The Base

Over the summer I wrote a short story for a competition. It didn’t win anything, but I thought that I would share it here. It’s a science-fiction/horror story with a pretty big influence from the Alien series. Enjoy.

My name is Patrick Safir and I am, no was, a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps. I’m writing this because my therapist thinks it will be a good way to get over the trauma I experienced. I don’t want to come to grips with it; I want to forget it. I’m hoping no one reads this since it contains highly classified government secrets, but if I get in trouble it’s all Doctor Bok’s fault.

I was stationed at some remote outpost in Antarctica. It seems cliché writing it now and fairly predictable as to what happens, but at the time I thought it was just another assignment. I had been serving in Afghanistan where I was doing decent; I got promoted a few times, but the higher-ups clearly had other plans for me. I was a good leader and I didn’t mind getting my hands dirty, but I detested the long and slow days where we were constantly on edge. After my promotion to sergeant they shipped me up to that Arctic base. They claimed that they needed a better security detail and I was perfect for it. If they wanted a better security detail then they should have shipped in the Seals or the Green Berets because we weren’t prepared.

Looking back, I honestly feel like I just survived some sci-fi horror movie, like Alien, only worse. It kind of seems ironic because that’s exactly what we were dealing with. A UFO crashed up in the Arctic and the government got it on their radars, so they shipped their top scientists up there to study it. I guess everything was going fine until some of the guys on the security team started getting jumpy at night. The higher ranked officers and scientists told them to suck it up, so they did, at least until one of the guys ended up hanging from the ceiling. The higher-ups initially thought it was suicide, so they let the jumpy guys off and brought in new suckers like me.   After the new guys were brought in, they kept investigating the body and discovered some weird things. First, its location was just outside the barracks; however, the barracks are literally a stone’s throw from the ship, and in relation to the ship it was maybe 20 feet away from the one area that the scientists couldn’t access, yet. To make things even stranger, there was a weird mark on the guy’s chest, like a stab wound with a serrated knife that was somehow stitched perfectly, which isn’t really possible. Again the higher-ups said it was suicide, but they couldn’t explain how it all happened and neither could the scientists. Incidentally, none of this was a part of my briefing. I was just told I’d be the head of one of six small security teams. Luckily, one of my men filled me in on what happened.

The next month was pretty quiet, just the standard hazing of the new blood and the boring patrols. In fact, I never took the safety off my gun.   However, exactly one month after my arrival I got the worst headache in my life. It took me three days to recover and several bottles of aspirin. Afterwards I noticed that I always got a slight migraine whenever I passed that closed door that no one could open.

Everything was fine for another month, but exactly one month after that, I had the weirdest dream, at least I hope it was just a dream.   In the dream, I got out of my bed and went to the bathroom. After I opened the door I saw some creature perched on the sink, staring at me with cold, malevolent, red eyes. I wasn’t scared but instead calmly approached it. It whispered something before disappearing. Then I walked out of the bathroom, leaving the barracks and entering the ship. The ship is small, consisting of a hallway ending in a cockpit and two rooms, one on the left and one on the right. We could never open the door on the left, but I was able to just stroll right in during this dream. The room was small and stark, containing three jet-black capsules. Each capsule was ten feet tall, oval-shaped, and had a diameter of three feet. In the dream, one of the capsules was missing and as soon as I entered, the other two just melted. Two more creatures stepped out and stared at me. They were terrifying yet I felt nothing. I don’t remember anything that happened afterwards. I hoped it was a dream, but the events that followed make me think otherwise. First, I was found by the morning patrol outside of the room. This was pretty unsettling, considering I had no history of sleepwalking. A few of the scientists were rather upset and demanded to know what happened. I told them what happened in my dream. Later that day they opened the door, or more accurately, blew it off. The room was almost identical to what I had seen in my dream, the only difference being that there were three total capsules instead of just the two and they didn’t melt. The scientists were incredulous. They quickly began poking and prodding the capsules, trying to figure out what they were. This went on for a few days until they finally opened it. Fools.

I was on patrol in the ship when it happened. I remember feeling a really sharp pain suddenly in my head, and then I heard a loud hissing noise. I looked into the room and one of the capsules was melting. The scientists continued to study it until one of them let out a loud scream. A creature was beginning to emerge from the capsule and it had stabbed through him with its arm. The creature was tall, roughly seven or eight feet. The creature’s arms were long and spindly and each elbow had a large, wicked looking spike jutting out. Its fingers were long and each ended in wicked nails. The thing had six legs in total; each was a long, black spike. Its head, however, was the most unsettling part. The head was an oval-shape and it had two bright red eyes that shone in the darkness. Its nose was nothing more than two small holes, but its mouth was truly terrifying. The mouth was split up into two tentacle-like mandibles, each bristling with razor sharp teeth, but its lower jaw was one singular thing, only with three rows of dagger-like teeth. I swear it smiled at me before it flung the dead scientist into his companions and shot upwards into the darkness. The rooms may have been small but they were tall, so it was easy for it to disappear into the darkness. Suddenly, one of the scientists went airborne. A moment later his shoe, with foot still inside, fell down next to me. I ordered my men to fire into the other capsules. For a brief moment, nothing happened. Our bullets seemed to do nothing but eventually I heard a sickening screech. The capsule began to dissolve and another creature emerged, but this one was covered in a purplish liquid and it was moving very slowly. We opened fire until it was dead. Suddenly, the third capsule disintegrated with a loud hiss. We opened fire but the thing was too fast. It dodged each and every bullet we fired. It had to have or else I promise it would’ve died. It disappeared into the darkness above but not before grabbing one of my men, causing him to fire panicked shots. Some shots must of hit something because a warm purple liquid dripped on my hand. After that encounter, we all ran out of the ship and kept running until we were safe inside the base. It’s funny to think about because no matter where we went, we would never be safe.

As soon as we left the ship we found the base commander and told him what happened. He did the logical thing, he put the base into lockdown with all of us inside, but he didn’t inform our government of the dangerous creatures we just unleashed. He didn’t even quarantine off sectors of the base or order everybody to stay in a given area. In fact, all he said over the base intercom was that the base was now on lockdown but everyone was supposed to continue on in his or her normal everyday affairs. Looking back, I suppose he did this so that he wouldn’t freak everybody out. It’s a shame because I feel if more people had known about the aliens, more would have survived.

The aliens didn’t strike for a few days. Once they did, the reign of terror began. About three days after the initial incident, my security detail was tasked with tracking them down. We mapped out the base and divided it up into sections. We began systematically and thoroughly checking each section. The base had three towers. The first two were used primarily for storage: food, ammunition, or any other commodity. The third tower was empty because it was a back-up storage tower in case we somehow ended up with surplus supplies. We primarily used the first tower due to its location and convenience. We decided to investigate the second tower first. I’m glad we did but at the same time I regret it since it instigated the whole nightmare. I remember leading my team up the stairs, our FN SCARs cocked and loaded, ready for anything. Since I was the leader I was the first to breach. I opened the door and peered in, then slowly advanced. I remember scanning the room then hearing a clack as someone dropped their weapon. I turned around and my heart skipped a beat. I had initially thought, no hoped, that one of my men was just startled and dropped his gun. I was wrong. One of the aliens had descended from the rafters above and impaled the last soldier in my group with its nails. We all turned and fired at it, but it just climbed up the wall back into the darkness with its meal in tow. Then an arm fell, then a leg, then his head. The thud still sickens me to this day. We all began looking up and trying to scan the darkness. I remember one of my men asked if we had flashlight attachments. I told him we did, but they were stored up in the tower two rafters, right where the aliens were lurking. There was only one ladder, but I decided it would be safest if we all went up together. Once the eleven of us had reached the top, I led my team to the flashlight crate. We opened it up no problem and soon had light we could use to hunt the things. We searched the whole tower but couldn’t find anything. Right as we were about to leave, I noticed a hole in one of the corners. It was bloody and I could see bits of torn clothing around it. The hole was too small for any of us to fit, so we decided to head back down. The next few days were uneventful, but as the saying goes; there’s always the calm before the storm.

A week later we were investigating the third tower. Much like the previous sectors, it was empty. Then the alarms went off, followed almost immediately by the power. I knew it had to be the endgame; I’d seen enough sci-fi movies to know exactly where this was going. I was terrified but I forced myself to move. I rallied my men and told them that we would either die heroically fighting for our lives and the lives of our species or we would live and win. We sprinted out of the tower and ran as fast as we could to reach the base’s command center. We didn’t make it far. The stench of death was so heavy in the air we all had to stop for a minute to compose ourselves. A few men began to retch. I can’t blame them, but horror movies had trained me to have a tough stomach. Once we were all composed we continued on into the nightmare’s core.

Everyone was dead. The aliens had launched a coordinated assault. One attacked the control center, overwhelming everyone there and shutting down our communication network. The other had attacked the power grid and shut it down, thus eliminating all light and heating we had in the base. I was immediately glad for the heavy coats we were given. We pushed in further, following the trail of blood and death. I had thought that the aliens were killing for food but I was wrong. The brutality of the kills showed me it was all done for sport. They were trying to send a message, a message that if only two could cause this much destruction, then an army would mean our extinction. I don’t know what’s more terrifying, this realization in the brutality or the realization of just how smart these creatures were.

The command center confirmed my suspicions. Everything was completely trashed and the corpses were strewn about everywhere, or more accurately the pieces of corpses were strewn about everywhere. Then, with blinding speed, it attacked. I remember that two of my men were suddenly yanked upwards, then a moment later their headless bodies fell back down. I aimed my flashlight upwards, and its beam fell perfectly on the alien perched on a beam. It swung down with such speed that I dropped my SCAR. It pinned me and opened its mouth. It wrapped its two upper mandibles around my head, and in that moment I knew what it was like to die. The terror was debilitating. But, one of my marines took his knife and began to rapidly stab the alien, trying to save me. I felt the pressure around my skull release as the alien turned around. I took this opportunity to grab my SCAR and pump a full clip into the alien’s back. It looked unfazed but I could tell that I had wounded it a little. Then I noticed that the knife had cracked some of its skin. In that moment I realized that it had two layers of skin; one was tough like armor and the other was soft and vulnerable like my skin. I quickly shared this realization with my team. Then we hammered the creature with all of our bullets. Once the last clip fell the alien could barely stand. It tried to run and it was still extremely fast and agile, but I was able to grab onto one of its legs and I began stabbing it at one of its upper joints with my knife. Eventually the leg came off. By that time some of my men were working on the other legs while the remaining three were holding its arms and head back. It had to have been severely weakened or else we couldn’t have killed it. It would have been too strong and fast, but after the last leg fell and its arms were pinned into the metal with our knives, I knew it was time to finish it. All nine of us worked to lift the heaviest console we could, and then we dropped it, crushing the creature’s head. Looking back, I realize it was already weaker than the other alien because we had injured it somewhat right as it left its capsule. After that we continued to search the base for the final alien. The only problem was that the thing liked to play games with us.

It would frequently attack out of the shadows, dragging one of my men away each time. By the time we reached the log house, it was only me and two other men. Frankly I don’t know if we cornered the alien in the log house or if cornered us, but either way, it was a long battle. The thing was so fast that using guns was all but impossible. It predicted our movements and exploited them. It dashed around and led us right where it wanted us. At one point it triggered a lever, which dropped some logs down. The logs pinned one of my men in place and broke his leg. Then the alien struck, decapitating him with its jaws while ripping his heart out of his chest. While it did this I motioned for my other soldier to go towards the saw controls. Once he was in position, I baited the alien towards me. Once it was close, I signaled and he turned the saw on. The alien turned around, but I was able to grab onto it. I began stabbing it and I didn’t stop until its armor snapped my knife. By then I had made a few chinks in the armor but it wasn’t enough. It ran towards the saw, jumped over it, and threw my last man into the saw. At this point all my rage boiled over. This creature had killed everyone here, including my men—men I had sworn to protect. I was done playing around. I let the rage consume me and I went berserk. I took a knife from each of my men, and then I attacked. I ignored its blows but made sure to hammer mine home. Eventually I weakened it enough and pushed it into the saw, slicing it in two. I did it again to make sure it was dead.

After that I walked to the auxiliary base, which luckily the aliens hadn’t attacked, and I radioed for pickup. When I got back I was debriefed, and I made sure to warn the government just how dangerous these things were. I hope to God that we never encounter these creatures ever again.