The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 22: Raw Meat & Dark Corridors

Something that Jack had come to learn was that some sayings were true. Very true. Not all of them, but some of them. And one that he firmly believed in was: it's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets any better...if it ever does get any better. Nowhere in his entire career, in his entire life, had that idea been so thoroughly highlighted. They'd made it across the surface yet again, although each time they crossed, it felt like more and more of a lethal gambit. There seemed to be more monsters out there every trip.

The tram rolled into its station and they hauled themselves out onto the platform. Now they were in Deimos Labs.

As soon as they stepped into the wrecked, high-security entrance lobby, all hell cut loose. Jack grunted as he was kicked in the chest by a shotgun blast. Not point-blank at least, but enough to send him stumbling and to no doubt leave a big bruise across his ribcage. He heard gunfire behind him, the patter of Jenkins's SMG, and caught sight of a Z-Sec going down under a metal rain. Then it was all bloody, bullet-riddled chaos.

Jenkins and Jennifer were far enough back that all they had to do for cover was to step back a few feet and crouch down in either side of the big chrome door frame. Jack had no such option. He was out in the open, the only option he had was to dash forward, into the gunfire, and dive to safety inside of the big circular desk that dominated the center of the room. It immediately fell under fire as the small army of Z-Sec zombies that were pouring into the room opened up. Jack managed to pop up and get a lucky shot off.

He blew half of one's head away in a spray of sparks and gore. It dropped and flopped on the deckplates like a fish out of water, turning Jack's stomach. Humans didn't do that. He could hear the other two earning their keep, blasting away at any exposed black-armored assholes. He took whatever opportunities presented themselves and ended up depleting his shotgun in the process. After a nearly five minute shootout, the last Z-Sec fell and all became silent. Jack waited, his body tensed, seeing if anything else would show up.

But nothing did.

He let out his breath, relieved and trembling from the adrenaline. Slowly, he stood up and surveyed the area. It looked worse than before, somehow. Silently, the trio began picking through the remains, scrounging among the corpses they'd just produced, hoping against hope for more ammo. Jack tried to think of nothing at all as he searched the dead. The exhaustion he'd been feeling since not long after they'd left the Deimos Anomaly was only getting worse. After all they'd been through on Phobos, and now this...

He was seriously beginning to question if he could handle it, if he might not end up snapping somehow. He told himself that he was a Marine, goddamnit, tried to tell himself to suck it up, get over it, get moving. But it wasn't just the physical labor. It wasn't just the endless trekking or the shooting or all the other oddjob physical tasks that came up. It wasn't even the blood and the bodies and the signs of damage here, there, and everywhere.

It was the base itself.

Somehow, someway, the creatures were...subverting it. Changing it. Corrupting it. That was probably the best word for it. It was like the buildings had gotten cancer or something. It was screwing with him and he was paranoid that it was just going to get worse, they were just going to see even more screwed up crap.

"We got a map of this place?" Jack asked after they finished up. No luck with his shotgun, it was spent, but he'd managed to find himself another SMG finally, with some ammo to boot. Jennifer approached him, holding what looked like a PDA.

"We got lucky," she replied. "Map of the Labs. Gimme a minute to figure out the shortest route through."

"Excellent," Jack said and began moving around the room again, seeing if there was anything he'd missed. As he did, he tried to covertly study the others. As bad as he was doing, he wondered how they were holding up. All three of them needed to keep their shit together. From what he could see, Jennifer looked the most sturdy. He had an idea that she was probably the strongest of the three of them when it came to sheer willpower. Jenkins was doing better than Jack thought he would, but he was still the most worrying of the three of them.