Chapter 2: Nowhere to Run
"This idea is suicide captain, there's no way we can get a Pelican to our position in time to save ourselves from those things." Veers smiled slightly as they went up yet another steep ramp. He placed one of his explosives on the wall as they reached the top.

"Don't worry too much. The Pelican isn't our escape route. I've got something else planned for our escape." A shrill cry from ahead silenced him. Veers looked at Werner, they both nodded in silent agreement, raising their weapons. The next ramp leading up would be at the end of the expansive and uncomfortably dark lobby area they were passing through. There seemed to be a pattern to this structure, every tenth floor would bring them to a large room that had three ramps aside from the one they came up from. One ascending and three descending.

"False alarm?" Werner asked as they made it to the next ramp.

"Highly unlikely, stay on your guard. And don't forget about the ones following us. Are you good? As far as ammo is concerned I mean." Werner patted the pack strapped to his waist.

"More then enough ammo to waste these things. Well, I hope it is. You?" Veers held up his pistol and patted his own pack.

"More then enough as long as I hit what I'm aiming for. I doubt these things can survive too many shots to the head. Don't worry about me. Getting my squad out is my first priority at this point." They went silent as another cry from ahead pierced their ears. Werner growled, something was about to meet the muzzle of his rifle. All that the thing would have to look forward to is a quick death.

**********

"Shit, its dark in here." Sanders whispered harshly as Jackson followed him into the dark compound. The compound looked like a human outpost, two stories tall. The light on Jackson's forehead came to life, illuminating anything it touched.

"That's what flashlights are for." Sanders looked at him and growled.

"Shut up Jackson." He smirked at Sanders and they both made their way into the darkness. They went for almost ten minutes before something finally moved up ahead of them. Jackson's light moved towards the noise in time to see something being dragged out of view, it looked to be a human.

"So what do we do? It's gotta be one of those things." Sanders smiled as he turned on his light and chambered the next round in his shotgun.

"We shoot the fucker first, if he's still moving afterwards we shoot him again." Sanders replied with a wry grin. He scratched the stubble on his face and then turned the corner. Jackson nodded as he followed Sanders. All they found was a mutilated human body, his face had been ripped open by something; Sanders had a feeling that it hadn't been the poor guy's pet cat either. Jackson got his attention and pointed to the far wall at a stairwell.

"Let's check it out, what have we got to lose besides our lives?" Jackson shrugged, they quickly moved through the darkness to the stairs. They ran up the three flights in less then a minute and quickly began to search the second floor.

"A comm. system, Jackson get over here!" Jackson slung the rifle onto his shoulder and began messing with the system as he pulled on the headset. He grinned at Sanders.

"It works. I'm going to see if I can get in touch with Werner. Since he's our communications expert he should have something on him." Jackson flipped a switch and put out an all frequency broadcast.

"Werner, this is Jackson: respond." Sanders paled and turned around as he heard a loud crash from downstairs, something had just broken into the outpost.

**********

"Werner, this is Jackson: respond." Veers pulled the communicator from his belt and looked at Werner, somebody was alive.

"Jackson this is Veers, where are you?" There was a moment of silence before Jackson came on again.

"Captain, we've got a situation here. Those monsters just busted down the doors. They're converging on our position all around the outpost as far as I can tell from this radar. They've completely swarmed the first floor. We-" Jackson cut off as rifle fire blasted through the communicator.

"Sanders is with me, we're going to try to make it back to our Warthog. Once we get back to it, I'll radio you again. Jackson out." Veers cursed as he strapped the communicator back to his waist.

"Don't worry captain, Sanders is one of the best. He can think his way out of almost any situation. His mouth is usually spitting out every four letter word he can think of as he does, but he'll get them outta there. In the meantime, we have to finish our plan here." Veers nodded as he turned to continued, leaving the stairwell and stepping out onto the next floor. Veers stumbled back as he came face to face with one of the monsters. Werner growled as he stepped past Veers and slammed the muzzle of his rifle into the mutilated face of the creature. He squeezed the trigger and six bullets erupted from the muzzle, obliterating its skull as the bullets flew straight out the back. It fell to the floor.

"Sorry Werner, I wasn't expecting that." Werner nodded.

"No apologies necessary captain, my trigger finger was beginning to get a little itchy." They stepped over the corpse and quickly moved to the next set of ramps. The ramps were built exactly like stairwells, only with ramps in the place of stairs. Veers cried out as he fell forward, something had landed on his back. Werner turned to see the same creature he had just killed rip open Veers' back. A solid blow from the butt of Werner's rifle sent the monster sprawling long enough for him to pull Veers up and fire at it. The thing writhed in pain, then stopped moving. Just to be safe, Werner brought the butt of his rifle down hard into its skull.

"Are you okay captain?" Veers nodded and wiped the sweat from his forehead as he waved him forward.

"I'm fine, let's get moving. The top of the building shouldn't be too far."

**********

"Fuck! This is insane. Where the hell did all of these things come from! Shit, we can't fight them forever! I'm running outta ammo Jackson!" Jackson's rifle erupted with sound as he picked up a communicator and joined in.

"Any plans Sanders?" Sanders began to reload his shotgun and cried out as one of the things jumped onto him, knocking him to the ground. Sanders growled, hitting the thing hard with his gun and the pulling himself up. He grabbed the attacker and threw it into the wall. It screeched as it flew through a window, shattering the whole pane of reinforced glass.

"That bastard just gave me a plan, we're gonna jump." Jackson fired at another as it came out of the stairwell. He cleared out the doorway enough to pull a grenade out and drop it to the bottom of the stairs.

"Let's get going, we need to make it back to the Warthog!"

"I know that you asshole! Just follow my lead." He leapt out of the window, landing on the roof of the first floor and firing as the one he had thrown through the window leapt at him. The shot ripped off its head. Jackson followed shortly. They both fell to ground level and sprinted towards the Warthog.

"Those things are going to be all over us in about thirty seconds!" Sanders grunted as he stumbled, but caught himself before he fell.

"Shit! What the hell are those things?"

"Don't worry about that, just run!" Sanders looked back to see the things leaping from the window and landing on the ground, running much faster then them. He looked back ahead to see they had reached the Warthog. Jackson jumped into the driver's seat as Sanders leapt into the back and turned the turret around.

"Go Jackson, what are you waiting for!"

"I'm going, just hold on!" The Warthog lurched forward violently, Jackson forgot to release the brake.

"You dumbass!" Jackson grunted and then took off again after releasing the brake. Sanders pressed down the firing mechanism, spraying lead across the flood of monsters. *Heh, flood. The name suits 'em.* Sanders growled as the things began to irritate him, for every one he killed two more replaced it.

"Where are we going Jackson?" He gritted his teeth as the jerking motion of the gun began to get to him.

"I've got a fix on the captain, we're heading to his coordinates now." Sanders stopped firing as one of the Flood leapt onto the gun. He fired his shotgun at it, knocking it off. The monsters trampled all over it as they continued after them.

"Sanders, we have a problem!" Sanders looked over his shoulder at Jackson.

"Up ahead Sanders, look!" He slowly looked up, and smiled as he saw it. The canyon would be no problem. The Warthog could jump it easily.

"Don't worry Jackson, this thing can clear that, jump it full throttle!" Sanders smiled slightly as they came closer to the canyon, but his smile vanished as he turned around. One of the Flood had a rocket launcher in hand and there was already a rocket flying straight for the back of the Warthog. It missed barely, but it still was enough to give them a lot of trouble. The rocket exploded beneath the back tires and sent the Warthog spinning end over end as they sailed through the air. Sanders squeezed his eyes shut, if this was the end he was happy to have died fighting.