Chapter 2
Blake awoke with a startle. He had had flashback dreams of his friends being mercilessly slaughtered on by the infected ones. He put his shirt back on, and rubbed the metal plate near his chest on his right shoulder. No matter how much he tried, he just couldn't get used to that thing, it just didn't feel natural. He felt weird, even vulnerable, without his helmet on. He had been wearing 24/7 for two weeks now, it felt more like him then the shoulder plate did. He stretched out his arms, only to discover that he had gotten much weaker. He looked over and saw the soldier approach him, and he was filled with regret. This man, along with his comrades Sam and Diana, had risked their lives to save him, and he didn't even know his name.
"Oy, hullo sir. Good to see you've recovered quite a bit of yer strength."
"Huh? Oh yes thanks to you of course. By the way what is you name...soldier?"
The soldier gave out a deep sigh. "Albert." He replied quietly. "And my rank is lieutenant." The leitenant seemed ashamed of his identitiy. Blake could see this. "You should not be ashamed of being a lieutenant, everyone has to start somewhere."
"Oy, tis not that, tis my name sir." Albert replied blushing and staring at his feet, to embarrassed to look Blake in the eye.
"Oh..." Blake said instantly understanding. He felt very awkward and didn't know about this current situation. So Blake tried to change the subject.
"Hey, shouldn't we be looking for the men of my squad?"
"Um...Sir..." Albert said slowly. "We already looked, and we there were no survivors." Albert said regretfully. "At least none that we found." He added quickly trying to give Blake false hope that some of his men might be alive somewhere. However; Blake could see right through the lieutenant false expression. Blake looked down at his gloved hand, and tightened it into a fist, full of regret and a sense of lose. Yet also full of rage for the bastards who did this. Suddenly Diana rushed into the room.
"Albert!" Albert felt awkward at Diana's use of his name, but he then was also reminded of the fact that she never used his real name unless it was something important. "The test results are back Sam wants you in the Cryogenic Lab A.S.A.P!"
"Stay here!" Albert said preparing to leave.
"No way! I'm going with you." Said Blake with supreme force, as he slowly got out of his bed. Blake followed Sam down the dark corridor, full of suspense of just what it was that had been tested. As he walked the long walk, Blake suddenly realized how tired and weak he was. He found that his right leg was limping. Albert saw this, and tried to assist Blake, but Blake refused, too full of pride to except any help. Albert tried again but Blake looked at him with a stare that could have killed. Blake was instantly guilty for being so unreasonably hard on Albert, and so he tried to be nice as the walk came to an end.
Blake entered to large room and looked at his surroundings. To his left he could see some impressive looking computers, obviously used for examining the specimens of the lab. To his right, Blake could see some large glass cylinders containing strange creatures that kind of creeped him out. Straight ahead of him Blake could see a large titanium wall, that turned out to be a door. He had learned of these in his training, they were usually used for containing organic species with radioactive components, or chemical waste. Near him, Blake could see Sam walk swiftly up to Albert. "The test turned out positive for nuclear mutation. Also we found that it has ingests several human bodies, some of the bodies I.D matching those of Blakes lost crew mates. Blake felt even worse, to know this some horrible creature had eaten his crew, he couldn't even bare to think of it. "Blake soon confronted a nearby doctor of high calibur who was smoking a rather elegant looking pipe. Smoking aboard a ship was of course, illegal. Normally Blake would have reported this, but he sense that ominous atmosphere filing the room.
"But why are you using equipment designed for live specimens in a cryogenic laboratory?" Blake asked genuinely confused.
The doctor turned around and quickly replied. "We have never confronted a creature of such brute strength. Luckily for us, it is not particularly intelligent, so we managed to lure it into a containment zone, located on the other side of this wall." Blake could see fear in the Doctors eyes. Then Blake could imagine how much horror this creature must have caused the crew upon entering the ship. Just think, what could have happened if that creature had gotten past the crew to unconscious him? I know what would happen; I would be dead meat, that's what. Blake thought to himself. The mention of death reminded him of his lost men.
"Sam," Diana said jerking Blake out if his thoughtfulness. "We're ready to open the doors now."
Blake was excited and scared at the same time to finally see what had caused all this havoc. Diana opened the doors, and all the doctors, who were all within an inch of each other, tensed in suspence. The doors finally opened, Blake could hear a roar unlike anything he had ever heard before. All he could tell from it was that it was full of rage. The doors finally opened all the way, and Blake gasped in what he saw.