Derrick watched Alex carefully as she went to the keypad to the right of the heavy doors at the end of the corridor. She moved with purpose, deadly serious purpose, but something told Derrick it was a facade. He could feel the tension coming off her as though she was a tightly wound piano string.
The door opened and they stepped through together. It was a large space akin to the lobby area before the cemetery that Derrick had visited so long ago. One long, florescent light gave off plenty of light. The benches were strewn about the hall and one rested against the far pylon that divided the room in two.
Blocking the exit were a pair of Assault T'lan and a Behemoth.
Alex drew her huge combat knife and charged them without a word. She moved with her usual fluid grace but there was an intensity that Derrick had never seen before. Before Derrick had taken three steps Alex was using a bench as a post to launch herself into a forward flip over the heads of the T'lan. They tried to turn but Alex was already sliding her blade into the lower back of the Assault T'lan on Derrick's right. The Behemoth hunched down for a shoulder-tackle and Derrick jumped. The Focused jump-kick hit the Behemoth where the end of his spine analogue was. A series of quiet popping sounds was nearly lost when the big T'lan fell. Derrick turned and watched as Alex drove her blade into the neck of the remaining Assault T'lan. She let the T'lan's body fall, wiped the whitish blood off her weapon and walked through the entryway.
Derrick followed Alex down a corridor, past another scientist's body, and around a corner. The corridor ended where someone had blasted a hole in the floor. The other side looked as though it were still intact and Derrick thought he could make the five meter gap. Alex barely slowed down and practically ran off the edge. Derrick followed suit and managed not to break anything on the rubble at the bottom. There were automated doors at the bottom of the rubble pile and Alex passed through them.
Here was a place Derrick recognized. On the right was the door to the cemetery and straight ahead led to the corridors with the moving walkways. Alex went through the doors leading to the walkways and the place had definitely changed for the worse. It looked like explosives of some kind of been used inside the corridors. The path besides the walkway on the left was a crater for most of its length while the walkway itself was in perfect condition and still moving. The ceiling was bare in places, revealing electrical conduits, and pipes of unknown usage, and even the walls looked dented outward.
Of more immediate concern was the trio of Assault T'lan waiting at the far end of the corridor.
"I'll han-" before Derrick could finish, Alex was charging off again.
Derrick sent three pulse-spheres sizzling past her before she was halfway down the walkway. The Assault T'lan on the left was partially obscured by the doorway there and managed to avoid being burned away. Alex pushed off the right rail and stabbed the T'lan through the eye while in mid-air. Thankfully she waited for Derrick to catch up. He felt her eyes on his as he absorbed a T'langen-sphere. Neither said a word and they headed through the door on the left. The other direction was blocked by rubble and Derrick didn't think they had time to even think about moving it.
The two hurried down the corridor, Derrick taking a microsecond to make sure his reflection was himself, came to another turn and the corridor shook. A second later alarm klaxons blasted Derrick's ears and a crimson warning light on the wall to their right activated. They shared a look and headed down the corridor more cautiously. They came to the body of another soldier.
Alex stopped and went to one knee. The one was on his back and she gently removed his helmet. An SMG, a pair of magazines, and several grenades had fallen from the soldier's harness. Derrick quietly collected them while Alex laid the soldier's hands on his chest.
Alex stood and they walked the short distance around the corner. Large T'langen crystals crunched beneath their boots as they approached where a set of heavy steel doors had been blown apart. Piercing down into the Science Center was what looked alarmingly like a T'lan rocket.
"This must be where they got in," Alex confirmed Derrick's assumption.
A hole had been neatly cut into the side of the rocket and gave them access to its interior.
"If this leads up to the surface we can take a shortcut to Glen. I'm sure he's alive and waiting for you," Alex started towards the rocket, "He had to be,"
"Wait," Derrick stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
Alex started in surprise and gave his hand a long glance. It was as if she wasn't used to casual physical contact.
What the hell kind of life did she have? What kind of life could she have?
"I'll go first. Never know what's waiting."
Alex fixed him with a level stare before smirking slightly, "It's all yours. Hotshot."
Derrick grinned like a kid at Christmas at the familiar name Alex had used for him. They stepped onto a semicircular platform of gas-liquid, really just a half meter wide ledge, and looked up to see that other ledges led to the top. They were tiered in a way that it would be easy to climb the inside. The brilliant white interior didn't even faze Derrick like it used to. He flexed his legs, pushed off, and cleared the two meter space between ledges with centimeters to spare. A second later he was sailing up to the next ledge.
It makes sense now, Derrick thought as he climbed. That's why she was so familiar with me. Why we worked so well together from the start. It all one big circle jerk. I wonder when she started wanting to fuck me?
At the top was a broader ledge opposite the slimmer one that led to another opening. It was a little below street level so Derrick had to hop up onto the blacktop. It was immediately apparent that he wasn't in Kansas anymore. The air was full of T'langen spores, the little motes of starlight floated in every direction, and it was dead quiet. The buildings around him were dark and fire-damaged. Most of them looked as though their entire fronts could slide off at any moment. Rubble-lined the street and there were even the shattered shells of cars scattered along the street. To his left, beside one such car, were five T'lan Elites.
The Elites came charged at him together and Derrick raced to meet them with an evil grin. Two of them stumbled, he assumed they were not used to seeing a human come charging at them with such a sick grin, but they quickly regained their composure. Derrick held his shockwave until the last moment. The center Elite leapt for a flying sidekick and Derrick released. All five were flung away like matchsticks and Derrick Focused spin-kicked the T'lan before he hit the ground. Derrick leaped four meters to his left and slammed his heel down on an Elite's sternum with crushing force. He turned his head in time to see an Elite gather himself for a flying knee.
Out of nowhere Alex sailed forward with a thrust-kick that rocked the Elite back. She followed that up with a spinning back-kick that lifted the Elite off his feet. The finish came in the form of her combat knife being driven up into its chin.
Derrick turned at the sound of running and rolled backwards to avoid the thrust-kick. The Elite spun around with a roundhouse kick and Derrick caught it with his hand and chest. Derrick knife-handed the T'lan in the throat, the flash of his hand actually left an afterimage, and tossed the dying T'lan away.
Alex walked up to him, sheathing her knife behind her back in a motion almost too fast to be followed, and watched as he absorbed the T'langen-spheres of two of the Elites.
"Maybe they were right about you, hotshot. Let's go."
The clouds were high and thin so the moon was more than capable of providing adequate light. Derrick followed Alex down the street to their left. Where the street would have turned right, int to an or parking lot, an earthquake had raised that entire section up. Two or three buildings had shifted on their foundations to create a pocket canyon of sorts. Derrick and Alex jumped to the raised street and continued down the concrete canyon until they were brought up short, only a few meters in, where a concrete column was partially blocking the way.
A soldier lay against the building wall on their right with his brains smeared all over it. Derrick went to one knee facing the opening beneath the column as Alex lay her comrade on his back. A swarm of Bugs arrived with all the motion but a couple of bursts from his SMG took care of them.
Once Alex finished, they crouched their way beneath the slab. They continued through a number of turns in the narrow confines between buildings until they came to an open area just in time to see an Assault T'lan burn a hole through a soldier's chest.
"Fuck!" Alex snarled and rushed the Assault T'lan.
The T'lan was dead before Derrick could begin to charge a pulse-sphere. He was considering if he should take the soldier's anti-T'lan laser cannon when an Assault T'lan started down the slope in the street. Here the street had been driven up a good four meters but there was a convenient path to the top. Someone fired an ATL-bolt and severed half of the T'lan head off.
"Someone's alive!" Alex cried and they raced up the hill.
The soldier dove towards them and was struck in the torso by several T'lan-lasers. He was dead before he hit the ground and Alex kept going up the path. Before she neared the pair of Assault T'lan that had killed her comrade, a jumbo ATL-bolt separated the furthest from them's torso from his lower half. A pulse-sphere finished the other.
"I'm going to check them, then we check that," Alex said, pointed to a busted window on the third floor of the building on their left.
Derrick nodded and waited for her return by swapping magazines. She came back with slumped shoulders.
"It's no good. They're all dead."
Derrick put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed slightly.
"Let's check out that room."
Alex nodded and led the way to the end of the road. There was an alcove in the right wall of the building blocking the road. Derrick signed for Alex to open the door and she nodded. He readied his SMG, with a pre-pulse-sphere charge in his hand, and Alex pulled open the door.
It was clear and Derrick moved into the darkened stairwell. Alex moved up the stairs with purpose and stopped at the third landing. Once again Alex opened the door and Derrick swept the area. It was a small room with another door on their left. This door opened to reveal a narrow hallway. A swarm of Bugs infested the hall and several bursts eliminated them. They followed the procedure with the door at the end of the hallway. This time the way was clear and they entered a larger desolate hallway.
Alex raced to their left and was brought up short by a huge gap in the floor. It was at least seven meters long. There was no evident bottom and Derrick could only consider how that had happened.
"There's a ledge and an overhead pipe over there. See you on the other side."
Alex gave him a small smirk, backed up, and ran full tilt toward the gap. If Derrick hadn't known Alex, and what she was capable of, he could have thought she was insane.
Well, she is kind of insane, but the good kind.
Alex took a step and suddenly was running along the left wall. Derrick could only shake his head in amazement as she streaked to the other end. Alex pushed off into a twisting flip that landed her facing him. Derrick gave her a slow clap and chuckled.
Alex put her hands on her hips, "You coming, hotshot?"
This is crazy, Derrick thought as he backed up. I hope this works like the movies.
Derrick sprinted near the left wall and, just as he reached the edge, pushed off the wall towards the right. When he neared the right, nearly three meters across the gap, he pushed off of that. One gentle push off the left wall carried him to the ledge where Alex waited. Now she gave him the slow clap and a soft chuckle.
"Nice footwork. C'mon."
There was an entryway on the left that Alex jogged through. Derrick followed her into a room cluttered with racks and desks. Alex navigated the maze quickly and led Derrick to where a gap had been dug in the wall. She crouched and sidled her way into the next room. It was brightly lit and the distinct sound of an ATL-firing suddenly broke the silence.
Derrick followed Alex and stood in a small utility room. Most of the wall to their right, what they had seen from the street, had been blown out. The ATL was ceiling-mounted and generator powered. The spotlight illuminating the room was also had a feed to the generator.
Alex stared at the laser cannon, but didn't really seem to see it.
'It's no use," her voice sounded broken, "There's no one alive, is there? It's the same all over this world."
"Hey. We are. That's something."
"Yeah," Alex nodded and exhaled gustily, "Well, no reason to stick around here is there? Let's keep looking."
Alex went out onto the ledge, through the shattered wall, and went right. Derrick followed her to an office and through two more rooms until they came to another T'lan rocket that had pierced the building. Alex gestured for Derrick to proceed her and he did so with a regal nod. Alex snorted as he passed her and swatted his arm.
At the bottom they emerged into low-ceilinged, wide corridors that Derrick remembered quite vividly.
"The Treatment Room's just up here! Alex said, her voice brimming with hope and enthusiasm, "Glen'll be there."
Derrick smiled to himself as Alex came to life.