M4DN3SS R3DACT3D (a sh!t madness combat story)

[[ELEV3N]]

Rather than landing out in the open like before, Deimos was shot through the wall of a building. His jaw was still missing, and the pain was near unbearable, but he figured that was the last of his concerns now.

He looked down at the blood dripping onto his hands. It was all dark.

Fuck. God-fucking-damnit. Shit. Why?? How did that happen?

He picked himself up as quickly as possible and looked around. Seemed like an empty grey room until he turned to the back.

There was a desk in the back corner. When he walked over to it, he saw a single piece of paper on it- all that was written on it was,

"IT HURTS"

...alright then...

He looked further towards the wall. A grunt's body was laying in a pool of black blood- roughly half of their head appeared to be smashed into the wall.

Jesus-fuckin'-Christ.

He left the room, having to shoot down multiple agents on his way. It was nothing he couldn't handle, though much less easy than when he had a fully intact mouth that wasn't continuously bleeding and didn't hurt like a bitch.

But he began to realize how much stronger he was becoming. A MAG agent eventually approached him, punching him into a wall while his back was turned to them. But Deimos needed no time to recover, he got back on his feet just as they got closer to him again. He knocked the mask off of their face and shot them multiple times. He ran past their body into the next room only to be greeted by more agents- which he, as usual, took care of very quickly.

He looked into the next room through a long window- more of a hole than anything, since there was no glass- in the wall. A door leading into it opened, and Sanford- normal, uninfected Sanford- walked in and got to work on disabling the power inside.

'Ford?

Just as Deimos made to follow him into the next room, an agent walked in on Sanford and shot him, and killing him.

Deimos froze. He couldn't tell whether he was more annoyed or hurt.

It's fine. Totally fine. Just another one of those damn tricks. Should've been expecting it. Sanford's not here.

...God, I wish he were here.

He ran out of the room and made his way to where Sanford's body now was. But as he opened the door, Sanford- again, somehow- walked in through the door beside him, and the agent and body were gone.

He immediately got back to his work.

Deimos was more confused than anything at this point. Why was he being ignored?

Sanford?

The taller man turned to him. The lense over his right eye was cracked, and darkness poured down from underneath it.

...Nope. Not Sanford.

Deimos backed away immediately. He grabbed his gun tightly, though he knew he wouldn't dare use it on him- real or not. Sanford raised his hand to reach out to him, but he was stopped by a long arm-like creature with a claw shooting out from the wall behind him. It went right through his chest, poking out on the other side covered in darkness.

Sanford tensed, but still seemed fairly unaffected by this.

Deimos turned and ran out of the room- no longer out of determination and the excitement of killing more agents, but out of pure fear and confusion. He still didn't understand what he was meant to do. How would he get out of here?

Though Deimos didn't see, the arm-like creature stuck its claw into the ground a short distance behind Deimos, and he fell hard on the ground.

FUCK.

He carefully pulled himself back up to his feet. Darkness poured out of the open space where his jaw was mean to be, and he lost control of his body for a moment- and slammed back into the floor.

An agent that had been sneaking up on him was crushed by a huge block of stone at the same time. Deimos didn't bother to try and figure out how the hell that worked before he gave himself one final push to get up, finally making it back to his feet with a piercing headache.

He heard footsteps behind him.

Who the hell...

He turned around, gun up and aimed in front of him, and his eyes meeting familiar circular lenses, cracked and bleeding darkness.

DO IT, DEIMOS.

Red text and static flashed his vision, and Deimos's hand subconsciously tightened around his gun.

At first, he was confused. What was he meant to do?

Sanford leaned in, putting his hand up and angling the barrel of the gun up at his face. Deimos watched him smile for the first time in a little too long. It was the same wide, toothy smile the man always had, except much more.. sinister in some way. Darkness was was dripping from his gums and lips.

It was at this point Deimos realized what needed to be done to get out of there, and his heart stopped. He didn't want to. He couldn't bring himself to. He'd been avoiding it this entire time.

What?! Why?!

"Cmon, Dei!" The taller man taunted, his voice rougher than usual. He let out a loud laugh at the way Deimos flinched back when he spoke. "Don't tell me you're SCARED! Why would you be scared of me?! I'm already DEAD!"

Deimos backed up slightly, keeping his gun pointed at Sanford, but he didn't dare pull the trigger. He felt the blood and darkness building up in his throat begin to choke him up.

Why him?