours from first contact."
Blair shook his head in denial. How could the Norwegian Artic team unleash such a monster upon the human race? No. Now was not the time to ponder human ignorance.
Blair opened the drawer of the desk again. Amongst the white out, erasers, rubber bands, and Q-tips lay a Smith & Wesson snub nose .38 special on top of some scratch paper. He pulled it out and shut the drawer.
Blair closed his father's watch and returned it to his breast pocket. He picked up his pencil and continued to write his notes, only this time they were more qualitative.
"It could have imitated a million life forms on a million planets. Could change into anyone of them at any time. Now it wants life forms on Earth. It needs to be alone and in close proximity with the life form to be absorbed. The Chameleon strikes in the dark while no one watches. It is virtually indestructible. The twelve gauge shotgun rounds barely wounded it, and the fire did only a little better. There is still cellular activity in these burned remains."
Blair finished writing, putting the pencil down to pick up the Snub nose. He unloaded the .38 special and checked each cartridge carfully. He would only have one shot at this.
"No one wants to believe me. Fine. No one wants to find the truth. Fine. But I won't let it escape. I can't let it escape." Each thought was punctuated by the sound of each .38 hollow point being reloaded into the six cylinder revolver. The cylinder clacked shut violently and Blair had made up his mind.
The trap was set.
It was now time to hunt the Thing.
