(The story seemed to be popular enough, so I opted to make Chapter 2. Thank you to all of you for enjoying my little creation so far. I'm going to take this moment to answer your reviews.

Blizrun: Thanks dude!

Jason Storm: Thanks to you too!

Raider: The pilot died due to peeling off of skin, remember? Hope that clears up your problems. Thanks, by the way.

Hao: Yeah, I admit that was pretty unrealistic that the Apache carried a whole squad, but I wanted to picture the small amount of ospreys they had. Oh, and thanks (you're getting the picture by now, right?).

Gonzalo Gesualdo: Um... ok... thank you too, even if it was to just mention Counter-Strike...

Well, anyways, enjoy chapter 2!)

Chapter 2: On The Move

The sewer was only a short walk to the other side of the road, but the marines had to stop to rest. As soon as the barnacle had killed the alien slave, the roof had been littered by them. No one had died, which Dylan was thankful for, but near deaths had occurred as a few marines had been surprised by the mouths. They had been able to kill them off before they could chomp on the marines, but the drop had taken the juice out of them. Everyone was happy when lieutenant Manners signalled a stop.

"We're under the opposite building. A 5-minute break, then we blast on into the building," he said and everyone slumped onto the ground.

Dylan wiped sweat from his forehead and watched in the dim flashlight how debris flowed along the sewer. The batteries ran from the light a bit later, and Dylan could hear Manners cursing as he turned the light on recharge. In the dark he noticed someone walk up to him.

"Hey, Dylan!" it was Greshwald. He sat down next to Dylan and continued. "Doesn't this suck? We're stuck in a desert surrounded by unworldly monsters."

"Yep, it sure does," Dylan said smiling slightly, "but think of the bright side: we've got bigger guns than they do."

"Dylan, they've got bigger CLAWS than we do," Greshwald said nervously as he remembered the tentacle that had slaughtered Stockman.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. So, what are we gonna do if we ever get outta here?"

"If the army's always like this, I'm gonna get a job as a mailman. This is way too creepy for me."

"But hey, we'll get rich when we tell everyone that aliens exist."

"No you won't!" Manners said as he had been listening to the conversation. "This is top-secret. Why do you think objective 2 is to kill the Black Mesa personnel? The knowledge of a hostile race somewhere out there would send the world into chaos!"

Dylan sighed. "That means we don't gain anything from this."

"You rarely gain anything apart from fame and experience in the military," Manners pointed out, but then walked off with his gun. "Ok, get ready, it's time to move!" he called switching on the now recharged flashlight and aiming it up on the roof.

"Stay back, you! I'm taking aim!" he warned, aimed for a second, and shot a grenade at the roof. He immediately jumped into the water to dodge any falling rubble. The explosion cleared a hole into the floor of the building above them, and the light from a rooftop window shined down on them. Then, to the marines' surprise, they heard human voices.

"Oh my god! What was that!" a frail voice came from above.

"I dunno, something blast the floor open," another voice with a slight Texan accent came.

The marines stared upwards as a man in a blue security outfit appeared to the hole. Both sides were equally surprised.

"Hey guys, it's the cavalry! We're saved!" he called behind him as Manners climbed from the water and stood under the hole. "Here, lemme give you a hand," the man reached down to grab Manners, but he only clutched the barrel of Manners' rifle. Without further ado, he opened fire, sending the man flying backwards.

"He's a Black Mesa guard! Get up there now! Shoot to kill!" he called climbing up. The marines started to quickly climb upwards, and the sound of gunfire increased as more soldiers got up. Dylan came last as he had to help the marine with the wounded leg up the hole. When he came up, he saw that the room indeed was a garage. Right now there were only 2 Jeeps in the room, and also a couple of Black Mesa guards and three scientists. They were firing at the marines, who outnumbered them, but quickly started to retreat behind one of the Jeeps.

"I need three people to get behind the other Jeep for cover fire! The rest are going in!" Manners called, and three marines raced behind the other Jeep, firing from behind the hood. The rest ran between the two Jeeps to fire at the Black Mesa personnel. Dylan seemed slightly appalled by the sight he was seeing. The guards had nothing better than pistols and were outnumbered two to one, and here a group of marines armed to the teeth were slowly picking them out one by one. A scientist crashed backwards from a headshot, and two guards quickly followed him.

"Why are you doing this?!" a scientist called sitting behind the Jeep.

"Why? We kill cause it's our job!" Manners called grinning as he laid down on the ground. There he picked out the scientist's legs and shot them. The scientist toppled, and Manners finished the job. The guards were now starting to hide behind the growing pile of dead bodies, but they were quickly silenced once Dylan shot a grenade among them. He felt horrible after doing that, he had just killed off innocent people. He reminded himself quickly that they were the cause of the aliens, and pulled himself together. The grenade had blown body parts all across the room, and now there were no surviving Black Mesa personnel left. Well, except for one.

"Look who we have here," Manners laughed as he saw the third and final scientist hiding behind an oil barrel behind the corner. He pulled up his gun, ready to pull the trigger on his grenade launcher.

"Wait!" Dylan called leaping to push the gun aside, but it was too late: Manners sent a grenade, which shortly made the scientist join his companions smeared across the wall.

"Sir! Did you forget the wounded marine?! That man could have healed his leg!" Dylan yelled at the lieutenant.

"He was an enemy. We were not supposed to spare him. Mercy is not an option," Manners grimly answered back.

"At least you could have let him fix the marine's leg and then kill him!" Dylan yelled back.

"Fine, next scientist who we meet we spare for as long as the wounded are healed. Happy now, private Henderson?" Manners angrily said.

"Fine," Dylan lowered his head with rage. The lieutenant had seemed like such a nice guy at first, but it turned out he was just a merciless killer who blindly followed orders.

Manners walked over to a guard's body and grabbed his pistol. "We're running out of ammo, so grab their weapons. There isn't enough for everyone, so those with the least bullets, take a gun." He then leaped into one of the Jeeps and happily noticed the key had been left there. "Ok, so we've got a dozen of us and two rides. Three people get on the seats, and the other three sit on the trunk. They'll be the gunners."

The marines started to move into the cars, but stopped when a noise like a jet-plane came from above. They looked up to see a manta ray-like form hover over the rooftop window. Dylan wasn't sure if it was a machine or a living being, but he didn't have time to ponder as an alien slave dropped from the ship and crashed through the window.

"Incoming!" Dylan called and started firing upwards. A few more slaves dropped from the ship, which then left from the scene. A shard of glass fell into Dylan's hand, and he gritted his teeth from the pain. The first alien was dead from the marines' bullets once it fell on the ground, but the others were still standing when they landed. The marines once again went used the Jeeps as cover as the fire fight began. The aliens' electric beams were accurate, but it took a while for them to load it, and the marines used this opportunity to lob grenades among them. The slaves died before they knew what hit 'em. There were no killed, but most were wounded.

"All right, now as I saying before I was interrupted, get in the cars, now!" Manners called, and the marines climbed on. Dylan was the gunner of a Jeep which Greshwald was driving.

"You do have a driving licence, right?" Dylan nervously asked as he sat on the trunk.

"Nah, I joined the military before getting one," Greshwald laughed back, which made Dylan really reconsider sitting in the same car as his buddy.

"Ok men, when we're 5 feet away from the car doors, shoot them with a grenade," Manners ordered and pushed on the pedal.

The bullsquid stared around confused. He and his pack-mates had heard the tentacle holler for finding prey, but now it couldn't find anything. The squid knew the tentacle didn't moan for fun, it always had a reason. It had just lately got used to the alien world it was on, but it seemed like it had just learned a new trait of the local inhabitants: they seemed to be able to disappear into thin air. The bullsquid's attention was called to a large explosion next to it. The pack turned to look and see two objects moving straight at them. The last thing the bullsquid remembered was seeing a huge slab of metal slam into it.

"WOOHOHOO!" Greshwald laughed as he stared at the squid he rammed. "Did you see that, Dylan? Got one!" he laughed. Dylan did not have time to think of that, as he had to concentrate on hanging on Greshwald's bumpy ride AND shoot at the pursuing bullsquids simultaneously. They were slowly gaining distance from the squids, but the squids were still able to spit at them.

"Greshwald! Veer left!" Dylan called as a shot came at them. The Jeep turned slightly to the left, and the blob of acid whizzed past Dylan's head. The squids were starting to be left behind, but it seemed like all the buildings around them were teeming with the creatures. Three marines per car didn't seem to be enough to gun all the squids appearing from the rubble. They had to concentrate more on holding on than shooting as Greshwald and Manners had to do all they could to dodge the acidic projectiles.

"It's too crowded here!" Manners called from the leading Jeep. "Turn over to that side alley!" The Jeeps made a tight curve to the right and ducked into the small alcove in single file. Now it was easier to fire as the attacks were only coming from behind, but now their back route was blocked as the squids flooded in.

"Damn those things are fast!" Greshwald yelled, and pushed harder on the pedal. Out of nowhere, Manners' leading car pushed the brakes, and Greshwald was just able to react and slow his Jeep so it only slightly touched the leading Jeep's bumper. "Sir, what now?" Dylan called nervously looking backwards as the squids were coming closer.

"You have fucking got to be kidding me," Manners whispered as an all too familiar mound of sand was rising in the tight alleyway. The marines stopped to stare in awe as the tentacle burst out of the sand and rose above the Jeeps.

"You again?! Fuck this!" Dylan screamed as the tentacle started to rear backwards again like it had done with Stockman. They frantically looked around for a way out, but they were stuck between a pack of bullsquids and the killer tentacle. It seemed like they only had one option.

"Hey, Greshwald. Remember how you were happy to ram into that bullsquid? Wanna do that again?" Dylan whispered. Greshwald answered by grinning and shifting gear to reverse. Whatever the squids were thinking, they most certainly weren't expecting a hunk of metal to propel at them. The strike caused the bullsquids to fly out of the alley and onto the street. The vehicles shortly followed and turned to their original direction. The tentacle used it's killing blow, but the claw barely missed Manners' Jeep, pulling the bumper of.

"All right, we avoid alleyways. Continue down our original pathway," Manners called taking the lead again. It finally seemed like the squids were ending, and the marines rejoiced as the last squid came to a halt. The area they were in now was more quiet, and the marines felt uneasy. Where were the aliens?

The next attack the marines weren't expecting, and it caused a lot of commotion. They heard the same roaring voice as in the garage, and looked up to see the manta ray flying over them. An alien slave fell down and crashed onto the front hood of Greshwald's Jeep.

"Sweet Jesus get off!!!" Greshwald yelled and pushed the pedal to the metal. The alien, trying to climb over the windshield, suddenly tumbled backwards and between the three marines on the seats as the sudden movement jerked it backwards. The marines screamed in horror at their new guest, which seemed just as surprised as they were.

"Dammit! After him!" Manners called as his Jeep continued on. The dropship started following them, dropping slaves onto the road. "Don't shoot at them, take out that dropship!" Manners called to the gunners, which started firing at the hovering manta ray. The alien in Greshwald's Jeep still couldn't understand what was going on, but the marines had by now gathered themselves together, and threw the alien out. It was run over by Manners' Jeep, which was firing at the flying enemy pursuing them.

"Greshwald, you psychopath! Slow down!" Dylan called firing at the dropship, which finally gave up the chase and disappeared over the side buildings. They had moved fast enough so the slaves had stopped chasing them. The two Jeeps slowed down. Manners stood up and looked around.

"Hmm..." Manners thought. "Were the heck is that radio mast? Henderson, I want you to climb that water tower over there and check out the area."

"Me?! Why!" Dylan yelled.

"We made a deal that I'd spare one of those scientists for our wounded. Now do your end of the deal and get up there!" Manners growled.

Dylan shook his head as he walked off at the water tower to the side of the road. All marines turned their guns in Dylan's direction in case aliens would appear. He made it to the tower and started climbing. He was quickly reminded by the shard of glass in his arm, and groaned at each step. By the time he was at the top of the tower, he was sweating from pain and his wound had started to bleed again. Dylan gritted his teeth together and pulled the glass shard from his arm. He ripped a part of his shirt and tied it around the wound.

Now, after that was done, he finally had a good view of the place. The street they had gone on seemed to be the only man- made one around: all others were alcoves between the rocky cliffs. He looked to the right and saw a radio mast standing up in the middle of a plaza of some kind. It must have been a place for off-duty personnel to hang around at.

"Sir! The radio mast's just behind those two buildings! You can drive on, sir, I'll catch up with you!" he called down.

"Okay, Henderson. We just got a call from Dam Team. Patrol Team's osprey will be coming in a few minutes, so hurry!" Manners called back up.

Dylan turned to towards the ladder again, but stopped when he heard the roaring sound of the dropship. He looked back and saw the maniacal thing coming straight at him. "Dammit, get off my case!" he called and started emptying his clip into it. The ship had been damaged from the earlier fire, and now, after taking hits from Dylan's gun, started spinning at the water tower.

"Shit!" Dylan yelled as the ship struck into the tower, ripping open the roof. Dylan fell into the water through the hole in the roof.. He swam up and inhaled air, only to find he wasn't alone in the water. A lone surviving alien slave had flown out of the ship and plummeted into the water with him. It started to load an electric attack.

"No! You'll fry both of us!" Dylan yelled but the alien either didn't understand what he said or didn't know water conducts electricity. They both shook in the water as the electric current passed along. The shock had hurt both of them, yet they were both still alive. Still shaking, Dylan started to madly swim for the twisted ladder protruding from the gap. The alien apparently hadn't understood that he had been the cause of the earlier shock, and started angrily loading another shock attack. Dylan could never make it to the hole before the next attack. They would both fry alive if the alien had another chance to fire it's electricity build- up. Then Dylan heard a whistling noise, and a huge explosion behind him sent a miniature tidal wave.

He looked up to see, like a guardian angel come to save him, Patrol Team's osprey flying above the water tower. The plane had come by, seen what was happening, and fired a mortar into the tower. The pilot waved at Dylan. He waved back and started climbing down the ladder. In a minute he was at the bottom of the tower and started walking to the radio mast.

Greshwald came up to Dylan as soon as he came in view of the two Jeeps. They were parked around the radio mast. The soldiers were looking up as the osprey spun in the sky, coming lower with each turn. "Dylan, what took you so long?" Greshwald asked.

"I had a run-in with that flying ray-thing. Nothing serious," he shrugged, although he knew that electric jolt had taken most of his juices out of him.

"Well thank god you're alive. We've made it, Dylan! We got enough men and ammo to finally take on that alien scum as soon as we board the osprey!" Greshwald cheered. As if on cue, a rope lowered from the osprey and a marine rappelled down on it. He waved at the other marines as the osprey glided around the open field, lowering all the time.

Unfortunately for the marines, the aliens hadn't forgotten them yet. All the marines, including the rappelling Patrol Team marine, turned to look as the ominous mound of sand started to rise in the north side of the courtyard. The tentacle seemed to burst out in slow motion from the sand and hollered into the sky.

"When will you leave us alone, dammit?!" Manners screamed at the tentacle.

"Sir..." a marine came and swallowed nervously, "...we have a problem."

"I can see that, stupid," Manners said pointing at the tentacle.

"N... no sir, not that. We have a bigger problem," the marine said pointing behind him. In horror, the marines turned to look behind themselves, and saw two more mounds of sand appearing. The whole ground seemed to shake and tumble as if in an earthquake as another pair of equally horrid tentacles appeared from the ground.

"Lord, no..." Manners' words barely came as a whisper as he looked up at the three tentacles.

"Hey Greshwald, all that time in boot camp's really gonna pay off, cause this is gonna be one hell of an obstacle course," Dylan whispered as the marines started to hopelessly fire in all directions.

The first tentacle came down screaming at Dylan as he was still talking. "Greshwald, watch out!" he screamed pushing his friend out of the tentacles way and rolling forward. The tentacle barely missed him, the top of the claw only a few feet above his back. As soon as it rose again, Dylan jumped up and tried to open fire. However, in horror he noticed he had used his last clip on the dropship. He now pulled out one of the pistols from the security guards ,though he doubted it would be of any use against the tentacles.

He looked around. The tentacles had already picked out three marines. Only two of the tentacles were actually fighting the marines: the third struck across the air, aiming at the osprey which was flying around the courtyard firing mortars at the tentacles.

Dylan only had a second to watch, as the other tentacle came at him. He leaped backwards, barely dodging the claw which only fell two feet away from his feet. He didn't have time to slow his beating heart, as the tentacle started to rise again.

"Oh, no you don't!" he yelled, leaping on to the tentacle. He didn't know why he did it: he just hoped it would distract the horrid alien. He stared in shock as he rose above the field, even above the osprey. The tentacle started to wildly swing from side to side, clearly annoyed by the little form hanging on it. Dylan slowly crawled forward, until he came to a knob the size of a beach ball on the black claw. The know was covered with red dots, and just seemed to point out of the claw. Dylan pulled his pistol and fired at the bump. He seemed to have struck it's weak point, as the tentacle gave it's most horrifying wail so far, and swung forwards. The velocity made Dylan loose his grip, and he flew forward... barely able to grab onto the rope hanging from the osprey passing by.

"Hey," Dylan called climbing down the rope and passing the rappelling marine, "I need to borrow your rifle for a sec."

"Umm... ok," the marine hesitated and handed Dylan his M4.

"Thanks!" he called and started to take aim at the tentacle he had been hanging on a second ago. He let loose a stream of bullets, which struck their target: the knob on the tentacle. The bump burst open, sending a brain fluid all over the battlefield, and moaning painfully, the tentacle collapsed onto the ground.

"YES!" Dylan yelled. He had guessed right: the bump on the tentacle had stored the monster's brain. Losing that knob was fatal for the alien. "Climb up and tell your gunner to fire the mortars at the tentacles' weak point. You saw where I fired, right?" he asked, and the marine nodded. He started to climb up the rope, will Dylan swung onto the radio mast. Sure, he could have stayed in the osprey, but his team mates and buddies were down there, fighting a hopeless war. He climbed down the ladder on the mast and joined Greshwald's side. Thankfully, Dylan's friend had been able to evade the tentacle's for the duration of the time.

"Don't worry Greshwald, we're going to get outta here," Dylan said, and as he still spoke, a mortar flew at a tentacle's head, blowing it's brains out. The tentacle came down with a thud onto the ground.

"All right men, gather together!" Manners called to the survivors, and they ran together. They retreated away from the final tentacle so Patrol Team could finish it off. A mortar went at the tentacle, but it missed it's target, blowing into the tentacle's claw. It screamed in rage, and mad with anger, struck down.

"Huh?" Manners wandered as the ground shook violently. The tentacle's strike had created a crack in the ground, which moved in alarming speed at the marines. The sand started to cave in, and the ground collapsed. The marines toppled underground, and soon the ground caved in, covering the pit.

The marines, dazed, found themselves in the dark. Their entryway had been closed off.

"Damn it all to Hell!" sergeant Brigson of Patrol Team slammed his fist on the osprey's control panels. "They're stuck underground!"

"Sir," one of the Patrol Team members said, "we've scanned the area. They've fallen into the rail system. That area's under Rail Team control. We can contact Rail Team to keep an eye out for them," he suggested.

"Right," Brigson said pulling out his radio and tuning it to the right frequency. "Rail Team, this is Patrol Team, do you copy? I repeat, this is Patrol Team, do you copy?"

"Rail Team here. What's up?"

"Reinforcements for Dam Team have been able to find their way in there. Assist them to get out of there, or you'll have to answer to Dam Team."

"Yes sir, all our supplies are open for their usage," Rail Team said closing the connection.

"We've done all we can, now let's continue patrolling the area," Brigson directed the pilot. He lowered his head down: now he would have to explain the situation to major Hickory of Dam Team, and the idea didn't comfort him.

(Yep, that was Chapter 2. Personally I think Chapter 1 was better, but hey, people have their own tastes. Chapter 3 might take a while longer to appear, since I haven't thought of everything that should happen in it, but rest assured, Dylan Henderson's tale will continue! (Well, at least until I introduce some idea which spawns negative feedback, ruining the whole story. Ah well, shit happens.)