"Hrrgh!" John grunted as he was tackled by the monstrous creature. The sheer force and speed was enough to push him back four feet, directly into the nearest tree. His boots scraped against the mud and he pushed against the creature's strength. As Six kicked himself into gear, John was struggling. Hard. The strength of this monster rivaled his own, and he was having trouble fighting it.
"Off!" Six yelled with a punch as forceful as both of them combined, knocking the monster into the tree next to them. It hit the bark with a loud crunch as a jutting branch broke through the eroded armor and rotted skin of the undead Sangheili. It pierced the front layer of decomposed tissue and stabbed out of the front, effectively pinning the creature to the tree. It roared a terrible and phlegm-filled roar as Six looked at it in further detail. It was lumpy and misshapen, its flesh spilling out of its armor at awkward angles. Its teeth were sharp and deadly, and there were sprouts of red nerves sticking out on small stalks in its skin. This was no longer the same creature that had been begging to be shot not three minutes ago.
This was something different. Something new.
Six raised his magnum and fired at the undead creature's vitals until it stopped moving. He kept firing at it, every bullet hitting an important organ or artery until the clip ran dry. The hammer clicked against the chamber twice, but fired nothing, signaling an empty clip. He lowered the magnum and just started at the re-dead monstrosity.
"What is that thing?" John asked.
"Whatever it was, it isn't it now." Six said. "I think."
"Come on. We need to find Keyes. Now." John said urgently.
Six looked at the corpse. It was terrifying.
"Right. Alright, let's get moving." He said. They proceeded towards the radio transmission's location steadily, careful not to make too much noise in case there were more dangers awaiting them ahead.
As the two approached a new structure, larger than the last, the fog around them thinned eerily, making it a bit easier to see.
"Finally." Six said. "I can see again."
"So this is where the transmission was coming from, huh?" John said.
"I guess so. Wanna take point?"
"Okay. Watch my six, Six." John said. They walked up a wide, short ramp leading to the structure's entrance. Six walked up to the front door and opened it, checking inside. It was empty, quiet and cold. At the far side of the room stood an elevator platform, ready and waiting for them.
"Nothing in here except for the elevator over there." Six said.
"I guess we're going down, then." John said.
"Seems that way. Come on." Six replied, motioning John to follow. The two got on to the elevator and went deep down. Six wasn't getting the usual jitters that he got when he went underground, though. John noticed that, and spoke on it.
"I expected you to be shaking in your boots. You get over it already?" He asked.
Six looked at John. "Trust me. This time, it isn't the underground i'm worried about." He said.
The elevator came to a halt forty feet below ground, far outside of Six's comfort zone. He was too occupied with keeping an eye out to care, however, not wanting to encounter another one of the undead monsters that they had seen earlier.
The elevator doors opened up to a grisly sight. Bodies, Human and Covenant alike, were strewn about like ragdolls all over the room.
"Oh my God." Six said. Not only were whole bodies on the floor, but there were torsos, arms, legs and heads severed and alone in several areas of the room. Parts were missing from some of the corpses. Then, Six made the mistake of looking up.
There were pieces of people pinned and stuck to the ceiling, blood oozing from above.
"I'm glad I have a strong stomach." Six said. John just stared.
"No no no. No no no no no..." Something said in the back of the room. Six looked towards the noise, but saw nothing. John heard it too, and motioned for Six to follow. Guns raised, they slowly walked towards it.
A marine was huddled up in a ball under a pair of corpses. Six saw his foot moving under them and tried lifting one of the corpses. The marine burst out of the pile with a shotgun raised.
"Stay back! Stay back! You're not going to turn me into one of them! One of those things!" He said, aiming the shotgun at them. Six sand John both lowered their weapons.
"Hey, hey. Calm down." John said as he took a step forward. "We just-"
"I'll blow your goddamn brains out of your head if you take one more step! Get away!" The marine shouted.
"Relax! We aren't here to hurt you. We just want to talk." Six said. The marine lowered his weapon.
"Talk?"
"Yes. Where is the rest of your squad?" Six asked the marine.
"My squad... Sarge! Mendoza! Bisenti! Oh god, those things took them. No no no... and they almost took me, too." He said, his head in his hands. "But I hid. I played dead, and they, they couldn't find me." He continued, smiling. His smile suddenly became a look of fear again. "Find your own hiding spot! If you don't hide somewhere else, then they'll find me! They... they..."
"Hold on, slow down. Who will find you? Who is 'they'?" Six asked.
"The monsters! The green monsters. They come back from the dead and they never stop, they never ever stop. Always hunting, always feeding." He said. He suddenly started sobbing. "The... the monsters!" He cried.
"Relax. Just relax. You're going to be alright. Just calm down, and-"
"NO! I'M NOT GOING TO LET THEM GET ME!" He screamed. He put his shotgun up to his chin.
"No, NO!" Six yelled. The marine pulled the trigger and blew his brains all over the wall. His helmet flew off of his head and he crumpled to the ground in a bloody heap.
"Son of a bitch!" Six said.
"He was too far gone. There was nothing we could have done." John said.
Six sighed, realizing that John was right. "Come on. Let's go find whoever 'Them' is. Maybe we can find Keyes along the way." John said.
"I really hope that he's still alive." Six said.
"Me too, Six. Me too." John replied as they walked across the room and in to the next one.
The tension is rising!
I will now update this fanfic with 1000-2000 word chapters every 3-5 days. I know that I hadn't updated as much as I wanted to earlier in the month, but I have several totally 100% legitimate excuses as to why this was.
- I am lazy.
- I have no inspiration.
-I play Xbox all day
Anyways, I hope that everyone notices that my life is super important (sarcasm) and that life merits importance (fact).
Happy reading, Wolfgang!
~Husky