The Thing 2: Infection✔️

Chapter 16: Sidetracked

"So, you have no idea what's down here? Either of you?" Blake asked as he continued to lead his brave army of one scared engineer and one grumpy medic into the ice and dirt beneath Antarctica. They'd been climbing down for a few minutes.

"I got nothing," Powell replied.

"Same here. All I know is that Gen Inc. and the military have been working on the place for a while now, so it's gotta either be big or intricate. Given the shit I've come across so far, I'd bet they're doing some kind of research down there on these damned things."

"Yeah, probably," Blake muttered unhappily.

He came to the end of the ladder and was admitted access to an open-faced 'room' with rock walls, carved out of a cave wall. There wasn't much in the room, just a few lockers that yielded nothing worthwhile, so he walked carefully to the edge of it. The cavern beyond was dark, and a rough stairwell had been carved into a descending rocky slope that led down to the rest of the area. He could just make out what might have been the boxy, tall metal structure of a cargo elevator and a small cabin-like wooden structure.

"Come on," he said quietly. "Let's see what we've got here."

Flicking on the flashlight he'd fit into his chest pocket, Blake cast a sharp, pale beam of light into the darkness. It brightened the area just enough to confirm the two things he'd seen: an elevator shaft and a little single-room structure. There didn't seem to be anyone or anything around in the chilly, rock cavern, so Blake first investigated the elevator. It was a simple affair, meant to hold no more than two or three people max. It ascended well above them, into the darkness. The small control panel revealed where it went.

"Fielding Testing," Blake muttered. "That sounds important."

"Sure as shooting," Reed replied.

Blake frowned when he spied an unhappily familiar black slot next to the buttons. He had an inkling what it was and, sure enough, when he pushed the button, the panel flashed red and buzzed angrily at him.

"Fantastic, we need a security card."

"Well, let's see if we can find one around here," Powell said.

They left the elevator and began moving towards the tiny shack. Beyond it, built into the rock wall, were a huge pair of doors that looked liked they, when activated, slid into the walls on racks. They looked damaged, blackened and bulged slightly outwards, as though an explosion had occurred from within. While Powell and Reed began trying to find a way into the cabin, Blake approached the double-doors. They were partially open. He placed his flashlight through the crack and peered inside. Beyond were tons of rock, the result of a cave-in, and about half a dozen smashed trucks. Abruptly, it came to Blake what he was looking at.

The bomb that had gone off earlier, and those tunnels he'd been in: this is where at least one of them had led to. A loud bang exploded through the cavern and, at the same time, one of the men screamed Blake's name.

Blake spun around and saw that not only had they found the door to the tiny shack, but it had a huge, outward dent in it. As he took a step closer it, a second dent appeared. Both men were backing away from it, weapons raised. Blake brought his flamethrower into play. Had to be a Walker. Sure enough, when, a second later, the door burst open, it was a huge, burly, misshapen Walker that stumbled out into the cavern.

The men screamed and opened fire, spraying it down with red hot bullets. The beast shrieked and roared and screamed in fury as bits of came off and its blackened blood was sprayed across the structure behind it. It seemed to be having a hard time deciding who to go after. Which gave Blake enough time to race up and hose it down with some flames. The beast went up like a torch, the shrieking getting higher pitched. It ran towards Blake, who sidestepped, narrowly avoiding it. By the time the beast managed to stop and get turned around, its ticket was up. It collapsed into a smoldering heap on the icy floor.