Call shuddered, but it wasn't from the cold. She breathed in deeply, inhaling the stale air. They couldn't see a damned thing beyond ten feet in this weather. Not a goddamned thing.

They walked cautiously towards the compound, with Call and Velko taking their flanking positions beside Bohr. Before them, the dim light grew brighter as they approached it. And soon the compound emerged from the mist like some large grey animal, awaiting them expectantly. Its sides were sloped downwards and on the second floor there were wide windows that appeared to be set in thick, durable semi-plastic glass. Beyond the windows, they saw nothing. Darkness, no life.

'This place is dead.' muttered Velko to himself.

Call motioned for them to stop, and then nodded towards a heavyset door which was obviously the entrance to the compound. She looked at Velko and nodded towards it, indicating that she wanted it open. Then looking ahead into the black night, she spoke. 'Bohr, take position ten. I'm on two,' meaning that they would have to cover him at the ten and two o' clock positions whilst he got the door open.

Velko almost stumbled forward in his eagerness to get the entrance open. He ran up to a panel next to the hulking door and was surprised to see wires poking out of it – apparently someone had wired it open from the outside. Which meant that all he'd have to do was follow suit and the door would be open in a couple seconds.

He shouted over the winds to his comrades as the door slid open, metal grating against metal. 'Let's go!'

Call and Bohr walked backwards towards him inside the compound as the doors closed with a resounding thud. Inside, they could hear nothing but the steady beating of their hearts. Silent as a tomb.

'Alright,' whispered Call, 'Let's secure a location and start scanning this place. I say that room down on the le-' she was cut short by something that caught her attention ahead of her. Noticing this, Velko and Bohr looked up ahead and saw a large hole in the middle of the floor. Velko's mouth opened slightly as he walked cautiously towards it, revolver extended in his hand. It looked as if the metal grating on the floor around the hole had been twisted upwards, extended in agony by some unknown entity leaving nothing save for this gaping hole.

'Velko, no...' began Call, no longer feeling like herself.

He bent over, peering into the hole, caution thrown to the wind whilst curiosity overcame him. The same hole had been formed on the level below. And as far as his eyes could make out, the same goddamned hole was on the level below that. Holy crap. But the frightening thing was that he knew that this wasn't caused by any explosive device. That would've resulted in a clean cut through the floor and shards of metal embedded in surrounding walls would serve as evidence that an explosive was used. But this, this he couldn't understand.

'What do you see?' asked Bohr.

He beckoned for her to come and take a look. But Call placed a firm hand on Bohr's arm and spoke slowly. 'It's them. Acid for blood.'

Bohr stared at her for a few seconds, unable to comprehend. 'You mean their blood corroded the damned metal? What the hell do you mean by that?!' Call detected a degree of panic in her voice.

'It means,' said Velko walking towards them, 'that we secure a room far away from this area. And we get the heck out of this hallway. Gives me the creeps. Get the motion detectors out.'

Not wanting to argue here, Bohr yanked out her motion detector and looked at it. Her face fell. 'Oh Lord, don't do this to me now – c'mon you goddamn piece of shit!' She hit the piece of equipment repeatedly with the palm of her hand.

'What's wrong?' asked Velko.

'Fading screen. It's not even picking up on us!'

'Gimme that,' he said, and looked at it. 'These are the pac-200 versions! They need to be recharged before use! Dammit!' He glared at Bohr.

'We got one more left, use mine.' suggested Call.

'There's no point,' he spoke back, 'yours is in probably the same condition as this one. Dammit Bohr, a weapons check means making sure that they all work!'

'You land this whole load of-' retorted Bohr when she was suddenly interrupted by the urgency in Call's voice.

'I don't mean to bust your little party, but I suggest we get moving. We've been milling about here too long.' Call glanced at both of them in turn, meaning she meant business. 'See that room on the left there? That's our best option for now. I don't want us wandering too far into the interior – we don't know the layout of this place, so if something happens, I want to be as close to our nearest exit as possible. Our recon point is our dropship if we do get separated. I don't want you two running into this complex, I want you to run out of it. You got that?' They nodded and Call continued. 'Alright, there are only three of us, so I want you and Bohr to make a clean sweep of that room while I stand point by the door. Make sure that the door locks tight, if it doesn't we try another room. Make it quick.'

                                                                                     *         *          *

At first the silence was welcome. The deafening sounds of the winds outside were harrowing – it was difficult to make out friendly noise from hostile noise. Once inside though, it was pin-drop silence. But as each minute passed by, the lack of sound made Sebastian Velko increasingly nervous. He felt as if impending doom was nearby, and he simply could not stand waiting for it to strike. Half an hour had passed since they secured this room – which had two computer terminals in it – none of them functional. Almost everything in the room was wet, it appeared as if the sprinklers had been activated, setting off a short in the system rendering everything in here useless. Just like the three of them were.

Without the motion detectors, mobility around this compound was almost impossible. Call was sitting down on the floor in silence while Bohr was going through the bags checking up on their stock of weapons. Velko felt slightly guilty, he hadn't meant to lose his temper, and he knew that this was hardly the time or place to have a full out brawl. We all make mistakes, he thought. And coming here was the biggest one I've ever made.

He sat cross-legged on the floor, leant back against the wall and drummed his fingers on his knee. He looked around the room for the hundredth time, sizing up their escape routes. There were only two. The door through which they entered and one leading to a bathroom which in turn lead back out into the hallway. There weren't any windows. Not that he wanted to look out into that shit-storm.

Velko suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to go to sleep. He hadn't realized the toll the adrenaline surge had taken on him – on all of them for that matter. Now would be a perfect time to catch some shut-eye. One last cat-nap before all hell broke loose. He was just about to do that when he heard Bohr shuffle off the ground and walk towards him. She sat down beside him and spoke. 'This is some pretty shit we're in huh.' It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

'Damn right.' he said.

'Call needs time to think. She wants me to stand by on our second exit point. She's taking the first. You're up in two hours, so my suggestion is that you get some rest before then.' said Bohr.

He looked at Bohr. There were flecks of soot particles lodged in her hair and dark circles under her eyes. He noticed a nerve next to her eye twitch every now and then. A slight layer of dirt had formed and was beginning to cake on the left side of her face and neck. They were trained for this sort of thing, thought Velko. Trained to endure the seemingly endless hours of waiting, to withstand grueling conditions without complaint. They were trained to act cool while heavy artillery fire rained down on them. He remembered one exercise the drill sergeants came up with a year ago. They had to assemble the parts of a strike missile under water. It took him five minutes to do that on land. Under water, it took him eight. By the time he came up for air, he had almost blacked out. But it served its purpose; it taught him to think clearly under high-stress situations. Just like the one they were in now.

But somehow, things felt different. He kept telling himself that it was not so – that this was just like any other combat mission. There were enemies out there that needed to be eliminated. No prisoners to be captured, which technically, made this even simpler. But taking everything into consideration, they were wedged in a seriously tight place. Firstly, there weren't enough men. If one of them got injured, there was no available medic. They had a limited number of weapons and the damn motion detectors were useless. No radio equipment was available to communicate with each other if they were separated. The absence of an initial tactical plan made it extremely difficult to come up with something that would be successful. Lastly, they had never encountered this type of enemy before. The kind of enemy that bled concentrated acid. What were they supposed to do if they shot one? Duck and cover?

'-et some sleep. I'll wake you when it's your shift.' Velko came out of his thoughts when he heard Bohr speak. She continued. 'And just for the record, I wanted to say that you were right – about the weapons check. We each had a responsibility and I...um...didn't take mine seriously.'

He smiled as she rose up. 'Forget it, it's done. And it could happen to any of us.' he said.

'Not to you.' she said.

He smiled, acknowledging both the apology and the compliment. 'Bohr?' he spoke as he watched her walk toward the second exit where she would be keeping guard.

'Yeah?'

'What are our chances?'

She looked at him and sighed. 'You ready for a story? I'll make it short...and I guarantee it ain't no tear-jerker or something you might see on the Hallmark channel.' He nodded, smiling, while she sat down on a nearby chair. 'My grandfather was in the military once. He was captured and taken hostage in World War five by the South Africans. He was a general – an important man, or so he thought – they were going to exchange him for five of their own. But our side sent word that he wasn't worth the five South African prisoners they'd captured. He wasn't even worth one. So he was due to be executed the next day.' She wiped the sweat off her brow before continuing. Her voice was low. Subdued. 'He felt as if he'd been screwed by his own – and his situation was detiorating rapidly. If he stayed, he'd be killed. If he tried to escape, there was a ninety percent chance he'd be shot. He took his second option. He escaped from his cell by crawling through the underground sewage system. He said there were several moments when he just wanted to turn back, but he willed himself on and crawled through two miles of shit, urine and god knows what. Then when he finally got out he found himself in a forest – he had no idea of which direction to go, all he knew was that he had to walk away from where he came. He didn't know how much time had passed when he heard the sound of rotors and barking dogs, they were searching for him. There were nights when the probes the South Africans sent passed within a few yards of him – he was so terrified that at times he just wanted to be shot and get it all over with. But on the seventh day he made it to Mozambique – friendly territory, and lived to tell about it. He didn't exactly know how. He just did it.'

Bohr seemed exhausted. As if telling the story had drained out all her remaining energy. Maybe she put all her effort into believing in a happy outcome, thought Velko. He wanted to believe it too. 'So you're saying things'll be alright. Even when everything's going to hell.' said Velko.

'I'm saying that you gotta just keep doing what you're doing. Keep on breathing. The rest is beyond our control. I can't tell you what our chances here are coz I don't know. A man can be safe in his own home and get struck by lightning the next minute while on the telephone. I'm telling you the truth...and the truth is that you never know.'

'That's not very comforting.' he said.

'If you wanted comfort, you should've stayed with mom and ordered a pepperoni pizza with extra anchovies.' she retorted.

They laughed.

                                                                                   *           *          *

In his dreams, Sebastian Velko felt cold and wet. He was running from something – from something that looked like a large black spider. But he didn't stop to get a better look because he was running out of time. A few meters away he saw Call standing by a doorway encouraging him to run faster, beckoning to him urgently with her hand. But as he ran on both the doorway and Call drew away from him. The harder he ran, the further away it seemed. He slipped in the wet mud, and struggled to get up. Something cold brushed against his right arm. He gasped as he jerked out of his dream.

Call was clutching his arm, and her eyes were wide. 'There's movement outside. Outside the compound.'

'She's right.' confirmed Bohr. 'Sounds like some heavy vehicle just zoomed by.'

'Ours?' asked Velko.

'Hard to say.' replied Bohr.

Velko's spirits lifted. He imagined seeing those familiar faces again – Roche, Shepards, Kroger, even Lieutenant Mills. 'I say we go out there and get a piece of the action.' He felt more confident if he could be amongst more people, especially if they were people from his own squad.

'You nuts? We don't even know if it's them!' said Bohr harshly.

'Well I'm not in the mood to sit around here and debate whether they are or not!' he spoke back.

They looked at Call. 'He's got a point. We've got more force in numbers even though there's a chance that that might draw the aliens to us. But it's a chance I'm willing to take. You okay with this?' Call looked at Bohr.

'I'm not one to veto the popular vote. Yeah...what the hell, let's go join the throng.'

'Just keep in mind that if they are our boys, their objective's to capture the alien alive. Ours is to blow it to hell. The only way we do that is to get to Mills first and subdue him.' reminded Call.

'Understood. I'll get the guns.' said Bohr. 'Hey Velko, what'll it be? Laser or side-arm?'

'Laser, please. And my revolver with some ammo on the side – to go.' he concluded.

'The same for me.' said Call.

Bohr threw two laser blasters to Call and Velko. They each strapped on some holsters to store the revolvers if needed. Bohr slung the backpack containing their weapons over her shoulders whilst Velko did the same for the bag containing their rations.

'Stay close,' said Call as they walked out into the hallway and opened the main doors. The wind came hurtling in at them with a vengeance. 'I guess we can chuck the leisurely evening stroll out the window.' quipped Call, smiling nervously.

No kidding, thought Velko.

'How'd we know where they went?' shouted Bohr.

'There!' Call yelled back pointing towards something. 'The exhaust tower!'

The three of them looked up to see a faint flicker of lights a few meters away. They made their way slowly towards it.

                                                                                     *         *          *

When they reached the massive structure, the door was open. Like the jaws of a lion, thought Bohr. Beyond it lay a dark metal corridor. They walked down it leaving the wind howling outside behind them until they reached a stairway.

'Up or down?' asked Bohr.

'Down.' Call replied. 'I heard something in that direction.'

'Keep it tight folks. There are only three of us. Call, Bohr, cover me. I'm going in first.'

'Be careful. Camouflage is one of their strong points.' cautioned Call.

Do they have any weaknesses, thought Velko? The laser blaster was extended out in front of him, the dial set on high, meaning that whatever he hit was meant to be killed - leaving no room for error. The corners the metal staircase made were tight and surrounding them were several other platforms. Almost as if this compound was still undergoing some construction. The lighting was poor making it difficult to discern certain objects. He could feel his heart beat at a steady but hurried pace and he willed it to slow down. Check corners, any entrances through which an enemy could approach you. Focus. Two more floors to clear. Keep it cool, man, keep it cool. He recited this to himself like a mantra, his mouth forming the words with no sound.

Finally, they made it to what appeared to be the basement level. He breathed out. 'Looks like it's a one way street from here on...' he said, pointing up ahead of them. There was only one corridor.

'Alright. Velko, you're gonna have to forego the lead. It's my turn. And-' began Call when she was suddenly interrupted by the sound of voices that weren't their own. She realized that for the sound to carry through to where they were, the voices would have to be loud. Meaning that those people in there were shouting. Something had gone wrong.

'Oh shit.' breathed Velko. 'They're getting slaughtered! Let's go!'

Call and Bohr didn't stand around to argue. They ran hard towards the direction of the noise.

                                                                                     *         *          *

Whoever told Bohr that combat could be silent yet deadly must have been stoned. There was nothing but chaos and confusion surrounding them. Her ears were almost deafened by the sound of screams and gunfire erupting everywhere. She looked at the faces of the men and women – they weren't Call's, they weren't her comrades – but it didn't really matter right now.

Velko looked around him pointing his blaster every which way, but he couldn't find a target. He cursed loudly as someone jostled past him nearly knocking his weapon out of his hand. He swung around thinking that something was going to attack him from the side, but it was another marine clutching his arm and yelling. It took a moment for Velko to register that the marine's arm was smoking. Smoking from the acid. He couldn't find a damned target and yet there was no mistaking that people around him were getting killed. Goddamn it!

Nothing and everything was happening all at once. Call knew this feeling. She'd felt it before. She held herself back from the midst of the fighting knowing that it would only add to the confusion. She stayed wedged in a tight corner, picking off targets from friendlies from where she was. At first she couldn't make out the creatures when suddenly she noticed the wall next to one marine come alive. They were hidden in the walls. They came out of the woodwork like termites, and she shot each one down as it did so. Still, like termites they were plentiful, and her blaster was heating up fast. She kept shooting at her enemies despite the overuse of her weapon – she wanted them dead. But more than anything, Call wanted to get these people out of here – to give them a fighting chance. To do that she would need some people to serve as cover whilst the others evacuated the premises. But she couldn't make herself heard over the confusion. She hoped to God that Velko and Bohr were okay.

                                                                                     *         *          *

Velko was frightened, angry and frustrated. He was about to head back when he saw something glimmer out of the corner of his eye. He turned, thinking that someone has shone a flashlight at him, but he wasn't prepared for what he was about to see.

It towered three feet above him, and looked almost as if the devil himself was grinning maniacally at him. Its head was sleek and black – God, the head was huge. Its teeth glistened as saliva oozed from its jaws, and it emitted a silent hiss. Slowly, numbly, he felt himself point his blaster upwards to the creature. The jaws shot out towards him in slow motion, and he could only watch, terrified, expecting the inevitable. But something happened. It's torso split into two as it fell backwards, and then suddenly as if everything resumed its normal speed again, he dove away from the creature, remembering the hot corrosive blood. His chin hit cold metal and in the next second, he felt himself get yanked up by the arm. He rose to his feet to see the face of an unknown marine staring at him.

'The next time you see those things, you don't stop for introductions, you shoot!' The marine turned around looking at their only escape route and shouted over the chaos to Velko. 'You the rescue evac team? We have two injured that I'm aware of – this place has gone to hell – shit-' He saw a creature approach them from the left and fired. It was hit but not down. Velko raised his blaster and let off a couple shots of his own. It went down squealing.

The marine looked at Velko's weapon for a second but said nothing. Velko shouted, 'We need to get the hell out of here! Let's grab the injured and go!'

The other man nodded and ran towards what looked like a flame thrower – Velko had heard about these weapons in some older weapons manuals. They were hardly in use any more and he longed to get his hands on one because there was always something empowering about being able to control fire, but now he couldn't care less. They came to a halt. The flamer thrower lay on the ground emitting a steady fire, but its user was nowhere to be seen. 'They were right here! I don't understand! They were right here!' the marine cried out.

'They got him – there's nothing you can do! Out! We need to get out!' shouted Velko, grabbing the man by the arm and pulling him towards the exit. Velko heard a bullet fly past him with a crack, meaning that it had missed him by a narrow margin. Shit. They didn't even know who they were shooting at anymore. The marine kept his pace alongside him as they raced towards the staircase. Velko saw someone standing before them with a heavy machine gun slung over her shoulder. She glanced at Velko and shouted over to the other marine. 'Hicks! Me 'n Drake'll cover you. Hudson's right in front! GO!'

Velko pulled back the marine called Hicks. 'I'm not leaving without my people! They're in here somewhere – I gotta find them!'

The woman looked at him, eyes blazing. 'There's no fucking time! I'm running out of ammo...I can't hold out much longer!'

Velko had steeled himself to turn back to look for Call and Bohr when he saw a hulking distorted figure emerge from the gloom behind them. It took him a moment to realize that it was actually two people – Call was half running, half limping, carrying someone's slumped form over her right shoulder. It was Bohr. Oh God no...he thought.

'Let's move out...she doesn't look good!' said Call, panting.

No one spoke. Velko helped Call carry Bohr while they hurried up the stairs with Hicks behind them, shooting at any creature that dared to get close. They were almost up when to the main level when Call heard Hicks yell, 'I'm down on ammo! You guys better step up the pace – I see one making its way up here!'

'Here!' shouted Call, throwing her laser blaster down to him. 'The safety's off – just pull the trigger!' Hicks caught the gun, held it awkwardly at first and fired. A shot went off with a zing. It was light and therefore, easier to manipulate. The next shot felled the alien in one go. Heck, this was almost better than a pulse rifle. Almost.

They made it to the main level and ran towards the main doors. Hicks opened them, and looked out into the rain and dust hopefully. A large armored car was a few meters ahead of them and its doors were open. He motioned for Call and Velko carrying the injured Bohr to get into it. 'Get in there and keep those doors open! We need to wait for Drake and Vasquez!'

Hicks' eyes narrowed as he saw his two remaining comrades run shouting towards him down the corridor. 'I'm out of ammo! Drake's got our back, c'mon!' screamed Vasquez as she ran towards the open doors.

                                                                                     *         *          *

Velko lay Bohr down gently and looked at her. The right side of her face was covered with blood, and her pants had turned many shades darker near her thigh. He couldn't tell whether it was a bullet wound or whether those things had done this to her. He'd had basic first aid training but he was no medic. He got down on his knees and immediately began to apply pressure to the wounded area. Blood, bright red, spurted out – it looked like she took a hit to the femoral artery. The artery that carried blood to the lower half of the body. If they didn't get her some serious medical attention, she would almost certainly die. But he wouldn't let it happen. He focused all his attention on Bohr, ignoring Hicks holding Vasquez back as she struggled to go out of the car to help a fallen marine. He ignored Call as she and another man forced the armored door shut while an alien tried frantically to get in. He ignored the screams of pain coming from behind him as the car started moving away from the tower. He continued to work on Bohr - he needed to focus on something else or he would go mad.

And that was just the tip of the iceberg.