Beneath Earth's Crust

TW // body horror

“It’s nothing like we’ve ever seen before.”

Sasha Antonov sifted through seven different medical reports on his clipboard as he dutifully reported to Dr. Viktoriya Zaytseva as a resident under her supervision. Nothing ever happened in their little village in Siberia, so nothing ever happened in their little White Petal Medical Center aside from the occasional hypothermia patients. Thus, it was no surprise to him when seven teenage idiots jumped around in the nearby frozen Lake Baikal in the middle of winter in hopes of seeing one of the famous rumored aliens or UFOs, found out the ice wasn't as thick as they thought it was, and tasted the cold bitter waters of the deepest lake in the world.

However, this case was different. Whether they were lucky to be alive or not, Sasha found it difficult to say.

“Never been seen before, huh?” Dr. Zaytseva echoed with a hint of fascination as she walked through the hallway with Sasha. He could feel her gaze burning a hole right through his head.

Sasha quickened his pace and peered into the ICU, “Aside from hypothermia, they’re infected with some sort of unknown undiscovered parasite, and,” He pulled open the doors, “they seem to be sharing similar delusions of the end of the world.”

The once lifeless and sleepy ICU was bustling with activity. Nurses and doctors flitted from one bedridden patient to the next. Immediately, Dr. Zaytseva fell into her rhythm of work as Sasha followed closely behind her. Dr. Zaytseva was as intimidating as she was impressive, commanding the attention of the room with her mere presence. She worked as if seven patients engorged by some undiscovered parasite were just like any other Tuesday for her.

However, no matter how many times Sasha had already seen their patients, shivers still ran down his spine. Their eyes were unblinking and glassy and their faces expressionless. Their bodies stayed motionless and glued to their beds. Nothing but puke or incoherent delusional mumbles that ranged from “Lake Baikal…” to “...It’s coming…the end” escaped their mouths. They reeked of death. It was almost as if they had one foot already in their graves.

Long ridges of wormlike parasites squirmed underneath their skin, traveling from the tips of their fingers to the soles of their feet to the crown of their heads. Where there was flesh, there were worms. The worms wrapped themselves around every single vital organ like overgrown vines, making it impossible for them to be extracted without costing the patient’s life. The parasites spared no inch of their bodies, invading every single crevice as if it was trying to replace every nerve, every tendon, every vessel.

“...End…world…”

A soft murmur beside Sasha knocked him out of his stupor. He glanced apologetically at Lev Baranov, one of the seven patients he, Dr. Zaysteva, and one of the attending nurses were treating. Of all seven patients, Lev was the frailest and weakest. It was a mystery how he, or any of them for that matter, was still alive.

“Interesting.”

Two pairs of eyes stared cluelessly at Dr. Zaytseva. She didn’t spare either of him or the nurse a glance and shone a light on Lev’s right eye. There was a small worm writhing around his iris.

“Parasites often change the behavior of their hosts to continue their life cycle. Rabid animals aggressively bite other animals to turn them rabid with their saliva, and crickets infected with horsehair worms often drown themselves in bodies of water for other crickets to get infected,” Dr. Zaytseva continued. “Therefore, there must be some reason as to why all seven of their patients were seemingly planted with mysterious delusions of a looming apocalypse.”

The heart monitor beeped once. Twice. Thrice. Sasha stared at Lev’s blank face. Parasites affecting their hosts mentally in such a way that they became delusional in the first place was unheard of. Improbable. Impossible. It had to be. What on Earth were they dealing with?

Sensing that neither he nor the nurse had anything of value to add, Dr. Zaytseva looked at them like they were gum stuck to the sole of her shoe. “Lake Baikal is known for not only being the deepest lake in the world but also one of the most mysterious. Who knows what lies in its waters?” she fixed them with an inquisitorial look. “Have not one of you questioned how odd it is that all of them possess similar, if not identical, delusions of the end of the world after ingesting water from nearly drowning at Lake Baikal?”

Sasha could only squirm uncomfortably under the senior doctor’s scrutiny like one of those godforsaken worms he’s been dealing with all week. His eyes stayed glued on Lev’s heart rate monitor, while the nurse beside him awkwardly started replacing Lev’s IV bag.

To his relief, Dr. Zaytseva turned her eyes back to the patient. She traced one of the ridges the parasite made in Lev’s forearm. “If they’re all experiencing the same ‘delusion’, is it really delusion?” she muttered under her breath.

“Baikal…”

As if in reply to Dr. Zaytseva’s question, Lev mumbled again about the frozen lake he and his friends had fallen into. Suddenly, Lev’s fingers twitched. He extended his hand into the air, reaching for the ceiling. Dr. Zaytseva simply observed his movements, intrigued. It was a miracle. They could barely move a muscle a few days ago.

“Lake…Baikal…”

Without warning, Lev’s body abruptly started convulsing violently. Lev’s heart monitor started beeping rapidly. 120 beats per minute. 145 beats per minute. 180 beats per minute. At that moment, the ICU erupted with a cacophony of arrhythmias as though triggered by Lev’s heartbeat. All seven heart monitors beeped erratically. All seven patients shook violently in their beds.

Suddenly, as quickly as it started, the convulsions stopped. All seven patients laid still in their beds once more. An eerie beat of silence reverberated around the room.

Sasha gaped, “What the h-”

Everything was a blur. All seven patients simultaneously stood up. They yanked off all their tubes with not even an ounce of self-preservation. Sasha almost laughed at the absurdity of it all. It was like he was the audience of a very strange flash mob.

However, any hint of laughter died in his throat when he met Lev’s glassy unblinking stare. It was as if he was in a trance, still in a vegetative state. The parasite beneath his flesh was squirming violently.

“Lake…Baikal…” he heard Lev mutter.

With their newfound strength and speed, all of their patients bolted towards the exit, pushing any obstacle out of their way and leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. Everyone stood frozen, stupefied and in disbelief.

Before Sasha could even decide whether he was astonished that they all miraculously gained their ability to move or horrified that they had all somehow simultaneously left infected with a parasite with no known cure, Dr. Zaytseva yanked him by his elbow.

“Antonov,” the doctor shook him by his shoulders. “If we want answers, we need to follow them,” she urged, and Sasha nodded wordlessly.

With that, they ran through the hallways. “CODE GRAY ICU. CODE GRAY ICU,” blared over the intercom speakers. A trail of destruction from shattered glass to overturned chairs lay in the wake of the escape of the parasite-infested patients.

Finally, they burst through the front doors of the medical center. Lake Baikal stood in all its frozen icy glory in the distance. With its snow-capped hills peeking from the surface of glittering ice, Lake Baikal almost looked like a watercolor painting. The setting sun painted the landscape with a reddish glow as if it was setting the ice on fire.

“Over there,” Dr. Zaytseva pointed at seven silhouettes clumsily darting around the ice. However, despite their awkward and uncoordinated sprinting, they were all strangely heading in the same direction. If he hadn’t seen their hauntingly blank faces a few minutes ago, he would have assumed they were just seven drunk idiots. “They’re heading for that rock formation. Let’s go.”

The cold air bit his cheeks and condensed into little puffs of clouds when he exhaled as they ran. Snow and ice crunched under their racing feet. Had it not been the middle of winter, this rock formation would have been impossible to reach without a boat. Upon reaching the rock formation, Sasha concluded that it didn’t look like anything special. It was too small to be considered an island. It just looked like any of the other gray rocks that peeked over the waters and ice of Lake Baikal.

Just about when he inched a bit closer, Dr. Zaytseva yanked him by the back of his collar. “Watch,” he heard her whisper into his ear. Her eyes glittered with anticipation, taking in the scene in front of her.

Sasha followed her gaze and felt his eyes grow wide. All seven patients bashed the rock wildly and ferociously. Their knuckles grazed the jagged surface of the stone. Dark red drops of blood laid in contrast against the cloudy white ice.

Now that he was standing still, he could feel the ground shaking from blow after blow. They seemed to be too engrossed in reducing the stone to rubble to even spare them a glance. No average human could destroy a rock with their bare hands, yet these hospital patients, of all people, created wide cracks and fissures along its surface with every blow.

“The parasite is controlling them,” Dr. Zaytseva’s eyes stayed glued on the seven patients wreaking havoc on the poor rock formation. “I’m sure of it.”

Sasha felt a shiver run down his spine as he peered at them. Until now, their eyes remained unblinking and glassy. Until now, their faces remained expressionless and blank in spite of the blood shed and wounds ripping open on their bodies. Under their flesh, the parasite squirmed even more violently than before. They moved like puppets with their limbs contorting in strange and unusual angles. The more and more he observed them, the more and more he believed Dr. Zaytseva’s conclusion.

Suddenly, the rock formation collapsed, and all seven patients immediately turned limp like puppets with cut strings. Alarmed, he and Dr. Zaytseva ran to their sides. He fished out Lev’s small frame in the pile of rubble. The parasites underneath his skin seem to have stopped moving completely. Carefully, Sasha brought his index and middle finger to a patient’s neck.

No pulse.

He desperately called out, “Dr. Zaytseva!”

No response.

He tried again, “Dr. Viktoriya Zaytseva!”

Still no response.

Sasha glanced at her. The doctor stood frozen with her eyes glued to the crude hole the parasite’s victims dug out from the rock formation. However, for once, Dr. Zaytseva looked just as lost and dumbfounded as he was.

Sasha followed her gaze once more.

In the debris of the destroyed rock formation, a humanoid creature laid still. Its completely black eyes were the size of baseballs and its teeth razor sharp. Thick slime coated its gray wrinkly skin as if it just hatched from an egg, as if it hatched from the rock itself.

Sasha’s blood ran cold.

“They weren’t experiencing delusions.”

—

written by Leica Anastasia Daquipil

illustrated by Ariella Osmeña

layout by Jasmine Alyanna Mangila