The Eternal Winter - Book 1 - Chapter 52 - The Third Hangar (Patreon)

                                                                                            Alexander North

It ends up taking us about five more minutes of walking before we start to see more light. And then another two minutes until we find ourselves at the third hangar, where we’re all left staring in shock at what’s left of it.

All of the aircraft have been completely wrecked and sent flying all over the hangar, meanwhile various worms and for some reason wendigos are littered all over the area, dead. And probably because the two monsters were too busy fighting to absorb the energy of the dead frozen ones, they all still have their energy, albeit slightly dissipated in their bodies, leaving me with a strong desire to go absorb it all.

But the sight of four frozen corpses immediately distracts me from that desire. Three of which belonging to captains, and one belonging to major Carter.

“The major’s dead,” I mutter in shock.

This means that there is only one Tier 2 symbiont host in the base – assuming he hasn’t already left the base’s grounds by now with the other squads.

What leaves me feeling a little bit horrified though is the sight of the two captains that were trying to kill me before. Not because they’re dead. But because their entire upper halves were completely torn off of their body, with shreds of blood and gore splattered about them.

I hear one of the others gagging at the sight while several of the others reach up to partially cover the part of their helmet that lets air in, since the air filters in our helmets aren’t working anymore.

Something suddenly lets out a growl in the room, bringing everyone’s attention back to the frozen statues of the major and the three captains, where we find a couple of wendigos moving out from behind a large frozen scrap of aircraft. They appear to have been trying to dig the captains and the major out of the ice, likely to eat their symbionts if what my terminal told me is correct. But they clearly didn’t have any success. At least, if the rapidly healing, bloody claws at the tips of their fingers is anything to go by.

The wendigos all begin growling, but for some reason, their growling slowly cuts off as they set their sights on me. Then they actually begin to run away while whimpering, out of the hangar.

I blink in surprise before glancing at the others, who I find are all staring at me in awe.

“I think we just found an anti-frozen one repellant,” Cynthia says in a tone that makes it difficult to tell if she’s joking or not. The others seem to think so though, because they begin to grimly chuckle, taking the little amount of amusement they can while in our situation.

After everyone’s short laughter runs out, I ask out loud, “Terminal, do you know why the frozen ones ran at the sight of me?”

A few seconds pass in silence before it answers.

/ Notice \

Answer to User’s Query – Frozen Ones are capable of sensing the Energy Level of other Frozen Ones and instinctually fear Frozen Ones with much higher Energy Levels than their own.
However, if Frozen Ones of a single type have enough numbers, then they may ignore this fear to attack regardless.

\End of Notice/

“Huh,” I can’t help but mutter out loud.

“What is it?” the captain asks with the others all staring at me without a word, which is kind of creepy. So I stretch my hand out, and they all touch their gloved hands to mine before I order my terminal to share the answer with them.

Guess I really am a repellant for the weaker Frozen Ones now. But they weren’t running from me before. Was the amount of energy I got from the large rat and the spider queen really that significant?

But wait a second…

“Terminal, if Frozen Ones are able to sense the Energy Level of other Frozen Ones, then why can’t I do the same?” I ask with a frown.

The terminal answers my question right away this time.

/ Notice \

Answer to User’s Query – User is capable of sensing the Energy Level of other Frozen Ones but is currently unaware of how to do so. Therefore it has been done for you by this unit up till now.

\End of Notice/

Huh. Guess that makes sense. After all, the terminal can’t sense anything I’m not already able to sense.

I look away from the terminal’s text as it vanishes to see the others all looking around the hangar for survivors. But unfortunately, none of them have found any.

I on the other hand begin to walk over towards the statue of the major, only to immediately rush as far away as possible from it when I begin to feel a strong urge to dig into the statue myself and devour the symbiont inside. Even though the symbiont is already dead.

Once I get far enough away, I let out a sigh of relief thanks to the urge having faded away.

That’s… kind of frightening.

Just the thought of tearing into a human’s – or former human’s considering they’re symbiont hosts – chest and eating the symbiont whose main body is wrapped around their damned heart causes a shiver to run down my spine.

I look up to find Cynthia sending me a knowing look before continuing her search. So I take that as my cue to do the same, albeit far away from the dead symbiont hosts.

Nothing stands out in the hangar though, and after none of us manage to find any survivors, we all regroup at the hangar’s exit and begin heading towards the main stairwell in the opposite direction of the caved-in hallway.

“How bad do you think it’ll be outside?” I hear Michael asking his sister, who just shrugs and says, “I don’t know, but I really hope it’s better out there than in here.”

I do as well.

We walk down the hall in silence for several minutes before it’s suddenly shattered by a howl. One that feels vaguely familiar, despite its much stronger and deeper tone.

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