Ch. 22: Backs to the wall

A.N.:

Good morning everyone!

Like I said in chapter 2 of my new side story, I usually go through and correct the major errors that I missed when I checked before I posted the chapter. It usually takes me a day or two depending upon my college work level.

Update: I think I got them all. I will keep looking through it though. To my early readers, my bad. Seriously, I apologize for dropping the ball so epically.

I hope my fellow Southern readers were fortunate during the winter storm.

A lemon is coming. I have it already planned out. It may involve Stokes :P

Anyway,

I hope it was worth the wait.

Read and review if you want. I will try to answer any questions as best I can.

My first burst of five rounds shredded the first creature's skull. As one lunged at me from my right, I swiveled and sent a burst into the creature. Dead, it fell face first at my feet. As I swiveled back to my left, a ball-peen hammer stuck the side of my face hard enough to shatter the left lens on my gas mask. My head jerked to the right from the force of the impact. Recovering, I gave off a demonic growl as my body became enveloped with a red aura.

I struck the hammer wielding assailant across the side of his face with the butt of my rifle's stock. While he was disorientated, I reached out with my left hand and snatched the hammer from his grasp. With my pain and psychic abilities boosting the strength of the blows, I bashed open the man's skull with his own hammer. As he fell to the floor, another man, this one dressed in a bloodstained white lab coat, charged at me from the right. With the hammer and my left arm covered with skull and brain fragments, I threw the hammer at the creature.

The hammer caught the humanoid just under his right eye. The blow caused some of the red liquid to spray from the site of the impact. He staggered back a step but recovered quicker than I had anticipated. Brandishing a large needle, he lunged at me. I raised my left hand and blasted him with a psychic blast. The blast knocked the man backwards and he fell back first against the wall. I fired a burst of five rounds into his head. His skull burst open and he slumped to the root-covered floor.

I had run out of slow-mo meter so my reflexes returned to normal while my body recharged. The timing could not have been worse. Two men dressed in ATC Security Guard uniforms attacked me from the left. The first one aimed an AT-14 pistol at my head but I batted it to the side just in time before he fired it. The round killed his wingman who had been about to strike me with a nightstick.

I kicked the remaining man in his unarmored genitals with my right fiberglass shanked combat boot. While my blow staggered him, I reached forward with my left hand and grasped the frag grenade strapped to his vest. Using my years of experience, I was able to remove the pin one handed and cocked the grenade. I forced the explosive devise into the man's mouth and then high-kicked the man away.

The man flew backwards and onto the floor. Before the parasite possessing his body could search the man's mind to realize that the metal object inside his mouth was a high explosive fragmentation device, the grenade detonated. My ears rang painfully as the grenade detonated and turned the man into a huge pile of pulp and body parts.

Having seen the event, Alpha 1 called out, "Not bad sir."

Before I could reply, I heard movement to my right. Before I could react in time, a man dressed in ATC Security Guard attire stabbed my right hand with a leather handled KA-BAR Fighting Knife. The razor sharp seven-inch carbon steel blade easily penetrated my Kevlar glove and I involuntarily grunted in pain as I dropped my assault rifle. My rifle fell to the floor as I swiveled to face my attacker.

I balled my left hand into a fist and punched the man in his face. My blow was strong enough to knock the cap off the man's head and sent him backwards. Unfortunately, his grip on his knife remained like a vice and as he fell backward, he ripped the blade out of my right hand. I grunted in pain briefly before I snarled threateningly like an enraged wolf with my demonic voice.

He recovered and stood back to face me with the fighting knife held in his right hand with his arm bent. I mocked him by raising my bleeding right hand up and then motioning for him to come at me. The man made another swing at me. However, this time, I raised my left hand up and instead of stabbing me in the face, the blade penetrated my hand through my palm. All seven inches of the carbon steel blade penetrated my hand before the knife's hilt collided with the surface of my gloved palm.

With the knife's razor sharp tip only inches away from the surface of my unprotected left eye, I grasped the knife's hilt with my gloved left hand's still perfectly usable fingers. While I held the hilt with a vise like grip, I balled my right hand into a fist and punched the man in his left eye. His grip slackened slightly but remained too strong for me to disarm him. I grasped the back of his head and forced it down as I sent my right knee up to meet it.

The blow broke his nose and when he raised his head up, I sent another right punch into his left eye. Finally, my strikes had eaten away enough to cause his discipline to slip. His grip on the knife weakened enough to allow me to snatch it away from him. I then bicycle kicked him in his chest. The kick sent him falling backwards onto the root-covered floor. Before he could recover, I used my right hand to pull the blade out of my left hand.

It was extremely painful and blood started squirting from the wound, but I finally managed to remove the blade completely. By then, he had recovered and located the large needle that the humanoid dressed in the lab coat had been wielding. He grabbed it and turned as he stood to face me. He rushed at me with the needle held high above his right shoulder.

Holding the knife's leather grip firmly with my right hand so that the blade's tip was pointed at the man and with my right arm bent at the elbow, I deflected the man's strike my left hand. I then sent a roundhouse kick with my right leg. My boot caught him in his ribcage and I heard the distinct sound of ribs cracking. Involuntarily shuttering from the sound, I reached out and grabbed the disoriented and beaten man around his throat with my left hand.

While I held him, I reached up with my right hand and slit his throat with the razor sharp edge of the KA-BAR. Enraged by the pain from my throbbing hands, I was unable to contain the primal side of my psyche. I forced the dying man to look into my glowing eyes as his light of life drained from his eyes. While the man's life faded from his eyes, I mocked him by laughing with my demonic voice.

When the light finally faded from his eyes, I threw him to the ground. I heard Alpha 1 struggling beside me. Turning, I saw five dead bodies at his feet that had been ripped apart by his shotgun. A steak knife was embedded in his right shoulder but he seemed oblivious to it as he was fighting off five men at once with his bare hands. I located his still smoking shotgun a few feet off to his left. It was then that I noticed the scalpel sticking through his right hand.

As I watched, he grasped the scalpel with his left hand before ripped the offending metal object out of his hand as one of them charged at him. Clutching the razor sharp surgical knife in his left hand, the armored soldier grabbed the man by his throat with his bleeding gloved right hand. As he held the thrashing man with his immense strength, he stabbed the man dressed in maintenance attire in his right eye.

He buried the knife until he had sent the majority of the length of the knife into the man's skull cavity. A small bit of the stainless steel tool was still visible on the outside of the remains of the eye. Ignoring the man's wails of agony, Alpha 1 balled his left hand into a fist. He punched the man in his right eye hard enough to cause the sound of cracking bone to fill the air.

The man's cries ceased as the knife blade's tip exited out through the back of the man's skull. Alpha 1 then picked the man up with both hands and threw the corpse at the remaining four men. His attack succeeded in knocking them onto the floor like bowling pins. However, before he could reach for The Hammer in its holster on his right leg, the men regrouped and began to circle him with various scavenged melee weapons held menacingly in their grasp.

Like a pack of hyena trying to take down an elephant, the men began making false lunges and charges to try to get the heavily armored soldier away from Foxtrot 813 and myself. However, the veteran soldier was too experienced and disciplined to fall for their tricks. Instead, he actually began to taunt them in return to try to get them to attack him one-on-one. He motioned with both hands for them to attack him as he taunted with his deep voice, "Four against one? That hardly seems fair. You are going to need a lot more people."

His taunt caused me to laugh sadistically before I called out, "Alpha 1, knife!"

He glanced at me and I tossed him the KA-BAR. Catching the fighting knife by its leather grip with his right hand, he remarked, "Appreciate it, sir." I knew that he would be able to wield the legendary United States Marine Corps knife better than I could. In the hands of someone like him, at close range, that knife was as lethal, if not more, as any firearm.

Beside me, I heard Foxtrot 813 call out, "Reloading. Cover me." Retrieving my stainless steel Super Red Hawk .44 Magnum from its holster on my right leg, I turned to provide covering fire for the reloading Replica. I saw six bodies at his feet. While he reloaded his assault rifle, two men dressed in blood and oil stained maintenance uniforms tried to attack him with forty eight inch blood crusted red pipe wrenches.

Activating my reflexes, I held the hand cannon with both hands as I took aim. My first shot obliterated the first man's skull. Thanks to the double action of the stainless steel powerhouse, the cylinder had revolved and the hammer had cocked back just as I had shifted my aim to the second man. Oblivious to the horrific demise of his comrade, the man started to swing his wrench at Foxtrot 813's head. Being mindful that Foxtrot 813 was fractions of an inch next to my target, I fired the second round.

The hollow point .44 magnum round struck its mark and liquefied the man's skull. Having reloaded his assault rifle, Foxtrot 813 aimed his rifle at me and fired a burst. The rounds whizzed past my head and I heard the sound of a body behind me slumping to the ground. Glancing back, I saw that a man wielding a red fiberglass handled fire axe had snuck up behind me while I was concentrating on covering Foxtrot 813. If he had not killed him, the man would have likely decapitated me with the axe.

Deactivating my reflexes, I nodded at the Replica Trooper, who returned it before we turned away from each other. My ears rang painfully once more as I heard the unmistakable sound of The Hammer firing. I looked back to see that Alpha 1 had just finished killing the four men. In his left hand, he held the parasitic red liquid covered KA-BAR and in his right hand, he held the smoking .50 caliber red colored revolver nicknamed The Hammer.

We tightened the spacing between us as another wave, this one almost double the size as the last one, encircled us. Still petting the tentacle in her hand, Stokes said, "You can't win Becket. There are hundreds of us and only three of you. You are running out of oxygen. Stop fighting us Becket, we do not wish to harm you or your two friends. You and I both know that you don't have it in you to harm this Keira. I have her memories…you two are close…yes? The feelings that she has for you…she wishes to mate with you. She has an excellent body for your species and you are an alpha male pumped up on testosterone, how can you deny her advances? Come…we both want you."

Beside me, Alpha 1 laughed with repeated grunts before he remarked, "She must be high on something, sir." Before I could reply, a sharp pain erupted inside my head briefly. I felt Alma's rage boiling over. She was going to unleash her fury on them.

I replied sarcastically, "Wow…subtle." Then, with a serious voice, I warned the Queen, "Careful, you are making her angry. I don't think that she appreciates you hurting us or flirting with me."

The Queen asked, "Who?" The room darkened as the lights flickered. Loose papers and other various objects began to fly towards a growing black portal in front of me.

Alarmed, the creatures backed off but remained in a circle around us. Meanwhile, the edges of the portal became fiery. From my vantage point, the fiery portal looked very similar to my goddess's eyes. Without making any noise, Alma emerged from the portal in her child form. Her child form was very different from the clean, almost normal appearance that she had taken lately. Instead, it was her older original child form with the bloodied feet, red dress that was peppered with blood, disheveled raven hair, and dark presence surrounding her. The sweet smell in the air became replaced by the disturbing smell of blood iron. The portal closed behind her and the deceptively calming melody of her music box began to play on the facility's intercom system.

Her usual playful demeanor that we had all grown accustomed to was gone. In its place, the cold brutality that I had learned to fear in Fairport was back. Still not making a sound and holding her head down so that her hair covered most of her face, Alma slowly raised her right hand up to point at the Queen.

The possessed Stokes's eyes briefly changed to a pinkish color before returning to their normal blue color. The root-like structures beneath Alma's feet began to try to wrap around her pale legs. However, they had no sooner touched her frost grey skin before they recoiled back as if in pain. They began to smolder as if they were in the presence of fire. I smirked as I saw the look of fear enter the Queen's expression.

As the roots beneath her feet caught fire, Alma addressed the Queen with a disturbingly calm voice that had a superior air to it that seemed alien to her childish voice, "You disgust me. You claim to know paradise yet all you are is a parasite that has to live inside the body of another in order to have any real power. You hurt my Michael and children…that I will not allow to continue. Time to learn your place bitch."

Alma's raven hair flowed around her pale form as if it were in a breeze as the air around her began to shimmer with the same miasma that I had witnessed inside the amplifier at Still Island. The burning tentacle matter rose up into the air around my goddess and began to form into the feral Scavengers. The howling beasts snarled and bared their fangs at the creatures like the Hell spawned dogs that they appeared to be.

As I watched, Spectres also began to form out of Alma-spawned clouds of ash. I shivered at the sight of the cloak covered mutilated bodies of the Spectres. Personally, I hated the Spectres and Scavengers but Alma thought of them as her pets. Alma pointed at the creatures surrounding us and, roaring loud enough to shake the entire facility, her beasts charged after them, burning the tentacle covered floor as they did so. Meanwhile, the Spectres began possessing various bodies of the creatures and began attacking the other humanoids.

The creatures retreated into the vents with the Scavengers and Spectres in pursuit. Alma focused her attention back on the possessed nude Stokes. The Queen's expression of fear was replaced by the same bizarre smile as she said, "So full of anger. Youngster, why do you not want happiness? We can make the world a better place. Why do you not want to help us do that?"

Alma replied, "I have had enough experience with groups of people claiming to be making the world a better place to know that it is all a bunch of lies. Bitch, you hurt my children! You will die!"

Stokes said, "Even you will eventually see that all we offer is peace and love." Before we could stop her, she casually walked back through the doorway and turned to walk down a side hallway. We heard the sound of her entering a vent and realized that she had likely left the deck.

With our feet freed from the roots, I informed the men, "Let's get to the security center." They nodded. I holstered my revolver before I retrieved my assault rifle. Alpha 1 holstered The Hammer and sheathed the KA-BAR in a spare slot before he retrieved his automatic shotgun.

Knowing that it was useless now that it was compromised, I shouldered my assault rifle and removed the black combat helmet from my head. After tossing it to the floor, I reached up and removed the gas mask. After tossing it aside as well, I retrieved the skull ski mask from one of my vest's pouches and lowered it down over my head. After that, I placed my HUD glasses back into place.

As the cracked screen calibrated itself, Alma teleported to stand before me. She asked with a playful tone, "I can't let you out of my sight can I?"

I replied, "But they started it."

She smiled slightly but then saw the blood trickling out of the wounds on my left hand and right hand before it fell in the form of drops onto the floor. Her expression turned to one of worry as she remarked inside my mind, "Your hands…"

I smiled bravely as I used one of my medkits to repair the damage. The lifesaving red boxes may have been able to repair any physical damage even if the individual was seconds away from death but it was not able to prevent scars. Through the knife blade sized cuts in my gloves, I saw the ugly looking scars that now adorned the length of my hands.

I assured her, "It takes more than that to kill me." By that time, my HUD had finished calibrating and I saw that my armor bar was at half strength but I figured that I would be able to find a replenish kit inside the security center. I looked over at Alpha 1 and saw that the steak knife was still sticking out of his right shoulder. I informed him, "Alpha 1, you have a knife in your shoulder."

He replied, "Really?" He looked at it before he replied, "Huh, that's weird. Kind of tickles." He reached up with his left hand and grasped the knife's handle. With a smooth motion, he removed the bloodied blade from his shoulder and tossed it onto the floor. After using a medkit, he looked back at me and gave a thumbs up with his left hand.

The intercom activated and the melody of Alma's music box was briefly interrupted as the female voice informed us, "Warning, carbon monoxide levels rising. Oxygen level has fallen to forty percent." Retrieving my rifle from my back, I motioned for us to continue and we left the room. We entered a hallway that continued to our left and to our right. I recalled the floor plan and went to the left. Leading the way, I proceeded down the hallway with my rifle raised and at the ready. Not leaving anything to chance, Alma kept pace beside me.

It occurred to me that I was facing the real possibility of having to kill my friends in order to gain access to the information stored on the facility's servers. It made it easier knowing that their minds were not their own much like how Keegan's mind had not been his own until the last few seconds when I held the pistol against the side of his head.

The difference here was that, unlike Keegan, I had known these people for about a year now. Keegan, I had only known for two weeks and while we were friends in the professional sense, we were not personally close. Could I really do it? Could I really kill my friends? Sensing my distress, Alma spoke into my mind, "Michael, this is not your fault. There is no possible way that you could have known that something like this was going to happen."

She was right. I steeled my resolve as I replied, "The mission is all that matters. My personal feelings are not part of that mission." Her eyes saddened slightly in response because she knew the origins of those statements: my mentor: the apprentice of the original Mr. Death. She started to say something but then stopped when Morales and Holiday exited a pair of vents at the end of the hallway. I raised my rifle as they stood.

Morales said, "Stand down Becket. You know that we don't want to hurt you."

I sighed before I replied, "You know I can't do that Manny. I'm sorry man, but you are in my way."

Alma glanced between the two possessed men and me. Her eyes burned with sorrow as she felt the hurt inside of me. Before we could fight, she suddenly screamed, "No!" Startled, I briefly lowered my weapon as I saw her levitate the men into the air before slamming them hard against the riveted steel wall.

Morales and Holiday groaned as they collapsed onto the floor. I ran up to them and checked their pulse. I felt a slow, steady pulse. Relieved, I smiled as I stood and turned to look at Alma. She smiled back briefly before she said, "Let's hurry before the deck runs out of oxygen." I nodded as I noted that it was getting harder to breathe and worst of all, the carbon monoxide was beginning to make me feel light headed and lethargic.

I pointed towards a side room. As we entered, I located the vent that I remembered from the floor plans. I fired a burst from my assault rifle into the vent cover. I then bent down and entered the vent. Crouched, I made my way through the maze of winding ventilation shafts. The sounds of the fighting between Alma's apparitions and the Queen's soldiers could be heard in the distance.

Eventually, I found the exit that I was looking for. I fired my assault rifle into the vent cover and exited the ventilation shaft. When I looked around, I discovered that I was inside the security center. I had not planned on coming out inside the security room but I guess dumb luck was on my side. The small room was similar to the ones in every other Armacham facility with the reinforced windows made from durable ballistic plastic, the rack of weapons against the wall, and the console with a large wall mounted monitor above it.

Judging by the fact that the roots had completely covered the windows, I guessed that this room was the only one on this hallway had not been overgrown by the tentacles. I walked over to the console and tried to gain access to the security systems. However, it rejected my access codes. I groaned before I commented, "Damn it Jin. Think you can lock me out do you? Try this on for size Miss Kwon."

Using the military grade hacking program in my HUD glasses, I brute forced my way through the ATC Firewall and caused an override of Jin's lockout. I smirked as I accessed the security systems. I deactivated the hermetic seal of the Medical Deck. The intercom reported, "The hermetic seal of the Medical Deck has been lifted. Thank you. Have a great day." Seconds later, fresh air piped through the deck. After locating an armor replenish kit, I commented, "Well, that is one problem solved. Now, we have to locate Stokes and get her to follow us to the Hydroponics Deck."

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