Chapter 2

Character- Justin

Everything was black at first until my brain told me to open my eyes. All I could see was a cyclone, a blur of the white lights from above. For a second I thought I was going to heaven. The sounds from reality played in slow motion through my ears. I couldn't make out what was what.

I flipped onto my stomach like a slug. Although my vision was nowhere near normal, the red liquid on the ground caught my eye. I brought a shaky hand to my head, feeling the hot liquid.

Blood...

I grunted, crawling my pain towards the nearby stool Matt was sitting on earlier. My hand clenched over the peg, more moans escaping my lips in efforts to release the grief.

The place shook again in effort to try to knock me over again. But what the building didn't know was that I was already lying on the ground.

I climbed my way up on to the stool, the pain increasing with each movement. It felt like someone was taking a sledge hammer and smashing the side of my skull. It was like waking up from a really bad night of drinking

I finally sat my ass down, staring at the ground and rubbing my bloody head. It took a few minutes for my breathing to settle down and my eyes to start adjusting.

After I felt like I wasn't going to puke up my meal from Happy Burger, I stumbled my way over to the door where I last saw Matt. He couldn't have gone far. But it seems that the time passed was longer then I expected.

My eyes darted at all the blood on the wall, the paint barely standing out from the massive red stains. Even the tiles on the floor was smothered in blood, some red and some an irregular blackish color.

Marine bodies were scattered across the hallway. Every face was twisted in a face of agony. It seemed that none of these soldiers had a quick clean death, but rather a long and painful one. I took my steps carefully, trying not to slip on the blood or trip over a body.

One marine under my feet had his innards torn out. The blood was still leaking, the head torn off to save me from seeing his face. My throat felt scratchy and I was ready to barf up my dinner. I raised my hand to cover my mouth and somehow managed to keep it all down.

But being my klutzy self I lost my footing. Down I went, increasing the damage to my body. I felt my back become wet and warm from the blood underneath me. I turned my head.

And saw the face of a monster!

Its teeth were as large as a normal sized dagger. Its eyes, red and unblinking, stared right back at me. Its shell was a dark brown color with little hairs poking through the pores. Its long slender body filled the width of the hallway, so big was it that it almost curled up in a ball. I yelped out of fright and began scrambling my way back. It didn't move but just kept staring at me. It had claws the size of my arms and had four legs. It looked small from here, but I could tell that it was at least seven to eight feet tall. It took me a few minutes to realize that this was dead.

But my relief ended quickly when I heard a screech down the hallway. I turned my head and saw the same exact creature, but this time very much alive. It stared at me for a second or two, sniffing the air. Panicked, I tried to grab the nearest rifle from one of the dead marines. I knew I should have lifted more. My efforts were no good, I couldn't life the weapon. In order to do so I would need the help of the CMC's those marines wore. My desperate eyes looked back to where the creature was standing. It gave out one last battle cry until it came charging down after me.

Now frantic, I scrambled to my feet and dashed down the hall way, sliding across the blood and using it as a speed advantage. Unfortunately, the creature ran like a cheetah and was already right behind me. My head pounded harder, my legs feeling like rubber. I had to keep going. I turned around a corner, my feet making a sickening plop with each running step I made in this bloody hallway. I looked over my shoulder and saw the creature dart around the corner. Its long tail made a long scratch mark on the nearby wall.

Even from this distance I could hear the creature panting, trying to release all its energy to catch me. It would turn me into one of those monstrosities that were once marines. I put more energy into running, and less worrying. My breathing became heavier as oxygen seemed hard to salvage into my lungs.

I looked over my shoulder one last time to see the creature pounce into the air. My eyes widened in deep fear as the shadow blocked out the light. Suddenly, a powerful hand grabbed me by my shoulder and yanked me, sprawling me out on the floor. The creature's claws just missed me swiping the air. I heard a loud crack followed by a scream of agony from the beast.

Adrenaline still pumping, I jumped to my feet to see another human being there. He was dark in skin color, bald on the head. He was wearing the camouflage pants with the trainee Confederacy shirt. Obviously he was a want-to-be pilot too. My mouth opened up to speak but he gestured a finger to his lip to keep me quiet. I heard a couple of scratches as if someone was digging a knife into the floor from the hallway.

"Quick, hide!" his voice was a raspy whisper. I didn't need to be told twice. There was a lab counter against the far wall with a confederacy flag hanging in front of it. I leaped into the counter and planted myself behind the flag. I heard a locker open and then shut.

The scratching sounds reached the room. I dared not look. It had to have been that creature. The beast growled in frustration, for its sense of smell told it that there were humans in the room, but its eyes were lying to him. I had to keep a hand over my mouth to slow down my breathing to keep silent.

I could see the faint shadow of the creature through the silky flag. One of the creature's fore-arms was limp. It hung there, the sinew and bones poking through the hard shell. It must have been broken when the creature fell on the floor trying to pounce me. I kept still, motionless. I saw the shadow move around in the room, knocking desks and trash cans over. Papers fluttered about the area as it continued its investigation. After moments of tearing the place apart and still not finding a human, the creature turned to exit.

A sigh of relief escaped from my lips. I poked my head from behind the flag and saw the tail still hanging through the doorway. A sneeze escaped from within the locker.

The creature responded. I looked at the locker across from me. I saw the creature take its single claw and rip right through the metal. The trainee that was hiding screamed in pain, not dead from the attack. The door fell off and I saw the black man bleeding immensely, staggering to get out. The creature cawed in delight thrusting its claw again into the torso of the man.

The creature dragged him out, helpless. He screamed for help. He knew I was still here, but I was too afraid to come out of hiding. What was I going to do, piss on it to death?

My eyes watched with grotesque horror as the man's head ripped off into the creature's massive jaws. I could hear the creature chewing through the bone easily, swallowing and taking another bite from its newly found kill.

My stomach couldn't take it anymore. The meal I had earlier came up all too fast, splattering onto the tiles below. This caught the creature's attention and it was already moving towards my position.

My stomach weak, I waited for it to come to the table. With all my strength I leapt over the head of the creature, landing on the side of it. I darted away, again on the run from this beast. I came into the hallway to meet the barrel of a gun.

"Get down!" a familiar voice said.

I did what Matt said, dropping to my stomach. The creature came barreling out and met its fate with a 9mm in its face. Matt had to fire a couple of rounds until the beast finally bellowed and keeled over, dead with punctures all over.

Smoke spouted from Matt's gun. It clicked in his massive hands as he reloaded it. "You can stand up now..." I refused to get up at first. My body trembled from the pain, fear, and confusion of everything that was going on. After seeing that I needed help Matt finally lent out a helping hand. I grasped it and he pulled me up easier then I expected. "Looks like you took a nasty fall. You ok? You looked like you've been through a blood bath." he pointed at my head and my red-stained clothes.

"Oh, just bleeding like the Niagara Falls on Old Earth, but I think I'll be fine." I cracked sarcastically. He didn't find it too funny. "What the hell is going on?"

"Some alien species seems to be attacking the colony. I remember reading up about these creatures," Matt passed me and kept walking down the hall. He stepped over all the dead bodies that blocked his path. "The one that you just had a nice gym lesson with was called a 'zergling' I believe."

I picked it up to a jog to catch up to him. "Wait, you mean you know what those bastards are called!?" It confused me to know how it gained suffix "-ling". That was by far the biggest creature I have ever seen in my life.

"Yeah, it was a recent discovery learned by this government. Actually, the scientists have been keeping them in pounds and researching all about them. I also heard there's a lot bigger ones out there, including ones who spit acidic spine needles at you!"

My body froze. "Bigger ones? How the hell can there be 'bigger' ones!?"

"Well, easy. Instead of being 6-8 feet tall they can top up to 10-12 feet. Oh, and don't go spreading it around to civilians. It's supposed to be top secret." He aimed his gun around the corner of the hallway. When he saw it was clear he got back into a normal posture.

"But-" I was cut off by a static transmission. Matt and I scanned the area around us, but found it coming from a small radio from a dead marine under us.

"Squadron three to squadron two, can you read me? The Terran barricade has been built to defend from the incoming Zerg from the east side of the colony. You must retreat yourselves and any living human to the barricade before it is too late. I repeat, a lot of hostile movement is coming from the east, the barricade is located 5 clicks from the location of the air---"

The radio cut off. Matt grabbed it and pressed the button to turn on transmission. "Hello, trainee Stubbs here in Airforce base, can you read me?" Static. "Hello?" More static. "Damn, it's out!"

"So what do we do now, sarge?" I shot sarcastically I continued down the hallway to keep a rotting arm out of my view.

"Didn't you listen to what the guy said? A Terran barricade lays 5 clicks away from this base! If we can get some wheels we can make it there in 10 minutes flat!"

"Well I didn't bring my car here..." I muttered sadly. I regret not driving now.

"Well let's get to the parking lot and see if we can find anything there."

I let Matt lead the way around the place. No matter where we turned there was always a dead body and a lot of blood. Even though all the marines in the area seemed to be dead, they did do an awfully good job in clearing out what they called "Zerg". Matt and I had no trouble in finding the exit without any confrontation from the foul creatures.

Outside wasn't much different from inside. The air was cooler, since all the blood and heat from the inside built up so much that it made you sweat after a minute. The two marines I met earlier were lying torn in half at the entrance to the building. The moon gave me the light I needed to see.

In the distance, in the middle of the parking lot, stood our last hope, a pickup truck. I pointed it out to Matt and he acknowledged, following me. When I got closer I could tell it was beaten up from use. It was an older version of an automobile, having wheels instead of the jet boosters. On the side were words painted: "Bob's Painting Services". And we sure did meet Bob. A grizzly looking old man sat in the driver seat, dead. It didn't look like it was from an attack, though. It looked more like a heart attack. Guess he was lucky out of everyone else here, besides Matt and me....

"I drive," Matt stated. He opened the driver's seat door. "Nice to meet you, Bob. Gotta borrow your truck, hope you don't mind..."

"Hey, don't you think we should keep the body with us? You know, let him have a proper burial?"

Matt stopped what he was doing and looked at me dumbfounded. "Do you see what is going on? I don't think anyone here is going to have a proper burial. There arms will be up their ass in their own coffin 'cause of so many pieces!"

I nodded my head in agreement. Matt hopped into the driver's seat, ready to turn on the car when the ground began to shake. I held onto the door, careful not to slip and fall for the third time now. The ground aside of me began to erupt, crumbles of dirt and rock cracking and separating. Monstrous heads began to rise. The shape was much different of that from the other creatures. When they finally were out of the ground they did stand twice the height of me. They had longer, more slender heads that had a long crease in the middle. The arms were two short scythes, and instead of walking on fours they stood like a half vertical snake. Their mouth had two jaws, one inner and one outer, each lined with hundreds of teeth. For some odd reason though, I felt that I need not to worry about their teeth, but something else..."I guess those are the bigger ones you were talking about?" I exclaimed, still staring at this beast.

"Yeah, get the hell in the car right now!" Just as he said that the beasts' skull split right down the crease of their long heads. Sharp, needle like spears jutted out from their second layer. I gasped and hopped back into the car, slamming the door and closing the window. The car engine revved but gave out. The car's life kept fading, no matter how many times my friend tried turned the key. I stared out the window at the beasts with the split heads. "Duck!" At the command I lowered my upper body behind the side door. The window above me shattered into a million pieces and poured glass down on me. The side of the car groaned as many needles poked right through the skin of the car. I had to edge my way over in the seat to keep from getting stabbed by the needles. When the rain of terror stopped, I poked my head up again to see them re-growing more needles where they just lost them. Matt also lifted his head up and began to turn the ignition.

The car started, humming into life. Matt almost jumped with glee, but remembered the situation we were in. He put the car in drive and slammed on the gas, the next wave of needles missing us. These "Zerg" moved a lot slower then the ones who ran like dogs. We were able to drive right by them without any harm.

"Don't relax now, Justin." Matt announced when he saw me put my guard down. He jerked his head backwards. I turned and looked out the back-window. Hundreds of those zerglings were chasing right behind us. They were catching up faster then I expected.

"Can this thing go any faster?" I had to shout over the loud, rickety engine.

"I'm already going 110! The fastest is 125! I don't know how much more she can take too. Take my gun and try to slow 'em down. Make the shots count, that's the last clip!" I grasped the small gun in my hand. I rolled down the window and poked my head out. I aimed with one eye, picking out the one that was coming too close for comfort. Just as I pulled the trigger the truck rattled over a bump and slammed my head onto the roof of the window. I screamed loudly from the blow. It seemed to have hit my weak spot. I lost grip of the gun, watching it shatter into pieces and disappear in the distance. I pulled myself back in the car.

"Uh, Matt?"

"You wasted all the ammo already?" he yelled angrily.

"Well, you could sort of say that. I kinda...well...dropped the gun."

He shot me a dirty glance for a second. "Well pick it up!"

"No, out the window..."

"....You Idiot!"

We both checked our side view mirrors to see the brown bobbing heads of the zerglings right behind us. I growled in frustration. My foot tapped something hard, metal-like. I glimpsed down and saw a few cans of paint on the floor. "I got an idea, keep driving!"

"Like I could do anything else..." he grumbled.

I poked my head out yet again from the car window with the paint in my right arm. The zergling was right at the tail of the truck, making him an easy target. I chucked the container right in the gruesome face of the zergling. It screeched in pain as yellow paint splattered all over it's body. It lost its footing and did a tumble roll, falling behind and knocking other zerglings over in his wake.

"Score!"

"Well don't stop, keeping going!" Matt said in a more relieved tone.

I chucked can after can at the on coming Zerg, knocking hundreds down to be trampled by their own kin. But there were only so much spare cans in the truck itself. The rest were in the back, in the bed. When all of my "ammo" was gone, there were still quite a few Zerg trailing us. It was like a pack of wild buffalo. So many were following us that a gray shade of dust was kicked up behind them as they ran.

"Whatever you do, don't jerk the car too fast" Matt gave me a confused expression, but before I let him retaliate I pulled myself out on to the roof of the car. The wind made my clothes and hair whip wildly. My eyes squinted from the force of the gust, making it hard to see. I took baby steps towards the bed of the truck, making a trail of dents from my weight. When I got to the edge I swiftly jumped into the bed, scraping my knees.

There was enough paint here to last a bunker of people in hiding, I thought. I seized a can of purple paint in my hand and looked at the mass of creatures. So many zerglings, so little time...

One lone one was catching up faster then the rest. I cocked my arm back and thrusted it with all my force. The can spiraled, bashing in the monster's nose. It shrieked and disappeared into the horde of monsters.

"Justin, watch out for the hills!" I heard Matt's faint voice.

I looked up to my right. In the city from the roads you could see the giant hills that would block out the sun from certain vantage points. From over the hills came what looked like giant flying bats. They had gigantic, purple wings with a long orange body. The body was curved where the tail of the beast was actually over its head. The tongue hung loosely out from its mouth, giving demonic cries to its comrades. I couldn't tell where the eyes were, except maybe from the tail end where two pointy needles stuck out. It caught site of our truck and started closing in. I counted three.

I got into the prone position, but kept a close eye. Their mouths jutted open wide; releasing what it seemed a tiny boomerang. The "boomerang" flew down towards the truck, just whizzing over my head. It hit the truck multiple times, leaving permanent scars in the metal layer. When the boomerangs finished their damage, they oddly went back to their carriers. That was when I realized that their weaponry they were spewing out was actually a live animal!

Just thinking about it wanted to make me throw up again. Luckily I was un-touched. One was flying right above my head, looking like it spotted me out in the bed. I clutched onto a can and popped up, throwing it full force into the winged beast. It cried out its last scream, its wing tearing off. I watched it flutter recklessly a couple of times until it smashed into the ground and got trampled.

Another came swooping down towards me. I went to grab the next can, but only swiped the air. I glanced down and saw that all my weapons were gone. I looked at the horde behind the truck to see that they were only about 15 feet away from over-running us. I closed my eyes thinking that this might be the end.

Gun shots pierced the air. Blood poured out from the flying creature's body. It crumbled into the bed of the truck right next to me in a bloody, torn mess. I rushed my back against the truck to avoid being smacked with it. The wing gave one last sign of life before it faded forever from its body.

Tanks blasted shells behind our trucks. I took cover inside the bed, the explosions knocking dirt into the air and raining down on my back. When I looked back up I saw a bunch of marines running around to man this newly built barricade. Tanks lined up across the border of two buildings, firing shells into the ground. Three beaten bunkers held heavy MG stands for marines, allowing them to deal damage without receiving it. The zerglings attempted to dash up and scratch at the bunker, but ended up turning into a bloody rag doll. After what seemed like hours of gun firing and zerg deaths, the creatures finally retreated to where they came from.

Matt came from the driver's side and flinched at the sight of the bat creature. I hastily hopped out from the bed to get away from it. A marine strolled up to me, eyed the dead beast, and gave me a nod. "Orders from the general are to take all civilians for questioning. So before you go home, come with me." He also gestured to Matt to follow him.

We were taken to a nearby building. The air-conditioning cooled my sweaty body. We were brought into a fancy room at the end of the hallway. The marine walked in and saluted at the back of a chair. "General Duke, sir, the survivors are here for your questioning just like you ordered, sir!"

"Dismissed, private" a stern voice called out from the chair. The marine swiftly passed us and exited out the door. The chair spun around to reveal a middle-aged man. He had very round features, being huskily built for his age. His hair was graying from what seemed like black hair. He was clean shaven and well presentable, but his posture gave off arrogance and pride. His eyes narrowed on Matt and I as he started "Only two survivors?"

"Yes, sir!" Matt shouted. I kept quiet, this military stuff was new to me.

"Well, I am very disappointed to find that only a civilian and a trainee was able to make it alive. It seems like our men aren't getting the proper training they are needed to survive in a war-like situation." He stood up slowly with his hands cupped behind him. He walked around his desk and stridden to Matt first. He inspected Matt's facial features, then his clothes and then his shoes. "Are you a private, son?"

"No, sir! An air pilot trainee sir!"

"Well I am very impressed with you, boy. I will put in a good word in to where you're going, the Tarsonis air base, the best of the finest, son. You seem to be able to handle well in these situations, to bring back a survivor and all on such a short notice. What is your name?"

"Trainee Matthew Stubbs sir!"

He turned and came to me. He was much taller that when I looked straight at him I could only see his chin. I could smell his lunch off his breath, tuna fish..."And what is your name?"

"Uh, Justin Schilling..."

His tone darkened. "I don't care if you're a soldier or not, boy. If you want to address me you give me the proper respect. Always end with sir. Now let's try that again. What is your name?"

"Justin Schilling, sir" I replied blatantly. I felt retarded.

"That's better. Now explain to me what happened." He turned and began to pace to his desk.

"I don't really know, sir. I just was visiting my friend here and the Zerg-"

"How did you know the name of the creatures!?" His tone rose for the first time.

Startled, I replied. "Rumor, sir." I could hear Matt sigh out of relief.

"Well, make sure that rumor stops, ok? Justin, you are dismissed. Matt, at ease."

I turned and walked out, leaving my friend behind. The marine that escorted me in gave me a ride in the jeep, bringing me to the house. I was relieved to see that it was untouched.

When I entered I found both my parents in the living room. They were sitting on the couch, my mom's face buried into my dad's shoulder. It took me a moment to realize she was weeping. My dad looked up at me with concerned, sad eyes. I stopped and looked all over but couldn't find Marc anywhere. "Dad, what's wrong?"

"It's your brother, Justin" my mother sobbed. "He was taken to go into Ghost training...."