Chapter 15
"SMGs aren't doing anything," Kenneth said as he backed away from the giant mosquito trying to get at Forest.
"Forest, I need you to give one solid shove on my mark," Richard told his teammate. "I've got a slug chambered and ready to go."
"I'm barely keeping this thing away from me as it is!" Forest yelled as his arms began to shake from the pressure of stopping the giant insect.
"Duck now!" Richard yelled as Forest dropped to the ground, and two slugs left his customized Benelli M3 to impact the giant mosquito, caving in the exoskeleton and causing its body to fall on top of Forest.
"Get this thing off of me!" Forest said as he struggled with the giant insect corpse.
"I got you, brother," Richard said as he and Kenneth shoved the giant bug off their teammate.
"I never want to see another mosquito as long as I live," Forest said as he wiped the small number of insect guts off his body.
"Once you're ready, we'll move into that room and see if there's anything useful on the bodies of those paramilitary types," Captain Marini told Forest. "But take your time. I want all of us to make it out of here alive."
"I'm good to go, captain," Forest said as he shouldered his rifle and moved it to low ready. "It takes more than a bug to bring me down."
"Good to hear," the captain replied. "Let's get moving. There's still a lot of this complex for us to go through."
"If it's anything like the schools I went to, then there won't be that many offices in the dorm areas. We're better off trying to find the faculty lounges or offices if we're looking for any important documentation or evidence," Rebecca said. "If we can find a map of the complex, then we'll be golden."
"I've got what looks like a PDA or a pager of some sort," Kenneth said as he rifled through the pouches on one of the dead bodies. "Chambers, you got any idea on how to use this?"
"I never owned one," Rebecca said as she took the PDA from the older man. "But some of my roommates did and showed me a thing or two," she took the device and powered it on to reveal a map and data on the USS' mission. "Here, captain, this should have some intel or evidence we can use."
"It also has a nearly dead battery if that indicator is correct," Captain Marini told the young medic. "I'm assuming he had some charger or extra battery on him as well."
"Found it," Kenneth said as he pulled a charger cord attached to a wall plug out of one of the pouches. "I don't think we'll have time to sit around and wait for it to charge, though."
"Aha!" Coen cheered as he pulled a sheet of paper from one guy's pocket. "I think this might be what we're looking for," he unfolded the piece of paper to reveal a map that showed the surface buildings and the structures that were supposed to be underneath.
"Looks like there are faculty offices located over here," Forest said as he leaned over the map spread on the ground. "And there's a lab of some sort underneath the dorm and the lake."
"We check out the basement of the main facility first," Captain Marini said as he looked over the map. "Then we hit the one under the lake."
Then, the entire team turned as they heard some sort of roar from across the facility.
"Grab the map and anything useful that you noted on the bodies," Captain Marini told his team as he shouldered his AUG. "We need to find whatever that is and kill it. Forest, your rifle is shooting the best rounds for taking anything out aside from the launcher I picked up earlier. So you've got second while I've got point. Anyone with an SMG needs to cover our six while we engage the threat. Copy?"
"Yessir," Forest said as he cracked his neck. "It's time to go hunting."
Bravo Team moved quickly, stripping the corpses of anything useful and following their team captain to the source of the roars they were hearing.
"I see two creatures," Forest said as he looked across the compound. "They look reptilian of some kind and have wicked claws and teeth."
"I see 'em," Captain Marini said. "Take some shots and see what happens. I've got the MGL on standby if they don't go down."
"Chambers," Forest called the medic's name. "What's the weakest point of an armored creature?"
"Typically it will be either the eyes or nose," Rebecca replied with a confused look on her face. "Why?"
"We're about to find out just how armored these creatures are," Forest said from his kneeling position as he gently squeezed his trigger and a 7.62 NAATO round left the barrel of his SR-25 and impacted the armored creature's left eye, sending it crashing to the ground. "Tango appears to be down, the second one doesn't know where the shot came from yet," Forest reported. "Taking second shot now."
"Both creatures are down," Forest reported. "We're clear to move down into the basements for now."
I took point as we began moving at a rapid pace towards the stairs, while there weren't any zombies left on this floor, that didn't mean that the rest of the HIVE was clear.
"Just move through," Rain ordered. "We don't have time to clear every single room. So we get to the self-destruct and then take the elevator to the surface before that thing detonates."
"There's a hidden motor pool near the top entrance," Kaplan said as he shoved his PDA into his cargo pocket and brought his MP5K around. "It shouldn't be affected by the detonation, but we need to get there in advance anyway."
"Self-destruct should be down this hallway and to the left," Kaplan said as I moved through and killed the two zombies waiting for us down on this floor. "I gave us proper access so the door should be open and waiting for us."
"Well, I think the Red Queen overrode you there," I said as I slid to a stop. "Door looks like it's sealed and I don't think we're getting through that way."
"This is the only way to access that part of the facility," Kaplan said before cussing up a storm.
"What?" I asked with a small smirk on my face as we turned around to make sure that no zombies were attracted to our noise. "They didn't put in any air ducts that would give us easy access?"
"This isn't the movies," Kaplan replied sarcastically. "Massive air vets are a security hazard, especially when working with diseases and viruses."
"I was joking, Kaplan," I told the man. "I did grab something useful out of the armory that might help us though."
"And what might that be?" J.D asked as he turned and saw me tossing a small brick of C-4 up and down in my hand. "Nevermind, give me that, I doubt you're even trained on how to use it."
"I'm not, but I know that we don't have a breacher with us so I grabbed something that might be of some use."
"Breaching charge is set," J.D said as he placed the small brick of C-4 on the door's locking mechanism. "Fire in the hole!" He yelled as we all covered our ears and he clicked the detonator.
"That's enough to get me in," Kaplan said as he peered around the corner and looked at the hole in the door. "Cover me while I set this thing up, I'm going to give us forty-five minutes to get out of here."
"Just get it done, Kaplan," Rain said as she knelt in front of the entrance and faced the hallway where we were starting to hear the zombies start to come from. "We still need you to get the elevator moving."
"This should only take a couple of minutes," Kaplan said as he moved to the computer console. "This is one of the few systems that the Red Queen doesn't have any access to."