The Thing 2: Infection✔️

Chapter 03: Dronning Maud

Back on a chopper again.

"You sure you don't want any backup?" North asked as they approached Dronning Maud.

"I'll be fine," Blake replied. "Take that research back to base and figure out what's going on down here."

"Affirmative...what did you mean when you said you owed it to Pierce?" North asked.

Blake hesitated a moment, not wanting to remember that. "It's a long story," he said finally.

The chopper began to land. Blake said his goodbyes and left the vehicle, ducking low and running away from it, towards a structure he'd landed near. He waited for the helicopter to finish taking off again, then straightened back up.

Before he could take a single step, his radio crackled to life. "Blake, it's Whitley. Have you found anybody yet? Over."

"Negative. I've just arrived. Though from what I can tell, this base is in pretty much the same shape as the last one. Over."

"Affirmative...this little stunt of yours might have paid off. Over."

"What do you mean? Over."

"I received a partial transmission from Pierce. It sounds like he found some kind of research. Might be important. Over."

"Roger that. Did he say if there were any hostiles in the area? Over."

Whitley paused. "Negative...no hostiles...out." There was something off about the way he'd said that. Blake was suddenly convinced that Whitley had just lied to him. But why? That wouldn't make any sense. Colonels didn't lie to soldiers in the field. Of course, ops involving extreme weather and possible alien contacts also should be more well-planned.

He moved off, deciding to find out for himself if there were any hostiles in the area.

Blake took stock of the environment around him as the chill began to set in. Everywhere but to his left were more frozen, misty wastelands. To his immediate left was a wood and chainlink fence that walled off what had looked like a good portion of the base. There was a hole in the fence, but it spat blue and white sparks periodically. Probably not a good idea to mess with it. Surely there was another way into the base.

Blake ignored the hole and moved along the fence, towards the dark shape of a structure up ahead. He came to an open doorway, but noticed a depression in the snow a little further ways on. Ignoring the door for the moment, he moved around a pile of snow to a slope that led down into the depression. Moving carefully, as not to fall, he came across something interesting. Blood. A lot of it, frozen to the snow. It looked somewhat recent.

Another sign that this mission wasn't adding up.

Blake was glad for the flashlight. It kept both hands free and let him grab the MP-5. He flipped off the safety. If there were no hostiles in the area, then where had all that blood come from? He supposed it could have been some kind of mistake, a friendly fire...but that didn't happen too often in the Special Forces. Maybe they'd run into Norwegian survivors. Blake spied another doorway up ahead, in a lower portion of the same building.

He spied a body further on, lying inside the little niche the door resided in. Blake approached it cautiously, but saw he had nothing to worry about. The body was frozen solid. Likely one of the original inhabitants. The door was no-go, too. It looked like the roof had collapsed just beyond the doorway. A wooden beam punched through a small window in the middle of the door. Blake cursed softly, turned and began making his way back out of the depression. He stopped immediately, however, when he spied dark movement up ahead.