The Eternal Winter - Chapter 8 - Mourning and Analyzing (Patreon)

Within the Military Base located several kilometers to the south of Argo City on planet Arran
              Right as Alex’s squad-mates closed the secret entrance door

“Nooo!!!!” Michelle screams while trying to reach the door, only for her twin to hold he back with his teeth gritted in silence. “Let. Me. Go!!!”

The captain of squad AR27 walks over to her and slaps her in the face, sending her into a stunned daze as he shouts, “We’ve already lost two of our own! I will NOT lose a third!”

He then walks past them as Michelle falls into Michael’s arms and continues crying. Meanwhile Robert just stares blankly at the sealed door and Victoria follows after the captain.

“Damn it, Alex…” the captain mutters while clenching his fist before thinking, ‘This is my fault, isn’t it? For having him take on the other one with me.’

Once he gets sufficiently far away from the others, he stops and slams his fist into the wall of the tunnel, punching straight through the rock and burying his fist in it.

“Don’t beat yourself up over a decision,” Victoria suddenly says from behind him, startling him into pulling his fist back out. “You made a decision, and it didn’t work out as planned. Learn from it and move on.”

The captain takes his helmet off and throws it onto the ground before glaring at Victoria, who already has her helmet held against her side. However, the man doesn’t say anything in response and instead starts heading towards the other end of the tunnel while tersely saying, “Make sure the others join us shortly. We don’t have enough time to mourn right now.”

Victoria quickly salutes with a “Yes, sir!” and turns around to gather the others. But what she doesn’t notice is the tear streaking down the captain’s face as he continues walking towards the inner door of the tunnel whilst completely ignoring the inert traps and alarms.

Back at the sealed outer entrance, Michelle can be seen climbing back to her feet while wiping her tears with her helmet sitting on the floor next to her.

“We need to go,” Victoria repeats herself, to which the two twins nod in agreement and begin walking away. However, Robert just continues staring at the door until Victoria finally grabs his shoulder and gives it a light shake, snapping him out of his daze. “Come on, Robert. He wouldn’t want you to die with him.”

The rookie continues to stare at the door for a few more seconds before looking down at the ground and turning away.

Once they all catch back up with the captain, they find him messing around with the panel for the inner door.

“Watch out for shards inside,” he says with a grimace while pulling the panel off of the wall and revealing the inner circuitry. “I saw one while walking over here. And once it missed me, it physically burrowed out of the tunnel at a very slow pace.”

“Shit, those things can get inside too?!” Michael swears while still holding his sister’s hand and feeling it tense up slightly at the mention of shards.

“Apparently, and that means that-” the captain pauses with a grunt while removing another hidden panel within the revealed inner circuitry, revealing even more circuits along with a simple safe lock. “-there could very well be monsters roaming around the inside of the base.”

This sets off another round of curses from Michael as the captain slowly and carefully enters the code for the non-electrical lock. He then stands back up again once he finishes and the door clicks to show that it’s now unlocked.

And the first thing the group hears once the captain opens the door, revealing a hallway on the other side, is the sound of a loud screech coming from further down the hall from them.

The captain clenches his fist slightly on the door’s handle before quietly saying, “Let’s go,” and walking through the door.

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                                                      Alexander North

Huh. That’s… interesting.

I stare up at the sky, or rather, at the three shards flying across it, completely ignoring me to go towards the base proper.

Then I turn my gaze to look back at the odd shard that seems to be digging itself up from beneath the ground.

And that’s rather terrifying.

It also means that there might be monsters inside of the base.

I watch it slowly dig its way out for a moment before kneeling down and grabbing it myself, just for the blue light in it to enter my arm immediately upon contact. My eyes then widen as I feel the same satisfying feeling as earlier spread through my body, followed by another notice from my terminal stating that my stats have increased.

So, if I had to guess, I’d say that these shards contain some sort of energy that mutates whatever it enters, and these mutations seem to be connected to the heart somehow. But they also turn the mutated ones into seemingly animalistic beasts that lose their intellect.

I drop the shard and walk over to the wraith’s corpse before opening its head up a little and noticing that it does seem to still have a brain. It’s just that its brain is frozen solid.

Which is weird.

Is that why they lose their intellect? And if that’s the case, then why would my heart being artificial stop me from losing mine?

Possibility after possibility enters my mind, only for my to shake my head and begin heading back to the base proper.

For now, making sure the others are safe is more important than guessing at what exactly the energy does to people. Especially since it seems to be helping me somehow.

However, not even a few steps in, I draw to a halt as something I had overlooked in one of the messages earlier comes to mind.

The terminal called the blue energy a source of nutrition. Does that mean I can’t eat and drink normal food and water anymore? Or is it just an additional source that I can have?

Because having to rely on something that is causing an apocalypse as my only source of nutrition would be a problem.

I narrow my eyes at the thought before sighing again and continuing on my way towards the base.

Nothing I can do about it. Although I get the feeling that dad might rush me to the Terran Research Union and try to figure out how to turn me back if there really is a problem with this.

If not? Then he’d just as happily leave me like this for the power it gives me.

And I think I’d be fine with it too.

After all, taking in the symbiont isn’t all that much different, and I was basically raised by dad knowing I would probably become something no longer human anymore.

This is just… a different path, I guess?

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