The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 09: Command Control

This time, at least, the tram was still functional.

Jack had dropped himself bodily into the conductor's chair and, as soon as he confirmed everyone else was onboard and there weren't any immediate threats in the area, he closed the doors and started them off towards Command Control. The sooner they made progress, the sooner he could be off this wretched fucking moon. Even the comatose boredom and misery of Mars looked fantastic by comparison. Although he'd be lying if he didn't admit to some perverse pleasure at putting these hideous caricatures of humans and monster beasts down. When he was younger, he used to fantasize about something like this.

Who the hell hadn't thought about fighting zombies?

He glanced over his shoulder as the door opened up. Jennifer came in. She closed the door behind her and joined him in the cramped compartment. They were currently cycling through the big airlock that would admit them access to the lengthy glass tunnel that snaked its way across the dead, bleak surface of Phobos.

"Hey," he said, turning away from the controls. She leaned up against a nearby bulkhead. "How are you doing? I, uh...we haven't really had a chance to catch up," he added awkwardly. Although they'd slept together multiple times now and they'd both trusted each other enough to share a bed when they were asleep, at their most vulnerable, he still didn't honestly know the extent or genuine nature of their relationship.

He knew that he liked her, and respected her, and she didn't have any immediately obvious deal-breakers for potentially a long term relationship. Of course, it was pretty insane to be thinking about this right now.

"I'm tired," she replied, then laughed. "Hungry, thirsty. My back hurts and my ankles and knees are sore from all the damned running around, falling over, diving for cover, kicking the shit out of zombies. We got woken up in the middle of the night for this crap. What about you? It was pretty gutsy to come in here after us."

"If there was even a chance that any of you were still alive, I was coming in," he replied flatly. "Although it wasn't like I had much choice. I think the same thing that's screwing with the radios is also screwing with the ships. It's the only thing that makes sense. Stanmore panicked and tried to flee, but the ship wouldn't lift off. And all the others, it wouldn't make sense that the other pilots wouldn't try a retreat, especially if something was ripping its way into the airlock with nothing but brute force and determination. So even if we find Blackmore and the others and get back to the ship, I don't think we're going home."

"Then...what do we do?" Jennifer murmured.

"I don't know. Dig around, find out what the fuck they were doing up here," Jack replied. He sympathized with her. He was tired, hungry, and sore, too. The adrenaline had amped him up, and he knew he could keep going for awhile yet, but how much longer would he have to be here? How long until he needed to sleep? Technically he could go for weeks without food, but he'd start suffering for it long before that.

And then there was the matter of ammo. There didn't seem to be enough of it around.

"It's, uh, it's been good to see you again," Jennifer said, giving him a somewhat awkward smile.

He favored her with an equally awkward one. So she didn't quite know where they stood either. Unfortunately, now just wasn't the time to deal with that.

Jack returned his attention to the tunnel ahead of them. They weren't far from Command Control now. The huge structure loomed above them. They cycled through the airlock and pulled into the tram station.

A pair of Imps and three zombies awaited them.

"Great," Jack muttered as the creatures became aware of their presence, staring at them through the glass, and attacked. The Imps began throwing fireballs and all three zombies were armed, two of them with pistols and one with a shotgun. Fuck. This was looking worse by the second. He got up and moved with Jennifer back into the main cabin.