Doom: Hell on Earth 2.3

Sign of Evil – Part 3

****

The rocket tore into the flapping fat of the huge mancubus, and the explosion ripped its already horribly bleeding belly apart. The huge demon toppled over, it’s organs spilling out on the floor and its flamethrowers slammed to the ground with heavy, metallic clanks.

Crash fired a long steady burst of plasma into a swarm of lost souls, evaporating most of them, revealing one of these floating brown cacodemons behind. Crash continued firing at the repugnant creature until it exploded from the inside.

“I’m running out of ammo soon!” she screamed as she swung the gun around, firing at a small group of advancing Hell Knights.
“Ain’t much better here” Nash responded dryly. “We sure could use the help of that sour guy now, what happened to him!?”
“All right you sorry bastards!” Stevenson barked, ignoring Nash’s question. “Let’s retreat down this way, MOVE!”

They ran down a corridor. And ended up in a garbage container.

“Eeew, what a place to end up!” Crash grunted as she stepped into the litter.
“Heads up!” Goliath yelled.

Blocking their way was a huge Baron of Hell. Its small eyes briefly examinating them as if it was surprised that they would show up here. Then it roared.
A terrifying, otherworldly roar that filled their ears.

Goliath shouldered his rocket launcher and fired, but he knew it was in vain. He had only three rockets. The rockets exploded on the torso of the horned demon, knocking it backwards, but it was still alive and angrier than before.

Just then, a human shape fell down from above landing between the small group of soldiers and the creature. The Baron let out a surprised grunt.

****

I leapt out of the garbage with combat shotgun in hand and immediately fired at the surprised Goat demon. It roared as the projectile shaped pellets tore into its already ruined skin. I saw its disgusting green blood flow down its pink body and stain the rough fur on its goat legs. It roared and flung a bolt of goo at me, but I threw myself aside, while readying the shotgun for another shot and tore the Baron’s torso open with another shot.

I turned around and smiled as I saw my comrades.

“Well, well, well...” I grunted in a low voice that was almost a whisper. “my buddies are all gathered here” I noticed that one of the marines, whom I knew was Stevenson appeared to be completely paralyzed and I couldn’t help but feel wicked glee from seeing him in this state.
“We don’t have time for this now” Crash growled before adding: “But I am glad too see you again...after all”

We ran over the ruined remains of the Baron and rushed down the corridor from where the Baron had come. It led to a large Hall with row upon row of computer terminals. Behind us the dreadful sounds of many demons reverberated throughout the underground tunnels. It sounded like a symphony of Hell.

We ran up a staircase that led to a large set of raised platforms, Stevenson being the last man just behind me. Stevenson suddenly hurled himself on top of me, dragging me down the staircase. Crash who was right in front of me spun around. But just as she watched, I hurled him off me with great force.
“Run Ma’am!” I roared at Crash. She hesitated, then nodded, turned around and ran with smooth, agile bounds.
“I’ll kill you!” Stevenson cried and attacked me again. I leapt aside and kicked him hard in the side. Stevenson’s armor absorbed my kick, but the kick was still powerful enough to make him stumble down the staircase and onto the floor. I slowly walked towards him, blocking him from getting past me back up the narrow staircase. “Oh yeah by the way...” I said slowly and calmly. “I mustn’t forget to thank you for the “help” you gave me at the shaft”

I took a step more towards him, watching him coldly.

“I’ll get a decoy for the demon bastards” I growled in such a low voice that it was barely audible.

“Wh..what do you mean? What decoy? Answer me soldier!” Stevenson spat out, trying in vain to seem collected.
I remained indifferent and took yet another step toward the Lieutenant.

“First Lieutenant Frank Stevenson” I snarled hoarsely in a barely audible voice.
“Remember that I told you how important every soldier is to this operation? How important it is to stick together and HELP each other?”
He didn’t answer, just slowly crawled to his feet. I could strangely enough smell his fear.

“So far, you haven’t done much to actively help this group of soldiers, unless you consider that failed attempt at lending me a hand a while back a help” I snarled out of the side of my mouth.
I could hear his ragged breath.
“It’s time, Lieutenant Sir, to do a little something for your group...”

Stevenson suddenly kicked out after me, but I grabbed his leg and hammered my elbow down onto his trapped leg. I could feel the satisfying crunch as I broke one of his leg bones. He was a tough guy, and he only let out a prolonged groan, but it was evident that he was badly hurt. I hurled him down the stairs and leapt down next to him. My boots made the floor sing a metallic tune as I landed on the dirty metal floor. I quickly pulled off his backpack, knowing that it contained my BFG and took a step away from the hurting Lieutenant.

He somehow managed to get up and staggered backwards on his good leg. I nodded in the direction behind him.

He looked over his shoulder. Behind him, the darkened tunnels led downward. Further away were a number of darkened doorways that led into another system of tunnels. Inhuman groans, screams and roars could be heard from within.
“Like I said Sir” I said with a wicked smile. “It’s time to earn your squad a favor – do us a favor now, and get those demons off our asses”

With that I kicked him hard in his armor protected belly with enough force to make him topple backwards and he stumbled onto the floor. I turned my back on him and ran.

Behind me, I heard Stevenson scream curses at me. I came up to the others.

“Dammit moron, you shoulda let me cap that bastard instead of wasting so much time!” Crash snarled in a hysterical voice.
“Cap him with what Ma’am? Your plasma rifle?” She looked at the almost empty weapon in her hands.
“You’re gonna need all your ammo for things worse than Stevenson” I told her. “Besides...I had a score to settle, you didn’t”
“Who knows? Maybe he’ll get out alive” Crash said. “And then you’re in trouble buster!”

A prolonged human scream suddenly penetrated the air. It was a scream of agony. Of despair. Of utter terror.

“I think not...” I mumbled dryly and walked through a door with my back turned on the direction where the scream came from.

****

Stevenson landed hard on his back. The armor absorbed most of the impact from the kick but it still hurt. He sat up and started yelling on top of his voice at the others. He then tried to get up, but his leg hurt like Hell, seriously hampering him, but finally he got into standing position, supporting himself with the rail of the staircase.

He looked around desperately, only to see his demise rush out of the tunnels. Terrifying creatures that could only have been spawned in the pits of Hell, with slime dripping from their mouths, swarmed out of the tunnels and roared and screamed as they saw the wounded marine.

Stevenson pulled out his sidearm and started firing left and right, while trying to get up the staircase.

He slipped and the pistol flew out of his grasp. He slid down the stairs, trying in vain to grab hold of something, but he landed heavily on the floor screaming in terror and suddenly he felt sharp teeth in both his legs. The pink demon had grabbed his legs with its mouth and with a deep animal grunt, it bit through his flesh, crushing his leg bones. His scream of terror was distorted into a scream of agonizing pain, but the beast continued to chew away at him, eating up his legs. Another demon bit into his armor vest, its powerful jaws chewing away at the armor ruining it and giving Stevenson deep gashes in his chest and belly. It was soon so ruined that it didn’t offer any protection any more and the teeth of the monster bore themselves deep into Stevenson’s belly. With a single, powerful jerk with its head, the monster tore out a large chunk of flesh exposing Stevenson’s intestines.

He could only scream and hope that it would soon end...

****

The last energy cells from Crash’s plasma rifle burned through the Hell Knight and the explosive plasma pulses tore its body to pieces in a matter of seconds.
Thick smoke rose from the barrel of the gun.
“Go!” she yelled and I ran out of hiding, past her and knelt down with my chain gun ready a couple feet away from her.
“Go!” I growled and Crash leapt up and ran past me before she knelt down a couple feet away from me, with her sidearm pulled out.

The area seemed clear, but the surroundings didn’t calm our nerves. Rather they made the soldiers in my squad even more nervous. I could feel their fear. The area was so distorted that it resembled nothing like a human base. If it wasn’t because I had already been in Hell, I would have thought that I was there now.

“Looks like a last stand” Goliath mumbled in his deep bass voice.

We could see corpses everywhere we looked. All of them in a state of rot and in that state, it was hard immediately to determine how they died, but we knew that they had all fallen prey to the creatures. Tables and other pieces of furniture had been turned over and used as barricades, but it had been of little use. To add to the creepiness, the room itself had been morphed. Walls seemingly made of flesh with strange images of distorted skulls and bones surrounded us and when examining the area a bit more, we saw horrifically maltreated corpses hanging from chains. What was good news for us was that there were lots of weapons and ammo lying about. The defenders had clearly been killed off because they hadn’t been enough to fend off all the attackers before the demons overran this place.

“Get as much ammo as you can boys” Crash snarled. “We still have a job to do”. She gave her plasma rifle to Nash, ordering him to get it fully charged before she turned to me.

She told me that she was sure that something was wrong here. “What immediately got me wondering when we got in here, was that while there is clear evidence of a hefty battle here, not a single monster corpse can be seen anywhere” I looked around, seeing that she was right.
“Maybe the bastards caught them by surprise” I suggested but immediately realized that that didn’t make sense judging by the barricades that were clearly placed by humans.
She shook her head vigorously.
“They were evidently not taken by surprise”
“And that there are no dead monsters lying around doesn’t make sense, because there’s lots of heavy weapons lying among the corpses – these must have yielded at least some corpses of our enemies”

“We’ve got as much ammo as we can carry now Ma’am” Goliath informed Crash.
“Right, let’s get outta here and find that damn thing”

...

Stevenson got what he deserved, and that damn thing might be a cybie? Excellent!

Not a bad job at all; the dialogue could use a little work, this one for instance doesn't make much sense...
“So far, you haven’t done much to actively help this group of soldiers, unless you consider that failed attempt at lending me a hand a while back a help”

There's the odd spelling mistake that goes hand in hand with pretty much all fan-fic, but the descriptive scenes are excellent.

Keep up the good work!

A fitting end to that maniac Stevenson. Now if only someone would do the same thing to that internet spammer mentioned in the 'Revenge' thread...

Anyway, I can see that they are going to run into something...rather unpleasant soon, heheheh.

Spike said:

Not a bad job at all; the dialogue could use a little work, this one for instance doesn't make much sense...
“So far, you haven’t done much to actively help this group of soldiers, unless you consider that failed attempt at lending me a hand a while back a help”

Heh, dialogue is not one of my strenghts.

Exactly how I would have predicted his death. Good job on today's story.

Excxelent job, DSM. I especially like the POV changing between charactors, and Stevenson's demise.

Dialogue is, I like to think, one of my strengths. I should write screenplays, really - I'm not great with describing settings, something which has turned a lot of people off to my stories. I like it though, dsm - and hey, your dialogue isn't too bad. Just the occasional 'wince-inducing' moment.

I think you should switch POV more often, from like the Doomguy to Crash, to Goliath and shit, we need to know what THEY are thinking too.

Yes, I like the POV type switchings, its neato to see what they are contemplating and the way they see things, Awesome Story Dee-Lee DSM. :D

/me Awaits another :D

BigBadGangsta said:

I think you should switch POV more often, from like the Doomguy to Crash, to Goliath and shit, we need to know what THEY are thinking too.

Funnily enough that is exactly what I've been warned against in the past.
Never switch pov too often, else it'll become too annoying for the reader to read the story. But you gave me an idea. Maybe at some point, I should do a story from Crash's perspective before the Doomguy arrives back home.
Screw that, I think I'll do a story which follows two separate story lines that end up "meeting up" with each other in the end.

Basically, a story where every second chapter follows a story with Crash as the main character and the rest follow Goliath as the main character...and in the end, the two storylines are connected.

But that's still a while out in the future. I gotta finish this here story first and then I have other plans afterwards.

"You were almost a Jill sandwich."

It's really not that bad, heh.

dsm: Remember when we were on AIM and I was trying to suggest/predict how Stevenson should/would die? :P

stevenson stew. yummmy. cool stuff. I like how our reluctant hero got evil on stevensons ass.

"examinating" sounds like something mike mike tyson would say :P

could there be an Arch-vile in the near future?

It would seem like it. From what I read, it seems that, like the Pain Elemental, they haven't run across an Arch-Vile before. I foresee unparalleled terror for the marines, and maybe a couple of dead ones before it's all over.

...wonders if one of them did die, would the Arch-Vile revive him as some kind of slave...