Ch. 55: Command Bunker

A.N.:

Everyone I am so sorry.

I have not been feeling well for the past month. One of my friends came home from a trip overseas and he brought something with him. I thought it was just the flu but then my fever spiked so high that I ended up in the hospital.

I was delirious for a few days but they let me have my laptop there in the hospital room so I had typed up the new chapters for my stories. However, when my fever finally went down and I was not having constant fever dreams, I found that all the work had been a waste of time because it was gibberish. Thousands of words worth of nothing but gibberish -_-

So, I have been trying to get the chapters typed back up for the past few weeks. I just felt so weak and I got exhausted so quickly that I couldn't get very much done. I am over it now I think though so that should be the end of that.

Please understand that I have been doing my best and that I would never do something like this unless I was so sick. I managed to get my BioShock story updated last week and I have just now finished the new chapter for this story.

Oh, someone asked me if I am continuing Broken Goddess and Inferior Soldier. I meant to answer you but got sidetracked by being in the hospital. The answer is yes and I would have updated them weeks ago but, again, I was too sick to get much done. I will update them as soon as I can.

Things should be normal for now on. Fingers crossed.

Read and review if you want.

With Point Man and Alpha 1 on either side of me, we moved in a synchronized manner with our weapons at the ready. We ascended the glossy granite grey stairs at a steady but cautious pace. Akira's soldiers may have been wiped out but there was still the very real threat of stragglers that were now lying in wait to ambush us. Moreover, I had the instinctive feeling that the nightmares of the tunnel were not done with us yet. Our ghostly companions moved with us but I feared for their safety. Unlike Alma, they did not have the strength to defend themselves.

As we moved, I instructed the ghost soldier, "Ano, take her and go to the bridge of the large battleship named Athena. You will be safe there and Athena does not mind having ghosts on board."

I felt him nod due to my psionic-enhanced senses before the two vanished into thin air. By then, we had reached the first landing to find that it continued to the right. Before us, against the white square tiled wall, was the bloodied remains of a man judging by the size of the shoulder blades and pelvis. The bloody skeleton had a pile of organs and flesh beneath it much like the ones that I had encountered in Fairport. I did not see a clue or hint as to who or what had killed the man so I looked away.

Turning to the right, I began to ascend the next flight of stairs. At the top of the relatively short flight of stairs, I saw what appeared to be the landing of the top floor of the subway. Ordinarily, subway stations simply emptied out to the surface streets but that did not appear to be the case here. As I neared the top, my HUD glasses inexplicably reactivated. The screen was filled with static for a moment but then it cleared up. By that time, we had reached the top.

We found that we had come to what looked like the central commercial hub of the underground metro. It was an enormous space the size of two football fields. To the left and right, there were small kiosks that sold tourist trinkets, subway information stations, newspaper and magazine vendors, and fast food restaurants. The stairs were in the center of the large space. While not particularly decorated or fancy, the shopping center no doubt once had a unique charm. However, the once blissful commercial center was now stained by the hell that had descended upon the world.

Looking around the large space, I saw too many sets of human remains in various locations to accurately count. The heavy stench of death and rot filled the air. I was thankful that I had chosen to forgo a large breakfast because it was far easier to keep myself from vomiting than otherwise would have been the case. There was a pile of nearly fifty rotten skeletons against a bullet riddled information station sixty yards to my left. Other bodies were individual and appeared to have been civilians that had tried to flee the mass executions only to be cut down.

The main lights were not functioning but the numerous emergency clam shell-shaped lights were still functioning. The bright eerie pale yellow light that they gave off from where they were mounted along the walls near the floor gave the space about as much appeal as a graveyard. The foul air was unnaturally cold and faint whispers could be heard that sounded like jumbled conversations. I could hear footsteps along the glossy tiled floor but failed to detect any intelligent beings other than my companions. However, the uneasy feeling of being watched was still present inside my mind.

At the far end to my left, I saw a cargo elevator that looked as though someone had taken a reality and then haphazardly altered it to include a cargo elevator where the staircase to the surface streets had once existed. The edges of the wall around the rusted metal elevator and the peeling green paint metal frame were broken and jagged from the uncaring nature of the elevator's installation. However, to me, the elevator was more beautiful than the most awe-inspiring architectural wonder of the world because it was the only way out of the tunnels.

With my rifle at the ready, I made my way towards the elevator. The frigid air had cooled the foregrip of my weapon to the point that I could feel it through my combat glove. The sensation reminded me of the long, bitter cold nights that I spent in the middle of dense snow-covered forests of Alaska during my special operations survival training. It was part of my training to make me adaptable to any situation by being independent and self-reliant in otherwise overwhelming circumstances. A Special Forces soldier either quickly learned how to survive or faced certain death.

I had only advanced approximately forty yards before I heard a strange sound that vaguely reminded me of a human being's croaking death rattle. I halted and began to scan my surroundings with my assault rifle at the ready. Meanwhile, Point Man and Alpha 1 did the same. The noise continued but it seemed to be coming from all directions and thus I could not isolate its source. Seconds ticked by and the air grew colder and colder until it reached the point that it was physically painful. Meanwhile, my HUD flashed and became distorted as the unknown entity's presence affected it. Alma manifested before me about an arm's length away in her child form. Her face was shrouded by her shinny raven hair but her body language was one of tense alertness as she slowly scanned the room as well.

It felt like an eternity but, in reality, it was only about a minute later when Akira suddenly appeared in the elevator. She flashed us a creepy, innocent smile and the elevator began to ascend. Instinctive alarm bells went off inside my mind as a presence behind us drew my attention. I swiveled around to find a very confusing sight. Calmly standing less than ten yards away was a seemingly ordinary yet strangely attractive-looking young Asian woman that was barely older than a teenager.

Looking as though she had come straight off the pages of a Manga, the young woman was dressed in a sailor fuku or seifuku, as they were called in Japan, which consisted of a short-sleeve blouse attached with a sailor-style collar and pleated skirt. She had a white waist length neckerchief tied in the front and attached to her collar at her neck to offset the dark navy blue of her blouse. She was wearing black penny loafers with white knee-high socks.

The mysterious young woman had black hair that reached the middle of her lower back. Though her hair was not otherwise cut or modified, the bangs above her face had been cut flat against the top of her forehead. Most of her hair went behind her but a good amount also was down over her shoulders and stopped just below her chest. Though her hair was healthy, a few specks of lighter black could be seen at random locations on various strands of her otherwise dark black hair but only if someone looked closely enough to notice. Of course, that could have been merely caused by the light being emitted by the emergency lights.

Her face was pale but admittedly beautiful with traditional Japanese structure. Her enchanting dark brown or black eyes held a sense of gentle, serene peace. Her eyelashes were full and dark, which further enhanced the siren-like nature of her eyes. The young woman's smooth dark red lips formed a small gentle smile as if she was trying to tell us to not be afraid of her. The smooth skin was devoid of any blemishes except for a small freckle the size of the tip of a fine ballpoint pen that was slightly above the side her left eyebrow that was closest to her perfect nose.

Her equally pale arms and legs were very feminine and devoid of any defects or birthmarks. The delicate hands and feet were smaller than Alma's when she was in her healthy adult form and her fingers and toenails were neatly groomed. Indeed, it seemed unfathomable that such a charming young beauty could be capable of harming anyone. Her delicate humble beauty and gentle caring eyes gave her the air of a creature of warmth and love rather than malicious intent and death.

However, I was not a fool. To keep whatever this being was from harming or delaying us, I raised my Patten Assault Rifle and fired a single round into the center of her forehead. The round penetrated her skull and she crumpled to the ground almost immediately. As I watched, the body dissolved into a bloody puddle that was the size of a small pool that a child might be made to swim in by his or her parents rather than the full-sized pool.

We glanced at each other in mutual bewilderment for a moment. Then, I motioned with my head towards the elevator and we moved towards it. We had only taken a few steps before I heard the eerie death rattle once again. This time, as I looked around, I saw the origin of the noise. The skeletal corpse of a woman was convulsing on the ground near the American McKing Burger fast food restaurant directly to my left.

To my horror, seconds later, a pale delicate feminine hand with groomed fingernails emerged out of the rotten chest cavity as if through a portal. The hand was soon followed by an equally pale feminine arm. Then, the arm was followed by another arm. The head of a dark-haired woman emerged out of the chest. The humbly beautiful young Japanese woman that was barely older than a teenager pulled herself out of the body and then stood before once again with the same gentle smile and caring eyes. Though it should have been impossible due to the way she reanimated herself, the strange young woman's attire and body remained as pristine and innocent as it had been moments prior.

Stunned, I hesitated as I tried to decide how to deal with her. The room was filled with corpses, thus making the option of killing her a seemingly losing prospect. Her body itself was mortal but she apparently was not. How do you kill something that cannot die? As if she was grateful for my indecision, the woman's soft red lips formed an appreciative smile as her gentle eyes seemed to penetrate deep inside me.

Moments later, the mysterious woman addressed me with a beautiful, soft tone as she continued to look at me, "Such a tortured soul. I've never encountered a soul as broken as yours before. I must have it." To my horror, she licked her smooth lips with a moist pink tongue and then smirked with the left corner of her mouth for a second. A shiver went down my spine and the air inside my nasal passages suddenly felt ice cold as the revelation that this being intended to eat my "soul" hit home.

The woman began to calmly walk towards us with the same gentle demeanor that now seemed alien considering the creepy display that she had just given. Simultaneously, Point Man, Alpha 1, and I opened fire with our respective weapons. The rounds tore the woman's body apart and the severed chunks of her body fell to the ground.

Not wanting to get cornered, we hastily made our way towards the elevator. Alma rematerialized near the elevator and I heard her call the device so that it would begin to descend. However, from behind us, I heard several death rattles and turned to see that the severed pieces of the woman were "growing" new copies of the original body. At one time, I would have laughed at the idea that an infinitely replicating woman that devoured souls was frightening. I can honestly say that the reality is that it is quite unnerving to not be able to truly kill the being that wants to eat you.

There were no less than four of them by the time that we were passing the pile of bodies that were against the wall. The women calmly walked after us as if nothing was amiss. As we passed the bodies, they all began to convulse and emit death rattles. I sprinted past them before they could envelope us. My salt-encrusted combat gear bite mercilessly into my skin but I forced myself towards the only escape route. I could feel her gentle eyes piercing me and appearing before me in my mind's eye as she aroused herself with the dark secrets and emotions that were bottled up inside of me.

Within seconds, I reached Alma's side in front of the elevator shaft. I could hear the pulleys screeching as they lowered the platform but the elevator itself remained out of sight above us. Turning around, I saw more than a dozen copies of the soul-devouring woman walking as a small mob towards our location. With little more than thirty yards between us, there was not much room to make a stand. Bringing my rifle up, I aimed through my still malfunctioning pseudo-ACOG scope at the women.

The synchronized movement and expressions of the copies made isolating an individual more difficult than I would like to admit and also further increased the creepiness of the situation if that was even possible at that point. Aiming as best I could without a red dot, I started firing at the mob. Point Man and Alpha 1 joined me in my stand but the women continued moving towards us undeterred by the incoming bullets. I fired a single round at a time to maintain accuracy and also to prevent any collateral damage that could spawn another copy.

It quickly became apparent that nothing less than a head shot was sufficient to destroy her temporarily and not spawn multiple new copies. Her body was no more durable than a regular human being but she was immortal due to her strange ability. Due to the near infinite amount of corpses in the room, as soon as we killed one copy, the woman simply rematerialized another one. I audibly cursed the agonizingly slow elevator as the mob closed to within fifteen yards before I fired a round into the closest woman's head, which raised my kill total up to ten.

Annoyed and slightly disturbed, I asked, "What the fuck is she?!"

Alma informed me with an alarmingly calm tone as she stood beside me, "The English translation is 'man-eating corpse jumper'. She feeds on the pain imprinted onto a man's essence…or soul in layman's terms. You appear to be especially appetizing, Michael." My wife's old mannerisms resurfaced as I heard her moan in a hungry manner. Then, as the women closed to within ten yards, she addressed the approaching mob with a dark tone that sent another shiver down my spine, "Back off, bitch. His soul belongs to me."

Suddenly, the women began to scream in agony as their bodies started to emit smoke. I mentally sighed in relief as Alma's powerful psychic assault liquefied the mob. Meanwhile, the platform finally appeared above us as it slowly descended down the shaft. The temporary victory was short-lived as the sound of multiple death rattles filled the foul air of the shopping area. All of the nearby corpses began to convulse as the woman rematerialized multiple copies of herself within the rotting chest cavities. Within seconds, nothing short of an army of identical, beautiful, young, black-haired women was calmly advancing towards us.

I sighed in irritation and then asked, "She doesn't take a hint, does she?"

The raven-haired homicidal goddess standing beside me giggled in a cruel manner before she replied, "She becomes quite possessive of her victim and has been known to hunt him for his entire life. Since the men that arouse her interest typically have lifestyles that keep them in a perpetual personal hell, their taste tends to mature like a fine wine the longer they can resist her. Normally, she only uses one body to stalk her victim...so she must really want you, Michael."

I heard Alpha 1 reload his Vollmer Automatic Shotgun while Point Man threw two fragmentation mines out before us. For a few tense moments that could not have amounted to anything more than a minute, we watched the women as they slowly closed the distance. When they were less than twenty yards away, I raised my rifle up and fired the remaining rounds in my weapon's magazine. My lack of a functioning scope had a noticeable negative effect on my accuracy but I was able to eliminate five of the women.

As I started to load a fresh clip into my rifle, the elevator platform arrived. We quickly boarded and Alpha 1 slammed his large, armored left fist against the "Up" button. The army of soul-eaters had just reached Point Man's mines as the safety gate slammed down in front of us. Though the mines temporarily halted the advancing beautiful women, it had the unfortunate effect of merely creating more as the severed limbs started to grow into new copies while the rest of the group continued to walk towards us.

Not a moment too soon, the pulleys screeched loudly and the platform began to ascend towards the surface. To our surprise and mutual disgust, the women below us did something truly stomach-churning. The first dozen or so calmly got down on their knees as they continued to look up at us. Then, the remaining women reached forward and grasped their heads. The sick sound of ripping flesh and snapping neck vertebrae filled the air as the copies used their combined physical strength to remove the heads of the volunteering group.

Never losing that gentle smile and caring look in their eyes, the women threw their comrades' heads up at us. A few of the revolting projectiles bounced off the safety gate but the majority landed inside the elevator. I cried out in horrified disgust as the heads began to grow bodies. Point Man opened fire with his G2A2 Assault Rifle while I did the same with my Patten. I heard my brother fire his shotgun point blank into the smiling heads a few times before he yelled with his deep modified voice, "Die Motherfucker!" A loud wet pop filled the elevator and I realized that the Replica Heavy Trooper had used his genetically enhanced strength and the weight of his armored frame to crush one of the heads beneath the sole of his right boot.

In my peripheral vision, I saw my wife pick up one of the heads and raise it up so that the two were looking each other in the eyes. The eerie similarities that the two predators shared became apparent to me at that moment. Both were immortal and consumed the "souls" of those that they found appetizing. Both were amoral, ruthless killers that were unrelenting in the pursuit of their prey. Both also seemed to find cruel, sadistic pleasure in tormenting those that tried to resist them.

Alma looked at the woman for a moment with a mildly interested expression on her frost grey face. Then, a sadistic sneer appeared on my companion's face. Her psychotic nature surfaced as she stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry in a childish taunt. The woman began to scream in agony as flames appeared on the top of her head. The incarnation of homicidal rage walked over to the edge of the platform and then looked down at the small army at the base of the elevator shaft.

The gentle smile was replaced by an expression of confused terror as Alma began to giggle at them before, holding the flaming severed head in her right hand, she yelled, "Catch!" The raven-haired goddess threw the head down into the center of the group. As the head impacted the floor, it exploded in a massive fireball that consumed the entire group. Within seconds, the women were nothing more than piles of ash.

Finally in relative safety, I asked my allies, "You ever just stop and ask yourself, 'Wow this is my life?'"

Alpha 1 replied, "Affirmative, brother."

Point Man just looked at me silently for a moment before looking away.

Alma replied with an amused tone, "Oh come now, Michael. You cannot say that you do not enjoy it most of the time."

I faced her as I questioned, "What was that crap about my soul belonging to you?"

My wife's hypnotically alluring glowing orange eyes became brighter as they glowed with raw power when she replied, "Silly little boy, you forget…I am the all-powerful goddess and you are the cute little human boy that I like enough not to consume and also enjoy dominating sexually."

Ignoring the fact that my HUD glasses were picking up communication traffic between our forces, and the uncomfortable body language of the two men behind me, I shot back, "Uh…no bitch. I am the man that takes pity on you because all you are on the inside is a sad lonely little girl that wants someone to love her…and incidentally your only friend because I am the only one that can put up with how much of a fucking homicidal lunatic you are."

She tilted her back and laughed quickly before she countered, "This coming from the whipped boy that married his rapist."

A bright light appeared above us as we neared the top of the shaft but I hardly noticed it as I said, "Yes…after failing several times and when I was unarmed, trapped inside your mind, and restrained…you finally managed to overpower me…a mere human."

Alma tilted her head back slightly to her left as she taunted, "Yes…a mere human that enjoyed it when I broke in his developing body like a new baseball glove when he was just a little boy."

I heard Stokes telling off an American soldier through my comlink but I ignored it as I retorted, "I faked my orgasms."

My wife raised her left eyebrow as she flashed me an amused smile. Then, she said, "Faked…mmm…yes all that warm sinful seed that I drained out of you into my mouth, onto my chest, and inside of my no-no place was fake. It certainly didn't seem fake to you when you happily cleaned it off of me because I told you to like a good little boy."

I pointed at Point Man and then commented with a sarcastic tone, "Right in front of your son…nice."

The elevator arrived at what appeared to be the storage area of the Command Bunker. All around us were large stacks of metal storage crates. The sounds of explosions, heavy artillery fire, roaring aircraft, and gunfire filled the air, which was a welcome relief from the madness that we had been around in the underground tunnels. I never would have believed that I would think such a thing, but the hells of war seemed tame compared to the horrors beneath our feet.

Alpha 1 quickly moved over to the elevator's control panel, grabbed ahold of the panel with his gloved left hand, and then forcibly ripped the entire control system out of the elevator. While that woman was now currently trapped in the shopping center, I feared that she simply had to use one of the surely plentiful bodies on the surface in order to escape and continue her pursuit of me. However, I had more pressing concerns.

Alma frowned before she replied with a genuinely hurt tone, "You bastard! I am a wonderful mother! I do the best I can damn it!"

Realizing that our usual lighthearted teasing and arguing had gone too far, I released my left hand's grip on my rifle's foregrip and then lowered my rifle down to my side. Reaching forward, I gently cupped the side of my best friend's satin soft right cheek with the palm of my free left hand. As she looked up at me, I gave her the same look of loving devotion that I gave her as a child from beneath the blood covered, dirtied, and faded skull ski mask. The universally feared goddess of rage evaporated as the raven-haired psionic's eyes softened.

Even as time changed the world around us, Alma and I remained just as hopelessly lost in each other as we had always been. We had both become monsters but, in each other, we had one tiny bastion of innocence that the cruelty of the world had failed to corrupt. Our moment was cut short as the sound of approaching hell soldiers drew our attention to the far side of the dull concrete room.

There, a door-sized cut in the reinforced concrete allowed access to the bunker above us. Raising my rifle up, I made my way towards the opening. As I moved, I spoke into my HUD's built-in comlink, "Does anyone copy? This is Commander Becket. Alpha 1, Point Man, and I have successfully infiltrated the enemy Command Bunker. Repeat. Does anyone copy?"

War Dog 1's heavily war-torn image appeared in my HUD as he replied with the sounds of a fierce firefight in the background, "Affirmative, Commander."

I ordered the field commander of the 1st Battalion, "War Dog 1, sitrep."

The Replica Heavy Trooper informed me, "Yes, sir. Beachhead defenses neutralized. Reinforcements have landed under heavy but indirect fire. 1st Battalion is pushing forward through the bunker and trench networks but our forward advance has stalled under focused machine gun and heavy weapon fire originating from the Command Bunker. The King Kong Power Armor units are unable to focus their fire on the bunker due to air strikes that are being called in from the bunker. Contact has been established with our Special Forces. They report that the bridges remain in our control but that they are rapidly losing ground to the armor units that have moved up from the enemy's reserve."

I instructed him, "Copy that, War Dog 1. We will clear out the bunker to allow our forward advance to continue. I will inform you when the threat has been neutralized."

The Replica replied, "Copy that, sir."

My comlink deactivated and I focused on clearing out the fortification. Just as I was about to move through the exit, two standard hell soldiers armed with assault rifles appeared. I activated my reflexes and aimed through my now functional scope. The two soldiers did not have enough time to react before I eliminated them both with five round head shots. Quickly moving forward, I deactivated my reflexes and ascended the short flight of rough concrete steps.

With Alpha 1 and Point Man close behind me, I reached the top of the stairs to find a circular room with a radius of approximately fifty yards with a low ceiling. In the center of the bunker wall that faced the ocean, I saw a heavy metal door that was securely bolted. In the corners of the room, there were four door-less openings through which I could see pairs of machine gun crew at the end of short leg-like concrete extensions to the bunker. I could now see why the machine guns were enough to halt the advance of our infantry because they turned out to be quad-mount .50 caliber machine guns that were typically used to shoot down aircraft. However, having heard the commotion in the storage room, the hell soldiers had abandoned their defensive positions and were moving to engage us with their charred assault rifles.

I gritted my teeth to prevent the cry of agony from escaping me as the rounds hit home in my ballistic Kevlar armor. Fighting through the pain, I activated my reflexes and engaged the closest pair. After quickly eliminating the pair, I snapped my aim to the next pair in the room to the left. Meanwhile, Point Man had eliminated the crew in the first room to the right of the stairs and Alpha 1 had cleared out the remaining room on that side.

I deactivated my reflexes after had I killed the last soldier and then unbolted the entrance to the bunker. After I had done so, I turned to my right to face the wall that was opposite of where we had entered the room. There, I saw another flight of stairs. However, catching me off guard, I also saw a hell soldier aiming its assault rifle at me from where it stood at the landing of new flight of stairs. Neither Point Man nor Alpha 1 could see the enemy soldier from their vantage point on the right side of the room and I had not seen it myself until that moment. Just before the creature could discharge its weapon, it suddenly started to shake violently as a dark red aura appeared around its frame.

Seconds later, the soldier stopped shaking and then calmly examined its charred Patten Assault Rifle while the red aura remained around its burnt frame. I mentally sighed in relief and moved towards the staircase while I reloaded my rifle. As I passed the possessed hell soldier, I commented, "Looks good on you." Alma followed close behind me as I ascended the stairs with my rifle at the ready. I made sure to stay along the inside wall as the stairs occasionally made a ninety degree turn to maximize my available cover as I cautiously advanced.

As I continued, I began to hear the deep vibrations and thunderous report of heavy artillery gun emplacements. Upon nearing the top of the last flight of stairs, I also started to hear the telltale sound of empty shell casings landing on the thick concrete floor. I paused just before the soldiers could see me and waited until we had regrouped. When we had, I took point and ascended up the remaining steps.

I found another circular room but this level had a smaller floor area because it did not have the side leg-like extensions for machine gun emplacements. Instead, there were six gun emplacements that were positioned strategically around the entire circumference of the circle. The guns appeared to be either 120mm or 150mm anti-armor guns that had been placed in special mounts that been built into the bunker floor. The mounts allowed the gun to safely recoil without putting the gun crew in harm's way and also allowed the gun crew to retract the guns into the bunker's interior during shelling.

Around the base of the guns were piles of spent shell casings. Against the walls, I saw enormous metal racks that held hundreds of large shells in rows of circular holes. A few spaces in the racks were empty but I saw that there were still more than enough shells to hold off the advance of our Power Armor Units for hours if not days. In the center of the room, I saw a small command station that comprised of an anchored dark green table that had a field satellite communication link and a holographic projection of the battlefield around the building on top of it.

Counting the gun crews, the artillery director standing by the table, and the armed guards that were standing around in various places, there were nearly thirty hell soldier in the room. Luckily, we had the element of surprise because the artillery gun fire had masked the firefights in the lower levels. Activating my reflexes, I stormed into the room with my allies.

The artillery director, an intimidating large humanoid that lacked combat armor and instead had a large officer's field jacket and slacks, had just turned to look in my direction as I neutralized it with a single head shot. Snapping my aim to the right, I dropped the pair of guards before they could return fire. Noticing that the gun crew of the artillery piece that was the rightmost emplacement of the side that faced the ocean was in the process of loading a new round into their gun, I snapped my aim back to the left and then fired a round into the exposed shell. The resulting explosion destroyed the artillery gun completely and killed the nearby crew. With my reflexes nearly depleted, I snapped my aim back to the right and eliminated the only heavily armored hell soldier in the room.

The world returned to its normal pace as my reflexes deactivated. To my left, I saw Alma firing her Patten Assault Rifle at the guards and crew around the two remaining gun emplacements on the ocean-side of the bunker. With Alpha 1 and Point Man dealing with the soldiers on the other side of the room, I joined my wife. Alma's combat experience was less than my own but her steep learning curve allowed her to match the hell soldiers in a firefight. Her aiming prowess was problematic, which caused her to burn through ammunition at a faster rate than someone like myself or Point Man, but she was indeed proving herself to be a formidable soldier.

The unprepared gun crew and guards were quickly overwhelmed by our assault. Within a minute, they had all been cut down. Reloading my rifle, I turned to face my wife. She looked back at me through the gas mask's emotionless façade. I smiled slightly and then commended her, "Good work." With the creature unable to talk, she simply gave me a nob in response. However, through our bond, I could feel a surge of pride as a result of my approval of her combat skills. I looked over to check on my other companions and found that they were largely unscathed. Leading the way, I made my way towards the flight of stairs on the opposite side of the room.

With the big guns neutralized, that surely just left the command room of the bunker. It struck me as odd that the command room was at the top of the bunker because typically it was in the most secure part of the fortification, which was usually underground. Akira's soldiers must have designed the bunker around the concept that an invading army would have to enter the bunker through the ground level and, thus, the safest place was actually at the top. The Command Bunker's upside-down design indicated that Akira's Forces were clearly not accustomed to a defensive style of warfare.

Quickly moving to clear out the last level of the bunker, I ascended the last flight of concrete steps. As I neared the top, I heard the sound of electrical humming that indicated the presence of several pieces of communication equipment. I also detected the life force of five hell soldiers. With an advanced warning of their presence, I activated my reflexes just before I entered the room.

I found myself in the bunker's central control room. Multiple pieces of communication equipment were against the walls and a large, detailed, and orange holographic projection of the battle around the bunker filled the center of the circular room. Unlike the previous levels of the bunker, this room's ceiling was dome shaped and I noticed several deep cracks in various spots from where the bunker had withstood direct hits from our initial naval bombardment.

Around the holographic projection, I saw the five commanding hell soldiers. They were similar to the large humanoid that had been the artillery director. However, these five abominations did not have a gas mask where their face would have been. Instead, they simply had blank human-like faces, which was admittedly even more disturbing to look at than the standard hell soldier's demonic gas mask.

The bizarre humanoids had their AT-15 handguns aimed at me in anticipation but my reflexes enabled me to cut them all down with well-placed head shots before they could react to my appearance. With the bunker secured, I deactivated my reflexes and moved towards the center of the room. I stood before the incredibly detailed projection of the battle raging outside and then said into my comlink, "All units, the Command Bunker has been secured."

My allies replied in acknowledgment and I saw my Spartans advancing towards the bunker as they overwhelmed the remaining pockets of resistance in the holographic projection. A loud, sick explosion drew my attention to my left and I turned to find Alma standing in the center of a cloud of dissolving ash. She smiled at me before she taunted, "A little more combat experience and I might be able to cast you aside and just lead the Replica myself, my pet."

I started to reply but stopped when an inexplicable urge caused me to look back at the projection. To my complete dismay, I saw the image of a young Japanese woman that was barely older than a teenager standing calmly on top of the corpse of a fallen American soldier. The innocent-looking girl was dressed in a cliché sailor fuku, which was maddeningly alien to the hellish firefight raging all around her. A chill went down my spine as the young woman ignored a near miss from an artillery round and even the advancing King Kong Power Armor as she looked towards the Command Bunker. The gentle smile never left her face even when the massive front left foot of the King Kong Power Armor unit loomed over her.

As I watch, she licked her lips once again just before the massive vehicle's foot crushed her and temporarily killed her instantly. I mentally cursed as I faced the terrifying truth that the nightmares of the tunnel had followed me to the surface. If the future of the world had been dark before, now it was pitch black. In a very real sense, this was indeed the Apocalypse.