[Dylflon]

After an uneasy sleep, MacReady and Doctor Copper prepare for their trip to the Norwegian base. The rest of the crew busy themselves in an attempt to occupy their minds.

The radio man Windows repeats the same line “Hello, hello? Do you read me? This is American Outpost 31. Does anybody read me? Over.” over and over again for an hour.
Blair, the team’s senior biologist locks himself in his lab, creating a computer program. He loads in numbers, variables, and equations for hours on end.

As MacReady finishes packing his gear into a hiking backpack, he hears a knock on the door of his shed. On the other end of the knock is assistant mechanic Palmer.

“Uuuuuhhhh, Mac? You might call me paranoid but…well, I saw Copper go out into the snow last night by himself.”

“So what?”

“Well…you might want to come take a look at the helicopter”

MacReady ran to the helicopter at full flight with Palmer dragging behind, lungs ravaged by the combination of freezing arctic air and marijuana smoke.

The rest of the men (besides Windows, Bennings and Blair) were already surrounding the helicopter.

“Mac, someone gutted the chopper”, Norris informed in a defeated tone.
“Whoever did it also got to the rest of the vehicles”

“Where’s Doc?”, asked Childs.

MacReady immediately started running towards the camp. He was followed soon after by the rest of the crew. It wasn’t long until they ran into Copper just outside of the camp. Copper didn’t say anything in the classical sense. But what came out of his mouth could be more likened to a howl that has been inverted.

“What the…”

“Shit he’s…he’s one of those things!”, shouted Nauls the cook.

Garry pulled his revolver out and aimed it at Copper.

“Do it!”, yelled MacReady.

A shot rang out that would be heard for miles around if only there were someone out there to hear it. Copper’s body fell to the ground, spouting blood over the snowy ground.

MacReady walked into the middle of the circle of shocked and horrified men.

“I don’t know exactly what we’re dealing with here. But whatever it is, it can emulate us. That thing had not finished turning into the Doc. But if we gave it any longer, who knows if we would have been able to tell. Whatever this thing is, it wants to hide. And wait. I don’t know how many of you are infected. But for now, nobody goes anywhere alone.”

The crew walks back inside, to see Bennings, slumped over on the ground, stabbed in the throat.

The silence lasted for what felt like minutes, until Palmer broke it.

“Did Doc do that?”



Deaths:

manasecret - Bennings (uninfected) - killed by the vigilante
Bond - Doctor Copper (infected) - killed by the mob

The aliens have grown in number.