Ben Hammott - Siberia

Feeling the strain on the string, Pechka looked at Luka. “It’s stuck.”

Luka watched the doors close against the wood and slide open. “Keep pulling, the alien’s grabbed the wood.”

Worried the string would snap, Pechka tugged but failed to pull the wood from the alien’s strong grip. “It’s not working.”

Keeping his eye to the spyhole, Luka unlocked the door and gripped the handle. “Move over so I can open the door but keep the string taut.”

Pechka shuffled to the side. “You’re going out there?”

“I have an idea.”

When Pechka had shuffled to the side and the elevator doors were sliding closed, Luka turned the handle and opened the door. “Pull hard.”

Pechka strained against the string. The alien pulled back hard enough that the string wrapped around his hand bit into his flesh.

Luka rushed out, took the lighter from his pocket and flicking it to flame held it under the taut string. The twine snapped. Pechka fell back. The alien’s grip slid the wood into the elevator and stopped with an inch protruding through the doors about to close on it and open again. Luka threw the lighter hard. It bounced off the end of the batten and clattered to the floor. The force shoved the prop clear of the doors. Luka glimpsed an alien tentacle reaching for the gap a second before it closed. He collapsed to the floor, his heart pounding against his chest.

Pechka unwrapped the string from his hand and rubbed the bright red welt as he climbed to his feet. He stepped into the corridor, looked at the doors and then at Luka. “Like I said, keep it simple and nothing can go wrong.”

Luka rolled his eyes. “It’s our comrades’ problem now.” Suddenly realizing he still had more to do, Luka jumped to his feet, barged past Pechka into the room and rushed to the intercom. He pressed the talk button and shouted, “It’s inside! Bring it down! I repeat, the creature is in the elevator.”

He relaxed when he heard the winch motor start up, and the elevator beginning its descent.

Boris was frightened, confused and missing the companionship of his human friend he couldn’t find. Though he had no idea what the strange, black animal was, he had seen how dangerous it was and knew it was to be avoided at all costs. Its scent was wrong—like no other animal he had encountered before. It smelt bad, evil, something to be feared. Boris glanced back along the corridor to check the strange creature wasn’t in pursuit. Pleased to see no sign of it, he carried on. If he couldn’t find his human friend soon, he would find a place to hide until the creature had gone.

Krisztina pressed the elevator call button before Luka’s warning had ended. As soon as she heard it descending she sprinted for the safety of the control room and called out a warning to alert the others. “It’s coming.”

Vadim nodded nervously at Krisztina rushing past. It was his turn now. He shot a longing glance towards the toilet before fixing his gaze back on the elevator doors. It would all be over soon.

EV1L halted its reach for the corridor when the doors closed. Though it had no idea what the humans were up to, it assumed its demise was part of their plan. They had tried before and failed. This time would be no different. When it felt the metal box it was trapped in move, it returned to devouring the large beast.

When Vadim noticed his legs were trembling, he took a deep breath and held his fear in check. He glanced behind at the room he would have to rush through; a short sprint and he would be safe. It wasn’t a problem. He could do it. He shifted his gaze to the control room where Stanislav, Krisztina and Svetlana focused their gazes across the hall. On hearing the elevator arrive, he refocused on its doors.

The doors slid open. The short length of timber propped against the join fell into the elevator. It would stop the doors from automatically closing and returning to the upper level if the creature lingered inside. Prepared to flee as soon as the creature had spotted him, Vadim stared anxiously at the opening and waited for it to emerge.

With senses alert for danger, EV1L reached out a black tendril from its feasting form and stretched it into the corridor. The eye that formed on its tip looked around before focusing on the human watching it. After a few moments deliberation, the black tendril pulled free from the main mass and slithered snake-like along the corridor.

Unable to see inside the elevator from his position, Vadim was surprised by how small the creature was; he had expected something much larger from the description his comrades had given. Emboldened by the arm-length size of the evil black serpent slithering towards him, Vadim’s anxiousness waned slightly. This would be easier than expected.

In the laboratory control room, Stanislav dragged his gaze away from the approaching creature and shot Svetlana a condescending stare. “I thought you said it had grown?”

Perplexed, Svetlana stared worriedly at the black snake. “It had. A lot bigger.”

Stanislav humphed. “You must have been so scared you imagined something that didn’t exist. That worm is hardly dangerous.”

“I might have been scared, but I imagined nothing,” Svetlana defended. “Luka saw it also.”

Stanislav snorted his derision of the man. “Luka’s an idiot.”

“Maybe it needs to keep eating to retain its size,” suggested Krisztina.

“It just had a whole cow to feast on,” argued Svetlana. “No, something’s wrong.”

“Yes, yours and Luka’s overactive imaginations and proneness to exaggerate,” scoffed Stanislav.

Svetlana ignored the man and crossed to the intercom. “Luka, how large was the creature that entered the elevator?”

Out in the corridor, Vadim was about to retreat when the serpent grew near but held his ground when the snake stopped and lifted its front half into the air. He watched in fascination when a triangle head lacking any features formed at the tip. It looked around before staring straight at him. Though Vadim noticed no eyes on the menacing head unnervingly pointed at him, he had no doubts it could see him and probably smell the fear he radiated. It was damn creepy. Sensing danger when its head bulged four times its size, he took a step back. When a small rigid tube grew out from the front and aimed at him like a gun barrel, he turned and fled.

Observing the creature with interest from the safety of the control room, Stanislav had no doubts that it came from the alien spaceship in Antarctica. Though how it got here to the facility was still a mystery, it wasn’t something that concerned him. His thoughts were occupied by how he could advance his career from this fortunate event fate had seen fit to present him with. His name would go down in history. The first man to capture, study and prove the existence of extraterrestrial life. However dangerous it proved to be he had to ensure the others didn’t destroy it. As long as he wasn’t one of them, a few deaths were acceptable losses and might even prove interesting. Information on how it hunted and killed would be invaluable for his research on the alien.

“Big enough to cover the cow, why?” replied Luka over the intercom. “Have you caught it?”

“Not yet,” answered Svetlana. “It was bigger than a snake about half a meter long, then?”

“Hell, yes! A lot bigger. It covered the cow.”

Svetlana crossed to the glass wall, glanced at the snake and then the elevator doors sliding back and forth against the timber prop. The elevator was set in the side wall, making it impossible to see into the interior. She turned to Stanislav. “It’s tricking us.”