In the mid 2010s, it’s hard to recall the exact year to be quite honest, I was a Zoologist working as both a consultant and field specialist for the UN. It was a great job for someone like me, who enjoys writing detailed papers, conservationalist efforts, and working up close and personal with wildlife. My specialized field of study is Herpetology, for those who don’t know what that means, it’s the study of Amphibians and Reptiles. Herpetologists are some of the most important when it comes to consultations concerning ecology and environmental impacts that climate shifts and human projects, as Amphibians and Reptiles are typically the first to show signs of the environmental impact, adapting in various ways to suit their new environment.. or dying off rapidly.
Now as most people in the world will know, reptiles are typically found in warmer climates. Arid, tropical, or temperate climates typically suit them best. Amphibians favor more humid and warm climates, so while you might not find many Amphibians in a desert, where you could find snakes and lizards, overall you’ll find a considerable overlap in the environments lizards and amphibians thrive in.
The reason I’m telling you all these otherwise innocuous details about Herpetology is because of the strange field mission I was sent on.. to Antarctica. As I’m sure you can tell, Antarctica is far and away from the ideal environments perform ecological studies for a Herpetologist, and there are no known species of reptile or amphibian living on that ice rock. So why was I being sent?
Seeking answers to this nagging question, I approached the Head of Biology working for the UN, Bill. He was an older gentleman, short white hair, with a hairline beginning to look like the letter M. His facial features were hard and wrinkled from stress and age, but somehow didn’t detract from the kind and fatherly demeanor he had. He wore something between business casual and beach dad, his exact outfit escapes me. As far as I can recall the conversation went something like this: “Excuse me, sir? I had a couple of questions.. abou-“ “Yes? About your most recent assignment to Antarctica?” Of course he already knew my assignment. He was the head of the department, he would have had to have known about the orders, and okayed them. “Yes, sir. I’m just a little bit confused. Why would a-“ He cut me off again. “‘Why would a Herpetologist be sent for a field study in a place like Antarctica.’ Blah, blah blah. Yes, son, I know the questions you’ve got for me, and I knew you wouldn’t go along with it quietly.” His nonchalance annoyed me, and his refusal to let me finish my own sentences boiled my blood. But he wasn’t wrong, he did know the exact question I had for him. “Come with me, son. The answers to all of your current questions are down in the Admin sublevels.”
“The Admin sublevels? Is it okay for me to go down there?” “Well, yes. I’ve already filled out the necessary paperwork for you to be able to accompany me down there, and I even have your temp badge with me.” He handed me a badge encased in vacuum-sealed plastic, with a loop at the top to facilitate the metal clip-on tag. I clipped the badge to my shirt pocket and he clapped me on the shoulder. “There my boy. Now. Follow me.” He lead me to an elevator that was down a long hallway. I remember thinking to myself ‘What could be so important that they would both need to keep it hidden in the Admin sublevels, and also allow a field specialist access to the sublevels in order to see it?’ I mused that there wasn’t any point in pondering it, and chastised myself for worrying about a topic I was mere minutes from having answers to.
The elevator hummed as it made its way down from the 3rd floor, where we began our descent, past the second, first, and basement floors, and into the sublevels. There was no music played, and very little in the way of talk between myself and Bill. Could he tell I was nervous, and picking up on it, staying quiet for my benefit? Or was he just as nervous as I was? The older man’s hardened features were somewhat unreadable to me as our descent into darkness continued unabated, and the silence unbroken. The elevator finally Dinged as we halted, a barely audible sigh of relief escaped my lips. The elevator’s analog sign displayed “Sublevel 12”.
“What’s on this level, sir?” “You’ll find out in just a moment.” “No, I didn’t mean whatever it is you brought me down to see, I meant.. what is this sublevel for?” Bill eyed me for a moment, before shrugging. “Well, you’re gonna see it in just a moment kiddo!” He finished with a laugh “Ain’t no harm in telling ya.” The elevator door opened, revealing a long, pristine white hallway with bright white lights illuminating the entire length. “This here is the lab where we keep top-secret, classified specimens for research, and development. I can’t let you in to see anything but the specimen that pertains to your expedition, I’m afraid. But there’s a good chance that, when you make it back home, you’ll have a big fat promotion waiting for you! So you might not have to wonder about them for long.” He lightly clasped my arm with his gruff hands, and gave me a reassuring squeeze, before he began to walk briskly down the hall, expecting me to follow. So, I did.
He lead me down a series of hallways and t-junctions, knowing exactly where he was going and where he was at all times. How he had such a knowledge of these tunnels astounded me, but a man of his experience working in this particular complex, it made sense. We arrived relatively quickly at a door marked ‘UKX101: Unknown Reptilian Tissue.’ It seemed to be one of the only doors labeled on the outside, I wasn’t sure as to the rhyme or reason why. I wasn’t left to ponder my query for long, as the door was unlocked and flung open, and I was ushered inside.
Inside, there was a large storage container, cooled by some mechanism, a locker, and an examination table, along with tools and scalpels. Once the container was opened I could see a large, vacuum sealed plastic bag. Red tape marked the corners of the bag, and some sort of hazard symbol was marked firmly in the center of the bag, a symbol I didn’t recognize. “What’s the symbol for?” I asked. “Well,” Bill replied in a somewhat concerned tone. “It’s the symbol we use for ‘Unidentified Specimen: Biohazard Potential.’ Whatever this is, it doesn’t match any currently known species of any animal currently extant. Meaning, it’s either ancient and could potentially contain ancient viruses and bacterium our modern world isn’t prepared for, or could inflict other hazards upon nearby personnel. We don’t really know which, if anything, is the case.”
I nodded at Bill, putting on the PPE stocked in the locker. All in all, a protective gown, a face mask and shield, disposable gloves, and thick, disposable long pants that covered the shoes were required before we could continue. After donning our ‘biohazard armor’ as Bill put it, we opened the cooler once more and removed the plastic bag, bringing it to the examination table. The bag wasn’t quite see through, but I could feel the shape and almost the texture of the object contained within. It was definitely rough and bumpy. Not quite scales, but something similar. We cut open the bag once at the examination table, and pulled out the contents.
We pulled out an enormous, strangely shaped, clawed appendage, about the length of the average human male’s forearm. I began my examination, listing idly aloud the qualities that I found noteworthy. “Appears to be covered in something similar to scutes or scales, definitely some sort of dermal or epidermal armor, or heat sink. The claw is about 8 inches in length.. I’d need a fragment to perform an analysis, but it doesn’t appear to be made of keratin. Strange.” I began to flip it over and inspect the opposite side. It was much the same as the reverse, but.. “Oh that’s interesting. There appears to be a small hollow that terminates somewhere within the claw at the tip. Almost like an oversized needle or fang. But it definitely isn’t. This appendage appears to be an arm or leg of some kind.” The appendage had thawed slightly and I noticed the portion of the limb about 4 inches from where the claw began seemed to slump slightly forward. I wiggled it to confirm my suspicions. It moved back and forth freely. “This here appears to be some kind of ankle or wrist, a pivot point for the appendage.” I reached for the scalpel to begin dissection, but Bill grasped my hand firmly, yet not threateningly. “Thank you son, but that ain’t your job. We got boys to focus on this. Your job is the expedition.”
I nodded, yielding to the older man’s orders. We packaged the limb up, stored it in the icebox once more, and exited the room. Once we had left the room, we doffed our PPE and threw it in a biohazard bin. “So what does this have to do with my expedition to Antarctica, sir?”
“Well,” He began. “This specimen was recovered from an excavation team in the Antarctic permafrost. The team that recovered it wasn’t sure what it was, but thought it looked reptilian, or crocodilian. So, that’s your mission. You, and a team of Geologists, excavators, and Zoologists are being sent to Antarctica, to the site where this unknown species was discovered. Your job is to either find live or dead members of the same species, document and assess them. If you find more, especially in-tact, remains, you’ll also be expected to bring them back here for further study.”
The preparations for the journey went smoothly. A few weeks worth of food for our team and the excavators currently stuck on site, a few snow mobiles, winter clothing, I’m sure you get the idea. A portable structure with pre-installed insulation would be airlifted in near the site shortly before our arrival, and that would be where we stayed until the end of our expedition, or until an emergency was called in.
The numerous flights from the UN’s headquarters were long and boring. I didn’t actually arrive in Antarctica until about 2 or 3 days after our initial departure. The weather was bitterly cold, the wind bit at every exposed inch of our bodies, and even through my thick beard I felt the kiss of ice and snow on my face. We unloaded the snow mobiles from the cargo bay, strapping our supply boxes onto ski-like beds, and drove off towards our destination.
Due to not wishing to disturb the site of our expedition, the portable living structure was airlifted in almost a full mile away from our destination. Once we arrived at our new living quarters for the next almost 2 months, we began to unpack, claim rooms, and settle in. I chose the room furthest from the direction of the worksite, and after unpacking my personal belongings and situating the room to my liking, I decided it would be a good idea to establish communications with the team of excavators, whose small work town was in-between our station and the worksite.
I bid my colleagues get some rest, as I didn’t expect to be out for very long, and I would be joining in the respite soon before I drove off on one of the snow mobiles. There was something strange in the air as dusk fell on the landscape, a sort of electrical feeling in the air. I couldn’t quite place the feeling of discomfort I had, nor that strange energy in the air. The sensation only grew worse as I entered the ramshackle work village.
I slowed to a stop right at the edge of the village, walking the machine back and parking it perpendicular to the nearby houses. I saw old, used up remnants of burned wood in the center of the town, I wasn’t quite sure how long it had been there, the snow had long enough time to cover it after the fire had been extinguished, though.
“Hello?” I called out, hoping the workmen weren’t already asleep or had expected them at the expedition worksite and headed there. I began to walk through the rudimentary village. As I made my way through the center, I noticed that the crew’s motor sleds were parked on the opposite edge of town, in a corner by a much bigger looking shed than the rest. Was it their headquarters? I wasn’t sure, but I could tell that at least most of them were still around the town.
I walked up to the larger building and knocked, loudly. “Hello? Is anyone here? I’m with the research team, sent by the UN! My understanding was that we would be working together to find out what exactly it was that you dug up out there.” The sound of hurried footsteps with an unsteady rhythm sounded from inside the building. Was the person drunk? Had I awakened them from a deep slumber?
“Who goes there?!” A voice shouted from inside, muffled by the door between us. “Blake Hewit, UN Biologist. My understanding was that you were told of our expedition and that you-“ the man cut me off by opening the door and yanking me inside. He had caught me off guard, allowing him to easily overpower me and pin me against the wall just inside the door. “HEY!” I shouted, but he cut me off from saying anything else by cupping my mouth with a hand. His palm was sweaty, though the shack wasn’t well insulated enough to be warm, and he wasn’t even dressed in warm clothing. He had a wild look in his eyes, as he slowly released my face. He jutted his index finger out and drew it to his lips, hissing a quiet “Shhh.”
He looked around for a few tense moments, cocking his head at angles, as though we weren’t looking for something, but listening for something. “I don’t think it’s out quite yet.” He said in a distinct drawl, sounding somewhat like a cowboy trying to impersonate an Australian. “You’re a lucky one, boy.” He released me from his grip and began to pace.
“Don’t think what is quite out yet?” I asked harshly, rubbing my now slightly sore arm. “What the hell is so importan-“ “Quiet!” He cut me off in a whisper-yell, drawing his finger up again. The howl of the frozen wind outside was all that could be heard. After a few moments, though, I heard something that the wind carried along with it. The noise I first heard was hard to describe. It was almost like an opera singer, maintaining such a high note it was barely audible to the human ear. As I focused my attention on the noise, however, I could hear slight differences in the note. It was some kind of song, a melody in an extreme pitch, and obviously one no human could possibly be responsible for. “It’s finally come out for the night.” The man said in an almost inaudible whisper.
“What is.. it?” I asked as quietly as I could, as the man lowered himself and I to a crouch. “Don’t rightly know. Alls I know is that.. siren, or whatever it is, has been out here for the past 3 nights, comes from up in the mountains, bout a quarter mile yonder.” He pointed discreetly East, in the direction of a small mountain range that ran in a south-east to north-west direction, terminating somewhere over the horizon directly north of us. “You can hear that infernal song, can’t you?” I nodded. “I used to be the foreman of this here operation. First night after calling y’all in, 2 of my men said they could hear someone singin’ to ‘em, something about how whoever was singin’ had been out in this hellish snowscape for a long, long time. I told ‘em they was hearing things, then I started to hear the singing too, but it weren’t words, not like you and I speak. My daddy used to be a fisherman, and his daddy was too. They passed down tales about sirens through generations by word o’ mouth. I figured it as myth for the longest, but hearing that? Hearing my men say they hear words in that cursed melody? I knew it had to be some kinda siren. So me and my boys dragged them two back to town, kicking and screaming, practically frothing at the mouth. I swear.. We had to tie then boys up to their own beds. Come morning time though, them fellas was gone. Ropes weren’t cut, broken, or untied, neither. They’s just.. gone.”
He sighed and shook his head, slow at first, then rigorously and rubbed the stubble on his face thoughtfully. “Almost same damn thing happened the next two nights, last two of my boys being taken right out from under me last night. Like they was possessed, I couldn’t drag ‘em back myself, we had to bend every effort we could to drag ‘em back the first two times. I alone weren’t strong enough. Them boys walked off into the freezing death out there, no long John’s, no coat, hardly anything but their skivvies. Off into the mountains they went, and ain’t been back soon. Now it’s back, back to-“
The singing had stopped, causing the foreman to cut his sentence prematurely. All was dead silent, not even the icy wind sliced through the silence. We went to make a move towards the back of the lodge, when suddenly a large figure landed on the roof of the shack across the way from our hiding spot. I couldn’t quite make out the features of the creature, and the silhouette confused me even more. I could barely make out any defining traits, but it was like nothing anyone had ever documented on Earth. On one hand, I was fascinated by this unknown species, wanting to study it, capture it, do what I set out to do. On the other hand, something within me screamed, and raged against the confines of my mind. ‘Get away!’ It felt like part of me screamed ‘Get away! GET AWAY!’
The foreman was frozen in place, his face shifting between blissful calm and wild panic almost every instant. He finally settled on calm and stood up. “What’s are you doing?!” I asked in my own whisper-yell. “Get the fuck down, it’s going to see you! We don’t even know what it is!” The foreman ignored me entirely, so I moved as fast as I could from my crouched position towards him. I tried with all of my might to bring him down to my level, and even attempted to yank him down to the ground, but to no avail! “He wants to be let in, Blake.” The foreman said in a tone that bordered fanaticism, while his face and demeanor remained perfectly calm. “He wants you to know something.”
I looked out of the window, searching for this ‘He’ the mad foreman was talking about, but the only thing different about the cold, dead night was that the creature had moved. He was no longer on the building across from us, and he was nowhere in line of sight to any of the windows. I got up quickly as the foreman began to take his first steps towards the door. Trying everything from shoving, tripping, hitting, nothing worked on the man as he continued his relentless march towards the door. A few steps before he reached the door I dove under a nearby desk, wanting to hide from the eyes I now felt that were constantly on me.
The feeling of being watched never left me. I could feel cold, uncaring eyes gazing at me from every direction. I decided to poke my head out just enough so my left eye could peer around the wall on the underside of the desk. The foreman finished his robotic walk towards the door and waited for just a moment. A loud thump noise could be heard outside, like wet earth being struck by a sledge hammer, and the sound of powdered snow could be heard scattering against the outside wall of the building. The foreman reached for the door handle.
Slowly, almost torturously so, he turned the handle and opened the door, letting the cold, perpetual winter in, and whatever creature was out there was sure to follow.
At first I couldn’t see anything past the possessed madman at the door. Then, he began to back up slowly as I could hear a thumping on the rudimentary wooden floor of the working men’s headquarters. The thumps of each step the creature took were followed by a clicking, or skittering noise. Almost as if claws or stray scales hit the floor with each step. As the creature came into view from behind the foreman, I was able to behold all of its horrible majesty.
The dull grey-green of the creature’s skin, the appendages bent at strange angles, too many appendages to make any kind of anatomical sense of. The head contained no discernable features apart from what looks to a sane mind as a mouth, but obviously didn’t function that way. It… was perpetually agape, but no teeth could be seen within. Only a black and red, pulsating mass of flesh within. Or so I thought, until it opened one of its eyes.
The singular, putrid yellow-red orb, glowing within what I originally presumed to be the creature’s maw blinked, rolled around rapidly as if scanning the room at a speed the human brain couldn’t process, and in almost half a second of this settled on the lunatic that let the creature inside in the first place. There was that static charge in the air again, and as though called upon or compelled, the foreman approached the monstrous siren.
Once again I was surprised, as the mouth eye socket once again proved to be neither. An appendage, horrificly the same as the one I examined back at the UN Base, protruded from the orifice on the creature’s head. The appendage that I once thought to be lined with scales or scutes also proved itself to have neither, instead revealing that it was covered in thousands of tiny eyes, the same horrid yellow-red color as the large one I saw within the creature’s head the first time. The vicious claw extended from within the limb, the entire appendage throbbing, as the claw dripped a glistening fluid.
The nightmarish creature plunged its claw deep into the former foreman’s head, making odd undulating motions across the appendage and causing some sort of spasms within its myriad arms, neck, and strange movements of its head no human could perform or describe. The closest I can come to a description is like the picture of an old TV, the static on the screen causing the picture to shift from side to side. The spasms continues for what felt like hours, but truly only lasted less than 30 seconds.
I heard the creature make a strange noise similar to a hum after the spasms abated, and as I gazed upon it, all of the visible eyes on the appendage snapped to the desk I was hiding under. The mouth-eye-limb retracted into the facial orifice. A voice, coming from only God knows where, surged forth like a tidal wave from the thing, crashing against the foundations of my mind, until slowly, I was able to make out the words of the creature before me.
“You. Human. Your kind has not walked in this place since the dawn of your species. Not since you have developed your primitive tools and your animal-vehicles. Why have you come here, now, and doomed your brethren to a life under our care?” The voice sounded deep and distorted, as though the very Earth shook as He.. spoke.. to me.
“I-i-i,” came my stammered speech. “Clearly, explain your reasons for encroaching on domains you know belong to us. Do it now.” “I-i don’t know what you’re talking about. What are you? Where- where could a being like you possibly come from? Did you evolve alongside us on Earth? What are you?” I spoke shakily to the thing menacing me from across the room. It moved in my direction, and the influence it had on me without my knowledge strengthened, and against my will I clamored out from underneath the desk, now standing face to, what I assume to be face, with a real, ungodly monster.
“Are you to tell me that not only do you not know what I am, but you never knew of my existence in the first place? Your species has forgotten mine? Your kind doesn’t remember that this is where WE dwell?” The questions surged into my mind not in an orderly fashion, but all at once. It took me a moment to pick through the words and force them to make sense to my mind, and I began answering the questions in the order I forced my senses to perceive.
“I- yes. Yes that’s what I’m telling you. I don’t know who, or what you are, nor that there were more of you. We don’t have any historical accounts of your kind, nor that you had laid claim to part of the Earth.” “Part of?” The creature bellowed through my mind, an assault that nearly knocked me unconscious. “We do not lay claim to ‘part of’ the earth, human, this world is OURS, by right of the First, by right of Intelligence, and by right of Might. We merely can only live in your colder regions, and detest you humans. We tolerate your existence on this planet for various reasons, but the agreement was ALWAYS that you were to leave our dwellings and never return.”
My head spun from the sheer volume of rage this creature exuded, and I propped myself against the desk. Steadying myself, I spoke once more “I didn’t know, I-“ I paused, falling to my knees as I threw what little remained of the contents of my stomach up. Panting, sweating, dazed and exhausted I remained kneeling before the creature, and it seemed to have a sick satisfaction from the display. “We-we didn’t know! We couldn’t have known. No record of you exists, no dominant civilization other than ours are in our history books. I- we- I’m sorry!” I blurted the last words put like the bile that had just moments ago escaped my lips.
The creature moved towards me, and reared up to its full height. It must have been 9 feet tall, at the shortest. It extended most of its limbs, and I could almost make sense of the architecture of them, and I could see legs hooked back in digitigrade fashion, but strangely, it walked on the soles of its feet. It still had two of its sets of arms planted on the ground, hands balled in fists as it rested on its knuckles. The chest of the creature was solid, and smooth looking with no bones obviously exposed anywhere on its body.
The arms it raised into the air swiftly came down around me in a tangled mess, but the creature’s grasp on me was firm, almost strangulatingly firm! “Hear me, ape. Tell all of your kind, however you are able, that they are not welcome in this sector of the world, nor the magnetic opposite of this sector. The ones we have captured will be slaves, or food, you will not have them back. You alone will return, and you will ensure none disturb us again. If you fail to make that happen for us, none of you will be allowed to exist on this planet.” The creature’s arms began to squeeze tighter and tighter around me, I couldn’t escape! I screamed, more loudly, more frightened, and in more pain than I had ever been in my life! “Now, begone.”
The last two words seemed a whisper, as I jolted awake, screaming, but alive, and back in my room back at the complex. I panted as I tore myself out of bed and collapsed to the floor, laughing. Laughing a joyous laugh, the laughter of life. The laughter soon turned to wailing, crying, and rage. Eventually I settled into a mixture of all of these emotions, and shuddered quietly on the floor.
I’m not sure how much time passed before I picked myself up and got dressed, but as I exited my room and explored the complex, I took note it was empty, except for signs of struggle in some rooms, and a few bloostains which I took to cleaning. So, it definitely hadn’t been a dream. Everyone was gone, and I alone have to return to civilization to report to everyone.
I made the call to Bill over a satellite phone that had a spotty connection at the best of times, but oddly enough worked almost perfectly today. I made up a bullshit story about the ice shifting during a blizzard, and it dragged everyone but me to their dooms. The helicopters arrived within a day. The only things they seemed to really care about recovering were the food items, myself, and the motor sleds. We left the portable shelter behind, along with my colleagues, lost to the siren, or sirens, who lived in the mountains.
The next few days are a blur in my mind, a few debriefs here and there, questioning, investigations, and accusations. I avoided being a suspect in the case for their deaths, and answered the questions satisfactory enough to get them to stop. I know I needed to spread the Siren’s message to the world, but for now I needed to hide it. The only way that would make me sound is like a madman that murdered his companions.
The only one I could trust with the information was Bill, and he believed my story. He thought, however, that I was a fool to take their warnings seriously. “We need to organize another, larger expedition to that site, son, not leave it alone.” And no matter how hard I tried to make him see reason, he wouldn’t. Luckily, world crisis after world crisis has delayed the expedition until thisbyear.
He didn’t want me to spread the message to the world, but I have to. The truth has to be revealed. The UN is planning another expedition to Antarctica, and if they’re caught by the Sirens, not only will they die, but I fear they might just damn us all by proxy. When they make their plan public, we must bend every effort into stopping that expedition. We must leave they who came before us alone.