The 24th Chromosome
One shot.
DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything Doom related!
John Grimm woke up, his eyes fluttering open and closed again as his mind and vision were still clouded with sleep. He felt cold and clammy, due to the fact that his spiky brown hair was matted together with his own blood (along with his clothes), but other than that, he felt fine. He was surprised that he was alive...very surprised. And with all his body parts connected to him too! But the real shocker was that he felt as if he had just woken up from the best nap of his life.
The pain was gone, and so, thank the Lord, was the splitting headache and nausea that he had had before drifting away to an easy sleep.
All he remembered was Sarge being dragged through the doors by the zombified scientists and workers. John had emptied his gun, aiming for the rotting hands that were clawing at his commander. John had fired a bullet just as the damn door was solidifying to keep the zombies from crossing, and it rebounded and hit him right where his thigh met with his hip. Pain pretty much clouded everything else he remembered as he limped and dragged his sister Samantha away to safety in a supply room, creating a blockade with containers of who knows what sealing them from view from whatever was skulking in the bloodstained corridors.
More pain followed soon after they had finally sat down to rest in the stuffy little room. Oh how it had felt good to stretch his legs without the fear that a zombie or some mutated human was waiting to devour him. They were safe, for the time being. John dimly remembered Sam sitting before him, gasping as she saw just how bad the bullet wound was and how deep it was buried in his flesh. John remembered feeling as if he were on the verge of becoming delirious with the sheer pain of his wounds, coupled with the shock of seeing his commander and his men getting devoured as if it were feeding time at the zoo...
Sam, being her usual worried older sister (only by two minutes) self, was just readying a syringe with some sort of clear liquid...John had looked down to see that she had taken the tube of the 24th chromosome along with her and that she was just about to inject the syringe into his arm.
He brushed her hand away weakly and confessed that he had done a lot of bad things. It was a touching moment between brother and sister as Sam reassured him that she would know her own brother. She placed the tip of the needle gently on the thin skin of his arm. John, finally agreeing, pulled out his gun and handed it to her, telling her to shoot him at the first sign of him turning into one of the mutilated humans. One in the heart and one in the head. Instead of nodding her assent, Sam whispered to him that she wouldn't need to, and without hesitation immediately inserted the needle in the crook of his arm and pushed down on the syringe's plunger.
The cold sting of the needle and fluid surging through his veins was the very last thing he remembered before he blacked out and sleep overrode all else.
Now he was slowly getting his thoughts assembled, and he opened his eyes fully. His eyes swept over the dingy and cramped room, searching. There was no other live being in there other than him.
His sister was nowhere to be found.
"Sam?" he mumbled as he sat up. Picking up his gun, he stood up easily and it was then that he realized that there was no stabbing pain in his leg. He looked down and stuck a finger through the hole the bullet had ripped in his clothes. The flesh was smooth and there was no mark of a bullet ever piercing through. John walked to the wall across him where a mirror was mounted. He leaned closer to study his reflection, using his hand to rub away the dried blood on his cheek. His cuts were gone, the cut flesh and minuscule blood vessels seemingly mended back together seamlessly. His piercing green eyes widened in shock and amazement.
Holy fucking shit.
John felt a little relieved knowing that the 24th chromosome had made him a superhuman instead of a super monster. The fact lightened his view about going back out into hell knowing that his body would heal several times faster than was considered normal.
"Okay, now for the hard part. Finding Sam, getting out of this fucking hell hole all the while kicking some serious monster ass in the process," John muttered as he shouldered his gun. "Hang in there Sam." And with that, he kicked the metal holders blocking the exit and cautiously stepped out into the dank and eerie hall.
Author's note:
Had to do this kind of thing for a creative writing class as an exercise and I just decided to turn it into a little vignette and upload it. Uh, hope it wasn't horrible. Reviews appreciated, I'd like feedback.