The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 26: Nuclear Baptism

"What happened to Burrows?" Collins asked, his voice unusually subdued as they slowly navigated a new crate maze in the subterranean storage area. According to the data packet that Blair had sent over, they shouldn't be too far from where Powell should be.

"Shaved gorillas got him," Kyra replied. "We tried to help him, but..."

"Damn," Collins muttered. "Poor bastard...at least he's with his family now."

"What happened to them?" Kyra asked, opting not to go down that particular theological discussion route at the moment.

Collins sighed. "Bombing got them. He used to be a businessman with a fitness fetish and a boxing proclivity. Three years ago, he's on vacation with his wife and their two kids in Japan and boom. Local terrorist cell wanted to send a message and bombed a fucking tea shop. They happened to be walking in front of it when it happened, on their way to some tourist trap. He almost lost his right arm and got some brain damage, they didn't make it. Took him a year to heal up proper, but once he could, he signed up for the Marines."

"Fuck," Kyra muttered. There were way too many stories like that.

And that had been before Armageddon.

She took another look around as they emerged from this latest crate maze into another semi-open area. It looked clear, save for the dead fiends and zombies. Most of them had been killed with headshots. That, combined with the fact that they were near where Powell was supposed to be, according to Blair, meant they might almost be done with this part of the mission. Kyra had to admit, she was itching to get back into the fight in a more meaningful way. Though certainly there was enough fight to go around, even down here.

"He might be nearby," she said, and activated her radio. "This is Staff Sergeant Morgan with the United Nations Marine Corps, does anybody read me? Over." She waited, but there was no response. Well, it was worth a shot. Maybe his radio was busted or he just didn't have one. Or maybe the effect, whatever it was, was worse down here.

"Where's he supposed to be?" Pace asked.

"There," Kyra replied, indicating a door that read STORAGE 17-B. "Make sure we remain secure. I'm going to see if he's actually in there."

Both men responded affirmatively and set to it. Kyra marched over to the door and hammered on it with her armored fist. "UN Marines, anyone in there?!"

There was a pause and dead silence, though that didn't necessarily mean anything. Doors and walls in facilities like these tended to be oddly inconsistent with how much or little you could hear through them. Some seemed to transmit sound, others seemed soundproofed. Abruptly, the door popped open just an inch, indicating that whoever was on the other end had engaged the manual override, which released the door from its catch. Clever way to get the door open just a little. She suddenly wondered why the fuck they didn't have an 'open partway' option built into them, but figured it came down to the same answer as everything else.

It would cost more.

A pale face behind a glass visor peered out through the crack, as did the barrel of a shotgun. "Who goes there?" a steady voice asked.

"Staff Sergeant Morgan, UN Marines. You Powell?" Kyra asked.

"Yeah. Is it secure out there?" Powell replied, disappearing from the crack. She heard something spark and abruptly the door opened the rest of the way.

"Yes," she replied.

"That big bastard is gone?"

Kyra felt a stab of fear. "What big bastard?"