Chapter seven

Into the Lions den

The APC purrs to a halt next to a large doorway, which leads into the control complex, the rain has stopped pouring now and the wind has stopped howling. The ceasing of the two weather elements casts a ghostly silence around the area.

Inside the APC Baird addresses the other marines, "Alright guys you know the drill, keep sharp, watch out for those cloaked freaks, but watch your fire and check your targets too, remember we're looking for civvies in here."

Lucil puts up her hand to speak "Sir what do we do once we've located them, we can't bring them all into the APC, there's too many of them."

"Once you have found them you bring them up onto this level, but keep them in the building just inside the entrance and secure your position, I suggest you shut the doors too. Once you have found them and secured yourselves I will radio Janus for immediate dust off of civilians."

"And what about the rest of us?" asks Elma

"We resume, or pursue if you like, our original mission. We must find out who and where these things are and eliminate them. But civilians are our top priority for now, are we all clear on this?"

"Yes sir!" was the unanimous response.

"Good, now since these guys here have seen how we work, they will be joining the team."

Some of the soldiers groan, Maddox and Vasquez look at each other disdainfully.

"Hey enough of that, you are professional soldiers trained to handle any situation including this one, deal with it. Now since we only have one location to go to I'm combining the two squads together, you'll have safety in numbers that way. Now once you get out of this cozy little vehicle you will notice a door nearby, through that is a corridor, which, twenty meters down or so, has a stair case that you need to use to get to the floor on which the civilians are. You need to get down to sub level three, take the door that is immediately to your right when you reach that level, travel about 20 metres down that corridor and turn left, go down there about 15 metres then take a right, there should be another 30 metres before you reach their location. You got all that? I will be in constant radio contact to Lucil and Beclem; they will relay the necessary stuff to you alright?"

"Yes sir."

Yuna taps Baird on the shoulder, drawing his attention "Uh, Baird?"

"Yes?"

"I think Tidus should stay here after that shot earlier."

"Well… If you're sure."

"Yuna I'll be fine, really there's no…"

"You stay here you got me?" the firmness in Yuna's voice shuts Tidus up immediately, everyone else looks at her surprised, some of them even looked slightly impressed, Tidus just blinks a few times.

"Uh, yes ma'am."

"Good."

Baird clears his throat to gain everyone's attention, "Alright, Tidus you stay here, the rest of you move it."

Vasquez and Maddox jump to their feet, Smartguns in hand and stand in front of the door of the APC, Stone opens up the door and they point their guns to the outside, which was gray and ominous. The two Smart gunners look at each other give a little nod, Maddox steps out first and is quickly followed by Vasquez, the other marines including Yuna, Rikku and Paine, step outside too. Maddox and Lucil take the front of the group with Vasquez and Beclem bringing up the rear, once again moving backwards.

They reach the door and open it up with a little help from Stone's bypass kit, then proceed down the empty, dank looking corridor, a pin could have been heard dropping as they proceeded in total silence.

Inside the APC Tidus, Baird, Frost and Bishop observe the marines on their respective cameras; they watch them travel down the aforementioned stairs. As they go deeper and deeper into the building some of the monitors flicker.

"Lucil, Beclem I'm getting interference on the monitors here."

"It's probably the steel structure sir; these types of places have a tendency to screw things up on the monitors."

"Okay, it seems to be adjusting itself now. How are the motion trackers going?"

"We're not reading anything, no movement anywhere."

"Keep going, you will probably notice something in the end."

The group turn left down the corridor as instructed and stop in amazement, the walls, ceiling and floor of the corridor are covered with the same dark substance in the same 'rib cage' pattern as the ill fated John had encountered in the cave.

Beclem steps forward to take a closer look at the substance "You seeing this, Baird?"

"Yeah I see it. Can you stand on it?"

Beclem walks onto the strange substance.

"Seems pretty solid to me." he jumps up and down a few times.

"Yup I don't think this is going anywhere. I just wish we knew what the heck it is; this job just gets crazier and crazier as we go along."

"Well if it can be walked on then keep going, just watch your step."

The group proceeds to walk on the strange substance, Nadine snaps off a small piece of the substance and looks at it.

"It looks like some sort of secreted resin."

"Yeah, but secreted from what?" asks Stone who looks at the icicle-like piece.

"Nobody touches a thing alright?" says Beclem sternly.

Dunya drops the piece of resin as they reach the right turn off that Baird had instructed them to go down.

Biggs puffs his cheeks "Damn, it's roasting down here. Whatever this stuff is, it must have amazing insulation properties."

"Ha, maybe we could take it all and start a business selling the stuff!" chuckles Othello.

"Knock it off Othello." scolds Lucil.

Baird's voice sounds out in Lucil and Beclem's ear pieces "Okay the colonists should be about 25 metres from where your location, are you seeing anything on your motion trackers?"

"No sir, we still have nothing on screen."

"Weird. But keep going, you're only a few meters from the first of the survivors."

"Yes sir."

The Marines, with Vasquez in front, enter the room; she stops and looks around her then moves forward slowly allowing the others to file in. The walls are covered with a similar resin to what covers the hallways, but this substance is more crystalline. In the centre of the room is a stairwell surrounded by bars that reach waist height.

Othello walks down the room for a couple of steps and then does a double take at the wall on his left, his eyes widen with fear; suspended at his eye level are a pair of human feet, still with their boots on. He slowly looks up with increasing horror at the owner of the feet. The person is a mess; his skin is almost white and his hair is damp and covered with the crystalline substance, he has no visible wounds, but his head droops to his chest in unconsciousness.

"Sweet mother of machina." Othello whispers to himself.

Stone and Vasquez themselves notice the suspended body and look on in their own horror, as they move further into the room it becomes apparent to the rest of the marines that this man is not the only one plastered to the walls. As they move deeper into the room the scale of this new problem quickly grows to prominence, to the marines however it is like looking at a gallery of horror as they witness body upon body fastened to the walls by the tough resin.

"Can anyone here tell me what in Yevon's name happened here? This is mental; they've been stuck to the walls or something." Hisses Maddox.

"They don't look alive." Says Elma.

"They have to be otherwise they wouldn't show up on the computer earlier. Sir are you getting all this?" asks Beclem.

"Yeah I see it. Check for survivors; see if any have a pulse or anything. Can you still see no movement?"

"Negative sir, there's nothing."

Nadine finds a body that is not fastened too high for her to touch their head, she walks up to the body; a woman, Nadine lifts up her drooped head, revealing the victim to be none other than Elsa. Her closed eyes seem lifeless, and Nadine goes in for a slightly closer look, as she gets within inches of the apparently unconscious woman she suddenly opens her eyes, which takes Nadine by surprise that jumps back in surprise.

"Over here quick, we've got a live one!"

She steps back towards Elsa.

"Stay with me, it's alright, your going to be okay, stay calm."

Elsa opens her mouth to speak, she sounds like she is being strangled "Please, k, kill me. Kill me." Suddenly she starts shaking and coughing violently.

"She's convulsing, damn it we need a medic here!" shouts out Nadine.

An odd crunching and cracking noise emanates from Elsa's abdomen, then a burst of blood appears from Elsa's chest and she yelps in pain, blood pours from the side of her mouth, a strange snake like creature then violently bursts out from her chest, covered in blood and starts screeching madly. Elsa's screaming stops and her eyes roll up into their sockets, and her head collapses down again.

Nadine jumps back and grabs Biggs, "Biggs, fry it!"

Biggs steps forward and unleashes a jet of flame, engulfing the creature, which begins screeching and writhing about, still partially inside Elsa's chest. Biggs unleashes another fiery stream and the creature slows down its writhing, then stops altogether and collapses in the all consuming flames. Silence descends into the room again, save for the noise of the burning corpses; everyone looks around them alert for anything.

Inside an air vent, leading to the room the marines stand in, a strange looking object with no discernable shape suddenly comes to life and starts moving with a strange elegant grace. Inside another air vent another object, similar to the other one, comes to life, then another, and another.

Beclem and Lucil's motion trackers suddenly start beeping frantically; they study their trackers, whilst the other marines suddenly become aware of an odd, faint hissing noise coming from all around the group.

"We've got movement!" calls out Beclem.

"Where? Gimme a direction." Orders Vasquez.

"Uh, the tracker can't lock in!" replies Beclem in a worried voice, his motion tracker has multiple white dots all over it and with each pulse of the tracker they get closer to the marines.

"Talk to me Beclem!" growls Vasquez.

"I've got multiple signals! They're closing!"

Baird's voice crackles over in Lucil and Beclem's ears "What's happening you two? We can't see anything up here!"

"I have signals, I have readings in front and behind!" calls out Lucil to anyone listening.

"Where man? I can't see squat!" replies Othello.

"He's right there's nothing back here!" says Stone.

Beclem begins looking around himself frantically "Look I'm telling you there's something moving here and it aint us!"

Paine, her eyes darting all over the place, unwittingly backs into Yuna and Rikku who are backing up in the opposite direction, as they lightly impact on eat other they flinch then turn around quickly and find themselves pointing their weapons at each other. Realizing that they were mistaken, they breathe a quick sigh of relief then get back to looking for the sources of the movement.

Beclem by now is turning in all directions frantically trying to pinpoint at least one point of movement to its source "The tracker's off scale, they're all around us man, geez!"

Othello curls his lips slightly "What is all around us, I can't see anything moving!" with his flamethrower ready, he slowly turns his back to the wall behind him. The section of wall that he had been looking straight at starts to move, almost as if it were unfolding, revealing a horrific creature with sharp, glistening teeth and claws, it grabs Othello from behind and pulls him up, he shouts and kicks wildly, and instinctively pulls the trigger of his flamethrower, Stone turns around and receives a sheet of fire in his face and body. He flails about, screams and without being able to see where he is going he runs into the safety bars of the stair well and topples head first down the shaft. Suddenly chaos and panic descends on the whole room as the marines, caught completely unawares, try to comprehend what has just happened in the few short seconds.

"What the heck just happened?" shouts out Maddox.

"Othello's vanished and Stone got flamed, they're gone!" shouts out Nadine.

She turns around franticly and pins herself up against a wall, above her head another creature suddenly begin to stir and silently moves down to her, it grabs her when none of the other marines are looking and she screams as the inhuman creature hoists her upwards by her shoulders with incredible ease.

Throwing caution to the wind, Vasquez cocks her smart gun.

"LET'S ROCK!" she depresses the trigger of her gun and starts shooting in a semi circle in front of her, despite the fact that her weapon had not locked onto anything. The deep throaty booming of her gun rings out into the room, Maddox takes the hint and opens fire too. The group instinctively starts to fall back to the entrance with Lucil in front who is clutching one of her ears trying to listen to what Baird is saying.

In the APC, Baird is now sweating and trying to control his words as he gives Lucil and Beclem their orders.

"…I said lay off of the suppressing fire and fall back to the APC by squads."

"Suppressing fire what? Vasquez, Maddox stop firing, damn it! Sir! Say again sir, say again." Shouts Lucil

Baird isn't given a chance to reply to her, Lucil is grabbed from behind and pulled up towards the ceiling like Othello and Nadine, kicking and screaming, her gun fires instinctively.

Beclem spins around to find Lucil has gone without a trace "Where's Lucil? Where's Lucil!"

Biggs grabs Beclem on the shoulder "We gotta get outta here! They're coming through the walls! They're coming through the damn walls!"

Inside the APC, Baird is in total panic mode and is unable to speak, only murmur. Through Biggs' camera Tidus watches as Campbell shoots at something off the screen and an inhuman screech sounds out. Biggs runs up to Beclem, his face a vision of terror "Lucil's gone! Let's get the heck outta here!"

Lucil, Othello, Nadine and Stone's camera monitors are offline and only show static but the life sign read outs of Othello, Nadine and Lucil show that they are still alive. Tidus grabs onto Baird.

"Do something Baird!" but he gets no response from the brain locked lieutenant.

Back in among the chaos, Beclem takes charge of the situation "Fall back! Fall back! Marines we are leaving!"

Rikku is already ahead of the group, the rest follow but she is a good 10 metres ahead, pulse rifle in hand she dashes round a corner, runs down the corridor then turns another corner towards the stairs, reaching them she climbs them faster than she ever thought possible.

Paine and Yuna reach the bottom of the stairs but decide to wait a moment for the other marines to catch up, who have only just turned the corner that leads to the stairs with Vasquez and Rykov bringing up the rears of the group, from where they stand Yuna and Paine listen to their bursts of gunfire and the horrible screeches that follow each burst. Through the targeting computer of their Smartguns, Vasquez and Maddox watch the horrific creatures crawl after them on two legs and on all fours, some of them were even crawling on the ceiling, the two marines do not hesitate to pull their triggers as each animal lines up into their sites, acidic blood splashes every where with each bullet hole, fortunately for the marines they are too far away to be hit by the splatters.

Rikku reaches the top of the stairs and runs for the exit, hurtling outside she begins to run towards the APC, she stops in her tracks as she hears an odd whooshing noise followed by a metallic clanking noise over to her right, she looks towards the source of the noise. Embedded in the ground is a small circular object with metallic 'wings' she is about to take a closer look when she hears a bleeping noise that gets quicker and quicker over time. Without a second thought she runs as fast as she can, away from the object, she gets only ten meters or so when the object explodes violently, the power of the explosion sends her flying away from the APC. She sprawls on the floor like a rag doll; her momentum carries her along the floor for a number of meters before she stops and lies on the floor motionless, a trickle of blood works its way down her forehead.

The marines as a group dash out of the door way and into the APC, but Vasquez and Maddox still trail by a few meters, having to move slower than the rest, due to the increased size of their guns.

As the marines file into the APC a metal ceiling panel nearby begins to bend and buckle as something on the other side batters its way through. With a last final thud, the panel breaks off and two of the creatures crawl out of the space, and fall on their feet to the floor.

Vasquez reaches the outside of the building and waits by the door for Maddox who's a few steps behind, as he gets into the door way Vasquez starts to move further backwards to the APC and fails to notice one of the creatures, which stealthily appears from out of the front of the APC, moving towards Maddox.

As he exits the building, still focused on the doorway the creature begins to move quickly to the unsuspecting marine. Vasquez sees it first and turns her gun on it and shoots, the creature explodes with a screech and Maddox is showered in acid and the unfortunate marine wails in agony as the fast acting liquid eats away at his flesh, unable to move through sheer pain he collapses to the floor.

"NO!" screams Vasquez, as she watches her dying partner, literally melt away.

Maddox turns with the last of his life and shouts at Vasquez through unrecognizable lips "Get out of here, go now!"

Vasquez is seized by some of the men and is reluctantly pulled back into the APC.

"Get us out of here now!" shouts Beclem to Frost.

The sniper doesn't ask questions and reverses the APC incredibly quickly out of the hallway and does a reverse handbrake turn once they get out into the open, throwing everyone across the room, some of the heavier equipment, stored in the shelves falls onto Baird knocking him out.

Suddenly, to Frost's surprise the second creature appears on the small windscreen of the APC and smashes the glass. Without thinking Frost slams on the breaks, throwing the surprised animal, Frost doesn't think twice and accelerates into the alien crushing its body underneath the wheels.

Thinking they are out of harms way for the moment, the group try to assess themselves and those around them. Yuna starts to look around frantically.

"Where's Rikku!"

She panics and starts throwing equipment around thinking she might have been buried under the boxes and weapons. Failing to locate her cousin in the APC the horrible truth dawns on her.

"Rikku's still back there? No, no, we have to go get her back! Rikku!" hysterically she grabs for the door to open it but is held back by Paine and Elma, both visibly upset too. After several moments of struggling Yuna slowly stops and remains motionless, a tear trickles down her right eye as she realizes the futility of going back for Rikku.

Paine speaks trying desperately to keep herself composed "We can't go back Yuna, she will have been captured by those things. Even if we did get to her and bring her back she'll have one of those things on her, there would be nothing we could do for her after that… I'm so sorry Yuna," she sniffles, her own eyes welling up with tears "I'm so sorry."

Yuna collapses to the floor of the APC and falls apart, crying her eyes out for the loss of her beloved cousin. A tearful Tidus moves over to her and puts his arms around her, and holds her head tightly to his shoulder, he looks at a dejected Paine who herself has broken her emotionless shell and is shedding tears. The APC stops outside the hospital, but no one tries to leave.