Chapter 13
Rod's POV
I sprinted down the road, away from all the zombies. Terror filled my spine as one blew out from beneath me, sending me rolling across the asphalt.
The monster dove at me. I lunged out of the way and sprang to my feet. The infested colonist grabbed my leg, making me fall on my face. I kicked outward. A satisfying crack sounded from his nose. It let go. I took the opportunity to get up and run.
At the end of the street stood a huge temple with gigantic pillars. I took off toward it in hope that it would provide an escape from the monsters. It is sacred . . . right? That should keep the infested away. I hope.
I approached the monastery. I hesitated after hearing an ear splitting roar coming from behind me. I dashed inside the darkened room. I could hear water dripping off in the distance. The darkness seamed to engulf me in its thickness. Moss hung on the pillars around me. The place had a very humid feel to it. I looked down to see water forming on my arms. A cold breeze lifted the dust off the ground and into my face. Ahead of me was a long corridor disappearing into the blackness. I slowly stepped forward. The deadly screaming was the only thing pushing me on. The corridor opened up into a huge room with pillars aligning the cobblestone walls.
There was a small goblet on the end of a staff in the middle of the chamber. I walked up to the cup and looked inside. Water slushed around in the middle of it, even though there was no movement anywhere.
"Hmm. . ." I mumbled. I reached down to pick it up. A loud crash, exploded from the wall in front of me. A gigantic monster the size of the room itself smashed through the barrier. It had six long jagged legs, and was plated like the rest of the Zerg. Its head was a flat plate with three four feet long teeth coming from under it. The monster had two long arms that ended in a sharp claw. It let out a ferocious scream, and smashed the rest of the way through the wall.
"Aaaah!" I yelled, and darted in the opposite direction. I could hear it spring forward in pursuit. The temple shook as it let out another terrible roar. The pillars on the sides fell as the monster shoved its way through the corridor. The Zerg was tearing everything to pieces as it ran at me. The whole temple trembled and began to fall.
The exit seemed so far away. I ran harder. The door was getting closer, but I tripped on the red carpet, falling back on my face. I looked up to see a part of the ceiling fall. Rolling over it hit where I had been moments earlier. Jumping up I made my way to the door, the monster still on my tail. The beast lurched forward knocking down more of the sanctuary. I burst through the exit and ran down the steps. I turned around to see the Zerg monstrosity crash through the front of the temple, as the rest of it tumbled to the ground.
I sprinted away when I heard someone yell at me from my left, I twisted to see a very annoyed Crip charging straight at me. The others weren't far behind, firing at the massive creature.
"What are you doing, standing there like an idiot?" Crip yelled, throwing me my weapon I had dropped previously. "Take your gun and blow that things head off!"
I obeyed and turned to shoot at the Zerg.
"Tenny, this is useless; we can't take on a Brutalisk," Derk yelled. The monster shook its head and then threw itself at us.
"Well then let's get the heck out of here," he replied. "Crip, throw a charge and let's leave!"
"Heh heh, okay." Crip growled. He reached down and pulled a device off his suit. We all ran the opposite direction as the explosive hit the ground. Sprinting into another building we heard a brutal yell, shake the ground. Loud thumping noises followed as the angry beast stomped away. We all to let out a long sigh of relief.
"Well that was exciting," Leary said.
"Pff you can say that again," Mark said.
"Hold up guys, if we can kill that Brutalisk, that will give us more than enough biomass to take back to Clement," Tenny said.
"Now wait a second, I was told that we had to kill the colonists that had infested particles on them. It would be a lot easier to kill a couple more infested then to fight a giant monster," Leary said. "I don't want to go on a suicidal mission to kill a Brutalisk that is well above our level of combat."
"Ahh stop being a baby. I'm going to start calling you Rod number two," Crip growled.
"Um guys, I was chased down a collapsing hallway by that thing. I don't want to go anywhere near it," I said shivering at the thought of being chewed up by the monstrosity.
"Man you guys are a bunch of wimps," Mark said, throwing up his arms.
"Well now wait a second Leary has a point. We don't want to over commit just because we want to leave quicker. Let's at least think this through," Tenny said.
"What is there to think about? The thing is slower than tar, all we have to do is have someone dance back and forth with it, while the others blast the snot out of it," Derk said, standing up from his crouching position.
"You really think it is that easy? What are our bullets going to do against its five feet thick plating? It will take five of Crip's charges just to tickle it," Leary argued.
"I have an idea, how 'bout you guys find its week spot?" I asked.
"See that is the thing about the Zerg, they don't have weak spots," Leary said.
"Oh for the love of all the Xelnaga, will you all just pick a blasted side!" Crip cursed angrily. "One moment Tenny wants to fight, the next he doesn't. Rod starts to cry first thing, now he's ready to battle. Just make up your minds! Now I am going to go and teach this piece of crap whose boss and I don't care who's coming with me, but I know for dang sure I will not stand to let some Zerg get the best of me!"
And with that, Crip lit his jet pack, let out an ear splitting war cry and was over the brick wall chasing after the Brutalisk. We all sat stunned and speechless, until Derk broke the silence.
"For the Orange Terran!" he yelled and ran after Crip, followed by Mark, yelling and screaming.
"Curse my life," Tenny said and sprinted after the others.
"Well come on then," Leary said. I let out a long sigh then followed him.
When we finally caught up to the creature, Crip had already launched himself into combat with virtually now battle plan. I sighed, dispising what would come next. I quickly ran up through up an outside metal staircase that lead to a roof. The Brutalisk was in the middle of a town square type layout. Crip was flying toward it yelling and screaming gibberish. I stared in horror at the monster, thrusting its three story tall claws around.
"What are you doing just sitting there?!" Leary shouted.
"I don't know what to—" I started.
"I need you to go around to the far side of the Brutalisk. Once you get there run inside the large sky scraper and plant this charge inside. I want to crush this monster before someone gets killed," Leary said handing me the charge.
"Are you sure you don't want someone else with more skill to do this?" I asked.
"Well what else are you going to do? Stand there and look pretty. Now get a move on!"
I decided that arguing was pointless, so I turned and ran toward the large building. Pff. If freaking bullets can't penetrate the brute, what the crap is a structure ten feet taller than it going to do? I ignored my doubts and sprinted on.
Once I reached the tower I headed to what I thought was the middle of the building. I set the explosive down and called Leary through my helmet.
"Okay I'm here. Now what?" I asked. Leary's voice blasted through the speakers.
"Now is not the time!" he screamed. "Just push the dag nabbed button and run!"
I jumped at his harsh tone and then quickly pushed the big red button. It made a loud beeping noise, causing me to turn tail and ran. Jumping over a table I rolled out the door and sprinted away from the building. I looked sideways at the fight and saw Crip flying around the monster's head.
I turned to see an explosion come from the bottom of the sky scraper. It then collapsed… the wrong way. Dust instantly sprung from the ground and a massive cloud hit me, almost knocking me over. Immediately after, a painful blow hit the entire right half of my body. I was flung across the street and crashed into a bunch of rubble. Pain fumed from my body. I couldn't get up. Either I was too exhausted or there was some unseen force nailing me to the floor.
As I lied there gasping for breath, I looked up to see Derk lean over and yell something at me. I simply starred stupidly back at him until he lost patience and threw me over his shoulder.
There was no other sound but the ringing in my ears. My head throbbed and I felt like passing out. My body then hit the ground. I saw Derk in front of me again. His voice was faint, but getting louder. He ran over to the door way and motioned for me to follow him. It took all the energy I had, but I pulled myself up. The ringing began to fade and reality came flooding back in. Derk threw me a gun.
"You okay?" Derk yelled, firing his weapon at the Zerg. I stumbled over to him, raising my weapon.
"Uh, yeah. I should be fine," I said as I limped outside, readying my weapon. The Brutalisk appeared angrier than ever. It was crushing everything in its path. Buildings were falling like rain. It spewed out a bunch of green round rocks from its mouth.
"What are those?" I asked firing at the green round balls.
"Holy crap! Those are hunter ling eggs! Everyone kill them before they hatch!" Derk yelled pushing a button on his ear. I began to fire my C-14 Gauss rifle at the eggs, one of which exploded, releasing mini like Brutalisks with giant wings. These creatures came leaping toward us in a ball of furry and death.
My heart seemed to stop.
"Rod! You missed!" Leary screamed from my left. I turned to see him and the others racing toward me, the Brutalisk following close behind them. At first I was confused. What do you mean I missed? How could he possibly know which of my thousands of bullets were missing the eggs? Mark was waving his arms randomly above his head and yelling something at me. But suddenly realization came back to me. Oooh… he's talking about the bomb I planted. Oh am I going to get it.
"Okay let's get out of here," Derk said, turning and running. I took a couple steps back and then began to pursue Derk. The others caught up quickly and ran alongside me.
"Whose idea was this again?!" Tenny yelled. "Oh wait I remember it was Crip!"
"Ay! I didn't drag your cask over here. You were the one to follow me!" Crip growled, and scowled at me. "And maybe if Jingle over there would have put the charge in the right spot, we might have been able to kill it!"
"No one told me where to set it!" I retaliated, glancing back to see the Brutalisk further behind. I smiled. Aw, we're going to survive. Any relief that I had just felt vanished as hundreds hunter lings came crashing through all the windows of buildings.
"Gaah!" I shouted. And then suddenly I was lifted from the ground. I saw the hunter lings slowly become smaller as I was pulled upward. I looked above my head to see the inside of a medivac. We were then drawn into the vehicle and brusquely thrown to the back. I looked up to see Derk flying through the hole on the floor and smash into my face, followed by Crip, Leary, Tenny and finally Mark. After lieing on top of each other for a few awkward seconds Derk lost patience.
"Get off me," he yelled throwing Crip to the side, on top of Tenny. Leary let out a loud grunt, while Tenny walked over and helped Crip up.
"You could have been a little more gentle," Tenny yelled to the driver. A very familiar voice came on the intercom and said.
"Oh sorry guys this is my first time actually lifting people off that quickly."
"Nicky is that you?" I asked
"Well yes Rod, of course it's me. Who do you think it was?"
"Well this is all a very nice and cute reunion, but if all you thoughtless, brain dead idiots didn't notice, we got a spotter and a whole group of pissed scourges coming our way!" Crip roared.
"What's a spotter?" Nicky asked.
"What does it matter? Drive!" Crip screamed. We began to quickly escalate.
"There is not enough time! You have to warp us out!" Leary screamed as the flying bat like creatures approached rapidly.
"I can't it's too dangerous," Nicky responded.
"We don't care, it is either die quickly through warp space or burn slowly be green acid!" Crip bellowed.
"Nicky just do it!" I yelled.
"No we can make it, were almost to space!" Nicky shouted back. The scourges were barely out of killing distance.
"Nicky, I am not planning on dying today. Hit the warp button!" Mark shouted, running to the front of the vessel. "If you won't warp then teleport!"
"Teleporting is even more dangerous!" Nicky replied. Everyone was shouting too loud to hear anything. The scourges were almost on us. About twenty meters and everything would be over. Ten meters. I whispered a last cry for help. A prayer. Even though I knew it was over. God please let us live…
And suddenly I was being stretched. Light was everywhere. I couldn't see anything and I felt like I was about to vomit. My soul must be leaving my body.
Everything slowly came back and I could see again. Tenny was holding on to a pole, Crip laid on the ground in front of me. Leary was sprawled out on the seats, gripping a handhold. Derk was up immediately and marching over to Nicky with his shoulders tightened and fists clenched and Mark was sitting next to me at the back holding on to my arm.
"What are you looking at?!" he snarled releasing his hand from my arm.
"Sorry," I quickly said, looking away.
"Well everybody, I was able to warp us to the outer rim of our solar system. We will be arriving at our planet in roughly ten minutes. So sit back and relax," Nicky announced.
"Make sure you take your time. We don't want Ben to think we never went," Crip growled sarcastically.
"Oh really? I can go slower if you want," Nicky asked concerned.
"No!" We all yelled together.
"Oh, well okay," Nicky responded.
The room fell into an awkward silence. I dared a look at Crip, and found that he was glaring right back at me.
"What?!" I asked. Crip smirked at me.
"Want to arm wrestle." He rumbled.
"No." I replied.
"Heck, I'll arm wrestle you Crip," Mark said, excitedly getting up and running over to the table.
"Ten minerals on Mark," Leary said, sitting back on the seat.
"Oh I am totally getting in on this," Derk said, launching himself from the bench. "Twenty minerals on Crip."
"Tenny you want throw one in," Mark asked.
"Nah I don't bet. It's a waste of money," Tenny replied as he waved his hand in passing.
"Okay then. Leary, give the go," Mark said, turning back to Crip.
"Ready," Leary said, with a smile. "Set."
"GO!" Nicky yelled from the cockpit. Crip didn't hesitate as he took his chance and threw Mark's hand on the table.
"Ha ha!" Crip roared. "All shall cower before the great and all powerful Crip!"
"Now wait a sec that wasn't very—," Mark started, but Crip cut him off.
"No excuses, you lost and I won!"
"Leary was supposed to say go, not Nicky."
"Oh what does it matter, someone said go; you should have been ready." Crip retaliated. "You know being a ghost and all."
"How 'bout we fight right now," Mark spat. "I'll teach you something you won't forget."
"You dare fight someone stronger than you," Crip taunted. "Without your gun."
"You better watch your mouth Crip. It might end you up in a hospital one day," Mark hissed back.
"Alright ladies let's all calm down. We are now entering the inner atmosphere," Tenny said, holding his hands outward.
"Hey, what's so wrong with it? I don't mind watching these guys knock each other unconscious," Leary said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Attitude's like that get people killed," Tenny said, turning to Leary. "Now let's please just sit down and relax. There's been far too much fighting today."
"Yeah, I agree with Tenny. I mean we should be concentrating on how Ben and more importantly Clement will react to us not bringing any biomass back," I said trying to be reasonable. Everyone's face suddenly turned to horror as they all remembered about the biomass. Crip relaxed and said.
"Eh. What are they really going to do? Sure Ben will act all "in charge" and "get mad at us"' Crip said. "And Clement will have a scientific breakdown, but in the end, nothing is going to happen."
"That may be true, but perhaps we should consider going back—" Tenny started.
"NO!" Everyone shouted at once.
"Okay, okay. Calm yourselves down. It was just a thought," Tenny said, folding his arms irritably.
"Okay we're now coming into view of our base," Nicky said, over the intercom.
"Oh, finally," Derk shouted, throwing his hands in the air. "I was afraid I was going to have to start eating myself to satisfy my terrible cravings of starvation."
"Huh. Derk brings up a good point," Leary said, holding his stomach. "I'm quite hungry."
I thought to myself and realized that I was famished as well. I looked up to see Mark hunching his shoulders and putting on a heavy glare towards Crip. I laughed silently for a second until I caught Mark's eye.
"What are you starring at punk?!" Mark yelled randomly.
"Oh sorry I didn't mean to—"
"Oh, oh ooh, of course you didn't mean to, you don't mean to do anything! In that case you can't do anything. If it weren't for you we would have all the biomass we need!" Mark yelled in an outrage. "But no, you had to put the charge in the wrong position! And because of your stupidity, we had to try not to get ourselves killed and bail! So thanks, for not meaning to do anything."
"Hey, Mark lay off will ya," Tenny stepped in. "This is his first mission. Give him some slack. We got out alive and that's all that matters."
"Lay off! Why should I lay off!" Mark was on his feet now. "People's lives are in danger and if you screw up, people die!"
"Yeah Tenny, let Mark yell at Rod. I think it's funny," Crip laughed.
"That's it I've had it with you!" Mark shouted.
"Everyone prepare for landing. We have arrived," Nicky announced. Suddenly Mark lunged and collided with Crip, slamming them into the wall. The ramp lowered to let us out. Crip threw Mark off of him and out the exit.
"You wanna play ghosty? Well let's play!" Crip growled. He sprung for Mark and began to pumble him in the sides with his fists. Mark sent several blows back.
"Stop antagonizing them Derk! We have to stop 'em before they kill each other," Tenny said, running towards the two raging terrans. Leary stepped out of the dropship. I followed him.
"Hey knock it off you guys!" Tenny said trying to pull Mark off Crip, only to get a kick in the face.
"I will jack you up so bad your grandchildren will feel it," Crip said, tossing Mark against the barracks. He retaliated in punching Crip.
"Guys seriously, your acting like little kids," I said. Tenny continued to try and break them up.
"Alright Tenny breaking them up might not be a bad idea," Derk said. Leary had lost interest and left towards the ghost academy. Glancing away from the fight I saw Ben walking towards us. I straightened up and put my hands to the side firmly like I saw in the movies. Derk and Tenny both finally separated Crip and Mark. Ben looked over at the four of them and back at me.
"So how'd it go?" he chuckled bitting into an apple.
"Well…we got out alive and I think Rod learned a thing or two, so very well actually," Derk said, still pushing Crip away from Mark.
"Hmm, so where's the biomass?" Ben asked, taking another bite in the apple. Crip decided to finally step in, pushing away from Derk.
"If Jingle hadn't screwed us up, we would have had enough to keep us upgrading against the Zerg for an eternity."
"So, you don't have any?" Ben asked folding his arms.
"Huh, take the hint dumb butt," Crip snarled. "What do you think?"
"No, sir," Tenny said, ignoring Crip's sarcastic comment.
"Huh… I don't wish to punish you, but you leave me with no choice," Ben said, chewing off another piece. He waited a few seconds before responding. "Eh you can all just go and…" taking a bite. "…sit on guard duty tonight, it being dusk and all. You will receive no sleep tonight. Good luck."
We all groaned and then stumbled off to the supply depots.
"Today is going to be a long night," I said hanging my head.
"Heh, welcome to the Orange Terran," Mark grumbled. "Where you don't get out of anything."
EDIT: Hey everyone. This is just letting you know i have revised this chapter. Huh lately I have been very random when it comes to revising chapters. I kind of just pick one. So eventually I will get through all of them while continuing the story.
This revision consisted of mostly cheesy sentences and commas. The only big change is that I took out the part when Derk was laughing at Crip and Mark when they were fighting. I don't think it was in Derk's character to be so hysterical about something not funny. So anyways, thanks for your support and reviews. See ya :D