SSSD - Find Niv

“OK,” Alison says evenly. “Here’s what we do. We go through every room of this place. Make sure there isn’t anything here that doesn’t belong.”

“It is gone,” Marit says. “It knows that you are looking for it. I will run.”

Alison shakes her head. “I don’t think so. They couldn’t killed me and Signe if they’d wanted to. They didn’t. They needed us for something. I think they’d already figured out how to communicate with the outside, but they hadn’t called for help. That would’ve been what they would do, you know? Pretend to be in trouble, then a rescue would come and get them out of here.”

“Only if they wanted to leave,” Ro notes.

“They do.” Alison sounds confident. “But only when they’re ready. That’s why they wanted me and Signe around. To learn.”

“Learn what?” Julie asks.

“About us. They’re good, but they aren’t perfect. They need us, but they know that we know. Surprise is their only weapon. They aren’t leaving. Not as long as any of us are still human.”

“Then we need to open the radio room and warn people. There are more sat phones,” Ro says.

“You sure about that?” Alison asks, turning to her. “You trust America to do the right thing with this?”

“I don’t know if we have a choice.”

“We should leave a record. In case we don’t make it. You want to warn people, Ro? Who? Who are you going to call? What are you going to tell them?” Alison shrugs. “Do what you have to. But we need to get everyone in one place.”

“And then what?” Julie asks.

Alison turns toward her, looking almost hostile. “Do you know how to spot the fakest girl in every friend group?”

Julie frowns. She doesn’t seem to know how to reply to that, probably because of the language barrier.

Alison’s gaze lingers on her for a moment.

“Because I do,” she says. “Let’s go.”

“Alison, someone turned off all the exterior lights but didn’t cut the power. The switches are all over,” Ro says. “To kill them all at once, you’d have to be a main box in the basement.”

“That’s as good a place to start as any. Hey,” she says to Marit, who had been moving toward the door. “You stay where I can see you.”

“I need to get dressed.”

“No. You need to do what I tell you,” Alison says, pointing the flamethrower at her.

“Whoa,” Ro says, stepping between them. “Can you not threaten my maybe someday hot Norwegian girlfriend?”

Alison snorts bitterly. “You sure about her?”

Ro opens her mouth and hesitates. Cringing, she turns toward Marit, who looks at her pleadingly. Ro feels nauseated. Nobody had eyes on Marit for a long time. She’s changed clothes and looks… different somehow, but Ro can’t pin down exactly what the problem is in her panicked state. It doesn’t mean anything; none of them are themselves. They’re a mess of stress and fear. Nobody’s put together.

“Guess not,” Alison says. “Stay where I can see you, Marit. And Ro, don’t get in my way again.”

“OK.” Ro swallows and avoids Marit’s gaze, stepping aside.

“What happened down here?” Alison asks when they start down the basement stairs. She can smell the fire from before in the air, but she wasn’t around when they burned Birgitte.

“Birgitte. We burned her,” Linda replies shortly.

“It wasn’t her?”

“I wasn’t a monster,” Ro says.

“I’m sorry,” Alison says.

They reach the bottom. About half the lights are on. Ro can hardly imagine a better place for someone to hide. Half-built passages, stacks of supplies, old equipment, even the broken-down husks of vehicles from the Outpost’s early days.

She keeps her light on the spot where Birgitte, or the thing pretending to be her, had been burned. The floor is scorched and the walls and ceiling are stained by the smoke. Quite a few boards are broken.

“Ro, keep moving,” Alison prompts, leading the others. Julie shines her light behind a stack of crates while Linda keeps a wary eye on the crawlspace underfoot.

“Niv?” Marit calls out.

“Ro, stay close,” Alison mutters. “You’re the only one I’m sure about.”

“What happened at the other outpost?” Ro whispers.

“We tried to leave. I think…” Alison hesitates, peering into the dark. “I think they suspected that we suspected. We knew something was wrong.”

<Come out of there! I know you’re back there,>

That’s Linda’s voice. Alison had gotten distracted by the sheer number of places to check; she’s taken her eyes off Linda. She turns, bringing the flamethrower up as Signe steps out of the shadows.

Ro is so startled that she tunes out the exclamations of surprise from the others. Signe’s wearing cold-weather gear and an even colder expression. Linda and Julie are both making demands in Norwegian, mostly for answers and explanations, but Signe and Alison are in a staring contest. The other Norwegians seem to realize that and fall silent.

“Easy,” Ro mutters to Alison.

“What are you doing down here?” Alison’s tone is clipped.

“Turning off the lights. Making it harder to find us,” Signe replies.

“And then? Why are you hiding?”

“Why do you think?” Signe’s face is downright bleak. Based on the way that she and Alison are acting, Ro hopes she never finds out what happened at the other outpost.

“Do better,” Alison says, her finger curling around the trigger.

“Look where she’s standing,” Ro whispers. It has to be on purpose: Signe is directly in front of the main breaker box. If Alison burns her, they’ll lose power. Without electricity, they’re as good as dead.

Alison looks pissed, like there are a lot of things she wants to say, but can’t.

“How did I lose you? You’re so damn big,” she bites out. “It’s what I like about you.”

“It was a storm,” Signe replies steadily.

“Take her upstairs. Go,” she says to Julie. “Marit, Linda, go with them. Stay together.”

Alison watches them go, then turns to Ro.

“The ones at the American Outpost… they got rid of clothes. Torn-up clothes. They can copy us, but they can’t copy other stuff.”

“Other stuff,” Ro repeats.

“And one other thing. People might seem simple, but we’re complicated. There’s…” Alison scowls. “A lot of nuance in how we interact. Shouldn’t be easy to fake. If these things can copy our bodies, maybe that’s our brains too. Our memories. They know stuff. But I don’t know how well they understand it. I think that’s why they didn’t just kill me and Signe. If we ask them about something tough… we might be able to catch them.”

“Something tough?”

“Something complicated. Emotionally complicated. Relationships.”

Ro nods slowly. She sort of understands. Alison goes on.

“Did you see Marit’s ears?”

Ro takes a deep breath. “She was missing some piercings.”

“Like maybe it killed her, then tried to put them in, but didn’t know…”

“…where they all went. Could just be that a lot of shit happened and she took a shower. She and Birgitte were close and we barbecued her right there,” Ro says, pointing. “I wouldn’t be worried about my fucking piercings either.”

Alison nods, grimacing.

“We have to try. We can’t just wait for this thing to make a move. We have to know who we can trust.”

She’s right. Neither approach is foolproof, but… they have to try something.

How should they test the others?

Physical clues?

Or emotional ones?