Дэниел Смит - Below Zero

‘The red button!’ Dad shouted. ‘By the handle!’

Zak pushed the button and aimed the Ranger once more, pointing it at the creatures that were making their way back into the room.

‘You have to pump the slide,’ Dad yelled at him. ‘The part in your left hand.’

Zak knew exactly what he meant – it was just like the Nerf gun he had at home – so he racked the slide once, took aim and fired. This time there was a loud POP! and a fraction of a second later, a cloud of grey powder exploded on the ground by the door. It sprayed outwards like a burst bag of flour, instantly becoming a thick, cloudy gas that billowed out, obscuring the door. It lasted only a few seconds before it thinned and disappeared but, once again, the bugs were stunned by the attack.

‘Quick! Before they try again!’ He rushed forward, stamping his feet, and the others joined him like it was some kind of weird dance. The spider-things died under their boots with such a satisfying crunch that Zak was filled with a sense of power – of actually doing something. ‘In your face, bugs!’ he shouted as he stamped on another. ‘In. Your. FACE!’ The bug popped like a fat blueberry.

Gas drifted around him like smoke on a battlefield. The hard remains of bug shells and mechanical parts lay like broken machines of war. Sticky pools of disgusting grey mush were splattered around the floor. And Zak continued to stamp at the scuttlers. To stamp them out of existence. To kill, kill, kill.

‘I think that’s enough now.’ May touched his arm. ‘You can stop.’

Zak scanned the room. ‘Did we get them all?’ His blood was up, his adrenaline raging. ‘Are they all dead?’ He was out of breath, and sweating inside his coat. ‘Is that all of them?’

‘I think so.’ May stepped back, holding the fire extinguisher like a weapon.

‘That was quick thinking,’ Mum said. ‘Well done, you two. Are you all right?’

‘Yeah.’ May nudged Zak. ‘“ In your face ”?’

Zak grinned.

‘What are they?’ Mum was staring at the mess on the floor. ‘They were alive .’

‘I told you,’ Zak said. ‘It’s something to do with those insects. This grey stuff is the same. It’s like it’s adding to them, or something. Growing on them. It’s making them alive, and—’

‘It’s not over yet,’ Dad said. ‘That big one is still by the entrance. We need to shut it down.’

‘How?’ Mum asked.

‘Maybe this’ll work.’ Zak gave May the Ranger, and grabbed the fire extinguisher from her hands.

He strode out of the room and along the short corridor.

‘Zak? Zak!?’ Mum called after him, but he didn’t answer; he kept on going. Didn’t even flinch when Mum called his name. He marched right up to the thing that was cobbled together out of parts from the Magpie and the plane.

As he approached, he saw more of the grey stuff in its joints. Threads of it snaked back towards its brain, but he didn’t care. And the strange thing was, it didn’t look as if the spider-thing cared either. It just sat there, and as Zak came closer to it, he fired the extinguisher in front of him.

WHOOSH!

A cloud of carbon dioxide shot out, filling the doorway and spilling into the cold Antarctic air. For a second the spider-thing was invisible, but Zak didn’t hesitate. He continued forward, picking up his pace, and turned the extinguisher in his hands so it was a solid steel battering ram. He stepped out on to the walkway and slammed it into the creature’s camera.

With a noise like two cars colliding at speed, the base of the extinguisher smashed into the thing’s lens, crushing glass and bending metal. The living machine shuddered under the force of the blow, moving its legs back to brace itself when Zak hit it a second time. Again came the sound of metal against metal, and the thing staggered backwards, its front legs faltering at the complicated joints. But Zak didn’t stop there. He forced it to retreat further and further along the walkway, raising the extinguisher again and again, denting metal, crushing glass, and cracking the weird beetle-like armour as he broke through to its fleshy, electronic brain. And each time he hammered it, the creature staggered back a little further, its legs weakening as Zak beat it into submission.

Halfway along the metal walkway, the monster’s front end tipped forward under the onslaught, its back legs skittering, trying to keep its body upright. And with a final killer blow, Zak raised the fire extinguisher high above his head like a pile driver and smashed it into the monster as hard as he could.

Pieces exploded in all directions, scattering across the walkway and shooting over the edge to fall to the ice below. The monster collapsed on to what was left of its face, then the back legs gave up, and the whole thing came crashing down like a piece of useless junk.

‘What on earth were you thinking?’ Mum called as she and the others ran to where Zak was standing.

Zak had been so worked up, so crazed , he hadn’t realized how far out he’d come. Now that he turned to see them rushing towards him, he realized he was halfway along the walkway. The wind was whistling around him, snatching away his cloudy breath.

‘What were you thinking?’ Mum said again as she threw her arms around him. ‘You could have been—’ She stopped, but Zak knew what she had been about to say.

Killed . You could have been killed .

‘You went completely nuts,’ May said. ‘I mean, brilliant, but bonkers.’

Zak grinned at her, adrenaline still firing through his body. He was on a high now, feeling strong. On top of the world. He felt as if he could take on a whole army of those things. Just him and his fire extinguisher.

‘Don’t run off like that again,’ Dad told him. ‘I think you’re starting to enjoy this a bit too much.’

‘Someone had to do something,’ Zak said.

‘Yeah, well.’ Dad shook his head. ‘It should have been me.’

‘I was fine. Look what I did.’ He pointed to the smashed-up Frankenstein’s monster lying at his feet. There were bits and pieces of it scattered across the walkway.

‘I guess we know what happened to the plane,’ May said.

‘How many more of them d’you think there are?’ Mum asked.

‘We need to check the other back-up files.’ Dad turned towards Refuge. ‘Maybe find out what happened to Sofia, see if there’s anything about BioMesa. We need to find a way to stop this.’

Mum followed Dad back to Refuge, but Zak and May stayed where they were, fixated on the dead monster.

‘I really kicked its butt, didn’t I?’ Zak said.

‘Hey, don’t get cocky. The fire extinguisher was my idea.’

‘True,’ Zak admitted. ‘You were totally owning those creepy little things.’

‘I just imagined it was Vanessa and her clones.’

Zak looked up at her. ‘You really hate her.’

‘Hate’s a strong word,’ May said. ‘But don’t forget, we’re talking about the girl who posted that picture of me all over social media. The one where I was dressed as Angelina Ballerina when I was, like, five or something.’

‘Good point.’

‘You did good, though, little bro.’ May punched his arm. ‘Come on.’ She shivered. ‘Let’s get inside.’ But when she turned to head back to Refuge, she stopped and reached out to grab Zak’s arm.

‘What?’ Startled, he spun around and immediately saw what was wrong.

There were two people inside Refuge, heading along the corridor towards the office – but it wasn’t Mum and Dad. From their build, Zak thought they were both women, and they were wearing the same red jackets he had seen the settlers wearing in Sofia’s video. They must have climbed up the stairs from the ice, without anyone noticing.