[Author's Note: Because of the complexity and basic difficulty of writing this story, updates seem to take longer than I'd like at this rate. There will be some...surprises soon, hehe. Therefor, from now on, I'm going to post updates in half-chapters, like I did with the last one. So one update will be Wolf and the next will be Fox, both of one chapter. Thanks for reading and enjoy! --Foxmerc]


CHAPTER 5
Run Like Hell
1423 hours


He was getting more confident, that annoying cockiness that had always made me want to punch in my Wolfen's viewscreen was surfacing. It might be harder to get him to do things my way, but God help him if he pushed me too far. That shit in the cell block was almost over the line, but it was one of those great instances where I hurt him where it counts…mentally. Nothing like making the "hero" see that he's just as much a murder as the rest of us.
Something else kept me from decorating the walls with his brains, though it was merely an afterthought, not enough to save his ass if it happened again. I didn't know what to make of it. Way, way back, someone told me that the most dangerous thing that a soldier could do is to think of his enemy as a fellow person. If you did that, you would see that you and he could just as easily be sitting in a bar, laughing and sharing a beer, had there not been a war on. With that in mind, you would hesitate in battle, maybe even break down.
The second most dangerous thing is to be in a position where you fight alongside him. According to him, the bonds that form between "comrades at arms" rival those of a deep friendship, or some bullshit like that.
I was this young little bastard when he told me that, and I've lived by it since that day. Cornerians? Ha, they were fucking worthless as shit to me, merely put in this galaxy for my pleasure in their destruction. Hell, I don't even consider Venomians comrades. I would've done that guy proud…but look at me now. Not only had I allied with the enemy, but I felt something in the cell block. I felt my usual desire to blow that face of his clear off the planet, but at the same time…
I glared at him as he finished with his shotgun and headed for the far door. Nope…still wanted to kill him…
Unfortunately, as I glanced again at the holographic model, I still had a long way to think about it. We were on Sub-Level 18, and the damn tunnel was on Sub-Level 1. As if reading my thoughts, McCloud spoke up.
"So is there another emergency staircase that leads up to the first floor?"
Like anything that day had been that easy. "No, the geniuses that constructed this place never figured to make something like that. The only ways off this level that I know of are the cargo elevator, which we can't use, and another emergency stairwell on the other side. There's only one problem…"
"Only one?"
"Shut up and listen. I've never been to any floor above Sub 15. We're on Sub 18 now, this one and the ones below us are the floors where the testing and shit happens. Above us are a few floors used for barracks, dining, storage, all that. 15 and up aren't used. I don't know what this place used to be, but we never had a use for those floors."
He looked at me expectantly with a "who gives a shit" shrug. "It means, moron, that they aren't maintained, so they're in even worse shape than these floors. I don't know if there's even a way to get through them, or if there are any exits that are still usable."
"Well, only one way to find out. Better than sitting around here."
I picked up my shotgun and walked ahead of him into the corridor. "There's another stairwell further on, past another test chamber room. It goes up, that's all I know."
I was getting really tired of the shitty hallways, and it would only get worse as we went up. We were back to our normal slow, semi-silent walk through the dim, grimy corridors, weapons shouldered and taking point. McCloud checked behind us every few seconds. At least his survival instincts finally seemed to kick in.
This part of the floor near the secondary test chamber was only used by a few scientists and guards, so the freak population was pretty low. We ran into a couple, both former scientists judging from the shredded clothing, blocking the hallway. I got to test out my explosive shells, and the result was two smoldering craters where the chest used to be. McCloud took care of the other one with an incendiary that made the hallway smell like a mix between burning flesh and rotten meat. His face twisted at the smell also. "Remind me not to use those in tight spaces."
I felt the beginnings of a grin form, but quickly suppressed it and continued on. After stepping over the smoldering blobs, I stopped short and put my hand up in a halting gesture. Leaning a bit forward, I strained my ears and could barely make out a dull, muffle pounding. And, continuing on my luck streak, it was coming straight from the secondary test chamber room up the hall. "You hear that?"
McCloud quietly came up next to me and scrunched his eyebrows in concentration. "Yeah, seems their back to work. Are they trying to pound through a door?"
"Well, I doubt their trying to hammer it back in place."
"It doesn't sound like metal, though," he continued, tilting his head. "More like plastic or glass."
"There could still be one in the test chamber, but it would've broken through by now." I raised my shotgun and continued on, nearing the door with the mystery guest pounding away at something. Once I had my back flattened against the wall to the side of the door, with McCloud on the other side, I motioned to get his attention. "Listen, this room is set up differently than the other test chamber. It's just a big room with a bunch of consoles and a single floor-to-ceiling reinforced glass tube in the center where the freak's probably gonna be." He nodded and I motioned for him to go.
"Fuck you, I went first into the cells," he scoffed back at me. Bastard was definitely getting more confident. Good for combat, not for testing my patience. "Your turn."
I shot him a menacing glare, but arguing about a door wasn't the best use of our time with those things after us. The pounding stopped as soon as I turned the handle, which was probably a bad sign. I kicked it the rest of the way open and slipped in with McCloud right behind me.
There was definitely someone in the tube, alright. But it wasn't a monster. Instead two frightened eyes belonging to a youngish-looking orange and black tiger stared back at me through the glass. He was wearing the same tattered Cornerian Army uniform that the other prisoners were wearing, and the same scared-as-hell expression that they all died with. After his initial shock of seeing us, he pounded his fist again on the tube and shouted a very muffled "Get me outta here."
My first gut instinct was to blow a hole clear through the tube, and through our new acquaintance, or maybe use an incendiary and see what kind of neat effect it had on normal people. McCloud must've seen that glint in my eye, because he grabbed my shoulder and said, "Don't even think about it. Affiliation doesn't matter anymore, he's another survivor who can shoot."
"I said don't touch me," I growled back, shrugging his hand off. He was making sense again, and it was starting to piss me off. The tiger stared at me with that frightened expression that I just love pulling out of my victims, and I stood frozen in indecision. McCloud finally made the first move and headed for one of the control consoles, looking for a way to get the kid out. It wasn't rocket science, there was a switch marked "Container Control", but it took the dumbass a minute to find it.
The glass tube slid down and the tiger hopped off the platform, nearly stumbling over himself like a botched circus act. When he regained his footing, he stood and breathed heavily, eyes wide open. "Th-thanks…bastards locked me in there then disappeared, then this gas came and…and—"
He stopped and cocked an eyebrow, looking me as if for the first time and backing up a step, then looking at Fox. He obviously knew who we both were…Fox for obvious reasons and me because of my frequent visits to the cell block. He looked at us back and forth as if watching a tennis match. "What, did hell freeze over or something?"
He received a slight grin from McCloud and a scowl from me, so he fixated on Fox. The kid looked and sounded like just that…a kid. He didn't have a high voice or anything, but it was his general demeanor and scared way of looking around and talking that made it obvious he was a fresh recruit. Fox probably saw this too, and he pulled out one of the desk chairs for him to sit at. The tiger took it and drew in a few deep breaths while Fox proceeded with the obvious questions. "What's your name? What were you doing in that tube?"
"Private Tom Keirs, Cornerian Army. Everyone calls me Tommy. I was brought up here from the cells, uh…maybe a few hours ago and shoved into the tube. All these freaky scientists in lab coats looked at me like I was some kind of interesting bug, and they fiddled around with the computers over there. After a few minutes of that, knowing that I was going to end up like my friends, whose remains had been dragged right in front of us, there was a loud commotion from out there." He pointed to the door we came through. "The scientists went to look, and they never came back. Some kind of green gas filled the room after that, but it didn't come into the tube for some reason. I—"
"The test chambers have their own air filtration," I muttered back at him.
"Oh…well, there ya go then. So I just stood there for what seemed like forever, blinded to everything by this gas, and eventually it just went away. All was silent until I heard gunshots out there, and I pounded on the tube. Guess I got your attention. So where is everyone? Why the hell are you two together?"
I looked at Fox to answer that one, but he got the same idea because he met my gaze with the same questioning look. With a scoff, I just grabbed the kid by the shoulder. "Hey—" he protested as I dragged him back to the door and pushed him into the corridor. The two scorched monster corpses still decorated the floor, and Keirs froze as they caught his eye. He gaped at them pretty much like anyone would upon seeing something like that.
"Those things…th-the monsters…like the kind we saw in the cells, when…" he looked up at me, the beginnings of a glare I had received so many times forming. "…when you dragged the bodies through…bastard."
I'd already taken enough shit from McCloud, I wasn't about to let this little bastard start in on it. I grabbed him by the throat with one hand and slammed him against the wall, growling into his wide-eyed face. "Now listen to me, you little piece of shit. That gas you saw is what did this, and we're the only survivors of it. You know what that means? It means there are still around two-hundred of them running around. And it means you better suck it up, because if you slow us down or prove useless, I won't hesitate to add you to the list of casualties, get me?"
He pulled at my tight grasp, but from the fear in his eyes, it looked like the utter shitiness of the situation got through to him. He choked out in a near whisper, "What…what about my division? All the Cornerian soldiers…"
I simply pointed again to the freaks, and Keirs clenched his eyes shut, a single tear rolling down his muzzle and over my hand on his throat. Through a strained, cracking voice he whispered, "I knew it…I knew it, I'm going to die in this place. I'm never going to see my home or family again. We can't make it…we're dead…"
With a disgusted scoff, I dropped him and turned to go back into the test chamber room Just what I needed…more damn babysitting duty for some frantic Cornerian kid. Fox was standing at the door, and I gestured back to Keirs. "That blubbering crap is yours, if he doesn't get his ass in gear soon, I'm killing him."
It was starting to look like fate kept me alive just so that I could be tortured more by throwing in these fucking asses to deal with. Our little party was starting to grow, and it was really riding my nerves. Surrounded by Cornerians and monsters in a run-down box under the ocean, the only escape still eighteen floors above us…life couldn't get much worse.

-Chapter 5b coming soon-