AN: No real warnings expect swearing, this chapter is nothing like what I originally planned but I think I like this better.
Disclaimer: Still own nothing
"You saw Henrick, the metal had been pulled out of his body and left alone, when Karl transformed his metal fillings fell out. This Thing can't recreate inorganic material." Kate argued, shaking the metal in her hand.
"It is interesting," Halversen agreed caustically. "But what of the people who have never needed dentistry work? No. We will not cause a panic by checking mouths for dentistry. I will create the blood test and we will do this scientifically."
They were arguing in the corner, away from the others, neither wanted to increase the paranoia gripping the station, even as Kate fought with him over testing.
"It's a way to at least find out who is still human." Kate insisted. "Anyone could be one of those Things. We can't risk anyone else being infected. We need to take measures."
"Indeed, but we will not do so by causing more panic." Halversen was calm.
"Fine." Kate gazed over the others. "But we need to lock up all the weapons. We can't risk having guns out with the paranoia. We can leave the flamethrowers out, but we need to have a careful watch on them. And disable the vehicles."
"Yes Kate. I can comprehend that myself." Halversen frowned at her.
"I just-"
"Enough Kate," Halversen interrupted annoyed. "Why don't you gather the guns to be locked up. Adam and I will start on the test."
"Fine," Kate backed off, "Carter? Can you help me lock up the guns?"
"Sure," The pilot said after a pause, nudging Olav off of him before standing.
There was staring from the others, and half mumble swearing. But no one tried to stop Kate's orders, not even the difficult Colin. Carter walked behind her, quieter than before the whole mess had started.
"Are you all right?" Kate asked, holding the cabinet door open as Carter set down the guns.
"What? Oh fine." Carter said vaguely, distracted by something else.
"Well I wanted to check on Halversen and Adam." Kate glanced at the pilot, watching as he half nodded still lost in thought but following her.
"Kate. Did you need something?" asked Halversen's cool voice, Adam was behind him, hands wringing together nervously.
"I wanted to check on your progress." Kate glanced at Carter who was standing silently in the doorway.
"Of course." Halversen murmured, ignoring her otherwise. "While you are here, do be of some use and help Adam go retrieve the new blood samples from the others. I will be there momentarily with the microscope and prepared slides."
Adam nodded nervously, glancing around Halversen at Kate, before picking up clean test dishes. He stepped back as Kate moved forwards and grabbed a sterile scalpel.
In the doorway Carter moved aside as Kate and Adam stepped through to return to the common area.
"Carter, would you stay for a moment?" Halversen asked calmly, keeping his eyes looking through the microscope.
"Did you need something Doc?" Carter asked standing in the doorway after Kate and Adam had left. He refused to move any closer to the Norwegian doctor.
"I wanted your opinion on the creature." Halversen stated calmly, icy eyes glancing away from the microscopic and up at Carter.
"Why?" Carter asked, still remaining still. "I'm no scientist."
"No." Halversen agreed, almost amused at the American, he stood carefully, one hand trailing on the wooden table as he watched Carter. "But you are a soldier."
"Ex." Carter interjected. "Flew in 'Nam, why?"
"Do you think we are dealing with a soldier here?" Halversen glanced almost fondly at the microscope. "Imagine soldiers that could become anyone, any living thing. It would be a very useful trait."
"Maybe," Carter slowly took a step backwards, out of the lab. "But can they really change shape? The one we dealt with have taken over people and exploded." Carter could feel a cold wave of fear wriggle, like those blue worms for hair, through him. "They didn't look like anything human after that."
"Well that would depend on the creature." Halversen turned to Carter with amusement. "There are different types to every species. It is possible that there is an… animalistic type and one that is more….human in temperament."
"Sure, Doc." Cater felt his stomach sinking with doom, "Why tell me?" He really wanted to run, scream, anything to help; but cold blue eyes kept him still, frozen in the doorway.
"You saw Juliette, didn't you Carter, there was nothing left of her. Nothing left that was…human. Maybe it depends on the person absorbed." Halversen continue, he took a step away from the table, the fingers of his trailing hand dropping to his side. "Juliette was never very assertive. A rather quiet, unassuming woman."
Carter stayed frozen his hands clenched at his sides, as he wished for one of the guns that Kate had insisted be locked up. Everything in him was shouting at him to run from the danger. Everything except that part was still pure soldier. That part was saying never turn your back on the superior predator.
"A soldier would be more suited, do you agree?"
"Don't think anyone is suited to be taken by a body stealing alien." Carter ground out hoarsely. He thought of Juliette, the French geologist had been too shy to ever speak to him, but she had been a person. Someone that had her own goals and fears in life.
"Body stealing?" Halversen asked curiously, eyebrows rose over blue ice. Should be red, Carter half thought.
"Sci-fi movie; Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Carter blurted out, amused predators are always better than bored predators. "The aliens took over and replaced the humans."
"How interesting." Halversen murmured. "Are you scared of that happening, Carter?"
The pilot stared at what, possibly, could still be Halversen, but was much more likely to be the Thing.
"Carter." The snapping the pilots attention back to the tall man.
"…Yes…" Carter refused to meet the other's eyes, staring at the chin below smugly amused lips. "But that's because nobody will survive. As the mouth he was watching tightened into a flat line, Carter was quick to add; "Kate was right. Can't risk that that Thing getting out of here."
"Really, Carter." Teeth flashed, to white, was it possibly for a human to have teeth that white and shining? "Do you remember the first victim?"
"Juliette?"
"And you were so take charge." Halversen sighed in disappointment. "The dog, Carter, the dog."
"What about it?" Carter asked cautiously, thinking back to ripped and ruined flesh, of the lifeless puppet that had once lived, just like Juliette and Karl, another victim of the Thing pulled from the ice.
"It could easily have been replicated. And be running to one of the other bases as we speak. Thule is not the only base in Antarctica." Halversen paused, giving Carter a long look. "I believe there are two bases close to even."
Carter stiffened, the idea that the Thing was already closing in on the other bases had never occurred to him.
"There's the Russian base, and I believe the American outpost 31. Do you know anyone over there?" Halversen's voice sounded amused, no worried at all at all about what was going through the ex-soldier's head.
"Carter. Stop being ridiculous and come in here; sit down. I promise I won't bite." Halversen grinned at him. All white teeth and fangs.
Carter flashed back to Karl. Watching his head splitting open to show teeth, hungry teeth. But the scientist was looking annoyed now.
"Sorry Doc, but I really don't want to."
"You, yourself, said that everyone here must die. Be the brave soldier and come in." There was a pause for the lips to quirk into another half smile." After all… it keeps me away from the others."
The blond head jerked back, looking to icy eyes. Carter thought about Griggs, and Jameson, his fellow pilots, and Kate with her huge eyes and sweet smile.
And then Carter stepped into the room, letting the door close behind him. The soft sound of the door closing, did nothing to relieve his fear.
"Good boy." Halversen smirked.
Carter leaned back against the door, dropping to sit like he had earlier, back in the common room before Karl had transformed.
"Why me?"
"I am a soldier myself." Halversen had started pacing at the other end of the room, not getting any closer to Carter but the looks he was sending… "You are much smarter than you let people see. No one else noticed to ice until you pointed it out. Who would look for ice in Antarctic?"
Carter couldn't tell if the man, the Thing, was amused or what the odd emotion playing across the creature's face was.
"We don't always completely take over." Halversen said, waving a hand as he continued to pace. "If we spread out to much, we become…" he paused staring into the distance, "More animalistic. Like Juliette, you remember, she was dead. Dead the moment she was absorbed."
"And… you?" Carter didn't know why he was asking but, he supposed, anything to keep the creature at the other end of the room.
"We came to an… interesting agreement." The Thing grinned white fangs at Carter. "As I said, I don't take completely over. Sanders was happy to take what I could offer."
"What about Juliette? Karl?" Carter stared at his legs, stretched out in front of him on the cold floor, letting the monster know he wasn't planning on going anywhere. "You said it, she was dead."
"Regrettable." Halversen acknowledged. "As I said, stretched too thin, there will be accidents. You had just attempted to murder us."
"Char broil," Carter muttered. "Don't play with me; Juliette was gone before that wasn't she? You couldn't have taken her after, you… it… was dead. When did Halversen even get infected?"
When the silence became too uncomfortable, Carter glanced up slightly, just enough to see Halversen staring blankly at him.
"Come here, Carter. Do not have me make you."
Carter stood up slowly, warily; Halversen wasn't human anymore, no matter how human he looked and acted. And now he was holding one of the dissecting scalpels he'd used earlier. Silently berating himself at this new sign of insanity, Carter moved forwards, stopping only a foot away from the Halversen creature.
Making slow careful movements, making sure that Carter was watching every move; Halversen gently cut away a small piece of burnt flesh from the alien corpse on the table. Carter noticed that his still took the time to pull on disposable gloves before touching scalpel to the burnt remains.
The small piece of alien skin was chopped into finer pieces by the quick movements of the scalpel, once of the thin slivers placed on slide and under the microscope. Halversen was quiet as he worked; paying no attention to the human beside him, so much involved in his work that Carter took a short step backwards.
Stopping quickly and cringing when the red eyes opened in the back of his mind and glared, low growling echoing through his head.
"Look." Halversen glanced back up at the pilot, sending him a very bland look, not commenting on Carter attempting to move away. Halversen paused again, and then beckoned Carter to come closer, very noticeably not moving away from he was standing beside it, merely watching as the pilot inched slowly closer.
All the hair on the back of Carter's neck was standing straight up, as was the hair everywhere else, as the monster motioned him forwards. Just when he thought he couldn't possibly get and stupider he sidled closer. Finally he took his eyes off the creature he was so close to that he could feel the other's body heat, and looked into the microscope.
He had no idea what he was looking at, even after he fumbled at adjusting the scope, it was just small weirdly shaped objects scuttling around. Circular shapes moving slowly across the view.
"What I am supposed to be looking at," Carter finally asked, backing away to look at Halversen. The noises started in the back of his head again, the sound seeming to move like the creature was pacing around him, making Carter cringe as he stared at the cause.
The answer didn't come immediately; Halversen was staring through Carter, obviously thinking on something else, almost frowning.
"I wonder," The Doctor said slowly, blue eyes sharpening to focus on Carter, "Why some of you humans can feel us so easily and some only barely."
Carter cringed, thinking of Olav and his breakdown screaming about the many eyes, and of the red eyes he could feel even now in the back of his mind, prowling around him like the predator they belonged to.
"Life." Halversen finally answered, glancing down at the microscope, before looking back up and cocking his head at Carter; a faintly amused look at the space that quickly appeared between them as the pilot scooted back further. "Should anything truly 'dead' be moving?"
Not understanding at first, Carter stared questioningly at Halversen, with quick glances at the Thing's 'corpse'.
"That, Carter, is cellular life, we were not dead as was hoped."
Halversen let Carter have a brief moment of panic realization that Halversen wasn't the only threat left in the room, no matter how small the other may be, before Halversen lunged.
Carter was shoved backwards over the wooden table, microscope crashing to the floor as the table was knocked against the wall, one of Halversen's hands tight around his throat. Even as black spots erupted in front of his eyes, Carter thrashed under the stone grip, trying to get away from the eyes staring at him. Too many eyes, like Olav had been screaming earlier. At the point of passing out, Carter could still feel the cold blue eyes of Halversen, staring only inches away from his own, and he could feel the insanely purring red eyes like it was rubbing against his mind.
"Shh, Carter," Halversen cooed softly, breathing against the pilot's cheek, voice hollow and distant to Carter's ears. "You are going to rest for a bit, we will talk more later."
Kate walked away from the lab room slowly, walking behind Adam as she peered back over her shoulder at Carter's form still standing in the doorway. She couldn't imagine what Halversen could possibly want to talk about with the pilot and felt almost nervous leaving Carter alone in the lab.
But then the lab room, and Carter's shadow, were both out of sight and it was no longer so important. She was walking quickly now, wanting to find out as soon as possible if there was anyone else infected by the Thing and who it would be.
Stepping back into the large common area, she could feel the barely restrained panic coming from all sides. And it was sides; the people left alone had grouped up, still with plenty of room between them, but further away from other groups. In each corner of the room almost. Peder and Jonas were nearest to the door, talking softly in Norwegian, while Colin was separate and scowling at the makeshift bar. The two Americans in the room, Griggs and Jameson were crowded at one of the tables in the back. And Olav was alone, huddled in a ball at the corner Carter had been sitting in earlier, hands over his ears and moaning. Kate was quick to notice the missing members.
"Where did Wolner and Lars go?" Kate asked after glancing around the room.
"They went to fetch sedatives, and rope." Jonas answered quietly, nodding his head at Olav. "We feared he may be getting worse."
"We ought to have locked him in one of the sheds," Colin hissed from his stool, glaring at the quivering and moaning human ball in the corner. Ignoring Jonas's reproachful look.
"Hey, where's Carter?" Jameson demanded, standing up at the table the Americans were occupying.
"He will be here soon, he and Sanders are talking." Kate assured putting down the scalpel she had been carrying on the bar top. "We need to get samples from everyone for the test."
"To make sure we're human?" Colin sneered, fists clenched against the wood, "Bloody ridiculous, wouldn't we have changed, like Karl, by now if we weren't?"
"Who knows, how long Juliette was infected before she changed," Kate glared back. "We have to be sure."
Adam had set down most of the sample dishes and was spinning one in his hands as he waited for Kate to get to the point.
"We need blood samples," Kate continued, waving a hand at Adam.
"And how will that bloody help?" Colin was looking mutinous, and the others were close behind him.
"It helps because we can add cells from the creature to it." Kate started as Wolner spoke up from behind her. "If the creature's cells start attacking the human cells, replicating them, then the person is still human."
"I thought that fucker was dead!" Jameson swore, standing back away from the table he'd been sitting at, "How the fuck will you get cells from it?"
"Even now this is still cellular activity in the burnt remains" Kate continued quickly, "We'll double check to make sure before we add the creatures cells to the blood samples."
She stepped further into the room, moving closer to Adam and Colin at the bar, to let Wolner, and Lars behind him, walk into the common area. Lars looked curiously at Kate before walking over and taking a seat near Peder and Jonas.
"Where is Sanders?" Wolner asked, looking at Kate.
"He'll be here; he's still in the lab talking with Carter." Kate answered
Wolner frowned, looking around the room, before nodding in comprehension at who Carter was. "I assume you wish to take the blood samples now?"
"Yes," Kate broke off as Adam interrupted.
"Actually, let me go get Dr. Halversen, he'll want to watch and do the test here where everyone can see."
"Alright," Wolner said evenly, "Peder, help me with Olav." He ordered, moving quietly over to the shuddering guide.
Kate watched in apprehension as they pulled Olav over the coach, tying him, but the guide let them staying limply where he was placed. The needle filled with a sedative was taken just as easily, Olav only shuddering slightly as the needle pierced through his skin. Falling limply to his side even before the sedative had time to kick in, staring at the door that exited toward the lab.
Waiting for the others.
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