Way back in millennia when the earth tipped on its axis and the ice caps formed’

A parasite found itself trapped deep in the ice unable to escape.

But now because of global warming the ice caps are shrinking at an alarming rate.

So soon the parasite will become exposed to the rays of the sun where it will begin to multiply and feed.

On the 26th January 2018 an icebreaker sailed from its home port of nova scotia on its maiden voyage.

The SS Indomitable has been commissioned by by a giant oil company to test drill deep into the ice of the north pole and surrounding areas on its endless quest to find new deposits of crude oil and natural gas.

The CEO of Axium Oil David Bertram has spent millions of dollars and countless hours trying to beat its competitors to find new discoveries of fossil fuels before the worldwide reserves run out.

And after  studying the latest satellite imagery Bertram is confident that there are huge deposits of oil and natural gas beneath the ice of the north pole.

The captain of the SS Indomitable Stephen Isbister is a crusty old sailor from Oslo has over thirty years experience sailing the high seas.

He has survived being attacked by pirates,hurricanes,mutiny and sickness and disease so Axium couldn’t have a better skipper at the wheel for this secret mission to the pole.

And if successful the north pole will be swamped by thousands of people drilling for the precious commodity.

Isbister is always happier when he is away from civilisation,just himself and a few crew sailing to God knows where.

And if he is able to keep the mission very low key he will receive a bonus from Axium that will be more than enough for him to retire to Spain.

After sailing through some very bad weather the SS Indomitable reaches its destination on 7th February and captain Isbister wastes no time in sending a scouting party ashore to set up a base camp.

The captain watches from the brig as ten men leave the safety of the icebreaker and drive toward the pole in two all terrain vehicles

Outside it is a brisk 2 degrees below zero blowing a gale and soon the two ATV’s disappear from view.

Driving the first ATV is the icebreakers first mate Patrick Sullivan,a fifty year old Irishman with a liking for whiskey and making money with the least effort possible.

Beside him sits a young Japanese engineer named Yukihiro Valdez Yamamoto.

Yuki is a man of mystery no one has ever seen his face,it is covered at all times by a scarf  or balaclava.

He took an instant dislike to Sullivan,there is something about him that made Yuki’s  instinct for people work overtime.

Sullivan is trouble and Yuki  knows that if he is to come out of this shit storm alive he will have to keep an eye on Sullivan at all times.

In the back sit an American navigator Randy Coultson a French scientist plus a Mexican cook who is shivering and cursing loudly in his native tongue

The second ATV contains five young riggers from Australia and New Zealand who are all muscle with very little grey matter between their ears.

But they are all hard workers  and will toil from dawn to dusk as long as they have enough to eat and have an endless supply of beer.

In the lead ATV Randy is navigating from the back seat using a rusty old compass that his grandfather gave him on his last birthday.

Even though the vehicle has all the mod con’s including GPS Randy points Sullivan in the right direction and soon they arrive at a snowbound log cabin that was built by Robert F Scott on his expedition to the pole in the late 1890’s.

The second ATV pulls in behind and all hands except for Sullivan help unload some supplies and carry them inside the cabin that hasn’t seen any human activity for over forty years.

Luckily for Jose the cabin cook the cabin has lots of wood on hand so he lights a fire and prepares a meal of chicken rice and beans.

In the morning he will venture out and hunt for caribou or moose and if worse comes to worse a rabbit or rat will have to suffice.

Sullivan sits at a table in the corner watching all of the activity around him he eyes them all with suspicion because he is hiding a secret of his own.

You see Sullivan is playing a very dangerous game because he has been employed by Axium’s biggest corporate rival Newflow Oil and Gas

The CEO of Newflow has told Sullivan to do anything in his power to sabotage Axium’s mission.

Even if he has to scuttle the Indomitable and swim home.

Sullivan radios back to captain Isbister that all is well and that the exploration will begin at first light.

Isbister replies wishing him and the others godspeed and a safe return.

At sunrise after a hearty breakfast the ten men climb into the ATV’s and drive the few miles to the drill site where Randy after checking the coordinates confirms that they are in the correct position.

So the drilling equipment is unloaded and after a half day wasted setting up the first drill enters the ice to a depth of five thousand metres.

Sullivan knows that they really should drill to a depth of ten thousand metres or more but hopefully the other dumb fuckers want notice his deception.

Yuki has been watching Sullivan intently and he isn’t a dumb fucker he knows that Sullivan is up to something and he wanders over to confront the Irishman’Excuse me Mr Sullivan but the probes aren’t drilling deep enough you need to go down to a depth of ten thousand metres’

Sullivan turns around to see the young Japanese engineer turned sideways so his face is hidden ‘Why i know that young fellow,that was only a test probe,tomorrow we will drill to depths never seen before’

Yuki smiles pretending to be satisfied with the response but he knows that trouble is afoot and he intends to stop Sullivan ant way he can.

Sullivan watches Yuki’s retreating back but he isn’t too worried because he knows that he will be the only one who will return to the Indomitable alive.

The other nine are now officially dead men walking.

Down in the ancient ice the parasite has been awoken by all of the human activity.

It knows that the time is nigh for a new beginning so it settles down to wait because it knows that soon it will feed.

Back at  the SS Indomitable Captain Isbister is bored.

You can only watch for polar bears and play solitaire for so long.

So he opens the bottom drawer of his desk and pulls out a bottle of bourbon

Just a shot or two to take away the boredom.

Where is the harm in that?

At 9 am the next morning the aussie and kiwi riggers are hard at work pulling up a probe that drilled way down into the ice.

When the probe reaches four thousand metres the parasite springs into action and hitches a ride to the surface.

At the drill site Randy Coultson the American navigator is helping the riggers bringing the probe to the surface.

He is thinking about his girlfriend back at home and how much he misses her.

At the same time that Randy is getting a hard on for his girlfriend the probe reaches the surface.

The parasite hones in on Randy’s frosty breath and and silently enters his left nostril.

Then after waiting for millennia the parasite crawls into Randy’s brain and begins to feed.

Randy rubs his nose as it begins to bleed plus he feels a bad headache coming on.

But he doesn’t want to let the team down so he tries to help the aussies and kiwis but he can’t keep going and collapses in the snow.

Sullivan notices Randy collapse and rushes over to help.

He couldn’t give a fuck about Coultson but his condition gives him an excuse to stop the drilling for the day.

Yuki has also been watching from the shadows.

He knows that captain Isbister is on a tight schedule so why shut down the operation because one man has a nose bleed?

He wants to confront Sullivan but decides to wait until he gets back to the cabin when he will radio the captain about the situation.

Back at the cabin Jose has prepared a meal of braised reindeer and potatoes but Randy isn’t hungry.

He is delirious laying on his bunk feeling like shit but at least his nose has stopped bleeding.

His clothes are drenched in sweat even though it is minus four outside.

Randy closes his eyes and prays for sleep.

Yuki is on the radio whispering to captain Isbister about how Sullivan is sabotaging the mission.

He tells the captain to communicate back to Axium and find out who Sullivan is really working for?

The captain doesn’t reply so all Yuki can do is hope that his message got through.

Aboard the Indomitable Captain Isbister  has polished off a whole bottle of bourbon and is asleep snoring loudly.

Nobody heard Yuki’s radio message it is now up to him to save his fellow workmates.

Sullivan is seething he has made a huge mistake not destroying that radio after talking to the captain yesterday.

Yukihiro Valdez Yamamoto will be the first to die and that is a promise.

After their meal the aussie and kiwi riggers begin to drink a beer or ten and soon the cabin is filled with their laughter.

As the riggers drink and carry on Sullivan watches as he waits for an opportunity to pounce.

He has to kill nine men before in the next day or so if he is to please his masters at Newflow and claim his one million dollar reward.

An hour later four of the riggers go outside to use the outhouse.

They are so drunk they don’t notice the biting wind or Sullivan who has followed them outside.

Sullivan pulls a knife from his hip pocket and with three quick jabs the riggers fall to the ground dead.

Then he drags the three bodies into the trees where the wolves should take care of the rest.

Yuki who has been laying on his bunk with one eye open notices Sullivan re enter the cabin and waits for the others to return.

But ten minutes and still no riggers Yuki screams at Sullivan ‘What have you done to the riggers you arsehole?

‘I knew from the start that you were trouble in  big way so now i will have to restrain you and take you back to the brig on the Indomitable’

While Sullivan and Yuki have been screaming at each other Randy has sat up in bed feeling like the living dead.

While he has been sleeping the parasite has fed on his brain and multiplied at an alarming rate

He is now nothing more then a barely functioning husk of a man.

But he still manages to crawl out of his bunk and make his way into the kitchen.

Sullivan and Yuki notice Randy as he walks into the room holding a huge meat cleaver.

They watch as Randy goes from bunk to bunk chopping almost decapitating his victims.

Jose tries to run but he is soon brought down as the cleaver almost cuts him in two.

Sullivan watches in amazement as  Jose falls in a fountain of blood.

Coultson has done the rest of the killing for him so now all he has to do is rid himself of the annoying Japanese engineer and he will be home free.

Randy looks at Sullivan and Yuki and takes a step toward them.

But for Randy his time is almost up the parasites have eaten most of his brain it is amazing that he is still standing.

He takes another step forward and raises the cleaver but then Randy;s eyes roll in his head and he falls to the ground stone cold dead.

Thousands of tiny parasites pour from Randy’s nose and mouth like rats abandoning a sinking ship.

Their host is dead and they need to find another if they are to survive.

And Sullivan is ripe for the picking

Sullivan tries to fight them off but is soon overcome as the parasites enter every hole in his body and begin to feed.

Sullivan can do nothing as he is slowly eaten alive.

With no time to lose Yuki grabs his suitcase and runs outside into the face of a blizzard

He jumps into the closest ATV and turns the key,nothing

The engine wont start.

Yuki screams in frustration as he turns the key again and again.

He is just about to give up when the engine splutters and fires.

Yuki doesn’t waste a second he floors it and gets the fuck out of there.

Yuki was concentrating so hard on trying to start the ATM that he didn’t notice a lone parasite land on the rear windcreen

He can barely see two feet in front of him as he drives toward the Indomitable.

The parasite wriggles over to the corner of the windscreen and breaches the rubber seal.

Now the parasite is inside the ATV.

Aboard the SS Indomitable captain Isbister is awoken by a truck horn blaring.

He reaches for his binoculars and looks out into the gloom and he notices a pair of headlights racing toward him.

As Yuki drives the final 500 metres to safety the parasite slithers along the roof lining and drops down onto Yuki’s hair.

It finds its way down onto an eyelash and enters Yuki’s body via an tear duct.

Yuki scrambles aboard the icebreaker when he is greeted by captain Isbister who quickly sobers up when Yuki begins to talk.’Captain we need to get out of here right now’

Captain i am telling you that we need to start the engines right this minute.’

Isbister shakes his head in sorrow ‘Sorry Yuki but we aren’t going anywhere because first we are stranded here until the blizzard breaks’

‘And second there isn’t anyone manning the engines’

‘We are the only two left alive’

Behind them a hand appears on the port side and begins to climb aboard.

Will Yuki and captain Isbister survive their ordeal?

To find out you will have to come back and read part two.