Chapter 37: I Expect you to Die

Robles

The Warthog barrelled down the road at dizzying speeds. Desperate to keep Stitches at a distance from the vehicle, Leo was pushing the Warthog to its limits. With all of the obstacles littered around the road, and with visibility poor, it was a wonder that the jeep hadn't crashed or rolled over.

Paccone was impressed with Leo's skills behind the wheel. He'd have to make a note of it if they ever lived through this.

"Can't you make this hunk of junk go faster?" Mann cried, firing an ineffectual burst of rifle fire at the mountain of rotting meat behind them, "He's starting to get closer!"

"You try driving this piece of shit!" Leo retorted as he wheeled around a derelict car. "Whatever you've got planned, Sarge, you better do it fast!"

"Way ahead of you, Carter!" yelled Paccone. He bent down and picked up the Jackhammer. There were only a few rockets left, so he couldn't waste any of them. He loaded in a fresh clip, and waited for Leo to pass the water tower that he had spotted earlier.

"Almost…"

Leo drove the Warthog straight pass the water tower, weaving around more obstacles.

"Almost…"

The road was finally clear, which let Leo keep the Warthog straight and allowing Paccone to keep aim.

"Almost…"

Finally, Stitches, with his characteristic stubbornness, kept chase. He stomped along the road until he finally reached the foot of the water tower.

Paccone fired.

The first rocket flew in, slamming into one of the water tower's support legs and completely incinerating it. The tower keeled over but still stood, the remaining three legs taking up the extra weight. Paccone quickly ejected his rocket clip, loaded in a fresh one, and banged off the two rockets in quick succession. The first rocket was a little off center, and it bounced off of one of the tower legs and imbedded itself into Stitches' flank, tearing out and searing a large chunk of flesh. The second rocket hit another tower leg square on, demolishing the metal structure.

The remaining two tower legs, unable to support the sudden extra weight, groaned and cracked as the large holding tank tipped over. Metal squealed and shrieked as the tank slammed onto Stitches, driving him into the ground. The tank shattered and popped like a water balloon, spraying thousands of gallons of water in all directions. Leo ground the Warthog to a stop to see what was going on.

"Sir?"

Paccone dropped the now useless Jackhammer. "Yes, Carter?"

Leo pointed towards the remains of the water tower. "I am so not paying for that."

In the air

Karla sighed and tried to relax. One blessing and curse of the Pelican's design was the lack of windows in the craft. Usually, this was a good way to preserve morale, because soldiers wouldn't be able to see what the hell was going on outside. Unfortunately, it also meant that without anything to look at, the trips were extremely dull, which proved to be more damaging to a soldier's psyche than any amount of combat.

At least, that's how Karla felt about it.

As she sat in the Pelican's seat, she noticed Williams toying around with an ominous, black box in his lap.

"Williams, what the hell is that?"

Without looking up, he replied, "Well, as we were getting out of the basement, I noticed one of the corpses holding the thing as if it were his mother. It took a little effort to pry it out of his cold dead hands."

Nothing irritated Karla more than Williams' sense of humor. "Sergeant, you will put that box down and not go near it." She pointed to the triple-bladed biohazard sign stamped on the side of the box. "God knows what's sitting in there."

"Yes, lieutenant." Williams stood up and casually shoved the box into one of the Pelican's equipment lockers.

The pilot then reached for the intercom and announced, "Reaching the DZ in ten minutes."

Robles

Kumi gritted her teeth as she fired off a burst of rifle fire at the approaching ghouls. She was down to her last rifle clip, and there was no shortage of ghouls ready to hitch a ride on her Warthog. She yelled to Siler.

"They're all over us! We gotta lose them!"

Siler nodded and swerved the Warthog around a corner and screeched to a halt, disbelief on his face.

There was Collette, standing in the middle of the road, illuminated by the Warthog's headlights.

"What the hell…" Kumi muttered. What was that girl doing here?

"What's wrong?" Sam groaned, trying to stand up, but winced in pain in the effort.

"You have to leave." Collette said gravely. "It's coming for you."

"What?" Kumi was completely bewildered.

"Tell Sam that it's coming for her, and it won't stop as long as it or she is alive." Collette continued.

Kumi blinked for a second, and Collette disappeared. Kumi shook her head. It was as if the girl had just blinked out of existence, as if she was never there.

"Did you just see that, Siler?"

"I don't know." Siler stammered. Obviously scared at what he saw.

They didn't have much time to think things over, however. Kumi yelped in fright when something slammed into the side of their Warthog, flipping the entire vehicle over onto its side. She, along with Sam was thrown from the vehicle and hit the pavement hard. Reflexively, Kumi grabbed the shotgun lying next to her, pumped it, and took aim.

She was terrified at what she had in her gunsights. It looked like an Elite, except it was maybe two or three times larger to the point where its battered armor barely fit anymore. It was similar to the one that had attacked them before, except for the fact that its eyes glowed a hideous orange.

"Well…" It growled. Kumi recoiled. It's voice sounded like rotten wood, "I've finally found you."

Elsewhere

"The time for games is over. We must intervene."

"Scohar, you were extremely lucky that the Elders did not catch your earlier intervention. Do not push your luck."

"Besides, you had assured us that she would be able to handle the situation."

"The situation is now no longer under her control. The being has acted far sooner than we had predicted. If it succeeds now, who knows what it may plan for this galaxy?"

"If you intervene, I will have no choice but to inform the Elders."

"So be it."

Robles

Kumi quickly fired her shotgun as fast as she could pump the weapon, but the buckshot didn't even seem to phase the Elite. Siler managed to scramble out of the driver's seat of the Warthog and aimed his pistol. He screamed in pain when the Elite reached out and crushed both pistol and hand with one fluid motion. The creature took once glance at him and snorted.

"You serve no purpose to me."

Kumi could only watch helplessly as the Elite casually grabbed Siler's head and smacked it against the Warthog's hood with enough force to puncture it. Siler's body twitched for a second and then sagged. No human could survive something like that. Kumi tried to reload her shotgun, but just as quickly as it had killed Siler, the Elite swung out its outstretched arm and slammed her in the side of the head. Kumi felt herself hit the ground, and pain exploded somewhere in her neck. Kumi tried to move, but couldn't. She couldn't even feel anything from the neck down.

Oh my god, I'm paralyzed!

Meanwhile, Sam, who was knocked unconscious by the crash, laid on the ground, unaware of the massive horror stomping toward her. Kumi had a sickening feeling that Sam was the luckiest of the all.

Water Tower

"See, I told you I had a plan, private."

"I guess I'll have to take your word for it, sir."

Leo, Paccone, and Mann could only stand and watch as Stitches roared and thrashed. Though still alive, it was crushed under the massive weight of the water tower, and couldn't move. Paccone had tried throwing some grenades at Stitches' head, but that tactic had little effect on the meat monster. They had even resorted to driving over it with the Warthog, all that accomplished was making the vehicle even dirtier than before.

"Suggestions?" Paccone asked.

"Well, we could always try out that portable nuke launcher." Mann suggested.

"How many rounds?"

"Three."

Leo smiled. "I am all for that sir."

"What's the maximum range on that thing?"

Mann quickly checked the launcher. "Uhhh, all it says is that once you fire, its suggested you run and/or take cover."

"Wonderful. The guy who made this had to have a sense of humor. Give me that thing."

Warthog Wreck

Chaos could feel victory within his grasp. His ultimate weapon was right there, just begging him to take it, and there was nothing in the way to stop him. Those silly mortals put up a decent fight, but proved to be little challenge. He took note that one of them was still alive, but it didn't matter. He looked at his weapon again. Oh, how ignorant these mortals were. How could they not notice the potential power that this one possessed? Even now, bits of his DNA and some coding from those scientists he had killed were flowing through her blood. Changing her, evolving her. Soon all the power she possessed would be his.

Suddenly, Chaos felt a flurry of burning pain on his back. He turned to seek out his attacker, but was blinded by a bright, almost angelic light.

"You will not succeed, abomination! I will make sure of that."

Suddenly, an even brighter, though less brilliant, light filled the sky. Chaos was blinded.

When he regained his sight, all he could see was a mushroom cloud rising in the sky, and lost his telepathic link with one his larger creations. He also noticed that Scohar, and the two female mortals, including his weapon, were gone.

It was as if every undead being in Robles howled in rage.