Mimicry

Chapter 17 - Destiny

Kate found her voice first. "You destroyed the supplies... the alcohol, the Sorrell, the snowcats." She was brimming with rage, fuelled by the lost souls of Faith, Jake, John, and even the once-human Josh, taken cruelly by this menace who had so mercilessly stolen his visage.

Josh shrugged nonchalantly, "Well, I couldn't have you running away now, could I?"

"But why, Josh? Why all this?" Essie asked, her voice trembling with pent-up fear and confusion.

"It's survival, Essie," Josh answered, his voice starting to waver. It began to sound increasingly grated, as though his voicebox was being shredded at that very moment. "The strongest species survive. That's what you humans always say, right?"

"And the protocol? You know what's going to happen," Kate shot back, her voice taut with anger and determination.

Josh chuckled, a dry, hollow sound. "Ah yes, the protocol. The precious protocol. A desperate measure for desperate times. But it's too late for that now, isn't it? You think you have me beat. You think this is an ace up your sleeve. But we three know what's going to happen. I will consume you. You will become manifest. And, when we return to the primitive civilisation you call home on your beloved Institute helicopter, we will take over this miserable world."

As his last words echoed off the metallic walls, his form began to ripple, warping and contorting as his human disguise began to peel away. His features melted, giving way to a grotesque, alien form beneath. His face elongated, teeth sharpening into a snarl as the skin shifted to a sickening green. The friendly twinkle in his eyes was replaced by a cold, inhuman glare.

His limbs twisted and lengthened, his fingers forming into long, sinewy tentacles. His skin hardened, sprouting rough, chitinous armour. It was as though their worst nightmares were coming to life, their former friend morphing into an abhorrent alien beast right before their eyes. The Josh they knew was gone, replaced by a chilling embodiment of the insidious unknown.

As the horrifying transformation was completed, Kate and Essie's instincts kicked into overdrive. Fear was momentarily pushed aside by a primal need for survival. In one fluid motion, Kate pulled a bottle from the bag slung around her shoulder, the ethylene mixture inside sloshing ominously. She hoped, beyond hope, that, despite the lack of flares, it would somehow combust and set the damned thing on fire.

Her arm whipped forward, sending the bottle hurtling through the air. It spun in a beautiful but deadly arc before colliding with the monstrosity. The container shattered upon impact, splattering its flammable contents all over the creature. An eerie sizzling sound filled the air as the alien skin began to bubble and crack under the chemical assault, but the creature didn't recoil. Instead, its twisted visage contorted into a grotesque grin.

Simultaneously, Essie, trembling but determined, launched herself at the alien, an ethylene bomb clutched tightly in her hand. But before she could get close enough, a swift, whipping motion from one of the creature's tentacle-like appendages sent her flying. She landed with a painful crash into a cluster of crates, her body collapsing into an unconscious heap.

Kate screamed, a guttural sound filled with fear, anger, and defiance echoed through the large generator room. Her battle cry resonated, taking on a life of its own. The air crackled with the frenzied echo of her scream, the terror and anger interweaving into a haunting melody. Her hands gripped the second ethylene bomb tightly, the surface of the glass cold against her warm fingers, the swirling liquid inside promising torment for the monster and its cells, even if it did not set alight.

A wave of primal fear crashed through her as she faced the monstrous alien, its form grotesque and unsettling. The flickering shadows cast by the sporadic light of small fires twisted its image into something even more monstrous, the sharp ridges on its body seeming more pronounced and its multiple eyes gleaming with an ominous sheen.

The creature lunged at her, closing the distance with an unnatural speed, its tentacle-like appendages whipping through the air, aiming for her. She dodged, feeling a rush of air as the appendage missed her by a hair's breadth. She retaliated with a well-aimed throw, the bottle flying true and shattering against the monster.

Agony erupted over the alien's form, the ethylene forcing the cells to warp beyond even what the alien's physiology allows, enveloping it in a curtain of fury. The creature writhed and screeched, the sound a bone-jarring, guttural roar that echoed violently off the metallic walls. It tried to advance, a horrific embodiment of determination and resilience, but the ethanol clung greedily, slowing its progress but still hunting down the marine biologist relentlessly. 

It picked up an errant spanner on the floor and hurled it mightily towards Kate. The spanner clipped the side of Kate's skull with a brutal impact that instantly sent her world spinning. Pain exploded in her head, and she crumpled to the ground, her hands instinctively moving to cradle the injured area. A gut-wrenching crunch echoed in the room as the weight of her fall crushed the remaining ethylene bombs in her pack, the glass containers shattering and spilling their contents uselessly on the floor.

Through the fog of pain and disorientation, Kate's gaze fell upon the alien creature. The ethylene had soaked into the alien's crude excuse of a body, leaving it momentarily subdued but far from defeated. A ripple went through its grotesque form, the alien grappling still with the spike of cell activity. She could see it turning, its numerous eyes locking onto the fallen figure of Essie. Fear spiked through her. She couldn't afford to blackout. Not now. Her vision swam as she pushed herself off the floor, a low growl escaping her throat as she focused on the looming threat.

Reality tilted on its axis as Essie simultaneously pushed through the sea of unconsciousness, awakening to the cacophony of agony coursing through her body, to right herself. She felt the bones in her ribcage grate against each other with each shallow breath. Her vision wavered, the world tilting perilously. The sight of the alien-Josh, monstrous and relentless, filled her view, the threat of its proximity piercing through her fog of pain. 

With the remnants of her strength, she dragged her arms heftily towards her inner pocket, her fingers trembling as they wrapped around the familiar roughened texture of the last flare. As she looked up, she saw the creature advancing towards her, its abhorrent form now barely recognisable as the man they had once known. It was then she knew, in a flash of terrifying clarity, what she had to do.

She turned her head to Kate. Her lips moved, whispering a soft "I'm sorry" into the chaotic void. Kate, in a whirlwind of determination and panic, unseen by the alien, fully focused on the target at hand, realised what was about to happen. She bounded towards the generator room exit, stumbling upon the wires lying in her path, relying on the machines and the pipes to guide her to the best available approximation of safety.

Essie winced as the creature approached, the grotesque tendrils reaching out for her. Her heart pounded wildly as the prospect of the horrifying assimilation process loomed, but she held on, waiting for the right moment.

As she felt the first stab of agony signalling the start of her transformation, it was then that Essie triggered her flare, its bright red light illuminating the room and casting monstrous shadows on the walls. A pulse of heat erupted around her, igniting the flare's flame and engulfing the monster in a sea of fire. The explosion rocked the generator room, setting off a chain reaction that incinerated everything in its path. 

Kate, who had just barely managed to retreat, was thrown backwards by the sheer force, shielded only by the remnants of a fallen piece of machinery. She crashed onto a tuft of Antarctic grass dusted with snow, just about escaping any serious injury.

The last sight she witnessed was the alien that was once Josh, consumed in the hellfire ignited by Essie's sacrifice, letting out a final, ghastly roar as it succumbed to the inferno. Then, the lights went out, leaving Kate alone in the smouldering ruins of what was once their sanctuary.

She was injured, her head spinning and bleeding from the impact of the spanner. She was injured, but alive.