DOOM 3

By: Jason Robertson

Prologue: The Seventh Incident

And what Jakes didn't want to happen did happen. He fumbled clumsily with his wrench as he tried to stick it between the set of closely grouped conduits, and then dropped it.

He watched in a mixture of aggravation and surprise as his wrench clanged loudly all the way down to the bottom of the maintenance shaft, the echoes of his mistake still ringing in his ears. Only after he heard the wrench hit the bottom of the shaft did he mutter, "Goddamn it." He tried to find a way to scratch the back of his bald head in the extremely narrow crawlspace. He hated working double shifts at night. He could never think straight. And, above all, it meant he had to work with Gibson. "Hey!" he called back up the shaft, pulling on his safety harness. No response except for the flickering light panels and silently hissing pipes that lined the shaft all the way to the bottom. Great. Jakes fumed silently. The fat old butterball probably went to get another snack. "Gibson!"

Then he heard a shuffling. "Mm-hm, yeah?" came the languid response of his partner. "What?"

"I dropped my wrench again. They've got the goddamned power converters spaced too closely in this t-junction." Jakes called up the shaft, listening to his own voice echo through the shaft.

"Jakes, I don't want to be here all night—" Gibson griped.

"And you think that I do?" Jakes shot back. "The sooner you get off your fat ass and reel me back up the shaft, the sooner you can go back to bed!"

"Why don't you just lower yourself down the shaft and get the one you dropped? Parker has been awfully pissy lately about us leaving tools in the workspace." Gibson offered.

"And since when do you care what Parker thinks?"

"Since I got promoted to supervisor of this sector." Gibson retorted. "I'm here to make sure you do your job."

Jakes growled. The fat bastard had been bragging about that one all week although there were rumors going around that the only reason he got promoted was because he could no longer fit into the crawlspaces. But Jakes kept his mouth shut, and waited for Gibson to start lowering him down. He heard the squeak of the winch, and then—"Ah!" Jakes exclaimed as the winch jolted and he started dropping rapidly the shaft. But before Jakes could even think to panic, he was brought to a suddenly halt as Gibson got control of the device.

"Sorry!" Gibson called down. "This thing's not very well maintained."

Neither are you. Jakes thought as he was slowly lowered to the bottom of the shaft. While he was being lowered, he reached into his yellow maintenance jumpsuit for his flashlight. He turned on the high-powered light, and pointed it downwards. He leaned around his harness, and looked. Yeah, he could see on the metal grating some ten feet below him, but no wrench. "Give me about eight feet of slack!" Jakes called up as his feet touched the bottom of the shaft. He listened to his voice echo: "Slack! Ack…ack…"

There was no response. He shrugged, and got down on his hands and knees. It was a bit wider down here, so he had room to crawl around. He crawled to the nearest pipe, and stuck his hand under it. No wrench. He slid his hand back out and turned around. It had to be around here somewhere. He shined his flashlight in the opposite direction down a long, dark electrical line marker. He started crawling towards it. Before he even got five feet, he saw the blood red glint of the handle of his wrench. He grabbed it, and carefully stuck it in his jumpsuit. Then he looked back up the lighted shaft. "Hey, I've got it!" he called back up the shaft. No response again. "Gibson!" he called again. Still silence. "Hey, fat-ass!" he called louder. And there was still no reply. Jakes growled to himself. Great, he was stuck down here. Again. "I'm filing a report as soon as I get back." he muttered.

"Over here." he heard a voice call from down the electrical wiring tunnel. It was a man's voice. Jakes turned around and shined his flashlight down the tunnel. He couldn't see anyone. "Please." the voice continued. "We don't have much time."

"Is someone down there?" Jakes called. "There…there…there…?" his voice echoed. There was no response. The hairs on the back of his neck started to prickle. "Hey!" he called. "Hey…hey…hey…"

And then he heard a whistling sound come down the shaft. His head snapped up just in time to see his broken safety line tumble to the bottom of the shaft right at his feet. He looked up the shaft again with his flashlight, and thought he heard a shuffling noise come from the top of the shaft.

"And lead us not into temptation…" The disembodied voice returned, but now it was all around Jakes. He turned around, shining his flashlight in every direction. No one. "But deliver us…"

And that's when Jakes heard the growling. At first he thought it was a power line. But it was too clicky to be a power line. The next sound he heard was a clanging noise that was distant at first. But it got closer and closer. And it was coming down the electrical wiring tunnel.

He turned around slowly and shined his light down the tunnel again. Still nothing. "From evil…please deliver us, Almighty Father…who art in Heaven…"the voice grew louder, and seemed to be coming from every direction. Jakes put a hand on his forehead, and he pulled it away slick with sweat. He was panicking. The clanging kept getting closer and closer from the electrical wiring tunnel, and Jakes' flashlight was all over the place. He couldn't keep his hand still.

"Somebody answer me!" he called desperately. "Anybody!" And then the clanging stopped, as well the voice. Everything for a second was perfectly quiet. Jakes waited for a minute, not even moving or daring to breathe. But everything remained silent. Slowly…he started to relax. He put a hand on his forehead again. It was wet, but when he pulled it away…

His hand was covered in blood. He gasped and looked up.

And that was when the creature attacked. All Jakes saw was a flash of brown and brief glimpse of its bloody maw before he felt sharp claws digging into his flesh. He fell to the floor, dropping his flashlight. And through the streams of his own blood, he watched as his flashlight snapped out.

Then he felt a sickening twist as the creature's hand dug into his stomach and heard it shriek an earsplitting cry of triumph. And the last thing Jakes heard was his own voice as he screamed a horrible, burbling cry. "OH GOD! OH JESUS HELP ME! HELP M—"

And then the creature bit deep into his neck, and he was silent. In the darkness there was only the sick squishing and tearing sounds as the creature reaped the benefits of its patience. A minute passed. There was shuffling, and a brief glint of one of the creature's yellow eyes as it dragged away its victim. And then everything was silent once more. And in the darkness nothingness prevailed once again.