The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 36: Suburbs

At this point, Jack was just waiting.

Nearly two hours had passed since they had bombed that building, and progress felt tortuously slow. Between streets choked with debris and the worsening demon presence the deeper they made it into the city, they were having to fight or reroute roughly every five minutes. Four times now they'd had to full-on stop and duke it out with the demons. Twice Jack and the other Marines had actually had to deploy and leave the safety of the APCs.

Each time felt like it could be the end.

The demons were coming out in full force.

Presently, he was buckled into his chair to keep from being thrown around as they drove over debris or vehicles or piles of corpses, or took sharp turns. He was studying his map of the city. According to it, and his calculations, they had made it roughly three quarters of the way to their destination.

It still felt like lightyears of distance separated them.

But they had made progress. Meter by meter. Street by street. Demo by demon. They had made progress, and would continue to do so.

"Oh FUCK ME!" Spencer yelled from the cockpit at the same moment Diaz screamed "HOSTILES!" and opened fire with the chaingun up above.

The APC jolted to a halt. Jack cursed as he undid his belt and shot to his feet. It sounded bad. They'd been through some shitty battles so far, but nothing had elicited such a strong response from the others. He staggered into the cockpit, staring out through the windows, and his eyes widened as he caught sight of what awaited them.

They had just finished turning onto a new road, and halfway down it, a small army of Revenants awaited them. There had to be twenty of the skeletal bastards, all of them letting out that high-pitched roaring shriek as they launched rockets from their shoulders. And at the head of this army, leading it like a Lieutenant from Hell...

Another one of those bulbous-headed monstrosities that could conjure explosions.

Which was exactly what it was preparing to do.

"Target the big-headed son of a bitch! Put it down!" Jack snapped as he fell back into the main cabin and began gathering up his gear, preparing to get out there and defend them. He activated his comms. "Abrash, we need to-"

The world went white and suddenly he was airborne.

Everything turned into crazy confusing chaos as he felt his stomach flip and extremely brief weightlessness.

And then the APC landed with a jarring, metallic crunch and Jack yelled as he was thrown violently off his feet and smashed onto the new floor of the vehicle, becoming a tangle of armored limbs as Vekovious landed with him. He heard screaming, roaring, and chaingun fire. Jack felt pure, pulse-pounding terror as he struggled to get to his feet. Where was the bomb?! Was it damaged? It took him a second, but he finally realized that the APC had landed heavily on its left side. The wall was dented badly, but he saw the hardcase that had held the bomb was undamaged and felt some measure of relief.

It would stay there, for the moment. He had to assess the damage.

"Vekovious, get the back door open!" Jack snapped as he hunted around for his weapons.

"On it!" The Sergeant headed back for the rear exit and began struggling to kick it out. He could hear Diaz screaming in rage and the chaingun still firing. The chaingun nest was now above him, laying on its side, still attached to the roof apparently.

"Spencer, get back here!" Jack snapped.

"Coming!" he replied as he tripped and fell out of the cockpit. Jack grabbed him to steady him, then stared into his faceplate, trying to judge his awareness. He seemed a little out of it.