H λ L F - L I F E: Bishop's War✔️

CHλPTER 15: Surface Tension

It was absolute chaos outside.

It looked like the War of the Worlds had finally become a reality. A small army of military personnel were currently at war with a larger army of inhuman monstrosities. Eric was peering carefully through the door he'd just opened. They'd left the previous building and made their way to the first warehouse in a row of them. The others crouched behind him, weapons at ready. They'd been waiting here for almost twenty minutes now, hiding among the ruins. The warehouse they were in was partially collapsed. Sunshine spilled in through the broken-open ceiling. It looked like someone had done a bombing run on it.

When they had first encountered the Marines fighting off the alien horde, Eric had briefly toyed with the idea of going out there and kind of helping while at the same time making for their destination. He and Vanessa had the PCVs now. But Bower had pointed out that he was still wearing his Black Mesa uniform, and Vanessa was too. They'd stick out like sore thumbs and although the Marines might not immediately open fire on them, it really wasn't worth the risk. Even so, with this being the lesser of two evils, he hated it all the same.

Because he couldn't imagine that every Marine out there was a die hard fanatic or a lunatic just looking for an excuse to gun down some civilians. They couldn't all be monsters. As he thought of this, the battle raged on. It seemed to take ages, but finally, the gunfire choked off and then fell away entirely. Eric glanced at Bower, who nodded tightly. It was time to roll the dice and see who had won this particular skirmish.

Eric peered out the open door again.

There were a lot of bodies out there, but...he actually couldn't see any left standing. A lot of dead Marines, a lot of dead alien slaves and grunts. Somewhere, a building was burning. And there was the constant chatter of machine gun fire from somewhere else, but it was clear. Or, at least, it looked clear. He said as much to Bower.

The Sergeant sighed. "We give it another sixty seconds, then we go. Grab whatever ammo you can, but we need to make for that building."

They all nodded and readied themselves.

Eric went out first once the time was up. Bower followed quickly behind him. The pair did a more thorough sweep of the immediate area, then waved the others out. While they spread out and started gathering whatever ammo they could, he hunted for their next target. They were standing in a little avenue created between twin rows of warehouses. There were a dozen on either side. The warehouse they'd just come out of read WAREHOUSE #01. And the one directly across from them was WAREHOUSE #02. Which meant that the one they wanted was three warehouses up on the right side of the avenue. Perfect. He joined them in gathering ammo. He managed to snag an assault rifle and found that its launcher tube was loaded.

He managed to stuff some magazines for his new rifle in his pocket before Bower barked out a quick order to move on. He was jumpy, and Eric didn't blame him. There was something in the air, and not just the fact that this was a fresh battlefield that could reignite at any moment. The squad tightened up their formation and began hustling for Warehouse Eight.

They made it maybe halfway there before all hell broke loose again.

An eerie, ominous, high-pitched sound cut loose across the area, echoing. Bower held up his fist and they all froze. Eric hefted the SAW, scanning the area, looking for whatever had made that sound. It didn't resemble anything he'd heard so far. It seemed to be coming from...up. Eric looked up. And then he saw it. A completely fresh horror was floating about thirty feet above them, hovering over the roof of one of the warehouses.

"Eyes high!" he called, raising the SAW.

It was hideous, whatever the hell it was. The floating thing had a withered body and a big, bulbous head. It stared at them with huge, luminous black eyes. As he prepared to open fire, it let out a shriek and pointed sharply at them. The front wall of the nearest warehouse abruptly burst open in a cloud of debris and the strange, buzzing sound of the alien grunt's weaponry filled the air. Twisting around as he shouted in shock and surprise, Eric saw three of the big alien bastards crashing through the wall. He brought the SAW around, leveled it at them, and opened fire. The result was awe-inspiring. He cut a line of bloody eruptions up the torso of the middle grunt and split its head open like a melon, spraying the others with its gore.