The Thing 2: Infection✔️

Chapter 13: Heart of Darkness

The way out turned out to be simply going down even further into the twisted metal and concrete labyrinth that Whitley and his co-conspirators at Gen Inc had constructed beneath the ice. Blake stepped out onto a metal platform that was set high into a tall room. He walked to the edge and glanced down, spying the floor a few stories below. A stairwell, wrapped around the room, descended into the dimly-lit area below.

"Fantastic," Blake muttered.

He was feeling a lot better now that he had eaten, taken a piss and sat down for a few minutes. The men seemed less jittery, less nervous about whatever may lay ahead. It was amazing what a simple break could do to rejuvenate a man. Unfortunately, now that he could think clearer, another dark thought had returned to roost in Blake's psyche. According to that report, he had the virus inside of him now, at least in a very small degree.

But was that a bad thing?

There was no way of knowing, but what if what the report said was true? An immunity. If he could be immunized against the entity, then wasn't that a good thing? Sure, they could still rip his head off or impale him or something, but he would die a human being. And that was worth a lot, at least in his book. But this alien lifeform was so different, so...other, that it could just as easily go in some other, horrible direction.

Blake shook his head slightly and set off down the steps. Maybe he could beat some answers out of Whitley, though he doubted it. It seemed as if the man had infected himself, which meant he couldn't trust anything his former commanding officer said. No, if he wanted any information on this, he'd have to find out for himself.

But how?

The answer obviously wasn't forthcoming. Blake led the men down to the ground floor of the transitional room and did a quick survey of the area. There was nothing worth grabbing and only one door. It being the only way to go, Blake opened it up. He stepped out into an immense, dark tunnel, the roof of which was lost to the shadows overhead. It stretched away from him in either direction. There was nothing he could see to the left, all of it cast in darkness, but there was a fire burning to the far right, so he could at least see that.

"Come on," he whispered. "We've got to get some lights on or something, no way I'm fighting in the damned dark."

The men quietly agreed with him and they set off towards the right. The tunnel was a great mystery around him. Blake wanted to turn on his flashlight, but he didn't want to give away his position. He was sure he'd done that enough when he'd opened that door and come into the tunnel. And, what was worse, he was convinced that they weren't alone, though he wasn't sure if the threat was human or alien.

It quickly became clear what had caused the fire as they approached a dead end. A semi truck, the side of which was stamped with the Gen Inc. biohazard logo, was buried beneath a ton of debris. Part of the tunnel had collapsed, effectively blocking off any escape route it might have offered. The fire cast an ominous, flickering glow on this portion of the tunnel, lighting up the men's faces, making them seem grimmer, more desperate than before. Something spat out a stream of blue-white sparks from nearby, something mounted on a wall.

"Fusebox," Blake said as he got closer to it.

"Let me take a look," Lavelle replied. He approached the fusebox and Blake stepped back. After a few seconds, he grinned. "Hey, it's labeled 'Tunnel Lights'. I think I can fix this, give me a moment and maybe we'll be able to see what the hell we're doing."

Blake waited impatiently, hating the sea of darkness that surrounded their little pool of light. He could hear sounds in the darkness that seemed to echo endlessly. Things moving, what might have been a grunt, perhaps a low growl. What shared this space beneath the earth with them? Blake was suddenly reminded of a book he'd once read, a book by H. P. Lovecraft: At the Mountains of Madness. It was disturbingly similar to what he was experiencing now. The tale was of a group of scientists and explorers finding an ancient, alien city down at the bottom of the Earth, in Antarctica, and running from a host of alien horrors.