The cold arctic winds howled as they passed through the dull metal buildings of the research station. It was cold, real cold. Or so the thermometer read. But as I stood out by the doorway of the cafeteria, looking up at the stars, I barely felt it. Maybe it was the five layers of clothing I was wearing, or maybe it was the flask of whiskey I had just finished off. Nobody else in the station liked to come outside at night but me. They either complained it was too cold or too weird for them. But even with the loud wind, I still found it peaceful. And despite the strong gusts kicking up snow, there was no storm. The sky was clear and dotted with white specks and ribbons of blue, green, and purple. The aurora borealis had to be one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen in my life, and one of the few things I enjoyed about being down here. Outpost 7 is what they called it. Nobody knew where the other 6 were except for one, way close to the shoreline. Outpost 7 was about dead center in the continent, about as far away from society as you could get. It sat in a large icy field and was surrounded by mountains. Their jagged and uneven peaks looked like they were coming at you like a giant wave, ready to crush you any second. Only, not all of them were crooked and uneven. To the west sat, what we called, “Mount Pyramid.” That’s because it was a perfectly even and symmetrical pyramid. And at night, a star reached its summit and shined its light down on it. Something was quite off about the star too, like it was closer to earth than it should have been. The door flung open behind me, ripping me out of my thoughts. Two men around my age stepped out.
“You know what I miss most while being stuck in this damned place? Not women or football or fast food, but cigarettes. Too cold to smoke em out here, and not allowed inside. Of course, I would still smoke it anyway if they actually came in our care packages,” The one in front hissed. The other man ignored him but eyed me. When he saw my flask in my hand, he stared me down with a gaze icier than the wind.
“I thought you promised us you wouldn’t fucking drink tonight. You know we need everyone sober for this, we have no clue what we’re walking into.”
His name was Ian and he was an irritable and impatient man. But of course, almost everyone was. And I couldn’t blame them. The whiskey was the only thing keeping me from being it.
“If you’re gonna force me into that damn cold over to break our pretty much only rule, I’m not gonna be sober for it,” I hissed back at him. Four other men followed up behind them, including one who was younger than all the rest of us. He had told us he was 25, but no one else believed it. And with his youth came a lack of bitterness. He had only been here a few weeks.
“Come on, you two, no need for an argument here. That’s the last thing we need right now,” he forced a weak smile. Ian shot him a snarky glare and looked back to the rest of the guys. They were all armed to the teeth, with M4A1s, Remington M870s, and MP7s. I eyed mine leaning against the side of the building and picked it up.
“You certain you haven’t seen anyone else awake?” Ian questioned me.
“Mhm, Derrick fell asleep an hour ago. Unless y’all woke up someone up getting ready, we’re in the clear.”
Ian nodded and stormed past him, trudging through the thick white snow towards the garage. Silently, we all followed him. But with my limp in my right leg, I trailed at the back of the group. The young man lagged behind to talk to me.
“Thanks for helping us out with this. We deserve answers, and you’ll be one of the few who gets them.”
“I appreciate your kindness Gill, but you know damn well I don’t wanna be here. We have no clue what we’re walking into. And if the higher-ups found out about this, which they probably somehow will… who knows what they’re gonna do to us.”
“Can’t be worse than being stuck here!” A tall skinny man a few feet in front of us chuckled. I rolled my eyes. The garage was fairly close to the cafeteria, filled with Snow Cats and Snowmobiles. Since there were only 8 of us going, we could all fit into one of the Cats. There were ten of them at the base, and they were split 50/50 with their purpose. Half of them were for carrying people, and the other half for materials. Technically we weren’t supposed to leave the keys in the garage, but everyone did anyway. It’s not like anyone expected any of us to try and escape, not after Kevin and Jason.
Two younger guys who tried to run off on a snowmobile, fed up with life in Outpost 7. And I let them go too, did nothing to stop them. We found their corpses a week later a hundred miles away, with polar bears eating at them. The higher-ups never came down to visit, so we never reported anything. Well, so far. Since I was the only guard that viewed the garage when it was my shift, he had the perfect leverage over me now.
“Are you sure nobody will hear us?” One of the men asked me as we all climbed into the Snow Cat closest to the exit.
“I’ve tested it every shift for the past week, nobody will over the wind,” I replied. Once we were all boarded up, Ian started it and we were off. I took one last look at the outpost as we drove away, watching the flag with the giant black bird insignia flap violently. Soon the only thing I could see was the spinning wind turbines as they faded out of view. I wondered if it was the last time I would ever see them. The engines were loud, but somehow Gill still managed to be louder.
“So what do you guys think’s gonna be in the temple huh? I think it’s either an ancient city or an abandoned Nazi research base. If it’s a city, I bet aliens built it. But I can’t tell what would be more fascinating. You know I did a lot of research before about the secret nazi experiments. Apparently, they literally used to almost make UFO-type flying saucers. They also allegedly had a moon base, a teleporter called Die Glock, a tornado gun. Whatever it is, I’m gonna make sure I remember,” he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small notebook.
“Are you fucking writing all of this down? The one thing we’ll actually get in trouble for?” The tall man snapped at him. Gill’s giddy expression faded quickly.
“Uhh no-no I was just writing down my theories in it…” he stuttered. The tall man shot up quickly and tried to reach for the journal, but I stopped him first by grabbing his arm.
“Let it go, Brandon, he knows how dangerous this is just like the rest of us, no one he would snitch on himself.”
Brandon yanked his arm back and stepped towards me. His eyes fell on my M4 that I was gripping hard. His shotgun was all the way back in his seat. If he reached for it, he was a dead man and he knew it.
“They said you were the best shot here, but have you ever actually pulled that trigger on another actual man before?” He stared down at me. I gritted my teeth and squeezed my fist, but held my tongue. Gill nervously put the notebook back into his pocket, and Brandon sat back down.
“Sorry Anderson, everyone’s just a little strung up right now,’ Noah, the man on my right said. The rest of the ride was quiet, and not just because of Brandon and I’s confrontation. The closer we got to the pyramid, the more dread I began to feel. And it wasn’t just me. I could see it in anyone’s faces. For the past weeks, Ian’s group of renegades bragged about how none of them were scared, and now they wore the faces of a stray mutt with its tail between its legs. The odd thing was, however, was the wind. The closer we got to the pyramid, the less intense it grew. And by the time we arrived, it was gone. I opened the back door of the Snow Cat to a dead silent night. I looked back towards the outpost and couldn’t even see it anymore, but my attention was quickly pulled away by Gill’s anxious voice.
“Oh… My… God…”
I looked back to finally see the pyramid up close, and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. In front of us stood two massive doors. Doors made out of an oily black stone. They had to go at least a hundred feet up, but that wasn’t even the strangest part. On the front of the doors were constellations of stars, that had been carved in. It was almost like I was looking at a map.
“Is that a map?” I heard Noah say aloud, almost as if he was reading my mind.
“Well I guess the suits really weren’t bullshitting us, there really is something here,” Ian said as he hopped out of the driver’s seat.
“We always knew that the radio waves we’ve been tasked with monitoring were never normal,” Noah replied to him.
“Let’s just find out what’s inside,” Brandon scoffed and walked up to join Ian at the front. They shot each other a quick look of agreement before approaching the door. The rest of us slowly followed; our guns up and at the ready. And for the first time since I had first been deployed in Iraq, mine was shaking. Brandon was the first to reach the old circular handle of the doorway.
“Shall I knock first?” He grinned at Ian.
“I really don’t think this is a good idea,” I protested, wanting more than ever to hop back in the Snow Cat and return to drinking my flask. Normally alcohol calmed my nerves, but it seemed like just standing here had sobered me up.
“Really? Where was that intuition with your old squad?” Brandon shot back and grabbed the handle. As soon as he did, he let out an ear-piercing scream. Gill, Noah, and another man named Jalen rushed forward to help him, but he just started laughing.
“Y’all are such pussies, now come on this thing is heavy as shit, help me.”
They set down their guns and helped him on the handle. Slowly the door began to move open. It made no sound, and I was blinded by a strong white light as it opened. When the light faded, I could see the other side. Stretched out in front of me was a great expanse of jungle and a clear blue sky filled with birds. Their songs and harmonies filled my ears, even if it was muffled.
This has got to be a dream…
But I knew it wasn’t. There was a chorus of cussing and shocked responses from everyone in the group.
“Looks like you were wrong about the Nazi experiments unless they were trying to make a paradise,” Brandon eyed Gill before stepping in. Everyone else, including Ian, hesitated. Branon’s eyes darted around as he begin to unzip his jacket.
“This is amazing!”
The rest of us begin to step into the jungle, but with our guns up. And as I finally stepped in last, I knew what he meant. As soon as I crossed the door threshold, I was filled with warmth. On the inside and outside too. Butterflies dances around, with one landing on Gill’s hand.
“This… this is impossible… this kind of biome in an arctic climate, this has to be fake or an illusion of some sort…” Noah stuttered as his eyes frantically darted around.
“Really? Doesn’t feel like one,” I said and bent down to touch a white flower. The instant my fingers made contact with it, I felt a jolt of energy shoot through me like I had almost been electrocuted. I took a step back but felt no pain in my leg. I lifted it up and back down, and even bent down to touch it. My back didn’t bother me either. I turned towards Noah, who was examining an orange tree.
“Hey, you’re always complaining about the arthritis in your hands right?”
“I don’t see how that has any bearing on this matter….”
“Come touch this flower,” I said and nodded towards it. He sighed and walked over, bent down, and touched. His eyes widened as he stepped back, quickening closing and opening his fists.
“My fingers… they don’t bother me either. I feel amazing; like I’m a kid again.
What is this place? I thought as I looked around. We spent about another hour, just wandering around the jungle. At one point Brandon wanted to try some of the fruit, but Ian talked him out of it. I couldn’t decide whether the oddest thing was the jungle itself or the fact that I could see an entire blue sky despite the fact that it was night and we were inside a mountain. I saw many birds and butterflies, but nothing else. I expected mosquitos and snakes and all sorts of what usually came with this kind of environment, but saw none. My thoughts ran through all the crazy theories Gill had come up with about this place, knowing one of them had to be right now. The longer we stayed, however, the more uncomfortable I begin to feel. Not just because we were breaking the rules, but like some other force wanted us to leave, something far more powerful. And I could see it on the other men’s faces too. It was enough to disturb Ian, who promptly kept checking his watch.
“We’ve been here long enough, we can’t risk staying any longer,” he ordered. There was a flurry of disagreements from most people, but it didn’t feel like they were sincere. I knew they just didn’t want to go back in the cold. We didn’t go that deep into the jungle so it didn’t take that long to get back. And on the way out, Noah stopped by the flower.
“We should take this.”
For a moment I was about to disagree with him, but then I begin to think of all the possibilities it could bring. If it healed my leg and my back, who’s to say it couldn’t heal more? And if this is what Black Eagle was hiding from us, maybe it would be better off for the world if it got out.
“Go ahead,” the words left my mouth. He bent down and grabbed the stem before tearing it off and lifting it up.
“Hey, what the hell do you think you’re doing? We aren’t taking souvenirs,” Ian said to him.
“Touch this,” Noah just held out the flower to him. Reluctantly, Ian reached out and gently brushed his fingers on the white petals. His eyes widened.
“Holy shit…”
“Yeah, this is important. Whatever is in this flower has the ability to heal people. We need to take it back and study it, we could save a lot of people with this,” Noah rambled to him.
“Fine, but only that.”
We all put back on our thick clothes before once against stepping out into the bitter cold. But the feeling of dread only increased as Noah brought the flower out and we shut the great grey doors behind us. On the ride back, everyone took turns touching the flower, and everyone was healed of whatever ailments they had. Grant even ditched his glasses, and I noticed my hearing was now the clearest it had been since I had gone to Iraq. When we got to the base, nobody had noticed we had even left. Noah decided to hide the flower under his bunk, and we all went to bed.
That night, I thought back to the hot deserts of Iraq. The deserts my squad and I patrolled for years, dealing with an impossible insurgency that would skin innocent civilians and leave them hanging over the streets. I never thought I would miss that heat. It all changed when I met some kid who’s parents had been allegedly killed. We had squeezed down on the insurgent’s leader Zaahid, and the kid told us he was hiding out in a mosque. It was a trap, and my entire squad, but me, was killed in the explosion. When it was over I saw the kid smiling at me, and unloaded an entire magazine into him. After that, I was offered a choice, the death penalty or this secret outpost by a few shadowy government men. A way to continue to serve my country like I had been doing. Nobody believed me when I said the kid led us into a trap, they all thought I was a killer…
“Cole!” The voice jolted me awake. I was laying in a cold sweat, and Gill was standing over me.
“I told you you not call me that,” I mumbled as I leaned up in bed and ran my fingers down my right leg. The scars that had once covered it completely had vanished too. I’ve always had that nightmare before, but never that vivid. The pain, the emotions, they felt way too real.
“You were shaking and yelling in your sleep, I couldn’t get you to wake up.”
I looked around to see that the bunks were mostly open, and daylight was shining through the windows. The clock on my bunk read 7:02 in big bright red numbers.
“Where is everyone?”
“Ian just called an emergency meeting, something pretty bad happened last night.”
I jumped out of bed and begin to dress quickly, knowing Ian would damn well punish me if I was late.
“Is it about the flower? Were we caught?”
“Uhhh… It’s about Noah…” Gill’s normally cheerful voice fell flat. Within seconds we had left the bunk and were heading our way to the cafeteria, where all meetings happened.
“They found him last night, by the entrance to the station, the same one we all left through last night. He was dead, a pistol in his hand and a bullet hole in his head.”
“Jesus…”
“But that’s not the most disturbing part. Next to him, written in blood on the walls were the words Return the light… Pretty damn ominous.”
“If he shot himself in the head how did he have time to write that out in blood?”
As we got closer to the cafeteria, we were met with an uproar of voices and people shouting. When Gill and I arrived I made my way over to the breakfast bar, which as usual only had eggs, bacon, sausage, and a coffee machine. Most people complained about having such a limited menu of food, but I didn’t really mind it, I was used to it. After filling my plate, I moved to the coffee machine and made myself a cup of it, with no sugar or creamer. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my flash to mix it, but stopped right before pouring it in. For the first time since before my deployment, I had no urge to drink.
“Quiettttt…..” Ian’s voice rumbled through the room. He was standing at the front with Brandon at his side. A hush fell over the room. I took my seat next to Gill at the back, noticing he was smoking a cigarette.
“Now, we all know what happened to Noah. Most of you think we have a killer amidst us, but I’m here to tell you the truth. The truth is I don’t know who killed Noah, but it doesn’t matter. Because we’ll all be leaving this God-forsaken place soon.”
The room erupted again and he waited a few seconds for it to calm down. And then he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the flower. My eyes widened.
What is he doing?
“Me and seven other men took a trip to the pyramid mountain last night and found out what the suits have been keeping from us. We found a jungle in there, an actual living breathing ecosystem. And there, we found this flower. I want all of you to come touch it now, see it what does.”
There were murmurs of confusion among the crowd.
“That’s an order!” Ian yelled. The first few group of guys when up, and everyone had the same reaction when they touched it, one of amazement. Once everyone had gone, Ian begin to talk again.
“So now you see, the power this thing holds. It can heal any ailment, any injury, any disease, sickness… you get the point. Richard, our lead doctor, is gonna take a week to examine the flower. If he finds no diseases or poisons or whatever on it, we’re going to take it to the Canadian research station at the coast, it’s about 500 miles but we have enough food and water to make that trip, and they won’t be hostile to us at all. When we get off of this frozen wasteland and back to the mainland, we’ll show the world what Black Eagle has been hiding.”
“Won’t they just kill us all? I mean surely they have enough reach to get to Canada?” Someone in the crowd shouted.
“They do, but fuck them! That’s why we’ll act fast. They never come here themselves and only radio in once a day anyway. There’s a lot of us here, 27 still. And hurting any foreigners, especially innocent scientists, will be hard to cover up. I have faith in all of us.”
The cafeteria roared in agreement, but I was infuriated that he had just blown past Noah’s death.
“He’s being an idiot, that flower is dangerous, and it poses a risk to us all. We never should have taken it from the pyramid,” I mumbled to Gill.
“Are you gonna talk to him?”
“You know how he feels about me, you should.”
“I’ll try.”
That night, we held the funeral for Noah. Because the ground was too frozen to bury, we decided to burn his body with a pyre. There had only been one other death since I had gotten here, and the last time we reported it and they actually came down and got the body. But since we were moving in secret against the organization we pledged ourselves to, we kept this death a secret. His funeral however brough everyone else’s interest into his suspicious death back. Ian replied by doubling down the night patrols and having a guard stay awake in the bunks the whole night. Rumors also begin to grow that it was of a supernatural cause. And up until now, I wouldn’t have given them a second thought, but after that jungle, I wasn’t sure what I believed now. And things begin to only grow more frightening when I was on guard duty. The star that had normally shined down onto the mountain, had now seemed to move in the night sky and positioned itself above us, where it illuminated the station in its ghostly white glow. And it seemed the pyramid had begun to move closer to us.
We had a garden in the largest building, one made with artificial lighting. It contained a small fountain, a few bushes, and three small crape myrtles with their own purple flowers. It took a lot of lighting, but it helped keep you from going insane by only seeing white, grey, and blue, all around you. But, this garden began to wither and die the next day. Richard and Ian blamed it on the lighting not being intense enough, but the timing was too much of a coincidence for my test. He hadn’t listened to Gills’s pleads, however, and Richard had begun to study the plant.
That night on guard duty, the wind was extra intense. But during the howling of it, I begin to hear something off. It sounded like it was calling my name. And as the night went on, it begin to sound less like wind and more like voices, the voices of the people who had been in my squad.
“Coooollllleeeee…..” They called with the wind, but I ignored them.
It was enough to freak me out to move inside. And I started to drink to mask my fears, but I had no urge for it still. And the next day, I begin to know I wasn’t alone. The other men in the station had begun to talk about their own vivid nightmares, and the own voices they heard calling to them from the night. The station’s electronics begin to have issues, and the power would flicker too. But thankfully, it never went out. The next night, the wind was even stronger and the mountain even closer. I heard the voices again, this time even more clear. And now I was certain that someone had to be screwing with me. I made sure the safety was off on my rifle and begin to circle the entire outpost, but only stumbled upon Derrick and Min-ho, who were back by the giant white wind turbines that powered the station. And with how strong the wind was now, they were spinning so violently they looked like they would come flying off at any moment. Derrick and Min were both huddled up close and talking about something quietly, and when I came running around the building they almost jumped.
“Jesus, Anderson, you scared the hell out of us. Shouldn’t you be over by the cafeteria and garage?”
“I was, but I kept hearing people calling my name. If one of y’all or the other guys is fucking with me that’s not cool.”
Min looked down and hesitated a moment before speaking.
“We’ve been hearing it too, that’s why we huddled up closer. But don’t think it’s coming from other people in the station, but rather somewhere out there in the darkness…” he looked off into the dark white desert full of snow. I watched as the wind picked up the snow, swirling it up into the sky and changing it into almost giant humanoid shapes that loomed over us. I shuttered and spent the rest of my guard shift with the two other guys. And when I swapped out with Allan and returned to the bunks, every other man was violently shaking with nightmares. The next day, more and more people begin to turn against Ian and wanted the flower to be returned, but no one dared stand up against him. I don’t think anyone would have the guts to return to the pyramid either. Our radio had gone completely out now, and we were alone here. That also meant no way to contact the Canadians to forewarn them of our coming, and that Black Eagle would have lost contact with one of their outposts.
This had never happened before, but everyone figured they would probably be booking it to get here considering what we were guarding. But luckily for us we were so far away from civilization we would probably have a good bit of time. Despite how technologically advanced the organization was, they hadn’t invented teleporters yet. Ian tried to cheer us up by telling everyone that Richard hadn’t found any sort of bacteria, fungi, or viruses on the plant, but it didn’t cheer any of us up. And there were even more rumors that Richard had discovered very odd stuff in the plant, that it wasn’t made up of cells even. During the day, a group of polar bears surrounded the outpost and began to circle it. The white fur around their faces had become painted with crimson blood as if they had been killing and eating all morning. But, we saw nothing dead. And polar bears didn’t even inhabit the south pole. After lunchtime, Ian ordered us to go out and shoot them all. But with every shot we took, we missed, and the circle they were making got closer and closer. We barricaded ourselves in with all our guns, ready for a fight. But as soon as the first one reached the station, they all ran off. And nothing was left but a spiral in the snow around the outpost from where they had walked. Then later that day, the outpost was attacked by a swarm of damn mosquitoes, with enough strength to puncture our jackets. So we, all had to cover inside until sundown.
That upcoming night was the worst one yet. Once again the voices were louder, the star brighter, and the mountain closer. The voices weren’t just calling my name now, but rather saying an entire sentence.
“Yyyoouuu haveeee touchedddd theeee lightttt of creationnnn, anddd nowww you musttttt payyyy…” the wind hissed. And then, I saw it. Approaching the outpost from the direction of the mountain, was a line of large penguins. Their eyes gleamed too brightly, and the formation they moved in was too tightly.
No way those are real penguins man, I thought as they approached. I thought about opening fire, but as soon as I raised my rifle, they begin to change. Their black fur and beaks begin to fall off, and their wings and legs elongated. Soon they were no longer penguins, but rather corpses, charred corpses. And awkwardly they made their way to me. Panicking, I raised my rifle and let out a stream of bullets. It didn’t take long for the door to open behind me and Brandon of all people to come barging out.
“What in God’s name are you doing? Are you so drunk you just start shooting at the stars now, wasting our ammo?” He barked. The corpses had gone, and the night was empty again.
“I… I… uh don’t know,” I mumbled, defeated.
“Get inside, I’ll go get Allan to start his shift early. You aren’t fit to guard tonight. And in my and most people’s here opinion, you aren’t fit to guard at all.”
His words barely bothered me, and I ignored him as I stormed past him and to the bunks. All I could think about now was trying to stop whatever was happening to all of us. A few hours. into my sleep, I woke up violently. I hadn’t been having a nightmare yet, and the room was oddly quiet. Everyone else was asleep, well almost everyone. In the bunk across me, which was Richard’s, a dark figure was sitting up on the edge of his bed. But the figure was far too small to be a grown man. I stood up straighter to try to make out who it was in the darkness.
“Can’t sleep?” I weakly called out, trying to make conversation. The dark figure crooked its head ever so slightly, and I finally recognized it.
Oh no
It was the kid, his body still bloody and riddled with bullet holes, and that soft smile on his face. I jumped back as the kid fell onto the floor and begin to crawl towards my bed.
“Go away!” I reached over to my nightstand and threw a water bottle at him, causing him to vanish. My yell had been loud enough to wake up Gill.
“What’s going on?” He asked, concerned.
“We need to get rid of the flower, right now,” I talked fast, jumping out of bed and putting on my gear.
“What? Right now? You know what Ian would do…”
“Screw him, he’s going to get us all killed, or worse.”
He looked around frantically, but I knew he agreed with me. I finished zipping up my thickest jacket and picked up my M4, which I had started keeping at my bed. Gill reluctantly begin to get ready too, but he didn’t have a weapon. So he just took a pistol that was on Derrick’s nightstand, and we made our way out of the bunks. Surprisingly, we managed to avoid waking anyone up. I noticed Richard had been missing from his and wondered if he was up in the lab studying the flower. And once we reached it, my suspicions were confirmed. He was bent over the white counter, looking down into the microscope. And underneath it was the white flower.
“Hey, back away from that!” I yelled as Gill and I approached him. He slowly moved his face up and looked back to us.
“Oh God…” Gill let out. His face was covered in red and bleeding cuts, and his eyes were completely gone. It was like he had scratched them out himself.
“It was so beautiful… the light…” he smiled at us. I had seen worse, but Gill looked like he was going to throw up. So I stepped forward, shoved him aside, and yanked the flower out from the microscope.
“No!” Richard jumped towards me. I raised my rifle to threaten him but it didn’t phase him, and he begin to scratch at my arm. I shoved him off of me with the side of the gun, and he bent down to reach for a pair of scissors.
“Don’t!” Gill and I both aimed our guns at him, but he lunged at me anyway. I squeezed the trigger, and a shot rang out as Richard fell to the floor. Blood was squirting out of his leg, but he didn’t scream out in agony. In fact, he had managed to hold on to the scissors and was now trying to crawl to me.
“Let’s go!” I yelled to Gill as I backed away and sprinted out of the lab.
“Everybody will have heard that!” He yelled to me, but I could barely hear him over the ringing in my ears. The lab was on the second floor above the dead garden, which was on the other side of the outpost from the garage. So once we got down to the dead garden, we decided going outside and around in the night would be the safest option. I spent the whole run wondering how Richard was still able to see where I was without eyes. But as soon as the garage came into sight, the bright floodlights outside came on.
“Don’t move!” I heard someone yell, and stopped dead in my tracks. Men were piling out of the cafeteria and garage, and all of them were armed. They circled Gill and I entirely, and we dropped our guns and I dropped the flower, as we put our hands up. Ian and Brandon stepped out from the circled and approached us.
“Looks like I was always right about you, once a killer, always a killer. But you Gill, I’m disappointed you fell into this one’s deceit. I thought higher of you than that, even if you were annoying.”
“I didn’t kill anyone, Richard attacked me first, and I only shot him the leg…” I tried explaining myself but was quickly cut off when Ian stepped up and punched me hard in the gut, causing me to double over. He bent down and picked the flower up, with a look of addiction and obsession in his eyes.
“Have you seen him by the way? What he did to himself? You need to let us take this back Ian, can’t you see what it’s caused?” I continued to try to reason with him.
“It’s worth it to me.”
He turned around to Brandon.
“Tie them up and leave them here, we’re leaving now. Get the snowcats ready.”
Brandon smiled as he pulled a rope out of his jacket, turned me around, and began tying my wrists together.
“Brandon, you’re making a mistake. I know you’re a smart guy. If y’all go through with this, every one of y’all will die.”
“Shut. Up.”
He threw me down into the snow and started working on tying up Gill. He pleaded even more than I did, and was met with a kick to the ribs by Brandon in response. The rest of the men didn’t seem comfortable watching all of this unfold. And when Ian ordered them into the snowcats, they all hesitated. Derrick and a few others threw out some objections, and soon the group was split and hurling arguments at each other. Derrick stepped forward to us, and Brandon stepped in front of him, grabbing his jacket.
“If you disobey your commander, you’ll be left here to die with these two traitors,” Brandon hissed in his ears. Derrick tried to throw him aside, but Brandon pulled his pistol out and fired it into the air, putting a quick stop to the arguing. More of the men were on his side, and the few on ours were outnumbered. But amidst all the chaos, I noticed the night was beginning to grow brighter and brighter like a spotlight was illuminating everyone and growing in intensity. I looked up to see the pyramid’s star that had moved over us, seemingly dropping out of the sky and rapidly approaching us. As it got closer I saw that it was no star, but rather some bright object about the size of a helicopter or so. It was too bright to make out its shape, and I had to look away as it started to hurt my eyes. And then, it landed amongst the crowd. There was an uproar of shouting from everyone, and I briefly glimpsed at it. What I saw, I almost couldn’t comprehend. The bright ball was made up of folded wings and circling metallic rings. The wings were covered in thousands of eyes. And protruding from the front of the being was a large sword made of fire. As it landed, the surrounding snow melted. Rapidly people begin to open fire on the being, and it began to slice through them with the sword, cutting them in half. This distracted Brandon who tried to make a run over to Ian.
“Cut us free!” I yelled at Derrick. He pulled out a large knife and complied with my request. Once I was free I watched as Brandon, Ian, and the remaining men still alive fled into the cafeteria. I started to reach for the M4, but realized it would be a fruitless effort. As every bullet fired by the other men seemed to have no effect on that monstrosity.
“The snowmobiles, let’s get the hell out of here!” Gill yelled once Derrick cut him free. We sprinted over to the garage, knowing for sure the being of light would strike us down. I ran with the rifle anyway, but it seemed to pretty much ignore us as it slowly floated over to the cafeteria. It brought down the flaming sword fast on the building, causing the whole facility to erupt in flames. The snowmobiles were at the front of the garage with the keys already in them, so we were off and on our way in just a couple of seconds. As I drove through the night, with the sun beginning to peak over the mountains and the sky lightening, I heard the screams of those who had stayed behind. And once we reached a nearby hill, I turned the snowmobile and squeezed the breaks. Derrick and Gill both stopped also.
“What are you doing man? We need to get out of here! Did you not see that damn monster come out of the sky and kill everyone?” Gill whined from behind. But I looked back to the outpost and ignored him. Some part of me had to know what was happening, at least for a few seconds. The outpost was ablaze still, but the creature was gone, and the screaming had stopped.
“That thing is gone, but it still might not be safe,” Gill pleaded again. But Derrick had a different view.
“If it’s gone, there could still be survivors. We need to go back and look for them.”
The two began to argue, but I just watched in awe. The star that had come down to us was no longer in the night sky. I expected the pyramid to somehow disappear too, as if whatever supernatural force had come to insight its wrath on us would take it with us when it disappeared, but it had only just moved back to its original spot. Fear ran through every inch of my body as I watched the flames dance in the sky, but I knew what the right thing was to do.
“Derrick is right, we need to go check for survivors.”
As we returned to the remains of the building, all I could see was the burned-down mosque back in Iraq. The heat from the flames was almost unbearable, the cafeteria where everyone had been was split clear in half by the sword. We had covered our mouths with our jackets to prevent smoke inhalation, but it was hard to search the buildings irregardless. We found no survivors and no trace of the flower. But its effects still lingered, as my leg still was healed. And I needed it healed because now we were about to face a whole new set of obstacles. We were stuck out in the middle of Antarctica, with no food and water, polar bears and supernatural forces, and nobody else for hundreds of miles. But one burning question lingered in my head.
Why didn’t that thing kill us too?