We approached a panel that had "HAOS Release Simulation" written on the monitor. The panel showed the infection rate over the globe and in a few moments it rose up to 100%. I looked up and saw a giant cocoon hovering from the ceiling above us.
- What the hell is this? – I exclaimed motioning at the monitor.
- The end of the world. – Piers answered gloomily.
- Unless we stop it. – Chris added and we ran to the lift.
- So if that giant cocoon hatches… - Sherry didn't end the sentence.
- We're in trouble. – Chris ended it for her.
I ended up on the lift with Jake and Chris. They pulled the levers and the lift started moving up.
- Just so we're clear, you and I are not done talking yet. – Jake said. – You've got a lot of explaining to do.
- We make it outta here alive and I'll tell you whatever you want. – Chris answered. – I just hope you're ready to hear it.
- Yeah, 'cause what your daddy did to me and to a lot of other people ain't pretty, Muller. – I retorted.
- You too? – Jake turned to me. – What…
- Later. – Chris and I said in unison as we readied our guns and shot at the hostiles that were jumping on the lifts.
- It's getting a bit too crowded in here. – I said as more hostiles appeared.
We took all of them out and finally the both lifts reached the top. The hostiles stopped appearing, but instead the giant cocoon started moving. The five of us aimed our guns at the hatching cocoon. When it hatched, a giant creature came out of it. It had a skull as its face, it was almost transparent and his body looked like jelly. It spotted us and swung its giant arm at us.
- Look out! – Chris yelled out and we all jumped to different sides – Jake and Sherry to the right and Piers, Chris and I to the left. The creature tried to get out of the cocoon, but accidentally detached it from the ceiling and fell down with it.
- Chris! – Sherry yelled out.
- Get moving! – Chris ordered her.
- We got it from here. – Piers told her.
- Let's go. – Jake said and moved towards the exit.
- Wait! – Sherry stopped him.
- You should go with them. – Piers told me quietly.
- What?! – I was shocked by his statement. – I'm not leaving you or Chris here.
- He's right, Minnie. – Chris said. – You should go with Jake and Sherry.
- I will not leave you! I'm not going! We're a team and you yourself said that no one gets left behind!
Before any of them could say anything more, Jake had dragged Sherry out and the creature that had just fallen down was coming up, straight towards us.
- We've gotta go up! – I said as we took the ladder up. We ran from the creature as it was destroying everything behind us.
- Hurry! – Chris yelled out. – He'll take us down with him!
We had to jump over many constructions and gaps. Anywhere where it was too high to jump on our own, Chris would help Piers up and then Piers would pull him up and I would just use the grapple gun.
- Releasing this thing must have been Ada's plan from the beginning. – Chris yelled out.
- The missiles were only a distraction then! – Piers added.
- Stop chatting and run! – I yelled at the both of them.
We finally reached an elevator that took us up. When we got out of the elevator we found ourselves in some kind of room that had water on the floor and a huge hole in the middle of it. The hole appeared to be a gate that closed up when only first half of the creature came up. The gate literally crushed it in half, but it was still very much alive and ready to kill us.
- You've got to be kidding me! – I exclaimed. – That thing is still alive?!
- Not for long! – Chris added.
We started shooting at it. It was hard aiming at the monster because it had 4 arms and whenever you would shoot at it, it would swing one of the arms at you.
- Shit, this thing won't die! – Piers yelled out dodging the giant arm.
- It better. – Chris said. – We can't let this thing see the light of day!
We kept shooting at the creature and dodging its arms for who knows how long, but it finally collapsed and the whole facility started coming down on us with water pouring in through the broken windows, sinking us down. We swam up to the surface and got onto solid ground.
- You two alright? – Chris asked.
- I will hate water after this mission, I'm sure of it. – I answered coughing out the remaining water in my lungs.
- I've been better. – Piers said standing up.
We left the dead creature behind us underwater and walked through the door that was in front of us. We were in a tunnel that was made of glass. We started moving further down the tunnel, but then the same giant creature slammed itself into the glass above, cracking it.
- Son of a bitch! – Chris yelled out.
- Why won't it die?! – I added. The creature once again slammed into the glass.
- We're out of time, Captain! – Piers shouted. – We gotta go! – We started running down the tunnel with the monster trying to drown us by breaking the glass. – I'll be damned if I'm gonna die here!
- You won't! – I yelled at him. – We will get out of here alive! All of us!
The B.O.W. broke through the glass and now was hot on our heels. The gates were closing one after another in order to keep out the water but the giant would just break through them. We finally got out of the tunnel and into a room, hoping that the gate would close off the creature, but it grabbed the gates, pulled them open and went in straight for us. It used its giant arm to slam Chris away from me and was ready to grab me with the other one. Before I could do anything, I felt a powerful hit to my side that pushed me out of harm's way. I looked up only to see Piers being grabbed instead.
- Piers! – I yelled out and started firing my gun at the monster. It threw Piers away and I saw him land on the ground with his arm heavily wounded by some sort of sharp construction.
- Piers! – Chris ran towards him, but the creature threw a metal construction his way.
The construction missed Chris but hit Piers' already injured arm, making him scream out in pain. I wanted to run to his side, but before I could, I felt the monster grab me and start crushing me in its hand. I turned my head a bit and saw Chris being held by the other hand. The B.O.W. tightened its grip and I yelled out in pain. I started feeling light-headed because of the lack of oxygen, but I was still able to see Piers crawl towards something. The sniper didn't have his right arm anymore.
- Piers. – I whispered. – I'm sorry. – With the last of my strength my eyes shot open when I saw Piers injecting himself with something. He stood up and a mutated J'avo arm appeared in his right arm's place. – No, Piers!
Piers' arm was glowing blue and it shot out electricity into the giant B.O.W. Once the electricity hit it, Chris and I were released from the creature's grasp. The gate had finally closed onto the creature, slicing it in half.
- Oh, God, Piers! What did you do? – Chris was mad and shocked at the same time. He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me away from the dead B.O.W., because I was still too light-headed to move.
- Pressure abnormality detected. – A voice said over the speakers. – Sealing all rooms. Restore pressure to regulation levels.
Chris steadied me against the wall. While he looked for the way to restore pressure levels, Piers was standing in front of me. It was visible in his face that the new "arm" was causing him huge pain.
- Piers. – I muttered quietly and he turned to me.
Even his face had changed. It was slightly deformed and looked a lot like the J'avo. I felt my heart clench at the thought that Piers was infected and that he might not make it.
- Depressurization initiated. – The same voice said. Chris approached us. We heard a strange sound and saw the giant creature come to life again.
- Not again. – I said exhausted, aiming my gun at it.
- Piers! You have to fight it! – Chris said. – Try to stay in control! – As if on cue, Piers shot electricity at the monster once again.
- Please wait while pressure is reduced. – The voice over the speakers announced.
Chris and I were using our guns at the B.O.W., while Piers was doing his best shooting the abomination with electricity from his mutated arm. A part of the creature blew up and Chris rammed his knife into what seemed to be the vital part of it. Because of what happened to Piers I couldn't concentrate fully, so the creature had me pinned to the wall in no time. I felt it put pressure on my body, but this time the pain was in my back. Not even a few seconds passed when the creature was hit with more electricity, let me go and I fell to the ground. I looked up to see Piers standing in front of me, his mutated arm pointed to the B.O.W. Once again a part of the creature blew open and Chris hit its vital part. And of course, once again, this wasn't the last of it. The monster knocked Chris away from it, but Piers approached it instead and rammed his electrical arm into in, electrifying the enemy. I saw something that looked like a heart on the monster's chest, so I took out my last knife, ran next to Piers and rammed my knife into the heart thing. The B.O.W. shrieked and fell to the ground, hopefully dead.
- Piers! – Chris said as he approached us. I turned around and saw the sniper struggling to keep in control. His deformed, yet still so familiar face showed pain. – Come on! Just stay with me! – Chris was now standing next to Piers. I just looked at the young soldier, not being able to move. I don't know what scared me more: the fact that he might lose control and become a J'avo or the fact that it was very likely that he might die and I might lose him for good. My eyes started to sting from the welling tears as I thought of the latter. – You're gonna be OK! – Chris continued.
- I'm sorry… Captain… Minnie. – Piers said with every last bit of strength that he had left. I walked closer so that he could see me better. – I did it for the BSAA… For the future… For you. – The last phrase was only a whisper, but since he turned to me saying it, I heard it perfectly. Unwillingly, I let out a sob, but quickly silenced it.
- Piers, I know. – Chris continues. – You did a real good job.
- Minnie… I… - Piers started, but I couldn't let him say anything more.
- Shut up, Piers! – I yelled at him, my voice trembling. – If you want to tell me something, you'll do it after we get out of here! End of discussion. Piers, I will not leave you here. All of us will get out of here, do you understand? – Piers looked at me and finally nodded.
- Let's go! – Chris ordered, because he probably saw that I was at the point of breaking down.
- Depressurization process complete. – The voice over the speakers said. – Unsealing doors now.
- We're gonna get you through this, Piers. – Chris said. – You hear me?
Chris was leading the way, then it was Piers and I was at the back. Once we left the room and were ready to go for the escape route, again a voice over the speakers appeared.
- Warning. Facility's infrastructure compromised. Unable to withstand water pressure. All personnel, please evacuate immediately.
We ran for what we hoped to be our escape route, but our path was sealed with some sort of material that looked to be made of the same material that the cocoons were made of.
- Stand back, Captain. – Piers said. – I can kill this thing.
And well enough, Piers used the electricity form his arm to open up our pathway. Once the path was clear we continued running further. Two more of those strange thing later, we reached a door that should've led us to the only escape route from this facility – the escape pods. However, Piers collapsed by the door and Chris helped him up.
- Get the pods ready, Minnie! – Chris ordered and I did as I was told.
I knew that Piers didn't have a lot of time left, so we had to hurry. I approached nearest pod and got it ready to launch. The pod was ready and opened up when Chris brought Piers into the room.
- The pod's ready. – I said. – Get inside. I'll be right back.
I went to the panel that was in the room and pressed a few buttons, engaging the self-destruct system. *This way, if that piece of sit is still alive, we will be one step ahead of it.* I thought as I returned to the pod only to see Piers pushing Chris inside it.
- Piers, what are you… - But before I could finish my question, Piers grabbed me and shoved e inside the pod.
I saw the pod's door closing with Piers still outside. I quickly understood what he was doing. But I couldn't let him do it, because that way, I'd lose him for sure. Chris started banging on the door of the pod yelling out to Piers.
- Piers! No, don't do this! Open the door! Goddamn it, listen to me! We can still get out of here! All of us! There's still time!
I felt tears fall down my cheeks, when I saw Piers going away to launch the pod. I leaned against the side of the pod, the reality sinking into me and I felt something inside of my back pocket. I took the thing out. It was a syringe and a vial with red liquid. *If by any chance you get infected with the C-Virus, use it.* I remembered Ada's words. I don't know how the vial nor the syringe didn't break, but this was what could maybe save Piers.
Once again, Piers approached the pod and stood in front of it. Chris was yelling at him, but all I heard was the pod beginning to launch. Was I too late?
Hi again! I left you guys at a bit of a cliffhanger. Thought it would be interesting ^_- But don't worry, I'll do my best to update the story as fast as I can. Hope you guys enjoy. Please read and review ^_^