The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 32: Mt. Erebus

This time, when Jack snapped into existence, he saw Green ahead of him and there was no shouting, no roaring, no gunfire. As far as entrances went, it was pretty underwhelming, but after all the crap he'd been through lately, underwhelming was a godsend. As he checked out the area, Jack thought that if and when he made it back home, (what was home?), he planned on living a boring as hell life. He was pretty sure that he'd had enough excitement to last a lifetime. Or eight. He glanced back as another green flash flared and saw Jennifer.

Okay, maybe not a completely boring life.

Or maybe, maybe the coin would land on the other side and he'd come out of this a hopeless adrenaline junkie. It was definitely possible. He looked around the latest environment they found themselves in and frowned deeply. It took him a moment to piece together exactly what it was he was witnessing: they had apparently teleported to the top of Mt. Erebus...which was a volcano. He and the others had appeared in an open area that was beset on the sides and to the back by a sea of bubbling crimson lava. He could see the rim of the mountaintop along the edges of the area, maybe a hundred meters away. And there were islands.

He could see one off to the right, and another, just barely in view, off to the left. There were structures on the islands, too.

He turned around and looked up at the incredibly bizarre structure looming over them. The whole front of it appeared to be lit by some strange, natural, (or unnatural), bio-luminescence. It sparkled strangely in alternating sections of deep neon blue and a dark, pulsing red. A huge set of medieval looking wooden doors were set into the front, studded with metal bolts and a few skulls. He came to stand before it with Green.

"Well, this sucks," she said, staring at the big red button inset in a square of silver metal off to the right, embedded in the thick wooden frame. She looked back over her shoulder. "As if we didn't have enough problems without being in a fucking volcano."

"We're almost there," Jack replied. "Just gotta get through this damned place and...um..." He worked his tired mind, trying to remember what ridiculous name the researchers had given the next location.

"Limbo," Stratton said.

"Yeah, of course it is," Jack muttered. "This and Limbo and then the goddamned Tower of Babel." He turned and looked around again, and realized that he could still see it. Every time he'd been able to see up, into the sky, he'd subconsciously realized that he could see the Tower of Babel. It sat like a black monolith against the crimson skies, presiding over all of this hellish wasteland. But now it was impossible to ignore.

"Is everyone ready?" Green asked. They all sounded off that they were ready. Jack shouldered his shotgun, then suddenly switched to his SMG. He'd expended his ammo on the shotgun. Damn. He was starting to lose it. He was dead on his feet, starving, sweaty as hell. What he wouldn't give for a hot meal and a hotter shower just then. He thought he might trade five years off his life just for the shower alone.

Of course, there was a good chance that his life was being measured in minutes and hours now, rather than years and decades.

Well, he'd never particularly wanted to die of old age.

Green hit the big red button. The doors ground open, revealing an ingress of Imps that were feasting on the remains of a half-dozen Space Marines. Jack didn't even have to think to start popping off bullets at the red-brown fuckers. It was standard operating procedure at that point. The four of them came in, wrathful killers in blood-smeared green armor, hosing the lobby of that awful green brick down with red hot lead and spraying blood and guts everywhere. They put down a dozen Imps and two Demons that stomped in to investigate.