Darkness had engulfed him without warning. One moment he had been kneeling beside Vera's battered body and the next his mind was separated from his own body, cast into the cold unknown. Piece by piece the world came back to him, drawing him out of the darkness. His body felt as if it was suspended in the air, floating almost. But it wasn't until John regain a fair amount of consciousness that he was actually suspended in the air. What followed became the most agonizingly intense pain John had ever felt, coursing through every inch of his body.
His eyes snapped opened, instantly targeted by the brightness of the artificial lighting. His eyes quickly snapped shut, but didn't remain closed for long. His entire body was on fire-or something. Ever inch sent a surge of agonizing pain coursing through him no matter how much he tried to alleviate it. He could feel his body trying to heal, but something was keeping him from healing. John opened his eyes and found himself suspected in the air. He was still at the memorial site, but his position had changed dramatically. Two of the memorial trees branches were wrapped around his wrists, the metal leaves had been used as hooks, plunged deep into the muscles of his arm. The leaves had even been bent at different angles to secure him. Blood trailed down his arm toward his body and dripped off his fingertips. Every twitch of his muscle pulled and tugged at one point or another. He lowered his head and inspected his chest. Just like his arms, his chest had been mutilated in the same fashion. Instead of burying the leaves into the muscle, they had been wrapped around each one of his ribs and crushed around the bones. His body tries with futile results to heal, but the metal kept it from completely healing and reopened with each breath. HIs chest would expand and reopen the wounds, while pulling at his ribs all the same. His ankles were chained, but not punctured, whereas his legs had been. Each breath he took, each twitch of the muscle, each second of healing did nothing but send John on a rollercoaster of torment. He set his jaw too keep from screaming, but he could do nothing but hang in the tree while his body refused to die.
John drew his eyes from his battered body, to his surroundings. His muscles tugged sat the restraints, limiting his pain tolerance as he surveyed the immediate area. To his right was their gear. Not just his bag of weapons, but the bags of the cure as well. It had been carelessly piled together and left in a forgotten-or tempting- heap. He turned to his left where he-literally- felt his heart shutter. Vera was lying on the ground, twenty feet from where he'd originally found her, unconscious. Her face was still covered with blood, but it had long since dried. Her own limbs had been secured to the ground by the branches as well, but not in the same format as his own. Whoever-whatever-had taken them wanted to cause John as much physical and mental torture as possible. Vera, it appeared, was only the means to do so.
"Vera!" John called. His throat was extremely dry, which cause his voice to be hoarse.
"Last man standing, Reaper." came a distorted force.
John turned his head further and found a different kind of infected.
It resembled a Hell Knight in structure only, but the rest of its body was something else. The demon had a deformed, oval face. Sections of the flesh seemed to be in different stage of development-or decomposition. Bright, ice blue iris' outlined in red stared intently at him. Its mouth was large, wide, filled with jagged teeth, but not stained in blood. they were startlingly white. It was easily a foot taller than Vera, but within his body suspended in the air, the creature met John eye to eye as he approached. Its body was massive, bulky, but it moved as if it were light.
"We always seem to be the last ones standing. Don't we, John?" Its voice matched those sounds of the infected mindlessly groans, but the words were not. It was the words that caught John's attention. It was the words that gave insight to what-who- stood in front of John.
"Shoulda let me out when you had the chance, John." It continued. "Saved us all this...trouble."
"What...the hell..."
The creature nodded with a brilliant white smile. One so demented that John couldn't deny the truth any more. "That it is. My hell."
"I popped an ST after your sorry ass." John declared, leaning toward Sarge. "There's no way in hell you could-"
"A defected ST." Sarge interrupted. "Or did you forget your mission with Unit 2?"
"You killed Sky. You infected Hazard." he said.
Sarge nodded. "Unit 2 certainly went to shit after we took on Dimitrov. And speaking of the bitch," he turned to Vera' unconscious form. John saw the shift in his eyes. "I hear you took her on and tested how defected your shot are." Sarge laughed. "Portman was a shit soldier, but he certainly knew a good fuck when he saw one."
John jerked against the restraints. The leaves pulled at his muscles, his skin, and his bones. His ribs started to spread open his chest cavity as he jerked around. He groaned painfully, but put it into his voice. "Stay the fuck away from her!"
"Or what, John?" Sarge asked. "You're gonna kill me, soldier. You tried that and failed."
"What the hell do you wanted?" John demanded.
Sarge laughed again. "Nothing. I have everything. I have an army following my orders, I have a planet under my control, and I have you. The only thing that will make this perfect, is what I'm going to do to you next, John." He pointed down at Vera with a large, deformed finger. "You see, this little bitch has caused me enough trouble, but she's also the little bitch you had the nerve to protect and fuck. Now that says, that I have to do, to stop you, is stop her heart."
John said nothing.
"Now, I can fuck her or I can infect her." Sarge continued on. "Don't matter to me. I could probably take both ways, probably will. And the best part, is that all your sorry ass will be able to do, is watch. Watch as I fuck your partner. Watch as I kill that bastard inside of her. And watch as I order her, to kill you." He walked to Vera's side and knelt down.
John pulled at his arm restraints. Blood seeped from his wounds, but he remained suspended. Sarge grabbed the back of Vera's hair and lifted her head from the ground. John jerked at his restraints, heart pounding away as he watched Sarge's deformed face lean into Vera's. His body screamed in agony as he tried to free himself. Sarge opened his mouth, revealing his long, dripping tongue. He took one finally look in John's direction before plunging his tongue down Vera's throat.
"NO!" John screamed. He jerked his whole body against the restraints. Blood burst from the open wounds. Bones creaked but held firm. Muscles tore and regrew with each jerk. Pain flared again and again, threatening to throw John unconscious, but the sight of Sarge on top of Vera kept him conscious. He screamed as he focused all his strength into his right arm, pulling with whatever force he could muster. His eyes never left Vera's form. From his distance, he could made out the bulge of Sarge's tongue worming its way down her throat toward her chest cavity. He clenched his fist and heaved again.
Suddenly the leaves snapped off the branches, freeing John's arm. His arm swung down by his, hanging limply against his body. Not a second later did Sarge roar. John snapped his head up to see Sarge rising from Vera's body, blood pouring from his mouth. John's gaze traveled down toward Vera, who had regained consciousness. It took another second for John to realize that Vera had awoken and bitten off Sarge's tongue. Vera turned her head, trying to cough up the tongue. Sarge staggered away from her, spilling blood onto the ground.
John took that moment to rip his left arm free. The leaves tore open his muscles and tendons and looked like a horrific Halloween ornament still in the tree, but John's left arm healed completely in seconds. Taking hold up the chains, John ripped the branches from his ribs. One by one, each rib was, not only broken, but taken a chunk from them, until there was nothing holding onto them. John did the same, crying out as his muscles were ripped apart and sewn up in the same second. By the time he was done, the tree resembled more of a battlefield than a memorial. John sprinted to Vera, sliding across the ground. He grabbed her restrains and ripped them in half. Vera quickly grasped the end of Sarge's tongue and pulled it from her throat. She turned onto her side, coughing up the long appendage until she gasped freely. She tossed it to the side, inhaling deeply.
"John." she gasped.
John grabbed her arm and the back of her pant, and heaved her to her feet. "Move!"
Sarge roared in pain, but in also. what appeared to be, an order to kill them. instantly a horde was upon them, all roaring and spitting blood toward them. Vera ducked the nearest Kotenka, letting it hit the ground, overshooting her by feet. Vera skid across the ground and into a rolling. She stopped just a few feet short of their bags. John pulled back as an Imp lashed its claws out at his chest. He took that moment during its recoil to jump off its knee. He leapt over the Imp and ran after Vera, reaching their gear at the same time as her.
Vera removed one of the rifles and immediately opened fire over John's shoulder. The sound of machine fire drowned lout the screams from the dying infected. He felt the bullets speed past his head, but he never flinched. John reached into the bag and withdrew his own rifle, turned his attention on the swarm coming up behind Vera, and opened fire. Bodies fell by the dozens, leaving pools of black blood oozing around them.
Only thirty seconds of gunfire passed before the swarm died off. Both soldiers still remained on the ground, though now surrounded by a massive pool of black blood and decaying bodies. There could be heard several dying moans and twitching of limbs, but nothing emerged alive.
John stood up and searched the area, but Sarge wasn't anywhere to be found. "He's gone."
"Ran while we were busy." Vera muttered, rising to her feet.
A shriek in the distance caught their attention.
"But he sent more company." John said. He grabbed the medical duffle and tossed it to Vera. "Keep that on you!" He grabbed the weapons duffle and bolted to his feet. The Archeology lab wasn't far from the memorial, but it was still a good distance from it. Now that they had weapons, they stood a better chance. Vera took off in front, still being the fastest. She reached the embankment leading up to the memorial, and slid down. She opened fire on the infected as she slid down the hill. John followed her, taking out infected with each shot. They hit the bottom and sprinted toward Archeology.
Several Kotenka came out on their two, sending several waves over spikes in their direction. Vera manages to miss taking an impalement to the chest and settled for a scrape on her arm instead. She turned with deadly precision and opened fire. One bullet ripped through the skull of a Kotenka while the other lodged its way into the front leg, sending the Kotenka to a stumbling halt. As both struck the ground dead, they were immediately trampled by the incoming Knights. their massive weight crushed the Kotenka's, sending bursts of blood spilling from their bodies. The Knights charged at full speed, pushing one another out of their own way to reach John and Vera first. John fired, sending several hollow-points into several skulls. An explosion of blood and brain matter rained from the decapitated knights, but didn't deter the remaining horde. A Rot emerged and released its bone shattering scream. Vera quickly turned her sight on it and fired. The bullet ripped through its mouth, silencing its scream as it staggered to the ground. Its body was quickly trampled by the remaining horde.
John pushed her arm. "Move it!"
They raced across the field toward Archeology. The air was filled with the shrieking and roars of the infected chasing them. Vera cast a glance over her shoulder and saw that nearly the entire infected populace was after them. All but Sarge, that is. She knew better than to believe that he was off in some dark corner dying, the bastard was too stubborn for that.
John pushed her again. "There it is!"
Vera turned to see the building of the Archeology tunnel system just ahead of them. For a moment, they seemed to be in the clear, until Vera recalled that the door controls leading into the lab had been melted. They didn't have a way to keep out the infected, nor to barricade themselves inside. A Kotenka spine shot past her, slicing her leg. Vera staggered for a moment, her speed slowing down just a fraction until her body healed.
They reached the building with a good number of yards between them and the horde.
"Get inside!" John ordered.
"What about the door?" Vera asked, pushing herself faster. She slipped into the room.
John reached into his pack and pulled out an ST grenade. He popped the top and hurled it toward the incoming horde. John turned and threw himself inside the room. Vera was just inside the doorway. He pushed her up against the wall just as the ST went off. The entire structure shook with the force of the blast. The heat filled the air and all sound was drowned out by the roar of the grenade.
Vera looked up from her knees, over her shoulder toward John. "Nice."
John nodded. "Load the cure and turn on the filtration system. I'll cover the door."
Vera climbed to her feet and ran to the filtration unit. The controls, much like the door controls, had been melted. But the looks of the metal and plastic, they had been in their current state for several hours. Most likely near the time Vera had last ran out of the unit. Vera kicked the front panel, knocking it free from the main frame. She dropped to her knees and peered inside. Vera saw a mess of wires hanging under the unit. She reached in and pushed the mess to one side, trying to get a better look inside. To her right was the filtration filter itself. Vera pried the cover off and found the filter was in perfect condition. Just below was the secondary liquid port to add to the filtration airway. Which lead directly into the system and throughout the entire dome. Vera opened the bag and pulled out several of the canister. One by one she broke them open and poured its contents into the port.
Several gun shots broke out behind her. Vera turn, mid pour, and looked at John. He was leaning up against the doorway, firing out into the field.
"How far?" Vera asked.
"Not far enough." John answered, firing two more rounds. "Status?"
Vera tossed her recent canisters aside. "Two left!"
"Save them!" John ordered.
Vera turned. "What?"
"We may need them." John said.
Vera nodded and slipped the last two canister into his belt. She replaced the cover over the filter and port and climbed up onto her knees. She inspected the control panel. There was nothing left that was recognizable or even able to work. "Der'mo! the consoles completely fried!"
"Hotwire it!" John yelled. He fired again.
Vera removed the knife from her boot. "Right, engineering is my forte."
"We don't have time or options, Vera!"
"No shit!" she yelled. She located the control switch on the board and reached beneath for the connecting wires. She cut both wires in half and stripped them of their covering. With a silent prayer that she remembered what Mac had taught her, she held her breath and crossed the wires. The console came to life and activated the system. Vera exhaled with a small laugh. "Filtration system is online! How's our exit look?"
John reloaded his magazine. "We're not getting out this way. Head into the tunnels. We can hold out in there until the system distributes the cure."
"Got it." Vera leaned back to the panel and pushed the gathered wires back into place, avoiding the crossed wires.
Suddenly a serpents head burst from the back of the console. A massive spray of acid burst from its mouth, striking Vera on the left side of her face. Vera screamed and stumbled onto her back. She kicked as the ground, trying to crawl away. Her face seared in pain as the acid ate away at her flesh and muscles. John turned around, hearing Vera's scream. He watched as she crawled from the console as the Serpent slithered out and onto her body. John bolted to his feet and raced toward her. Vera kicked at the serpent, trying to kick it off, but it sped up toward her neck. She took her gun and managed to wedge it between herself and the serpent. She rolled onto her stomach, pinning the serpent between herself and the ground. Vera slid her muzzle down to its body and fired. More acid rained over Vera, but the serpent was still dead.
John came up beside her, taking her unburned cheek into his hand. The acid had struck her face around her eye, but didn't reach any lower. The burn seemed to be localized on the upper half of her face, and slowly on the mend. "We need to move."
Vera groaned but nodded. John pulled her to her feet and guided her through the room. behind them, the horde was growing closer. John pulled Vera toward the back, where the vent system led out into the facility. Vera dropped to her knees and crawled beneath the vents toward the tunnel leading into the dig site. John crawled beneath and fallowed her. A Kotenka slammed into the vent right behind John, clawing at the ground and roaring at John. John pulled his gun on the Kotenka and fired. He turned back around to Vera and pushed her through the tunnels.
They ran through the tunnels, following the original path toward the newer tunnels. John grabbed a filtration mask as they passed the equipment table, and stuffed it into his bag. Vera emerged out in front, finally able to see fully. The rock turned to ice beneath their feet, nearly sending Vera staggering to the ground. The temperature dropped drastically the deeper they ran. Yet as they ran, the echoing screams of the infected continued to chase after them.
They turned down another tunnel and stopped. Ahead of them the tunnel system ended completely. They had found a dead end. Vera leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. John came up beside her, watching their path for infected. John cast a glance at Vera and noticed, even in the low lighting, that she wasn't doing good. Whether it was the baby or not, she was dragging behind. If they kept up like this, Vera would quickly lose everything and fall behind.
"We need cover. The tunnels aren't cutting it." John said.
Vera nodded. "I know.
John looked the walls over. He knew the original walls weren't structurally sound, but at the moment it was something he was willing to risk. He sprinted down the tunnel and stopped thirty yards down. He quickly pulled out two ST's and secured them to the wall. He set them off and ran back down the tunnel.
"What the hell-"
John pushed her up against the wall, shielding her with his body, just as the bombs detonated. The explosion shook the tunnel system and walls around them. Vera and John could feel the vibrations from the wall in their own bodies. The walls trembled. Rocks and ice broke free, falling over them. Dust and smaller ice clusters filtered down over them. John looked over to the entrance and found it completely sealed up.
Vera pushed herself up from the wall. She looked over at the entrance and exhaled heavily. John watched as her entire posture seemed to crumbled in on itself. "Perfect. Just Perfect, John."
"It bought us time." John stated.
"What time?" Vera demanded. "time for the filtration system to flood the entire dome? That'll take hours even if it works. Meanwhile, we're trapped inside the dig without an air supply. Once its empty, we're both dead!"
John was silent.
"If you were so set on killing us, you should've shot me in the head. Or let Sarge do the job." she snapped.
John bolted to his feet and marched toward Vera until there was very little space between them. He couldn't remember the last time he ever heard Vera sound so defeated, but he wasn't going to let her start now. "Save your air and shut your mouth, Vera."
Vera said nothing in reply. She pushed away from John and dropped herself onto the ground as far from him as she could. John sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair. He needed to keep his temper. he'd just gotten them into deeper shit, and with their air supply running low, he needed to think of a way out for them quickly.