She looked up, her eyes wracked by her nonstop crying. She shook her head.
“Would you want to go back to your quarters and—”
Kane barely had time to get the question out before she began violently shaking her head.
“Okay, okay. You can stay right here.” He imagined that the thought of going back there, probably alone, only terrified her more. At least there were soldiers here, and guns, and lots of light. Not that any of that gave Kane a feeling of security. He straightened up and turned to one of the nearby guards, a woman. “You—come over here.” The marine walked over, and Kane noticed that no one seemed to question any orders he gave. Must be something to do with the voice, he thought. Once a squad leader, always a squad leader. “I want you to take a position here. By the desk.” He looked down at the receptionist. “Keep your eyes peeled in either direction, but stay here, got it?”
“Yes, s—”
The marine, a private just like Kane, had almost said “sir.” Kane smiled, and he saw that she smiled back. “Good.”
Kane walked away from the desk. Everything was quiet here. And as he knew too well from leading troops into so many dark and quiet streets, that could be a sign that the worst was yet to come.
He touched the send button of his wireless transmitter. Time to find out what the hell he should do now. “Sergeant Kelly? Kane here.”
Nothing. Kane licked his lips. He had to get some water soon.
“Sergeant Kelly?”
Then an old-fashioned crackle—a sound from the dawn of electronic communications—and he heard Kelly’s voice. “Yeah, Kane. What the hell is it?”
“I’m just checking in, Sergeant. Everything looks quiet here. I’ve started some patrols. Are you bringing your men back?”
More crackling sounds. Then he heard Kelly yelling something barely intelligible, a command, barked, frantic. “Yeah—goddamn it—get those men back here now!” Another order for someone on-site outside Delta Lab. “Kane, we’re getting some readings inside. Some signatures indicating—jeez—I don’t know. But there’s something still going on inside, like maybe some troops came in from the north entrance.”
“Did you have a patrol there?”
“No. The only patrol I had there had been sent to Site 3. Maybe the meters are wrong. Goddamn technology.”
“Maybe you should go in?” Once again Kane realized that though Kelly was his chief, now he was giving the sergeant advice.
“Betruger has the place locked up tight. Everything’s okay, he says. But still—shit.”
“Did you check in with Hayden, or your lieutenant?”
“Lieutenant’s dead. Got that news just a few minutes ago. And Hayden—guess he’s talking to Earth. Damn—what the hell?”
“What is it?”
“Another spike, this time the energy levels inside. What the hell is he doing in there?”
“Radiation? Maybe you—”
“Look, Kane, I have to get the men here into position. If Betruger doesn’t open up Delta soon, we’re going in. You’re on top of things there, right? Everything okay?”
The bastard sounds scared, thought Kane. Never good to make decisions when you’re scared. Fear can be the great and final fuckup. “Yeah, I’m okay. I’ll check in.”
“Right, yeah—”
Then Kelly cut the communication. Kane looked around Reception. Like we’re all waiting for something here, Kane thought. So patiently waiting…
He walked over to the young marine standing by the reception desk. “I’m going to have a look around. You okay here?”
He could see that the woman probably wanted to say “Hell, no.” But she nodded. “Good. I will check back with you. But there’s somebody I’d like to look for. I shouldn’t be gone for long. Twenty minutes max. Anything happens”—he tapped his earpiece—“just let me know.”
“Yes, Kane.”
There, that sounded better. After all that Kane had been through—the court-martial for disobeying orders to save marines, then being bounced down to private, sent to Mars—a “sir” now just wouldn’t sound right.
“Good. Twenty minutes, and I’m back.”
He turned and started down the hall leading to the elevators that went to the lower levels of Mars City.
One of the elevators looked completely out of commission—filled with bloody smears and dozens of bullet holes that peppered the walls and ceiling. Looked like whatever had come here had taken the passenger away.
But the second elevator worked. The ID system picked up Kane’s tag. With all the systems back on line, the security locks were engaged. Which actually could be a problem. Might be something he’d mention to Kelly. For now, he would deactivate the security locks so people could have easy access to whatever damn hallway they wanted to use.
The elevator’s doors opened.
He took a breath. The smell hit him immediately. Blood, heavy and metallic. But something else, too: a completely unfamiliar smell that made his stomach wrench.
He took a few steps into the elevator as the door slowly closed behind him. The car plunged down to the floor just below Reception.
Kane tensed as the elevator doors slid slowly open. He took a tentative step out.
“Hello,” he called. The empty corridor swallowed the sound. He called again, louder: “Hello?”
He stood stock-still. Was there no one alive down here? Then a noise. A scraping sound. Movement, but far away.
His machine gun had been over his shoulder, but now he slowly brought it around, the muzzle facing down. Kane tried to get his bearings. Where had he seen that kid and his mother? What direction did the kid run? Then he thought that surely the boy must have run into someone or something else. Either some marines who would have taken him up top to the barracks for safety…
Or something that used to be a marine.
Kane rubbed his throat. Like whatever that eight-foot-tall thing was that had grabbed Kane, lifting him like he was filled with helium.
“Hey, you there?” he said again, his voice echoing in the metal hallway. He thought of heading back to Reception. Being down here alone was a little much, even for him. But it wouldn’t hurt to do a quick scan to make sure that somehow the boy wasn’t still here.
The sound of his steps adding to the eerie gloom, Kane started his patrol.
He turned to the right and stopped. He lifted up his PDA, continually tracking his progress in the complex. He had just entered an area that he hadn’t seen before. Massive cylinders lined the right wall. Gliding his finger over that area on the PDA map revealed them to be part of the Energy Processing System, whatever the hell that was.
Enough, he thought. Time to head back.
Kelly could tell him about the security system down here. There had to be some heat/motion detection system. If there was a small boy running around, hiding, terrified, it had to show up somewhere. But walking around like this and looking? Pointless. One good thing was that there seemed to be nothing down here. Nothing alive, at least. He had forced himself to ignore the bodies he passed, or what were once bodies. Some had been ripped apart, eviscerated, turned into red, sodden piles.
Gonna be a hell of cleanup job, he thought. Probably I’ll be one of the grunts to do it.
The PDA map turned as he did, now showing the way back to the main elevator and the comparative sanity above. Which was when the radio came to life in his ear. And as a testament to how jumpy he felt, he had to take a breath before answering. “Yeah?”
“Kane? Maria here. Where the hell are you? What are you doing?”
“Taking a little walk.” A little humor. Could always be good in cutting the tension. The worse things got, the more you needed the small joke. Except, down here, it didn’t feel as though it were going to be too effective.
“Yeah, sorry—I’m looking for a kid I saw down here. His mother…turned into one of those things. Then he ran away.”
Kane told the kid to run, run as fast as he could. And when the kid was out of sight, Kane
killed the thing that used to be the boy’s mother.
“‘Turned’? Is that the expression we’re using? When people become those things?”
“I dunno, Maria. What would you call it?”
He wanted to ask her then if she had seen…other things. Like the monsters that he had seen in his trek back to Reception. But he didn’t ask her, figuring that if she had seen something, she’d tell him. And if she hadn’t, why give her something else to worry about.
“Everything okay by Alpha?”
“Yes, I mean, I got some patrols running, checking in with me. Could use some real brass running things.”
“You’re doing fine.”
“And you?” she asked. “How are things by Reception?”
“Had a little rebellion a few minutes ago. But put that down. Amazing what the threat of pain can do.”
“And Kelly?”
“He hasn’t checked in with you?”
He heard Maria hesitate. “No, I mean, I tried contacting him, but I got a burst of static back that nearly blew my eardrums.”
“Yeah, there’s some transmission problems by Delta.”
“But you…you have heard from him?”
“Yes. He sounded a little…stressed.”
Another hesitation. Kane didn’t want to alarm Maria. But there was a big difference between the idea of alarm and alerting someone.
“But I thought everything was secure.”
Kane explained about Kelly’s last message, the readings coming from within Delta, his deployment of his squad there.
“I don’t like it,” she said.
“Me either.” Kane looked around, creeped out. Too damn quiet. Before, he had moved through this area fueled on pure adrenaline. Now, in the silence, the cool, dark aftermath, it all started to get to him, to worm into that primal part of his mind, reminding him that cave people used to huddle before a fire, shivering and terrified, as unknown danger lurked all around them in the gloom.
“Maybe,” he said, “you should bring some of the marines back. Be good to start getting a count, a handle on our numbers.”
“And leave some patrols?”
“Yeah. They won’t be happy. Tell them Kelly ordered it.”
“In other words, lie.”
Kane laughed. “Exactly. Then we can see what kind of numbers we have on our end. Weapons. Might need to do some ammo runs too.”
“That’s already on my mind. Let me wait until I have everyone back here. Maybe we can meet up.”
That thought somehow made Kane feel about as good as he could down here. “Great. Let me know where.” He thought of the path back from Alpha. Was it clear? Should he send some marines to meet her halfway? Who knew what was hiding on the way back from Alpha?
“You got it. Stay safe.” The radio went dead.
Kane started moving fast down the corridor, his left leg delivering a spike of pain with each step. Meds, he thought, need meds. Shut off the damn pain. Got to grab a few stim packs. And who knows when there will be a time to sleep.
Don’t even go there, he told himself. Don’t even let yourself think about that.
He followed the curving wall while the energy cylinders to his right gave way to a nest of exposed pipes and tubes. He looked down at his PDA…then came to a halt.
Because something had stepped out right in front of him.
13
MARS CITY THE LAST MINUTES
KANE COULD BARELY MAKE OUT THE SHAPES in front of him. If he hadn’t lived through the past hours he might have thought, Dogs. There are three dogs in front of me. Cutting me off.
But he could be sure that they weren’t dogs. Even in the half-light he could see that they looked like the things he had blown to pieces in the restroom above. He didn’t ask himself what they were then, and he wasn’t going to now.
One of the creatures moved to the side. He saw another look back as if considering moving in another direction. Which is when the third one leaped at him.
The creature’s powerful hind legs sent it—so big and bulky—flying right at him. More of the animal came into the light, and Kane could see the head. A gaping hole filled with teeth. Bits of something hanging from the teeth. These three had obviously been having a great time down here, feasting.
Kane’s finger tightened on the trigger, sending a spray of bullets at the thing leaping toward him. Enough to kill it? he wondered. He tried to move to the side but could gain only inches before the weight of the thing sent him flying backward. As he hit the hard ground, the dog-thing’s face now in his face, he heard the sickening noise of claws on stone. The other two moving.
Kane tried not to breathe, not with the thing in his face. But the weight of the creature had knocked the wind out of him, and he had to gasp. The smell, the taste of air, made him gag. Each breath made him hack and cough. There was nothing he had ever smelled that came close. Not in all the carnage he had seen in his years as a marine.
The sound of clawed feet came closer as the other two positioned themselves to pounce upon the pinned Kane.
He had to get out from under the thing. And it could only be a random guess if that side was safer.
The creature barely slid off him. But the skin was just slimy enough so he could roll out from under it, and then Kane quickly scrambled back to his feet.
One of the creatures closed its jaw on his right boot. No way regulation boot leather could withstand the pressure. In a second his foot would be crushed by the viselike maw. He aimed down and fired his gun right at the creature’s misshapen eyes, one larger and protruding, either the result of a wound or maybe because that’s how they made them up here.
One eye looking like some misbegotten egg, the other floating free as if detached from whatever passed for a brain in the creature. But his gun riveted a dozen holes in the head, and the jaw loosened, just as Kane felt the pressure on his instep.
Wouldn’t have been good losing the ability to walk. Might be a useful skill to have up here.
There was still one more thing ready to fight. Kane turned to see that it was distracted momentarily, taking a big bite out of its fallen brother. Guess they don’t much care where the meat comes from. It ripped a chunk out of the exposed belly of the first dead creature, and then, still chewing, clambered over it to come at Kane.
Kane pulled the trigger.
Nothing. Out of ammo. And no small sidearm to whip out.
The thing, as if sensing Kane’s state, spit out what it was chewing and dug its claws deep into the dead body for traction. Kane kicked back, and braced himself for the attack.
Kane had his back to the wall—and the meaning of that expression never seemed clearer. There was nowhere for him to go, and with no ammo, he had only one choice. Go hand to claw with this creature.
He spoke to himself, if only to cover the sick grunting noises the thing made. “Come on, you ugly bastard.” A last deep breath, then he yelled: “Come on!”
The words had no effect on the creature, but as Kane pushed against the wall, he brought his gun as tight to his body as he could. He had to time the next move perfectly, because he knew he’d get only one chance.
In a moment the thing would be on him, pinning him and chomping down.
Inches away, the smell wafting over, the stench of the creature’s breath, the aroma of partially chewed flesh.
Another second—and—
He made the muzzle of his gun fly forward with all the speed and the strength he had. He doubted if he had ever made a single move in his entire life that was this important.
If he missed, the muzzle would hit the hard helmetlike shell of the dog-like monster.
He had a moment’s hesitation while he wavered in his decision: which eye to target? The left one, bigger, bulbous? Or the right eye, smaller, but maybe closer to whatever this thing used to think and move. He chose the left—bigger target, less chance of missing—and hoped that the eye responded as an ordinary eye would if a gun muzzle was jammed into it.
&nbs
p; His aim looked good. The creature moved toward him with a steady, head-bobbing movement. That made it a moving target, but at least there was a pattern, down up, down up, and probably looking to make its fatal bite on the downswing of the head.
The muzzle in motion—
His arms were at a bad angle because he was pressed against the wall, cramped.
And though it was just one fast move, like all such moments it seemed to happen so slowly.
Until he knew he was going to miss. Maybe the timing was bad, or maybe the creature moved to the side—but he’d miss it by millimeters.
Which is when the creature tilted its head, the jaw dropping open like the mammoth metal maw of a compactor ready to devour a few tons of metal.
And in the move, the thing magically put his muzzle on target again.
Kane watched the muzzle plunge into the eye. At first no resistance, then something bony and hard.
But the move stopped the creature, and now Kane used the muzzle like a fork, turning and twisting it, until somehow it pushed deeper into the opening. The thing tried to pull back, but Kane pressed his advantage.
“You…big…smelly…bastard…”
He pressed down against the thing as hard as he could. It made a moaning sound, a low pitiful rumbling noise.
More pressure, and Kane now had a good angle, still pushing hard, driving the thing back as it shook its head furiously right and left, trying to lose the thing embedded in its head. No way that was happening.
Kane noticed—as if hearing it coming from some other universe—his own voice, yelling, screaming at the thing. Just a word, then another, his own grunts matched to what he hoped were the death grunts of the thing.
Yeah, It can feel pain. It can die. For now that was all the information he needed. Until he felt the thing hit the dead body of its brother creature and roll over, the jaw flopped open, useless. No more bites for this one. He waited until he was sure that the thing had no more life left in it. And only then did he slowly withdraw the gun, the end dripping with stuff from within the creature’s head.
He scraped the muzzle on the carcass of the creature, rubbing it off as best he could. He should get a new gun, soon as he could. Otherwise he’d walk around smelling like the insides of one of these things.
Doom 3™: Maelstrom Page 6