The Ark
The Master Chief stood up and examined the area. His shield alarm was blaring, his vitals displayed red, and his Ferret was gone, down the cliff. It was then that he realised where he was; the other side of the drop. He looked behind him, and there it was, the cliff was centimetres away from his feet. He turned around and immediately dropped to the ground, avoiding a missile from a tank. Holy shit! He stood up, looking for some cover. He found some, a large structure that was no more than 20 metres away. He ran as his shield started to go down again as the tank's machine gun rendered the area with bullet holes. He reached the entrance to the structure, but stopped. He saw something that he wanted. He rolled to the right, dodging another missile in the process, and wrenched his sniper from its upright position in the ground. He immediately turned and ran for the entrance once more, the tank trying to get a good shot. The Chief dived inside as the tank fired. The entrance collapsed around his ears, and he dived into the nearest hallway. When the sound died down, and the rocks stopped falling, he switched on his flashlight and was met with a horrific scene.
McCabe loaded his Assault rifle and faced fire teams Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta and Echo. "Alright!" he shouted, "Listen up! The Sarge is in there on his own, and he reported strange things. Now we may not be heroes, but we're all that he's got! Alpha, take a few Pelican's and see if you can get some through that hole at the top. If not, then drop some supplies through and come through the south entrance."
"Yes sir!"
"Bravo! You're with me, we're gonna knock on the front door nice and politely." A few of the Bravo members grinned at that.
"Charlie, there is an entrance south-south west from here. Secure that area, then we'll meet you in the middle of the structure." He turned to Delta. "Delta, there is an entrance north from here that has very recently been blocked up. So you go in with Echo, you two are going to the entrance that is located near it." They all saluted, "Yes, sir!"
"Let's move out."
The Master Chief stared at what was left of a particular fire-team. There was just blood, parts of bodies, and guns everywhere. He heard whimpering, and looked to his right, raising his magnum at the shape that he saw there. "Don't shoot! Please! Shit man, they're everywhere." The Master Chief lowered his Magnum and stared the marine in the eye.
"What's everywhere?" he demanded. But the marine was too shocked to answer. "Shit, they killed my squad, came when we turned on our lights." The Chief froze. He went over what the marine had just said. They came when we turned on our lights…
"Shit!" He turned around; Magnum raised, and fired several rounds into the creature that was attempting to assassinate him. The 'thing,' if you want to call it that, fell to the ground, bits of flesh dripping from it. He immediately switched off his light and heard the sound of squelching and dripping die away. "Told you so." Said the marine in a matter-of-fact tone. The Master Chief looked in his general direction and said, "Shut up."
McCabe's Assault rifle went dry, so he tossed it down and picked up a shotgun. Shit. His team had just experienced a few losses from multiple unknown enemies. One of the Privates, Hawkins, had been separated from them. Coward, thought McCabe. It had only been a few Grunts. Or that's what he thought…
Hawkins ran down the hall, pumping his shotgun as he went, the sound of squelching following him. Due to his 'cockiness,' he had been separated from the rest of Alpha team. It's as if they're waiting for something, he thought as he reached the end of the hall which housed a dark spot. He stopped and fumbled with his flashlight. Come on, come on! He cried out in triumph as he found the switch for the flashlight. And turned it on…
"Turn off your flashlights!" shouted McCabe over the comm, franticly fumbling with his light. He managed to turn it off, but one marine was too slow, and McCabe saw him get sucked into complete darkness. He heard a bloodcurdling scream, then silence, if you don't count the squelching and the gunfire. He looked away, and ran off into total darkness.
Hawkins raised his shotgun in one hand, with his flashlight in the other; something was there.
McCabe heard the sound of a shotgun being pumped and he shouted,
"It's me!"
"McCabe!" Hawkins shouted back.
McCabe ran through the dark hallways with his infra-red vision goggles pulled down over his eyes. He saw a red shape, before Hawkins' overpowered flashlight fucked up the mechanism, turning it off.
"Shit." Through the light of Hawkins' flashlight, McCabe saw the outline behind Hawkins. "Hawkins," he said.
"Turn off the light."
"But it's the only way I can see!"
"I know but-"
"You want me to die don't you?" Hawkins cut in.
McCabe had had enough.
"There's something behind you!" he screamed, pointing over Hawkins' shoulder.
"I don-" the words were making there way out of his mouth when the tentacle that was circling round his neck became taught, and violently ripped him into the shadows.
"No!"
McCabe ran over to where Hawkins was standing and snatched up the flashlight he dropped. He heard a struggle somewhere in front of him. He raised the flashlight, to be met with a horrible sight. Hawkins was being strangled by the most hideous thing that you would ever see. The thing had no face, just a lump below the spot where the neck would be, the legs were nothing more than stumps, and the arms were very much the same, but with long tentacles for fingers. Yellow/green bits of flesh hung loosely from the walking horror. One tentacle had itself wrapped around Hawkins' throat.
"Holy shit. Hawkins!"
The thing flinched at the sudden burst of energy. Its senses went wild and the tentacle's grip loosened.
"Come on!"
McCabe pulled Hawkins to his foot, who was still clutching his throat, gasping for air. McCabe switched off the flashlight and together they ran down the dark hall.
The Master Chief raised his Assault rifle at something that moved. When he had asked the marine earlier, he said that they were out of Battle rifles, and Assault rifles were all that they had. He had dealt with the flood before, blasting them to pieces, blowing them up with grenades, doing all sorts of things to them. The marine was resting on a make-shift bed that the Master Chief made out of rubble and stuff that he found in the complete darkness. The marine groaned, and the Chief turned toward where he thought the marine was. "What is it?" he asked.
"I-its getting worse!"
The Chief grimaced inside his helmet. The new form of flood that had attached itself to the marines arm carried some type of fast spreading virus. The virus form, as the Master Chief called it, looked like a cockroach, with tiny tentacles coming out of the front. They also heard another marine over the comm. He said;
"Fuck. I'm on my own, my squad is dead. They're all gone. Can anyone read me? Shit. Something grabbed onto me. It killed the rest, and wrapped its tentacle round my throat. I managed to kill it, don't ask me how, and got away. But I feel really weird, as if something suddenly I got injected with some type of virus. I don't know what it is, but it's getting worse. Oh fuck! Something's here! Shit! AAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHH!"
That was 20 minutes ago. The Chief turned, hearing something on his left. "Move! Move! Move!" The order was faint, but he heard it nonetheless.
"Shit."
The ICG, were in.
Hawkins came to, blurred images wavering as he quickly slipped in and out of consciousness. He was in some type of tent, with a lot of electrical equipment like radar, ally positions, etc.
"My God. Oh my God," He franticly looked around, the images still blurred.
"Jesus. Shit."
He saw the outline of a woman approaching. "Its okay." She soothed with a loveable voice.
"Its okay." She repeated. But still, Hawkins wouldn't stay still. "Where am I?" he demanded.
The woman started to cry as another man entered the room, Magnum in hand.
"What happened to me?"
"It's too late." The woman sobbed.
Hawkins heard the sound of shaky hands loading a gun. McCabe put a bullet into the first chamber and loaded a clip.
'Fuck." He said, raising the pistol.
"I'm sorry."
Bang.
