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Prologue
Sergeant Brooks turned the heater up again, all the way this time. “Damn government vehicles,” he said shivering. He was doing his best to ignore the cold, but every time he exhaled he could see his breath. The winters were tough on him. Having grown up in the south, he hadn’t been exposed to the cold and the snow.
“Why do they always send me out in this shit?” he thought as he glanced towards the sky. The atmosphere was completely gray as if one great cloud had completely encompassed the earth. Snow cascaded around him in thick flakes and accumulated quickly. He glanced in his mirror to check on his cargo. He couldn’t see it, of course. It was hidden within the trailer, but he couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Bringing his eyes back to the road, he gasped as he saw a deer in the road staring back at him. He dropped the gear and tried to brake, but the large vehicle wouldn’t be stopped so quickly in the snow. Panic setting in, he threw the wheel to the left as he sped towards the deer, but the truck didn’t turn. He yanked harder on the wheel and stomped the brake as hard as he could, but the truck wouldn’t respond – until it did. In an instant, the large truck began to roll. The driver felt his stomach drop. The truck landed on its side, and its momentum slid it into the nearby tree line where it came to an abrupt stop.
When he came to, the engine was still running. His vision slowly came back into focus. It took him a moment to realize that he wasn’t sitting upright. His body was trying to fall to his right, and the only thing keeping him from falling was the seat belt. Gripping the handle above the driver door, he released the seat belt and swung his legs underneath of him. Trying to calm, he began checking himself for injuries. Noticing nothing, he began to feel a wave of relief. Until…
“The cargo!” the thought flashed across his mind. Feelings of dread and guilt washed over him. “No, no, no, no,” he repeated as he rolled down the driver window and quickly lifted himself out of the overturned cabin. He raced to the trailer door, slipping the whole way. The outside of the truck appeared to be a common tractor-trailer to throw off suspicion, but he was carrying top secret cargo. He said a quick prayer as he unlocked the door and swung it open. The inside contained tanks of glowing liquids, endless tubes, and monitors displaying information he couldn’t begin to guess at. At the very center of it all, however, was a large sphere shaped metallic tank, and it was leaking.
“Shit!” he whispered as he ran towards the sphere. He had no idea what he was looking for, but he searched for anyway that he might be able to stop the leak. It was too dark to see clearly, he had to lean in close. He brought his face close enough to trace the leak to its source when he realized that the sphere wasn’t metal, but glass. The metallic coloring belonged to whatever the sphere held. Suddenly, he felt something on his leg. He glanced down to see metallic liquid completely covering his boot and beginning to climb up his leg. He jerked backward, but the foot covered in the liquid was held as if encased in dried cement. He jerked harder. His free foot slipped from underneath of him, and he landed hard on the wall of the overturned trailer. The foot being held in the liquid stayed firmly fixed, and the liquid continued to climb his leg.
“What the fuck!” he yelled as he frantically tried to pull himself towards the trailer’s exit. Then he felt it. Everything being touched by the liquid mass began to burn, but also feel as if the heat had been drained from it. He screamed as the ooze continued crawling its way up past his waist, flooding into every orifice it came to. The burning, paralyzing feeling overtaking him, he instinctively tried to push the ooze away as it crept closer to his face. His hands sank into the mass, and became stuck, just as his foot had been. He stretched his neck as much as he could and screamed ... (continued)
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