The Thing Read Online Free PDF Page B

smoke. It rose from what appeared to be a makeshift funeral pyre. Books, tires, furniture, scrap lumber; anything that would burn had been heaped together outside the main building and set on fire. Discernible among the rest of the inorganic kindling were the charred remains of several dogs and at least one man. Mounds of black goo that might have been asphalt or roofing sealant burned fragrantly among the rest of the debris.
    A small gasoline drum lay on its end nearby, its cap missing. A larger fuel oil drum squatted off to one side. Macready checked the smaller container first, then the larger. Both were empty.
    He glanced to his left. Was that only the wind whispering in his ears? He exchanged a look with Copper. The doctor's face was pale, and it wasn't from the cold.
    Macready made another trip back to the copter and opened the door. The shotgun slid easily out of its brackets behind the pilot's seat. He made sure it was loaded, took a box of shells from the compartment beneath and shoved them into his pocket, then hurried to rejoin Copper.
    The doctor glanced sharply at the gun, whose purpose was so different from the instruments he carried in his satchel. But he didn't object to its presence. It seemed small enough insurance in the face of the violence that had ripped this camp.
    They started in toward the center structure, or rather what was left of it. Glowing embers continued to waft past them. One latched onto Macready's shirt-sleeve and he absently batted it out.
    The door was unlocked. Macready turned the latch, stepped back, and used the muzzle of the shotgun to shove it inward. It swung loosely and banged against the interior wall.
    Ahead lay a long, pitch-black corridor. There was a switch just inside the doorway. Copper flipped it several times, without effect. He pulled a flashlight from his coat and aimed it down the corridor.
    "Anybody here?"
    No answer. The beam played off the walls and floor, revealing a tunnel little different in design and construction from those back at their own compound.
    Only the wind talked to them, constant as it was uninformative. Copper looked to the pilot, who shrugged.
    "This is your party, Doc."
    Copper nodded, and started in. Macready followed and moved up beside the older man.
    Their progress was slow because of the debris that filled the corridor. Overturned chairs, chests of equipment, loose wires, and cannisters of gas and liquid made for treacherous walking. Once Macready nearly went over on his face when his feet got tangled in an exploded television set. Copper winced, then gave the pilot a reproving look.
    "Maybe I ought to carry the gun?" He extended a hand.
    Macready was angry at himself, "I'll watch it. It won't happen again. Just watch where you point that flashlight."
    Copper nodded, and tried to keep the beam focused equally on the floor and corridor ahead. It was as cold in the hallway as it was outside.
    "Heat's been off in here for quite a while," he said.
    Macready nodded, his eyes trying to pierce the darkness in front of them. "Anybody left alive would've frozen to death days ago."
    "Not necessarily. Just because this one section is exposed and heatless doesn't mean the whole camp's the same way. Your shack has its own heat, for example."
    "Yeah, but if the generator went out I'd be a popsicle in a couple of hours."
    "Well, they might have portable propane heaters, then."
    Macready threw him a sour look. "I love you, Doc. You're such a damn optimist."
    Copper didn't reply; he continued to play his flashlight beam over floor and walls. The wind wailed overhead.
    Macready stopped. "You hear something?"
    Copper strained, listened. "Yes. I think so." He shifted the light. "Mechanical."
    They followed the faint noise, which soon turned to an audible hissing. As they continued down the corridor the hiss became recognizable as static.
    There was a door blocking the end of the corridor. The steady sputtering came from the other side.
    Copper moved the light over