Chapter Ten

10101010

I hoped to die soon.

It was cold and dark in the recreation room's remains, especially after Windows's corpse stopped burning.

All I wanted was to die. I hoped that the chill would do it. I hoped to freeze slowly, because a quick death was a mercy killing. I did not deserve mercy, nor pity.

I knew that the test was a crock of nonsense. I just knew that I was infected. I was no longer human—I had become a monster. I looked human, but so did Tintin before he changed. I deserved to freeze to death. What irony that I could survive the moon and the Himalayas but I could not survive half a week at the South Pole. I was going to die here, whether by my hand, or Mother Nature's, or someone else's.

I wonder if monsters go to hell when they die, I thought.

"Stop that, Captain!"

Oh great. Now I was hallucinating.

"Are you really going to give up now?" The Tintin in my head said. "You can't! The other men need you! The real alien is set to leave the continent soon—we must stop it! And they can't do it without you!"

"How can I trust you? How can I trust me? What if I change and kill them all on sight?"

"You won't, trust me. Captain, please trust me. It hurts me seeing you like this. At the least, if not for you, do it for me. You've… always done it all for me, haven't you?"

"…"

"Don't let me down, Captain. You can do it. I know you can do it…"

"There is no way in hell I'm going to fail you now," I breathed. I wiggled, fought, thrust myself forward and backward, anything to loosen the rope.

"I'm not going to fail you. I'm not going to fail you!..."

I felt a weak spot, as if Snowy chewed on the ropes a little.

"I'M NOT GOING TO FAIL YOU!"

And with a violent shove of my arms, the ropes broke. I inhaled and exhaled deeply.

Well I'll be damned. I still have some of my old strength left…

I exited through the gaping hole in the wall just as another gust of snow flurried inside.

I stumbled throughout the snow, shivering. I somehow lost my parka and was now just in a jacket and pullover. The winter sky was full dark with no stars or even a moon. Wind whipped across my body as I advanced, having no real idea where I was going.

Maybe I shouldn't have trusted the voice in my head after all.

I was just about to give up when I came near the housing quarters.

"Hey! Stop! Halt! Childs, is that you?"

I stopped in my tracks at MacReady's command. "No! I'm not Childs!"

A light shone in my face. I saw three figures in the distance right behind it.

"Haddock," Garry said, "How the hell did you get here?"

"By a date with fate," I said. "I'm not going to kill you unless you try to kill me. Got it?"

MacReady sighed. "Fine, come over here with us."

"So where's Childs?" I asked as we continued in the snow.

"Childs is guarding camp, making sure that Blair does not attempt to reenter the main complex," Garry said, "That is, if he hasn't already…"

"What do you mean?"

"When the light was out, I was looking for Blair. He was nowhere to be found in the building. We just checked his room—he is not there. Nor is he in the hangar, which leaves only a shed just a few more hundred yards from where we are standing right now."

"We have yet to test Blair," MacReady said. "I tested everyone else after we left you—we're all human. Yes, including you, Mister 'I'm a Thing and I Just Know It.'"

MacReady knocked on the door to the shed when we arrived.

"Hey, Blair! It's MacReady! Open up!"

No response.

Knock-knock. "Open the damn door, Blair! We know you're in there!"

Still no response.

"Okay, I'm opening this door myself if you do not open it at the count of three! One, two, three! Nauls, give me the axe!"

MacReady smashed a large hole in the door before opening it. "What the fuck…"

"What? What's wrong?" Garry asked.

"You guys aren't going to believe this…"

The room was dark, having no light source, but I could tell that there was no one in the shed. Or, anything for that matter. Strange, considering how the place was padlocked from the inside…

"Blistering barnacles, where could he be then?"

Nauls moved the center of the small shed. He yelped as the plank his feet were under flipped up, causing him to trip.

MacReady took a closer look as Nauls scrambled towards Garry and me. Up went planks, lifted away and tossed to the other side of the shed.

"Garry, give me the lantern. I'm going down…"

And down the tunnel he went. Garry insisted on us following him shortly after he disappeared, and so we jumped a couple of meters down into the hole.

The tunnel was a couple of average men wide and as tall as one. If this was created within hours by one person, then Blair was definitely not human anymore.

The tunnel went on forever until we came across a large room where the trail ended.

Our mouths gaped.

The dug out room was easily the same size as a football field. Barrels of food and other supplies lined the walls. I could see light bulbs stringed about on the ceiling, implying an electric connection somewhere. A hole was in the ceiling, with a ladder trailing out of it.

But that was not the most shocking thing.

Taking up the bulk of the room was a makeshift craft. I noticed a bloody piece of curved metal on one of its sides—it was possibly Tintin's metal plate, disposed of after he changed.

"Hey… Well I'll be damned! While we were going to look at the locker, Blair must have been collecting debris from the hangars. Look!"

Sure enough, along with Tintin's metal plate, I saw charred metal painted with American military symbols and numbers.

"What could be Blair be doing, then?" Garry asked.

"Can't you see?" I said. "He's trying to escape!"

"If he escapes…" Nauls said, "Then…"

"Like hell he's leaving," said MacReady. "I'm putting a stop to his flight plans even if it's the last thing I do."

"And how are we going to do that?" I asked.

"We're going to set this fucker on fire. Load this place with all the explosives we can find, climb up the hole, light a match, and…"

"Before we do that, let's check to see where the hole goes to in the first place," Garry pointed out.

MacReady sighed. "Nauls, go up the ladder."

"Why me?"

"You're the rookie! The rookies get the worst jobs! So get up there!"

Nauls took a step.

"Wait, let me go, guys. I'm the oldest one of us here. I have nothing to lose if there is something dangerous up there."

"Why should we trust you, Haddock?" MacReady asked. "One minute you insist you're a monster and then the next you insist you're human. No offense dude, but your brains are scrambled and fried. I'm worried that you will get us killed if you do anything alone."

I sighed. Nauls continued up the ladder, poked his head up.

"Hey, guys! This is right outside of the dog kennel! Isn't there an ammunitions room close to that?"

"There is!" Garry confirmed.

"Come on, guys, let's grab everything in there and blow some shit up!"

Garry stayed down in the hole to strategically place the explosions around the makeshift craft as MacReady, Nauls and I picked up crates of TNT and slowly climbed down the ladder to drop them off.

It was going well. Too well.

I was about to lift another crate when Nauls said:

"Say, did anyone else forget about Childs?"

"What about him?"

"Childs was supposed to wait for us outside. But we've been in here for awhile. I wonder what he's doing."

"Shit!" MacReady said. "I forgot all about him. Nauls, you and Haddock go see if Childs is still outside. Garry and I will finish this."

"And what if Childs is gone?" Nauls asked.

"Then just come back. I'll deal with him if he comes by here."

Nauls and I walked down the main corridor towards the central entrance and exit to the main building. The lights were still on, but Nauls still carried a torchlight just to be prepared.

"Hey, uh, Haddock?"

"Yes?"

"I'm uh, sorry about Tintin. And I'm sorry for calling him a Frenchie. Just wanted to tell you that when I got the chance."

I inhaled. The regret was genuine. I patted his back. "Apology accepted, lad. I guess you're more mature than I thought you were."

"What do you mean more mat—"

We heard a rattle and bang.

"Do you have a gun?"

"Me? I'm the fucking chef! What would I need a gun for?"

The power went out.

"Blistering barnacles!"

Nauls switched his torch on. "Captain, what do you think we should do?"

"Well, we're unarmed, so I believe that the best thing we should do is…"

I heard a loud growl.

"Run for your life, Nauls!"

To my surprise, I ran faster than the boy did. I tripped on a shoelace halfway towards the dog kennel, but managed to swiftly get back on my feet. I was about to reach the door when I heard Nauls scream in pain. Then I heard a gurgle, a finished yelp, and that was it for the rollerblading chef.

I saw a large mass coming down the corridor right before I swung the door open.

"MACREADY!" I yelled by the ladder. "We have a problem!"

"What the hell happened?" MacReady asked, poking his head out of the hole.

I had to be white as a ghost. "Blair's here. And he just got Nauls."

"You're kidding."

"Why would I kid about something serious like this?"

I heard a large crack coming from the behind me.

"Oh fuck." MacReady said. "Follow me."

We both climbed down the hole, ran as far away from it as we could.

"What the hell is going on?" Garry asked.

"You'll find out in a minute," I said, breathing hard.

The Blair-thing cracked the hole, sending debris onto the floor as he jumped down.

This monster was the most massive out of all the things I had encountered in the past couple of days—it stretched to near the entire height of the room. Similar to Pan or Poseidon, only with brown elephant-like legs in place of a goat's legs or fish tail, the long tall half was old Blair's torso and up. Half of his face was replaced with a complete horse-like head. And the tail… at the end was another face one more alien than all the rest.

A third, clawed arm grew from the monster. It grabbed at Garry, its closest target. Garry screamed as he flew across the air. His body made a "crack" sound when it struck against the hard ice covered wall. He did not move after his body slumped to the ground with a smear of blood.

Blair's roar echoed throughout the dugout, causing it to softly quake.

"Haddock! Move with me back towards the tunnel! Let's get out of here!"

MacReady and I retreated through the tunnel, his lantern being the only source of light we had. I knew that Blair had to be following us. The tunnel wasn't breaking, so he was most likely crawling towards us.

"Thundering typhoons! For much farther do we have to go?"

I'm positive that I wasn't drunk on adrenaline I would've been unable to climb out the tunnel and into the shed on my own. MacReady and I, me behind him, fled the shed and ran towards the main complex. Blair tore through the roof and continued its pursuit after it finished demolishing the shed.

We saw Childs outside the entrance. Well, we found the pieces to him outside the entrance.

"Sweet fucking Jesus," MacReady said.

MacReady and I frantically kicked and threw the frozen limbs and internal organs away from the door so that we could enter.

"We need to blow the whole fucking place down," the pilot declared as we ran down the same hallway Nauls died in.

"Are you crazy?" I yelled.

"Calculus was right—we aren't going to ever leave here alive. And even if we die, I don't want this thing to survive off supplies until Spring comes. I'm not letting that fucking happen. Not even over my fucking dead body."

I slipped on something slick. I landed on my face on something squishy, cool, and scented of iron.

"Blistering! …"

I had to be infected now. I had to be. I could taste Nauls's remains on my tongue, smell it in my nostrils.

Blair roared again.

"Come on, Haddock! We gotta get to the remaining explosives!"

MacReady pulled on a flamethrower pack, held the actual weapon with both hands. I stuffed my pockets with hand grenades. I could hear Blair roar nearby.

"Fuck the grenades! We need to throw some plastic, some TNT!"

Instead of strategically placing the dynamite about the torn hallway entrance, I just started throwing sticks. I emptied an entire crate before tossing an armed grenade towards Blair.

It and some sticks detonated, blasting away the hallway and several rooms. But Blair was still alive. Scorched, and spreading flames throughout the wreckage, but alive. It roared in anger and it crawled closer to MacReady and me.

MacReady pushed me out of the way.

"Yeah, fuck you too!" He yelled before starting the flamethrower. This licked more flames on the creature, and this time more dynamite exploded from the flaming monster. Blair blasted apart, pieces showering everywhere. None got on MacReady, who smashed an entrance out for us, but I got blood and guts all over my clothing, into an eye. If Nauls did not infect me, then Blair did.

I lied on the snow and watched as MacReady detonated everything in sight. The housing complex, the remains of the shed, the hangar.

MacReady eventually sat down beside me. He held a liquor bottle in hand.

"Want some?" He said, opening the bottle.

I shook my head. "I think I got infected when we were fighting Blair."

"Quit being paranoid, you old sea dog," MacReady said. He took a swig and turned the bottle to me.

I shook and sobbed as I knew I was about to infect MacReady too.

"I'm sorry, MacReady, I'm sorry…"

My eye dripped out of its socket.