Rifle
Chapter one
Onward they marched, boots splashing in the mud;
every single soul was afraid of what lie ahead, in the deep cave they stood before.
They could only guess what hid in the deep depths of this horrid place.
"Time to go." One of them stepped forwards, with a slight tremor is his step.
Kyle.
The man in black and deep red took lead.
The woman he Adored, Aron, followed behind him- in armor of Aqua. Next was Elizabeth, the charcoal and blood-red Spartan, who pulled the straggling member of the pack with her; Bant stumbled forwards under her iron grip, his armor gray and white. Weapons in tow, they all prepared themselves for this mission.
An eerie wind crept and blew through the cave, making soft music of malice nature. Where the wind came from or went to, was something that made no sense- it caused any of them shivers to think about.
On that foreign planet, and through that small entrance, they kept a slow pace. Bant shook, and Elizah squeezed his hand tighter "Calm down." She whispered through the helmet's intercom. Aron and Kyle smiled inside their helmets, this is silly, Aron thought, there's nothing even here.
Upon that small thought, she realized the ground, which had been mud and rocks only moments before, was something completely different. It's color and texture resembled a sickly flesh. It bubbled and popped underneath her boots, covering them in the sticky substance. She stopped and stared down at this malevolent-like structure; it made her shiver in disgust. "What is this?" She looked all around- it was everywhere.
The flesh covered the walls that lie ahead, as the small entrance opened into a huge room, with many columns and catacombs that led on into the ghostly darkness. Elizabeth and Bant stopped behind her, and Kyle stopped in front of her as well.
Elizah and Bant soon then saw it, too. The flesh glowed from the flashlights on their guns. It was something out of the worst of nightmares, how it seemed truly alive, whatever it was. It floated and fell as if it breathed- making them really wonder what this mission was for. Elizah felt as if she was entering the stomach of a beast, while Bant wondered if it was a poor creature they were stepping upon.
"Lets keep going, ignore it." Kyle looked back at his team.
Aron looked back up- at Kyle. He was being different from usual- more like a leader- she almost started to admire him for that, but she felt uncomfortable. Why is him being responsible phasing me? She thought, puzzled. Maybe it's just the alien atmosphere.
The team advanced on, atop the fleshy ground towards the center column. It had these strange pods that seemed a yellow brown in the lighting- they swayed slightly in that unexplainable wind- to that melancholy tune. The brownish pods also seemed to be breathing, seeming even more alive than the walls. Elizah reached out her left hand, curious of the things texture.
"Elizah! No!" Kyle screamed through the intercom.
It was too late, Elizah's armored fingers felt the small clear bubble or yellow-brown. It was soft and rough like skin. The instant she felt this thing, it moved. It wiggled from its place, quicker than she could have imagined something wiggle, and it turned around. The thing had root-like and tentacle arms that latched onto her hand with a violent pulse. "Ah!" Elizah tried to shake the thing loose, it was trying to undo her armor and get up under it.
"Elizah!" Aron cocked back her loaded pistol and shot with precision.
It blew off the main armor on the back of Elizah's hand, but it also made the creature's bubbly head explode, and its limp body dropped to the floor.
"What in heck was that thing?" Bant got nearer to Elizah and examined her hand. He felt guilty for not reacting as quickly as Aron- for not protecting her. The back of her hand smoked with where the first layer of armor flew off.
"I don't know, but there's about to be a lot more." Aron re-loaded, pulling out her shotgun as well. The little popcorns writhed from their place in a lively motion. The gunshot awoke them from their swaying slumber. The gunshot that still evidently echoed through the deepest pasts of the cave.
The whole team pulled their weapons as well, and backed away from the column, realizing that the other columns around them, besides that center one, had awoken.
They formed a circle, their backs facing inwards, as the creatures started to approach them. Kyle ripped the safety pin and let a grenade fly- it bounced from the pink and fleshed wall and exploded against one of the columns. As soon as the others realized this, it became too late for anyone else to just grenade the things before they got too close.
The war started. Between the humans and the creatures that surrounded them, soon the little popcorns were all exploded and gone.
"That was a little too easy…" Bant looked around at the rest of the group, they didn't pay heed to it. "I mean, seriously… this mission was ranked higher than that…"
His eyes looked around nervously.
"Do you think our superiors knew about these things?" Kyle turned to Bant, a little anger showed. At this point, disrespect towards the system that they risked their lives for almost seemed like a death wish. Almost. "And they wouldn't have told us!" he stepped forward, almost as to grab Bant by the collar.
"I'm saying… It's possible…" he kept up kyle's stare with his own.
"We won't know until we get back, so both of you need to shut it." Aron snapped, and walked between them, forcing them to break gazes.
"Your soldier needs to know what he's talking about." Kyle looked to Elizah.
Elizah glared a little from under her red visor, but was careful to hide it from everyone. Then she blushed; he implied that she owned Bant. She liked that thought, but she hid those feelings as well. She shivered a bit in anger, biting her lip. Aron looked at Kyle in annoyance. How dare he be so rude?
"Uh…Kyle…" Aron was frozen in place. Her gun aimed at the far corner of the room- where this moving mass was huddled and moving together towards them. It looked like twenty Spartans, lined up, all together, pushing forward.
It wasn't Spartans. Kyle and the others turned, seeing the monsters in front of them. Their arms twisted and bended in different directions, and it had inhuman like growths and deformities all over their bodies. They had these strange wrinkled structures where a head would be while human heads hung loosely to their sides; out of their mouths stuck living branches tipped with a straggly red.
Every gun loaded. Elizah pulled out something else from her backpack besides the shotgun. As one of the beasts broke its way from the pack and rushed them, it screamed. It was already shot and writhing on the ground: On Fire.
Bant turned to Elizah "Is that a flame-thrower?" she could hear his shotgun click, ready to aim. "I might have Modded one of these standard guns a little…" The flames shot out again, claiming another monster to the flesh below. The creatures roared- whether for their fallen comrades or for a fresh meal was unclear. The shrill cries gave Bant shivers.
The whole pack of monsters rushed forwards at once, the flamethrower claimed about half of them before they got too close to char-grill. Elizah and Bant started to back up some, and Elizah saw Aron reach for her back, she grabbed a small bar-like thing and it started to glow with a bright blue light: an energy sword.
Everyone saw it- the Blue glowing sword.
"Aron! That's illegal!" Elizah whined. Looking in total awe- both relief and terror crept to her.
"What? Modding is illegal, too!" She rushed at the pack, eliminating most of the strange creatures with a single swipe of her hand. The blue glow was majestic not only because of it's radiant light- but it's use and effectiveness.
"There's-on-ly-one-mo-re" Aron tuned in a singsong sort of way, laughing, as she rushed towards the creature. This one was different; it was bulky and had two small, stubbly legs. It walked slowly towards her, while she went full speed at it. Something seemed off, but Aron in her adrenaline took no reason to realize it.
She swung her sword, and the lowly thing exploded, sending her flying backwards and on her back. "Aron!" Kyle cried out, as the explosion released a bunch of popcorns that were all over Aron in seconds.
Quickly, Kyle reached for his sniper, aiming at the evil creatures all over her. Hitting each one perfectly. Killing them off one by one before they could even have a chance to break any of her armor. She writhed, clawing at the popcorns, giving Kyle difficulty to aim. His shot caused a ringing as it hit her armor, she screamed.
"Kyle! Are you trying to kill me?" She breathed heavily through the intercom- at this point the others were rushing near her, carefully staying out of Kyle's line of fire. Even at a close distance, there was nothing they could do that wouldn't injure Aron.
"The sword!" Bant ran and grabbed the glowing slice-machine, but there was no way they could get close with Kyle still trying to kill the little bubbles. "Kyle, cease fire!" Elizah yelled through the intercom, as then Bant approached Aron and destroyed the rest that were on her.
Aron couldn't move so much anymore, those little demons sapped away her energy. She could barely curl her fingers without feeling exhausted- while the words everyone was shouting rang through her mind like a dream. Like lost and hopeless memories, her friends looked down into her eyes.
"Aron…" Elizah tapped Aron's visor violently "Aron!" she shook Aron's shoulders.
"I…I'm fine…" sounded through the intercom, but it was halfway a groan. Kyle just stood back with his sniper still poised, waiting.
Elizah helped Aron to her feet; Aron's arm around her neck, she trudged back to Kyle. Aron's mind rushed with many a thoughts- not a single one made sense. Kyle…what were you doing? Why haven't you…? Kyle would have been the first to my side. Kyle should have cracked a joke by now.
"Kyle…" she moaned, her vision blurry. He ignored it. "I'm going around this pillar to the part below, there doesn't seem to be any of this…stuff down there." He looked down at the flesh of the ground before staring back at the pillar of which he spoke. "I'll scout ahead, while you two carry her." He turned on his heel and went around the pillar, around the pillar the ground sloped downwards, like a smooth winding staircase. There was a small cliff by the pillar, which the rest of the team went and looked over- they saw Kyle down below- looking around.
Elizah set Aron down by the small cliff. "So you can watch Kyle." She teased. Even with the helmets on, and even with Elizah's red visor that usually hides her face, Aron knew Elizah smirked and winked.
"Elizah!" Aron shot up from sitting position in a flash, shooting popcorn that jumped at Elizah's head. It popped, and she lost her energy again, stumbling backwards over the edge of the cliff.
Elizah jumped forwards, grabbing Aron by the hand. Aron dangled from the ledge, unable to move. Her energy was gone, her eyes wide from the unexpected fall. Their hands slipped, the armor on their hands made it difficult to hold on.
The bond gave out, and Aron felt like she was flying, all too quickly. For a moment, her eyes could have flashed her whole life, but it didn't. Her body curled into a ball, and though the cliff was short and almost not steep at all, it felt- to her- like she was falling forever.
Arms. Armor.
"I will catch you when you fall, sweetheart"
"Shut up." She punch Kyle's arm.
"Ow." He whined. "So much for thank-you?"
"Aron!" Elizah screamed, not only through the intercom, but through the air as well. It was a terrified screech. Elizah couldn't see Aron or Kyle down there, because it was so dark.
"I'm fine, Kyle's got me."
"I'll always have you." He laughed.
Aron sighed, she was relieved- Kyle was acting normal. He acted like any other day, now, chasing her skirt… her armor, actually. He finally said something lighthearted, something Kyle would actually say. Kyle was his normal self again, but she still wondered what made him act so different in the first place.
"I'm tired, will you carry me?" she yawned.
He turned off his intercom from the others- "Why would I do that?" he laughed, dropping her to the ground. She hit the ground hard, she felt like he threw her.
"Kyle?" she looked up in fear, it was broadcast on the intercom.
"Don't run off!" he yelled, with his intercom fully on.
Aron didn't understand any of this. What is he talking about? She wondered. She almost spoke, to ask him, but he got nearer to her, almost apologetically. That wasn't it. She heard clicking noises as she saw him over her. Her helmet was loose.
No. Kyle was taking her helmet off.
She breathed the last bits of Oxygen that her helmet had left.
Losing consciousness.
She breathed in the chemicals of the air around.
Going blank.
Kyle smiled at her.
Something's wrong, it's dark.
"Kyle!" she fought to stay awake.
He turned, his eyes a faint yellow glow from underneath his helmet, as he tossed hers out of reach.
Her vision blurred.
It wasn't Kyle.