The Will To Live✔️

Chapter 41: Terminal

The tram ride was tense, but uneventful.

It was when they pulled into the station at the end of the line that Greg began to worry. Out the windows of the cart, he started to see a curious, spongy green growth along the walls, and by the time they had arrived at their destination, it was covering up most of the tunnel.

"Well, this is...concerning," Izzy murmured as she joined them once the tram had locked into place in the receiving bay.

"Don't lose focus," Greg replied, hefting the shotgun as he stepped up to the exit. He peered through the glass into the room beyond, spying the remains of the human element that had once occupied this area in the form of workbenches, tables, shelves, chairs, and tools, and other, far more disturbing, forms. As he opened the door and stepped out, playing his flashlight across the nearest wall to be sure that he was actually seeing what he thought he was seeing, the stench hit him like a hammer. He gagged, grimacing, but stared hard at the green glop covering the far wall.

"Are those..." Rydell whispered.

He saw skeletal remains baked into the green goo, bony limbs and grinning skulls covered in green slime peered at them like something out of a hell-fueled nightmare. There were no Combat Forms or other Flood types lurking among the goo-infested area, at least that he could tell, but Greg definitely heard something growling nearby.

"Focus up," Greg snapped as he realized that Rydell and Baranov were staring at the wall of goo and corpses intently.

They seemed to come out of their almost trance-like stares of horror and readjusted their attention to the situation at hand. He had to admit, it was a pretty horrifying sight. He made quick gestures, splitting the team to secure the area. Baranov and Ellis went towards a side door that led to a maintenance bay, Izzy, Rydell, and Pollard went off towards a side entrance, and he led Laney and Halpert over to the tunnel they were looking for, the main one. Greg stared down it while the others secured the area, and didn't like what he saw.

The green glop continued proliferating along the walls and up to the ceiling of the rocky tunnel.

"That's where we have to go, huh?" Halpert muttered unhappily.

"Yep," Greg replied.

No gunshots were fired as the rest of the team finished checking the area. They were alone. The team reformed on him at the entrance to the tunnel.

"All right," Greg said as he kept staring down it, using their combined light sources to try and get a better idea if anything was waiting for them deeper in, "it's pretty simple. We take this tunnel all the way to a cavern. From there, we take another tunnel, which should put us directly over the roof of the Proto-Gravemind chamber. We plant the bomb and get the hell out of here. We all ready for this?" he asked, looking around.

Each person gave a grim but affirmative response.

Greg took point, leading Task Force Reaper into the tunnel, deeper still into the darkness. The walk down the tunnel was harrowing and miserably long. The green substance that covered the walls sometimes tracked across the floor and stepping on it, even with combat boots on, was awful. It was like stepping onto a wet, gooey sponge. Occasionally, something would drip down onto the floor and a few times it dropped onto their snow camo uniforms and armor. Greg did his best to ignore it, filtering out the nightmarish environment in favor of actual threats. Because he kept asking: where were the Flood? They were around, he knew that, but where?

They made it to the other end of the tunnel without a problem.

As they came into the larger cavern, at last, Greg saw some Combat Forms milling around, and felt something very close to actual relief.