Rae shouldered his rifle, looked around and made his way towards the front.
"What the hell is going on, Marine?" He hissed.
"Sir, Harij was standing just next to me. I turned away, looked back and he was gone." The man replied. Before Rae could reply, there was a loud scream. It was distorted, like someone was screaming with something jammed in their throat. Then it changed, to more of a howling, of a wounded animal. Everyone looked around, dropping what they were carrying and looked around.
There was a slight breeze, not enough to remove the mist, but enough to move the trees and the shrubs all around. There was movement everywhere, all the marines moving around, trying to see something to shoot at. Suddenly, there was a loud howling, coming from just a few meters away. A giant black form slowly appeared. All the men turned and ran away from it, a couple turning and firing at the new figure. Rae fired a few shots, and after seeing it jerk around, ad not fall down, he also turned and ran.
The men ran blindly in the mist, the howling filling their ears, the mist blinding their path, and the breeze rustling their flesh. Up ahead, another black thing roamed forward, but it was different, this one was more square, the shape of an inanimate object. As they ran closer, the object sharpened into focus, leaving behind the entrance to a large cave. The men continued to run forward, but Jack slowed down, noticing just how sharp it really was.
The edges weren't curved, like generic formation, but more artificial, like something had built it. The Marines, who were just soldiers, paid to go into war, shoot their guns and most likely die, took no notice of the metallic walls around them, or the mist which was also inside the cave, obscuring anything more than ten meters ahead.
Jack, who was paid to notice things out of the ordinary, almost slowed to a walk, looking at the walls. Rae, who had noticed he was missing, looked back.
"Hurry up, you soppy muppet!" He yelled. Jack, brought back to reality, looked back, and saw shadows moving closer. Screams seemed to fill the air. Different from the other howling. It sounded like it was coming from Covenant troops. Grunts were squealing their little lungs out, and the Elites were all roaring, as if they were trying to scare down an opponent.
The sound of plasma weapons whining rose in the distance, and slowly but surely, the black figures moved away, towards the sound of combat. Jack continued to run after the men, the light almost gone after entering the cave. The marines had stopped, and were looking around, the ones with rifles activating their flashlights
"Hey, Sarge. Where are we?" One of them asked.
"Kowalski, if we ever find out what we're even on…" Rae looked up, and then around, as if he was searching for something specific, his voice straining as he looked around.
"…I'll make sure you're the first one to be told." A few of the Marines laughed, the rest still a bit shaky from the encounter with the things outside, and the disappearance of a soldier. Kowalski continued to also look around, occasionally looking back the way they had entered.
"Sir, I think we should move forward." He suggested. Rae looked around.
"I think you're right." He instantly replied, hearing a howl from outside the cave. The man began to move forward, and as they did, the cave seemed to become a lot smaller and narrower. After a while, it was nothing but a single file corridor. Jack was near the end, Rae at the front, and an Irish Marine at the back.
"So, what are you here for?" The Marine asked.
"What?" Jack responded.
"What were you doing in our escape pod? I thought you guys had your own ones." He asked. Jack chuckled.
"I was rerouted from the others by an explosion, and I continued to run. It was the first lifeboat I saw, so I got in and strapped up." He explained. The two talked about themselves, their experiences on and before the Pillar Of Autumn. The two end up on agreeing to watch each others back, as Adam O'Malley gives Jack his pistol clips, saying he lost his pistol on the ship. After fifteen minutes of walking in cramp conditions, they finally exited into a large room.
Not like the huge entrance to the cave, but nig enough to raise an eyebrow at. They were on what looked like a platform, which branched off to two sides, a large gap between them and a hazy light at the end of the room. It was approximately fifty to sixty meters long, and fifteen meters wide. But what made the Marines all stop was the fact that the room was covered in a dark brown haze. And what really got to them was the stench of decay.
It was as if this place had been the subject to body detail for the past few days.
"God dammit." Kowalski cursed.
"Watch it…" Rae growled, swinging his rifle around.
"Don't blaspheme around me, son." The men slowly moved forward into the room, their weapons flying around, the lights barely touching the walls through the thick, disgusting mist. Jack looked up, not able to see the roof.
"Adam, shine your light up there." He said quietly. Adam aimed his rifle up, and revealed a blurry roof. There was something on the ceiling, and it was moving, very slowly.
"What the hell is that?" Adam whispered. Jack looked at it, the object staying where it is, but quivering. It suddenly shook in the middle, sending a ripple effect through the rest of the thing. Without warning, something wet fell on Jack's face. He dropped his pistol and cried out in alarm, reaching for his face. His hands came away with a sticky, green substance on it.
"What the hell's that?" Adam demanded, his rifle aimed at Jack, merely for the light.
"It's some kind of…green…goo." He replied, staring at the stuff, rubbing it between two fingers. He wiped the rest of the stuff off, and then picked up his pistol. Another drop of the stuff fell to the ground, a splattering sound filling the room. The Marines slowly made their way across the room, darting around at every sound. All of a sudden, for no reason at all, Jack had a sudden burst of courage, getting tired of the slow moving. He moved quickly to the front, and up next to Sergeant Rae.
"Sergeant, we need to move faster. I've got a feeling that we're being followed." Jack whispered. Rae nodded.
"I've noticed. Look behind you…slowly." Jack turned his head half ay, his left eye looking towards the entrance of the room. Three black figures were slowly following them.
"Elites?" Jack asked.
"No, something else. Possibly another race of Covenant we haven't seen before." Was the answer. Adam moved up with the other two.
"Sir, we're being followed. Do you want me to toss a grenade?" He asked.
"No, don't let them know we've seen them. And don't tell the other men who haven't noticed." Rae explained. Adam looked back. There were only five men left, including Kowalski. Two of the men were looking back every now and then. They finally made it to the end of the room. Rae looked around the corner and suddenly moved back.
"There's a boy lying in the middle of the next corridor." He whispered. Kowalski moved up,
"Would you like me to check it out, sir?" He asked.
"If you really want to." Rae muttered, nodding his head. Kowalski moved around the corner his light on and rifle raised. Everyone else was around the corner, barely breathing, trying to listen. There was a quiet rustling, a muffled curse, a ringing clatter and then nothing. Silence.
"Kowalski?" Rae called out quietly, barely above a whisper. There was no reply. Rae shrugged, and keyed his COM unit.
"Kowalski?" He asked. There was no response, just static. Their initial COM equipment was destroyed in the crash of the lifeboat, they only had fifty meter ranged boxes. Rae slowly moved around the corner, his light raised. Jack followed, just poking his head around.
"Son of a bitch…" He cursed.