Black Mountain Side Page #4

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Almost there. Almost there.

F***!

F***.

Anyone ever been sick like this

before?

Yeah, all the time. I'm serious.

You puttin' this in your report?

I'm putting everything in the

report.

Woah. This has nothing to do

with the site.

The report's not just about the

site. It's about the entire camp.

Look. Professor.

We brought you up here to check on

that structure, and get us more money.

You want more money, you have

to address the issues.

Issues? What issues? The guy's sick. It

has nothing to do with the operation.

You weren't properly equipped

to deal with the situation.

That's bull sh*t.

We cauterized his arm with a

f***ing shovel.

Yeah, well we weren't exactly

anticipating a God damned amputation.

You're ill-equipped.

You know what, fine.

Do your report. Maybe we can use the grant

money to buy a f***ing Cat-Scan machine.

Francis...

Do you see it?

Woah. Jesus f***ing Christ.

What... Jesus Christ.

McNaughton...

Anyone, come in, come in,

anyone!

-Is anyone there?

-Is anyone there?

-Is anyone there?

-Is anyone there?

-McNaughton's lost it!

-McNaughton's lost it!

Come in, we're in the lodging cabin,

he cut off his f***ing hand, get Doc!

He cut off his f***ing hand,

get Doc!

I'm on my way, over. Okay, bud. Just

calm down. What's up? What's happening?

It's going to be okay, Doc's on his

way, okay? Just relax, McNaughton.

Dude,

what the f*** is...

Grab him! Hold him down. Holy

sh*t!

Hold him down! What happened?

He cut his arm off!

What's wrong with him?!

Help me hold him still.

Hold him still.

Tie it up!

Hurry!

C'mon, hold on, McNaughton.

It's probably safe to assume you've

never heard of anything like this.

Is he gonna make it?

I don't want to sound

pessimistic, but I doubt it.

Not as long as he stays here.

And McNaughton?

I've got him on an

anti-psychotic.

Did it work?

We'll see. I'll keep a close eye on him

until we can get him out of here, but...

He's probably going to lose the

rest of that arm.

He made a real gnarly mess out

of it.

Christ.

Good.

This way.

Follow my voice.

Open your eyes.

Good.

I can see you, Jensen.

Any symptoms? Feeling sick?

Dizziness, headaches?

No, no, I feel fine, I'm

just... Tired.

Have you been sleeping?

Yeah, some. I,

I wake up and then I can't get

back to sleep.

How long's that been going on

for?

A few weeks.

It's probably stress.

You, have any heart palpitations?

Shortness of breath?

No.

Just waking up for no reason?

Yeah, pretty much.

I have been... Having this,

dream,

though.

Well,

sometimes when you dream. The

body releases adrenaline.

Wakes you up. Is it a nightmare?

No, it's not a nightmare, I mean, it's not

like I'm afraid, or anything like that.

What's the dream?

I see this... Person.

These people, I guess.

They're like us, but

they're not.

It's very strange...

I just feel like they're

watching me.

I don't know.

Alright, well. I'll get you some sleeping

pills. They'll help reduce REM sleep.

You got any allergies? Heart

condition?

Okay.

All the artifacts were found within

thirty feet of the structure.

They all have animals on

them being portrayed as

god-like creatures. That

much is fairly evident.

Right.

Based on the sheer amount of effort that

went into making all these artifacts,

and the structure, and the consistent

use of animal imagery on all of it,

there's no question that this site

was extremely important to them.

Probably a place of worship.

Right, like a shrine.

Right. Now, one recurring theme in

a lot of these pieces is the deer.

This deer god is very important

to them.

Maybe a creator god, like a Kukulkan in

Mayan, or Ehecatl in Aztec religion.

You alright?

Yeah, just thinking...

Yeah, as for where they went

to... Look here.

A lot of early tribes and civilizations

were wiped out by disease.

Obviously, they had no medicine back

then, and they had no understanding

of the concept of

germs and bacteria.

Now, this piece. This is our

youngest piece by...

about a hundred years, so far.

Now, if you look here,

these resemble people but, what's

strange is that they're disfigured.

In all the other pieces, their portrayal

of people is fairly accurate.

Standing up... Arms, legs,

heads...

But that's not the case in this

piece.

People are missing appendages.

They're slouched over.

I believe this

depicts an illness...

A plague.

As the ice melted, the bacteria

could have been unfrozen.

I mean, the time line of our pieces

ends near the end of the ice age.

It's just a theory.

So it wasn't the cold that

killed them,

it was the cold

protecting them, in a way.

Exactly.

So everyone dies,

then no one comes through

for thousands of years,

letting the thing get buried

beneath sediment and ice.

Interesting. Well, it's interesting,

but it's not what I'm worried about.

What are you worried about?

I'm worried about Welles.

Welles. You think what he has is

what this artifact is showing?

It's happened before.

The Curse of the Pharaohs.

So, we're looking at a bacteria that's

ten to eleven thousand years old.

Yeah, frozen, deep in the ice along with

that structure and these artifacts.

Someone was sneaking around

the outpost last night.

Who?

You tell me.

I don't no, maybe it was an animal.

For Christ sake, that was no

animal.

It was speaking words, I heard

it outside my room!

Look! I'm hearing things, we're

all hearing things. Okay?

But there's no one out there.

We're in the middle of nowhere.

This is just stress.

It's not stress!

There was someone

outside my f***ing window,

speaking f***ing

words to someone else!

What are you suggesting?

It's one of the crew?

I'm suggesting,

someone in our crew is

sneaking around, snatching

up all our supplies

and is going to leave us with

nothing, and then we're f***ed!

-That's insane.

-Is it?

-Yes.

-Is it insane?

Yes!

Is McNaughton slicing up his

arm insane?

Is all our workers waking up

one day and deciding to walk

one hundred miles in the arctic

winter insane?

Just look into it!

Look.

As hard as you can.

Don't look at the trees,

or the mountains...

Look past them.

Look.

I just found him

here like this...

He must have untied himself

and taken my rifle.

Well, that's just wonderful.

Did he have a family?

Ex-wife and a kid.

Yeah, divorced though.

Still...

Do an autopsy.

See if you can find out what

was wrong with him.

Any word on a rescue?

Not yet...

Wash your hands.

I think I'll take a shower.

Are you gonna watch me cut him

open?

No, thanks.

F***...

I ran some tests on the tumors

that were forming under his skin.

The cells aren't human.

What are they?

They bare similarity to the

cells of a cephalopod.

An octopus.

There were traces of human cells, but they

were weird in the sense that they were

in the process of changing...

Into what?

Into the octopus like cells...

Or squid or whatever.

You're trying to tell us that Welles

was turning into an octopus...

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