After checking the quickest route against their maps and memorizing it, they left through the medical wing exit and Nichols locked the door behind them. Jack didn't have time to check on Nelson and Bekele was still in there tending to him. He and Cortez ended up in a bloody corridor that didn't look all that different from the dozens of others Jack had spent the last week of his life traversing. He tried to ignore the reek of fresh death and blood as he stepped over several corpses as they made their way down the tunnel.

"How you holding up?" Cortez asked.

"I'm fine," Jack replied.

"You can tell me if you aren't," Cortez said.

Jack sighed. "I'm worried about Jennifer, and about the end of the world, but otherwise I'm okay," he said, relenting a little.

"You really aren't more freaked out?"

"Yeah...wait, are you?" he asked, glancing back at the man. He had an anxious look on his otherwise easygoing face, and it suddenly clicked on for Jack. This was...well, not exactly old hat, but he'd been through this shit before. The time he'd spent on Mars's two moons and, quite literally, going through Hell had only lasted days, but they'd felt like month-long tours of duties. This was all new and raw and screaming for Cortez.

They paused just short of the end of the corridor.

"I'm freaking out a little," he admitted. "I mean, I'm good, just..."

"Yeah, I get it. I've been in your shoes. Fuck, I was in them barely a week ago. Just try to keep it in perspective: we've trained for this. I know it sounds nuts, but my training saved my ass more times than I can count, so you can rest assured that if you're a good Marine, you'll at least have the toolkit necessary to thrive in this environment. They're brutal, and relentless, and horrifying, but they're also kind of stupid. I mean, don't underestimate them, exactly, but don't be afraid of them. You can kill them. You've proven that. And you can keep it up. I've been to Hell and back at this point, so I know what I'm talking about, and I've seen you fight. You can definitely do this if you keep your head on a swivel and your wits about you, and let your training do its work."

Jack wasn't entirely sure if he was talking out of his ass or not. That was the problem with luck: it was random. The laziest jackass might walk away clean from this whole mess and the most dedicated Marine might catch a bullet in the opening volley. That was luck. But he believed in some of what he said, at least, and so did Cortez, it seemed.

"Yeah, okay," he said. "Thanks. I'm good."

Jack gripped his armored shoulder and gave it a small shake. "We can do this."

"Hell yeah," he said, reaching out and gripping Jack's shoulder.

They stood up after that and shifted to the end of the corridor. It let out into another thoroughfare not unlike the one he'd come into initially. And it was just as shredded, thrashed, and mauled as that first thoroughfare as well. They could hear a great deal of gunfire coming from the right and saw a good deal of Imps and Demons making their way towards a large opening. He also saw a little legion of Lost Souls streaming towards it as well.

"Fuck," he muttered as they set off. "Come on, we've got to take out those flying skulls first."

"What the fuck are they?" Cortez replied.

"Instakill enemies," Jack warned.

"What!? How?"

"Just don't let them touch you, no matter what, that's how they make more zombies."

"Jesus fuck," Cortez muttered.

Jack had the assault rifle out and switched to three-round burst. The Taskmaster was almost made for this task. He sighted the nearest Lost Soul, hovering malignantly along as though it didn't have a care in the world, moving away from them, and squeezed the trigger. The gun spoke and spat out three bullets, and they connected instantly. The Lost Soul popped into a belch of flame and a rain of bleached bone fragments. Several of the Imps and Demons, and a few of the other flying bastards, took notice of the two of them and immediately about faced.

They began to come for them.

"Take them out!" Jack snapped as he sighted another Lost Soul and put it down as well.

He and Cortez dropped down behind a row benches in the middle of the thoroughfare, figuring they'd make for half-decent cover in a pinch, as the Imps started hurling fireballs at them. Jack worked quickly, shifting aim and pulling the trigger as the Lost Souls tore through the air, making a beeline straight for them. He popped one, two, three of the fuckers in a row, raining down bleached bone bits across the bloodstained carpet. Cortez burst the final two with some precision shooting, and then they settled to work on the Imps.

There were half a dozen of them, with four Demons stomping towards them as well. Though they kept getting in the Imps' way and ended up absorbing several fireballs meant for the Marines. Though three of them shrugged this off, one of them apparently got fed up, about-faced, and began marching right back towards the Imps. Jack laughed and expended the rest of his magazine putting down another duo of Imps and one of the Demons. He ejected the spent mag, slapped a fresh one in, and sent a slew of red hot lead into one of the Demon's huge, gaping maws. He blew out the back of its skull in a dark pulpy spume of gore.

It dropped, and so did the one next to it as Cortez put it down. Together they blasted away the third Demon right as it stomped up to their impromptu shelter from the demonic storm. The fourth and final Demon was current chowing down on the Imps, who were doing their best to fight it off. It was a big, strong bastard and although it went down, it took two of them down with it. Jack and Cortez picked off the survivors, and then immediately began hurrying towards the swarm of Imps, Demons, and zombies getting into the food court.

He switched to full auto as they approached and just unloaded on the fuckers, pumping round after round into the backs of the Imps and zombies nearest to him. A few seconds after he began, Cortez started up, so that they'd not both be reloading at the same time and thus provided overlapping waves of gunfire. He emptied his magazine and hastily began to reload. Right as he finished up and resumed fire, Cortez ran dry and reloaded as well. The hostiles forces attempted to fight back, but they were bottle-necked in the entrance to the food court and couldn't do more than fire off the occasional potshot or fireball.

Jack and Cortez burned through two more magazines apiece, and when they were done, they'd almost literally painted the walls around the doorway red with blood, and carpeted the floor around it in a few dozen corpses.

Jack heard more gunfire coming from inside.

"Friendlies, coming in," Jack said over the radio.

"Affirmative," replied the surprisingly calm voice of what must have been Bidwell.

Jack and Cortez got up on either side of the door and leaned out, scoping the situation. There was a broad, open space that had once held a ton of tables and chairs but now was just a battlefield mired in blood and death and bodies. A handful of Imps were still hopping around, yelling and throwing fireballs at Bidwell and a trio of security guards, all of them ducked behind the counter of a Taco Bell slotted into the wall between a burger joint and a sushi place. Between Jack and Cortez, and Bidwell's group, they managed to put the survivors down briskly.

"Clear?" Bidwell called.

"Clear," Jack confirmed. He looked at Cortez. "Guard the door. I'll check on them."

"Yep," he replied, reloading and about-facing.

Jack jogged over to Bidwell and the others. The local forces looked to be in poor condition, though Bidwell looked strong and sure. Jack recognized him from their fight in the city as well. He was a tall, dark-skinned man with a shaved head and neutral expression. He'd been quiet, not quite subdued just more...focused, from what Jack remembered. He seemed that way now, apparently not rattled at all by the near miss they'd just had.

"What's the sit-rep?" Jack asked.

"We've got about thirty civilians rounded up in the back. Some are armed, most aren't. About a third of them are wounded, three of them seriously. We were making a run for the Node when we got swarmed," Bidwell explained.

"All right. It should be a pretty quick shot there and it's clear now. Get everyone ready to move now," Jack replied.

Bidwell nodded tightly and took one of the guards back deeper into the Taco Bell with him.

"Ward! Got a survivor!" Cortez called suddenly.

Jack bolted back across the way, leaping over corpses, and joined him at the door. Stepping out, he saw a woman limping rapidly towards them, a civilian.

"Help!" she cried. "Please, help me!"

There was nothing actively chasing her, though with Spectres you couldn't be sure. "Come on," Jack said, and set off.

Cortez followed him and the pair met her halfway down the thoroughfare, not far from where they'd initially taken cover during their assault.

"You're safe for now," Jack said. "But you have to get-"

"My family!" she interrupted, gripping his shoulders. "You have to help them! I managed to get out but it's still in there with them! They're hiding but I don't know how long they can stay that way until it finds them!" She was nearly incoherent with terror.

Jack gripped her wrists to try and bring her back around a little. "Where are they?" he asked, staring intently at her, "and what is it?"

"They're in a gift shop, and it's a-a skeleton," she replied, stricken with terror.

"Fuck. Cortez, get her back and secure the area with Bidwell, I'll go deal with this."

"Are you sure? I should probably go," Cortez replied.

"I'm sure, go."

"Okay. Come along, ma'am," Cortez said.

"Please help them!" she begged, still gripping Jack.

"I will," he promised. "I'll bring them back. Go."

He broke away from her and took off, making sure his assault rifle was ready to go. Another Revenant, fucking great. They'd gotten lucky that first time. Maybe he'd get lucky again. Honestly, he wanted to call for backup but with the sheer amount of shit that needed done they were stretched almost to the breaking point and if he could slip off and get this done quickly, he would. He kept up the pace, trying not to slip on the blood or the dismembered limbs that he had to step through and over, and soon began to hear a weird clacking sound.

What sounded like bony footfalls.

Well, at least he had found it. Sure enough, he glanced up and saw a sign proclaiming this to be a gift shop. He wondered what stupid shit they had for sale in there. Maybe it was that he'd never really had a home since joining up, his home was whatever base he happened to be stationed at, and sometimes maybe some little apartment he called home in between tours of duty, but he never really got into the 'buying stuff' thing.

Jack crept up to the edge of the entrance and peered inside. There were shelves all along the periphery of the room, most of the stuff they'd sported knocked over onto the floor in all the ruckus, and the middle of the shop was taken up by at least one long row of more shelves, with probably another row on the other side of it. He could just make out the bony top of the thing's head as it walked along on the other side of the aisle.

So, how best to do this? Jack had his rifle on full auto and ready to go, but was there some way to get a drop on the thing? Where were the survivors? Did he have to worry about hitting them? Maybe there was some way to lure-

The Revenant let out a scream suddenly and literally burst through the shelves, sending debris and toys and holo-cards flying everywhere as it appeared in a cloud of refuse. Its empty sockets locked onto Jack and it launched a pair of rockets at him.

"Fuck me!" he shouted, turning and sprinting away.

The Revenant began coming for him, but its rockets were coming faster. And just like before, they were actually following him. He ran for a row of seats, vaulted over them, and then dropped down flat, praying it would work. A second later, an explosion rocketed the area, sending shockwaves painfully into his body, but the seats and his suit protected him from the worst of it. As he scrambled to his feet, Jack saw that the middle portion of the seats had been blown out. Several flaming bits of chairs were scattered about.

The Revenant was coming for him still. Its movements were horrifying. It didn't walk fluidly like he expected it to. Instead, it had an awkward, jerky gait that seemed strangely stilted and almost unnatural. He suddenly got the distinct impression that he was looking a puppet being controlled via its strings by an unseen ventriloquist. Trying to shake off the disturbing notion, he shouldered the rifle and opened fire. Pouring a barrage of lead into the thing, he mostly put dents its shiny silver chestplate, though he managed to chip several bits of bone out of its arms and got two good shot in on its big, grinning skull-face.

Then he was out of ammo and it launched another pair of rockets at him.

Cursing, Jack waited, knowing that if he ducked too early, they may just fly up over the seats and hit him from above. He sidestepped to the left and ducked at just the right moment, and the seats were blown to bits.

This wasn't working, he knew, so he abandoned his efforts of a long-range assault, switched to his shotgun with pain worming its way through his body from the multiple too-close rocket bursts, and began sprinting towards the thing. The Revenant didn't miss a beat. It fired off another pair of rockets and, trusting his reflexes, Jack dropped at the last second, throwing his weight forward and skidding along the blood-slicked floor on his back right towards the Revenant. Shotgun up, he pumped out three shells as he skidded onward. The first took it in its exposed guts, the second in its chestplate, the third hit it right in the face.

That popped its head just like one of the Lost Souls. Behind him, the rockets hit the floor and exploded, sending him skidding right between its legs as it stood for just a second, headless. Jack twisted around just in time to see it collapse into a pile of bones. He let out a sigh of relief, then got up and quickly began reloading. He headed back into the gift shop and took a quick look around. No more monsters.

"This is Sergeant Ward, I'm with the Marines, you can come out now!" he called.

There was a pause, then, slowly, a door at the back of the room open and a terrified man looked out, all bug-eyed and nearly hyperventilating.

"Where's my wife?" he whispered, trembling.

"She made it. She sent me here. Come on, there are others and a safe place, I need to get you there. How many are you?" he asked.

For a few seconds, the man just stared at him, dumbfounded. Then something seemed to click and he blinked a few times. "Me and our two children."

"It's safe now but I don't know how long it's going to stay that way, we have to move."

The man nodded. "Let me get my kids."

"Hurry."

The door closed and Jack hit his radio. "Cortez, Bidwell, can anyone hear me?"

"I can hear you," Cortez replied. "What happened? I heard explosions."

"Revenant's dead, got a guy and two kids, coming back soon. What about on your end?"

"Civilians are ready to move. Should we go? Was just about to call you."

"Do a quick recon, if it's clear, go. I'll meet you there."

"Affirmative."

Just when Jack was about to go open the door back up and insist the man hurry up, it opened and he came out carrying a young girl and holding the hand of a boy of perhaps ten. They were both pale and hell-shocked, and he felt his heart wrench painfully. No time to think about that, no time at all. The whole human race was going to be traumatized by the end of this, if they were lucky enough to survive. "You ready?" he asked.

The man nodded.

"Stick close, do exactly as I say."

Jack led them to the edge of the gift shop. He surveyed the situation beyond and found the thoroughfare to be empty. Down the way, he saw Cortez doing similar scouting. A moment later they were heading out into the thoroughfare, leading their own groups of civilians, and as they met near the entrance that would take them to the Node, the woman and her husband were reunited. Thankfully they did little more than get closer to each other and not hold them up. In this environment, every second counted.

They made it back to the Node with all of the civilians, Bidwell, and the trio of security guards a few moments later, and as the last of them came through and he locked the door, Jack let himself feel a sense of relief. He hurried back down the main corridor and came into the central nexus of the Node, where Nichols hastily waved him back up to the control desk.

"Yes, Lieutenant, he's here now. I'll patch him in," Nichols said as Jack joined him. "We managed to get some comms, but unfortunately anything more than a few hundred feet only works Node-to-Node right now," he explained.

Jack got patched into the Node's internal communications network. "This is Sergeant Ward reporting, over."

"Ward, it's good to hear your voice. Nichols informs me that you've rescued some civilians and secured a Node. That's good work. Now I'm afraid I'm going to need some of you to take on a bit of a larger responsibility. Communications are shot in Haydenfield, thanks largely to the Firewall. However, after working with some techs and doing some experimentation, we've been able to determine that if we activated two emergency signal boosters, we could have at least semi-stable comms for about half of Haydenfield, which would make coordination a much easier task. Right now, you are the best suited for this job. I'm sending you an information packet that will give you the exact location of these two boosters and the best route there. I want you to take a technician and a rifleman for backup, and get it done ASAP. Do you have any questions? Over."

"Just one: have you heard from Taylor? Over," Jack replied, allowing himself this one indulgence. He was going to go crazy if he didn't hear something from or even just about Jennifer. For all he knew, she could have died five minutes after they split up.

"Yes, actually. I fought alongside her about an hour and a half ago. Unfortunately we got separated when she went to make a repair at a crucial power junction. The repair was made about half an hour ago, but we still haven't heard anything back. When I saw her, she was hale and hearty and in good fighting spirit. I'm sure she's fine, Ward."

"Thank you, Lieutenant. That's all. We'll get the job done."

"I'm counting on you. Nichols, you're in charge of that Node. Out."

Jack took a moment to study the data packet when it came through. It was going to be a bit of a walk, but that was nothing new to him.

"Who's a tech?" he asked Nichols.

"Bidwell," he replied.

"Okay, I'm taking him. And Cortez."

"Understood. We've got things under control here."

"How's Nelson?"

"Still unconscious, but he'll be fine. Though before you go, I do have one request. The local security network is in shambles. We've determined that there's a repair that needs to be made to bring some backup mainframes online. It's down in some waste tunnels not far from here. If you could swing by and repair it, it would help a lot right now."

"Yeah, we'll do it," Jack replied. "Just show me where."

Nichols marked it on his map, then the two men wished each other good luck, and Jack went to collect Bidwell and Cortez for the next leg of this wild journey.