Part II: Hell's Holocaust
Fire burned all around me.
My immediate reaction was to run. Something inside told me that being surrounded in fire is not a good thing. Yet somehow, this fire was all I knew.
This fire was good somehow. Revitalizing. I felt new again.
Come to think of it, I'm not sure if I even existed before the fire appeared around me.
I felt reborn.
When the fire settled down into nothingness, I stepped forward. I was on an open dirt field. I looked around myself. A large cylinder-shaped compound surrounded me. There were large, gray-bricked wall segments around the compound. It looked old. Something must have worn it down. There were holes scattered around it… bullets most likely. And it looked charred. Like it was burnt at some time.
No.
It was nuked.
But how did I know that?
The ground was covered in brownish-red dirt which spread on towards a re-growing forest on one side and a cliff on the other. The sun was low, making the skies crimson red. Suddenly I felt a sense of déjà vu. I've been here before.
No.
I died here before.
A sense of fear came over me. I suddenly felt as though my life was in danger. Something was trying to kill me.
Why would someone try to kill me if I was just resurrected?
I heard some movement behind me. I jumped towards my side and ran behind one of the curved walls. Slowly peeking my head from the side, I peered towards the source of the sound. A tall, pale humanoid stood, watching my every move. He was disgustingly frail with a large head and unnecessarily long hands. I knew he could see me, so I slowly stepped out from my hiding place. The white creature made no intimidating moves, so I slowly walked closer to him. For some reason, I felt as though I would be safe doing so.
After all, it was he who resurrected me.
He did not move at all; he simply stood stationary, only kept his head facing me as I slowly walked up towards him. I stopped just a few meters before him.
"Who are you?" I asked softly, almost as though I had never spoken before.
Not in this body, at least.
He simply stood there, staring at me. Why didn't he speak? He had a mouth. He looked fairly human-like. His head was certainly large enough to hold a brain. He must be able to speak.
"Why was I returned?" I asked, hoping for some sort of a verbal response out of this creature.
Again, he remained silent. He continued to stare at me for the longest time with his large, black eyes, but seemed to get bored from my passive anticipation, and finally walked away.
"Don't you remember the reports, Paul?" came a woman's voice from behind me. "Arch Viles don't speak."
Again I spun around with a startled jump. A woman clothed in dark brown rags sat down, leaning against one of the walls. She had a dirt-covered, yet attractive dark-skinned face with messy brown hair. She had a healthy build, but for some reason I seemed to remember her looking fairly distressed last time I saw her.
Mira Spade.
"Mira?" I asked, not exactly knowing the meaning of the words that suddenly appeared in my head.
She allowed herself a slight smile. "You remembered," she said. Mira slowly stood up, straitening the several layers of rags that covered her body as an unimpressive facsimile of clothing. "For a moment I though you wouldn't remember who I was."
I narrowed my eyes as I studied her face. I knew her. Somehow. But I don't know how. I liked her, I thought, but I didn't know why. "Who are you?" I finally asked.
She frowned. "We're friends, Paul," she said with a tone of disappointment in her voice. "Don't you remember? We joined the Army of the Western Hemisphere Empire together. Don't you remember?"
Paul. Western Hemisphere Army.
Those words were familiar to me. But how?
Paul. My name. My name was Paul Ralem.
Western Hemisphere Empire. My empire.
My empire?
Oh yes. My empire. We were at war. Against who?
The Eastern Coalition of the United Nations. The ECUN.
Was the war over?
"The ECUN?" I asked after another long pause.
"Defeated," said Mira.
More memories rushed into my head. "But how? I though we were losing."
How did I know that?
"We were," said Mira. "But our… ultimate weapon seemed enough of a match to take care of our enemies."
"Our weapon?" I asked.
"The Spider Mastermind," Mira said slowly. "I thought it was a damned foolish endeavor. A waste of our resources, even. I thought our base would be overrun and the technology and research stolen by ECUN forces." She paused. "I did not want to take the chance of fighting an enemy that outnumbered us and had the technologies of the Spider Mastermind in their hands."
She did not want to take that chance.
She took her own life.
But she died? How could that be? She's standing right before me.
Oh yes. She must have been resurrected too.
"Do you know what the best thing of life is?" she had yelled at us. Knowing that we would get an answer anyway, none of us had bothered to ask. "It ends." she continued as she had slammed down the gas pedal. The speed at which she had taken off at shot her body back. In a cloud of dust and smoke, her car had smashed through the white wooden fence that had once surrounded the portion of the compound guarded by the cliff. The car had splashed quietly, as did she, nose first into the ocean we worked beside.
"But your body?" I asked? "You were underwater."
"Yours was the one that was incinerated," she said almost in a laugh. "I was long dead, deep underwater. My corpse was far enough away from the island not to be damaged in the least by the nuke that went off on the island."
"What about mine?"
"Cacodemons," Mira answered. "They were able to detect the scattered remnants of your body."
Something didn't make sense. "How could my body survive the blast?"
Mira shrugged. "The walls of this compound must have protected you," she said. "I don't really know. But I do know that the Spider Mastermind protected your corpse from any further damage. Other than biodegrading, of course."
"Wouldn't that happen after a long time?" I asked. General knowledge. More memories were coming back. I used to be a student in a high school before I enlisted. Science was my favorite subject. But I joined the army before I could finish school.
"Of course," she said. "You had very little left after your body was exposed to the elements for over twenty years."
"Twenty years?" I asked in disbelief.
"Death seems like just a moment, doesn't it," said Mira jokingly. "You are lucky, I guess. From things I have heard, others have had glimpses of what took place after the battle of this island. After all of our deaths, I mean. Robert… Scott… but not me, though. I saw nothing."
"My soul?" I asked to myself, not expecting an answer.
"Possibly," Mira answered anyway. "But for your sake, I hope that your soul was not resurrected as well. It would not like it here." She looked back and forth, studying the charred remains of the building and the seemingly permanent red sky. In a calm, casual tone of voice, she said "It is the next best thing to Hell here."
"What?" I asked flatly.
Slowly turning back to me, she said, "Demons and Barons of Hell have this planet under their rule. The humans who have survived the war are slaves to the Barons and their Hell Knights. Imps have taken over the cities and are managing the people. There is at least one Spider Mastermind on every continent now. Even more are in production."
Knowing that the fate of the world was probably in my hands, I had looked at the remote. I had gathered up my remaining courage and prepared to deactivate the Spider Mastermind. I had planned the entire thing in my head. I would have pressed the self-destruct button and jump out of the way. I would have run back into the forest and hoped to live a somewhat normal life as a civilian. The plan had been perfect. The power had literally been in my hands. Of course, I must have forgotten the fact that the Spider Mastermind was a telepath. Before I pushed the self-destruct button in all the way, the Mastermind had grabbed the device out of my hand, snapped it in half vertically, and jabbed the sharper piece into my temple. A split-second later, I had fallen down dead.
"More?" I asked in fear.
"More," she said flatly. She gestured towards the building behind me. "They are made here. Spider Masterminds and… worse. This is how we are repaying our debts."
"What do you mean?"
"What do you mean, 'what do you mean'?" Mira asked. "Don't you remember that we allied with the demons? Under normal circumstances, the WHE should not have prevailed against the ECUN. The United States and a few other American nations against the rest of the world? Even Canada was against us!"
"So we make an alliance with Hell?" I asked bitterly. Somehow I remembered disapproving of our unholy alliance in my… past life as well.
Mira chuckled. There was something odd about her laugh. It seemed inhuman, like she didn't even care about her people anymore. "Probably not the same Hell you're thinking of, but close enough," she said. "We knew that they would ultimately help us. And they did."
This was not the same Mira that I once knew. The original one was my friend… before our respective deaths. This one was… a puppet. And she was being played by something very evil.
More memories began to surface.
A split second after my squad leader attempted to reassure me, a rocket had flown right over our heads and produced a small explosion. We had then started to run. Moyer had started to lead us through the jungle. Xeriex, the Baron of Hell, had been behind us, acting as our guide. His large pink torso and tan goat legs had made him stick out in the open, but we had had to keep him with us. I had started to panic. I knew what we had done was wrong. In the war, we were the bad guys. I could not even remember what we stole, but the ECUN had definitely wanted it back, and they had been gaining on us. They had been by far higher in numbers, numbering in the hundreds, and we only had two humans, one Baron, and three infested humans. We had known that we were going to loose this battle, and so we ran to escape.
We took something. But what did we take?
Peoples' lives.
But the others were the assassins, not me. But who did they kill?
No memories.
"Why were they chasing us onto this island before we died?" I asked.
Mira shrugged. "They wanted retribution," she coolly said. "We killed many of their leaders, and they wanted us dead."
"Their leaders?"
"The entire ruling body of the European Union," she said.
I froze. They were the good-guys, I remembered. "We… killed them?" I stumbled. "All of them?"
She laughed. "You didn't do anything of the sort. You were the accomplice. You guaranteed our safe return. You succeeded, but we were followed. The rest you already know about."
I stumbled backwards in horror. I heard more footsteps to my right. I turned my head and saw two men in dirty rags similar to those on Mira slowly advancing.
Robert Moyer and Scott Ballot.
Apparently the Arch Vile brought the whole gang back together.
This was no good. It would seem as though I was the only person resurrected who still had morals. I braced myself to run, but something felt… different.
I looked down.
I was stark naked.
I guess when Arch Viles resurrect the dead, they can't resurrect clothing as well. That explains the nasty rags on the other three.
Part of me considered concealing myself, either based off of instinct or previous memory. But concealing my nudity was not very high on my priorities at the moment. These guys were in league with Hell, and as soon as they realize that I won't join them, I would be as good as dead.
"You can't run, Paul," came Robert's voice to my side. "Our people are everywhere. Where would you go?"
I quickly looked back and forth between Robert and Mira. Mira lowered her head and glared at me, slowly advancing towards me as well. Now all three of my former comrades were against me.
Holding out her hand, Mira said, "Join us, Paul. Things are different. The ECUN is destroyed. The world is in a whole new peace of its own. And you and I… we can be what we never could have been in our past lives."
Fat chance.
Whatever feelings I may have had for her back in our old high school days were long dead. As dead as our original bodies. And I'll be damned if I'd let myself get seduced by a servant of Hell. But what other options did I have?
Run.
I turned around and ran towards the compound. The other three immediately pursued, but they had more of a difficult time keeping up. I guess it's difficult to run when your body is covered in a tunic of old rags. Never before had I been so glad to be naked outside.
Not even stopping, I barely slowed down to open the front door of the compound. It was a secret, heavily fortified building, so as far as I knew, this was probably the only surface entrance. I opened the door, rushed inside, and slammed it shut behind me. Taking only a second or two to find a lock, I stumbled around the frame of the door. Nothing. Knowing that it would take only a few more seconds for Mira, Robert, and Scott to come rushing in behind me, I continued running.
The insides of the compound were a stark contrast to the outside. The outside walls were made of some sort of gray brick, but the insides were very technologically active. There were computer terminals, stations, and displays all over the walls of the metallic white corridors. Obviously the insides of the compound survived the nuclear attack quite well. That, or it was rebuilt.
Somehow I doubted the second thought. Humans weren't exactly that high in demand. The four of us, however, were resurrected, obviously for a reason. The other three were loyal, despite their suicide in their past lives. And if it wasn't obvious before, I certainly was not. Surely they must have thought I would try to go renegade again. So why did they resurrect me? For what purpose did the demons bring me back to life?
Suddenly, something caught my eye. I had run for several hundred meters or so, and I was somewhere a floor or two below ground level. But lo and behold, there was my first corpse. He (or she?) had been dead for quite some time, probably well over a few decades, but they had armor still attached to their bodies. I ran to investigate. I tapped the back carapace. Felt study enough. I stumbled with the buckles around the torso, trying to get it off. I couldn't get it off the corpse's remains.
Thinking that the body probably wouldn't feel any more pain, I bashed my naked elbow into the skeletal clavicle, breaking the dry, crusty collar bone and the top several ribs. Easily moving the upper arms away from the corpse, I slid the chest piece armor off the body, unfastened it from the nothingness it was now protecting, and then refastened it to myself. The dead body was also wearing some sort of waist and leg armor, so I prepared to relieve the body of those.
But then I heard shouting and fast footsteps.
Robert and Mira.
Thinking that armor alone wouldn't do much good if I got caught, I prepared to run. But then I saw something else.
The corpse had a gun.
"Ralem! Stop!" Robert shouted.
They found me.
I picked up the gun and ran. I was still naked below the chest piece, so I still had that advantage of speed and mobility over them. I didn't want to shoot them though. They were still my friends, if not only in the past life, so they may have had a chance to be redeemed. So I ran deeper and deeper into the lower levels of the compound.
I made my way into a wide room, surrounded by computer terminals on the walls and a curved alcove on the far side of the room. In the middle of the room was a raised platform. On it, a chain gun.
I smiled. I slowly walked up and picked it up, resting the pistol a built-in holster of my armor. I ran back to the door, closed it and ran to a computer terminal. There had to be a way to hide and get some more information about my enemies. So much had changed.
With all enemies potentially dead or neutralized, there was no reason to keep a password lock on files, so I hacked in with no problem. I looked at the manifest of agents from Hell. Demons… Human Infestments… Barons of Hell… Hell Nights… Imps…. I know of those already. I scrolled down further. Further to the bigger and scarier things. Cacodemons… Spider Masterminds… Cyberdemons….
Cyberdemons?
What the hell are those?
I considered looking further into the files, but I heard footsteps outside. The door was closed, and there were many other rooms I could have gone into other than this one, so I had a little extra time to plot a new way out. The WHE was quite adept at making hidden doorways. One of these walls must surely open to an alternate way out.
I found a switch a nearby console. I set down the chain gun on the console and studied the information next to the lever. Not able to make any sense of the gibberish it said, I pulled it, hoped for the best, and heard a compartment open. I quickly checked the first door to make sure that wasn't what was opened. It wasn't. But just as I thought before, one of the walls was fake, and another console was revealed.
I picked up the chain gun and made my way over to the other console. There was no text around it, so there was nothing for me to pretend to read. Since the first lever revealed something to me, chances were good that this one would too. So I pulled it, and just as before, I heard a compartment open.
I turned my head to the source of the sound.
Two Spider Masterminds stood where the latest wall opened.
Shit.
Not even taking any time for that simple thought, I ran. Both Spider Masterminds shot their extremely loud twin chain guns at me as I ran, but they missed. There was nowhere for me to run and no realistic way for me to fight. That left only one option.
Hide.
In no time at all, I jumped and hid in the alcove walkway on the other side of the room. I slowly sidestepped my way into the back corner. Why was I trying to keep quiet? They already know I'm here. But I was safe… enough. The walls protecting me were thick, the space curved, and the entryway far too narrow for a Spider Mastermind to fit. I was completely safe in here.
But then there were footsteps in addition to those God-awful mechanical stomping steps that terrified me so much in my last moments of my last life. These were human footsteps.
I crouched down and peeked out to the sides.
There were Robert and Mira again. Pacing around in their sporty rags, trying to find me. Fortunately, they were unarmed. I, on the other hand, had a single piece of chest armor, a pistol with one clip, and a chain gun loaded with as many bullets as it could hold. Me against the humans, I had the upper hand. But with the Spiders there, I would have been turned into mashed potatoes.
I hit my toe on something. Silently cursing to myself, I looked down to see what was invading my hiding space.
A mini-rocket launcher.
How considerately sloppy of someone.
I picked up the rocket launcher and investigated it. No rockets.
Damn.
So much for that idea.
But then I noticed the platform that once held my chain gun. It was now elevated (possibly done when I pulled the last lever), and beneath it were several rockets.
Well, I guess I had some luck in this situation.
But there was only one problem.
The rockets were… there.
I am… here.
There were two angry humans outside who probably wanted me dead. There were also two fifteen-foot mechanical spiders outside who definitely wanted me dead. The Spider Masterminds knew where I was, but they couldn't get to me. The humans didn't know where I was, but they would have no problem coming in to pull me out of here. A dilemma.
However, chances were strong that the Spider Masterminds were a whole lot more patient that I was. So when I saw a gap in the impatient pacing by the humans and the Spiders, I dropped the weapons and ran out of the alcove. I jumped out of the barrier blocking the entrance of the alcove and dived into the gap beneath the raised platform. Boy, was I glad I had that armor on. Skidding in bare skin would have really hurt.
Outside my new and terribly uncomfortable hiding space, I heard shouting and heavy stomping advancing in the direction of where I entered my space. Now everybody knew where I was. The rocket ammo was in small boxes supported by a leather strap, so I grabbed three of the boxes. I spelunked my way out of the space below the platform on the opposite side as the Spiders and humans. When I was free, I ran back to my first hiding space in the alcove, where my dear, sweet weapons were.
Robert and Mira saw me running, but so did the Spiders. A wave of chain gun shots followed directly behind me, but just as before, never hit. The Spider Masterminds were not the most agile of creatures. Not by human standards, at least.
I hugged the wall as I made my way back to my little space where I kept my weapons. I dropped the rockets next to the rocket launcher and picked up the chain gun. I moved back to another space of the alcove where I had a clear shot of the outside. I aimed the gun out, ready to fire as soon as I had a shot.
One Spider Mastermind appeared. Keeping the muzzle of the gun aimed on the brain part of the creature, I pulled the trigger. Very loudly, I unleashed holy hell on the Spider. Every shot hit him, I think. Unfortunately, the gun did not have very much ammo inside, and I quickly ran out. The Spider, however, was hurt, but nowhere near destroyed. I guess the original Robert was right… one of those guys probably had the power and strength to take on a nation. I sure hope he was exaggerating.
With a great deal of aggravation, I threw the empty chain gun to the ground. What else could I do? Throw it at one of them? I picked up the rocket launcher and inserted one of the ammo boxes filled with the micro-rockets. Just as I did before, I ran to a region of the alcove where I had a line of sight with the outside world.
I couldn't get a clear shot at first, because I saw Mira and Robert running by. I still didn't want to inflict any harm on them, even though they were trying to get me killed. Since they were in the passive voice concerning my death, they were not my targets… only threats. I was about to pull the trigger on one of the Spiders when they were out of my way, but Robert ran in my way again. I scowled and waited. When he left for the briefest of moments, I pulled the trigger again. A rocket whizzed out of the rocket launcher and splashed on the head of one of the Spiders. Direct hit! Those rockets may be small, but they do some nice damage.
Suddenly, I felt some pulling on my arm. Mira found out how I got into my alcove and entered it herself. She pulled on my arm, trying to bring me out of my safe space. I resisted, but she kept pulling, causing the rocket launcher to fall out of my arms. Her reborn body had a bit more strength than mine did.
Acting on pure instinct, I pulled out the pistol from my armor harness. Without any second thought (or first thought, for that matter), I raised the gun to her head and pulled the trigger. In one single shot, a bullet tore through her head, and her lifeless body fell to the ground.
I had no time to think about my actions. She wanted to pull me out to die, and I had to protect myself. It was as simple as that. The door opened again, and I heard rushed footsteps run. I guess Robert was trying to escape. Good riddance. I'll deal with him later if we ever run into each other again.
I tossed the pistol down next to the dead body of Mira and picked up the rocket launcher. Stepping to my sniper spot, I raised the gun, preparing for another wave of rockets to send. Suddenly, a Spider Mastermind sidestepped in my line of sight; only this time he was facing me, ready to attack. He fired all his weapons at me and I dodged out of his line of sight. I turned my head to see his dozens of bullets bouncing off the wall just inches away from my arm.
I waited a few seconds after the firing stopped. I didn't want to jump out immediately after he stopped firing, because that would have been asking for getting a wave of bullets in the face. So when I felt it safe, I peeked out. His back was towards me, about to walk away. I jumped into line and raised my gun to attack. I pulled the trigger…
…and missed.
Fortunately, the rocket hit the second Spider square in the head. He turned to attack me in response, and then unleashed a deadly array of bullets…
…and missed.
But luckily for me, he hit the first Spider Mastermind. The first didn't seem to appreciate being hit by his companion very much. The first one turned to the second one and fired some bullets back at him. Before long, the two Spider Masterminds started fighting each other. It was a shame that with their brains as big as they were, they were still too stupid to understand the concept of friendly fire. But considering how much time they were taking shooting each other, I'm glad they were using up each others' ammo instead of mine. I don't think I would have had enough ammo to take them both on by this point.
Safe in my hiding space, I heard a loud explosion and saw red light reflecting into my alcove. One of them exploded.
One of them was dead.
This left the other one severely wounded.
I jumped back to my firing position, raised the gun, and saw the bleeding surviving Spider Mastermind come into view, bringing along its big ugly head and freaky mechanical legs that made that horrendous stomping sound. He barely had a second to register the fact that I saw him before I pulled the trigger and kept squeezing.
The rockets just kept pouring out. Three… four… five… six… seven… I was just letting this guy have it.
Finally, with a blood curdling roar, the second Spider Mastermind fell to its knees with a large explosion. I winced as the bright light from the explosion almost blinded me. I paused for a moment, enjoying the silence and catching my breath.
I looked around.
To my left was a dead Mira Spade. Before me were two flaming husks of beings that were once Spider Masterminds.
And I survived.
I didn't make it against the one in my past life, but I took on and survived two in this one.
I kneeled down to pick up the pistol that was beside Mira's corpse. I slowly walked out of the alcove, inspecting what was left of the room. Returning for the two boxes of rockets, I gathered all of my supplies. I still had nothing on but my armor, but I was accompanied by my trusty pistol and micro-rocket launcher with plenty of extra bullets.
Slowly walking around the perimeter of the room, I studied the information on the consoles. I still needed a way out, but I was sure as hell not going to let something like that happen again. Unfortunately, there were no other levers for me to open.
That doesn't mean there isn't another hidden doorway, came that mysterious voice again.
I put the pistol back into the holster and started walking around the room, dragging my free hand along the walls, pressing inwards slightly. About the opposite side of the room as where I first entered, my hand fell inwards, seemingly straight through the wall.
A hologram.
I smiled. I didn't know the WHE had mastered holographic barriers. But this may have been a new addition. This may be my way out of here.
I raised my rocket launcher and stepped through. I wanted to be ready this time should I run into any more potential bad guys. I don't wan to run unto any more evil humans. No more Barons of Hell. No more Spider Masterminds. And God willing, none of those Cyberdemons.
I continued to walk further and further down the dark corridor. A light was visible from one end of a hallway. I advanced towards the source and peered down the hallway.
Outside.
This must have led to a walkway by the cliff next to compound. It must have been protected by a hologram, so I was safe inside here… for now. I finally made it to the insides of the doorway and looked outside.
There before me was the wide Atlantic Ocean. Just at my feet was a two-yard-wide walkway that exited the corridor and turned immediately to the left, turning into a dirty, rocky road.
I took another moment to ponder my situation. Mostly naked, armed with a hand gun and an overly-powerful rocket launcher. I was alone on an island surrounded by agents of Hell who all wanted me dead. All humans on earth had been killed or enslaved by the very same demons that were after my skin.
And there was a Cyberdemon somewhere in the vicinity.
The odds not necessarily in my favor.
I took in a deep breath, raised my rocket launcher, and prepared to step outside.
This was going to be fun.