Sub zero, p.22
SUB-ZERO, page 22
“What will you do, Sebastian?” He peered over his shoulder and looked back at House. “What will you do?”
Donovan bolted straight for Buddy, letting loose the entity as he ran. House was too slow to catch the much faster man, but luckily for him, and Buddy, someone else cut Donovan off. If not, House’s oldest and dearest friend wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Trip unsheathed his knife and slashed at the whipping creature. Frozen into place, Buddy did the same and pulled out a blade of his own. The two men held it off until Sam and Shannon could get away—and until House could jump him from behind.
The captain buried the head of his axe into Donovan’s back, aiming for his spine directly between his shoulder blades. Lodged deep, he was horrified to watch the flesh around the wound bubble and crust. Then, it began to heal and forcibly eject the axe, pushing the handle along with his hands away too.
Seconds later, it popped free with a horrible slurp. If House didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought he’d missed with the lack of any kind of injury. There wasn’t even a scar.
He backed away, unsure of what to do next. If he couldn’t injure Coalesce—Donovan—then what could he do?
His eyes flicked toward Buddy.
Be Buddy…
“What did they say?” House asked, backing away. “What did all those good people say to you?”
Donovan snarled and twitched. He was both annoyed and bothered by the question. Whatever was going on inside his head, it was affecting him in this world as well.
As he got Donovan’s attention back on him, Trip and Buddy slid away. And as they slipped away from the fight, the door above them was walloped from the other side. Four more of House’s people scampered up the stairs to help the four that were already holding it closed. From his lower vantage point, the only thing House saw on the other side of the slightly ajar door was a wall of pulsating blue light.
Donovan had predictively gone against his word.
So did I…
“Lights!” he called out, happy when twin beams appeared on Donovan’s face. Back to the pool, House was unaffected. The incredibly brilliant illumination should help hold back Donovan until House could think of something else.
“Containers!”
The storage crates to his and Donovan’s left and right came rolling in. Usually, they’d be locked down or tethered to the walls. But not now. Now, they were currently being used as battering rams against a foe that wouldn’t go down. Each one was shoved into the scientist with enough force to take a man, Nova-sized or not, off his feet.
Donovan did little else besides wobble and drool and seethe with rage.
Then, the man turned on the crew, bashing one of the containers away with an incredibly strong backhand.
“Seth!” House shouted. “You want this?”
Donovan faced him and smiled. House was holding up his and Becker’s keycards. Gratefully, the gesture took Donovan’s attention off the people around them. Unfortunately, he zeroed in on House and House alone.
“Mine!” Donovan cried, leaping across the space with little difficulty. It was an impressive display of strength and agility, but it was also an easy maneuver to dodge, and House did it with no trouble at all.
Side-stepping the landing enemy, House swung the axe as hard as he could. Like before, the blade buried itself deep into Donovan’s soft tissue, this time catching him in the left side just beneath his ribs.
House was swiftly tossed aside, sliding fifteen feet until he was merely inches away from the pool’s edge. Being so close to the frigid water, House could feel the temperature nipping at his exposed flesh. He could also feel the warmth of his own blood as it ran down the right side of his face. Still on his hands and knees, House draped the two lanyards over his head where they settled around his neck.
Donovan lifted his bloodied hand and sniffed it. His eyes flickered excitedly, and he did the last thing House wanted to see. The parasite shot out and wiped itself through his blood. Then, it retracted back into Donovan’s mouth, and the man smiled, pleased with House’s flavor.
With nowhere to go but forward or into the freezing water, House stood his ground. Holding the axe like a baseball bat, he squeezed the handle hard and waited for Donovan to make his move. But he didn’t… Instead, he grabbed his head and started shouting for the voices to stop talking.
The light show that accompanied the agony was brilliant in multiple ways. It bathed the launch bay in a multitude of shades of blue, but it was also so bright that House couldn’t make direct eye contact with him.
“Brace for impact!” Gianna shouted from somewhere behind him.
The ground beneath House’s feet shook violently, and he was thrown back toward the front of the room. Right into Donovan’s waiting arms.
31
McMurdo Station was just hit by a ship. Technically, it wasn’t the station itself that was hit, but its docking system that was destroyed, mangled beyond repair.
Commander Gavin Kirk stood over his radar technicians like a hawk, eyeing the screen that he personally sat behind a decade ago. At first, he hated his post, but after paying his dues, he moved up the ladder quickly, eventually accepting overseeing duties.
He’d seen everything Antarctica had to offer…until now.
The Endeavor had run aground, decimating their docks and wedging itself in tight. The bow was tilted slightly, but the ship was in no danger, from what he could tell, of capsizing.
“What the hell is going on?” he shouted, getting his people moving faster.
“I’m not sure, sir,” Virgil Davidson replied, typing as fast as he could. “We still can’t reach anyone on board.”
Turning, Kirk stomped toward the door, grabbing his heavy jacket from a hook on the wall. Never in his time stationed at McMurdo had there been such a debacle. He’d no doubt get a talking to by someone back in the states.
“What are you gonna do, sir?” Davidson asked.
Kirk growled. “I’m going to tear House and Donovan a new one.”
“Uh, sir…?”
Kirk was in no mood for any more questions. “What!”
“There are people out there.”
Can’t be, he thought. There was no way to disembark this quickly in the current setting and conditions—no way!
Kirk voiced as much. “Davidson, there can’t—”
Yet, there they were. Members of the Endeavor’s crew were leaping from the top deck, dropping five-plus stories to the ground, and walking away like it was nothing more than sliding out of an armchair.
Kirk rushed for the door, snagging his binoculars as he did. Shutting the hatch, he moved to the secondary entrance, a door designed to keep the interior one from freezing over and then pushed through it as well.
The Antarctic chill stung his face immensely like it always did. It didn’t matter how long you were on Antarctica. There were certain things you never “got used to.”
Having a direct line of sight to the Endeavor, Kirk put his binoculars up to his eyes and stumbled back at what he saw. The people coming toward him had little to no clothes on…and their bodies were illuminated in a bizarre blue light.
Radiation? he thought, holding a walkie-talkie up to his mouth.
“Davidson,” he said, holding his binoculars in place with his other hand, “We, uh, have a situation…”
* * *
“Dad, no!”
House paid no attention to his daughter’s cries. He was busy keeping Donovan’s parasite at bay with the handle of his axe. It was sheer luck that the creature retracted back into its host when the ship stopped abruptly. Landing atop the scientist, House jammed the handle into Donovan’s mouth, blocking the entity from emerging point-blank.
“What…are they saying?” House asked, grunting, putting all his weight into the axe. “Tell me!”
The second set of doors, those leading to the elevator, boomed. Something massive hit them from the other side. Then, it happened again.
“Barricade the doors!” Buddy shouted.
Sailors began piling up whatever equipment they could find, even rolling over a few of the huge containers they initially used to build the center aisle that House and Donovan were in now.
Donovan’s naked, translucent body strobed chaotically, and he thrashed beneath House’s thicker frame. Even if he wanted to tell him what the voices were saying, Donovan wouldn’t have been able to utter a single understandable word. House was trying to keep him off-center mentally.
It worked.
Donovan hissed like a snake, spraying goo all over House’s hands, arms, neck, and chest. The captain reflexively lifted his face up and away from the incoming splurt. Gagging at the smell, he held on and shouted for assistance as the elevator doors were hit once more.
“Help!”
“Comin’!” Buddy replied, hurrying over.
From when House looked up at the hobbling Buddy, to when he glanced back down into the menacing eyes of Donovan, he knew something dreadful was about to take place.
The fortified elevator doors burst open, throwing all kinds of equipment into the air. Out stomped the very-dead-looking, yet very-much-reanimated, George Novacek. His mutilated skull looked horrifying and his exposed brain pulsed in time with his eyes. He must’ve climbed down the empty shaft, traversed the short hall to the lower level doors, and then bashed his way through.
No…
A large plastic case hit Buddy in the back of the head, dropping him halfway in between House and Nova. He wanted nothing more than to get to his feet and aid his dear friend, but he couldn’t let Donovan get up, nor could House afford to allow the man to set the creature loose within such close proximity to his face.
Buddy went down, but he never lost consciousness. His hand went to the back of his head and came away bloodied. Unarmed and woozy, the engineer staggered to his feet and beseeched his assistant to halt his rampage.
“George, listen to me,” Buddy said. “This isn’t you. You’re better than this.”
Nova stopped within a foot of his mentor. He looked like the Incredible Hulk next to Bruce Banner. The two men were incredibly different in stature but somehow got along exceptionally well with one another.
House was so transfixed on the scene taking place before him, that he neglected to notice that it was Donovan controlling Nova, not the bigger man thinking for himself. Nova reached his left hand out—the only hand he had—and gently placed it on Buddy’s left shoulder. His right arm, below the elbow, was still missing. Then, his hand went to Buddy’s face, and he stroked it like only someone close to the other would do.
What happened next shattered House’s soul.
Nova opened his extra-large hand and closed it around Buddy’s slight neck.
“George, wait…” Buddy croaked, clawing at Nova’s hand.
Nova crushed Buddy’s neck like it was a soda can being run over by a dump truck. All House could do in response was scream in anguish as his friend’s lifeless body was nonchalantly tossed to the floor.
Donovan laughed.
Filled with rage, House jumped to his feet, raised the axe above his head—quickly getting kicked in the chest. He sailed five feet through the air and landed hard, rolling to a stop ten feet from the launch pool. With tears streaking down his face, House could barely contain himself, uncaring that he was openly weeping in front of everyone.
Nova, for his part, did nothing else except stand and watch. Then again, Donovan was in complete control of the situation and had since gotten to his feet. He looked very smug and as cocky as ever. He knew there was nothing on the Endeavor that could stop him.
House hoped there was but was shit out of ideas.
His eyes found Buddy’s peaceful face, and he broke out in heartfelt sobs again. There, inside the Endeavor’s launch bay, Sebastian House mourned for his murdered friend. The fact that it happened at the hands of a zombified Nova infuriated him beyond anything he ever felt before. House had never felt such anger in his life.
Not even when his wife was killed by that drunk driver. House was taught forgiveness at an early age, understanding that bad things happened to good people all the time. Karen’s death wasn’t anything he’d ever forget, but the twenty-two-year-old kid that was responsible was given his sentence and would, inevitably, pay his dues. House came to learn some months later that it was the driver’s first ticketed incident on the road in his young life.
House wasn’t in the mood for forgiveness.
He wanted revenge.
Climbing to his feet, House attacked Donovan, slashing the axe at Donovan’s midsection. He caught him good, but it did very little damage, healing almost immediately. Donovan barely tried to dodge it. He knew House couldn’t hurt him. Now, he was just toying with the distraught captain.
“Is that all?” Donovan asked, gloating. “Is that all the great Sebastian House can muster?” He grinned. “We are not amused.”
“Argh!” House growled, again launching himself right at his foe.
Donovan, like a cat and a mouse, simply sidestepped him and let House fall back to the floor, landing between him and Nova. The giant didn’t advance toward him any, but he did catch Gianna around the wrist as she ran over to help her father.
Gianna! House thought. God, please, no…
But neither Donovan, nor Nova acted against his daughter more than subduing her. It seemed that the former DARPA scientist wanted House, and most likely Gianna, all to himself.
“After I assimilate you…” Donovan looked up at a frightened Gianna, “I’m going to do the same to your little gir—”
Something exploded out of Donovan’s chest. Looking down, it took House a moment to recognize what the object was. Then, it dawned on him. What he was looking at was the tip of a razor-sharp harpoon. Looking past Donovan, House was shocked to see Trip inside the suspended ADS suit. The harpoon gun that he talked about installing was, indeed, in place on Stay Puft’s right forearm.
Donovan’s incredible healing abilities took over and the wound sealed around the four-pronged harpoon blade, effectively gluing it in place. With a look of terror, Donovan realized what was about to happen.
Trip leaped out of the open suit and shimmied down a nearby ladder. Sam was there waiting for him, and in his hand was the controls for the crane that lowered the suit into the launch pool. Wasting no time, the XO depressed a large red button, releasing the crane’s hold on the hefty ADS. The suit plunged into the icy waters and sank like a stone, dragging with it a screeching Seth Donovan.
His reaction made Nova release Gianna and shamble forward. House dove at the larger man’s knees, tripping him up and sending him tumbling to the floor.
Donovan wasn’t out of it yet, however.
He clung to the rim of the pool, strobing like mad. Both his hands and the parasite gripped the floor in front of House. Taking his time, House reached down and reacquired his axe, flipping the large weapon in the air as if he were Tom Cruise in Cocktail.
Now standing over Donovan, House thought of something witty to say to the man but decided to keep it to himself. Instead, he raised the axe high over his head and brought it down, slicing through the girthy, tubular entity that had caused so much pain.
With his “cord cut” Donovan released his grip, fell back, and was swiftly pulled beneath the surface. House didn’t need to check whether or not he kept sinking. He knew the man was finally done for. Nova’s eyes darkening was one clue—so was him puking up his parasite.
As Sam closed the pool’s hatch, Trip rushed over, leaned out over the shimmering water. Smiling, he turned and found House’s disheveled face. “Told you I was going fishing, didn’t I?”
Epilogue
Without Donovan’s ethereal connection, the remaining members of Coalesce dropped like flies. The things living within them were ejected, shriveled up, and died, just like the demise of Grigson back in the ESD office.
Commander Gavin Kirk was wrestling one of them off of his radar technician when the lady that had attacked them both simply let go and caved in on herself. McMurdo lost six people before that, having initially met the emerging Endeavor crew halfway to help. No one could’ve guessed that they’d become a band of murderous brutes.
After peace returned to McMurdo Station, more people were spotted climbing down from a lower exit. Through his cracked binoculars, the bloodied Kirk recognized at least one of the sailors.
“Captain,” he said, shaking House’s hand.
“Commander,” House replied, looking, feeling, and smelling awful. He gripped Kirk’s offered hand with his right hand while still gripping the plasma-covered axe in his left.
Kirk quickly looked over the unkempt lot in front of him. His face went from one of concern to anger. “Mind telling me what the hell happened just now, and why six of my people are dead?”
House glanced at the eighteen other survivors and shrugged. “Six…that’s it?”
“That’s it?” Kirk asked, fuming.
House nodded. “I lost nearly ten-times that.”
Kirk’s mouth opened. “This…” he said, unable to find his words, “you’re telling me that this is all that’s left of your eighty-man crew?”
House frowned. “It is. We lost a lot of good sailors out there.”
Sam stepped up next to House. “I can vouch for the captain.”
“Me too,” Trip said, stepping up.
“And me,” Gianna added, sliding under her dad’s right arm.
Kirk didn’t look like he wanted to argue. Everyone was cold, and they all needed to get indoors before the storm picked up again like it was supposed to. But there was one more question that Kirk needed an answer to before they got moving.
He looked House dead in the eyes. “What happened, Captain?”
House opened his mouth but shut it. He looked over his shoulder, to a boat that he loved, a boat he knew he’d never step foot on again. If it were up to him, the Endeavor would be dismantled and sold off for parts.
He returned Kirk’s gaze with his own, still truly unsure of everything that had occurred. “Let’s get inside first. I’m still trying to process it all.”
