H λ L F - L I F E: Bishop's War✔️

CHλPTER 10: Haphazard

                                                            PλRT TWO
                                                 –HOSTILE TERRITORY–

"I really wasn't looking forward to going back underground," Eric muttered as he led the way down the tunnel, magnum in hand. As much as he'd been hoping for one, there hadn't been any kind of assault rifle. Really, there'd just been some ammo for the pistols and enough shotgun shells to give him and Vanessa another full load. They'd also gotten her a bulletproof vest. They'd tracked down the maintenance tunnel entrance, which was a grate in the floor that Eric had had to use the crowbar to bash in because it was rusted shut.

And then they'd descended, finding themselves in a narrow, dank, concrete tunnel.

He thought about what he'd just said. It was true, he supposed, but honestly he wasn't sure what he was feeling at the moment. Eric Bishop was adrift, like a fighter pilot who'd ejected and was floating down before the parachute kicked in, or a boat that had slipped its moorings during a storm and was being tossed among the waves.

No thoughts seemed to be able to take hold.

The Marines were here, and they intended to murder him, and his new friends. And his old friends, too, if any of them were still alive.

They intended to murder them all.

This had big ramifications, and made the situation a hell of a lot more difficult to get through. Going up against monsters and aliens was one thing. Simultaneously going up against the United States Marine Corps was another.

Mainly, he was just...

He was having a lot of difficulty with the fact that they were straight up murdering everyone. And yet, even as he thought about it, even as he wanted to reject the notion, he knew he couldn't. And as he thought this, Steven voiced part of it.

"I don't believe it, man. How could they do that?" he said.

"It's their job," Eric replied.

"What? No it the hell isn't! Their job is to protect United States citizens! Not butcher them like cattle, man!"

Eric stopped suddenly and turned around. "No, Steven," he said, staring hard at them both, who had stopped as well, staring back at him with stricken eyes. "Their job is to follow orders. Whatever those orders might be. That's what they train us to do. They don't train us to be free thinkers. In fact, they train us out of it. Our job is to follow orders, plain and simple."

"You keep saying 'us' and 'our'," Vanessa said.

"Would you have done it?" Steven asked. "If they'd ordered you..."

"I want to say no, but...actually, you know what? No, I wouldn't. Why do you think I got kicked out?"

"You were a Marine?" Vanessa pressed.

"I was," he replied. "I refused a direct order. I don't want to get into it."

"How'd you get a job here, then?" she asked.

"Friend of mine got me in. I don't want to talk about it, but I do want to make this real. If we see them...we're going to have to kill them. You understand that, right? I need you to understand that. We're not just fighting monsters or aliens or whatever they are anymore. We will be fighting human beings. And you will have to murder them, because if you don't, they will murder you. And I need to know if you can handle that."