The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 03: Darkening

The next two days passed in bits and pieces.

They were largely long, dull stretches of mindless tedium, punctuated occasionally and randomly by bouts of ominous foreboding.

Jack was on patrol, though this time he was by himself. He made his way down a long, chromed corridor. The lights overhead seemed too bright, or maybe it was just the reflections. As he reached the halfway point in the hallway, he paused, then glanced back over his shoulder. In the whole length of the corridor, he was alone. That made him uncomfortable for some reason. Frowning, he turned back around and resumed his pace, moving a little bit faster. Things had been getting strange and tense around Mars City lately.

After staying the night with Jennifer, they'd gotten up the next morning around eight. He'd been tired but had pulled through, slowly exploring the areas that were open to him in Mars City. It became immediately apparent exactly how much of the base was locked off to as many people as possible. Even as a Marine, (Space Marine), there were huge sections of his map that were simply blacked out, hidden to him.

It was the same for the others, too.

He tried to ignore it, instead focusing on finding the areas of the base that mattered, like the gym, the shooting range, the rec room, and the mess. They were all close enough and easy enough to find, but ignoring the bad vibes he was receiving got harder very fast. For starters, he'd had nightmares the night he stayed with Jennifer, and then he'd had them again last night. He didn't know what they were. When he awoke, they drifted away like gunsmoke in the wind. All he could hold onto were the maelstrom of emotions that made him fight for control.

It was mostly terror.

Utter, mortal terror, unlike any he'd ever felt before.

If it had just been the nightmares, Jack could have passed the unease off. Not easily, but he could have done it.

But no, there was a lot more going on.

Like the fact that everyone seemed to be haggard and overworked. Everyone had bags under their bloodshot eyes. Or the fact that all the techs were doing double duty, and they were even pulling Space Marine techs. He overheard way, way too many conversations about burnouts and blowouts and power failures and equipment failures. Apparently the city had always been plagued by problems like these, but they had started spiking not long after he had arrived. And then there were the infirmaries. He passed by one and happened to glance in through the glass in the door, and had to stop and do a double take.

The infirmary was full.

Some people were sprawled out on examination tables, others were clutching head wounds or bloody hands, others were being prescribed pills.

And it wasn't just one infirmary, it was all of them he passed. They were all either full or close to. Word got around that job accidents and hallucinations and insomnia were also increasing. To make matters somehow worse, he was hearing more and more about problems up on Mars's two moons: Phobos and Deimos. Whatever they were experiencing down on Mars City, it was apparently tenfold up there.

Jennifer had been put on patrol somewhere else in Mars City today, as several of the Space Marines were either in the infirmary or had called in sick. Some, apparently, were even AWOL. How the hell could you go AWOL on Mars?

It was getting close to his break time and he was looking forward to it. Jack had conditioned himself for endurance, but he hadn't felt at ease or gotten decent sleep since arriving on Mars and it was beginning to take its toll on him. He was beginning to think about investing in some sleeping pills, something he'd hate to do because he didn't rely on anything but himself if he could manage it, and he'd managed it for most of his life.