The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 08: Entryway

The elevator began to slow.

Jack swallowed and readjusted his grip on his pistol, shifting a little more to the right. He aimed towards the doors. Despite everything, despite all he had gone through up to this point, despite even having faced monsters within the past few hours here on Earth...he was still nervous. Maybe it was because he was alone.

He'd spent almost no time alone while on Phobos, Deimos, or in Mars City. Or even in Hell. But now he was on his own, unless he managed to find others. And who knew what amount of nightmarish fiends stood between him and them?

The elevator came to a halt. He prayed that it didn't make any noise, that it didn't chime or ding or anything as it opened.

The doors slid open.

No noise was forthcoming.

Which was a very good thing, because there were zombies dead ahead of him, and they were facing away from him. Jack stepped out swiftly while adjusting his aim, and capped the nearest one in the back of the head. It seemed to be a civilian, wearing ripped and bloodied clothing, and it went down like a sack of rocks. A pair of roars sounded as the other two zombies in the room immediately reacted to the sudden intrusion into their territory and began turning around to face him. He didn't give them a chance.

Jack shifted aim and popped off another shot, punching a hole in the second zombie's temple and dropping it fast, then repeated the action as the third and final undead horror faced him and began raising a pistol. The final zombie caught a bullet in its right eye and the pistol clattered across the floor as it was released and the monsters went down. Jack waited, holding his breath, and was rewarded for his patience and vigilance as another two zombies lumbered into the room via a doorway across the way, dead ahead of him.

He popped them both, spraying coagulated gore and rotted brains across the chromed walls, and watched them tumble down the little stairway that led into the room. He waited a bit longer, but no more forces of Hell showed up. He released his breath in a slow exhale. Well, as far as first contact with the enemy went, that had gone pretty well. Jack looked around the room he'd come to. It appeared to be a back maintenance area, dimly lit, not in great condition. He was standing on a slightly raised platform, a little like a loading dock. The room was roughly rectangular, and two support pillars were built into it, to his left and right.

The periphery of the room was plagued by shelves and tables and workbenches, and there were already a few corpses there. He saw a man in a technician's outfit, but he also saw a few civilians. No doubt people had fled back here to hide during the initial invasion. These zombie bastards must've come back in after them and gunned them down. Growling in frustration, Jack hopped down off the platform and quickly checked the more shadowy areas of the room. No more zombies lurking. He quickly started patting down the bodies of the five zombies he'd put down. They were all civilians, and only two of them had been armed.

One had a pistol that was not only empty, but also broken. The other had a pistol with a full magazine in it, but the sidearm itself was in pretty poor condition. The rest had nothing. He pocketed the spare mag and then made for the only exit in the room, through which the two undead had come to investigate the slaughter of their brethren. The door led to a hallway that extended for a bit and then turned sharply right. Jack paused as he stepped into it, waiting, listening. Somewhere nearby, something groaned.

He moved down the corridor until he reached the corner, listened for a few seconds longer, then peered cautiously around. The chromed passageway extended another ten meters or so, with just a single doorway in the left wall, about halfway down the way. It was closed. There were a few bodies in the corridor with him, and several looked like they'd been chewed on. Wonderful. And this was probably the tip of the iceberg.