Prologue

Sometime after midday, Charles Atlee and his daughter Genevieve arrived at an Ice Station near McMurdo Sound.

After a brief stay in what appeared to be a student dorm, they took a Snow Cruiser (boasting a wheel span of ten feet) through harsh Katabatic winds, which would have seemed hellish to most, had it not been for the small cabins and bunks within.

By day two, the 'Blackest Mountains' appeared as a dark smear on the horizon, giving off an aura of malevolence, as if brought into existence by a forbidden Grimoire.

Stopping at the entrance to a valley, the two outsiders set out on foot toward the centre of a caldera, where an ancient Mesopotamian Temple stood at the end of a long staircase leading up to the highest tier.

Passing through the entrance, Genevieve was shocked to see the walls lined with colossal, Wolf-like statues, their silvered skin resembling fish scales.

Further on, a spiral path wound around the tip of a smaller pyramid.

A channel had been carved out of the wall, allowing the user to light up and an oil trail on the way down.

"Astonishing, isn't it?" Charles said. "There’s actually another mountain inside this bigger one. Hence the name: 'The Pregnant

Pass'." He looked up at the shadows. “Here, the sun cannot reach."

In near-darkness, Genevieve could taste metal on her tongue, as a shiver hollowed her bones.

“It is me, or does the air feel thinner?”

“That’s why I brought these,” Charles said, handing over a Respirator mask. “Beyond this point, there is no telling how good the air is.”

Activating headlamps, they stopped in a place where stalagmites poked up like rocky Ant-hills.

Crouching down, Genevieve picked up a handful of dirt, noting how everything on the ground felt like burnt match heads.

Strange. The woman thought.

Sweeping a beam of light against the wall, she followed a layer of blackened rock.

“Lava,” She said. “It just gets better.”

“You’ll want to see this,” Charles said. “Check it out.”

Wandering over to a large metal disc, Genevieve could make out white letters set against a blue banner and spelling out the word: ‘Saltworth’.

Somewhat confused, she brushed off the remaining dirt from the metal circle and nearly lost her footing, for here in the remotest part of the South Pole was a sign for the London Underground.

Following the wall, she tracked the broken tiles to a bay window of a Victorian Free House filled with rubble.

Hanging from a bracket was the half-burnt sign that read:

Foxlight and Lantern

“This is insane,” Genevieve said. “What is a London Pub doing in the South Pole?”

“Inside the London Underground, no less.”

“How is this even possible?”

The Old man paused before speaking.

“Reset theory,” He said. “The idea that suggests we are not the first human race, but a result of trial and error.”

The woman shot him a look.

 “So we exist because of a do-over?”

“Who’s to say this is our second incarnation? We could be the fifth or even the fiftieth version of the species. How many times did we fail through mutual destruction?”

Genevieve sighed.

“Let’s carry on, before I lose my mind.”

They removed their masks at the foot of torch-lined steps, where burning braziers flanked a small tunnel.

Emerging from the entrance, a cool breeze hushed upon their faces, inside an amphitheatre lit by chandeliers made from elephant tusks and old rope.

"The Chieftain sits with a High Priest," Charles said, nodding to a stone dais. "To appease the Elder God in person."

"In person?"

The old man gestured toward a circular wooden grate located near the seating area.

Genevieve knelt and peered into the gloom. Once her vision adjusted, she was able to make out the shape of something so terrifying that it sent her reeling.

A maggot the size of a small bus wriggled under a dim, wavering torchlight.

The sheen of its cream-coloured mass squirmed with all the repulsiveness of its tinier kin.

The pale woman backed away slowly.

"What in God's name?" She said.

"One of them at least,"

"How? Why?"

"No one knows," Charles said. "It is said to be nearly two hundred million years old, when the world was one giant supercontinent." He nodded solemnly. "This…is where it gets weird."