Chapter 10: The Last Men
"Fear makes us feel our humanity,"-Benjamin Disraeli
The Command Center, 0503 Hours-
The report of the MP5-N's single blast took everyone but Childs by surprise. Neil Alvarez jumped back, tripped, and fell to the floor, causing him to lose the grip on his shotgun. Even the Egan-Thing cocked its head in amazement as it watched its Jen Fielder incarnation take a bullet to the head.
The gunshot then set off a series of events:
As soon as MacReady fired he clicked the weapon from semi to automatic automatic and took a bead on the Egan-Thing.
"JEN!" screamed Doyle Killian as he watched his friend and flying partner take a bullet from MacReady. In his fury he turned and pointed his 9mm at MacReady, mistakenly thinking that he was somehow the Thing, and in one move clicked the pistol to fire and shot him.
The Egan-Thing reacted to the gunfire in amazement. It had been expecting to take gunfire from the humans instead of its fellow incarnation. The Fielder-Thing had been about to strike the distracted crew but had apparently been noticed by MacReady. Almost immediately it saw MacReady go down from gunfire. Now everyone's attention was off of it…almost everyone.
Gerald Anderson had never taken his eyes off of Sam Egan. He tuned out the gunfire and instead kept his focus on the cook. He watched as the cook looked away to the right and that's when he fired a hollow point 9mm round at Egan's head.
The Egan-Thing took a round into its head which caused it to react immediately by convulsing and jumping onto the wall behind it. It took additional rounds and then opened its now deformed mouth and sent a jet of acidic fluid at the lead agent.
The burning liquid hit Anderson's left hand making him lose the grip on his pistol. The weapon clattered to the floor as he jumped back and went behind Agent O'Rourke who had opened up on the Thing with his submachine gun.
The Thing jumped from the wall and pounced upon Max Righetti who had been attempting to reload his pistol. Its mouth opened and from it came a stream of tendrils that shot into the unfortunate man's nostrils and mouth while at the same time its hand's melted into claws that raked into the radio operator's flesh.
Brady Anderson pointed the shotgun, that had previously belonged to Georgiou, at the Egan-Thing as soon as it had landed on Righetti. He pumped the Mossberg and fired a round.
The blast hit the side of the Thing. It then turned its attention to the young man who had inflicted the shot.
Robinson pumped the shotgun once more and pulled the trigger. Click. The empty sound of an unloaded weapon gave the young man a sickening feeling in his stomach. The weapon slipped from his fingers and he stood frozen in fright as the Thing's head came at him from its telescoping neck. "Oh shi-," was all he could say before its jaws clamped down on his throat.
Doyle Killian took three bullets to his abdomen from Childs, who had quickly put the firebomb he was holding down on the table and shot Killian for shooting MacReady. He doubled over, went to his knees, and fell to his side where his life bled out of him.
Marcus Hardy grabbed Child's firebomb, lit it, and threw it at the Thing that had just torn out Brady Robinson's throat. The creature caught fire and it charged at the nearest person it could find.
The burning creature slammed into Jonathan Mayerling and knocked the USAMRIID scientist into the far wall. His head hit a metal shelf which cracked his skull open. The dying man fell face first to the floor, his body smothering the flames that had taken hold of his heavy jacket. He died within thirty seconds.
The Thing roared as another firebomb hit it. It reared up and then its body split into two with a sickening wet noise.
As soon as Willie Harper had thrown the second firebomb the creature stood up and split down the middle like a piece of firewood. The mechanic watched in amazement as the two sides separated to reveal a backbone and rib cage that vibrated with fury. Its ribs elongated and shot into the ceiling.
On the floor Neil Alvarez reached for his shotgun and found himself face to face with Jen Fielder, "Sonofabitch!" he said as Fielder's mouth opened and sprayed him with acidic liquid. The liquid hit his chest and he felt an instant burning sensation as it ate through his clothing and skin. He screamed in agony and tried to move away but felt the Fielder-Thing's talon-like claws rip into his legs and pull him closer. He screamed in pain but managed to reach out and grab his shotgun. He pumped it and fired into the Thing's head at point blank range.
The head of the Fielder-Thing disappeared in a reddish mist as the buckshot obliterated its mutated cranium. Its headless body hit the floor where it squirmed and writhed in fury.
Harrison saw the Fielder-Thing's sudden transformation and responded by throwing a Molotov Cocktail at it. The creature turned into a living torch and now there were two burning beasts in the room. "Everyone out!"
Harrison didn't have to repeat his order; everyone made a break for the exits. The Fielder-Thing had jumped up and ran after the first three people to leave and was cut down by repeated gunfire from Childs and O'Rourke. Hardy threw another firebomb and the Thing went to the floor and laid still.
The Egan-Thing had attempted to bust into the ceiling but was cut in half by Sparky Reynolds who chopped it with the fire axe. Its body fell to the floor and took a shotgun round from Alvarez who was being helped up by Sterling and Larkin. The room emptied out and soon the survivors found themselves split into three groups.
In the Command Center the remains of the Egan and Fielder-Things burned and went still, the life in them fading away into nothing.
Elsewhere in the main complex the Thing that had once been Professor Gordon Howell waited patiently for its chance.
The Infirmary, 0508 Hours-
Childs kicked the infirmary door open and rushed into the room, swinging his MP5 left to right, "Its clear!"
Reynolds and Larkin came in with a bleeding MacReady being propped between them. The wounded pilot still had enough strength to keep walking thus negating too much pressure upon his two helpers.
Harrison was the last man in the room, "Childs guard the door while we tend to MacReady."
"Got it," answered Childs who took up his position.
"We don't have much time Steven," said Kelly Larkin, "The fire is bound to spread."
"Good," said the station commander, "Then maybe we can burn that fucking other thing in the ceiling."
Sparky looked up nervously at the ceiling and the open air duct grate and clutched his fire axe harder.
MacReady leaned back on the gurney and grimaced in pain.
Harrison tore open MacReady's jacket and cut into his underclothes with a pair of surgical scissors. He looked at the wound and said, "I've got good news and bad news."
"What's the bad news," answered MacReady.
"You've been hit in the ribcage but the shot wasn't accurate. From the looks of it the bullet hit and traveled against your ribcage and tore away a chunk of flesh and exited your jacket…You'll live."
"What the hell is the good news then?"
"You'll get another chance to kill the Thing."
"Grab me that bottle from my right pocket."
Harrison obliged and handed MacReady the J&B Whiskey bottle. He watched as the pilot opened it and took a drink and then closed and handed the bottle back to Harrison. Harrison replaced the bottle in MacReady's jacket pocket and said, "Kelly let's patch him up."
The Main Entrance, 0511 Hours-
Anderson and his group stopped at the building's main entrance and paused. He turned around and looked at the four others that were with him. Callum had covered their rear and now came to stand alongside Hardy and Sterling who held a severely wounded Neil Alvarez between them.
"Will he make it?" asked Anderson to Sterling. Anderson's hand burned with pain from the acid but it didn't stop him from thinking clearly.
"His wounds are severe, I don't think-" trailed off Sterling.
"Sterling, give me your weapon."
Sterling handed over the pistol and remaining magazine and looked at Alvarez's face. He saw pain in the man's eyes.
Alvarez answered Anderson's question, "This is it for me…I think I lost too much blood."
Anderson looked at the dying Navy Veteran and saw that the man's chest and lower neck appeared to have suffered serious burns in addition to his mangled legs.
"We can't just leave him here," said Hardy who correctly deduced that Anderson had no intention of taking Alvarez any farther.
"Hell yes we can," said Callum.
"Bastard!" retorted Hardy who took Alvarez's shotgun and remaining rounds.
"Go ahead and stay with him then professor!"
"Both of you shut up!" said Anderson who looked to Sterling and Alvarez, "There's nothing we can do for him. If we want to make it to the radio and the vehicles and get away then we'll have to leave him."
Sterling and Hardy looked at eachother for a moment and then to Alvarez. The wounded man looked up at them with a look of confirmation. He gave a slight nod, "Get out of here."
With sadness Hardy and Sterling left their wounded friend propped against the wall. Then they and the two agents went into the icy morning darkness.
Hut 1, 0515 Hours-
"OK why the hell are we here?" asked O'Rourke.
"Because," said Harper, "In here are extra medical supplies including oxygen cylinders."
"You want to take them into the main complex and explode them," said O'Rourke who had correctly guessed the mechanic's idea.
"You're quick secret agent man."
"Why the hell are we going to do that?" asked Donaldson who had replaced his butcher knife with the pistol that he had taken from Killian after the pilot had been shot, "I thought we were going to ride out of here!"
"Reality check Doc," said Harper, "We have three snowplows. Each can hold two people inside which means six can get away except that one of those snowplows needs a new alternator which means that only four can get out of here."
"So put one in!"
"I would but the resupply plane with the alternator is due in two weeks," said Harper with a grim smile, "Care to wait around?"
"We're going to have to get to the snowplows before the others then!"
"No," said Harper sternly, "If we do that then not everyone lives but if we can kill the Thing in the main complex then maybe we can have O'Rourke and his boss call off the planes," Harper looked to the agent, "Think you can make that work?"
O'Rourke knew that the odds were against them but he wasn't one to turn away from a fight. If they did kill the Thing then there was a chance that the bombing run could be called off. He felt it was worth it, "We just might. By the way Mister Mechanic, how the hell are we going to get the oxygen tanks over to the main building?"
Harper smiled.
The Air Ducts, 0520 Hours-
The Thing that had once been in the guise of Professor Howell , crawled along the air ducts and searched for any remaining crewmembers. The beast had grown in size and was now struggling to keep itself inside of the narrow confines of the air system. It moved along sluggishly and strained against the aluminum that encapsulated it. It couldn't sense any of its remaining incarnations. It knew that the incarnations in the station's cook and female pilot had been killed off but the remaining incarnation may have escaped when the station commander had ordered everyone to leave. That meant that a part of it had a chance to escape this frozen continent and reach the mainland. Despite the certainty that its makers on their far away planet had long ago ceased to exist it still felt the primal urge to continue it's mission.
It had learned so much since it had taken its first victim shortly after the crash of the ship it had traveled on. It knew what it was meant to do and there was no fighting it. Its knowledge had increased after it had thawed out and began to absorb the characteristics and intelligence of first the Norwegians and then the Americans. It contained all of their individual knowledge inside of it at a cellular level. It had ran through each human's mind and had found a wealth of information about the world it had been brought to.
It knew that the human race would have presented a formidable obstacle to its makers' colonization if they had chosen to come now in a direct manner…that was if they even existed after all of the intervening eons. The Thing too recognized how formidable the humans were. They had battled it relentlessly since it had resurrected at Viking Base and then at Outpost 31 and now here too at Ellsworth Station. It realized that its own incarnation would more than likely perish from here, either from the fire that was spreading from the command center or by the intervention of the human's military. The only hope it had was that its remaining incarnation could make it to civilization.
The Thing felt that there was a good chance of this. The individual it had consumed and replicated had already been tested. It was smart enough to reach out to him in the darkness and take him while he was reloading. Soon, it felt, the incarnation could escape and travel to the mainland and continue to spread. Even if its makers race had long ago forgotten it or had died it was commanded by its genetic program to carry out its mission despite the fact that no colonists were coming. It was made for a purpose and it would fulfill that purpose no matter what…provided the other incarnation could escape.
Hut 3, 0525 Hours-
Tim Donaldson opened the bay door of Hut 3 and watched as Harper and O'Rourke rode out on a Gator utility vehicle. The two man vehicle was made by John Deere and had been specially modified to deal with Antarctic conditions. The green and yellow 50 HP vehicle had a maximum speed of 44MPH which was currently limited to 35 due to the snow and ice.
Harper stopped next to Donaldson, "Need a lift?"
The psychiatrist smiled and jumped into the back where there were four oxygen cylinders and a box of stick flares, "Let's do this before I change my mind."
Harper and O'Rourke laughed and the Gator and its three passengers headed back to the Main Complex.
The Main Complex, 0525 Hours-
While Harper, O'Rourke, and Donaldson were busy getting the Gator loaded, MacReady and his group made their way to the building's main entrance. There they found Neil Alvarez. The man was barely alive and managed tell them that Anderson and three others had left him there on his own accord so they could make it to the snowplows.
"They're goin-going t-to try and make… it out," Alvarez paused and gurgled on blood, "The-they might…be able t-to radio the planes."
Harrison watched as the dying man struggled to talk, "We could…" he wanted to say that they could try and patch him up but he knew the reality of the situation as did Alvarez: there was nothing they could do to save the supply specialist. He had lost too much blood from his wounds.
Alvarez could tell what Harrison was thinking from the look in his eyes. He smiled weakly and said, "Some of you…will make it outta here."
Kelly Larkin felt tears well up in her eyes as Neil Alvarez closed his eyes and gave out one last sigh before he passed away. She had liked the gruff Navy veteran. He normally wore a serious expression on his face but away from duty he was a good natured man with a jovial streak. Alvarez often talked about his wife, three children, and three grandchildren. The thought that he left behind a family sickened her. So many had died in the past few days and still none of them were safe.
Harrison looked at Alvarez's lifeless body and felt anger surge through him. He had lost most of his crew and the rest were still in danger. He had never lost this amount of people in all of his years of service. He had lost too many good people here and he knew that he would more than likely join them. He made the decision that he would do everything he could to kill the Thing even if it meant that he wouldn't make it.
He stood and looked at the survivors, "Let's get to the snowplows and get some of you on your way."
Hut 10, 0530 Hours-
As soon as the group had left the Main Complex they went straight for the hangar and to the radio inside the helicopter. Anderson and Callum made a hurried call to higher and was granted an extension of thirty minutes. Once the thirty minutes had been reached however, the station would be destroyed.
As soon as Anderson finished talking he left the helicopter and failed to notice Callum who proceeded to smash device with the butt of his submachine gun.
Inside Hut 10 were three snowplows. Two were fully operational but the third was down for maintenance.
"Now we can the hell out of here," said Callum.
"Right, higher is giving us until 0615 to get out otherwise were all dead," said Anderson.
"They're giving us a chance?" asked Professor Sterling.
"Against my Superior's guidance…yes. I managed to get us a little extra time. That can give anyone else who's still alive a chance to get away on foot.
"They might not make it on foot!," pleaded Marcus Hardy.
"One of these is down for repairs," said Anderson who ignored Hardy and looked at one of the big snowplows.
"Doesn't matter," said Sterling, "They fit two."
"We shouldn't be leaving all of these witnesses sir," said Callum, "It goes against the original plan…besides higher may not like it.
The three others turned and looked at the agent and it was Anderson who spoke, "I'm changing the plan."
"Still too many people to talk…what if this gets out? We can't have the news getting a hold of this sir, imagine the panic."
"Screw that, we're getting out of here."
Callum sighed: too many civilian witnesses was not a good thing. He raised his MP5 and opened fire.
Outside, 0530 Hours-
MacReady's group stopped as they heard the sound of a vehicle approaching. The wind had died down and it was now possible to make out much of the camp in the darkness. The vehicle pulled up and the lights of the other buildings illuminated a figure who spoke to them.
"We're going to blow up the main complex," said O'Rourke matter-of-factly.
"Have you seen the others?" asked MacReady in a wheezy voice.
"Nope."
"They headed for the snowplows," interjected Harrison, "Come with us."
"But what about the Thing?" asked Harper.
"We'll kill it once we get enough of us to safety.
Hut 10, 0531 Hours-
Anderson had next to nothing in the terms of time to react to Callum. He took a bullet in his upper thigh and another in his abdomen. He fell to the floor and lost the grip of his weapon. It hit the floor and skidded away from him.
Callum turned from Anderson and shot Professor Hardy in the chest just as the man has pumped the shotgun to ready a round. Bullets tore into the engineering professor and his body jerked spasmodically. He swung to his right and fell face first to the floor. The shotgun's impact on the floor caused the weapon to fire off its round which blasted into a wooden crate.
Callum's magazine went dry and instead of reloading he jumped at the shocked Sterling and clamped his left hand around the professor's throat.
Thomas Sterling struggled to break free of the agent's grip but the man squeezed harder and harder. He brought his hands up to the agent's face and managed to hit his nose, drawing blood.
Callum felt the blow hit his nose and he immediately released his grip from the climatologist who fell onto his back.
"Nice try professor," Callum said as he reloaded his MP5, "But all for naught."
"Wh-why?" asked Thomas Sterling as Callum aimed the barrel of his weapon at him.
"Why?" asked the agent, "Professionally speaking professor; in this line of work civilian witnesses are a bad thing…besides I have a mission to accomplish."
Anderson rolled over in time to watch as Callum fired a burst into Professor Sterling, killing the main instantly. He reached for his pistol, grabbed it, and fired.
Callum saw movement out of the corner of his eye and barely had enough time to react. He moved to the side and felt a bullet graze his face. The 9mm round cut a swath through his left cheek and tore a chunk off of his ear before it slammed into a crate of spare parts.
Callum fired and hit Anderson in the arm, causing the senior agent to let go of his pistol and cradle his hand with his other wounded hand.
"Callum what the fuck do you think you're doing!" Anderson said through gritted teeth.
"Callum's not doing anything Agent Anderson…I'm doing this and I am going to leave here."
Anderson's eyes widened in horror as the realization that what stood before him wasn't Agent Callum at all, "When?" he asked.
"When the lights went out. Callum backed away to reload and he was taken and replicated. I almost didn't have enough time to make the transformation," said the Callum-Thing.
"The Air Force is going to blow this place up!"
"I know and that only serves to help me. The bomb will obliterate this place and kill everyone who knows what happened here," the Callum-Thing paused and smiled, "There will be one survivor of course. There will be no need to quarantine me because I will tell them what I want them to hear…that the alien was destroyed. Then I will go along continuing my mission."
"You'll kill everyone on Earth and then you'll die!" Anderson said trying to drive home the fact that the Thing would die as well.
"Its what I was meant to do," it said, "There's no escaping my destiny…you're lucky Agent Anderson, I don't have the time to take you over. I have a plane to beat."
The Callum-Thing then shot up the dashboard and controls of one of the two snowplows and then opened fire and killed Gerald Anderson.
As soon as Anderson had been killed Darren Childs burst into the hut and quickly took in the scene. Agent Callum had just killed Anderson as well as Professors Hardy and Sterling.
"ITS CALLUM!" Childs yelled and opened fire on the agent.
Bullets ripped into the Callum-Thing and it lost its grip on the MP5. It screamed in rage as its escape plan quickly fell apart. It needed a new host fast. Snarling with a forming canine mouth it charged the new arrivals.
MacReady, Childs, O'Rourke, and Anderson stood side by side as they unloaded their rounds at the charging figure that wore the guise of Agent Callum. Harrison's .45 rounds took the creature in the kneecap and it felt to the ground.
Kelly Larkin grabbed a bottle of Southern Comfort rum and a lighter from Sparky Reynolds, lit it, and ran forward. She hurtled the last firebomb at the Thing and it, along with some nearby crates, instantly went up in flames.
Harrison's .45 went dry and its slide locked back. He was completely out of ammunition. He saw Harper stop to reload and watched as O'Rourke tossed a magazine to Childs who too had ran out of ammo.
As soon as O'Rourke tossed his second to last magazine to Childs he made a beeline to the creature's side and opened fire.
The Thing raised itself off of the floor, elongated its legs and jumped at its assailants. The people scattered away from it.
Sparky Reynolds summoned up enough bravery to move in and take a swing at the Thing with his axe; he wasn't fast enough however. The creature swung a malformed and elongated arm at him and knocked him away.
Sparky felt ribs break and he let go of his axe. He came down hard onto the floor and skidded to a halt next to an oxy-acetylene blowtorch.
MacReady followed the young man's progress as he was knocked away and came to rest next to a blowtorch that was hooked up to a dolly for easy movement. An idea formed in his mind. "GET OUTSIDE!"
Harrison saw MacReady move to the blowtorch and get Reynolds to his feet; then it dawned on him what the man was going to do, "LET'S GO!"
O'Rourke emptied his magazine into the Thing causing it to fall to the floor where it began to gyrate. He turned to run outside with the others.
MacReady and a limping Reynolds wheeled the blowtorch as close to the spasmodic Thing as he could without being killed. MacReady grabbed Sparky's axe off the floor and knocked opened the valves of the two cylinders' and then he and Sparky left the blowtorch and its cylinders and made their way toward the hut's rear door. Before he reached the door he turned and saw that the Thing's back had split open. From its back came two large hands that reached upward to the ceiling. MacReady remembered that this was how it had escaped the dog kennel back at Outpost 31. It was attempting to get away.
MacReady looked to Reynolds, "Get outside!"
"The snowplow!" screamed Reynolds, "I can drive it!"
"What about the keys!"
"Forget em!" said the boy who grinned through the pain of his broken ribs, "I can hot-wire it! Harper taught me!"
MacReady grinned and turned his attention to the Thing. It wasn't paying him the least bit of attention. It was too preoccupied with trying to get away.
The sound of the snowplow's engine grabbed MacReady's attention. The kid had come through. Now it was time to get the hell out of the building…or almost time; MacReady fired a burst into the Thing and it fell from the ceiling. It stood and bellowed in rage. MacReady fired again and the weapon went dry.
"Damn!" he cursed. He threw the weapon at the Thing and ran. As he went past the fallen Anderson something caught his eye: Anderson' pistol. He picked it up and followed the snowplow. Reynolds had hopped off and pressed a button that opened the rear bay door and was now back inside the vehicle. MacReady jumped on and looked back. The Thing had managed to smother the flames on its body by rolling around and was now standing up. It stood among the flames that continued to burn the nearby crates. The grotesque figure stood far taller than a human. Its blackened skin bubbled and it turned to exit the front of the hut.
A split second later the flames of the burning crates met the pure oxygen and acetylene from the cylinders and ignited causing jets of flames to arc back into the cylinders where they created a violent explosion.
Outside Hut 10, 0537 Hours-
The blast from the exploding cylinders blew the front section off the Hut. Hut 3 was larger that most of the other huts so the entire structure wasn't completely leveled but the blast was enough to destroy the Thing. The force of the blast also sent Harrison and the others to the frozen ground.
"Holy Shit," whispered Donaldson who thanked God that the Gator had been right next to the hut. He and Harper had jumped on and managed to get the vehicle away from being blown up, "Let's get back to the others," he said to Willie Harper.
Harper wheeled the vehicle around and took it to the remaining survivors who were now getting on their feet.
"Think they made it?" asked Larkin with apprehension in her voice.
Childs looked to the geophysicist and smiled, "It'll take a lot more than that to get Mac."
As if by magic the sound of a snowplow engine cut through the roaring of the flames. The group watched as a smoking and blackened snowplow made its way toward them.
The vehicle came to a stop next to them and a smiling MacReady hopped out.
Viking Base, 78 Degrees, 21 Minutes, 54 Seconds South: 167 Degrees, 33 Minutes, 12 Seconds East, 0540 Hours-
As the fact had been noted that the Norwegian Base had been abandoned, the CIA made the decision to destroy it ahead of schedule. The MC-130H Combat Talon II was the latest variant in a long line of C-130s that stemmed back to the 1950s. The plane traveled with two pilots and three loadmasters onboard. The aircraft normally carried a single loadmaster but this was a special case. It carried one GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb or MOAB. This was more commonly known as 'The Mother of all Bombs' by the press. The 30 foot long, 22,600 pound weapon contained 18,700 pounds of H6 explosive that would give it a punch equivalent to 11 tons of TNT. Its explosive force was enough to level a radius of 9 city blocks. Its shockwave and the accompanying pressure would be more than enough to completely destroy the entire base as well as any organisms that may still be living in it.
The plane's cargo ramp opened up and the loadmasters released the bomb. The GBU fell out of the MC-130H, its descent slowed by a parachute which didn't deter it from following its course as it was being guided by Global Positioning System satellites. A two-man Delta Force team was situated a mile and a half from the deserted base. The two men watched as the GBU fell toward its target and detonated 300 feet above the camp.
As the small mushroom cloud rose into the sky the team notified their superiors of the bombing mission's success which was also witnessed by a NSA Satellite and an Air Force Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.
Moments later a joint US/Norwegian team headed toward the bomb site to make further assessments.
Outpost 31, 77 Degrees, 50 Minutes, 03 Seconds South: 167 Degrees 49 Minutes, 45 Seconds East, 0542 Hours-
Just as Viking Base was being destroyed, the second of three MC-130Hs dropped its payload onto its target.
The bomb's parachute unfurled and opened up, causing the bomb to slow. It drifted down over its target and detonated at 300 feet.
The pressure blast devastated what was left of Outpost 31 and was witnessed by the same NSA satellite that had just shifted its attention away from the Viking blast site.
At the same time a third MC-130H received word to hold in place 15 miles from Ellsworth Station. The plane had half a tank of fuel and was more than capable of holding out longer before it could join the KC-135 supertanker refueling aircraft.
The UAV was directed to fly toward Ellsworth Station where it would check to see if anyone was still alive.
The Hangar, 0543 Hours-
"We are now officially fucked," said O'Rourke as he saw the damage to the radio.
"You mean we weren't fucked enough already?" said MacReady in amazement.
"We're not fucked until I say we're fucked," said the agent, "We're fucked."
"We can't call off the plane," said Harrison, "We had until an hour after the weather broke and it looks like it broke."
"Now what?" said Kelly Larkin with despair in her voice.
"We'll never make it on foot," said Childs.
"True," said Harrison who looked at Kelly Larkin and Shane Reynolds, "But two of us can get away in the snowplow."
Larkin and Reynolds saw Harrison look at him and soon everyone else was gazing at them, "Us?" they said simultaneously.
Five minutes later Kelly Larkin and Shane Reynolds climbed into the snowplow and readied to leave, having previously said they're goodbyes to the others.
"Hold on a sec," said MacReady who looked at Reynolds, "Why do they call you Sparky?"
The young man was taken aback by the question. With everything that had been going on in the past day he hadn't expected anyone to ask a question like that.
The young mechanic looked at the disheveled MacReady who stood there with his sombrero like hat and smiled, "I got zapped by electricity when I first got here. I was working on a generator and I goofed. It was an accident but it wasn't bad...but it sure made my hair stand on end!" he laughed and went on, "The guys nicknamed me Sparky and it stuck!"
MacReady laughed at the goofy expression that the young man wore on his worn-out looking face and soon the others joined him. Moments later they watched as the snowplow and its two passengers drove off in the direction of McMurdo. Then as one the last men turned and went toward the Main Complex.