The telephone rang, awakening Emily from her daydream. She was a scientist, based in the Antarctic, during research into the life on the icy wasteland. Her research was done around a small facility of eight people, from a variety of different backgrounds, and many different countries. However, at the moment she was at home in London on a month's holiday, of which she had two a year.
She picked up the phone. "Hello.......Oh, hi........What is it?........I suppose this means you want me?.......I'll be up as soon as possible. I'd better be getting a lot for this.........O.K. See you in a day or so." It was one of the scientists at the research facility. They had made an important discovery and wanted all of the scientists as soon as possible.
Emily left the house a couple of hours later and drove to Heathrow. She had managed to get tickets at short term for a huge price. Still, it wasn't her who would pay. She arrived at Heathrow and sat in the waiting room until it was time to board. She took out her laptop, connected it to her phone and checked her e-mails. There was one from the research facility. She opened it and read it.
"Sorry about the short notice. As I promised on the phone, here are more details. While digging in the ice a few days ago we found a skeleton. It looked like a skeleton of a snake at first, but closer examination has shown it to have a few small, but major differences. If you look at the attached picture Jim has outlined all the differences. DNA tests have revealed it to be different to any known species by quite a long way. At the moment this is all we know about it. When you get here we can show you any new discoveries we have made."
Emily looked at the picture, not particularly interested. She was more concerned with the lifestyle and reproduction of the animals they found, rather than what they actually were like. Soon her flight was called and she boarded the plane. She slept on the plane, being very used to flying. She was woken for dinner, the usual grey meat in gravy and smelly vegetables. She ate them anyway. After eating, there were still a couple of hours to go, so she went back to sleep.
The plane landed at Buenos Aires with a bump. When they were landed Emily left the plane and, almost immediately after having passed immigration, met one of the pilots from the research facility. She left with him and they boarded the light aircraft. They took off and headed for Antarctica. The pilot was not permitted to know about what sort of things went on at the research institute, so Emily made small talk with him until they arrived.
When they arrived Emily wrapped up warmly before leaving the plane, ready to head into the cold snowy desert. Colin, the man in charge of the entire facility, met her. He filled her in on what they had found out about the creature since their e-mail. They had found a second one near to the first, which was much better preserved. It still had skin, and they had it in a carefully controlled environment to stop it decomposing inside the facility.
As soon as Emily was in Colin took her to see their new find. To Emily's surprise, it was huge. She had expected it to be a small thing from the picture, maybe a foot or two, but this was a good twenty or twenty-five feet long. The skin was pale, and slightly red. Although some bits were missing or badly damaged it was still possible to guess at what it looked like in its entirety.
Emily asked Colin for permission to go and examine it. However, at the moment it was still not ready, and she would have to wait another six or seven hours. She moved into her room and went round to find the others. They were all sitting discussing the find over coffee, all waiting until it was safe to examine the creature.
Eventually they were given permission to examine it two at a time. Emily and Jim were first, to try and work out how it lived and what its internal organs were like. Emily put on her protective suit and entered the area. She examined the creature's skin. It was smooth, and without colour or pattern. The head was quite big with eyes and a mouth. However, there were no other features further down the body.
"No nose or mouth. No gills or other breathing facilities. Looks to have absorbed food and oxygen through its skin. Large eyes. Body is smooth with row of spines down underside. No sexual organs. No anus. Also no limbs, so probably moved like a snake." She turned the recorder off. "OK Jim. I've seen all there is to see." She walked out of the area, into the scrubbing system, which thoroughly washed her suit. One she was clear to go she stepped into the changing area and removed the suit. Even though she had only been in a small time shed was very sweaty from the suit.
Once she had changed back into her normal clothes she went out to join the others watching the proceedings. Jim was cutting into the animal. He started at the head. With careful skill he cut it open and slowly peeled back the skin. To Emily's surprise the head contained a row of teeth, and a throat, along with a windpipe. These led down to their proper organs. As Jim carried on down the body he slowly revealed that its internal anatomy was similar to that of other similar creatures. However, all its internal parts had no external outlets.
After a painstaking six hours the research was complete. All the organs had been checked and examined. The skin had been examined, and proved Emily's guess that food and oxygen could be absorbed through the skin. However, there was no explanation as to why the animal contained a full set of seemingly mostly unused organs.
The next day normal life resumed at the facility, with nearly all of the time devoted to digging in the ice near to where the other two of the creatures had been found. Work was slow and unrewarding. For the whole day the managed to find nothing of use. The next day the same happened. However, on the third day the struck lucky. Under the ice one of the diggers spotted some more of the pink skin. Soon all hands were concentrated on the area.
Slowly, over a course of three or four hours the creature slowly was dug out. Although it was the same colour and shape as the others, this one had major differences. For a start, it was only three or four feet long. It also had a mouth, nose and appeared to be more like a normal animal. Eventually it was out and they moved it to the research facility.
As with the last one, this creature was subjected to the same careful examination. It soon revealed that it was the same species as the other ones they had found, despite the differences. Once the examination was complete it was now up to Emily to try and work out why the two were so different.
She worked on her own for two solid days, creating theories and checking them with the facts that they knew. Slowly she managed to create a picture of its life. She guessed that it started small, like the one they had found, with a normal anatomy. It grew, although Emily could not tell how quickly, into the twenty-five foot monster they had found, and for some reason lost its way of life, instead changing into something quite different.
This theory fitted all the facts that they had. However, it still did not explain why. This mystery could not be explained from the evidence that they had, and so the dig resumed. It continued for four days without success. However, on the fifth day tragedy struck. Claire, Emily's closest friend at the facility, and the only other woman, went missing. She had stayed slightly later than the others at the dig and had not returned.
As soon as it was light the next day a search party was sent out. They covered as much of the ground as they could over the next three days, but there was no sign of her. Eventually the search team gave up, and they held a memorial service for her, and resumed work on the dig.
A couple of days went past, with no developments. However, during the night after they had finished working Emily was woken by a scratching noise coming from outside her door. She opened and looked out. Standing there was Claire. Emily shouted for the others and turned on the light. Claire was naked, half starved, badly bruised and bleeding, but amazingly alive. However, she was muttering something under her breath.
"It's eaten me. It's going to kill us all. It will take you and destroy us. It lives off us. It wants you to come to it, to give yourself to it. We must flee. We must get away. We must not let it eat us." Emily asked Claire what it was, but she did not answer. Any other questions to Claire also were unanswered, and she continued with her mad rumblings. Immediately she was loaded onto a plane and flown to hospital. However, soon after they got the call that she had died in the flight, despite the best efforts of the facility medical staff.
Eventually the dig resumed. However, the scientists had not got over the sight of Claire, standing there, naked and bruised, driven mad by something out there. They carried on digging, but there were no developments, no more sign of the mysterious creatures.
On the third day of the dig, they spotted something. A dig revealed it to be an animal, but not one of the pink creatures. This one was like a dog. However, it had been attacked by something, and was thin and obviously had been badly hurt, reminding them all of Claire. Emily wondered whether this could fit into the other creatures, and left the others to fetch her notebooks.
She arrived at the research facility and took off her coat. It was deserted. Normally she loved it when it was quiet but the recent business with Claire had made her nervous. She quickly gathered up her work and left the building, back into the snow.
Emily had not gone more than fifty yards, still a good distance from the dig, when she was knocked over. She fell to the ground. Immediately she was held in place. She struggled to get up, but could not, being held by her unknown attacker. "Help!" she screamed. Suddenly she was not being held any more. She stood up. Jim was by her side, laughing at her. She made a snowball and threw it at him.
"I’m just going to get some of my stuff," he said. "I’ll wait here," Emily replied. Jim went into the building. Suddenly Emily was knocked over again. "Who is it this time?" she asked. There was no reply. She struggled to get up, but couldn’t. Suddenly, in front of her eyes she saw a familiar flash of pink. It was one of the strange creatures. They were alive! She tried to scream out but it had part of its body over her mouth. She could feel herself being dragged away, powerless against the creature.
Jim’s voice rang out. "Where have you gone?" he called. Emily tried to shout back but could not. By now she was out of sight. The creature stopped dragging her, and for the first time she got a good view. It was six or seven feet long and still had a mouth. It wrapped itself around her, pinning her arms to her side, and covering her mouth.
As the creature was round her she could see a change coming over it. The mouth was starting to disappear, slowly but noticeably. It was also increasing in length, again slowly. It took four or five hours until the creature was a full thirty feet, and now resembled the large specimen. All thirty feet of the creature were round her, and she suddenly realised what it was doing. The creature was a parasite! She realised that this is what had happened to Claire.
Once the creature was holding her tightly Emily felt her clothes slowly melt away under the creature’s skin. Emily felt a relaxing feeling, and warmth spread through her body. She realised that the creature was tranquillising her, and in fact keeping her alive in the cold. She lay still, feeling the creature against her.
The creature was pressed tight against her skin, and she realised that it could actually absorb her blood through its skin. Sure enough, the spines cut into her flesh and she started to bleed. However, the tranquillisers of the creature stopped her from feeling the pain.
They remained in that position for a few hours, while the creature built up its strength from its huge growth. After a while the creature moved, and she felt the end of its tail slip onto her vagina. Suddenly she felt herself becoming aroused. The creature obviously had some way of making her aroused, and she wondered why.
Despite the dangerous situation, Emily could not stop her arousal. It was slow, and perhaps an hour after the creature first moved onto her vagina, she orgasmed. To her surprise, its tail slid a short way into her vagina, around an inch or two. She realised, to her horror, that the other victims, the dog and Claire, had been female, and that the creature was using her for reproduction.
Emily felt her arousal building up again, as slowly as before. Eventually she came again, and again the creature moved its tail further into her, this time four or five inches. This process repeated itself again three more times, taking almost four more hours. Eventually the tail was in almost twelve inches.
The creature now seemed to be content in its position. Emily was trapped under it, protected from the cold by its coils. The situation almost seemed ridiculous, being held by a giant snake-like thing, it keeping her alive while she kept it alive, with its tail forced up her vagina into her womb so that she could have its babies.
This situation continued for an uncountable number of days and nights. The creature would continually keep Emily aroused, and its coils were comfortable. Although the creature provided her with all the water she needed, it was draining her energy, and she was hungry. However, the hunger caused no pain, due to the tranquillisers the creature provided.
As the days went on Emily could feel something growing inside her. The creature removed its tail to provide room for them, bringing Emily down from her constant pleasure. Eventually she could feel the creature round her moving, getting ready for the young. Slowly, they crawled out from her, one at a time, with gaps of maybe an hour between each one. When she had finished giving birth to these strange creatures, counting twelve in total, she felt the one around her begin to loosen, and the pain, cold and hunger came flooding back.
After half an hour she was no longer being held. The large creature was lying beside her, obviously dead. Of the twelve little ones there was no sign. She looked around her, being able to see where she was for the first time. She was under a lot of snow in a hollowed out cavern. She tried to stand, but her muscles were much to weak from a lack of use and the effect of the tranquillisers. Slowly she started to crawl up to the surface.
When she surfaced she stopped. The brightness blinded her, and she lay in the snow with her hands over her eyes. She suddenly realised how tired she was, not having slept for so many days. The tiredness washed over her, and she was unable to stay awake.
Two days later, almost seventeen days after she had disappeared, the scientists found her in this position, cold and dead. They carried her back to the facility, and from there her body flew back to London, for her funeral, taking the secret of her children with her.