Nothing but the echoing sound of their boots followed the four of them back to the infirmary. Reaper took the lead, carrying Sky over his shoulder. Sky's blood had soaked through the places in Reaper's uniform that his vest didn't cover. Reaper's own blood had already settled in his uniform, even after his wounds had closed on their own. But as it was, he was a mess. With each step toward the infirmary, Reaper felt their heated stares on his back intensify. The team wasn't as close as other RRTS Units, but they were still a team, and they had lost one of their own.
They reached the door and paused.
"Gale, unlock the door." Reaper ordered.
There was a moments pause before the lock on the console released. The door opened with a hiss. gale stood by the controls and watched as Reaper entered first. He walked to the closest bed and laid Sky's body on top. He stepped away form the soldier, giving the unit time with him. He turned to Sam, who was sitting by the computer console. Reaper made his way to her side. Her eyes quickly drew to the tears in his uniform, where the wounds had now healed.
"Better dress this fast before they noticed." he whispered.
Sam nodded and rolled off to find the bandages. She came back with a few rolls and quickly set to work acting out the part. "We have a problem."
"No shit." Reaper answered. He rubbed his face, trying to regain his focus. His eyes drifted toward Sky's body. His mind drifted back to Goat lying on the bed just days ago. "but we have more than one problem. Let's just take it one at a time. Start with the data."
Sam nodded. "Gale ran through the entire system. There's nothing there. No command codes, no virus', anti-virus, nothing. Someone wiped the entire system cleaned."
"She figure out when the system was wiped?" Reaper asked.
"I didn't asked." Sam answered. "But we've got nothing for Taylor and something tells me he may've planned this."
"I probably would've agreed with you and hour ago." Reaper answered.
"You don't think so?"
Reaper shook his head. "Back at the base, he was acting like it was still here. Every single employee was the same way. I didn't pick up any hints that they were lying. Why send us out here for data that didn't exist?"
"Loose ends to tie up?" Sam offered.
"Then why send us for the data and kill us before we return with it?" Reaper stated. "It doesn't make sense."
"John?" Sam asked. She watched her brother stare at the dead soldier. She knew he must have been thinking about his own friends lost just days ago. "John."
"Sam, how much research into C24 did Carmack do?" he asked suddenly.
Sam was stunned into silence. That was not what she'd expected her brother to say. "I'm not sure. Why do you want to know?"
Reaper turned toward his sister. "I've been hallucinating."
Sam's eyes widened. "What kind of hallucinations?"
"Vera." he answered. "I'm seeing her everywhere."
"Where?"
"In the ARC, the elevator...the tunnels." he answered. "I saw her staring down the damn Imp that attacked me. She looked exactly the same."
Sam chose her words carefully. "John, C-24 was meant to enhance the mind and body, but we have no idea how it will react when a person is confronted with a major emotional trauma. It could just be your bodies way of coping with this."
"Look, don't try to sugarcoat this bullshit Sam we're not ten." Reaper snapped. "I know Vera's gone. That's something that I'm never gonna get out of my head no matter how hard I try."
Sam slowly reached out and took Reaper's hand. "John-"
"Soon as this is over, I'm blowing this place to hell." Reaper stated. He pulled his hand from Sam and stepped from her. "Look in."
Sam sighed heavily as John pushed her away again. She turned around where the soldiers had gathered.
"Hazard's still M.I.A. we need to find him." Reaper informed.
"What about that thing in the sewers?" Cal asked. "That the thing that killed him?"
Reaper debated lying to them again, but he was tired of lying. "Yeah. It killed him."
"What the fuck is it?" Bio asked.
"Something you don't wanna to meet alone in the dark." Reaper answered. "Focus. That thing is the reason we're here. To kill it and leave. Hazard and Sky ended up in the sewers, probably following it. We need to know where they first came in contact with it. We find it, we may find Hazard."
"How exactly do we find it?" Mathiss asked. "Hazards comm is still down."
"But we have Sky's weapon." Reaper answered, turning to Gale.
Gale held Reapers gaze fro a moment. "I can patch the gun cam into the system and go through the footage."
"Do it."
Gale nodded. She took Sky's weapon and pulled off the camera. She pulled the casing off and started pulling at the wires.
"What do we do while Gale works her magic?" Cal asked.
"Twiddle our thumbs." Bio answered.
Mathiss shook her head. She was tired of Bio's bullshit. Sky was dead, Hazard was missing, and there was some kind of fucking demon in the facility that they were meant to kill. "What about that creature. We all heard the shots. You unloaded fifteen shots and that thing was still moving."
Reaper frowned. He only fired off four, but the damn thing had been moving just enough to only take them in the arm. Two before the damn thing pinned him under water, two after he rose. If he hadn't had hallucinated, he would killed the thing. No one else had been in the tunnel with him...unless...unless he hadn't been hallucinating down there.
"Sir!" Gale called from the console. "You're gonna want to see this."
Reaper and the others turned toward Gale. "You find the footage?"
Gale nodded. "And then some. Check it out."
Everyone crowded around the console. On the screen was a frozen image of Sky's guncam. Reaper recognized the corridor just to the east of Weapons, leading right toward the sewer manhole. Hazard was on point, just a few steps ahead of Sky.
"They're sweeping the corridors." Mathiss stated.
Gale nodded. "Yeah. But watch this." She initiated the sequence.
The frozen image began playing. Everyone watched in silence as Hazard and Sky move through the corridor toward the junction. There was no sound to the guncams video, but that didn't help relieve the anxiety and tension filling the room as everyone watched the screen. Suddenly a shadow crossed the junction ahead of them. A second later, hazard and Sky opened fire.
"Freeze it." Reaper ordered. "Go back a few frames."
Gale followed orders. She pulled the footage back just prior to the gunfire. She looked up at the screen. The shadow was just crossing the junction in front of Hazard and Sky. "Notice anything?"
Everyone took a good long look at the screen.
"I see a shadow." Mathiss stated.
"Pretty small one." Cal replied.
"That's her point." Reaper stated. His eyes stared at the small shadow in front of him. "That shadow doesn't belong to the creature."
"What are you talking about." Bio demanded.
Gale pointed to the far side of the screen, to the left of the junction. "That shadow is twice as big as the center shadow. It looks like the big on was chasing this little one."
"So there's two of these things?" Bio demanded.
"No." Reaper growled angrily. He lifted his weapon and turned toward the door. His gaze shifted toward Sam, who met his gaze. That look in her eyes was more than enough to tell him he was right. Hallucinations be damned, now he had proof of what he was seeing. That bitch. That psychopathic, sadistic, cold heart bitch. "It means there's one, and there's someone in the facility hunting it down. Gale, go through the system and find out exactly when the system was wiped clean."
Gale nodded slowly and turned to the console.
"Where the hell are you going?" Cal demanded.
Reaper paused at the door as it slid open. "To find that bitch!"
dun dun dunnnnn! sorry it's been a while for updates. I blame writers block. please review and let me know what you think.