This fic is rated for blood, gore, and violent language.
..: NEW CHAPTER :..
Two nearly gagged at the realisation of where he was. How could he…no! This place couldn't be real! Two wasn't a believer. He had lost his faith in god and all that shit very young, when his brother had killed himself at age fifteen. He had jumped off the roof of their house back on Earth, and nobody ever found out why he did it. Two looked around himself. The outcrop of rock was linked to the edge of the cave by a narrow walkway. On the other end, the wall seemed to cave in and form a tunnel that disappeared into darkness. At his feet was the thinning mark of the beast, and bones…human bones. What the fuck? The whole ledge was splattered with blood and bones littered the place. This time Two did gag. Getting to his feet, he stumbled down the slope towards the walkway, struggling not to loose consciousness. He crawled along the narrow ledge on all fours, burning his hands on the hot stone. A spout of lava fell on his shoulder and burned into his flesh. The marine let out a cry of pain. When he finally reached the other side he slumped down against a cooler wall. The tunnel's shadow provided some cover from the searing heat. He spotted a few meters back the shredded carcass of what had been a fellow marine. Had he also been "warped" to this place? He crawled towards the corpse and examined it. The man appeared to have died not long ago. His head was no more than a bloody stump, and vicious slashes covered his arms and legs. His chest was still covered by his battered armour. Two noticed the man was still holding his PDA in one hand. A shotgun lay at his side, its ammo depleted. Two knelt down and picked up the PDA and accessed it. The thing appeared to have taken quite a beating. UAC PDAs were made to be tossed around a lot but this baby had really been mistreated. The screen was cracked and parasites kept invading it. Two noticed a couple of very recent files…dating of only a few hours ago. He accessed it and read:
Personal log, dated September 27th, 0930 Hours
"This is the personal log of UAC Marine Eric Halsey.
This is it. It's my turn. I don't know how the hell it all started. My team just…disappeared…one by one. I'm the only one left. I haven't seen any of those creatures for a while now. It must be about an hour since my last team-mate disappeared. We were somewhere in the Recycling facility. I opened a door, and it closed immediately behind me. Carl was still on the other side. I heard a roaring sound, like a great bonfire or something. And then silence. And then the laughter…the same laughter as when the quake happened. I don't know what is going on here, but all hell has broken loose. I have an eerie feeling. It's my turn now…they're coming for me…to take me…I don't want to die."
Personal log, dated September 27th, 1545 Hours
"This is the personal…oh fuck this. Nobody's ever going to read this anyway. I am so fucked. I was right…I knew it, I knew it! They came for me and they took me. Now I don't know where the hell I am. It's so goddamn hot in hear. I wish I could just be back at home with my family…I should never have accepted this post here on Mars, but working on another planet seemed so exciting! The fire…continuous fire…flames that devour your flesh and feast on your soul. I will never make it out of this place. This must be where they come from, those things…this is their home. I can always hear their grunts and snarls in the dark…they are here…they are coming. I have loaded my shotgun with my last two remaining rounds. The last one…will be for me. I just wish this hell never comes to Earth…end of log."
Two got up and averted his gaze from the corpse. Grabbing the empty shotgun, he tramped down the dark tunnel. The world kept swimming around him, and his eyes were bleeding with pain. He entered a large room lit dimly by candles. The place extended as far as the eye could see on any side, and there was no visible ceiling. Hundreds of pillars stood chaotically in the room, in no apparent organisation, and hanging from the pillars or from the walls were human remains…hundreds of crucified men and women…and children. Children hung in cages along the walls…wraiths that had one been beautiful women screamed in eternal agony as the flames of hell devoured them. Two screamed in horror. He broke into a full run back down the tunnel he had come from…what the hell? He didn't arrive in the same lava-filled room with the dead marine, but rather in some sort of giant vertical cylinder. Two stopped in the middle of the room and looked all around him. The place swam in the most utter darkness. Suddenly a deafening roar came from somewhere on his left. He spun around and saw his death approach. The beast stood at least twenty feet tall…perhaps thirty. It had a powerful muscular body and walked briskly on its two legs. Its horns were oriented forward and it let out another roar from its flaming mouth. The thing raised its right arm and Two noticed that some mechanical device topped it off. He watched for barely a second, before a rocket erupted from the creatures arm and streaked towards the marine. Two barely had time to dodge before the ground beside him exploded. He ran randomly, rockets exploding all around him. He was screaming in fear and pain…blood flowed from his blinded eyes and mouth. Suddenly, something sharp stabbed him in the back, and Two fell to his knees. He could feel the blood flow down between his shoulder blades. The very floor under his knees seemed to give way. He was falling…falling into nothingness. Two thrashed in the void and screamed in silence as he fell to his doom. After what seemed to be ages, he finally landed…and impaled himself upon a stone sword. He was hanging from a statue…in the middle of another vast and dark room. The statue depicted a demon, standing over a fallen human, brandishing an evil-looking blade in one hand, and humanorgans in the other. Two watched in silent horror and agony as his entrails dribbled down the statue's arm and torso. This was the end.
You wish you were dead now, do you not?
A voice was musing in his head, even as his senses began to fail. He was suffocating on his own blood caught in his throat.
There will be no death for you my friend!
Two desperately tried to struggle but to no avail…through his closed eyelids he could see flames, and hundreds…thousands of people wailing and thrashing on the stony ground, burning alive in their eternal torment. Two knew he was dead. He was no longer Alpha Two of the UAC Infantry Core…identity no longer mattered…all that mattered and was left here was pain and torment.
Yes...PAIN, SUFFERING, AND DEATH