Дэниел Смит - Below Zero

‘What’s wrong with them?’ Peters said. ‘Why won’t they wake up?’

Sofia moved from her papa to her mama to her brother and back again, trying to get a response – any kind of response – but no matter how she tried, they stayed completely still. Their breathing was the only sign of life.

‘What’s wrong with them?’ Peters was on his knees in front of his daughter. ‘What’s wrong with them?’

Sofia ignored his rising panic. She was too fixated on controlling her own. And beneath that, there was a creeping dread that this might be something to do with the core she had stolen. Core #31.

‘Papa. Wake up. Please .’ She stood close to him, watching his face, calling his name and—

He moved.

‘Papa?’

Sofia’s papa squeezed his eyes tight for a few long seconds, then opened them wide. There was something so alive in the way he looked at her. His eyes moved from side to side, round and round. They bulged and glistened as tears sprang into them. But other than that, he didn’t move. Couldn’t move.

‘What is it, Papa?’ Sofia spoke quickly. ‘What are you doing ? What happened?’

‘He’s trying to tell you something.’ Peters came to Sofia’s side and waved a hand in front of her father’s face. ‘Professor Diaz? What’s going on? What happened here?’

To Sofia’s left, Commander Miller opened her eyes. The man beside her did the same, and within a few seconds, the whole group had woken and were staring ahead.

‘You trying to tell me something?’ Sofia ignored the others and concentrated on her papa.

Peters returned to his wife and daughter, shaking them, waving his hand in their vision, trying to get a reaction.

As Sofia watched, her papa opened his mouth. A little at first, then wider and wider. His eyes bulged with effort, tears running down his cheeks. A sound came from him like air escaping from a limp balloon. His lips trembled as he tried to move them; tried to form words for his daughter to hear.

‘What is it?’ Sofia moved closer. ‘What are you trying to say? What are you—’

Papa snapped his mouth shut, his teeth coming together with a clack . He squeezed his eyes in pain, then opened them with that creepy, bulging stare as he tried to move his lips and—

His face dropped as if all the muscles had been paralysed at once. His eyelids drooped, his mouth sagged, and his chin relaxed.

‘What just happened?’ Peters looked up at Sofia.

‘I don’t know. But I don’t like it. There’s—’

Then Commander Miller spoke. She opened her mouth and whispered two words.

‘Help us.’

She paused before repeating the words.

‘Help us.’

The third time she said it, Sofia’s papa joined her, speaking the same words. His croaky whisper melting together with Miller’s. Doc Blair, standing to her right, joined in too, and Dr Asan beside him. One by one, the others relaxed and began to speak until all thirty-eight of them were standing to attention with blank faces, repeating the same words over and over again.

‘ Help us. Help us. Help us .’

‘Why are they saying that?’ Peters backed away. ‘Are they hypnotized or something?’ The pitch of his voice was growing higher and higher. ‘What the heck is going on?’

Sofia dared to step closer. She couldn’t run away from this. She had to know. She waved her fingers in front of Papa’s face, but he didn’t flinch. Instead, he closed his mouth and stopped speaking. Immediately, the others did the same, and everything fell silent.

With the sound of her own blood thumping in her ears, Sofia hesitated, leant closer, and looked into Papa’s eyes. Seeing nothing, she pushed through to the second row of zombies and looked into Mama’s eyes, then her brother’s. Her mouth was dry and she trembled despite the heat, but she was trying hard to stay calm. She had every reason to freak out right now, but she was keeping it together. She had to keep it together. ‘Maybe it’s some kind of hypnotism. It’s like they’re… I don’t know… in some kind of trance.’ She turned and spoke directly to Peters. ‘I don’t know wha—’ she stopped.

‘What?’ Peters asked. ‘What is it?’

Now it was Sofia’s turn to back away. ‘What is that? ’ She glanced left and right. ‘What is…? Oh my God. They’ve all got one.’

‘One what?’ Peters asked. ‘What are you talking about?’ But when he stepped past the front row of zombies and turned to see the back of their heads, he stopped with his mouth open, and stared.

Sofia was afraid, confused and curious all at once. There was a strange device stuck to the back of each person’s neck – right in the centre, along the ridge of their spine. Mama, Papa, Pablo and all the other people she’d been living with for the past two months had one. People she was starting to think of as family. Even the BioMesa guys – including Jennings, whose access card Sofia had used to sneak into the research cavern.

She wiped sweat from her brow and leant closer to inspect the thing attached to Papa’s neck. It was mechanical, but it looked alive . Like a small, fat spider with six spindly legs. There was a tiny trickle of dried blood where each leg had broken the skin, and as Sofia watched, the thing’s legs shifted with the tiniest movements. Something grey and fleshy glistened in its intricate joints.

Sofia picked up the rock collection tool and gripped it tight. With the other hand, she reached out towards the spider thing. ‘You think it’ll come off?’

‘Careful.’

She touched the thing with the tip of one gloved finger, withdrawing in a flash. The thing remained where it was.

Sofia removed her glove and touched it again. When it didn’t react, she gripped it between her forefinger and thumb. ‘It’s warm,’ she said. ‘Feels like… I’m not sure… metal?’

‘Not metal.’ Peters kept his distance. ‘Composite. Like the carbon composite the Spiders use for printing.’

‘That grey stuff, though… it’s like brain or something. It’s disgusting.’

‘It looks organic,’ Peters said. ‘Alive. Like living flesh.’

‘Wait a minute.’ Sofia leant closer. ‘That bug I told you about?’ ( There it was again – the feeling this had something to do with what she had stolen from the cavern.) ‘The one that came out of the ice core I took?’ She tried to ignore the rising guilty feeling. ‘Doc Blair cut one open, and its insides looked like this grey stuff.’

‘What are you saying? That this is from an insect ?’

‘I dunno. I’m going to see if it comes off.’

‘What if it hurts him?’

‘We have to do something.’ Sofia could see how afraid Peters was – probably more afraid than she was. His face was covered with a sheen of sweat, his lips were trembling, and his breathing was heavy.

‘I’m going to do it now,’ Sofia said.

Peters nodded.

‘OK.’ She tugged gently on the strange parasite.

The skin on the nape of Papa’s neck stretched back, as if the thing was going to come off with a wet pop , but its tiny joints flexed and the grey stuff flexed with them like muscle. The thing tensed its legs and gripped tighter, sharp feet digging deeper into Papa’s flesh as it clung on.