The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 11: Phobos Labs

Phobos Labs started out bad.

As soon as he stepped off the tram, a solid wave of stench hit him. It wasn't blood or death or spilled guts. It was burning, an acrid smell, a caustic thing that invaded his sinuses and ate right up into his brain. His eyes watered up and that nearly got him killed, because as he was trying to get his sight back, a bullet scorched by overhead.

"Down!" Jennifer called, and he dropped to one knee, giving her access to whatever stupid bastard had thrown a bullet his way.

As he activated his suit's filters, which didn't cut the smell out completely but made it somewhat more manageable, he raised his SMG and found himself staring at what he at first took as a human in black armor. Whoever it was, they were covered head-to-toe in the metallic stuff and they moved like a human.

"Stop shooting! We're not zombies!" Jack called.

The man, or woman, whoever, acted like they hadn't heard. The black armored foe, wielding a pistol, continued opening fire on them. Jennifer punched a round through their visor and shattered it in a spray of glass and gore.

"Who the fuck was that?!" McGee snapped.

"God, what's that smell?" Jenkins groaned.

"Shut up!" Blackmore barked. "Ward, Taylor, get out there, see who that is. We'll cover you," he ordered.

Both of them left the relative safety of the tram, coming out onto the platform, which was bathed in a broken light that flickered every now and then. They moved slowly across the platform, checking the shadows and corners for hostiles, but they seemed to be alone.

"Check it," Jennifer whispered.

Jack nodded and moved forward, crouching by the body. He disengaged the helmet. He'd never seen a design of armor like this before. As the helmet came away, he gasped, dropping it. The features of a zombie were staring up at him.

"Report," Blackmore called.

"It's a zombie," Jack replied.

"Shit," Jennifer whispered. "Where the hell did these fuckers come from!? It moved like a human!"

Before anyone could respond, the main door that led into Phobos Labs suddenly opened up. Three more troopers in black armor rushed into the room. Two of them held pistols, one held a shotgun. The shotgun barked and Jack heard glass shattering somewhere behind him. He immediately began backing up and opening fire at the same time. He managed to tag one of them in the neck with his SMG. It went down long enough for someone to score a hit through its visor. Jack managed to get back to a stack of storage crates, where he knelt. The others were firing at the zombies from back in the tram. Jennifer had gone the opposite direction.

Another three of the dark armor clad assholes stepped in.

Three of them began advancing on Jack and the tram, while the other two headed for Jennifer, who had made it to a maintenance closet on the opposite side of the platform. What were these things!? How could the zombies get this smart this fast!? No time for that. Jack hosed the trio advancing on him down, emptying the magazine in his Raptor and then falling back. It seemed to do the trick. They were distracted enough to be put down under a rain of fire from the tram. Jack switched to his shotgun and stepped out.

"Hold fire!" he shouted as he rushed across the tram platform.

He got to the pair of zombies, which were still facing away from him, and leveled his shotgun at the back of the first's head. He squeezed the trigger. The slug shell fucking demolished its head, helmet and all. Everything above the neck disappeared in a plume of gore. While the first was still falling, he readjusted his aim, cocked the gun and repeated the process. Both zombies tumbled, headless, to the floor.