Bitter Cold (17 page)

TWENTY-FOUR

“TELL ME YOU got that,” Strawn stabbed holes into Armstrong with his eyes.

“Yes!” Armstrong hit the playback button on the screen. “Yes sir! I got it!”

Strawn reached and wriggled his fingers. “Give it to me!”

Camera in hand, he tilted the screen to the proper angle and watched from the beginning. He wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen it all himself. The organism was astonishing. Coolly efficient, stealthy, fast, intelligent, tenacious. It wouldn’t stop until it had those children cornered. And the way it pursued the dog. Magnificent.

The footage showed exactly what he’d wanted and expected. He smiled when his suspicions were confirmed, then folded the screen closed and put the camera in his pocket.

“Circle back,” Strawn ordered Henderson. He took out his Beretta nine-millimeter and chambered a round. “On top of those kids.”

“What are you doing?” Armstrong sounded incredulous. “You’re not going to shoot those children!”

Strawn turned and gave him a cool look. “Would you stop for one second and take a look at yourself? What do you do for this company? Huh? What’s your job?”

Armstrong stared at the floor.

“Last night, you and McCullah went on a job to eliminate someone, a reporter. And why? She was threatening our company. We’re like white blood cells in a human body. Only the body is the company. We seek out and identify potential threats, such as that reporter and those kids, and, like a white blood cell, we surround that threat, we bite at it and rip it apart and consume it. That’s what we do. We protect our body, because without it, we wouldn’t have life. Our body is everything, and we have to be willing to do anything to protect it.”

Armstrong kept his head down. “But they’re just kids.”

“Stop being naive, Armstrong. You knew what you were doing when you signed on to this. You live the life most people would envy. Your own kids are spoiled little shits. They probably wouldn’t give a damn about you killing those brats down there if they knew their lifestyles were on the line.”

Armstrong’s face began to drip with sweat. He breathed deep and loud over the headset. He held on while the helicopter made a wide, sweeping turn over the Columbia River. “I know. Believe me, sir. You can look at my record. I’ve never had an issue with completing a mission. But that was before that fucking thing in the snow ate McCullah. Sir, if you could’ve seen it. If you just could’ve been there. This thing isn’t something we should be messing with. I don’t think we should be letting it roam free like this, and I don’t think we should be wasting our time chasing that reporter. We need to be calling the local authorities, evacuating the residents, setting up quarantine perimeters before this thing hurts someone else.”

“You fucking idiot! That’s just the kind of shortsighted thinking that will prevent you from ever rising any further in this business. You fail to recognize the true beauty behind all of this. Where your simplistic brain sees tragedy, mine sees tremendous opportunity. It’s spectacular! It’s fast, it’s deadly. Biological warfare at its finest. And it’s
mine
!”

“What are you talking about? What are you planning?” Armstrong shifted on the bench seat.

“I’m going to do the only thing a shrewd businessman would. That creature will be contained and brought back to the lab for analysis and duplication. We’ll bottle it up and sell it to the highest bidder.”

“But what about the people who live up here?”

Strawn stared. “We can’t let any of them survive. That’s why I let the creature go. For now.”

Armstrong’s eyes widened. He wiped the sweat with the cuff of his jacket. “You’re insane! You can’t just allow these people to die!”

“You know what? You’re right,” he gave Armstrong a glance out of his peripheral vision, displaying his gun. “I can’t just let them die. That’s not a risk I’m willing to take. That creature looks like it can do the job for me, but it might not be fast enough.”

“You can’t shoot them! Not children!”

“Right again,” Strawn smiled. Between the seats, inside a weapons locker, he found an M14 rifle fitted with a Leupold scope. He presented it to Armstrong. “
You’re
going to shoot them.”

Armstrong put up his hands. “No! Don’t make me do it!”

“Armstrong, you’ve got to! It’s your goddam job!”

The sobbing man took the gun. “But they’re children!”

“Don’t look at this that way. Think of this as an infection. What if they’ve been exposed to something and they’re carrying a pathogen, or maybe they’re highly radioactive? They could contaminate the entire population. We have to stop them. I know it’s ugly, but you knew that going into this job.”

Armstrong turned his head and lifted the rifle to his shoulder. He balanced it on his palm and adjusted the scope.

TWENTY-FIVE

“DAD!” LOGAN FELL into Jeff’s arms. Jeff felt every ounce of trepidation over his son’s disappearance melt away, replaced by an overwhelming sense of relief. He was so overcome, his face flowed with tears. He normally didn’t like to let his son see him weep like that. He couldn’t help it, and he didn’t care. Logan was alive.

He sniffled and wiped his eyes. Blinking, he noticed a girl. She was sobbing, too.

“What’s wrong with her?”

Logan let go of Jeff’s waist and stepped toward his friend. “Dad, this is Amy. Amy Mitchell. Dad, her parents,” he looked at her. She bawled harder. “The black snow got them. They-they…they’re gone.”

Amy let loose a torrent of tears, leaning against Logan, beating on his chest. The boy took it, almost gratefully.

April came closer, placing a hand on Amy’s shoulder. “What do you mean? What happened?”

“There’s no time,” Logan told her. “We need to get outta here, fast. It’s chasing Sadie right now, but there’s no telling how long before it comes back.”

April squinted. “Sadie?”

“Her dog,” he motioned to Amy. “She led it away from their house.”

“So it
has
come out of the canyon,” April turned to Jeff. “It climbed up the hill.”

Logan nodded. “And I think I’ve figured something out. The…monster. It can only go where there’s snow. Or ice. Maybe frost, too, but that’s it. It can’t go where there’s no snow, so as long as we keep away from it, we’ll be fine.”

Amy’s voice trembled. “But if we stay in the snow, it’ll…it’ll…Oh my God!” she buried her face in Logan’s shoulder.

“Logan,” Jeff asked. “What happened to you guys?”

“It was horrible, Dad. It came for us.”

“Where?”

“On Amy’s back deck. We saw it in the yard first. Then it chased us up to the deck and trapped us there. We had to hide in the hot tub gazebo, where there was no snow. It couldn’t get to us in there.”

April sounded intrigued. “So then what happened?”

Amy shot a glare at her. “Lady! We were almost killed…and I don’t have any goddam shoes! Let’s get the fuck outta here!”

“All right!” Jeff commanded. “Back to the house, everybody!”

Logan argued. “Dad, I don’t think we should go home.”

“What? Why?”

“Because it tore down the gazebo. It can rip right through wood and everything. I don’t think the house’ll keep us safe.”

“Bullshit,” Jeff waved his hand, refusing to entertain the idea. “It’s not gonna get into our house. Most of it’s brick. I’d like to see that thing eat through brick.”

Logan shook his head. “It doesn’t eat through. It demolishes.”

“And it’s terrible. I wanna GO!” Amy’s eyes were swollen. It was hard to tell if she had them open.

April had to hold her up. “Calm down, sweetheart. Calm down.”

She refused to be quiet. “What are we doing here! Why are we standing around like this is some kind of ski trip! Logan, tell them—tell them we gotta go!”

He nodded. “We need to go. And not home. I’m telling you, it can destroy the house.”

Jeff clutched his son’s hand. “April, take Amy back to the house. I want Logan to show me. I want to see for myself.”

“NO!” Amy stumbled against him, sobbing. “Don’t go back there. PLEASE! Please listen to Logan! Let’s just get out of here before that terrible, terrible thing comes back and gets us. I never wanna see that thing again—EVER!”

She tightened her grip on Jeff’s jacket, her screams muffled against his chest.        

“Okay, okay,” he told her. “Let’s go. We can fit in the Ford,” he patted his pockets. “I don’t have the keys, though, I’ll have to—”

Something stopped him. It felt like a tiny bird sweeping past his head, or maybe a giant bee. Then the sound came a second later.

Pop!

He knew exactly what it was, though for a moment he didn’t want to believe it.

“What was that?” he asked no one in particular.

“A gunshot,” April ducked, peering. Then her eyes got wide. She pointed. “From right there! Right there! The NWP helicopter! They’re shooting at us!”

Jeff pulled the kids down. Another shot hissed above their heads.

Clang!

It impacted against a
DEAD END
sign fifty yards behind. Then one more hit at nearly the same spot, sending a loud, metallic tone ringing through the wintry landscape. Before anyone could react,
Clang! Clang! Clang!
the sign became unreadable. A second later, the reports rang out, three rapping noises from beyond the trees.

“Let’s GO!” Jeff took both Amy and Logan by their hands. He wasn’t about to let them out of his sight.

The small path leading to his property was only two hundred yards through the trees, yet it seemed miles. His mind flashed to when he was a kid. He used to take that trail over and over, so much he could follow it in his sleep, and did a few times. Never had it seemed to take so long, even though they were moving fast.

He wasn’t sure if any more shots had been fired at them. He didn’t want to stop and find out. His only concern was to get everyone back, safe, in his house. Their escape would have to wait. They reached the yard on the house’s north side. Logan darted left, heading toward the driveway. Jeff yelled and stopped him. “Logan! No! We’re going inside! Come on!”

Jeff steered the girls to the back door. Logan stopped in his tracks and flailed his arms. “Dad! We’re not safe in there!”

Jeff slid to a halt, breathing hard, heavy steam around his face. “Logan! Those maniacs are shooting at us! Get inside, NOW!”

Logan lowered his head and started for the house. Jeff whisked his sights along the trees, searching for any signs of the helicopter. Nothing, but that didn’t put him at ease. Not one bit. He snatched Logan and ran.

“Hurry! Get him in here! Hurry!” April had the sliding glass door open in the kitchen. She stood aside to let the guys stumble in. She slammed the door shut, locked it, then closed the blinds, as though that would stop a bullet.

Breathless, Jeff toppled to the floor. Logan twisted away at the last moment.

“Those bastards!” April seemed too angry to be out of breath. “They know! They know that goddam abomination is their fault, and they’ll kill anyone to cover it up. Trying to murder me was one thing. But children? Children!”

“April!” Jeff tried reaching through her searing fury. No luck.

“Those fucking bastards! They’re gonna kill us! They’re gonna kill us all!”

“APRIL!”

She stopped and blinked at him.

“Get down!” he demanded. “They can shoot through walls, get down!”

Everyone hit the floor, falling on their stomachs. Jeff crawled to the couch where Amy and his son were laying close together.

“What’re we gonna do, Dad?” Logan searched his eyes. “If they can shoot through the walls, what’re we gonna do?”

Jeff didn’t need to think about it. “Everybody in the basement!”

They hurried on hands and knees, following him across the kitchen floor, into the hallway, and then down the cellar stairs.

“Call the police!” April screamed.

Jeff scrambled to the wall-mounted unit, a modern replica made to resemble an antique. He picked up the receiver and held it against his ear. Nothing.

“It’s dead,” he let it dangle by the cord.

“I thought so,” she shook her head. “What about the cell phones?”

Jeff frowned. “They don’t work so well out here. Come and go, really. There’s a spot up there on the road, by the little bridge, where you can get a weak signal if you stand in the right place. It’s hit or miss otherwise.”

She slammed the floor with her palm. “What the hell is it with small towns and cell phones? You’d think we’re back in the stone ages.”

She stopped to listen, eyes pointed up. Jeff heard it, too. Rumbling in the sky. Faint at first, then it sounded like the helicopter flew right over the house. In silence, they stayed flat on the floor. After several minutes of listening to nothing but their own heavy breathing, April broke the hush.

“What’re they doing? They’re not shooting. They’re just waiting.”

“This is torture,” Amy sat up against the sofa, rocking back and forth. “It’s worse than actually being shot at. The waiting, knowing they’re gonna try and kill us at any moment.”

“Calm down, everybody,” Jeff conjured up his best pep talk voice. “They’re not gonna kill us. They won’t be able to touch us down here.”

“And how long are we supposed to stay down here? Huh?” Amy questioned him.

“I don’t know,” he sighed.

“What about when they figure out they can’t shoot us from the helicopter, and then land and come down here and get us, huh? What then?”

“I don’t know,” he answered again, annoyed by her badgering.

“And what about that thing in the snow? What if it comes back? It can tear down walls and bust through roofs. What if it figures out we’re down here?”

“I don’t know!”

“Well I know! That thing’s gonna eat us! I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna DIE!”

Amy collapsed in a heap, sobbing out of control.

Logan slid up and put his arm around her. She leaned into him, weeping into his chest. “We found something else out there,” he patted the back of her head and ran his hand down her hair over and over. “Something horrible.”

“What was it? What did you—” Jeff stopped. It was easy to see both kids were traumatized. Logan’s hands shook, his voice was unsteady. And Amy was a wreck. Still, Jeff needed to know, so he asked his son what had happened, and told him to not leave out any detail, no matter how horrific. He needed to know what they were up against.

When Logan finished telling him about the shocking events at the Mitchells’, Jeff stood, taking April’s hand from his shoulder and holding it in his.

“Logan and Amy are right. We’re not safe, even in this house.”

April got up. “And just what are you suggesting? That we leave? Are you insane?”

“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting. If we stay here, we’re just sitting ducks.”

“And if we go out there, we’re going to be sticking our necks out so far it wouldn’t be funny. I know those people. They tried to kill me. They just tried to kill all of us, and they won’t stop. We go out there, we’ll just fall right into their trap. Same goes for that creature. It’d be suicide for us to go. I say we stay right here and wait it out.”

“Wait for what?” Logan spoke up. “For the monster to come in here and get us?”

“How can it get in here?” April pointed at the solid walls. “We’re surrounded by brick.”

“Haven’t you been listening, lady!” Amy snapped. “Haven’t you heard a word we’ve said! That thing’ll find a way! It
will
get us! We’re in trouble here, can’t you understand?”

“I understand perfectly!” April glared at her.

“You do, huh? You don’t understand shit! You haven’t seen what I’ve seen!”

April stepped toward the girl. “Honey, you have no idea what I’ve seen. I know just as well as you do how deadly it is, maybe even better.”

“Yeah, well how do you know?”

“A guy was skinned alive right in front of me, okay!” she stared with wide, bloodshot eyes. “Skinned alive and eaten.”

“Oh, my god!” Amy tugged at her own hair. “Oh my god! I can’t believe this! I can’t believe this! We can’t stay here! Logan, let’s go! Let’s go!”

“Okay, okay. We’ll go,” he tried to embrace her again, but this time she nudged away.

“No, we can’t go!” April insisted. “It’s not safe!”

Jeff intervened. “April, we’re leaving.”

“NO!” she stomped her foot. “I’m staying right here, and you should stay here with me!”

“And do what?” Jeff barked. “Sit here and wait for them to come kill us? I mean, I have a shotgun, but I’m not about to get into a firefight with those guys. No telling what kind of arsenal they have,” he shook his head. “No. I can’t risk that. Not with my boy here. My first priority is his life, and it’s in danger every second we stay here.”

She dropped her shoulders, sighing heavily.

“Are you with us?” Jeff gave her a hopeful look.

“I don’t like it,” she told him. “But I can’t stay here all by myself.”

“You’re right,” he let out his relief. “We stay together. From here out,” he stared at his son, sharpening his eyes. “You hear me? No more wandering off. You got that?”

Logan blinked at the floor and nodded. “I’m sorry, Dad. I just…Amy needed my help and I guess—”

Jeff bailed him out. “Just don’t do it again,” he patted his pockets. “I gotta find my keys,” he pointed to the basement kitchenette. “Logan, Amy, go get some food—and there’s some bottled water in the fridge, too. Get those.”

“Come on,” Logan had Amy follow him.

April stared at Jeff. “Just what are you planning? A camping trip?”

“I don’t know. I’m just thinking about the worst case scenario. My plan is to get to town and find the police, but there’s no telling what we’re gonna encounter out there. Those maniacs who tried to shoot us might try something else when we’re on the road.”