Knee Deep in the Dead

Characters: Fly Taggart, Arlene Sanders, John Grimm, Samantha Grimm

Time-line: Eight months after the incident on Olduvai Grimm and Taggert are teamed up and Grimms's sister joins the three marines on a mission to Mars and Phobos.

Summary: Its been eight months since John Grimms' team was wiped out and he's now joined the Fox company and he's friends with Fly Taggert and Arlene Sanders, just before they get a chance to go on leave they get deployed to Phobos and find out that his nightmares of the origins of the C-24 chromosome and the gates have caused a serious problem, will they be able to survive the fight on the moon or will they fall victim to the monsters that have come through the gates, and their fallen comrades.

Disclaimers: The games are not mine, the story belongs to me, everything else belongs to the games and movie companies.

Warning: This is going to rotate between Reaper and Fly's thoughts of what went on in the first book installment to the game series and Reaper's sister is going to be involved in it, also it's going to cover the entire doom series, from Ultimate Doom to Final Doom, the two characters of the second book will come in, but the focus will be on the quartet. With this being a slightly gruesome video game, it's going to be for teenagers fifteen and older and adults for the usual violence and profanity, and now on with the show.

Chapter 2: The First Kills and Evaluation-Fly's POV

After exchanging looks with the guy I considered my brother, I knew we both decided that we were going in no matter what now, hearing Sam talk like that made it clear to me that there was no way in hell we were losing a member of our quartet. "To repeat the last statement this has gone far enough, orders or no orders we're going down." I said to them. "Shut up, you're going back to detention." One of them said and pulled his weapon on us, and she moved back to give us room to work.

I didn't have to see the look in her eyes to know what she was saying to me than, because I could practically hear her voice in my head, 'You better take it from here, because I'm going with you either way, and we're finding out what killed the team.' she said and I gave a mental nod to that as we moved at the same time and took them down with some well placed blows to the chest and neck to disable without killing them.

"You guys are not cut out for field work here." I said gently as she moved behind us. "Alright Ron's, near as I can tell we have only two guns for the four of us, and that's a bit low dont'cha think, Weems should have left us some weapons, I'm going to leave one here, and when you feel up to it, reloaded, barricade the door, and wait here for orders." I said and he nodded as we left the room, walking backwards to watch them till I closed the door and locked it.

"Sam from here on out I want you to stay behind us and stay close, because we have no clue what it is we're dealing with and I doubt this is a repeat of what happened on Olduvai." Reaper said and she nodded. "If we find any weapons or combat armor I want you to change clothes, because this just went from scientific to military and its going to get dangerous." I added and she gave a nod. "Right, well this moon is maybe three clicks long and most of the installation is underground, so with that, our first stop is the control room." she said and we both nodded. "Whose doing the shooting here, because I'm covering her?" Reaper asked I thought it over. "I will, and once we find several more weapons you can take over." I said and he nodded as we looked at each other and moved to the cart and drove to the entrance of the installation.

After getting there, we were both on defensive mode and she stayed between us, as we checked out the room, and noticed several things: first off it was too quiet, there was no sound of gunfire, human voices or whatever came from a firefight, secondly every single light was blown and it was like walking around a cave without a flashlight and lastly there was a faint stench of citrus in the air and I exchanged looks with them.

"Did that virus create a citrus smell when they were turned?" I asked and they shook their heads. "No, but the installation looked like this when we got into the labs." she said and I nodded as he pulled a cryometer out to check the radioactive levels. "Magnesium, chromium, and lead levels are normal here, our first choice here is heading for the control panel, because whatever caused this could have been covering the hardware and equipment. Sam stay close, if this is anything like what happened then I'm not taking chances, especially if we have do a repeat of the corpses walking around on their own." he said and she nodded as she gently gripped his arm.

"John with your superhuman abilities, your healing powers would keep you from getting killed, and with the fact that your scientific knowledge and mine, we have a better chance of getting out alive, finding Arlene and stopping whatever did this, so we work through it and both of you keep your tempers, after what happened last month, but we better get this figured out before we run into whatever killed the team." she said and he nodded.

As I looked at them I thought over what she said. "Healing powers?" I asked and she nodded, and he answered that. "Yeah the virus enhances all portions of a person's body, making them faster, stronger, smarter, and increases your healing abilities, and I found this out after taking that bullet to the spleen, on top of that my specialty was molecular genetics, when we were kids, so if we come across anything we need to gather as much Intel as possible to get it to the brass, after we find Arlene." he said and I nodded as we ended our conversation.

"Before you ask, I doubt we got a repeat of Olduvai, because that was genetic exogenesis, this is completely different, whatever is chasing after us, is not human and probably from our interpretation of hell, so with that, try not let this get to you much." she added and I nodded, they all knew my religious background, and whatever we were dealing with was going to shove several severe cases of blasphemy into it and I was going to kill whatever did that, I'd been an retired Catholic, since I joined and as I thought over, I knew my only option was returning to my religious roots, as I thought to him, 'Lord help me protect my friends, and find her, whatever happens help me stop this, whatever it is from getting to Earth.' I thought gently as we got to the door and she stood behind him as I opened the lock on it.

After getting to the first portion of the installation we searched the entire room, before I saw a locker and I motioned him to open it and he nodded as he motioned her behind him and I raised my gun as he pulled it open and it didn't have anything threatening, but carried a few tech vests and flak jackets, and some combat uniforms as I looked at him. "Alright, we better change and get into uniform, Sam get a tech vest and flak jacket on, that'll protect you from fire, somewhat, but stay behind us." I said and she nodded and got the armor on, "Best guess we go in that direction." she said, pointing straight and I nodded as we got our uniforms and bagged the head gear.

After getting into uniform, I heard a noise and quickly turned to see what it was, before seeing steam come off a blown pipe and relaxed slightly as we looked at each other, before we heard another noise and turned and heard a slight mumbling that sounded human. "The gate, the gate is the key, the key is the gate." I heard and looked at him, before the person came into view and I saw it as William Gates. "Bill, where are the others, Arlene and the rest if FOX company?" I asked, feeling relief, but started getting nervous, he was staggering, his voice sounded like he'd been compromised, and he looked like he was suffering from fatigue.

As I watched him he looked closer to a serious case of battle fatigue, which also explained his body language and would probably explain his words, as I tried to concentrate, I suddenly got a whiff of lemons, I want to go over to him but these things were making it clear that something was really strange on the moon. "Bill it's us." I said and I knew he recognized us, because he smiled the most evil smile I'd ever seen. "Move!" Reaper shouted as Bill raised his weapon and fired at us as we got behind a pillar and I shouted at him. "Damn it Bill, stop firing us, it's us, stop shooting!" I called over the gunfire. "Forget it, he's been compromised, take him down." Reaper said and I nodded and fired at him and the bullets slammed into him, the first shot didn't faze, but the second caught him in the throat, before I aimed directly to his head and fired and it dropped him finally.

As I kept my gun on him, his body flopped around before stiffening up like a board and the lemon smell we got a whiff of earlier suddenly became overwhelming. As I looked at him, John and Sam moved over to me. "This is definitely not a repeat, the zombies were covered in blood, and they didn't smell like this, we have to find her." Sam said and I nodded shakily, "Sam, I can't lose you girls, I'm doing what I have to-to protect you and get us out of here alive." I said to her, shaking as I tried to pull myself together and he looked at me. "Fly, listen to me buddy, as long as we stay together we'll be fine, just try to focus on finding Arlene, and get the gun, we need a back up." Reaper said and I nodded as she pulled me into a hug.

"What do you think?" I asked and she explained her thoughts on this. "This is not a repeat, they didn't say anything and that sounded like some kind of message, whoever killed him sucked the life out of his body, but left his motor functions intact, he's has some intelligence, but not much, best guess is that whoever killed them, turned them into the walking dead, and they're wondering around the base, we need to get some more hardware, because the base is probably over run." she said and we both nodded.

"Reap, what would be best here in terms of hardware?" I asked him and he thought it over. "For whatever monsters are running around a chain gun would be best, but with the way this is going we're going to have to search out weapons as we go further, because this could mean that we have a possible foothold situation here, we need to keep going, and find out where this is going to lead." he said and he looked at me. "Out of the two of us, and we're both senior corporals, someone needs to give orders, especially with Sam with us." he said and before I could answer him she interjected. "You better co-lead then, and once we find Arlene, you take over from there." she said and we both nodded in agreement.

"What's our tac-sit here, because though we're close to some of these guys, it's not going to be easy, dead or undead?" I asked and she sighed. "Considering that if whatever killed them is here as well, you focus on taking out what's responsible for this, and till we find her, try not to let this get to you, three quarters of our quartet are intact, and we just have to find our fourth now, one other thing, some of the undead are going to have a lot of life still in them, and are going to want you to put them out of their misery, if that happens do what they want, stay focused on the matter at hand. Fly, I know you're having a hard time with this and want to charge ahead, but don't follow that impulse, otherwise it could get you killed." she said and we looked at her.

"What do you mean Sam?" he asked and she answered that gently as I took a few minutes to get my emotions under control, while he looked slightly worried. "I'm guessing here, but the sour lemon stench triggers an overdose in the male hormonal enzymes, making you want to charge forward, whatever happens try to not give in to that impulse." she said and we both nodded as we looked at each other. "The guys saw the zombies and completely lost control, broke ranks and charged, which means that Dardier, Yoshida and Arlene did what Sam just did and tried to fight it out, and the entire company got separated and were taken down one by one." Reaper said and I nodded.

"So you and the girls can keep it under control, but for the men, it causes the hormones to start going crazy and flood the body, increased anger and adrenaline, alright, from here on out stay focused, and try to ignore the stench if we run into another one." I added and he nodded in a agreement. "To repeat the last question did the Olduvai tac-sit have this as well?" I asked and they shook their heads. "No, it wasn't like this, what happened there brought out the inner devil or angel if they got infected, this is not the same as that, the monsters there were genetic horrors, and the C-24 grafted to the body and turned them into monsters."

"The zombies we were dealing with were turned after being killed by the infected, the monsters themselves looked closer to the genetic versions of dangerous experiments, Carmack got turned by his own experiments, and the first one breached containment, and started killing everyone on the base, in this case of the monsters we are going to be taking out, there is probably going to be a mastermind to this and is focusing its mind to its underlings, and will be focusing on a single member if they are grouped together." she said and I nodded.

"So kill the brain of the group and they turn on each other?" I asked and she nodded as he answered that. "If one of them gets killed they are probably going to be fighting it out against each other if we kill the leader of the pack, whatever is acting as leader to the zombies is running around down here, and we'll find them if they don't find us first, and like I said, whatever turned our former comrades isn't human and will take more than one hit to take down. We stick together, and don't get separated and we're safe, Fly stay focused on what we have to do, you let your mind wonder and it could get you, as well as us killed." he said and I nodded as I got it.

"Alright we better see if the entire base got overrun or not, what's left in that SIGCOW?" I asked and he sighed. "The one in the chamber is spent and there's only one spare mag, once we find one of our packs we need to reload and get as much hardware and ammo as possible, because this could take a while." he said and she added on to that.

"We need to get a few medical kits and and other supplies while we're at it, in case one of you get hit, and with the fact I've also taken medical training I'm dealing with it, if one of you get tired we're taking a break. You guys can rotate the watch, but don't make me have to sedate you alright." she said and we nodded as I tried to hold back the smile at her tone.

As we broke our position I thought over that information, 'Whatever came through is not getting my friends no matter what I have to do.' I thought to myself as we kept going after maybe twenty minutes we ran into two more, one was a member of our team and the other was a civilian, after shooting one of them in the head, I blew out the hips of the other to get some added information. "The gate is the key, the key is the gate." It chattered and I looked at Reaper. "Broken record syndrome?" Reaper suggested and I nodded in agreement, as I tried to keep from laughing at his way of putting it.

After watching it I realized why its eyes were so dry and its eyesight was so poor: it never blinked, as I got started. "What the hell is going on and what is coming through the gates?" I asked it and it ignored the question and kept up it's chatter as I positioned my gun against its head. "If there is any part of you still alive in there, you know what this'll do to you, now answer me, what is coming through the gates?" I said again coldly and it answered me finally. "Great ones, gate ones." It said and then I took pointed straight at it's head. "You want this?" I asked and it nodded and closed it's eyes and I fired a single shot straight to its head.

"Alright, it's quoting whatever it heard from being turned by what destroyed the installation, and several, if not half, still have a lot of life in them and don't want to live or being walking around as the undead, with that in mind stay out of reach if they are in this condition, and aim directly to head, because shots to the chest are not going to take them down, we can paralyze, but shooting them in the head is the only option to take them down." Reaper said and I nodded in agreement.

"What the hell is coming through the gate anyway, and what did it mean great ones?" I asked and she decided to answer that. "The Olduvians created the ark to make a fresh start, because the C-24 destroyed the population, but this is not the same, whatever wiped out the base could be taking on our interpretations of hell, meaning whatever monsters came out of Greek mythology and whatever came out of our religions, so with that, best guess is taking them down is going to be harder than our undead comrades and are going to need several shots directly to the chest." she said and I nodded a second time as I got what she was telling me. "You're the only one who understands forensics and biology Sam I didn't take that course, mom trained me in molecular genetics, and to the added portion of it, if one of us gets taken we put them out of their misery automatically." he added and I nodded with a sigh.

"Well we better make sure none of get taken then and we need to get a riot gun for that, in case we run into whatever killed the team and scientists on the base." I said and he nodded. "Why didn't any other members of the team have a rifle on them, aside from Dardier, long range shots could come in handy in these situations?" he asked and I sighed. "Gunny is the only one, aside from 'Tij', who carried one, as we continue on here, I can take a guess that nearly every single one of them will be carrying a weapon, so we just gather weapons as we go." I said and I looked at her.

"Reap, did she get training in using a pistol?" I asked and he nodded. "You got to be kidding, she hasn't used a gun in years, dad took us to the firing range when we were earth-side, but she's never used one to kill, and I'm not subjecting her to that." he said and I nodded. "John if it means covering you from behind I'm going to set aside my reservations and do what needs to be done, because I'm not losing you guys in the same way I lost Duke that night, just give me the short range lesson and I'll take it from there." she said and he nodded with a sigh. "Alright we'll deal with the stronger monstrosities, and you handle the zombies if any try to sneak up on us." he said and she nodded as I broke into it then.

"Get the guns, and check on it." I said and he nodded as we looked them over. "Two mags and one is a quarter empty, what about you?" I asked and he looked at the SIGCOW he got a hold of it. "Same, if we run into another group get as much ammo as possible, because these are only going to last maybe two more firefights and we're going to need to find an armory soon enough." he said and she nodded as he gave her a quick lesson then, before we moved and ran into two more and killed one and got more information then as it chattered.

"The gate is the key, the key is the gate. Phobos, fear fear fear, coming to Phobos, coming from Phobia. Crossing the Styx, Styx is the key." It said and we waited as it started in a secondary loop, before I shot it and we looked at each other. "Alright, this is getting serious, John, did that seem strange in the way he put that?" Sam asked and he nodded in answer.

"Alright, Phobos is latin for phobia or fear, it or he is the Greek god of fear. There are two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, in Greek they are the gods of fear and terror, and whatever is coming through is using this as their stepping stone. It said fear, fear is coming to Phobos. This is making more sense, they, whatever they are, came to Phobos, but the next portion of it didn't make much sense." he said and I watched her think it over, before her face paled. "Coming from Phobos, that makes a bit more sense, there is only one way to get from their hell to ours and that is crossing the Styx, John, when it said Styx, we just hit ancient Greek mythology here, and the main regions, heaven and hell and what is between the two if they are quoting their plans and are trying to go through us?" she said and he nodded.

" Styx, Styx, not Styx as in s.t.i.c.k.s., but Styx as in s.t.y.x., ah shit, I get it, ancient Greek mythology, the river Styx, coming to Phobos, the moon's are their first stop, crossing the Styx, they're heading for earth." he said to her and she nodded in agreement and I nodded as what he was telling me hit what I was thinking then, since I took a course in ancient cultures in school and this was brought up when I studied about the infernal regions.

"So whatever they're thinking or planning here, they're going to earth." I said and they nodded. "How much in archeology did you guys learn to figure this out?" I asked and he answered that question. "Our parents ran the entire twenty thousand year run here, we learned every culture in the book, Roman, Greek, ancient Egyptian, we did all of it, as I said she did forensic biology and I covered molecular genetics, but this will come in handy if we cross paths with the master mind." he said and I nodded.

"My masters ran through the entire area, but these things are dangerous, if we're dealing with more than one monster, it means that most, if not all, of them are going to cover ancient Greek and Catholic versions of the demons, and probably our interpretations of the devil and demons, with that, if they try to talk their way out of you killing them, get information and then take them out." Reaper said and I nodded as she looked at me gently.

"You got the basics in that one?" she asked and I nodded. "Alright this makes sense, they basically turned this moon into their version of the river Styx, from their planetary hell and traveled through the gates from that hell from where ever it connected to-to here."

"And now they plan to cross from the moon on to our planet to wipe us out, whatever monsters are running around loose down here is probably going to cover our own interpretations of hell, which means anything they get out of the human psychology. The bastards are not dropping ship to our planet no matter what we have to do here." I said and they nodded in agreement to that. "Was that one carrying a pack or anything, because the more weapons and supplies we find, we need to stow them in something?" she asked and I shook my head in answer to that. "What type of ammo is left in that gun?" Sam asked and I did a quick check on it before I checked my former comrade. "Same as the previous one, but the poor soul has a couple extra clips on him." I said and they nodded.

"Sam were they fooling around with Toxic waste up here?" I asked and she shook her head. "Not that I know of, but that stuff is sulfuric acid if it gets on your skin, so watch where you step here, alright." she said and I nodded, as we grabbed the ammo and then left, before seeing a map of the entire complex on the wall that was burned beyond recognition. "Guys I found a radio here." Sam said and we moved over to her to check it out, before she turned it over and we saw the back of was destroyed. "This is serious, the map of the base is burned and if this is anything to go by, the radios have all been destroyed, does this suggest a pattern because this seems strange?" she asked and we both nodded in answer to that.

"The maps and radios are destroyed, the undead still have the ability to talk and are chattering about their overseers plans of planetary destruction. This just made it clear, whatever is wondering around down here has human level intelligence, question is what are they?" I asked and his eyes narrowed. "Not sure, but if whatever it is-is shadowing us, we need to keep moving, and we'll find it or them if they don't find us first." he said and I nodded as he tightened his grip on the gun and she moved between us.

After a fifteen minute walk, I noticed a slightly lethal stench in the air, and saw a faint glow in the rooms head and we headed in that direction, before I heard a clicking noise, as we got into the room and saw a path zigzagging through a few lakes of the waste material we talked about. "What the hell do they put in that stuff, because it's burning through my head mask here?" I asked and she looked at me. "A mixture of acetone, benzing, and jp-86 jet fuel, whatever you don't light a match near it." she said and I nodded as she got a better look at it and he laid his hand on her shoulder with a gentle smile, and I could tell he read her mind.

"Sam I know what you're thinking, but we don't have time to run a science test here." he said and before she could answer him something slammed into me and my pistol went flying out of my hand and landed in the gunk, and I quickly pulled my SIGCOW out and we waited, as I looked at him and he signed, using our personal message system, to wait rather than moving forward and I nodded, whatever this was-was incredibly strong and deserved serious caution before we tried to either talk to it or take it down.

"What the hell was that?" I asked and he gave a shrug. "Whatever it is- is incredibly strong, Sam get behind me, Fly side by side." he said and I nodded, as we went into our positions, and I heard a hiss that sounded like a serpent, and I fought the urge to break position.

After a minute I heard a secondary hiss and then the clicking noise I heard earlier, and we exchanged looks as whatever hit me was stronger than we were and we had to wait for it to come to us, because we were not separating, after a few minutes it came out and I got my first look at it: brown leathery, almost reptilian, skin, with horns protruding from arms, legs and chest, a head several inches bigger than a human with maddened slits of skin over the burning red eyes. This was not human, but a monster of some sort, a childhood nightmare, a demon.

And that is chapter 2, with the next chapter instead of them trying to stay away from the demon, I'm going to set it to following Arlenes mode of doing it when they find that gun, they're going to get a glimpse of it in the same way Arlene did of the Hell prince, before they back track.