Chapter 4

Rod's POV

"I asked you guys what that is!" I said raising my voice. Panic started to well up inside of me.

"We don't know. Can you please lower your voice?" The Doctor asked franticly. "We're trying as hard as we can. It might just be a close up on some bacteria."

"What! That has to be some big bacteria. I can see just as well as you can the outline of my bone." I sat up in my chair and starred wide eyed at the tentacle thing in my arm. "It's getting bigger!" I said in a really high squeaky voice.

"Shut up and let us work!" One of the nurses shouted.

"We're going to have amputate your arm off to stop the spreading." Another said.

"You will not!" I said taking my eyes off the screen and looking at the doctor. "I'll sue you!"

Out of no where a crash rippled through the air. I let out a little girl shriek.

"What was that?" I asked looking around.

"I don't know. Will you please be quiet?" The doctor said. "Alright it was probably just a crate falling over or something."

"I want out now!" I said panicking. Stay calm, Rod stay calm. I know- I will make a break for the door. If they don't even know what the weird algae stuff is then what's the point of staying here. But where will I go . . . I know. I will go and ask the policemen! They know everything. While the Doctors were arguing I raced for the door.

"Hey kid. Wait. Stop!" One of the docs said. There was another bang and then a load roar.

"Oh shiz!" I moaned

A giant monster that looked like the outline I saw at the school came exploding through the wall. Then it did the scariest thing ever…. It spoke.

"Stop where you stand!" It screeched. The voice was raspy and like fingernails on a chalk board. "You've been infested. Your one of us now." It cackled

"Not yet he ain't!" A voice came from down the hall. The monster looked back at him. The guy was in a big orange metal suit and had huge metallic shoulders. Almost like a football outfit. A flame thrower was attached to the end of his arm. I decided that he was on my side, maybe a certain kind of police man. I took off toward him. I heard the monster pursuing me. The moment I passed the big orange metal man he fired his flamethrowers at the giant snake like monster. It let out a horrifying screech and was now burning to a crisp.

"That there was a hydralisk," He said. In a deep scorched voice. "Hurry we have to now get back to our temporary base. They are after you because you have been infested; don't worry though we'll take care of that." He grabbed my arm and took off down the hall.

"Where is the base? Who are you? Where did that thing come from?" I asked as he pulled me right through the wall. I then just plopped all the questions in my head out. "Hey how'd you do that? You just crashed right through the wall. What's going on?"

"Shut it kid. All your questions will be answered when we get back to base. Before you ask, it's at some school." The orange metal man said. We crashed through another wall and fell to the ground, then sprung up and kept on sprinting. There was a load growling that came out of no where.

"What was that?" I asked

"Crap! Zerglings are speeding toward us as we speak." Orange man said.

"What are those?" I asked again.

"They are really fast little varmints that tare a couple of stray wonderers up into a few pieces of bird food!" He said losing patients. "I could take on a ten or twelve, but not as many that are hurtling toward us."

"Were going to die," I wined.
"Oh please how old are you, five? Suck it up and help me think of a plan."

"Ok how 'bout if we get some poor soul lying on the ground and feed him to them as we slip away. They will be to busy eating that guy to notice us. I like it." I said smiling. I knew the answer though, he would laugh and say that there was no one around.

Orange man burst into a bundle of laughs. "Yeah okay do you see any one around?" He said. "Stupid teenager, think serious."

The noises were getting louder. The ground was starting to rumble.

"Okay now . . . Ugh! I can't think of anything." He started to slow down and then began coughing. "Man running out of breath. Quick, hide behind that green garbage can."

I obeyed. He suddenly fell down next to me.

"Okay I'm calling for back up. We might be able to hide here before they find us. You need to be extremely careful, sense you have been infested; they can track you easily. By the way what's your name?" Orange man asked.

"Uh . . . Rod Lifferjingle. Yours?" I asked

"Jackson Mapple."

"Wait . . . you don't think my name is funny? Everyone laughs at it."

"Really? Your name is quite normal to what I've heard."

"Oh, Well-."

"Shh! Zerglings. Just around the corner." Jackson hissed "Get ready to run." He pulled out some kind of bomb. It was round and had a big smiley face on it. Suddenly he pressed the smiley face and threw it behind him. There was a yelping roar and then a ka-boom! "GO!"

I took off running like never ran before. Apparently I was to slow for Jackson because he lifted me from the ground and took off sprinting at full speed. We cut around a corner at the top of the street and ran straight down it. I could see the school on the left side of the lane. But there were a bunch of other buildings around it and one blocking the street.

"That there is a bunker" Jackson said. It was curved at the top and big enough to fit about three of Jacksons in it. There were four right triangular metal support pieces coming out on all sides, one right in front of it, two on the sides as well as one in the back. I guess its all about the angle you look at it. The bunker also had four square holes above the triangles. I guess for shooting out of them. There were several others around the base. Like some blocking off streets. Different kinds of machines and people in armor were running around.

"Uh can I ask questions now?" I asked as he put me down to the side of the bunker. One building was just a big square with an entrance. It was more detailed like it had slits in it with lights blaring out. I then just realized that it should be around three o'clock.

"After we give you a tour of the base. You will be living here for a while, whether you like it or not. You are now a part of this whole situation. Welcome to the orange terran Rod Lifferjingle." Jackson said as a couple of dudes in white armor came walking up to me. They had giant shields that were orange and had a big hospital sign on them. They had a golden glass thing covering there face. The armor looked similar to Jacksons, except smaller and no awesome flamethrower hooked to the arm.

They had little hand held GPS like things in their hands. One started talking.

"So this is the little runt who got infested," I could tell it was a girl voice. The rudeness in her tone shocked me. I didn't expect a crude comment. "I'm just kidding kid."

A green beam came from the GPS thing and my arm started to feel better and wound closed up. I starred in shocked silence. Then out of no where she pulled out a big, and I mean big, fat needle; and shoved it in my shoulder.

"GAHH!" I yelled in agony.

"What you never seen a healing laser before? Pff, or a cure needle" The other one laughed in a sort of sarcastic tone. Also a girl. "Okay you're ready to see the boss. He actually came here! Can you believe it?"

"Aw, ow." I mumbled. "Uck, what's so big about the boss being here anyway? I mean where would he be. On Jupiter? Heh heh . . . heh." I stopped laughing when I saw how they weren't making the slightest sort of movement to show that it was funny. "Oookay . . ."

"Come on Rod, let's go" Jackson said as he pulled me along.

"So are we doing the tour first or meeting your boss?" I asked when Jackson let me walk on my own.

"The boss of course." Jackson said. We approached a building that was like the rectangular structure except was a square and had supports like the bunker on each corner. There was a line going across the building with light coming out of it. It was on the grass in front of the parking lot. "This is the Barracks. It's where we train and make armor for marines, marauders, reapers, medics, fire bats like me, and we make suits for ghosts. They get trained in the ghost academy. You have to be real good to make that class."

"Oh. Okay." I said as we entered the Barracks. As we walked in I saw machines making armor on one side of the barracks and on the other side people being trained, most of them in suits. There was one who had some sort of jet pack and a couple gas tanks hooked to him. The jet pack was flaring. He then started to rise slowly, but then he was flung into the air and slammed into the roof about twenty feet up. The jet pack dude was soaring through the air right toward them. Jackson lunged at him and hit the gas tank, or a button on the gas tank, which made the jet pack blow out and resulted in a crash to the floor. Poor jet pack dude slammed into the wall. Jackson helped him up.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah I'm still learning, just got pulled into this mess."

"Ah," Jackson said as he walked back to me. The two medics were already talking to some guy across the room. They walked back to us and said that the boss left the barracks and went into the Battle Cruiser.

"Battle what!?" I asked as they took me outside to where a ship was flying in the air. It almost looked like a hammerhead shark's head. It looked like there was a neck then the head of the hammerhead. The back went out like the head and was in the shape of a larger rectangle. Like something off of star wars or star trek. It wasn't as big as you'd first assume. Maybe as long as a football field and about three stories tall.

"Okay, looks like were going up there." Jackson said.

"Oh no, no, no just the newbie." The first medic said. "By the way my name is Teresa Treeton."

"Now wait a second! Jackson is to coming up with me. We were like born for this moment." I said putting my scrawny arm around his back or at least halfway across it.

"Ha, ha yeah funny. Just go with Teresa and you'll be fine. I'll answer all your questions after the tour when you get back, okay buddy." Jackson said patting my back, which almost pushed me over. "Unless of course we get an early attack from the Zerg."

"Yeah, sure," I replied drooping my shoulders.

"Look, don't worry. Boss is a fun guy . . . . really or at least to rookies anyway. Good luck." Jackson said walking away with a couple other fire bats.

"Okay, now all aboard the medivac." Teresa said "hey cheer up pall. Boss ain't gunna kill yeh. He's a good guy . . . On his good days."

I hired my head a bit to look her in the eyes. Fortunately her golden face mask was raised. She had red hair and blue eyes. Her hair came down to her neck, for what I could see. Wait the . . . the perfume. S-s-strawberries. And then at the worst moment possible, the climax of my life, the one part where I might have a bit of fun . . . I screamed.