See end for AN.
Hell Freezes Over
Prologue:
(REDACTED) Research Station, (RETACTED), Antartica, July 10, 2022:
The hall was barely illuminated by the few working emergency lights. The main power generator had been disabled hours ago, and no one had heard from the two men that'd been sent to fix it. No main generator also meant no heat, and with a blizzard raging outside, the remaining occupants had a limited time to get it going before they froze to death. And of course, the back-up generator was down for maintenance. Go figure. That left only the emergency generator to provide power. Even then, it barely helped.
A lone figure stepped into the hall, walking slowly through it. She didn't like the fact that she was alone, but she was the only one left alive, at least in this part of the station. The walls creaked from the gale force winds outside, keeping her on edge. Her hands clutched her Glock 21 SF, despite the fact the gun ran dry an hour earlier. She was moving quite slowly, trying to keep her footsteps as quiet as possible while avoiding the spent casings all over the floor. The station was eerily quiet, compared to the screaming and gunfire hours before. The woman kept her breathing steady, ears open for any sounds. Halfway down the hall, a body was lying face down on the floor, surrounded by a pool of blood. She crept up to it, her eyes scanning the hall for any sign of danger.
Arriving at the body, she turned it over. It was a member of the mercenary team that had attacked the station earlier. His identity was unknown as his face and nameplate were missing. His handgun was still in its holster. The woman breathed a sigh of relief, holstering her Glock and grabbing the body's gun. It was a Sig M17, the standard sidearm of the mercs. The Sig was fitted with a red dot sight and a flashlight. She checked the magazine, finding it fully loaded with seventeen 9mm hollow points. Pulling the slide back slightly revealed an eighteenth round in the chamber. She turned on the red dot, adjusting the brightness on the dot to reduce the glare it made in the dim light. She flicked on the flashlight to see if it worked, shutting it off when the light illuminated the floor in front of her. She then reinserted the magazine and checked the body for another. Unfortunately, the spare magazine was missing. She sighed in defeat and continued her trek towards the generator room.
At the end of the hall was a T intersection. The left led towards Medical and the Mess Hall, the right led to the Geology Labs, a breakroom, and the Generator. A massive blood stain was on the wall, a trail of blood leading further down the hall towards the breakroom. A loud crash suddenly came from inside. The woman jumped at the sound, nearly firing a round into the floor. She quickly moved to the opposite wall. She gripped her Sig tighter and moved quietly toward the breakroom. She stopped across from the doorway. Inside the room, she could see tables and chairs knocked over, blood splattered on the floor and walls. She crept a little further along the wall, trying to see more of the room's interior. In the far corner, a man stood facing the wall. The woman was fairly certain he wasn't human anymore. She shuffled quietly across the wall, putting as much distance between them as she could. Once she was sure it couldn't hear her, she quickly moved to the generator.
Arriving ten minutes later, she saw the door leading inside was slightly ajar, a bloody handprint by the doorknob. She cautiously moved towards the door, her gun at the ready. Slipping her fingers between the door and its frame, she slowly opened the door and stepped inside. One side of the room had stacked shelves lining the wall that were filled with tools and spare parts. The back wall was lined with coveralls hanging on hooks and yellow hardhats on a shelf above them. A stairwell on the opposite side of the shelves led down to the generator. She closed and locked the door, then crept down the stairs and entered the generator room. The room was lit by only one working emergency light, but that was enough to reveal the dead mechanics and the damaged generator. The woman unclipped a radio she had on her belt.
"James," she whispered, "I'm in the generator room now."
A burst of static came from the radio, followed by James's voice. "SSSSSHHHH-thank God! I thought something might've happened to you!"
"I'm fine," the woman replied, "But Hank and Will are dead."
"Damn it!" James cursed, "How's the generator look?"
"It's...in pretty bad shape," she replied, "But I think I can cobble something together, 'least get it going for a couple hours."
"Okay, see what you can do," James said, "And SSSSSHHHHHHH-please stay safe, my love."
"Don't worry, James, I'll come back," the woman replied softly, clipping the radio back on her belt.
She walked up to the generator, inspecting the damage. The main circuit board was fried, the touch screen panel above blank. Several wires were severed and many of the protective panels were torn off and thrown across the room. The woman got to work. Using the mechanic's tools, she carefully removed the fried circuit board. Luckily, the mechanics had the spare circuit board with them. She installed the new one, placing the wires into their respective ports. Next, she inspected the severed wires a few feet away.
"How the hell am I gonna fix this?" she asked herself, eyeing the cut along the wire's severed end.
She removed the flashlight from the Sig, setting the gun on the floor next to her. Flicking it on, she shined the beam deep inside the generator. The interior looked mostly intact, which got her hopes up. Maybe she could spice some of the wires, reroute the power. As she moved her flashlight's beam to her right, she spotted something hiding amongst the machinery.
"What?" she whispered.
She saw looked like long spider legs sticking from behind a large support rod. The legs twitched, scraping across the floor as something shuffled into view. It was the severed head of person. The head was inverted with long, spindly legs coming from its sides. Two eye stalks were sticking out of the gaping hole in its neck. Both the human eyes and the eye stalks were staring right at her.
"Oh shit!" she exclaimed, grabbing her gun from the floor.
The head emitted a loud screech and charged toward her. She raised her gun and fired two rounds into the head, taking half of it off. The head slide to a stop, the legs twitching several times before going still. The woman kept the gun aimed at the head, her hands trembling. A roar echoed in the distance, showing the gunfire didn't go unnoticed.
"Come on, fuck off!" she snarled.
She stumbled around, not sure what to do. She rushed to the panel the circuit board. The screen was still blank, but a small light by the power switch was illuminated. She flicked the switch, the generator emitting a soft hum. The lights flickered for a few moments before shutting off, the generator going quiet.
"What? No! God damn it!" She shouted, slamming her fist against the panel.
James's voice came through the radio, but before she could answer, she heard the door upstairs get slammed off its hinges, and a figure came charging down the stairs. The woman whipped around and fired four rounds into its chest. The figure stumbled back, letting out an agonized groan. A tearing sound heard as its chest split open, several long tentacles tipped with jagged bone shooting from it. The woman fired three more rounds into the figure before one of the tentacles grazed her shoulder. The impact sent her to the floor, knocking the gun from her hand and the radio from her belt. She winced in pain, feeling warm blood flow down her arm.
Another tentacle came her way. She moved just in time, the jagged bone stabbing into the floor where her head was a moment before. She scurried to her gun, grabbing it and shooting the figure in the kneecap. It groaned in pain, falling back against the wall. The woman scrambled to her feet and ran towards another door just past the generator. She quickly opened the door as the figure recovered, hobbling towards her, its tentacles flailing widely. The woman slammed the door, turning the dead bolt to lock it. The figure slammed against the door, roaring as it tried to break it down. More roars were heard, meaning more had entered the room.
"Screw this, I need to get out of here," she said.
She looked around the room she was in. It was a storage room, the walls lined with shelves. They were stacked equipment, tools, and freeze-dried food. A few First Aid Kits were on one of the bottom shelves. She quickly grabbed one and opened it, grabbing some gauze. A loud bang came from the door. She turned and saw a large crack in the center of the door. She knew it wouldn't hold much longer.
She placed the gauze back in the med kit. She moved towards the door to fuel storage behind her. A large hole was punched through the storeroom door, a disfigured face shoving itself through. The woman fired her remaining eight rounds into its face, the slide on her Sig locking back. The creature fell backwards from the door. The woman ran into the fuel storage, slamming the door shut.
Once inside, she tossed the med kit aside and grabbed a nearby fuel barrel and pushed against the door. She stepped back panting. She looked door at her Sig, seeing she was out of ammo. She sighed, sending the pistol's slide forward and dry fired it, a click echoing in the room as the striker hit the empty chamber. Tucking it in her belt, she walked through the room. Several fuel barrels were stacked on the back wall. A water hose rolled up on a wall mounted reel sat above the barrels, an axe mounted next to it, and a fire extinguisher mounted next to the axe. A small window on her left revealed the blizzard still raging outside.
The fuel room door shook on its hinges, angry roar coming from the other side. There was no other way in or out of the room, as the window was too small for her to crawl through, she knew this would be her last stand. She thought for a moment, then made her decision. She dug into the left pocket, finding the lighter Gary gave her.
"I'll have to torch these bastards," she muttered while looking at the fuel barrels.
She steeled her nerves and grabbed the axe from its mount, heading to the barrel blocking the door. She swung the axe several times into its side, fuel leaking from the gouges in the metal. The creatures on the other side were roused by the sound and began attacking the door in earnest. The woman moved back to the other barrels, moving a few more towards the door. She struck them with the axe as well, spilling more fuel.
An arm forced itself through the door, the hand grasping widely for the knob. The woman swung the axe, burying it into the arm. A loud scream came from the other side of the door. Ripping the axe from the limb, she for a second swing. Before the blade could strike flesh again, the door exploded in a shower of wood splinters, the woman jumping back in surprise. When the dust cleared, a former security guard stared back at her. His head jerked from side to side before splitting in half, a tentacle emerging from the gaping hole in his neck.
The woman griped the axe tighter, slowly backing away. Another mutated monstrosity joined the first, this one being two people fused together, walking on all fours. Stomping footsteps in the distance indicated more were coming.
'This is it then,' the woman thought, accepting she was cornered.
She reached back into her pocket and pulled out the lighter. The split face roared at her, moving slowly forward as if to taunt her. A third former human joined them, this one's lower jaw split into two mandibles. They snarled at her, globs of drool falling from their mouth. The woman flicked the lighter on, the orange flame casting a soft glow on her face. The split face roared again, his fingers elongating, his fingernails growing into sharp claws.
"How about a little fire, scarecrow?" the woman said mockingly, tossing the lighter towards the split face.
It bounced off his chest, landing in the puddle of fuel, which immediately ignited. The mutant humans were consumed by fire, their agonized cries heard for only a moment. The fuel barrels that hadn't been punctured exploded from the heat, the woman's hearing consumed by loud ringing as her world disappeared in a wall of flames.
Aurthor's Note: Here's the prologue of my new story. I re-watched The Thing recently and decided to write a story about it. This was originally going to be an AU, set in the Jurassic World universe, but after watching the new Helluva Boss episode and reading some fan comics, I decided to do a crossover between the three. So, please enjoy! Constructive criticism welcome. PS, note this story and my other new one, You Can't Keep Me Here will update slowly until MHWA or Haunted is completed. (SF-Short Frame.)