Chapter 11# The Unknown Structure
LITTLE HOPE, ROADSIDE DINER, 3 YEARS PREVIOUSLY
It was raining and the thunder let loose its angry roars while lightning streaked across the sky. It was not exactly the weather Eric had hoped for on his and Rachel, the woman who had just recently marrieds' honeymoon, even if it was now nighttime. They had stopped by a roadside diner three miles outside the town of Little Hope and Eric waited in the car as Rachel ordered them something. Rachel exited the diner, carrying a large box colored like an American flag.
"Head's up." Rachel said as she got into the car and threw Eric the box.
"Oh. Smells… fried." Eric said as he caught the box.
"We're in hillbilly territory. What were you expecting, cantaloupe caviar?" Rachel asked with a mischievous look on her face. "Not exactly honeymoon material is it?"
"I recall a certain somebody saying that she wanted to go ice climbing" Eric teased, remembering Rachel mention a place in Little Hope called Hobbs' Deep, which was known for ice climbing.
"Ice climbing is… relaxing." Rachel said.
Eric looked at Rachel, noticing that she seemed slightly… off.
"What is it?" Eric asked, concerned.
"The guy who served me, I don't know, he was- he was looking at me pretty strange." Rachel said, glancing back at the diner.
Eric looked at the diner himself, seeing what appeared to be an aged, sad looking black man wearing a baseball cap behind the counter.
"Ah, he probably doesn't get to see a woman like you around these parts very often. Especially one who's showered." Eric said, trying to play it cool.
Rachel almost laughed at that.
"He was saying some weird shit." Rachel said.
"Such as?" Eric asked.
"It's nothing. We should go." Rachel said.
"No, come on, tell me." Eric asked.
Eric knew that Rachel was a strong, stubborn independent women and that she could take care of herself if she had to, but if the man in the diner said something that upset her, he wanted to know.
"He said I'll never again be as happy as I am now." Rachel admitted.
"The Hell's that mean?" Eric questioned. "You don't believe him, do you?"
"Of course not." Rachel said, still seeming taken back but what the man who served her said.
"Y'know my sole objective, Rach, is to make you happy. Doesn't matter where we are or what we're going through, I'll always put a smile on your face." Eric assured her.
Rachel smiled.
"See. I told you!" Eric said. "Next time, all you have to do is whistle and I'll come running to defend your honor."
"Oh. Like my very own loyal puppy dog?" Rachel asked.
"Semper Fi." Eric said. "It means 'always loyal.'"
Rachel started the car and began to pull out of the diner's parking lot.
"I'm more than capable of looking after myself." Rachel said.
Rachel looked over and saw that Eric had his feet on the car's dashboard.
"Now get your feet of my dash, you hillybilly." Rachel said, looking over at Eric as she pulled drove out onto the road.
Suddenly a loud honk came from Rachel's left. She and Eric looked to see headlights rushing towards them for a barley a second before they were suddenly hit and everything went black. Hours later, Rachel woke up to see that she was in a hospital surrounded by doctors and nurses. She was informed of what happened and was told she was fine for the most part apart from a few scrapes, bruises, and pulled muscles, but when she demanded to know where Eric was and if he was alright, the doctor and nurses' faces' dropped. Rachel was brought to Eric, who, much to her horror, was missing his right leg.
The doctors explained to her that Eric's leg had been mangled up pretty bad to the point where they had to remove it in order to save his life. Rachel didn't utter a single word or even a sound as she was told that, all she could think of was what that man at the diner had told her.
"Hold onto that man of yours and never let him go, because trust me young lady, you'll never again be as happy as you are now."
PRESENT DAY
After escaping from the sacrificial chamber, Eric kept running and didn't stop for a long time. After he felt safe enough to stop, he checked his UV light wand, which had been flickering. The flickering seemed to have stopped, but he was worried about how much longer it could last. Eric suddenly thought of Rachel as they ran, she narrowly dodged the spear that was thrown at her and crashed into another vampire, which bit her. Eric hadn't had the chance to stop and make sure she was alright with all the vampires in the chamber.
So, he didn't know if she was still alive or not, but he had to find out and made his way back to the sacrificial chamber, UV wand raised and gun at the ready if he came across any vampires. Meanwhile, back in the sacrificial chamber, Nick regained consciousness from when he had been thrown against the wall and fell into a pile of bones earlier.
"Jason. Jason, are you here?" Nick quietly called out, not knowing where he was.
No reply came, so Nick got up, picked his rifle back up, and began looking around the chamber.
"Ugh. What the fuck!" a voice suddenly said.
Nick looked where the voice came from and saw that it was Rachel, still alive, dizzily getting back onto her feet.
"Rachel!" Nick said, rushing over to her.
"Nick, I thought I lost you!" Rachel said.
"I thought I'd lost you." Nick replied.
The two hugged each other before they started kissing, just as Eric walked in.
"Right." Eric said unpleased.
Rachel and Nick stopped and looked over to Eric, Rachel seeming shocked while Nick just glared at him.
"Eric!" Rachel replied in shock.
Eric walked over to them, Nick stepping in front of Rachel, ready for another fight if Eric wanted to start one. However, before either one could say or do anything, the ancient human vampire that had attacked them earlier crawled out of a hole, hissing at them. Eric pulled out his UV wand, but as he tried to shine it at the vampire, it flickered before it turned completely off.
"Shit, it's malfunctioning!" Eric realized.
"Colonel, you gotta go!" Nick said, stepping forward and shooting the vampire.
Eric immediately ran down a corridor, leaving Nick to fight the vampire if he wanted to, but Rachel stayed behind.
"You too, Nick. You're coming with us." Rachel said, not wanting to leave Nick behind.
"Come on, Rach!" Eric called to her.
Rachel didn't argue and ran down the corridor after Eric, soon followed by Nick, the vampire chasing after them.
"Shit." Eric exclaimed.
Eric, Rachel, and Nick ran down corridor after corridor, never losing the vampire that chased them tirelessly. They jumped down a small ledge that use to be stairs and came to a dead end. Rachel quickly noticed and pointed out that the dead end they came to wasn't actually a dead end, but some sort of stone gate. All three of them lifted up the heavy stone gate and crawled under, doing so just before the vampire caught up with them. They thought they were in the clear until the vampire starting lifting the stone gate up by itself effortlessly.
They continued running, coming into a room with a large well in the center and a door at the other side. As they ran through the doors, they closed them to slow down the vampire. The vampire got to the doors before they could close them and began to bang on them to keep them from closing.
"Christ, give me a fucking break here!" Rachel shouted, struggling to close the door. "We're outta time, we got to get out of here!"
They pulled away from the doors and down the hall and into a chamber filled with a few sarcophagi and holes in the ground. Eric pointed out a barred door at the back of the chamber. However, he heard the vampire finally break through the doors and told Rachel and Nick to hide and wait for the vampire to move on. Eric hid behind a sarcophagus while Nick and Rachel hid behind the pillars, just as the vampire entered the room. The vampire, hissing, searched around the room for them.
Eric moved to second sarcophagus, to keep the vampire from finding them, however the sound of movement just seemed to attract the it's attention as it walked right over to where Eric was. Eric stood up and began to shoot at the vampire, but it slapped the gun right out of Eric's hands, grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground before picking him back up by his shirt. Nick raised his rifle, but didn't shoot, it being too risky a shot. Eric tried kicking out at the vampire and hit it across the head, which just caused Eric to hurt his hand due to the ancient helmet it was wearing. The ancient vampire turned Eric around, with it's arm around his neck.
Nick shot at the vampire's head, his bullets ricocheting off it's helmet. The vampire, angered by Nick's shooting at it, threw Eric to the ground and began to approach him instead. The vampire rushed at Nick as he continued to shoot at it, ramming him into the pillar behind him. Nick fell to the ground and the vampire kicked him in the ribs. Eric got up and looked towards the barred door that he and Rachel could make a run for and then at the vampire as it approached Nick.
Eric shouted and rushed at the vampire. The vampire grabbed onto Eric as he ran into it and the two grappled with each other, moving towards one of the holes in the ground. Eric and the vampire fell down the hole, but Nick rushed over and grabbed Eric before he fell down with the vampire, Rachel running over to help pull him up.
"Jesus, pull me up!" Eric pleaded.
Rachel and Nick pulled Eric out of the hole back onto solid ground. They all looked down the hole to see the vampire, not moving, but not wanting to take any chances, they got out of there quick. The squeezed through the barred door into what looked like a medical bay the archeologists set up. Rachel noticed something on the ground, written in the dust, it was an arrow with 'JK' written next to it.
"He's alive! Jason's alive." Rachel said, knowing it had to be from Jason.
"Things aren't going so badly after all." Eric said.
Nick looked at Eric, honestly surprised he had helped him earlier when the vampire had him down.
"Back there… thanks for looking out for me." Nick said, genuinely grateful.
Eric didn't respond and just walked over to Rachel.
"Alright, let's find Kolchek." Eric said.
Nick however, didn't seem too eager to move ahead just yet and Rachel noticed.
"What're you waiting for? A written invitation? Let's go." Rachel said.
"It's time." Nick said.
Rachel knew what Nick meant by that. With everything they have faced since they fell down here and all the close calls they had, Nick wanted Rachel to lay out where her relationship between him and Eric stood, wanting to know in case they died down here.
"It's absolutely not the time!" Rachel said, wanting Nick to drop it and find Jason, but Nick wasn't giving up.
"Rachel, I know you said to put things on ice, but… I can't pretend like this didn't happen. I'm done lying. Especially with you wearing your ring again." Nick said, glancing down at Rachel's wedding ring.
Eric looked between Nick and Rachel.
"He's right. It is time." Eric said, wanting an answer as much as Nick. "Roll it out for us."
"Now? Right fucking now?" Rachel said, still thinking this wasn't the right time.
"Yes now! We may not have another chance." Nick said.
Rachel gave a frustrated sigh, but knew Nick was right and in case they did die down here, Rachel would rather go out with getting this whole love triangle ordeal off her chest.
"Fine." Rachel conceded.
Rachel looked towards Eric.
"Eric… You and I, we had something very special. But, that was a long time ago." Rachel said.
"I still love you, Rach." Eric said, thinking that Rachel rejecting him and about to choose Nick.
Rachel raised her hand to stop him.
"This isn't about choosing. It's about knowing what's best for me." Rachel said. "I was on my way. I was making a new life for myself… But life has a way about it."
Eric and Nick both held their breath in anticipation for what Rachel would say next.
"Today, I've seen the same man I fell for all those years ago. When you held onto that rope, I knew you would always be there for me. I want to try us again." Rachel said.
Eric smiled, beyond happy to hear Rachel say that she wanted to give their relationship another chance.
"After all that shit he put you through?" Nick said, shocked to see Rachel choosing Eric over him.
"That's just it. I can't turn my back on my past." Rachel told Nick before looking back to Eric. "If I didn't give you a chance, I'd always regret it."
"Don't say another word." Nick said, not wanting to hear anymore of this.
"Pull yourself together." Eric said, disgusted with how Nick was taking it and thinking that he'd at least have the decency to show Rachel's choice some respect. "She's made her choice, so move on."
Nick glared at Eric before looking towards Rachel.
"I understand." Nick said, even though in his head he was thinking bitterly. "You fucking deserve each other."
Nick without another word went down the passage, Jason's clue was pointing toward. Rachel tried to follow Nick down the passage, but Eric pulled Rachel towards him for a moment.
"Thank you." Eric said, grateful that Rachel was willing to give their relationship another chance.
Rachel smiled and nodded and the followed after Nick. They soon came to the large hole with green light emanating from it and the elevator that lead down. They looked around and saw no other clues left behind by Jason.
"Kolchek must have gone down there." Rachel said, said looking down into the hole.
"Down? Why the Hell would he go down there? It's gotta be where these things come from." Eric questioned. "Going down there is as good as killing yourself."
"Maybe he thought it was best to go to the source of where these things come from and hit them there?" Rachel guessed.
"Makes sense, I guess. Doing so could cripple them and make them easier to deal with." Eric said.
"There is no easy when it come to fighting these things." Nick said.
As she continued looking into the green hole, she remembered back to just before she first encountered the vampires.
"I was here before." Rachel said.
"You were?" Eric replied.
"Well, not exactly. Just before I ran into Clarice, as I was making my way out of the chasm, I saw a strange green light coming from somewhere. I wasn't able to investigate where it was coming from though." Rachel explained. "I guess this is what I saw."
"Was there anything else you saw after you fell?" Eric asked, wanting to know any information Rachel had that could be useful.
"I found a card belonging to this woman that was mentioned in a bandit report and I saw the same symbol that I saw in the village huts, meaning that those shepherds knew about these things, and I found another one of Hodgson's journal pages down there." Rachel explained.
"Jason, Nick, and I have been coming across more of them as well. Do you have it, what did it say?" Eric asked.
"I don't have it, but it mentioned this elevator and that they found something huge down there that they referred to as a city. It also mentioned entombed abominations, some place they called the Star Chamber, which they found Mary mysteriously unconscious in." Rachel explained before pulling the other paper she found down in the blood river. "And I found this."
Eric took the paper and read it's mentions of the vampires saliva and the hallucinations it caused, the cocoons, of Mary getting attacked.
"This roller coaster of horror just keeps getting crazier and crazier every step of the way." Eric said.
Nick looked over Eric's shoulder at the paper, noticing the mention of Mary getting attacked.
"We've also found medical notes, concerning Mary." Nick said.
Hearing that, Rachel knew that that must have meant Mary was infected just like Clarice was and what she assumed happened to Joey and that ancient human vampire they were running from earlier.
"What do you think this city Hodgson mentioned and cocoons are?" Rachel asked.
"Caelus scans picked up an unknown structure beneath the temple, I don't know what it and these cocoons are, but we're about to find out." Eric said. "Start up the elevator, we're going down."
"Down!? Are you crazy colonel?" Nick said angrily. "You've already led us into one suicide mission and now you want to lead un into another by going down into that Hell hole?"
"From how it appears Sergeant, Kolchek has already gone down there. So, it's only right that we follow in suite." Eric stated firmly.
"We've already gone this deep into Hell, might as well climb the ladder further down." Rachel agreed.
Nick sighed and shook his head, knowing Eric and Rachel had a point. If Jason had gone down there, it was morally right as a fellow marine, superiors, and friends that they went down after him to back him up.
"Semper Fi." Nick said with semi-reluctant sigh.
"Semper Fi." Eric and Rachel repeated.
Nick started to winch and they all piled in when the elevator arrived. As the elevator descended over three-thousand feet below, Rachel thought of her and Eric's future when they got out of here.
"You know what I think the first thing we should do when we get out of here and go back home is?" Rachel asked.
"What's that?" Eric asked.
Rachel smiled mischievously.
"Horror movie marathon." Rachel said.
"Oh God. I hate horror." Eric said, putting his face in his hand, but smiling despite himself.
"I'm serious. It could help us prepare incase we find ourselves in another shit show like this." Rachel joked.
"That is true." Eric said, playing along. "Where do we start?"
"Well, we'll start with the Exorcist for one. That's where Pazuzu is from." Rachel said.
"Pazuzu, was that the little figurine with a snake for a penis we found earlier?" Eric joked.
Rachel laughed at that, Eric laughing along with her.
"Than we'll watch the Blair Witch Project, never know when we're going to have to face off against witches." Rachel said.
Eric gave a badly done witches laugh.
"Then we'll watch this movie called Ghost Ship, though I hear it's terrible. After that, we'll go into the Friday the 13th francize and watch as a bunch of horny teenage summer camp counselors get murdered." Rachel said.
From the opposite side of the elevator, Nick watched in disgust as Rachel and Nick laughed and continued to talk about different horror movies they'd watch. He hoped this elevator ride wouldn't last too much longer so he didn't have to hear much more of this.
The elevator took Jason and Salim to several thousand feet below the surface into a strange new world. Around them were strange organic masses that looked almost like roots with veins of strange glowing green moss, which there were also bulbous mounds of. When they reached the bottom, they exited the elevator and looked around. To the right of the elevator was tablet of a man getting mauled by a lion, Salim feeling a small pain in his skull and shaking it as he saw it, saying it was nothing when Jason noticed. To the left of the elevator was a table, chairs, and many crates and archeological gear, all seeming out of place all the way down here.
"I've seen some fucked up shit in my life, nothing comes close to this." Jason said.
Jason than glanced up from where he and Salim came from. He couldn't see or hear the vampires they heard earlier.
"They don't seem to be following." Jason stated.
"Would you like to wait for them or…?" Salim began.
"No need to be a smartass. Let's move." Jason replied.
Jason went over to the table, finding a ledger, labeled as three and belonging to Van Huyten. The ledger talked about a century long drought that afflicted the Akkadians and the Old Kingdom in Egypt. It also had a drawing on the black onyx Salim found earlier and a holed stone it went with, which would depict the Akkadians praying to an eclipse. The next couple pages also showed drawings of the tablet Jason and Salim found before being attacked by that vampire from the well and the tablet Nick had found before Dar attacked them at the radio.
"The explorers did a lot of work down here. They were on to something." Jason said.
"They just didn't expect to encounter blood sucking monsters." Salim stated.
Before they moved on, Jason stared at the elevator. It got them down here safely, he just hoped that it would still be a viable way back up.
"You think this is a safe way back?" Jason asked Salim.
Before Salim could answer, he and Jason heard a boom from further off into the deep caves behind them.
"The Hell was that?" Jason exclaimed, not knowing what could possibly be down here that could make that noise.
"Only one way to find out." Salim said. "Explore further into the unknown."
Jason and Salim pushed forward, staying alert for vampires or any other unimaginable, nameless horrors this deep below the earth. They soon caught the smell of something foul, looking to where it was coming from, they saw a strange organic structure. Unknown fluids leaking from it and it's appearance looked like that of one of the vampires.
"What is that? A cocoon?" Jason wondered. "Looks like those things came from here."
"Smells like formaldehyde." Salim said.
"Since when did you become a scientist?" Jason questioned.
"They don't teach you Americans science at school?" Salim questioned back.
Salim took another look at the cocoon, feeling the urge to reach out and touch it, but restrained himself from doing so and backed off.
"We should stay clear of it." Salim suggested.
Jason agreed and the two moved on. Walking further into the caves, they saw more and more mounds of glowing green moss and a few more cocoons, but thankfully no vampires. Passing some stalagmites, Jason saw a book on the ground and on the front of it was the name 'Randolph Hodgson.'
"Maybe it's got some intel that could help." Jason said, picking it up.
"It didn't help him." Salim said.
Jason opened the journal despite that, hoping that there were more of Hodgson's notes that had anything useful. However, as Jason opened the book, he found no pages in it, all of them torn out.
"Ah shit!" Jason exclaimed, tossing the useless book back to the ground.
"Jason." Salim suddenly said.
Jason looked towards Salim to see him looking at something.
"Look." Salim said, pointing.
Jason followed Salim finger to see him pointing towards a cocoon a few feet away from them or more specifically, what was leaning against the cocoon. It was a body. Jason and Salim walked over to the body and examined it, seeing that it was another one of the explorers, who had a gunshot wound to his head. Next to the archeologist's body was a page, one of Randolph Hodgson's journal pages. Jason picked up the page and read it.
"When this temple falls, my wife and I will be buried together, side-by-side. I owe her that, at least. The portrait that I carry in my watch case is the Mary that I remember. Not that thing in the cell.
This was all Lady Bradshaw's doing. She knew all along what was down here. She led us to them. I found her below, hunched over the murdered corpse of Van Huyten. As she turned to face me, I saw that she had changed. My hand fell to closest weapon I could find – an iron tent peg. I stabbed her with the metal, impaling her in the heart. As she died, unholy screams echoed from deep below, as if answering the sudden release of blood."
"Huh, it seems those bodies Nick and I found earlier were of Bradshaw and this Van Huyten guy. She had that iron tent peg in her chest." Jason said.
"Lady Bradshaw wanted to be like them, and she got her wish, thinking it would make her immortal and that she would live forever." Salim said.
Jason shook his head at that.
"I wouldn't exactly call it that." Jason disagreed. "The thing that attacked Nick and I earlier, it may have looked like Joey, but that wasn't him. I don't know if he was dead like Nick said he was or still alive when he was infected, but he wasn't in there, not anymore. I doubt Lady Bradshaw was still herself when she turned."
"Yeah, I wouldn't call losing your mind and control of your body eternal life exactly either." Salim agreed.
Salim than noticed something in the archeologist's hand, a pocket watch. Remembering what the journal page Jason had just read said, Salim picked it up and opened it, revealing the face of a woman. Jason and Salim both immediately knew who the woman in the picture was.
"Mary Hodgson." Jason said.
Jason and Salim looked at each other and then back down at the corpse of the dead archeologist, knowing who it was.
"Well damn. Randolph Hodgson, himself." Jason said.
"Their story didn't end so well." Salim said.
"They should've stayed in merry old England." Jason said.
Salim again looked at the picture of Mary and then back at Randolph Hodgson's corpse. Doing so made him think of Zain, of his son, who was safely back home while Salim was here in the most dangerous place in the entire world and with little to no hope of making it out alive.
"Jason." Salim said.
"What?" Jason asked.
"I can't end up like this." Salim said.
Jason didn't know what to say to that and so he and Salim just moved on. Before they did, Salim closed the pocket watch and gently placed it back into Hodgson's hand, saying a prayer on behalf of him and his wife, that he hoped they both had found peace and that Mary had forgiven Hodgson and Hodgson had forgiven himself in death. When Salim finished his prayer, he and Jason moved forward, coming to a ledge. Salim gave Jason a boost up and Jason helped pull Salim up. Both looked down the path ahead of them, which seemed like it would lead them into a larger cavern, but there was something odd about the path. The floor, walls, and ceilings of the cave head appeared change from stone to… metal of some kind.
Confused, Jason and Salim walked forward, entering into the large cavern, filled with mounds of the glowing green moss and a bunch of strange metallic structures, just like the ground they were now walking on was made of.
"What is this place?" Salim spoke in Arabic.
"Yeah, what you said." Jason simply said, not understanding what Salim said. "What the fuck is this place?"
Before them lay something that looked like a city, but not like any city either Jason or Salim had ever seen, it was covered in mist and it looked otherworldly, like something that didn't belong on Earth. It was vast, colossal, and ancient, and no doubt far older than mankind itself. Jason and Salim weren't even sure that the roof of the cavern was even rock as random strikes of lightning flashed across it, briefly illuminating a metallic looking roof. It was clear that they weren't just in the caves anymore, they were in something inside the caves, buried thousands of feet deep beneath the earth.
"What is this Hell? Is this even real?" Salim said, questioning everything he's ever known.
Jason didn't say a word, not knowing what to even say in response to what he was seeing. The only thing he knew he could be sure on was that this place, it had to be the unknown structure Eric's Caelus scans had picked up, but the bigger question was what exactly was this place. Salim than fell to his knees.
"We are being judged. God, is punishing us all for the mistakes we have ever made." Salim stated.
Salim thought of his son again.
"Zain is all I have left in this world. After my wife left us, I gave him my all. I wanted him to have everything I didn't." Salim vented.
"Single parent. Tough fucking gig." Jason said, only being able to imagine what that could be like.
"It is. But… my boy has made me very proud." Salim stated. "He is going to London… to university. If only he would stop stealing."
Saying that, it made Salim look back on what he had said to his neighbor this morning after he had found the goods Zain had stolen.
"This morning, I found the goods Zain had stolen. I left a message with my neighbor to tell Zain how… angry I was with him. Is that the last thing he will ever hear from his father?" Salim said, regretting what he had said this morning. "I miss him so much…"
Some lightning streaked across the roof of the unknown structure. Salim looked back towards Jason, remembering how he had said either that he didn't carry regrets. Salim didn't believe Jason when he said it and if he actually did have any, now would be the time to admit them.
"Is your conscience clear Jason?" Salim asked.
Jason looked nervous when Salim asked him that, not looking him in the eye.
"Green zone. Checkpoint." Jason said.
"What checkpoint?" Salim asked.
"Nick and I, we were caught in traffic. The checkpoint had been hit before by suicide bombers…" Jason explained, seeming reluctant "There was a woman… she was carrying a bag. Fuck."
"Tell me." Salim encouraged.
"I order… I ordered for her to stop, loud and clear, but she didn't; she just kept on walking. I… I had to make a call. Nick… He shot her dead." Jason said, the memory of what happened seeming painful for him to bring up.
Salim shook his head at the story, not understanding.
"What was in the bag?" Salim asked.
"Groceries." Jason said.
"I don't understand, why didn't she stop?" Salim asked.
"She didn't hear me. She had fucking headphones on." Jason explained. "This… This is bullshit. I'm not here to honor the dead. Truth is, my life was going nowhere fast. I jumped at the chance to sign up."
"We all have our reasons, they don't have to be profound."
"Profound huh?" Jason replied before pointing at the 'Remember 9/11' markings on his cap. "When those towers were hit, I was stoned outta my fucking skull. I didn't even hear about it til' a week later. How's that for profound? I don't even know what the fuck I'm doing here."
"You're serving your country." Salim tried to rationalize.
"That woman had a family, friends, she had her whole life ahead of her and we snuffed it out with a single bullet. I mean, what the fuck?!" Jason said.
Another streak of lightning accompanied by a booming thunder like sound made it's way across the sky, catching Jason and Salim's attention. They couldn't see or hear any vampires, but knew that it wouldn't be that way for very long.
"This place… they're sure to come back here." Jason said, looking to Salim. "I can hear you thinking."
"We're waiting for something to happen. Maybe we should take the initiative and make something happen." Salim suggested.
"What'd you have in mind?" Jason asked.
"We go inside there and we find a way to hurt them." Salim stated.
"Those fucking things tried to fuck with our heads. They tried to kill us. But you and I, we're both standing. Start believing Salim, we're going to get out of here and see the sun again." Jason said confidently.
"Is that what you truly believe?" Salim replied.
"Oorah!" Jason said.
Salim was taking aback but what Jason just said.
"What on Earth is that sound?" Salim questioned.
"It's a marine thing." Jason said.
"Oh. So… does that make me a marine too?" Salim replied.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, huh?" Jason said.
"Okay." Salim said.
"Hey, whatever happens out there, I've got your back." Jason assured.
"We stand together, it's the only way." Salim said.
Jason and Salim than began to descend further into the unknown structure, looking for any trace of the vampires or where they came from. Now was the time to truly fight back.