Redhead – Chapter Two

“What do I do?”  James said.  He said it softly at first.  It wasn’t long, however, before he realized that he was screaming it again and again.  Such was the mindless fear that gripped him.  Right from the time that he had lost sight of the plane, the snow had started up again.  Now he was blinded with the cold, wet, white snow which buffeted him from every side.

It wasn’t long before James stopped feeling the moisture on his face.  He began to run. He ran as fast as he could through the whiteness until he began to pant.  He felt an urge to lie down and rest but he had sense enough not to give in.  He simply stood hunched over for a moment while he caught his breath.

James thought he heard something and looked all around.  The memory of the buildings with the insignia which he had seen still haunted him.  With his hands on his knees, he panted some more but stopped quickly.  He was no longer alone.

He had not noticed them arrive and he did not move due to his fear.  He continued to look at the enormous pair of snow-crusted boots which stood in front of his lowered eyes.  After a pause of indecision he slowly raised his vision.   An enormous insulated trench-coat stood there but as James scanned upwards, more and more of the lower coat appeared.  It was a good four feet, shrouded in the swirling snow, before the thick black belt contrasted with the brown of the coat.  The torso seemed disproportionate to the lower section or at least so it seemed to James.  Crowning the long brown coat was a breathing apparatus mask with a large set of goggles and a brown hood.

None of this could be real.  He reasoned that he still must be on the plane.  Maybe he had even fallen asleep and was about to wake up, just as the plane was landing at the mission’s end in northern Norway.  Maybe he could even reach towards and through the unmoving, ghostly, masked figure just to prove that it wasn’t there.  He quickly decided that such an action would make him feel better.  It would reassure him that he was dreaming.  He raised his arm and approached at a timid pace.

He stopped, halfway there, when he thought he saw the head move.  Watching it only made clear to him that the movement must have been more imagination.  He continued.  Just as he extended his fingers to carefully touch the apparition, its right arm sprang forward and gripped him just below the elbow of his outstretched arm.

“Oh my God!”  James screamed and fell to the ground just as he managed to pull free.  He hurried to his feet and ran, turning once only to see the figure coming after him with an inhumanly long stride.  He ran further but was confronted by two more trench-coats directly in front of him.  These stood solemnly for a few seconds but soon they too were walking towards him.  He turned to the left… two more… to the right… two more.  All of these six had what appeared to be large gatling guns.  He turned now to the direction from where he had come but the abnormally tall coat and mask stepped out of the snowy tempest.  It was taller than the others by one or two whole feet.

“No!  No!”  James screamed, his voice growing hoarse from the cold.  The giant stepped closer and tried to grab him once again.  He didn’t know why he did it.  Perhaps panic was the only explanation.  He charged at his greatest fear and knocked it to the ground.  Unseen by James, one of the others swung the butt of his weapon and slammed him in the back of the head while he was trying to stand.  He neither knew what hit him or what he was fighting but just as the giant hit the ground, the goggles of his target came undone.  In the second before he felt the blow to the head and lost consciousness, he looked into two gaping holes, skin-covered and healed over but nonetheless empty sockets.  They were sockets where eyes should have been.

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