Author's Note: Thanks for all the great reviews, everybody! I really appreciate it, and I'd love for the feedback to continue. So here's the next chapter, and I hope you enjoy. Please review! ;-)

Chapter Thirty-Five: Bang For Your Buck

True to their name, they came in waves.

So much happened so fast that my brain didn't even have time to process it all. It was like I'd gone into some auto-pilot mode, and my body was reacting to the situation around me all by itself. Aim, fire, turn, aim, fire, turn…

Unfortunately, the Flood were as unrelenting as our trigger fingers, and they just kept on coming.

The first few beings that came through the door were dozens of the little tentacle balloon things, and they swarmed at us viciously. Despite his myriad injuries, Willis, along with Sergeant Dandh and two other Marines, stepped up with their automatic weapons to make sure the Infection Forms didn't make it past the entrance. Since we were bunched up in such tight quarters, allowing any of the poppers to get inside would get us all killed and consumed---fast.

"Let's keep up the heavy fire, Marines!" I cried into the COM channel, waiting anxiously for the rest of the Flood creatures to show up. "Those of you at the front are cleared to use explosives! The rest of you, watch your aim and make sure your grenades are secured!"

With the number of assault rifles and submachine guns going off around me, it was suddenly harder to hear the awful sounds the Flood were making as they approached. I never thought I'd be so grateful to have that many guns being fired in such a small room, but it was better than listening to the high-pitched parasite squeals any day.

Using a well-placed grenade, PFC Foster, up at the head of the group, managed to finally eliminate the first wave of Infection Forms. If I hadn't known for sure that tens of the things were still on their way, I would have breathed a sigh of relief; at least we'd prevented the first round from penetrating our measly defense. But now would come the hard part.

"All right, everybody, stay sharp," I said, consciously trying not to hold my breath. Tons of pieces of shredded, cream-colored Flood flesh were now strewn across the doorway leading to the hall, and the smell kept getting worse. I kept hoping my helmet's systems would compensate, but they'd been overloaded long ago. "That was just the beginning. They're going to come in with their fighters now, so be alert and wait for my signal. We will make it out of here alive." I hope, I added silently to myself.

"We need to come up with an exit strategy, Captain," Lieutenant Commander Glorio said beside me, using a private channel. "The longer we stay cooped up in this dead-end, the worse our chances of survival become."

I shrugged off the lingering bitterness in her voice; she was still upset by my refusal to leave sooner. "Yes, ma'am. I'm working on that, Commander, but we need to deal with the enemy first." If they'll only give us a few minutes of downtime, I thought, we can move out and start heading back to find a more suitable way out. But what are the chances of that happening?

Apparently slim, because no sooner had I finished the thought than more Flood appeared. I couldn't see them with my helmet light yet, but I heard the bumbling beasts moaning down the hall. And what truly surprised me this time was that streams of bullets were suddenly making their way into the room.

"Everyone check your damn fire, now!" I yelled into the COM channel. "Where's that friendly fire coming from?"

"That ain't no friendly fire, ma'am, it's the Flood!" Sergeant Dandh exclaimed. "Jesus, they've got our own weapons!"

Oh, no. "Take cover, Marines!"

Those of us at the front used the indentation of the doorway to quickly crouch out of the line of fire, while the rest used the few metal barrels or other sturdy objects that were lying around. As I pressed my back up against the bulkhead, I could hear the bullets ricocheting off the ground and far walls of the room, and I also saw sparks shoot up occasionally when rounds hit the metal barrels. My only hope was that the Flood hadn't managed to capture any heavy weapons, or we were cooked.

"Commander, where in the hell did they get our weapons from?" I called to Glorio, holding onto my helmet as more and more lead filled the air. If the Flood continued to keep us pinned down in here, that was bad news for us. While we would remain under cover for fear of getting hit, the parasite had no such inhibition, and I knew they would attempt to bound into the room nonetheless. I couldn't allow that to happen.

When the ONI spook answered, there was a slight waver in her voice. "I…believe that's…the rest of my team, Captain."

My eyes went wide, even though I'd seen what had happened to Ethan only minutes ago. But I had no time to focus on Glorio's chilling words, because the first Flood versions of the spook team burst into the room.

Walking freak show number one leapt right through the hail of gunfire coming from both sides, and ended up landing amongst us. Before I could even issue the order to take it out, the warbling, vaguely human-looking monster pumped an entire clip of MA5B fire into the rear group.

I knew there was a casualty when I turned and saw the muted eruption of dark red blood against the bulkhead.

"Kill that son of a bitch! Right now!"

Five Marines quickly turned on the bastard who'd pegged one of our own, but it was Atalom 'Kuatee that took down the beast. With two clean swipes of his glowing plasma sword, the Elite sliced the Flood form to pieces, spraying a horrific mix of yellow Flood fluid and red human blood into the air.

As soon as the infected former ONI operative was down, I opened a COM channel to Petty Officer Reynolds. "Doc, who the hell's hit?"

"Lance Corporal Castillas, ma'am!" the medic answered. "I'm going to do the best I can to patch him up, but it's going to be damn tricky back here!"

"Just get it done, Doc!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Keeping my focus to our front, I watched as Willis, Dandh, Foster, and Roys continued returning fire on the Flood, pulling their triggers and reloading as quickly as their weapons demanded. Two more explosions rocked the hallway, taking out a good number of the various Covenant and human Flood forms, but they still weren't giving up.

"It's a fucking nightmare, Cooper!" Willis shouted into our private channel as he ducked to reload. "We've used up all our last grenades, killed tens of the horrifying bastards, but more are still turning the corner down the hall and coming for us!"

"Captain Cooper, we're running out of ammo!" Sergeant Dandh exclaimed a moment later. "I'm down to two more clips for my SMG, and then I've got three clips for my M6D. That's it!"

While I took in their reports, I fired two shotgun shells at an attacking Brute Flood form. It had sprinted up the hall as its comrades fell beside it, unperturbed by the amount of bullets coming at it until my rounds had stopped it dead in its tracks. The Flood let out a disturbing groan, then fell to the ground once my third shell blew a sizable hole in its torso.

"Captain, find us that exit or let's move! We won't be alive here much longer!" Lieutenant Commander Glorio insisted.

Dammit, she's right, I thought. I switched channels and addressed my whole infiltration team. "Ok, Marines, here's what we're going to do!" I said as I continued firing shell after shell into any Flood lucky enough to have made it past the hail of lead. "Anyone who's not composing part of the front line will give the lieutenant commander their grenades! All of them! Everyone else, hang tight, because we're about to make a run for it. Is that under---"

"Natalie, watch out!" Willis suddenly screamed into our channel.

Not a second later, I felt something small, hard, and compact hit me in the stomach. I grunted as I involuntarily took a few steps back, trying to keep my balance. It was only once I looked down at the object on the floor that I noticed what it was.

"Holy shit, grenade! Everybody down!" Sergeant Dandh yelled.

I didn't even think while I grabbed hold of the thing and sent it sailing back out of the room; a blast like that in a space this size would kill us all. It detonated in the air a few feet outside the door, just as I'd thrown myself to the ground and covered my head with my arms.

For the next several seconds, my world ceased to exist. I only came to when I felt someone drag me to the side and shake me awake. "Cooper, Cooper! We still need you here, Captain!"

This voice was female, irritated. The second, though, was male and panicked.

"Commander, how's my wife doing? Is she ok?"

"Fine, Lieutenant. Only momentarily dazed. She was closest to the frag when it went off." Glorio turned to face me again. "Captain Cooper, can you hear me?"

Though her voice sounded incredibly muffled, what with all the loud ringing in my ears, and my vision was a little blurry, I nodded. "Yeah," I replied through gritted teeth. My leg was giving me the pain of a lifetime from the blast, and I instantly wished for more morphine. "I think my leg just crapped out though, ma'am."

Glorio cursed, then mumbled, "I can't believe those Flood bastards had the smarts to toss a grenade in here. They could've wiped out every last one of us with that one." She helped me up to a sitting position, and in the meantime, I could hear the other Marines still firing their weapons, fighting to keep the remaining Flood at bay. "That was a damned fine maneuver, Captain. Crazy and silly as hell, but damned fine."

"T-thank you, Commander."

"But look, we need to a find a way out of here, now. There's no time left to dilly-dally. I need you up and running, and I need you to lead your Marines out of this God-forsaken hellhole. Understood?"

"Y-yes, ma'am."

"Good. Then get up and get 'em, Marine."

Standing on my broken leg had never hurt so bad as it did in that moment, with or without morphine. The pain was excruciating, so much so that tiny white spots dotted my vision, but I knew I had to get us out of here. Fast.

After limping back over to the entrance, I saw four more Flood forms ambling towards us, along with three bulbous waddlers behind. I knew that as soon as the waddlers burst, we'd have more Infection Forms on our hands---and now that we were running increasingly low on ammo, that would be disastrous.

So, at the cost of being wrong, I had to make a decision. It was a gamble, and an incredible longshot, but even if it presented us with only the entrance to another room, at least it gave us space to maneuver better.

Because at this rate, there was simply no way we could charge out this door, take on all the Flood inside the structure, and live.

"Commander, I have an idea," I said to her, pulling the trigger of my shotgun while I spoke. "Did you gather all the grenades yet?"

"Yes, I have, Captain," she answered hesitantly. "Tell me what you have in mind."

I'd had a different plan for the explosives when I'd initially asked for them, but now I saw another way to use them. Perhaps a way that would be far more beneficial to our survival.

"How many are there, ma'am?"

"Six in all, Captain. Four frag, two plasma."

I held out my hand as I moved back to her through a hail of Flood gunfire. The mix of human and Covenant weaponry was even more dangerous than one or the other alone, but I managed. "With your permission, I'd like to have them, Commander."

She held back for a moment. "What's your plan, first?"

"Dammit, you said yourself there's no time for this! Please, ma'am, just let me have them!"

"This had better be good, Capain," Glorio said dubiously as she handed them over.

Major Phillips had told me before I'd entered the structure that if ever things got too hot, I was to abort the mission immediately. It seemed unfortunate, that we'd managed to get this far and would have to turn back before we'd gotten what we'd come for, but the lives of my Marines came first. We were getting out of here alive, and then we'd figure out what to do from there in regards to the mission.

I kept that in mind as I made my way to the back of the room.

"Marines, move it up to the entrance. We're going to have to fight the Flood halfway down the hallway, then keep the rest at bay for a minute while I get this door open."

"Door?" 'Kuatee came up beside me while the others did as ordered, giving me a sideways glance. "What door, human? Before you stands only a wall, a method of containment."

Smirking inside my helmet, I answered, "Be patient, Atom. Grenades can make some damn miraculous transformations happen."

The Elite seemed to catch my drift then, especially since I'd already collected the explosives into a pile at my feet. I'd use one of the metal barrels lying against the back bulkhead to place the ring of grenades, then allow the ensuing blast to theoretically blow a hole right through the wall. If it worked, it just might save our lives. If it didn't…well, we didn't really have a better alternative, anyway. We'd be dead, same as if we'd done nothing at all.

Within the next thirty seconds, Lieutenant Commander Glorio had evacuated the Marines from the room; it was just me and 'Kuatee that were left. I could heard the sounds of combat going on in the hallway as well, however, indicating that the Flood hadn't given up yet. I had to be sure to make this quick.

"Ready to run outta here, Atom?" I asked the Elite. "Last chance if you want to give yourself a head start."

"I shall exit when you do, Captain."

My smirk turned into a grin. "Thanks for sticking with me, alien boy. Here we go."

I primed the four frags first, knowing they had the longest time-delay. The two plasma grenades came next, and I stuck those between the others. Then 'Kuatee and I sprinted the hell out of the room.

It was amazing how much my agonizingly painful leg didn't bother me when I was running for my life.

"Marines, get your heads down!" I yelled.

An instant later, a loud, all-encompassing boom signaled the detonation of half a dozen grenades. Even the Flood forms moving towards us down the hall stumbled at the resulting vibration.

'Kuatee was the first to get back on his feet, and he hauled me quickly to a standing position.

"Let's move it, Marines! Follow me! Go, go, go, now!" I shouted.

Sprinting fast to get back to the room, my infiltration team---with the addition of Lieutenant Commander Glorio---managed to make it there without incurring further casualties from the pursuing Flood.

And when we got there, we found a beautifully large hole in the wall waiting for us.

I stopped at the hole, only big enough for one person to crawl through, and crouched. Waving the first men forward, I cried, "Move it, Marines! Let's go, let's go, one at a time and fast, people!"

While I managed the exit, Sergeant Dandh, PFC Roys, and PFC Foster manned the entrance, keeping the Flood from getting through as we made our way out. Willis was the fifth Marine to go, and he gave me a brief but telling squeeze of my hand as he went out. You'd better make it back out of here with me, Cooper, he seemed to say.

Lieutenant Commander Glorio was next, then a few more Marines, 'Kuatee, and finally the guards at the door. With Flood forms and tentacle poppers bounding through the threshold, I managed to pull myself free from the room we'd been trapped in for the longest several minutes of my life.

I crawled out into a fiercely blowing wind, and snow crunched beneath my battledress- and armor-covered body. It took me a moment to take it all in, as I lay there in the freezing cold, pristine white snow, breathing heavy.

We'd made it. We were finally out.

I grinned, finally able to breathe a real sigh of relief. "Good work, Marines," I said over the COM. "Thank God we're finally out of that creepy little place. Doc?"

"Yes, ma'am?"

"What's the status on Castillas?"

"Bad shape, Captain. I tried fixing him up when we were still inside, but he's hit bad, ma'am. And now, the weather isn't helping any, either. He took a number of shredder rounds to his torso, essentially ripping right through the armor. But if I try stripping his chestplate and battledress jacket here in the open, he'll get hypothermic fast, ma'am." The medic sighed. "I don't think he's going to make it."

Shit, I thought to myself. That'll be three Marines KIA then, if we can't help Castillas. "Understood, Doc. Do what you can, but we'll need to get moving again soon. We need to link back up with the rest of Bravo, see how they're faring. And then we've all gotta get to Battalion, tell them what we've found." Or, rather, what we hadn't. The Prophet had been MIA during the entire mission, so unless Glorio had any interesting facts for us…depending on what Major Phillips wanted, we might have to go back inside the Flood-infested Covie camp.

The thought sent chills down my spine, and it had nothing to do with our sudden re-emergence into the elements. I wasn't sure if I could go back in there or not. Even if it meant going against orders, I didn't think I'd mentally be able to handle it.

Sitting up from my prone position, I turned back to the hole in the wall, wondering why the Flood that had attacked us so relentlessly weren't doing so now. They certainly hadn't been more than a few steps behind when I'd managed to get out, so why had they given up all of a sudden? Like Willis had mentioned earlier, the weather wasn't supposed to be a consideration for them.

"Don't let your guard down yet, Marines. We'll stop here for a few minutes, wait and see what they're up to. After that, we're on the move again."

Even as I spoke, I took off the last remaining frag grenade that I'd kept strapped to my web belt, just in case we needed it. With everyone else's grenades and supplies depleted, I'd decided to keep this one in reserve. But now seemed like a good time to let it loose.

Grateful that the blizzard---which had been raging when we'd first entered the structure---had now calmed down enough for us to effectively function in it, I primed my lone grenade and tossed it into the hole we'd all emerged from.

It wasn't much, but if the Flood were planning on following us, it would at least slow them down a bit.

I slithered quickly through the fresh, powdery snow, truly feeling the effects of neglecting my wounded leg for so long. In a moment of panic, I realized that I probably wouldn't even be able to walk anymore, if Doc's limited store of morphine was gone. Then the final grenade went off.

I'd made sure to throw it deep enough inside so that it didn't make the hole any bigger; now that we were safely outside, I didn't want the Flood to have the ability to join us. The Infection Forms could get out fairly easily because of their size, but the bigger ones would have to figure it out. I still wasn't sure exactly how smart the Flood beings were, but they'd definitely proven themselves formidable adversaries. And damned frightening ones at that.

With the rest of my Marines covering the hole with their weapons, I picked up my shotgun and decided to reload it. I was glad I finally had the time, but as I pulled the shells from my pocket, I noticed that I only had seven of them left. Not even enough for a full load.

I hoped that would last me until we made it back to Bravo, and that their stores hadn't been drained as badly as ours.

Just when I was about to order the team into formation for the march, I heard the soft crunch of boots hitting the ground beside me. I looked up to see Willis standing above me, and I smiled.

He lifted his faceplate long enough to show me he was smiling back, then quickly brought it down again; it was way too cold out here to keep it raised. I watched as he slung his SMG across his back, barrel facing down, then sat down beside me in the snow.

Before either of us said anything, he suddenly wrapped his arms around me in a fierce hug. "Jesus, Coop. That was way too close, you know."

Despite the hell I knew I'd get from Glorio about it, I just didn't care much at the moment. I hugged him back without a second thought, being mindful of his broken ribs. "Yeah, Will. Believe me, I know."

"And there's something else you should know, too." He chuckled, still holding me tight. "What you did was insane, Cooper. I mean really, really nuts. But dammit if it didn't work."