Ice Rift (12 page)

“I wasn't being critical. It was the joy on your face when you scraped that thing up that surprised me.”

Lucy grinned. “You're a geologist, and I'm a microbiologist. I'm sure you would wear the same expression if you were collecting a strange alien rock sample.”

Theo returned the smile. “You're right, I would.”

Henry gazed around the small room unadorned with any furniture, an indication it was not somewhere the crew dwelled for any length of time.

“I found a door,” called out Max, who had wandered through the arched opening beside the alcove.

Henry and the others went to investigate.

The door, like the one the insects scratched at, was different, slightly narrower, but just as high, and lacked the four segments of the previous doors they had come across.

Max's hand hovered over the door control. “Do you think it's safe to open?”

Henry shrugged. “I guess we'll soon find out.”

The door slid open. Anxious faces peered into the revealed corridor.

Max stepped forward and shone his flashlight along the passage. “It seems clear,” he whispered.

“Then let's move,” ordered Henry, also in a low voice. “We need to find a way back to the corridor that leads to the engine room.” He stepped into the passage. The control that operated a door a short distance on the left and that should lead them back to the engine room corridor, though intact, failed to open the door. It reduced their choice of directions to one. Henry turned right.

Cautiously, with Theo giving support to limping Eli, the others followed.

Jack glanced at the inoperative door control. He had the feeling they were being herded in a specific direction. So as not to burden the already apprehensive team with an extra concern, he kept his suspicions to himself and hoped he was mistaken.

All had failed to notice the two sets of eyes peering at them from the ceiling vent as they passed beneath. After a few soft guttural grunts, one set of eyes disappeared. The vent hatch rose and a monstrous head stared after the strange intruders moving along the corridor. The lone creature's landing on the metal floor made hardly a sound.

THEY TURNED A CORNER in the corridor to find a door blocked their route. The intact control panel indicated it might open. If not, they were stuck with nowhere else to go.

Henry waited until all had caught up. “If this door opens and there's something nasty waiting for us on the other side, we run back!”

Richard casually moved to the rear of the group.

Nervous eyes and light beams focused on the door when it rasped open. Sighs of relief greeted the sight of another skeletal-themed corridor empty of any menacing presence. Henry led them through. Lights dotted along the ceiling materialized into existence, bathing them in blue light. They halted and fell to silence, the only sound their anxious breaths and the creaking hull.

Max voiced the question on their lips. “Who or what turned the lights on?”

Theo's gaze wandered over the ceiling, but failed to pick out what he searched for. “We probably tripped a sensor. It could be an indication this part of the ship's power is still operational.”

Lucy gazed nervously along the corridor. “They're not very bright, so perhaps it's emergency lighting.”

Though Henry thought it was possible a tripped sensor was responsible for the lights, he was concerned by this new development. “Whatever the reason, we have to keep moving because we can't go back.”

Jane switched off her flashlight. “At least we can conserve our batteries. Though weak, the blue lights are bright enough for us to see where we're going.”

“That's a good idea, Jane,” Henry agreed. With their exit blocked, who knew how long they'd be stuck inside. “Turn off your lights, but keep them handy in case it goes dark again.”

They continued along the corridor, moving farther and farther away from their point of entry. Though they passed two doors, they decided not to risk opening them. So far the corridors had been free of any menace and it might eventually link up with the one that led back to the engine room.

When they arrived at an intersection, they halted to ponder their two options. Before them a door led toward the front of the ship and to their left a short passage led to another door. After a brief discussion in an attempt to get their bearings, it was decided to try the door on the left first as it might connect to a corridor that would take them on a circular route back to the engine room and the exit off the ship. They headed for the door, opened it, and when they stepped through into another dark corridor, blue lights flashed on. Henry led them forward, but raised a hand to halt the group after only a few steps.

Jack moved beside him, noticed Henry's worried frown, and whispered, “What is it, Henry?”

Without diverting his eyes from the view ahead, Henry replied in a quiet voice, “Listen.”

Something clacked on the metal floor and grew steadily louder. Footsteps!

“Something's coming,” whispered Jack.

A large alien stepped into a stream of blue light and stared at them with striking sulphurous eyes with centers darker than night. It screeched.

The shrill sound penetrated their nerves, a cross between a persistent, piercing dentist's drill and the rasp of metal across a whetstone.

Richard shivered when the alien sound washed over him. He rushed back to the intersection and quickly considered his choices. One door led back along the passage the way they had come, but if the monster followed them they'd be forced to face the insects and space rats again. That wasn't an event he wished to repeat. The only other option was the door that led to the unknown. To hedge his bets, he decided to open both doors. If what lay ahead didn't look right, he would take the other route. He punched both door controls.

The others joined him as the doors slid open. All gagged from the thick organic stench of hot, putrid decay and rotting vegetation that seeped out of the opening to engulf them; the smell was so thick it seemed possible to grab a handful. Waist-high mist wafted out from the ever-widening gap, its leading edge wispy curls of exploring fingers. A mass of shivering red and purple plant tentacles choked the doorway. Sensing more space to fill, snake-like stalks flopped through the opening, startling those nearest.

The approaching clack of claws on metal invaded the silence.

Jane shot a glance behind. The monster hunched forward and charged at them, moving alternatively through patches of blue light and darkness. Wispy tongues of what seemed to be cobwebs, trailed from its body and limbs. A claw slashed the air and its teeth dripped with saliva in anticipation of a meal.

“Don't stop,” Jane called out. “For God's sake don't stop! That thing's right behind us.”

Theo glimpsed the lengthening shadow of something at the end of the corridor they'd previously journeyed through. When it stepped into view, he saw it was the same species as the Web monster behind them. They were being stalked and about to be attacked on two fronts. “We're being hunted,” he informed the others. He shouldered Richard aside, dragged Eli through the entrance and forced a path through the tangled growth of vines and bushes. The others quickly followed his trail.

To prevent the Web from following, Jack pressed the close door button. In what seemed agonizing slowness, the door began sliding shut. Jack turned away, but halted when it slid open again. He shot a glance at the vines protruding through the opening. They had prevented the door from closing. The click of claws on metal directed his attention through the doorway. The monster rushed at him. He slapped the door control button, grabbed the vines and pulled them back into the room. The door was almost shut, the monster only a few yards away. Strands of mist made a desperate rush to escape through the rapidly narrowing gap. Jack glimpsed a missed vine that jutted through the opening. He had failed. The monster was too close to remove it and close the door again.

The sliding door was only an inch away from the vine when it slid back into the corridor. The leading edge of the door disappeared into the frame's recess with a welcome thud of metal. Pounding on the door followed the muffled cry of the alien's frustrated shriek.

Jack freed his grip on the stiff vines and looked at Jane when she released her hold on the one she had pulled from the doorway. “That was close, thanks.”

With a worried frown, she asked, “Will the door stop it?”

Jack placed a comforting hand on her arm. “Unless it can operate the door it will.”

“Hurry up you two,” called out Lucy. “We need to catch up with the others before we lose them.”

They headed into the pungent undergrowth.

For the third time Richard almost stumbled into Theo and Eli. The injured man slowed them down and would get them all killed. Though he'd thought about suggesting to Theo they leave Eli, he knew the man wouldn't listen. To increase his chance of escape, he squeezed past the two men and took the lead.

Their feet, invisible in the ground-hugging stagnant mist, sunk and squelched in the hidden layer of decaying vegetation covering the ground. Brittle vines, branches and roots crunched under their feet like the cracking of ancient bones. The verdant mass of plants, creepers, bushes and branches seemed to reach out for them with twigs that had the manifestation of thin, gnarled fingers. They constantly batted, pushed and bent them aside as they progressed through the corridor.

Theo screamed when a large hand-like thing sprung out and grasped his face. He released his hold on Eli to claw the thing away.

Eli laughed. “It's only a branch Richard disturbed.”

Theo calmed his panic and held the sapling at arm's length. He let out a relieved breath. “I thought it was an alien face hugger.”

“That'll teach you to watch films of that caliber before entering an alien spacecraft,” said Henry.

“I wouldn't have if I'd known I'd be doing this today.”

Henry's eyes wandered around the thick vegetation. The ship had thrown another surprise in their path. “Keep moving. This place gives me the creeps.”

Theo grabbed hold of Eli to support him and noticed Richard was nowhere to be seen. The two of them headed along the faint trail the man had forced through the bushes.

Richard, a little way ahead of the group, paused and peered into the vegetation blocking his view. He thought he'd heard something. He remained still and silent. A strange moan―low, mournful and full of menace― came from somewhere ahead and close by. Fear grabbed Richard in its clutches. The blue overhead illumination, which failed to penetrate more than a few feet through the gloom-laden foliage, was useless in highlighting the danger that lay ahead. If there was another of those alien monsters stalking them or some other nightmarish creature, it would be better if the others found it. The sound of their scrambled dash through the undergrowth behind him drew closer. When he turned to look back, his eyes swept past a dark shape in the corridor wall. The leafy branch he pulled aside revealed the straight edge of an open entrance. His anxious grin at finding an escape route twisted into a mask of malignancy at the opportunity that presented itself. It was his chance to dispose of a few of his rivals, and in the process distract the monster's attention away from him while he made his escape. He slipped through the dark hole without warning the others of the danger they were about to run into.

The Web creature, frustrated its prey had escaped, remained outside the door and glanced at another of its kind as it joined it at the entrance. Their trap had failed. Its evil eyes wandered to the button its kind had long ago learnt would open the barrier between it and its prey, but it was hesitant to open it. Others not of their kind dwelt within the forest on the other side, and like them, those inside were also territorial and would fight to protect their domain and everything within. The two creatures grunted at each other. Hunger outweighed caution. One of them stretched out a clawed hand toward the door button.

“I'll be glad to be free of this verdant hell,” said Jane, freeing another twig that had snagged her hair.

Muffled by the thick vegetation choking the distance between them and the others, the yell of alarm that froze them was quickly followed by a panicked voice. A second scream, packed full of pain and horror, sent a shiver of dread through them.

“That was Eli,” said Lucy, shakily.

Frightened by what lay ahead, Jane grabbed Jack's arm for comfort and listened to the heavy rustle of bushes disturbed by their friends' panicked dash away from the thing they'd encountered.

“There must be another of those monsters up ahead,” said Jack.

The sounds settled into silence.

A monster shrieked and then silence, again.

“It sounds different from the one in the corridor,” said Lucy.

Jane peered into the undergrowth, her ears straining for sounds of anything moving toward them. “It might be a different species, but it sounds just as dangerous.”

Jack turned to the two scared women. “It's not safe to go forward,” he whispered.

“It's not safe to go back,” Jane replied, anxiously.

As if to emphasize her words, they heard the metallic rasp of the door opening behind them and the sounds of something moving through the bushes toward them.

They were trapped!

Jack wondered if the Web monsters were working together, because it certainly seemed that way.

Lucy pointed to something on their right. “Is that a doorway?”

Jack peeled back the foliage and gazed upon the dark shape Lucy had spotted in the wall. It was an opening and their only chance of survival. “Stay as quiet as you can and follow me.”

Richard was alone and frightened, frightened about every single thing around him. The undergrowth seemed alive and rustled as its never-ending mass of tendrils threatened to close in on him. His fear caused him to be uncertain if the loud pulsing thump was of his own heartbeat or blood pumping through the sinewy vines all around him. He placed his hands over his ears to block out the awful sounds of things unknown that he believed were hunting him. Whether imagined or real, he was no longer sure.

I should have stayed in England. I should never have come here.

He backed against the trunk of a black, gnarled tree and sunk to the ground a shaking mass of terror. The stench emanating from the dank ground was a mildewed, moist shroud that clogged his nostrils and threatened to suck the oxygen from his lungs. Worried he might hyperventilate, he forced himself to remain calm.
It's just my imagination. Nothing is out there. The creepers are just organic lifeless plants, nothing more.
He took a few deep breaths until he had regained control, however tenuous, over his frayed senses.

He removed his hands from his ears. The slight rustle of undergrowth was, he told himself, caused by a draft blowing through the ship, nothing sinister. He forced his body upright and peered through the countless layers of vegetation lit by the inadequate headlamp he had switched on during his rush away from the monster. He'd heard Eli scream and assumed he'd been killed. It had nearly been him. He needed to find an exit, but his panicked rush through the jungle-choked room had caused him to lose his bearings. Incapable of telling which way he had come or should now go, his dread-filled eyes gazed nervously around in search of a clue to point him on the correct course. They only saw thick depths of never ending undergrowth full of gloom that radiated despondency.