Rated T for gory description, swearing, suggestive themes.
Cave
The cave walls, jagged and dripping with thick slime, surrounded him left and right. The energy used for his cloaking field had depleted. His air filter was getting saturated. The nauseating smell, like spices sprinkled over dead bodies. Each step placed his boots on a flesh like floor with bumpy ridges that reminded him of a human's spine. A narrow beam of light on his rifle revealed his path, but it could not see the end of the darkness.
A monstrous breath echoed through the tunnel. The soldier froze. His years of experience fighting the species told him what type of creature it was, but fear, sweat running down his chest, his pounding heart, had shattered all of his training.
"Don't freeze. Don't you dare freeze."
He continued forward and dimmed the beam to a faint glow. The path was slightly angled downward, and he had the feeling he was walking into the heart of a hatchery. He couldn't go back. The screams of the other soldiers flooded his mind. Limbs had been torn so easily as blood had splattered the ground in pools. He had fired with gritted teeth, with mad eyes, but nothing could have stopped the swarm that had descended on them. Like a coward he had ran. Ran into a dark pit, a hell that was slowly consuming what sanity remained. He should have stayed and fought. He should have stayed and died.
The creature was closer now, and the soldier couldn't stop his lips from quivering. He shut his eyes tightly. The hopelessness swallowed him whole as he dropped to his knees and fell against the wall.
"Oh, jesus christ," he cried in a whisper.
He took a steady breath and let his mind wander. A face took shape, colour came to memory.
Rolling off, he laid his head back against the pillow. He grabbed a pack of cigarettes from his pants.
"Got a light?"
"Yeah."
The glow of the flame shined on his face, rugged and narrow jawed. His eyes glowed. He blew the smoke above them slowly in a narrow stream.
He rolled the cigarette to the corner of his mouth. "So the captain said another month huh?"
"Yeah."
"It's fucking bullshit."
"Hey man, there's only one thing I live for. Blasting the shit out of them."
He laughed and offered the cigarette. "You're in the wrong core."
The creature's snake like body moved through the tunnel. Its skin secreting a viscous liquid that made a licking sound against the floor. It breathed a throaty hiss. Only meters away now. He held his breath. A soft click sounded as he turned off the light. He didn't want to see the thing that was going to devour his flesh. The slithering beast had stopped inches from him. He could smell the creature. Practically taste its rotten breath. The cold sweat had pooled inside his armour. He couldn't move.
Silence. It was a perfect silence.
"Sorry I'm late," he whispered.
Something sank deep into his forehead. Agony, jolts of things never felt before.