Hello, everyone! On the 16th, when I was supposed to upload this, my computer had a meltdown and I had to let it cool down for a few days before I could post it. At the same time, my tablet was acting up, and it does this weird thing where it won't turn on at random times, even when at full charge. Regardless, I hope you all enjoy this newest chapter of WINSS!

Happy reading!

"Shh!" Six said suddenly.

"What?" John asked.

"...Never mind. I thought I heard something." Six replied. "I guess it was nothing."

They were still inside of the facility, and the power hadn't come back on, meaning that there was no backup generator. Ever since they had watched the recording just a few minutes prior, Six had tried to pay a lot more attention to his surroundings. Once or twice, they had heard noises above and around them. The two were wary of the new threat that they had discovered, and were both determined to get out alive.

Each step that they took echoed down the corridor loudly, not from how hard they stepped but from the lack of noise other than them. It was too quiet.

A nearby pipeline that was running across the wall exploded loudly in front of them, startling Six, who had been taking point at the time. They both raised their guns at the billowing cloud of hot steam that was now shooting out in front of them, but nothing appeared along with the scalding vapor to surprise them.

"Geez..." Six said. Six and John crouched under the steam and kept moving forward, anxious. As they approached a room near the end of the hall, the whole hallway shook. More pipes burst around them, filling the corridor with thick steam clouds.

"Whoa!" Six yelled as he became unbalanced. "What is this, some kind of earthquake?"

"I don't know." John replied. The shaking subsided for the moment, but a new rumbling began, this time further down the hall. Six could see condensation forming on his visor. He tried to wipe it off, but the metal of his glove and robotic hand provided no help to unfog his sight.

"They need to put window wipers on these things." Six said jokingly. John said nothing in response.

"Alright let's..." Six said, trailing off. The rumbling noise began to grow louder. The ground once again shook beneath Six's feet, and ceiling panels became loose above him. The loud sound of metal tearing echoed through the hall. The sound repeated, closer now. It took Six a moment to realize that the doors lining the corridor were being torn open.

"Six, what is that noise?" John asked. "It sounds like something is coming."

"I don't think that we should stick around to find out." Six replied.

The steam blew out of the pipeline harder, pushing Six to the side. He reached out behind him, grabbing John by the shoulder, and pulled him forward. "Come on." Six said.

The pitter-patter of tiny feet sounded behind them. It sounded just like the small creatures that attacked Keyes and the squad in the recording.

"Alright, move your ass!" Six said to John, breaking into a sprint. John followed closely behind.

As they broke through the cloud of steam, the two Spartans reached the end of the hallway. The doorway at the end was an elevator, but it wasn't operating correctly. Six called the elevator multiple times, but it wouldn't budge.

"Get the doors. I've got your back." Six said. John walked up to the doors and began to pry them open as Six aimed down the hallway. The tiny footsteps emanating from down the hall were very close now. Any second, and the creatures would be upon them.

"KYYYACHHK!" Something screeched from above. Six whipped his DMR upwards, towards the ceiling, knocking a ceiling panel out of the way as it fell. Another one of the undead creatures that they had seen in the forest, this one not Sangheili, but Human, was now falling down towards him. It had large, swordlike arms, and in was plunging down at Six. He rolled to the side, the monster just barely missing him. Six looked up at the new threat. Behind the monster, John had just finished prying the doors open to the elevator.

"Klkllrrkikikikik..." It snarled, making sickening clicking noises as it turned to Six.

"Move it, John!" Six shouted. John rolled out of the way elevator shaft as Six kicked the creature full force through the now opened doors. It screeched as it was launched five feet backwards and down the shaft.

The tiny creatures from the recording were now upon them, jumping all over the two. Six fired his DMR repeatedly, killing several, but not many. John batted them off of himself with his free hand as he fired at clusters of them on the ground with his assault rifle, killing many more than Six had.

"We need to climb up the elevator shaft!" Six yelled. They couldn't fight through the tiny creatures, as there were too many. He ran full speed ahead and leapt across, clearing the empty space that was the shaft, and grabbed the ladder on the other side. "Jump! I've got your hand!"

John fired the rest of his clip, knocked one of the small creatures off of himself, turned and jumped towards Six. With no running start, he just barely grabbed Six's hand. He grabbed the ladder with his free hand, let go of Six's, and the two began to climb.

"Six?!" John said.

"Yeah?!"

"They're following us!"

Six looked below them. Several of the larger creatures, the undead Humans and Sangheili, were trying to clear the gap. Six watched as four of the disgusting things made the jump and started climbing on the ladder below them.

Wait. They weren't using the ladder.

They were climbing the wall.

"Shit! Double time, John!" Six yelled, speeding up in his climbing. He dared to look down again, and saw a wave of the creatures, at least a dozen, jumped over the gap and latched on to the wall as well. He tried to move even faster when he saw this. When he looked back up, however, there was a new obstacle coming at them.

"Are those sparks?" Six said. "Shit. I think that's the elevator! And it's coming down!"

The two were almost to the next exit for the elevator, a door several floors above where they started, but the elevator was coming down fast. Just a few more yards, and...

Six grabbed the ledge with an iron grip, and began to pull himself up on the ledge, his robotic arm hanging free for John to grab. John grunted as he pulled himself up, but something pulled him down. Six lost his grip and fell, grabbing on to the rung on the ladder below the edge.

"One of those Sangheili things is on my leg!" John said. Six looked below John and saw that, indeed, one of them was latched on to John, and it was pulling hard. Six pulled as hard as he could, but the combined weight of the Sangheili and John was a little more than he expected. Six had lifted ordinary Sangheili above his head before. Something about these creatures' ability to possess the dead made them a lot heavier.

"The elevator is just a few seconds from hitting us! Do you have a plan?!" John said.

"Kind of. Try to shoot it with your magnum!"

John unholstered his handgun and fired at the creature. After four shots, it fell. There were even more coming, and the elevator was all but right on top of them. In the time span of half of a second, he came up with the most stupidly brilliant plan that he had ever had. If he could get them both up and over through the doors, then the elevator would crush the creatures below them.

"Stop shooting at them!" Six shouted. As John was distracted and looked up at him, Six threw John up and over, through the opened elevator doors.

"Six!" John yelled as he rolled through the doors. Just as he was about to reach up to the ledge himself, the elevator hit Six just as he extended his hand. Great. Now, he had to improvise. He used his robotic arm arm to push on the elevator, slowing it down to almost a full stop. He grabbed on to the bar on the bottom of the elevator and began to punch a hole in the bottom. Just as he made a hole in the floor, an infected Human grabbed his leg. Six started stretching the width of the space that he had created, but then, another creature grabbed on to the one below him. The weight was heavy, but he started pulling himself up. He pulled his DMR and shot the top creature directly between the eyes, causing the rest of them to fall. Dozens upon dozens more of them were climbing up, however, and Six was almost grabbed again before he pulled himself up. He kneeled down at the hole and began pressing it closed before he jumped up and punched the emergency exit open. As he was about to climb out, the elevator started moving again. He pulled himself up, and grabbed on to the nearest ledge, which happened to be the ladder. The elevator fell quickly from the combined weight of all of the creatures, effectively killing them by knocking them off or crushing them. Six looked down, then looked up at John. Then looked down again.

"You just saw that, right?" Six said.

"You're nuts." John replied.

Six simply chuckled. "You know, I had to improvise a bit." He said, pulling himself up. "It isn't the craziest plan I've ever come up with."

"I fear for your sanity." John said jokingly.

"Alright. I guess that we need to find a new way out of here." Six said as John helped pull him up.

"Seems that way." John replied.

"Well, come on. There's bound to be another way out." Six said as they walked along the new corridor.

They walked along in silence for a while, but then something happened.

"Hey, the lights turned back on!" Six said. "Awesome. Maybe we can find another elevator."

"I'd prefer stairs, thanks." John said.

The two walked down the corridor in search of a new way up, but little did they know, they hadn't even begun.

P.S.

To whoever the guest is that keeps posting reviews for every single chapter, I appreciate that you enjoy the story, but you need to stop spamming my inbox. Nothing against you, just chill out a bit.

Peace out for now, Wolfgang!

~Husky