The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 03: Pure Terror

Whoever it was, they didn't seem to realize she was there.

Which seemed impossible, given how goddamned loud her boots were. Kyra waited and listened, trying to confirm what she thought she was hearing. Yeah...they were actually shuffling away from her. Why? Was it a trap? Could be. Could be someone else waiting just beyond the door to ambush her, distraction tactics. So what to do? Kyra remained still, hoping that whoever it was would come to the door, but the unknown person stayed out of sight. They groaned and shuffled a few more feet, then became still.

Kyra suppressed the urge to sigh. She couldn't just keep standing there. Well, the only wrong decision was no decision. She began moving slowly down the stairs. There was a grunt as she did so and she again came to a halt, waiting to see if whoever it was would come over. More shuffling footsteps, then nothing. Tightening her grip on the pistol, she finished moving down the stairs and crept up to the door.

Moment of truth.

Kyra moved quickly in front of the door, pistol aimed, ready to open fire if necessary, but hesitated as she caught sight of the figure in the corridor beyond. They were wearing a familiar yellow jumpsuit, the kind she always saw their pilots wearing. Some of the troops had taken to calling them canaries. Like a flash, an old phrase came to her: Canary in a coal mine. That made her shudder viciously as a tremor of real fear ripped through her again.

She realized that, even from behind, she recognized the figure before her.

Before she could think better of it, she opened her mouth and said: "Meyers."

Another warning grunt, and she immediately regretted her decision. Something was very wrong, something that had her instincts screaming at her. It wasn't just the fact that Meyers's suit was ripped in a few places, or that he had clearly bled a lot from a wound on his right shoulder. Nor was it the sounds he was making. It was more the slow way in which he was moving, the way he'd been shuffling around back and forth aimlessly for the past few moments.

And then she knew for certain that something was absolutely wrong with the man as he fully turned around and locked eyes with her.

The eyes currently embedded in Meyers's skull were no longer the eyes of a human being. They were glassy and milky with some strange white substance. And they had a faint glow to them. His face looked like it had cracked in a few places, almost like it was a porcelain mask. His veins were clearly visible, and stranger still, there was something almost leathery about his skin now. He let out another groan and began stumbling towards her, reaching for her with thoughtless, groping hands. His fingers were covered in blood.

"Meyers, stay back," she warned, hard steel coming into her voice.

She was being threatened, and she never reacted well to that. She aimed the pistol deliberately at him now.

Meyers gave absolutely no indication of having heard.

"Meyers, I said stay back. Stop moving. Now."

Still nothing. If anything, he sped up.

Something was obviously completely fucked here. Was it some kind of virus? A disease or infection? It was the only thing she could come up with in that moment as her brain shrieked at her not to let him touch her, to get near her at all.

"Meyers, I will shoot your ass!" she roared as he hit the doorway and stuck one arm through the crack down the middle, groaning louder now, muttering incoherently as he reached for her. There was something mindless about what he was doing. He seemed less like a human being that might be sick and more like some kind of animal, or even a machine. Like he had been replaced with a robot that had broken badly.