22 HOURS AGO
When Sofia Diaz was thirteen years old, she read an article in Adventure Magazine about a one-way trip to settle on Mars. The article described details about how the project would unfold, and was asking for families to apply. The Exodus Project was looking for highly intelligent, resourceful personnel seeking adventure.
Sofia knew, straight away, that she wanted to go. No, not that she wanted to go, that she had to go. That she was supposed to go. There was no question in her mind, she and her family were exactly the kind of people needed for the project.
Her papa, Professor Eco Diaz, was a well-respected expert in astrophysics. Born in Australia, he had worked on the space programmes in Russia, the United States and Great Britain. Sofia’s mama, Professor Rosita Diaz was a biochemist working on groundbreaking techniques to grow plants in difficult environments. Sofia’s brother, Pablo, was at university studying maths, which meant Sofia was the odd one out. At school, she was average across the board, but outside of school, every moment was spent seeking adventure. Scouts, rock climbing, kayaking, surfing, caving, even skiing – which wasn’t easy when you lived in Australia. She could ride a dirt bike like a professional, and had already spent two years learning Wing Chun Kung Fu. Sofia was hungry for adventure, always pushing herself to the next thing, but she couldn’t find anything that gave her quite the adventure she craved.
Until now.
It took her ages to persuade Mama and Papa to apply, and her friends told her she was mad. Two years training in Antarctica, followed by a six-month one-way space flight to settle on a dusty planet with a handful of other families wasn’t their idea of fun. But Sofia felt as if it was her destiny. She wanted to do something no one had ever done before. And, as young as she was, she knew she had something to offer. She wasn’t a science nerd, but she was smart, strong and resourceful.
Sofia Diaz believed she would be an asset to the Exodus Project, and now, at fourteen years old, and only two months into her training, was the chance for her to prove it.
The wind rose like a demon in the night and didn’t let-up for hours. It howled across the ice, bringing with it a blizzard that turned the world into a blur. It made driving difficult, so she and Peters took three times longer than they should to reach Outpost Zero. Sofia insisted on driving the Magpie – she was better at it than Peters – but spent the entire journey going no faster than a crawl, with her nose centimetres from the windscreen. One wrong move could see them swallowed by a crevasse and never seen again, so she kept it slow and steady even though she was desperate to get back. Everyone she loved was at Outpost Zero, and she had a feeling they needed her help.
Arriving at the base was like coming into a ghost town. There was no power, the temperature had dropped, and The Hub carried the faint smell of overripe fruit and . . .
‘Do you smell fish?’ Sofia asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Peters said. ‘Could be.’
The smell stood out to Sofia because Antarctica was bland. Snow and ice don’t smell of anything, and the extreme cold meant most objects held on to their aromatic chemicals. In the warmth of The Hub the most common smells were usually coffee, fried food and sweaty people.
When she noticed the fragments of insect casings littering the floor, Sofia immediately thought of her trip out to the BioMesa cavern, and how she had returned with Ice Core #31. Doc Blair’s bugs.
That was when her first feelings of guilt began to form. Perhaps this was all connected to something she had done.
In the Control room, Sofia turned on the tracker and zoomed in on the base. Instead of there being blue dots scattered all over Outpost Zero, showing everyone going about their work, they were all focused in one place.
‘We found ’em.’ Sofia tried not to sound scared.
‘That’s all of them.’ Peters focused the camera on the list of names beside the map. ‘My family, your family . . . everyone. But what are they doing out there?’
‘I dunno. Some kind of meeting?’ Something wasn’t right. ‘I guess we’d better go and find out.’ Sofia gave him a reassuring smile, but inside she was on full alert and fighting a rising sense of panic. ‘I’m sure everything’ll be fine.’ She double-checked the fastenings on her coat, and tugged at her fur hat with the floppy dog-ears to make sure it was on tight.
As soon as they were both ready, Sofia lowered her goggles and opened the door. Feeling the full force of the blizzard, she put her head down and stepped out into the cold, holding on to the handrail as she scanned the area surrounding the base. There was nothing to see. No clues about what had happened there. The ferocity of the blizzard meant she could barely see more than a couple of metres ahead of her, and any tracks were long gone.
Far away, on the other side of the landing strip, the Storage Bay was invisible through the storm.
She handed the tracker to Peters. ‘You OK, Prof?’ She leant close to his ear and shouted over the howling storm. ‘You ready?’
‘Yes!’ he shouted in return.
Sofia steeled herself for what was to come, and started down the steps, boots crunching ice as she battled her way over to the Magpie. Peters followed and waited, camera still running, as Sofia climbed into the vehicle.
When she emerged from the cabin, Peters pointed the camera at what she was carrying. ‘You think we’re going to need those?’
‘Be Prepared. It’s a good motto.’ She shoved a bright orange flare gun into her jacket pocket. Into her other pocket, she stuffed a handful of refills. The second thing she had taken from the Magpie was a metal rod, about a metre and a half long, with a scoop on the end. It was designed for collecting rock samples, but Sofia figured it would pack a good punch.
‘Here.’ She handed it to Peters.
He backed away, now seeing it as a weapon rather than as a scientific tool.
‘Take it,’ she insisted.
Reluctantly, Peters put the tracker in his pocket and took the tool from her.
Sofia grabbed a second collection tool from the Magpie, along with a large coil of tough, light rope. She wrapped one end around the front driver’s side wheel-axle, and secured it with a clove hitch knot, then put her arm through the rest of the coil. ‘Do kids read Hansel and Gretel in Sweden?’
‘I have no idea. I’m from Norway.’
‘But you know the story, right?’
‘Of course.’
‘Well, this is our trail of breadcrumbs.’ Sofia pointed a thumb into the blizzard. ‘I reckon it’s going to be rough out there; we need to know the way back.’
Peters eyed the coil of rope around Sofia’s shoulder.
‘Don’t worry.’ Sofia read his mind. ‘It’ll be long enough.’
The wind beat at them as if it wanted to wipe them from the Earth. It fought to get inside their jackets, and hooked its invisible fingers under their hoods, but they leant in to it and kept their heads down as they struggled across the landing strip, uncoiling the rope in their wake.
‘Still getting that reading?’ Sofia stopped to check on Peters.
Peters pulled the tracker from his pocket. ‘It’s stronger now.’ He held it up for Sofia to see the blue dots pulsing over the spot where Storage lay. ‘No sign of movement.’
Sofia checked the tension on the rope. ‘When we get there, I want you to stay behind me.’
‘Why? What are you expecting? I should go first, I’m the—’
Sofia didn’t wait for him to finish. She was fit, strong and skilled at Wing Chun Kung Fu. Peters was smart, but he was short, light and on the wrong side of forty. If they were going to face any kind of physical challenge, she wanted to be the first to deal with it. Sofia knew that if she had to strike, she would strike hard, fast, and without hesitation. Professor Peters, on the other hand . . . well, not so much.
Sofia set off again, continuing until she came to the guide rope lining the far edge of the landing strip. Without even pausing to catch her breath, she ducked under the rope and trudged on through the blizzard. Another hundred metres and Storage loomed out of the storm.
When she reached the steps, Sofia secured her rope to the handrail so they could follow it back to The Hub later. Once that was done, she tightened her grip on the rock collection tool, and climbed the metal stairs as quietly as she could. Reaching the top, she wiped ice from her goggles and turned to the camera. ‘OK. We’re going in.’
‘Wait,’ Peters said. ‘I should—’
She hit the button and stepped inside.
Peters followed her into the darkness, and the door swished shut behind them.
They stood motionless, listening, but there was nothing more than the muffled howl of the wind.
The first thing Sofia noticed was how warm and damp it was in there. The place was humid, way hotter than it was supposed to be on the base. There was a strong smell of sweat, like a locker room, with another scent lying underneath it; something sweet and ugly, like overripe fruit.
As her eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, she scanned the room, making out the silhouettes of the items she expected to see. Shelves laden with equipment, packing crates, spare parts, tools and—
Something new. Something she didn’t recognize. Something that shouldn’t be there.
It stood at the far end of the module, large and dark, hidden in shadow.
Sofia raised her weapon, holding it over her shoulder like a baseball bat ready to swing. ‘It’s hot in here,’ she whispered. ‘There must be power to this part of the base. You know where the light switch is?’
‘Yes,’ Peters replied. ‘I’ll turn it on.’
‘Not yet. Point the camera at the far end of the room and wait for my count of three. Then I want you to switch it on.’
‘Why?’
‘Please,’ she said. ‘Just do it.’ And without waiting for an answer, Sofia began to count. ‘One . . .
‘. . . two . . .
‘. . . three. Now!’
The lights came on as soon as Peters flicked the switch. They flared over the room, illuminating the shape skulking in darkness.
Except it wasn’t just one shape. It was many shapes. Many people.
Many monsters.