Chapter 14
379words
"Deep Freeze Protocol..." Lila watched code scroll across the screen. "This is a cryogenic hibernation program! But activation requires..." She froze, looking at Amy in horror.
The girl curled on the ice, golden threads writhing beneath her skin like living wires. Each filament pointed toward the USB drive in Kay's hand, like iron filings drawn to a magnet.
"It needs a host," Kay rasped. "A living body as a freezing vessel."
Amy suddenly lunged forward! Golden threads burst from her fingertips, spearing toward Kay's throat!
Kay twisted aside. The golden threads grazed his ear, sizzling where they struck ice. He swung his arm back, driving the USB drive toward Amy's forehead—
"NO!" Lila tackled Kay. They tumbled across the ice, the USB drive skittering toward a crack in the frozen river.
Amy shrieked and lunged for the USB drive. Fungal filaments erupted from the crack, ensnaring her ankles and dragging her toward the black depths!
"Hold on!" Lila seized Amy's hand in a death grip. The ice beneath them groaned ominously.
Kay scrambled to the "Ark" wreckage and tore off the vehicle battery electrodes. Electric arcs danced across the ice, illuminating the river bottom—countless frozen corpses suspended below like insects in amber. Fungal filaments emerged from their eye sockets, reaching for Amy.
"Catch!" Kay hurled the electrodes to Lila.
Electric current surged into the frozen river. Fungal filaments convulsed and retreated, allowing Amy to break free. As Lila yanked the girl back, the USB drive disappeared, dragged by filaments into the river's darkest depths.
"The seed bank..." Lila collapsed at the ice hole's edge, tears freezing on her cheeks.
Kay, however, focused on the bubbles that formed when the electrodes touched water. "There's an air chamber down there." He grabbed Buck's circuit board. "Help me locate the USB signal!"
The circuit board connected to the control console wreckage. The screen flickered to life with a blurry sonar image showing a perfectly regular metallic cavity at the river bottom. The USB drive signal pulsed from within.
"An artificial structure!" Lila gasped. "There's a base under the glacier!"
Amy suddenly grew still. She pointed toward the ice hole, her pupils reflecting an eerie blue glow. "They are... afraid."
