Authors note: Got the next chapter up now. I was originally going to make this fight seem bad ass, but I did the same thing with the motel fight and it came out as more brutal and fucked up than awesome when I wrote it out, especially since the Gene Worms can be pretty damn violent. If you want this fight to be cooler, go listen to a certain Half Life 2 ost called "Self Destruction", I think it fits the situation in the tunnel. Other than that, enjoy the new chapter.
Chapter 15: Crossfire
O-O-O
The soldiers opened fire on the crowd in front, making the human group gallop their horses to cover from the hail of bullets, luckily for them, the soldiers were getting more hits on the Gene Worms and their horde rather than them, but although they were alive, the horses were not, since they took the bullets for the humans as they fell over in pain from the mass hail of bullets, or from the charging horde that managed to take down the horses to bit and tear them apart, making the fallen humans crawl quickly to the sides of the road to the broken cars for cover, separating the group as the twins, Soos, and Nate were on the left side of the road while Wendy and Lee were further behind on the left, stuck due to the hail of bullets by the Sleg troops and the charging Gene Worm horde.
It was more fortunate for the humans that the charging horde concentrated their focus on the Sleg soldiers instead of them, determining them to be the greater threat as they screeched and screamed while they charged, their bodies hitting the ground dead as bullets pierced through their skulls, while the Gene Worms themselves were blown away in bloody green messes as the impact of the bullets were enough to kill them, the humans were just caught in a cross fire, with one side of Slegs gunning down anyone in their way, while the horde on the other just kept running as fast as they could, covering the whole road as they leaped over the cars, just missing the humans hiding in cover.
"FUCK THEM UP!" Shouted Zaz, blasting open large holes in the horde members, combinations of green and red blood splattered across the ground and cars.
"How many are there?!" Exclaimed Meeko, wanting the horde to end their charge while getting a few good shots to one of the charging Slegs.
"Too fucking many!" Answered Jorg, spraying as many bullets as possible at the horde to slow their advance.
While the Slegs kept holding their ground, the humans were still stuck in cover, unable to move from the hails of gunfire.
"Oh my god! I can't do this!" Shouted Mabel, now panicking from the mass chaos of gunfire, screams, and dead bodies falling down as she covered her ears. "I'm fucking terrified!"
Dipper held his sister close to him, trying to calm her down while the firefight went on, but it didn't help when one body of a human horde victim fell dead, its body crashing into a car window close to the twins as Mabel screamed in terror, as the body twitched and out came one of the Gene Worms from the corpse's head, bursting out from its ear and crawled down to the twins, while Soos grabbed the worm and flung it towards the Slegs, who easily shot the worm dead.
"We got to get the fuck out of here!" Exclaimed Dipper to Nate.
"Wait until they stop shooting! Then we run back!" Answered Nate.
"Are you crazy!?" Exclaimed Soos, taking out his gun to defend the group.
"Any other ideas!?" Exclaimed Nate, readying his AK-47 for defense as well.
It was a suicide mission in every way, the group can't run towards the soldiers or else they would get shot, and running back meant they could get attacked by a few Gene Worms who might decide to go after them instead, and waiting in cover to see who would win is not a good idea either, since either side would kill them. So the group had to take their chances to run back towards to horde to Wendy and Lee, who were now defending themselves from some Gene Worms who decided to go after them instead.
Wendy and Lee were thankful that not many worms went after them, as Wendy had an easy time chopping up any worm that got too close to her and Lee, who got out his rifle in case something bigger came their way, while looking above him in shock to see Gene Worms swinging across the ceiling.
"Wendy!" Exclaimed lee, motioning Wendy to look up and see the Gene Worms above.
"Just don't shoot them! We don't need any more on our ass!" Exclaimed Wendy, as another Gene Worm on ground leaped towards her head, only for her to hit the worm with her hatchet blade and almost chopped its body in half, as it squirmed on the ground dying from the fatal wound.
The gunfire then subsided, for many of the Sleg soldiers had to reload, giving the humans the chance to run from out of cover and towards the horde, avoiding any of the charging horde who had more of a desire to kill the Slegs, which was quite strange for the Gene Worms to ignore anything in their path, while a few Slegs still opened fire on the horde, the lack of fire from the rest of the soldiers only helped the horde get closer to the Slegs for by the time they reloaded, the soldiers knew they had to make every shot count or risk getting mauled, while failing to notice the Gene Worms from above as the worms plunged down onto the Slegs, ignoring the humans who were far beyond reach as they managed to successfully run away from the crossfire.
"Look out!" Shouted Vek, warning everyone about the dropping worms.
While most of the soldiers reacted quickly to step back while moving back from their defensive positions, three Slegs failed to step away in time as the worms swarmed around their bodies, piercing through their clothing with their pincers as the unfortunate soldiers tried shaking them off, but to no avail as the worms crawled under their clothing, making the soldiers panic while failing to notice the horde charging at them, with one soldiers getting his throat ripped off by their sharp teeth, another had his body slashed apart in gory fashion by their claws, the last victim had his arms torn off from his body, as he screamed in pain from the tear until eventually getting his head torn off from the brute strength of a Guanian horde member, who then threw the head at the direction of the soldiers who were backing up, frightening Selick who was the closest to the thrown head.
"Three men down! Back up! Back up!" Ordered the Sargent, as the Slegs moved backwards while shooting, gunning down anyone getting to close to them as he shot the Guanian who threw the head in his head respectively.
"Come on, you slimy fucks! Come on!" Shouted Brok, taunting the horde as he shot each one running towards him, blowing off limbs in bloody fashion until he ran out of shells, but that wouldn't be a problem for Brok as he began engaging the horde in melee combat. "Come at me!"
Brok had two of the horde members come at him, one human and the other Gecken, screaming off the top of their lungs as they readied their claws to gut him, but Brok managed to hit the human in the head by swinging his shotgun like a baseball bat, cracking open its skull while the Gecken grabbed his gun, throwing it on the ground as Brok quickly pulled out his combat knife and stabbed the Gecken in the head, killing it instantly as Brok prepared for more of the horde to take on and let out a mighty roar of bloodlust.
The rest of the soldiers kept their fire, thinning the horde down with each shot but not without casualties, every few shots that missed, a soldier would die, as a Guanian soldier too close to a human horde member swiped its claws at the soldier's lower torso, easily piercing through the combat armor as it sliced open the soldier's stomach as he groaned in pain, falling down to his side as he tried holding in his intestines from spilling out, while another poor Gecken victim close behind was tackled down to the ground, and had a Guanian horde member smash his head open, crushing it into a bloody mess while Zaz shot too little, too late to save the poor soldier.
"Fuck! We lost almost half our guys!" Said Zaz, as the Guanian horde member tried mauling Zaz, only for the soldier to dodge the Guaninan and knock him down, blasting its head open with the last slug in his shotgun.
"Just keep firing! They're almost gone!" Ordered Vek, noticing that there were not many horde members left to kill while the Gene Worms started to crawl away from the soldiers, though to no avail as Brok managed to get his gun back and gun down any Gene Worm crawling away from ahead of the squad.
Selick was not too far behind from Brok, as one of the horde members, a human, tackled Selick down who did not expect one of the creatures to get him from the side as he dropped his gun held the horde member away from him, struggling to kick him off while reaching for his knife, as the horde member screamed something audible for Selick to understand, which terrified the young Gecken even more. It would have been over for Selick if Vek did not come to save him, as he kicked away the human horde member off of Selick and put a few bullets in his skull, splattering meat chunks on the ground as he helped Selick up.
"You okay, kid?" Asked Vek, concerned for the rookie, who nodded in response as he gave the rookie his assault rifle from the ground. "Be careful next time, won't you?"
"Yes, sir." Said Selick, out of breath as he looked around the aftermath of the chaos, as the last of the surviving Gene Worms were killed.
All Selick could see was the bloody aftermath of the fight. Several Gene Worms busted apart from gunfire, splattering green blood and guts while the horde members spilled their green and red blood on the ground, their bodies riddled with bullets, their heads either shot or blown apart by shotguns, and some limbs scattered across the ground, while his fellow soldiers who had fallen looked like they suffered worse fates, and looked away quickly so he would not see their mangled and mutilated bodies. They may have not been on his team, but he still felt bad that they died, as he leaned against a car and took off his mask, and covered his face as he tried to calm himself from the bloody aftermath.
"Rookie?" Said Vek, noticing Selick's displeasure of the whole situation, while the Sargent ordered the rest of his squad to make sure there were no Gene Worms left.
"What the fuck was this?" Said Selick softly, trying to comprehend what just happened.
"A bloodbath." Answered Vek. "It's not pretty, I know. But this kind of thing happens when we deal with Gene Worms."
Selick just shook his head, putting his rifle on the trunk of the car as he wiped his hands across his face to calm down, while staring at one of the dead horde members. "What happened to them?"
"Gene Worms can do nasty things to a person." Said Brok, his armor covered in the blood of the creatures, coming back from chasing down the rest of the worms. "All they need to do is get in your brain, and you're gone."
Selick uncovered his hand to face Brok. "But I heard them scream."
"They always scream." Said Brok, not understanding what Selick meant by that.
"But they were screaming in pain." Said Selick, trying to keep his composure. "I swear to the gods, the one that tackled me down. I heard him scream "kill me, please." I don't think they really are gone."
The soldiers just stayed silent, as the rest of Vek's team along with the Sargent walked over to the rest, while checking the dead bodies for any sign of Gene Worms, putting bullets into each body to make sure that Gene Worms were not inside.
"Where's the rest of them?" Asked the Sargent to Vek, talking about the other team.
"Dead. Their bodies are all over the place. About six casualties." Said Vek morbidly, while Zaz cursed to himself from hearing that.
"Six? I only see five" Said the Sargent, confused if the casualty number was right before Vek pointed at a pile of torn bloody chunks in the distance.
"You see that? That was a soldier we didn't notice die in the front, or at least what's left of him." Said Vek, making the Sargent almost gag in disgust. "Poor bastard never had a chance."
"By the gods." Said Selick, briefly seeing the bloody pile before turning away.
"And the humans?" Asked the Sargent, which touched a nerve on Zaz. "Any sign of them?"
"No sir, we-
"The humans? We just lost six men to these fuckers and you want to know about the humans!?" Interrupted Zaz, angry at the Sargent's question. "Fuck the humans!"
"Private. Stand down now." Said the Sargent sternly.
"No fucking way I'm standing down!" Shouted Zaz angrily. "If we just waited for the Q-team, those men wouldn't have died!"
"We had strict orders to move in immediately. Either you stand down now, or you'll be court martialed for insubordination." Threatened the Sargent, who then turned to Vek. "Corporal. Take two men with you to sweep the area for Gene Worms, the rest of you stay put until the Q-team arrives in two minutes."
The Sargent then walked away to the tunnel entrance to wait for the Q-team, while Vek patted Selick on his shoulders to assure him that everything was fine now, as he walked away to check the dead bodies with Brok and Jorg, while Meeko leaned on the car next to Selick, as Zaz took his rage out on a dead Gene Worm nearby by stomping it, furious at the chaos they caused.
"This isn't the first time this happened." Said Meeko grimly to Selick, who faced Meeko with a clearly traumatized look. "We've been sent to this kind of situation before and lost a lot of people that way."
"Do you ever get used to it?" Asked Selick.
"Everyone has their own ways of dealing with these situations. Zaz usually vents his anger on things." Said Meeko, pointing to Zaz who finished stomping on the worm to oblivion and panted heavily. "Others just keep to themselves like me. But no matter how many times we do this, we never do get used to it. We just… deal with it and move on."
Selick covered his face again, close to the brink of crying as Meeko patted on Selick's shoulder to comfort the young Gecken.
While the few minutes had passed, Vek and his two teammates returned from their sweep at the same time the Sargent came back to the tunnel, this time with the Q-team that should have been there earlier. The Q-team soldiers had the same outfits as the regular soldiers, but had pure white uniforms instead of forest green camo and were thicker than ordinary clothing, due to the uniform being some kind of special hazmat suit of sorts, and they also lacked helmets while having a more heavily armored gas mask with a green lens and did not have a tactical vest, but other than that, they looked similar. They were also equipped with some kind of flamethrowers attached to twin fuel tanks on their backs, ready to initiate the decontamination procedure of the area to purge the rest of the Gene Worms, while taking no risks of infection and to burn EVERY single body they found.
Before they began burning the area, Jorg suggested that the best way to honor the fallen soldiers was to take their dog tags before leaving so that they would know who had fallen, as the rest of the soldiers did just that before the Q-team burned the bodies, while rooting out any other surviving Gene Worm from the tunnel as the surviving soldiers watched from behind and went back to their dropship for wherever they needed to go, staying silent on the whole trip.
Today was not a good day.
O-O-O
While the Slegs were busy cleaning up, the humans regrouped with each other as they kept running to the other side of the tunnel, without any horses since they were killed in the firefight, and were running because there were still a few Gene Worms and a few infected horde members running after them. Luckily, the group managed to reach the other side and exit the dark tunnel, back into the light of day as the Gene Worm horde stopped right outside the tunnel, as they growled and hissed at the humans, who just stared at them in shock and terror, until the creatures turned away from them and retreated back into their tunnel.
"Oh my god." Said Dipper, panting heavily as he turned to face Wendy. "What the fuck were those things?"
"Gene Worms." Said Wendy venomously. "Parasites if you couldn't tell. But to everyone else… they're monsters."
"Why didn't they attack us now?" Asked Soos, confused as to why the Gene Worms went back to the tunnel.
"Territory." Answered Wendy. "That tunnel might their territory now."
While everyone caught their breath, Mabel sat down on the ground and began crying her eyes out from the terror she witnessed, as Dipper went over to her to calm her down.
"Mabel?" Asked Dipper, concerned about Mabel's wellbeing.
"Did- did you hear them?" Asked Mabel, wheezing in between while tears streaked down her face. "They were in pain. So much pain."
"Mabel, they were-
"I know what I heard!" Shouted Mabel at her brother, mad at him for not believing her. "They were doing horrible things to those Slegs, and they hated it, they hated it so much and were screaming in pain."
Dipper then helped Mabel up, while Wendy cursed to herself at what happened.
"It's gonna be tougher to get back to base now." Pointed out Wendy. "The horses back there had most of our supplies."
"We can still make it, right?" Asked Dipper, not wanting hope to be lost forever.
"We can." Said Wendy, assuring hope was not lost. "We just need to survive the old fashioned way."
The group then faced the direction of the road they were on and continued onward, now facing a tougher challenge to move ahead and recover from the Gene Worm attack.
"We're not going to see them again, are we?" Asked Soos.
Wendy just stayed silent, not answering Soos's question as Mabel cried silently to herself, with Dipper putting an arm around her for comfort as the group walked, even more cautious of their surroundings since they lost almost everything they had except what was on them.
All that was left was hope.
O-O-O
Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls, but I do own the Slegs, my Sleg characters, and the Gene Worms.