Tides of Darkness...
The Prolouge...
The sharp report of a battle rifle out to the left, and the inhuman screaming to the right... The clouds of dust and ash and smoke... The bodies of the dead and the moans of the dying... It is hell... And I am stranded.
The reports keep crackling into life... Hostiles everywhere, and no one knows what they are.... Humanity's final stand... Hah. It's not a resistance, it's a massacre.
My squad, or what's left of it are stranded. Surrounded, weary and bloodied... We hear the hooting, the screaming and the muttering voices... and we don't know what's the worst.
We've lost Henry, Peirce and Kathrine already... but they aren't dead... they are among those gibbering hordes.
Keep moving... always keep moving... never stopping... stopping means they catch up to us.
A window shatters above us as the flames spread out... the building groans and quivers as it's innards are devoured by the inferno.
The Covenant is gone... but this is worse... so much worse...
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Chapter One; Visions of Madness
A little history is in order...
Master Chief had dropped out of the sky only a day or two ago... I'd been among the rescue party. It was a series of constant battles through sweltering jungles, swift streams and the dam facilities...
We were all flown back to the Crow's Nest via Pelican, where my hopes of some R&R were dashed. Those damnable Brutes found us... another battle, this time through dank caves and dark tunnels. Then a bomb... the entire base was destroyed.
After that, we had to fight through the dreary ruins of Voi. The Covenant AA-Batteries were destroyed and the suprise attack deployed... and that was when it all started to go wrong.
The Frigates didn't even scratch the enemy ship... They left, through that gate way of theirs... and that ship jumped into the air above us.
It crashed down and then those monstrous, hidious, things began appearing all over... The city burned all around and it seemed like Hell itself had landed on Earth.
We fought, and ran, and fought some more... all to no avail. They overwhelmed us, overran our positions one by one... and then our casualities... oh God.... it's too horrible to describe...
So we ran... Henry was the first to die... they ambushed us and he got lost in the press... We could hear him screaming and begging.
Then Peirce got seperated from the rest of the squad... and Kathrine went to look for him...
And we kept running... just kept running. Never looked back, lest we see what was behind us.
We met up with another squad... they had lost a lot of people as well. So we teamed up. It didn't last long... we ran for cover... the inside of a big warehouse looked safe enough.
It was a death trap. Those little crawling ballon things dropped out of the ceiling and the horrible monsters that were once our friends crashed through the doors, swatting them away like cardboard.
We barely made it out... the other squad lost everyone but two people... three if you counted the one who snapped. He just couldn't take it... ran off gibbering and sobbing...
So we creep through the burning wreck of the cityscape... always tracked by that madness... never alone.
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Chapter Two; Resting in the Spider's Web
Back to the present.
"Alright, who's still around?" asked Sgt.Waloski. Sarge is part of the other squad... and managed to keep us all alive through that last fight.
"Still alive and kicking, Sarge." grinned Corporal Darson. He is a clown, but he knew when to keep his head cool.
"I... I'm still he...here." stuttered Jamis. He's the youngest of all of us, at barely 19 years of age, and fresh out of boot camp. He never should've had to see all this.
"Yeah... you need anything?" I called out to them from the sandbags we set up.
"Keep on watch, that's all we need right now, Miles." came the testy reply.
"Better watch out, Sarge isn't too happy." I commented to my neighbor...
"I'll make sure to hide behind you, since you'll attract all of his attention." chuckled Jen.
She has a sense of humor, but wasn't in Darson's league. But then again, when Darson really get's rolling, I don't think anyone can keep up.
"Hey Simmons! How's the grub coming?" shouted Griff.
"It's coming, it's coming, keep it down." grumbled Pvt. Simmons.
We all went down to eat, which with all the fighting we've been doing, isn't a regular occurance. It's hard to grab a bite to eat, while being attacked by those things out there.
There would be two sentries to watch for an attack, while the squad got some rest. We had a small fire going inside of the building we had camped out in, and we were in a relatively clear area so there wasn't that much risk of an attack.
Or so we thought...
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Chapter Three: Is it a spider?
We awoke to the staccato of Assault Rifles and the whirring of Spikers... a sound we hadn't heard in hours. The plinking of cooling rock marked where a Plasma Grenade had hit the ground outside.
I grabbed my Battle Rifle, and headed for the second floor. Darson had beaten me there and was laying down suppresive fire with his SMG's. The clattering bullet hoses did their work and did it well.
"Simmons! Chuck a frag out that window! Griff, cover Simmons! Jen get over here and make sure that they don't flank us!" even from up here I could hear Sarge bellowing orders.
It looked like a Covenant patrol that got left behind had stumbled on us while trying to avoid the flood themselves. I did a rapid count and came up with a tally of seven Grunts, a pair of Jackals and a Brute Captain. Not good odds for us.
With a quick burst from the battle rifle, the Grunts were scattered a little, giving us a bit of a respite. I heard the clinking of the frag before they even noticed it, and we were down three Grunts. But our luck didn't hold that long...
"Aarghh!" we all heard Jamis scream out in pain...
"Jen, get Jamis back over hear... careful of that leg..." shouted Sarge.
She didn't even waste breath on a reply and pulled the gasping Jamis over to the makeshift camp. "It looks like he took a spike to the leg... I'm gonna have to pull it out."
Jamis whimpered at the sound of those words, but didn't scream when she yanked it out.
"A bit of Bio-Foam, and your good as new." soothingly she said to him.
It was over soon after that... a couple of frags finished off the remaining Grunts and a couple of lucky rounds took out a Jackal. The Brute and the other Jackal ran for it, we didn't bother chasing them.
We were to busy packing up and getting out ourselves. Undoubtly, our skimrish had attracted unwanted attention.
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Chapter Four: Cries of the Damned
We wasted no time in packing up and jetting out. A couple of us could, if we strained, catch whispers at the edge of hearing.
Jamis had a small limp, but that didn't slow him down... I think only an amputation would have slowed him now.
We'd heard word over the radio of a UNSC regrouping point, and we were heading east, hoping to get to it as soon as possible. Passage through the city was inch by inch... checking every corner and always watching our backs... always.
Entire blocks had been blocked off by rubble and debris, the main street had a fallen high rise across it. So we had to go through it. It was torturous terrain, even in normal times, but with the fire, collapses and the ever trailing hordes, it was a trek through terror. Twice we had to jump over a collapsed room, and more often than not we had to detour around a billowing inferno.
The most nerve wracking part was that we never really saw those demonic corpses... just glimpses here, an odd shadow there. Something wasn't right about this... and then we heard the sobbing.
"What's that?!" Jamis squeaked...
"It ain't one of those things..." whispered Sarge "That sounds like a person."
"Should we check it out?" queried Darson.
"Yeah..." replied Sarge "Darson... you take Jen and Miles here and check for survivors..."
"Yes sir!" Darson saluted.
We crept along the passage way... making sure that there weren't any suprises lurking in the shadows to either side. This part of the building had been ravaged by the fires even worse than others... and most of it was charred at least somewhat. As the sobbing got closer, we moved to cover each other.
"Hello?... Anyone out there?" called Darson. With his left hand, he signalled us to take our positions... in case of an ambush.
Darson called out again "Hello? Anyone still here?"
"I don't think anyone's still around... but lets check it out..." I half-whispered.
"Alright... Jen, cover our backs..." he was quick to remark "This place gives me the creeps..."
As we moved closer to the source of the sobbing, we soon realized it was a recording... the last testaments of an unlucky person, trapped in Dante's Inferno made reality. It seems that they had been a buisness secretary, and they had a first time encounter with these horrors. I could just make out some screaming in the background, before the recorder started its loop again. Darson began shuddering slightly, probably as much as I was. He flipped the switch and the somewhat broken sobbing switched off.
"Let's get the *** out of here... this place is really giving me the creeps..." Darson muttered.
"Amen... I don't like this place... it doesn't seem right." I quickly replied.
Darson and I got back to Jen, and we all started to head back to the rest of the Squad...
No one wanted to be alone in here...
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Chapter Five: Shadow of the Inferno...
We'd regrouped only a few minutes ago and it felt like an enternity had come and gone... The gibbering had come back... not a good sign for us. The entire squad doubled pace... no one wanted to be inside this crypt any longer than neccesary.
A muted thumping noise came from below us and a quick metallic skittery noise followed along us, throught the air ducts... They were trying to catch up to us.
Sarge barked out an order "Double the pace! We need to get out of here now!"
No one made a complaint, we were all to terrified to do anything but nod. Jamis was still limping slightly and had begun to fall behind... but then the howling started. We all sped up even faster... sprinting for our lives, Jamis dropped a belt of grenades... and a small blitz can of hydrogen fuel.
We saw the exit, but realized that the squad wouldn't make it in time, the monstrosities were catching up with us... and then Sarge tossed a frag into the pile of grenades and that hydrogen. "Fire in the hole!" he shouted. And we all ducked...
With a disorienting roar and searing flash, they exploded, flinging whizzing shards of shrapnel all around and coating the hall in flames...
And those damnable creatures kept running... they were lit up by the inferno and dismembered by the fragements of grenade... and they were still in pursuit! How could anything survive that?!
At least it slowed them. We managed to make it to the exit of the building... only to find it was one story up from the ground.
It was a choice between that gibbering madness and a drop onto the rubble strewn ground. We chose the drop.
"Go! Go! Let's move! Miles, cover our asses for us!" bellowed Sarge.
First Jamis, then Darson, Jen and Sarge, followed by Griff, Simmons and then finally, with those things preparing to leap at my back, I dropped.
I wasn't so lucky as the others... and I landed on a sharp, ragged piece of concrete and steel... it tore into my side with a sharp agony. I began to feel a warm trickle, that I knew was my blood pulsing out of the wound.
"Griff! Darson! Grab Miles and start running, we are not leaving anymore people to those things! screamed Sarge... straining to be heard over the noises coming out of the furnace that used to be that building.
I was hoisted upwards and felt the bumpy, up and down sensation of being carried off, before finally succumbing to the pain and blacking out...
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Chapter Six: Insidious Rapture
"Be joined with us, and expierence the joy everlasting..." the voice crooned...
"No... no... I won't do this!" I cried out in terror and defiance.
"Succumb and partake of the peace... feel no pain or sorrow." it trumpeted this time.
"I can't... no... not this...oh God..." I sobbed... the voice was terrible and yet overpowering.
"You will succumb to me! I shall succede... all will serve me and me alone!" this time it roared... anger and frustration were readily apparent.
"Get out of my head! Oh God... Get out of my mind!" I screamed awake...
"Calm down.... calm down... it was just a dream." soothed Jen.
"What was that all about?" asked Darson "I heard you scream something... I thought we were under attack or something."
I sat there... terrified but awake. Gasping for breath, I began sobbing... quietly at first and then just great racking cries of fear, replusion and horror. The thought of that voice, back in my head...
"There, there... just let it all out." Jen started patting my back... she was rather empathetic, probably why she was the Squad Corpsman.
"Woahhh.... getting a little sentimental for me." chuckled Darson, Jen shot him a downright venemious look and he backed off. He mumbled something along the lines of an apology and hurried to sit by the sputtering fire.
"You alright? Everything gonna be okay?" queried Jamis...
Up to now, I had always been pretty level headed and this outburst was disquieting for the rest of the squad. I began to recover from my outburst, but I was still shivvering uncontrollably. Looking around, I noticed that we had left the downtown area... but I didn't know where we were now.
"Whe..where are we?" I gasped out... still short of breath.
"We're near the old trainstation." replied Sarge "And I'm glad to see you're okay... you've been out for almost three hours."
I nodded mutely... still shaken up from what had happened.
"All right squad... prepare to move out, we've been in one place for way to long." barked Sarge to the assembley around the fire pit. As if to validate his point... an eerie ulutation drifted in from the distance.
The rest of the squad began to hurriedly pack up, and I began to collect my things, going slightly slower than the rest. I had been bandaged while unconscious and I didn't want to reopen my wound. Jamis rushed around grabbing supplies, while Griff shoveled dirt and rubble onto the fire. Simmons and Darson were keeping watch. Jen was collecting medical gear and Sarge was barking out orders to the rest of us.
The uluations started to approach closer to us, slowely but surely... and then a second howling began from the left of the first. A third took up the screaching and shreiking as well, and we began hiking out of there... trying to retain what lead we had on those things.
As we scrambled over wrecked cars, destroyed buildings and random rubble, I noticed that were signs of recent conflicts. Someone had been fighting around here... but who or what they had been fighting was still unknown.
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Chapter Seven: Song of the Banshee
That choir of uluations, shrieks and howls was behind us, but just barely. I tried to ignore the sharp pains pulsing out from my side and focused on keeping up with the sqaud.
Slowely the sky began to darken and the sun slipped under the horizon. Even that didn't stop us... we flicked on our flash-lights and kept on running. Those things, those indescribable things were getting bolder, as more of them joined the chase. That choir of the damned was soon joined by the gibbering, muttering hordes...
We vaulted over the rubble and sprinted between the streets, but they still pursued us. We tossed a few grenades behind us, to almost no affect. A few of them were blown into small fleshy peices, but nothing fazed the rest of the horde. All we could do was run... run and pray.
It looked like we were about to run into a clearing... probably a small plaza or strip mall parking lot. What awaited us was full on battle...
A whole Platoon of Marines was defending a missile silo against those hordes of the living dead. They noticed us, and our new "friends" and laid down some covering fire as we dashed over the last few meters of cratered ground to their small fort.
We clambered over the sandbags and slumped against them, panting. After the last of those things had been dispatched by the other Marines, we received quite a few questions...
"How long have you been out there?" asked one, "You look like hell itself..."
Simmons wearily told him, "We've been out there since that huge portal thing opened up."
"How the hell did you survive?!" queried another.
"We ran alot, and we got lucky." Griff replied.
A Sargent walked up and asked us "Where were you when this started?"
"We were at the Traxus Facilities..." I spoke up.
"Dear God... that's almost two miles away..." he was disbelieving "How could anyone walk two miles through this mess?"
"We don't know... we were just trying to keep alive..." I replied to his question.
Before anyone could ask another question another chorus of screams started up. It started low and far off, but gradually increased in pitch and loudness until it was almost unbearable... A menagerie of strangled screams, unhuman howling and totured screaming. If ever the Banshee's Wail were uttered, it would sound like this. It ululated and tremoured, punctuated with odd snatches of speech and growling.
"***!" cursed one Marine. "They're back again!"
"Get to your stations! Keep a watch, anything moves out there and you shoot at it!" shouted their Sargent. "You guys," he pointed at us, "Watch that wall over there!"
We moved to the west wall and took up positions... someone had made a turret emplacement and a few gun holes in the sandbags. Simmons manned the turret, while Sarge set a shotgun aside, just incase it got to close quarters... Everyone prayed that it didn't.
I manned a gun hole next to Darson, and Griff took a spot on the far left, Jamis stood behind us, ready to toss a few grenades, while Jen was busy unpacking medical gear. The rest of the Marines took up their positions and the entire group waited for the new assault....
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Chapter Eight: Rain from Heaven, Hordes from Hell
A bank of swirling fog, no doubt from that ship, had drifted in... We could still here the quiet muttering and gibbering of those things. As they dragged themselves closer, dark silhouttes began to dot the mists.
All around the entrenchments, the click of safeties and the muffled thump of a weapon being braced against sandbags was heard. Everyone was ready...
"When you get a clear shot, take it." came the orders.
Sights were adjusted and the turrets swivled... we all waited for the eventual attack.
A low, guttural growling washed over us, and that was the beginning. They loped across the ground, and lept through the air, shreiking and howling. A choir from hell, they made an unearthly din.
Everyone around us started firing... the clattering of SMG's, the sharp burst of Battle Rifles punctating, Assault Rifles brief staccato and the bass roar of a rocket flying by to land in the middle of the rushing hordes. The Turret's constant whirr as it's barrels spun, flinging lead in a veritable shower at those things.
Our symphoney of lead... we cut down dozens, and yet they still threw wave after wave at us. Never stopping, even if limb was torn off. They would still try to fling themselves at us.
A deep mechanical roar sounded from behind our position, and we saw a flight of Shortswords hurtle overhead... They released a payload of death over a small section of the city to our west and as the flames raced from building to building, they flew off. We wondered what they were doing here, but only for a short moment... The battle at hand was to pressing.
We realized something was dreadfully wrong when after a few minutes... even more of those monsters started showing up. These were different, they didn't even look remotely Human or Covenant. They were something else... something even more horrible. These living tanks... thats what they were... walking tanks...
They moved in a sort of line... providing a walking sheild for those small gibbering things. And then out of the shadows, a spray of spines flew... A Marine screamed as one smashed into his face... but he didn't scream long... that spine kept going... straight through the back of his helmet, he collapsed in a spray of blood... there was nothing we could do.
I fumbled for an extra clip as that wall of horror marched forward. That's when I noticed... Jamis had found a two way radio and was calling for a Pelican to get us out of here... some snatches of the conversation were overheard... they asked how many were alive and if we were un-infected...
When he responded, they said they could send two and that was it...
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Chapter Nine: Where Spirits Fly...
We've already lost five men... one to those spiner's, two who were dragged into that howling madness and a pair who ate their gun.
The Pelicans are on the way... but will they arrive on time? I pondered all of this while shooting into that writhing mass of putrid flesh.
I was snapped back into reality by a terrified scream, it was Darson!
He had one of those little balloon things on his back... it was trying to mutate him into one of those things... Griff and Simmons rushed over, struggling to pull it off while Darson flailed around. Eventually the pulled it off of him, but he was in no condition to be fighting.
"If those Pelicans don't arrive soon, there won't be any one to Evac..." I gloomily thought.
We resumed firing position as Jen tended to Darson, after all, we couldn't give those things a break...
A muted droning noise approached from above... it wasn't Pelicans, but an Advance Gaurd of Hornets.
Three Hornets zoomed by, they launched a fusilade of rockets... blasting a dozen of those things into oblivion.
Everyone cheered, but it still wasn't over... one of those Spiner's began shooting up at the Hornets...
One Hornet's engine was mangled and it spiraled out of control, landing a few hundred yards away, with a resounding explosion... the cheering died out and we got back to shooting.
The massed attacks began to die down... now they were waiting? It became eeriely quiet, and deathly still... the only sounds being the low muttering from them, and what few noises we made.
As if to fill in the silence, the muted woosh of a Pelican's engines neared our position, over the battle field they appeared... firing a barrage of Anvil II Rockets to clear the LZ... they lowered to us and we scrambled on...
We would have done anything to get out of here...
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Chapter Ten: Refuge...
We made it to the air-base that those Pelicans came from, it was just outside of Voi and was running periodic Air Strikes into the city...
I still don't know why those things didn't try to bring us down, but I had my suspicions.
Almost immedietly after we got off of the two birds, Darson was wheeled into the Infirmary... one of the Marines on that Pelican told me that he'd started going into shock and having strange convulsions...
We were all scanned for any injuries and those of us who were wounded, including me, were sent to the Infirmary. Apparently that fall was worse than we had thought, and I was going to need at least seven or eight stitches in my side... hooray for me.
I arrived there and was told to sit down in one of the small metallic chairs they had set up. The room around me was depressingly bare, with off white walls, concrete floors and some flourcesent lighting, a couple of doors were to either side of the receptionist's desk. A pretty normal hospital room... but something kept nagging at the back of my mind.
Where was Darson? I knew that they had put him in here somewhere, but didn't see him. I thought that he may have been put in one of the cots that they invariably had in the back room... but I was still worried. It wasn't like him to seize up like that.
While I had been persuing this train of thought, my name was called up and I was told to go through the door on the left, and stop at the third room on the right. It was an operating room... the doctor's stripped me down to my skivvies and administered the anesthesia. All I felt was the tug and pull of the needle, and no pain at all.
After about a quarter of an hour, they let me re-dress and gave me an anti-septic pill to prevent infection. Before trotting off, I quickly asked them about Darson... they didn't know a thing. On my way out of the Infirmary itself, I asked the receptionist. Nothing there either, and this worried me even more.
I found the Squad after about half an hour's fruitless searching... well they found me anyways. I had been pacing out front of the building... after running hither and thither trying to find them, when Sarge walked up.
He told me that we had been given a bunk section in Barracks B1, and that they were giving us a position in Guard Duty, since the entire base was short handed. I followed him to the bunks and toppled into the bed.
After two days in that wasteland, even a small bunkbed was luxury beyond imagination to me. I popped the pill into my mouth, undressed, slung my stuff into the weapons locker and flopped onto the bunk for the night. Things were looking up for us...
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Chapter Eleven: Call of the Grave
"We meet again... will you consider my offer?" the voice was cordial.
"Oh God... Not this again..." my voice trembled...
"Oh but yes... I am not going to give up... you must know this." it was still cordial, amused even.
"Leave me alone... please leave me alone..." I pleaded with it.
"No. You are special... you and your friend. Ahh, you are about to ask which one are you not? I will not say." it chuckled, enjoying my distress.
"No... no...no... just get out! Stop tormenting me! Leave me be!" I shouted... horrified at this revelation... This horrible revelation.
"I will be with you untill you succumb to my will." it chortled at first."Now submit! Submit and become peaceful! You will not be troubled any longer! Surely this is something you want? Submit! Submit and be troubled no longer!" its voice becoming louder and louder.
"No! Oh God no... I won't do it!" I began to sob... weary and frightened. Frightened of it, of myself and of my desires. Some dark part of me wanted to release myself, to let go of this individual existance.
I woke up sobbing... quietly this time, but still sobbing. I was exhausted... even though I had been sleeping soundly, these ordeals, these horrible dreams, shook me even more than mentally.
Looking around, I almost hadn't noticed it, but there was a deep shadow, crouching almost an armslength away. It, sure that I had noticed, began to crawl closer. What I saw made me immedietly nausious...
Darson... he had been infected, despite us pulling that thing off of him. He must of just started his mutation, I saw every gruesome detail as he inched ever closer to me.
A few tentacles had sprouted out of his back, along the spine, his left arm had begun to shift and mutate into a grotesque claw... while his flesh turned a darkly mottled corpse grey and sickly yellow-greenish mix.
He was softly mewling and whimpering, he wasn't coherent but still aware... Still fully aware... in agony and despair. It's to horrible to describe in words alone.
I turned my back on him, heading for the weapons locker... and he must of lost control. I was pinned underneath the fetid, rotting flesh and squirming tentacles, we thrashed around and I tried to roll him off of me. He started that deathly wail that they use to signal each other and woke up the entire barracks.
The overheads buzzed to life and everyone saw immediatly what was going on... some one grabbed the monsterous parady of Darson and they pulled him off of me. Sarge hefted up his shotgun and put Darson out of his misery. The shot echoed and rang in the enclosed space of the barrack's interior.
A few of the officers from the main complex ran in, saw what had happened and alerted the rest of the base. We were back on alert... The rest of the infirmary could have been infected, so we were to gear up and begin patroling. The rest of the troops would be alerted as well.
I yanked my things out of the lockers and began pulling on my uniform. After tying on the helmet I walked towards the door... and who knows what else.
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Bonus Chapter: Thou shalt not fall... (Because I feel bad about not updating like I was supposed to.)
We were en route to the base when it happened... I blacked out. When I awoke again, they said that I had a seizure on the Pelican. A couple of medics wheeled me into the Infirmary, it was bumpy going over the cracked tarmac, but not too bad.
I was registered, bounced between the doctors, and given various medications, before finally being rolled into Ward A. It was hours of being able to do absolutely nothing. To pass the time I counted the ceiling tiles, read a magazine, counted the beds, and finally took a good look at the last twenty-four hours of my life.
Those last hours had been the worst in my life. Perhapse the worst moment of those was when that little balloon thing tried to burrow into my back. The pain had been excrutaiting, but oh god... I could feel it going through my mind, trying to overwhelm me and erase my memories...
I shuddered off of those memories and tried to take a nap. I tossed and turned, but this wasn't normal. Normally I slept like the dead. The Nurse came in and checked on us, to make sure we had all done what we needed to, and I just sat there, having done everything neccesary earlier today.
By early sunset, I was trying to sleep again. I had called for a sedative much earlier, but even that wasn't helping. I just tossed and turned and thought about why I was tossing and turning.
And then... the convulsions started... I fell out of the bed... the pain was intense... intense agony. I could feel my thoughts slipping away as my bones and organ shifted about as if my body were jello... and mercifully I blacked out from the pain.
I awoke again... this time in the barracks... but oh god... I was changed... grotesque and monstrous. I couldn't speak... just mewl and whimper... oh god the pain...
Miles woke up from a nightmare... saw me and paused... and then he turned his back... "Hunger. Feed. Hunger. Feed. Feeeed."
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Chapter Twelve: Whispers of the Mind... Devils of the Soul
We hurried out of the barracks, ready for any possibility. Or so we thought... The Colonel had a search going throughout the base, and our squad had been tasked with looking through one of the larger hangar complexes.
Everyone was briefed and split into pairs. The Squad would sweep through the complex a couple of times and report back in. Nothing hard, and pretty safe as this was one of the most secure parts of the base.
We had gotten a green recruit, fresh out of the camp replace Darson. No one even bothered taking his name, he was younger than Jamis was, barely 18 years old.
Griff labled him, "Hey Kid, get over here and start patroling with Jamis."
Kid and Jamis were patroling the Control Rooms. Simmons and Griff were patroling the Cargo Lifts.
Sarge was patroling with our other "new" member, a veteran from the First Battle of Earth named Volf. They were patroling the Main Hangar itself.
Jen and I were left with the unenviable task of the Underground Storage. Racks upon racks of whatever they stored down there and plenty of boxes. Since the power had been knocked out with the crash landing of that Hellish Ship, it was probably dank and poorly lit.
We all split apart and headed towards our destinations, checking safeties, ammunition and side-arms. Jen reached the stairs first, and I followed her in.
My predictions had proved right. It was dark, dank and joy of joyes, a pipe had sprung a leak. So now it was wet too. We splashed through the half foot of water, echoing all the way.
I started to hear a whispering noise... and readied my weapon, when I realized it wasn't a noise. It was that voice, that daemonic voice, inside my head. I saw Jen shake her head and recalled what the thing had said about there being another...
I kept my rifle on the ready, it was to easy to be ambushed down here for me not to be careful. I noticed that Jen had raised her weapon and was looking around nerveously.
Calling out to her I asked, "Are you okay?"
She nearly jumped out of her skin before replying, "Yeah... fine... just nervy."
I hesitated for a moment but then went on, "...Did you hear something? A whispering... just on the edge of hearing?"
She looked dumbfounded for a moment but shook it away, "I should've known you'd hear them too... what with your nightmares and all..."
"Yeah, I've been hearing them since we got out of that building..." I told her, "But we need to get back to buisness... I don't want to get caught unawares down here."
"No kidding..." came the response.
We began splish-splashing our way through the Storage rooms again... ignoring the whispers as best as possible.
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Chapter Thirteen: First and Last and Always.
Jen took point, and we started sweeping through the rooms ahead. The whispering had abated, making life a slight bit easier... but that was soon remedied by those burst pipes. The further in we went, the worse it got, untill we were up to our waists in water. Trudging on, we sloshed through a hallway, pushing the occasional box out of the way as they floated by.
We had gotten to the center of the complex, when the skittering started... it was in the pipes...
Our weapons centered on that pipe the moment we heard it... and we kept them trained on it. Soon the skittering noise came to a break in the pipe and out came...
A couple of rats. Rats of all things. We both heaved sighs of relief and started wading out of the room. A few more rooms and we were supposed to head back up. The rest of it went uneventifully and an hour or so later we headed for the rally point. Sarge and Volf were already there and the rest were either on their way or finishing up
We ended up waiting for another hour or so, Jamis and the Kid were the last two in, but nothing more unfortunate than them getting stuck on a lift. Sarge radio-ed in and we all headed back to the barracks for some 'R & 'R.
By the time the Squad got back to the barracks there was a huge commotion going on... we looked towards the object of attraction and lo and behold, some more of those Covenant Bastards had shown up for the party! A giant ship and some more of those cruisers had bugged in right above us!
"Humans. This is the Carrier "Shadow of Intent, we are here to fight the Flood. Clear the area."
And if there appearence hadn't stirred everyone up, this sure had... those things were here to fight... with us? Almost no one believed it at first. At least untill the Officers finally came out and said that it was true. We had orders to get up to the Frigates and leave the fighting to the Cheif and those Elites.
"I guess it's finally over..." whispered Jen.
" I guess it is." I agreed.
"Squad get over here! The're waiting on you guys! We all want to get on those frigates ASAP." yelled Sarge from inside the Pelicans nearby.
"Yes, Sir!" we all chorused and hurried off. It looked like it was finally over... the storm had passed.
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Chapter Fourteen: Reminiscing and Musing
I woke up... smelling the disinfectant and recycled air. Our squad, along with many others had been reassigned to the Foward Unto Dawn. We were going through the portal and into who knows what.
Most of us that surivived the battle below were still dazed from it all... everyone had lost something to that hellish abyss. Friends, family, peace of mind... the list just went on and on.
Of course, there is always an opposite side to the coin. Some of us had found out about ourselves... and about others...
"Hey Miles, stop daydreaming and help me with this, or are you to busy thinking about someone?" nudged Jamis.
A couple of the other guys in the bunk room started snickering at the commotion. Recently Jamis had become the new Darson... bit of a wise ass at times but still okay.
"You're just lazy... 'sides, I'm busy, Sarge wanted me for something." I bantered with him.
"Oh... oh ho! Sarge ehhh? You Casanova... you didn't tell us Sarge was secretly a woman! And your amour as well!" he feigned mock suprise and shock.
"Ahem..." coughed Sarge, appearing effortlessly in the doorway behind Jamis.
Jamis almost jumped through the ceiling, "Hey Sarge, how you doing?"
"I'm fine... but keep the wise cracks to yourself next time."
"Yeah, sure thing."
As Sarge and I procceded into the bowels of the ship, we could here Jamis and company trading witticisms... but soon the only banter traded would be bullets and plasma, as we were to descend unto the alien world below.
Dystopian... Life in a Dystopian Civilization. Check it out. Chapter 2 is up!