Alex Gore - The Cube

“A better killing machine than us, Major.”

“Does it have any flaw?”

“Yes, Major, it can be killed. But only with a bullet in the head that can cut the nervous activity and stop the nervous impulses. The rest of the body is practically invincible, except in case of massive laceration.

This night unlike others they were eating silently and only the slight clatter of silver interrupted the deadly silence in the dining room.

Tension was pulsating in the stuffy air of the room. Their glances were hanging over the plates and nobody dared look into someone’s else’s eyes.

“What happens to the doubles after they kill us?” Michael was the first one to speak in the quietness.

“When the original version perishes, regardless in what manner, their double dies”, Hans answered.

“So, if we all die, they are toast”, Michael said, trying to clear the atmosphere with black humor.

“Stop it, Michael, let us try to find some more rational solution than our mass suicide”, Marcela cut him short. She was as pale as a sheet of paper and extremely scared.

“How can you be sure about that, Hans?” Alan asked.

“I am sure. Call it ‘scientific intuition’ if you must, but in vein of the principle of the annihilating of elementary particles with their anti-particles, I’m telling you that when the prototype of the ‘double’ dies, then the replica stops to exist as well. I suppose, they avail of information for the replicating of some form of energy information field from us. Their DNA must be in constant communication with ours, or else all functions cease. Believe me, when you are not here, your double is not here either.”

Norman’s radio buzzed, so he answered and after three words from the other end of the line he jumped instantly from his chair and dashed out of the door.

Outside the hurricane was at its worst. There was no a trace of the beautiful desert from three days ago, the storm had turned the sunny vast territory into a black freezing blind hell.

Norman had the feeling that all the fucking sand in Sahara was up in the air, whirling and trying to enter through his eyes, mouth and nose. He was walking almost as a blind man, having covered his head with a scarf, hardly seeing through the protective goggles the lights of the projectors inside the base.

“What’s going on, Lieutenant? What was that on the radio?”

“As I told you, we have three dead bodies and munitions are missing from the warehouse, Sir. The bodies belong to two of the sergeants on duty and to Miss Tarantino.”

“How did it happen?”

“One is torn to pieces, the other one is cut by a big tool, probably an axe… The woman died from a bite on her neck, like in a horror movie for vampires.”

“This is her double! Take the body immediately to the biology room for further investigation.”

“Yes, Sir! There are broken ribs, her chest was practically smashed with enormous weight and force. Death has occurred almost instantaneously.”

“Take in the bodies for an autopsy and… Fuck this damned wind!” The storm had almost dragged the scarf off Norman’s head and moved his goggles.

“There is one thing more, Sir…”

“Say it, because too many new things heaped on me today!”

“Near the woman’s dead body we found a phone, tuned for detonation.”

“Hers?”

“Probably not. Its menu is in Russian.”

“A saboteur, obviously.” Norman did not seem too surprised.

“Yes, Sir. The phone is here, but the detonators are missing.”

At this moment the Sergeant approached.

“Sir, we found the body of Colonel Ivanov. You’ve got to see it, Sir.”

“Take us there, Sergeant.”

Norman bent over the Russian’s huge body, lying lifeless on the sand about twenty yards away from the one of the female double. A bloody trail was connecting them. Ivanov had left it, dragging on the ground. He had clearly remained alive after the fight despite the great blood loss and was trying to seek for help.

The Major leaned and touched his heart. Though barely felt, there were slight movements of the chest.

“But he is alive, for God’s sake! Take him to her! Quickly!”

The Cube was there. It stood imperturbably motionless like when they saw it for the first time. Only its light was changed from bluish-green to bright red.

“Do you think this thing can be destroyed at all?” Marcela asked. Her question was obviously directed at Hans.

“I don’t know, there must be a way… The bad side of it is that we don’t have an idea what it is actually and what it is made of. You can only kill something if you know how it lives. If you don’t know birth, how could you possibly understand death?”

“But we know how it lives.” The latest events had broken Alan and he had lost his habitual positive enthusiasm and energy. “It lives through the doubles and that’s how it affects us, don’t you think?”

“I suggest we destroy it by an explosion, while it’s not too late”, Norman interfered.

“I don’t believe they would let us do it”, Marcela said. “And I deeply doubt that this ‘thing’ is vulnerable to our weapons. You shouldn’t have brought it here.”

“To begin with, the Russians from the submarine shouldn’t have taken it from wherever they found it”, Hans added. “But it is here and we need to destroy it. I believe I can guess how.”

At this moment the lights went out and everybody froze in the darkness. It was quiet.

Like in a coffin.

All hell broke loose with the bang of a rock falling through the ceiling. Glass, people and metal mingled in a heap of rubble.

The ceiling of the dome collapsed in pieces over the heads of the group with monumental crash and the doubles rushed against them.

Two of the soldiers were instantly torn to pieces.

The monsters were silent assassins, they acted with perfect accuracy and precise movements, as if consuming the small space of the room. They did not utter a sound, probably they could not even talk, only the ferocious flames in their cannibal glances were an evidence that they were not machines, but alive creatures.

The Lieutenant was thrown onto the ground.

He was fighting one of the creatures, employing all the power of his short and sturdy limbs. Ivanov’s double, heavy as a roller machine, had pressed his chest with its knee and was just intending to bite his neck with those enormous sharp teeth, when Babyface caught with his right hand one of the tumbled down computers. With astonishing force he raised the heavy metal box and, using just his wrist, smashed it against the head of the creature. It stumbled and lost its balance for a moment. This second was enough for the Lieutenant, who jumped with quick thinking, grabbed he monster and pinned it to the ground. His right hand was holding its neck, stopping its ability to move its head and get oriented in space. The fingers of the Lieutenant’s left hand were feverishly fumbling for his pistol that had slipped from the holster and fallen on the floor. The creature was madly waving its limbs in the air, trying to free itself.

The double stretched in a way, impossible for a man, and kicked Babyface in the back so hard that the Lieutenant tumbled forward over his head. However, his left hand was now holding the gun. He fell on his face but managed to turn over quick as a lightning and fired at the head of his adversary, which was almost touching him.

The brain of the creature burst in thousands of small pieces and splashed some acidic liquid over the Lieutenant’s pleasant face. He got up, wiping his lips with his sleeve, and looked around for his companions.