The Thing 3: Assimilation✔️

Chapter 06: Communications

After that, the three of them had taken a lunch break. Or, hell, it could've been a breakfast break, dinner break or midnight snack. Blake had basically lost all sense of time and no one seemed to have watches.

"Blake, need you," MacReady said as they were finishing up their meal. "Actually, I could use you, too, North. We've got something."

The pair of them stood up, disposed of the remains of their meals and followed MacReady back out to the entryway, where he joined Peltola, who was dourly smoking a cigarette, in standing before a large map of the area.

"What have you got for us?" Blake asked.

"We've found a small communications facility about a half-mile away," MacReady replied, pointing to a section of the map. "Managed to get some more data from some recovered files you found at that Way Station. They should have the parts we need to repair our own radio tower, which is crucial, because we need to start gathering intel on Gen Inc, and listening in on their radio transmissions will be the quickest way to do that. Now, you can take the tunnels all the way to the radio tower. Peltola will be joining you, and you should probably bring one of the SF soldiers with you. I'll leave it up to you to determine who," MacReady replied.

"We'll get it done," Blake promised. He turned to face Peltola and North. "Let's gear up and get on with it."

* * * * *

It was dark, cold, smelly and miserable in the tunnel.

Blake led his squad through the grim, subterranean environment, his senses alight. In the end, he'd selected Taylor to join them. The squat, bulky combat medic seemed like a solid choice, plus, having a medic on the team rounded it out nicely. He felt fairly confident that they could deal with any threats they came up against.

They'd been walking in the gloom for five minutes now, picking their way through the debris and wreckage. So far, so good.

"North," he said, drifting closer to the dark-skinned soldier, "good to see you again."

"You too, Blake," he replied, grinning. "Couldn't believe you made it. I had a bad feeling when you went to investigate that other outpost solo."

"Well...you were right. Everything pretty much fell apart after that. Although it sounds like if I had stuck around, it would have gone even worse. At least this way I managed to take down Whitley and stop him from shipping samples of these things back stateside."

North let out and appreciative whistle. "Must've been tough," he replied.

Blake nodded. "Hardest thing I've ever had to do..." He paused, looked around. "...so far."

Up ahead, something shifted. Blake frowned, stilling the others with a raised fist. He crept forward, listening intently, trying to scout the situation out. His instincts were telling him that there was something big up ahead.

That was never good.

Blake made his way in between an unsteady stack of crates and the dark bulk of a huge cargo truck that had been abandoned some time ago. He made a mental note to search it at some point. Up ahead, he spotted a large open area, almost like an arena. Something was stomping around in that arena, something seemingly waiting for them. Something big. It was easily twelve feet tall, a thing with tree-trunk legs and long, reaching, disproportionate arms that ended in long, slender, bony fingers that seemed perfect for grabbing.

He started considering ways around it when, suddenly, the beast spotted him. And roared.

"Attack!" Blake screamed, heading through the opening and raising his MP-5. He opened fire as he began strafing, leading the creature away from the opening through which the others had to enter if they were going to help him. The beast began lumbering for him, loosing another roar of alien fury. Blake sprayed it with gunfire, emptying half his MP-5's current magazine before being forced to throw himself out of the way.