[Writing] DOOM: Martian Marines (Chapters 1-4)

CHAPTER 1: THE MISSION

“Three hundred years in the future humans have taken up residence of the planet Mars. After initial colonization, thousands of scientists and personnel have taken residence on the red planet to perform research and mine.”

“Far beneath of the surface of the tiny planet is a subterranean research facility that discovered alien life that had been long dead. Since the amazing find a year ago the lab has been buzzing with activity that is until the attack. From tunnels beneath of the research lab came a creatures that has never before been seen by mankind.”

“Security cameras have recorded that subterranean organisms from Mars have taken all of the researchers and staff. Those that were left alive at least; we know these organisms to be extremely hostile and they have killed the majority of workers inside the labs.”

“There has been an hour of inactivity in the research facility and we need to send a squad down there to collect data research and artifacts. After the data and artifacts are secured, the laboratory will be detonated by high powered explosives to seal off the area to prevent another attack from the organisms,” said the captain as he looked over his squad of seven marines.

“Why don’t you call them aliens?” asked one of the marines. On the chest of his green body armor there was an A painted in white paint. “We do not call them aliens, because these organisms have been researched by a team,” replied the captain as he smoked his cigar.

The seven marines stood at attention. All of the marines including the captain wore dark green body armor and held their helmets at their side. Each of the body armors had something painted on the chest to signify whose armor it belonged to.

“We will rendezvous with a researcher that would have been down there dead like the rest of them,” said the captain, “But he was on the surface to greet the viceroy and present his findings in order to get more funding.” The marine with the painted A then spoke up, “Luckiest guy on this red rock dirt planet right captain?”

The captain’s only response was, “Shut up Austin. I’m not paid to listen to your mouth going off every three seconds. It’s like a child.” From the silence came a muttered comment, “We’re the unlucky ones.”

“Ah and I hear the squeak of a mouse,” spoke the captain in a bold voice. Before he asked “Do you want to say it loud enough so the rest of us can hear you Sam?” The marine next to her with a white viper painted across the chest of his armor spoke for Sam, “Sam said we’re lucky to go to the frontlines; to get the action Sir!”

The captain exclaimed, “Now that’s what I like to hear from my man Viper!” “What do these organisms look like? So I know what I’m shooting at,” asked a marine with a dark black insignia on his chest. “I was just getting to that,” said the captain with a small round disc in his hand. He held it up so all could see and then walked over to the computer console of the command center they stood in.

On the monitor appeared selected footage of the attack. At first it was merely a chaotic scene of dark brown creatures dragging staff members away, but then the seven marines and their captain witnessed the first kill. One of the creatures used its razor sharp claws to claw down the face of a researcher. There was so much blood flowing that it spattered on the lens of the security camera and turned it red.

The creature then proceeded to devour the man as he still lived. The screams were unsettling, and after he was dragged away from the view of the security camera. Sam spoke up once the screams from the video stopped. Sam asked, “How many were stationed at that research facility?” “Near one hundred,” replied the captain.

With the press of a button, the captain turned off the video and told his marines, “The rest of the footage is just more carnage.” “Can you let us see the rest of the video?” asked the marine with the large black spot painted on his armor.

“We don’t have time for that,” said the captain, before he spoke again, “I am sure that you all can see what the intensions of these life forms are. I am also sure that you will do whatever it takes to see to it this mission is complete and the marine to your left and the marine to your right all come home in one piece.”

He then began to pace in front of his marines and said with a puff of smoke from his cigar, “This is not a mission of peace, this is not a recon mission, if you see one of those organisms, shoot it in the head to make sure it is dead!” He then barked, “Is that clear marines?”

All seven of them screamed out, “Yes Sir!” After which the captain walked to the marine in first in the line. The first in line was a marine of Japanese descent. On the right breast of his armor was a small white upside down U with squiggly lines filling it in. The U also had a pair of uncolored eyes to go with it. “Ghost,” said the captain, “You’ve survived more lives than a cat.”

The captain then walked to the next marine. This is the marine that had the word ‘Sam’ painted in white on the helmet. “Sam,” said the captain, before he added, “Your voice squeaks like a mouse, but man you roar like a lion in battle. If it comes down to it, let me hear that gun or yours roar!”

The next marine to be spoken to be the one with a large black spot painted on the chest of his armor. “Reaper,” said the captain, “Every squad has a reaper and this squad is happy to have you protecting us with that sniper rifle of yours.” The captain then reached to his side and grabbed something. He then presented a pair of sunglasses to Reaper and said, “You’ll need these back and even though I still don’t understand why you need them miles below the surface of mars.” Reaper said, “Thank you, Sir,” in his gravely voice as he grabbed the sunglasses.

With another step, the captain walked to the shortest marine, and said, “Manny.” “Yes Sir,” asked the Hispanic marine. “You haven’t been with the squad long.” Manny then answered, “No Sir, this is the first time I’ve served with any of you.” “If you survive down here boy, I’m sure you’ll make it to sergeant.” Manny stood at attention and added, “Yes Sir. Thank you.” After the captain took another step past Manny, he looked back at him and added, “See to it you these grunts give you a better nickname.”

“Which brings me to Viper,” said the captain, before he added, “Let them feel your strike!” The captain then took the bottom of his fist and bashed it into the snake logo on the chest of the marine. The comment of, “Lamely put Captain,” came from the mouth of Viper.

Afterward, came, “Austin!” yelled the captain, before he added with a smile. “How on Mars did you make it this far I will never know?” After a brief pause, the captain told him, “If someone has to die, I hope it will be you to get you out of my sight.” The blonde Austin asked, “Is that an order Sir?” There was a pause from the captain before he said, “No. If any of these marines let you die, they wouldn’t be doing your job, and because we’ve always survived together, that means you’ve been doing your job too Austin.” “Thank you,” retorted the blonde marine with the A painted on his chest.

The captain moved his head to look at the last marine. “And you Chubbs,” said the captain, “Yes Sir?” asked the husky marine, only to hear the captain reply, “You’ve got weapons.”

With the swift move of his arm, the captain put the cigar in his mouth and barked out, “You’ll all go to Chubbs, who will divvy out weapons and as always, Chubbs gets the heavy artillery!”

The captain looked over his seven troops and told them, “Once you get geared up, meet me in the next room and we’ll get a move on to meet Dr. Gerick and his escort.” After that was said, the captain left the room, only to have Sam utter to Reaper, “Is it me or did captain say that like we’re going to die.”

With only the shift of his eyes, Reaper looked to Sam and told her, “On each mission it is best to expect death.. It is better to know death is present in order to do what it takes to stay alive.”

“Cryptic and creepy as always,” said Sam as she walked out of the line to get a weapon. Reaper put on his black shades, and instantly gained a smile as he watched Sam walk away. Manny said in his accented voice as he looked at Reaper, “Man you smell like death even!” He then held his nose and told Reaper, “That’s one killer cologne you have on!”

The cold Reaper then breathed out as he spoke the words, “Its garlic.” “Captain said we’re not hunting vampires,” retorted Manny, before he continued, “We’re hunting subterranean aliens.”

Manny then got behind Sam and said with a smile, “They probably want to steal our women and breed! You saw those things! Just imagine what their females look like! I’d rather breed with a hot blonde woman than one of those things.”

“Hey I like this new guy!” said Austin with a smile and slightly squinted eyes only to hear Chubbs tell the two of them, “Shut up and get your weapons.”

With that said Chubbs gestured to Austin, and then pointed down to a weapon and told him, “You get the standard issue shot gun.” “As usual,” said Austin, after which, Chubbs pointed to Manny and told him, “You too.” Chubbs began to hand out the weapons to the marines as he barked out, “Let’s get a move on!”

Sam checked the barrel of a machine gun and then loaded it. “Listen to Chubbs,” said Sam, before Austin added, “Yeah, because he’s the man with the weapons.” Manny then looked down to the side of Ghost, “Is that a sword?”

Instead of an answer, Ghost merely glared at Manny and clutched the handle of his sword. “Why do you have a sword?” asked the rookie Manny. Sam was the one to answer though, “He has a sword because it is better than your fists for close encounters.”

The rookie continued to eye up the sheath of the sword as he uttered, “That is a piece of art! You don’t want to bring that into battle.” “Manny,” said Chubbs, to hear Manny ask, “Yeah?” “Learn from Ghost and don’t speak,” said Chubbs.

However, Manny didn’t listen as he asked, “What? He does not talk?” Ghost continued to load his shotgun with shells when Sam answered, “He has taken a vow of silence for his religion and the marines must respect his religion unless it interferes in the line of duty.”

“And since he is not a commander, he doesn’t need to speak,” said Chubbs before he continued, “And neither do you.” “See that sword with him?” asked Austin as he gestured down to the side of Ghost. “That’s another part of his religion,” continued Austin. Manny’s face was blown away, as Sam explained further, “They let him keep it, because of that.” “Yeah, but I think he just says that sword craft is part of his religion to keep the sword at his side,” said Austin, before he added, “Hey I can’t blame him! But a gun does a lot more than a sword in a long distance frag fest.”

“He’s our ghost,” said Sam, and explained, “He doesn’t speak, and he can kill without the sound of a gun blast.” “Don’t mess with him either,” said Austin, before he added, “He’s got a bad attitude!” With that Ghost scowled to Austin and then raised his middle finger to Austin’s face. With his middle finger up, Ghost gave a brief smirk, before he put his finger down.

After that was said, the door of the command center swung open at the hands of the cigar smoking captain. “Well ladies are you ready for the dance?” asked the captain as he held the cigar in his hand.

“Ready Sir,” said Chubbs, before he added, “We were just getting the rookie ready for life in the squad.” “Lets let him live a day, before you all go getting attached to him!” barked the captain, and he then commanded, “Now come on!” He looked at his watch and told the marines, “We need to get out of here to make it to the date on time.”

CHAPTER 2: RENDEZVOUS

After an hour of travel, Manny asked, “How far until we reach the Rendezvous point captain?” “Not far,” said the captain, who then elaborated, “Just a few more floors.” The marines continued to go down the metal staircase, as the captain put his flashlight to a number on the wall.

“We’re on sub level twenty,” said the captain, before Chubbs added, “We’re headed to sub level twenty-three.” Austin interjected with a comment, “We wouldn’t have to hurry so much if security did not quarantine all elevator usage.” After that Austin used his flashlight to shine it down the center of the dark stairwell.

The stairwell was dark, but had emergency lighting on the floor of each step so the marines could see where they were going. Each of the eight marines had a dual lens light attached to their right wrist. Everyone with a shotgun had their light attached to the end of a shotgun.

After another level, Sam asked, “Do we know the creatures are still quarantined?” “Stop being pessimistic,” ordered the captain, “All the security cameras note that the organisms vacated the laboratory.” He then added, “Besides that, they tunneled up through the basement of this facility; which is still another ten levels below us.”

All eight marines continued to hustle down the steps to sub level twenty-three. The captain flashed his light on the door with the number twenty-three on it. “Here we are,” said the captain, before he added, “Now everybody get loaded, we don’t know if our rendezvous has been compromised.”

After that was said, the marines got to the side of the door; four marines on the left side of the door, and four on the right side. “Austin, get us in this door.” There was immediate compliance, as Austin slid a blue key card into a panel next to the door. He followed that with a quick three key combination.

The door slid open to the ceiling, as the captain said, “Good deal.” He then peaked his head into the open door and quickly back out. With the gesture of his head, the marines filed in two by two until they were all through the door. After a moment inside, one by one they said, “Clear,” as they checked the area.

The cafeteria was brightly lit to the point it was excessive, so the captain commanded, “Lights off everyone!” One by one they turned off their wrist lights and shot gun lights.

“Cafeteria?” read Reaper from a sign on the wall. “Even you need to eat don’t you?” asked Austin. The area was well lit, with silver and metal tables, chairs and walls. “We’re here,” said Chubbs, and Sam added, “Now where is the doctor?”

“Reaper, Ghost and Viper; Check the kitchen,” ordered the commander. Still with his shades on, Reaper moved across the cafeteria and kept his gun pointed at the door to the kitchen. Ghost and Viper swiftly followed behind Reaper and kept their guns pointed at the door as well.

Next to the kitchen door was a sliding metal door that was closed. The door rested on a long counter top, because it was used daily to serve everyone that wanted food in the cafeteria.

Just as they reached the door to the kitchen, there was a clang from within. The three men at the door took a different poise. Reaper displayed a punching motion and then held up three fingers. He lowered one finger, making two, and then lowered the next finger making one.

When Reaper was about to lower his last finger, the door swung open toward the three marines! From within was a man in a white lab coat with a plate of food. The three marines were startled and put their guns in the face of the man! With a scream, Reaper yelled, “Who the hell are you?”

The man in the white lab coat dropped his plate and shattered it on the shiny metallic floor below. Without warning, the metal door next to the kitchen door quickly rolled up to reveal a man with a shot gun.

Reaper kept his gun pointed at the man’s head while Ghost and Viper pointed their shotguns at the man behind the counter in the kitchen. The man with the shotgun uttered, “Whoa. Whoa here guys.” The man with the shotgun lowered his weapon and said, “He’s Dr. Gerick.”

“And who are you?” hissed Viper, only to hear, “I’m his escort, John Mason.” Mason also wore the same dark green armor that they all wore. Only his had a white M painted on the chest. Reaper, Ghost and Viper each lowered their guns, as Chubbs made his way up to all of them at the kitchen.

Chubbs then spoke out, “Johnny isn’t just the escort of Dr. Gerick is he?” Reaper was quick to ask, “What do you mean Chubbs?” “He’s also my little brother, assigned to this planet, because Earth wouldn’t take him,” said Chubbs.

From across the room Austin uttered, “Earth would take me, but I had questionable relations with the general’s daughter.” From behind Austin, Manny wondered, “Really?” “Sixteen year old daughter,” retorted the captain. “That’s not legal, not even in space,” said Sam.

The captain yelled to Chubbs, “Do we have a problem up there?” Chubbs turned his head and yelled back to the captain, “Nothing we can’t handle captain!” With the mere turn of his head, Chubbs looked back to the doctor who told the group, “We were early, so we took time for lunch.”

Behind the group, the captain could be heard as he told the second group, “Stay here. Keep a look out at that door in the stairwell.” “Yes Sir,” said Sam as the captain began to walk to the other group.

With the arrival of the captain, Johnny told the three men that held up their guns pointed at him “Tell them they’re at ease and I can live past today huh?” “Not my call,” said Chubbs. “Put down your guns,” said the captain, and all three marines complied and took a more relaxed poise.

“So tell me doctor,” called out the captain, “What can you tell us about these organisms?” Dr. Gerick squatted down to his knees and picked up the pieces of plate that had broken. “These creatures are indigenous to this planet and live underground as you have very well seen from the surveillance footage,” said the doctor.

Dr. Gerick then continued, “The fossils we have found have led us to believe that they are a vicious subterranean predator. Equipped with long claws for digging and teeth for well. You’ve seen the footage. You know what they use them for.” “Is there anything else you can tell us that might be of some use to us?” asked the commander.

“Just shoot them in the head I suppose,” he laughed to himself. “There is one thing,” the doctor added, “Those helmets you’re carrying with you.” “Yeah?” wondered the captain, “When we get down to sub level thirty, you will need to put them on, because we will all need oxygen.”

“What do you mean we?” asked Reaper, before he wondered, “You’re not coming with us are you?” “No he’s not,” said the escort, just as Dr. Gerick said, “Yes I am.” Johnny put his shotgun down onto the counter top, and told Dr. Gerick, “We’re not going down there.” “I am the only one that has the pass codes to get into the database and retrieve the information,” said the doctor as he pushed the glasses up his nose.

“And I am in charge of your safety,” reiterated Johnny, “There is no way I am taking you to a lab where a hundred people just died.” From the background, Sam called out, “They’re not dead!” Everyone in the group turned to look at Sam, who then shied away from their vision. “They’re not all dead,” muttered Sam with everyone watching.

Everyone in the group turned back to the doctor and his escort. Chubbs spoke up and said, “Look doc, give us the codes, we’ll get the information and detonate the lab before anything else can happen.” “No, I cannot just do that,” said the doctor, who then elaborated, “My friends, my colleagues, my wife.” There was a brief hesitation, before the doctor continued, “They’re all dead or missing. I should have been down there too with them. Now I need to go down there!”

“Besides that,” said Dr. Gerick, “Mason and I have been hearing strange things.” “Strange things?” wondered Reaper with gravel in his throat. Johnny confirmed, “Yeah, Gerick and I have been hearing these voices from down there.” “What kind of things?” the captain asked. “Survivors?” he wondered.

“Not survivors,” said Mason, before he looked to his brother Chubbs. “We can’t make out what they’re saying. Its more like moans,” added Mason. There was an intermittent pause as Mason gripped the counter top and told them, “We’ve checked the live surveillance feeds.” “And?” asked Viper. “And there’s nothing moving down there,” said Mason. The doctor took that comment to heart and he yelled, “They’re dead! How can they be moaning?”

“There’s a survivor, that’s why,” said the captain with a bold statement. “No!” exclaimed Dr. Gerick, before he elaborated, “No one could survive down there.” “The human body is resilient,” said Viper in his deep soothing voice, “There has to be a survivor, at least one.”

The doctor spoke up again, and told them, “There are no survivors because there is no air down there anymore. With quarantine procedure, the shafts that circulate oxygen down there shut off. They all would have died an hour ago.” That thought settled on all of the faces of everyone listening, before Dr. Gerick took a scowl on his face and told them, “The fires in the lab have extinguished, because all of the oxygen is gone. That is why we will all need oxygen.”

With a loud voice, the captain called out, “If anyone didn’t hear the man, you’re all going to need your helmets on and oxygen active!” The captain then looked to the second group, and yelled, “Sam you’ve got to hide that ugly face of yours too! You hear me!” Sam gave a lackluster salute to acknowledge the captain. “You heard the captain,” said Austin with a comical smirk.

“So you’re going to willingly bring a civilian in there?” asked Mason, only to hear the captain tell him, “Yep that’s right.” Chubbs then jumped in with a comment, “And you are going to keep him safe. Got that?” “I got it,” said Mason, before he added, “But I need to call it in with my superior.”

The captain looked to both Chubbs and Dr. Gerick and told them, “Doc you’ll be okay. We’ll go in there, clear it out. You stay in the stairwell with your escort. When it’s safe, then you will come in and get the data.” The doctor nodded his head, and Chubbs told Dr. Gerick, “You’ll be safe. There’s nothing down there now.”

Viper spoke out, “But in twenty minutes there’s going to be an ass kicking kill squad down there.” He then put out his fist and Reaper knocked his fist into it. “Hell yeah,” said Reaper, “I want to see if those things bleed red.”

“You hear anything from your CO?” asked the captain only to hear Mason reply, “There’s nothing but silence. It doesn’t work.” Chubbs then brought out his own radio and said, “Let me try.” The captain yelled off to Austin, “Austin get on the horn with command. See if you can get through.” In the distance, Austin could be heard, “Yes Sir.”

With a radio near his mouth, Chubbs told the captain, “No dice captain. There’s no reception down here.” “Austin you get anything?” yelled the captain. After a moment of listening on his radio, Austin yelled back, “No Sir, not even static!”

The captain turned to the escort and asked, “What’s your name again?” Chubbs answered for him, “John Mason.” “I can answer for myself,” said Mason, before he looked to the captain and said, “Mason Sir.” “Well Mason, it’s a long way to the surface without that elevator working,” said the captain. “If you hot foot it to the top to tell command, you might make it back down here in ninety minutes.”

Mason didn’t look too happy at the thought of going to the surface, but the captain interrupted the thought, “Or you can stay with us and go down to sub level thirty.” Mason looked to his brother Chubbs, before he looked to the captain, “I’ll follow your orders captain.” “Good,” said the captain before he turned to the rest of his squad and called out, “Everyone! We have a new member of the squad temporarily.”

The captain looked to Mason and gestured to him with his hand, “Mason! Before any of you take a laugh or a smirk at that last name, just remember that he’s the little brother of Chubbs, which means that Chubbs has the same last name!” Manny uttered from afar, “Does that mean I’m not the new guy anymore?”

“How long you been out here as a Martian marine?” asked the captain. Mason answered, “One year Sir.” The captain then called out, “How long you been out here Manny?” “Six months,” yelled Manny from the center of the cafeteria. “Which still makes you the new guy by six months,” yelled the captain.

Viper then spoke to Dr. Gerick and said, “If you have any worries about your safety. Don’t.” He then bashed his left fist against his armor and told the doctor, “This armor cannot be pierced. It can be dented, dinged, but not destroyed.”

“Just stay behind us, and you’ll be fine,” said Viper with a conclusion. “There is a weak spot,” added Mason. “A chink in the armor?” asked Dr. Gerick. His question was answered by Chubbs, as Ghost took his finger and pointed it straight between his eyes. “Bullet straight through the visor will make a head explode still in the helmet,” explained Chubbs.

Reaper added with a smirk, “It’s not pretty to scoop out brain from a helmet with an ice cream scoop.” He then put on his helmet and added, “That’s why I wear the bulletproof sunglasses under my helmet.”

Mason then put his hands on the counter top and hopped over the counter to the side with all of the marines. He picked up his shot gun and said, “So when do we leave?” The captain looked to his marines and yelled out, “Marines we’re out of here in five seconds! This meat train is headed for sub level thirty and a station full of unholy creatures from the depths of mars!”

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH

The nine marines and Dr. Gerick quickly arrived at the landing of sub level thirty. The marines once again were filed along the door; five on the left of the door and the rest on the right side of it.

“Everyone put your helmets on,” commanded the captain. The few marines that did not have their green helmets on put them on and locked the seal to make their suits airtight. Dr. Gerick spoke up to the captain and told him, “There is emergency oxygen on the walls.” The captain looked to the doctor and retorted, “You’ll wait out here and we will bring you some when the area is clear.”

“Austin! Get us in there!” commanded the captain, and with the swipe of his blue key card and a simple code, the door began to slide up. With the slide of the door, the air from the stairwell began to flow into the research lab.

Two by two the marines poured into the laboratory, and left Mason and Dr. Gerick in the dark stairwell. Mason kept his wrist light pointed back up the shaft to make sure that they were not followed down.

After a brief moment in the darkness, a marine appeared from the door and came straight to Dr. Gerick. It was Chubbs, he gave the doctor an oxygen tank along with a face mask. “Here, put this on and you’ll be fine,” said Chubbs only to have his brother ask, “How is it in there?”

“Rookie is throwing up in there,” said Chubbs, before he added in discontent, “It’s pretty ugly in there marine.” From within the next room, the captain yelled, “Doc we need you in here!”

Before the doctor could act, Mason reached out and yanked on his collar and uttered, “I go first. Got that?” The doctor gave a nod and Mason entered the next room with his shotgun raised. Mason then told the doctor, “And put your mask and tank on.” With that command, Dr. Gerick threw the yellow oxygen tank on his back and put on the clear face mask.

After Mason checked that the area was safe, he called out, “It’s clear, you can come in now!” The first thing that Dr. Gerick saw when he entered the room was Manny crouched down on the floor over a pile of blood. Manny had his helmet off and Dr. Gerick rushed to his aide and asked, “Are you okay?”

“He’ll be fine,” stated the captain, before he added, “We just need your codes to get into the next room.” Austin walked by Dr. Gerick and muttered, “At least he got his helmet off before he threw up.”

Once everyone was in the room, the door slid back down and sealed shut once more. Dr. Gerrick looked around the room at the horror. He was stuck in his own little world until Austin touched his arm and asked, “Are you okay doc?” Dr. Gerick slowly turned his head and told Austin, “Keep that blue keycard. We’re going to need it to get out of here with this quarantine.”

Off in the corners of the room, Dr. Gerick noticed Sam checking the dead staff members. The staff was covered in blood, with huge lacerations all over their body. “These are dead,” called out Sam with a cold voice. Viper then walked over and pointed his shotgun down at the head of a dead receptionist. He uttered, “Dead, but still good enough to waste ammo on.” “Don’t you dare!” called out Sam from next to Viper.

“Sam and Viper!” yelled out the captain, “Sir?” asked Sam when Viper and Sam turned their helmets to face the captain. “Stop messing around and get over here,” yelled the captain who stood next to a large pile of rubble.

There were overturned desks, filing cabinets and bookshelves that barricaded a door. “If this is built up, then where did they get in?” wondered Austin, but he was quickly answered by Reaper, who pointed to the ceiling with his rifle, “That’s how. They popped through the ceiling.” “Which is precisely why quarantine procedure seals off the air shafts,” said Dr. Gerick.

The captain spoke out, “Sounds like someone knew this would happen, wouldn’t you say Chubbs.” “Sure sounds like it captain,” answered the husky marine as the other marines began to clear away the barricade in front of the door.

The clearing was directed though, when there were gasps heard from the center of the room. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look in the center of the waiting room to see Manny still crouched down.

There were gasps of air that came from his mouth, and the captain yelled out, “Put your damn helmet on.” He then commanded the others, “Back to work everybody!” The debris was moved by each of the marines, as Reaper watched the ceiling with his rifle.

Manny continued to gasp for air and choke up more blood, so Sam stopped moving the debris and went over to the rookie. Sam knelt down and took Manny’s helmet from off the floor. The visor of Sam’s helmet reflected that Manny’s face was turning white from choking.

Sam told Manny, “Here get your helmet on, so you can breathe again.” With that said, Manny took the helmet from Sam and put it on. His breathing became normal once his helmet sealed to the black neckline of his armor. The captain commented, “We’re all family down here! We look after each other and we’ll all be fine.” Chubbs and Mason looked to one another as the captain then yelled to Sam, “The UAC isn’t paying you to baby sit and wipe snot from the kid’s nose! Now get your ass over here and start clearing this stuff away.”

Manny slowly returned to his feet next to Reaper; however Reaper stayed focused on the hole in the ceiling. “I see something,” uttered Reaper from within his helmet. The rookie Manny looked up to see what Reaper saw.

After a second, an arm fell down out of the hole; a single arm that tumbled to the floor. Manny ripped off his helmet and threw up blood again. Reaper however was unphased, instead he kept his focus to the hole in the ceiling. He coldly uttered, “At least we know where the receptionist’s arm went to.”

The debris was quickly removed from the door, and Austin slid his blue keycard in the panel next to the door. “Doc what’s your code?” he asked, but instead of giving an answer, Dr. Gerick merely entered the code himself. After that, Gerick mentioned, “I don’t remember the numbers, I remember the motion of my fingers to enter the code.” “That’s reassuring,” said Austin without a smile.

With the door open, Manny put his helmet back on and the group moved into the next room only to discover more bodies. They were everywhere, the bodies were in pieces, and Viper was quite amused, “Hell of a party when you don’t call the police, but you call the mortician.” “That wasn’t funny in the slightest,” uttered Sam, but beneath of Viper’s helmet, he had a smile.

There were pools of blood everywhere, scratches on each of the walls, broken vials, and of course body parts. Dr. Gerick was horrified and began to cringe, but the captain wouldn’t let him. The captain told him, “You’re the one that wanted to be down here. You get that information from your computers.”

He then turned his head, the captain yelled, “Austin you help him collect the information!” With the whirl of his arm, he then said, “Viper, Ghost and Reaper, I want you guarding the three doors in this room. The rest of you I want to collect the artifacts and move them to the waiting room.”

“We should be down in that tunnel where the creatures came from,” pleaded Sam, only to hear the captain tell her, “We have our orders, recover information and artifacts, then blow this whole lab up to seal the tunnel.” “Those that were alive were carried off,” exclaimed Sam, “They are still alive!”

“Alive until eaten,” laughed Viper. The captain then took Sam aside and said, “Look Sam, not even the UAC wants to lose this place. The fact is, if this place isn’t sealed off, those things will get brave and come back up here. Maybe make it to the surface.”

He then continued, “There are colonies up there; almost one hundred thousand people are up there. Civilians, men, women and children, the loss of one hundred researchers is an acceptable loss.” The captain then looked to Dr. Gerick, “We’re sorry for your loss, but it’s not in vain doc. We have your information and research.” Sam stormed off, and said, “But I’m sure Dr. Gerick would rather have his wife back then his research.”

Dr. Gerick looked down to the computer and said, “If you don’t mind captain, I am going to see if the security monitors still work.” “Be my guest,” said the captain with a gesture down to the control monitor. “See if there is any activity in the other rooms of this level,” added the captain.

Sam turned around, and asked, “What if I just go alone?” “I’d shoot you in the leg so you couldn’t go,” retorted the captain, who then added, “Look you can’t go, because if a marine walks down those caverns, the hostiles might perceive that as a threat, then come up here after all of us.”

“Am I wrong to want to go down there?” asked Sam to the other marines and Viper answered, “I’d be down there with you doing a little extermination, but the UAC signs my checks, and they pay me to follow Captain’s orders.” “I wouldn’t go down there,” said Austin, but Sam quickly snapped, “And you won’t, because you’re a self centered jerk.”

“Keep the peace here,” said Manny, who then wondered, “Man do we really have to lug all of these up thirty flights of stairs?” Chubbs answered, “Didn’t you hear about the glory of the Martian marines?” “If I wanted to move furniture, I would have stayed on Earth in Little Havana, working with my brother Diego,” retorted Manny.

After that was said, Manny turned around and was shocked by an artifact in a glass case. He was so shocked, he put up his shotgun and screamed, “What is that?” Dr. Gerick looked over to Manny at the glass case, “This is the fossilized remains of one of them.”

Inside of the glass case was the twisted body of one of the subterranean creatures. Its arms were folded over, but its long claws were still extended. The creature’s mouth was open and its eyes were hollow.

“This is only the skeleton,” said Dr. Gerick. “Is this the only one?” asked Chubbs, and the doctor answered, “No, there were hundreds found. We keep them in a storage area for further testing.” “There are hundreds?” asked Chubbs. “Yes,” said the doctor, “We believe them to be spawned, because they have no reproductive system.”

Manny then asked, “We don’t have to move all of them do we?” “No,” said Dr. Gerick, “This one should be just fine to move, it is already in its case and I am sure there are hundreds of others underneath the surface of the planet.”

From behind them, Sam appeared and even under a helmet, everyone could tell Sam looked in awe at the creature. “Do you know what killed them?” The doctor looked at a computer screened and said, “This particular one died from several puncture wounds.”

“So it was stabbed?” asked Manny, but Chubbs jumped in with a comment, “They were shot.” “Yes, the information that we’ve found has indicated that the majority of the ones we found were shot,” said Dr. Gerick. “That tells me they have weapons,” uttered Chubbs, but Sam believed, “Not with those claws.” Sam still looked to the creature without any movement and stated, “There must be something else down there, another species.”

“We have believed that ourselves for the past year,” said the doctor as the marines behind him moved the artifacts out of the area. Austin continued to download data to discs, until he spoke out, “Did anyone just hear that?”

“Hear what?” asked Manny. “Quiet and listen,” said Austin. After a moment in silence, Viper called out from beside the door he guarded, “I heard it too.” Chubbs asked, “Is it coming from your door?” “No,” said Viper, before he said, “Whatever made that sound is coming from within here.”

There was hushed silence as all of the marines looked over the room. There were corpses strewn about everywhere, but there was no sound. That was until all ten of them looked across the room to a lab table.

A sound of glass scratching against the floor could be heard ever so lightly. From elsewhere in the room there was a ghastly moan that caused all ten of them to look to what had made the moan.

At the wall was a line up of corpses on the floor covered in blood. One of them was missing a head. From behind the lab table there was a scratching that could be heard and once again all ten people looked to the lab table.

A bloody hand came up from beyond the table and slammed onto the table! After that Viper looked anxious to dash to the hand, but instead the captain yelled out, “Viper you stay there. We all stay where we are!”

There was a ghastly moan from beyond the table and the hand slipped off of the table and back to unseen. The captain then ordered, “Alright. Viper, you go check it out!” With a swiftness that would be described as a viper strike, he moved across the laboratory to the table.

The rest of them watched as Viper pointed his gun to whomever was behind the table. Viper put away his weapon and reached out below the table as he said, “UAC, we’re going to help you! Are there any other survivors?”

There was however no response, so Viper asked, “Are you able to speak? Don’t get up!” Viper then turned to the rest of the marines and said, “He’s hurt badly, but still alive Captain!”

After that was said, a man rose from beyond the table and his body fell limp atop the table. Viper looked down at the man and Sam went to assist him. Once Sam arrived, the man raised his arms to the armor of Viper. There was a gasp of air from the mouth of the man, and then the captain ordered, “Get him some O2!”

Ghost saw a wall yellow wall unit that contained the oxygen tanks and masks. He broke open the cabinet with his elbow, reached in and pulled out a single yellow tank and mask.

Meanwhile, the man pulled himself up off the table as he used Viper’s armor to pull himself up. “Easy there big fella,” said Viper, as Sam shined the wrist lights in the eyes of the man.

The man then swung his arm at the wrist lights of Sam and tried to grab them. Viper then shoved the man away and opened fire with a single blast from his shotgun into the man’s chest.

Sam screamed at him, “What did you do that for you trigger happy gun nut?” The captain screamed out from across the lab, “We find a survivor and you shoot him in the chest!” From behind them Austin remarked, “You give a viper fangs and this is what happens.” Viper then screamed, “He wasn’t a survivor Captain!” as he kept his shotgun pointed down at the man. There was blood spattered everywhere on the front of both Viper and Sam.

The arms of Ghost dropped to show his dismay at the fact the man was just shot. “He’s right!” yelled Dr. Gerick, “No one without oxygen is a survivor.” “I saw a man moving with my own two eyes,” said the captain as he looked to the doctor, who then retorted, “Everyone in this room is dead.”

Austin then called out, “According to this computer there were only ten heat signatures in here. That body was cold as ice and dead captain.” “Is there any activity on those security monitors?” asked the captain and Austin took a brief look at the monitors and responded, “No Sir; Nothing.” There was a dead silence as they all looked over to the body of the man with a shotgun blast in his chest.

From one of the walls came a moan, and all nine of the marines raised their weapons in the direction of the sound. The moan had come from the pile of corpses that remained motionless; five corpses, one without a head.

CHAPTER 4: REANIMATION

“Did anyone see any of them moan?” asked the captain, but silence was the only answer. After a moment of silence, the captain asked, “Are there still only ten heat signatures in this lab Austin?” “Sir there’s only ten heat signatures in this entire facility,” he answered as he looked across to the pile of corpses.

One of the corpses had a bent knee with its foot placed on the ground. After another moment of everyone watching, the foot of the corpse slid forward and its leg extended. The marines didn’t jump, but instead, Mason and Viper got closer to the group of corpses.

Chubbs uttered, “That doesn’t mean anything John. The leg slid, because of all the blood on the floor.” Viper uttered, “Dried blood isn’t slick.”

From elsewhere in the room, there was another moan that caught the attention of everyone. “The room is coming alive!” exclaimed Mason. Manny then asked, “Should we blast all corpses to make sure they’re dead Captain?”

“No!” ordered the captain, before he yelled to Viper, “We don’t want to shoot any survivors. Got that?” Austin slyly remarked, “How can we tell if they’re survivors when they move?”

The captain then gave the order, “Sam, you check all of them, make sure they’re not alive.” Sam swiftly ran across the room to check the pile of corpses. “I know this one’s dead,” said Sam with a gesture to the headless corpse. One by one Sam used a panel on the forearm of the panel to check the corpses.

Sam looked back to the marines and called out, “They’re all dead!” Four of the five corpses snapped up from their place of rest and wrapped their arms around Sam! Everyone raised their weapons, but the captain screamed out, “Don’t shoot; you’ll turn Sam into hamburger inside the suit!”

With an intense struggle, Sam fought back against the living corpses. Sam elbowed back at the corpses, to get a bit of space from them. Elbows that collided with their heads, until Sam reached for a side arm, then decked one of them with the green gauntlet of the armor. Sam followed up the punch by holding a foot against the throat of the corpse to pin it against the wall.

In a split second, there was time enough to see the eyes of the corpse were a vacant white. So Sam pulled the trigger and sent a single bullet that pierced the temple of the copse’s head.

The three other corpses piled on top of Sam, but Viper and Mason quickly acted and shot the corpses dead once more. There was a gratuitous spray of red blood from their shotgun blasts. After which Sam was helped up by both Mason and Viper.

Once Sam was up, the entire room began to moan from all over. Each dark corner, from behind each solid metal lab table came a vacant eyed corpse. Some corpses had deep lacerations through their clothes others had flesh bitten off of them.

“They’re everywhere!” called out Manny as he put up his shotgun at the head of the nearest corpse. Reaper asked, “Permission to open fire Captain.” “Let’s reassure ourselves these corpses are really dead,” said the Captain, before he continued, “Permission granted.”

In a hail of gunfire, each of the marines opened fire while Dr. Gerick covered his ears. There were body parts everywhere as the unarmed corpses were quickly annihilated!

Chubbs and Mason checked each one of the corpses with their guns to make sure they were dead. Sam asked, “How many were there?” “Two dozen,” answered Chubbs, who then added, “Give or take a few.”

The captain then ordered, “Doctor and Austin; I want all of that data downloaded now! Viper, Reaper and Ghost will stay and guard the doors. I want the rest of you to start moving the artifacts to the stairwell!” He then yelled out, “Double time now!”

As Austin and Dr. Gerick began to work, Austin wondered, “You’re a doctor; tell me why those corpses just moved.” The reply of, “In the past decade no one has ever died in the presence of Mars atmosphere.” “Please, plenty of people have died on this little red rock,” said Austin, but Gerick stopped him and said, “You’re not listening. Inside these facilities and in your oxygen tanks are Earth like atmosphere.”

“This lab is now being fed atmosphere from beneath the surface of Mars,” said the doctor before he concluded, “This is only a guess, but when the corpses are exposed to the atmosphere, they become reanimated.” Austin continued to download files as he added, “And we kill them a second time.”

The doctor elaborated, “Everything on Earth has been solved generations ago, and everything else in the universe is too far away to even wonder about right now.  Everything on Mars is a new mystery that my wife and I came here to solve.” Viper then yelled out a comment of his own, “I’m here because everything is killable without a permit.”

As the doctor looked down into the security monitors he used little levers to control the position of the cameras. “What’s up doc?” asked Austin. There was no response, until Austin asked again, “Who are you looking for?”

“My wife,” he uttered in a sharp tone. “You don’t want to do that,” retorted Austin, “Cause you don’t want to find her down here. Don’t look for something you don’t want to find.” The doctor shifted his vision from one monitor to the next, as he rebutted, “If I can’t find her that means she’s not down here.”

“Well she’s not up on any of the other levels,” said Austin, “What’s she look like? I’ll keep an eye open for her,” he added as he tried not to smile. The doctor replied, “She is easy to find, she’s the only woman here with red hair.” He then corrected himself, “Well not red hair, but orange hair that is starting to grey.”

Austin grabbed the doctor’s hand with his glove and said, “She’s not down here.” The doctor kept his focus on the monitors, but after a pause, he exhaled and looked up to Austin.

From beyond the door that Ghost guarded came a long noticeable hiss. Ghost even turned around and took a glance at the sealed door. Once Ghost returned to face away from the door, there was a loud ruckus from behind the door; the sound of clanging metal being ripped apart.

Ghost took a step away from the door and kept his shotgun pointed at the door. He then used his fist to pound on a metal table to get the attention of the other marines. When they all looked, the captain stated, “Yeah we hear it. That door stays sealed got it?” Ghost gave thumbs up to the order.

The marines continued to do their duty by getting research, filing cabinets and artifacts out of the laboratory. There was no more racket coming from the other room, instead the racket was the sound of denting metal from above the room they were in!

Ghost silently looked to the ceiling, and pointed with his two fingers so that Reaper could see what Ghost was looking at. Both Reaper and Ghost raised their guns to the sounds that were being made in the ceiling.

Another few meters in front of the sound was the grate to the air ducts in the ceiling, so Ghost took it upon himself to shoot up into the ceiling. There was a ghastly sound of pain that echoed through the laboratory, but that did not stop the sound. Instead the sounds made by denting metal quickened, until the grate was popped through by the fierce punch of a brown arm!

Without warning, Reaper sent a single bullet from his sniper rifle into the ceiling. There was no sound of pain; there was just the sound of the bullet as it pierced meat. The arm hung down out of the hole in the ceiling, it was a clean shot.

Everyone in the room continued to stare at the arm, as the captain stood up on a lab table. The captain first poked at the arm with the barrel of his arm. There was no reflex from the clawed arm.

With slight hesitation, the captain grabbed the wrist of the brown arm. There was still no motion or reflex from the arm. Viper broke the silence, when he said, “Put another bullet in it just incase captain!”

 “I don’t miss,” uttered Reaper from inside of his dark helmet, before he continued, “If it has a brain in its skull, that’s what I shot.” Manny then stepped over to look into the scope of Reaper’s rifle. “It’s an exo scope,” said Reaper, as he explained, “If it has a skeleton, I can see it through most walls.”

The scope showed the creature’s body as a skeleton in the air duct above the captain, who then yanked the arm of the creature to pull it down. With a thud, the brown creature slammed to the floor below the opening in the ceiling.

The marines gathered around the body of the creature and looked over it. The head of the creature had just about exploded; there was a huge opening in the side of its skull where a brain used to be.

Reaper was the first to speak about the creature, “It looks like an imp.” “A what?” asked Austin. “In mythology, an imp was a little demon,” explained Reaper, who then pointed out, “But it doesn’t have any horns.” “Do you really need horns to be a demon?” wondered Sam, but the captain broke up their examination, “Alright, everybody get back to work! If there’s another, I’m sure one of our three lookouts will kill it!”

“We need to go deeper and see if there are any survivors,” reiterated Sam, but the captain merely turned around and stated, “You must have a death wish. Not only do you want to go into hostile territory, but you’re crossing my leadership.” Sam then asked, “What death wish Sir? We just annihilated one of them!” The captain looked into Sam’s visor and said, “We annihilated them because we had the home field advantage. Down in that tunnel, they have every advantage and they’re likely going to kill us like we just killed them coming out that tunnel.” He then pointed to the air shaft above them.

The floor began to tremble slightly from beneath of the marines, just before tiles of the floor began to collapse out from under them! Some of the marines slipped down, as the tiles fell into the void beneath of them.

As the marines held onto each other, to keep them from falling, Imps climbed out of the darkness! The eyes of the brown skinned creatures glowed a luminescent yellow! Their sharp claws wrapped around the legs of the marines that were slipping, but Ghost and Viper pointed their shotguns into the pit and blew the heads of the imps off their bodies.

A few of the imps dropped lifelessly back into the darkness from where they had come. However, others took their places, and as Ghost and Viper cocked their shotguns, some of the imps flew out of the hole.

Viper met one of the imps with the butt of his shotgun, followed by a blast to the head. Meanwhile, Ghost fended off an imp, with a fierce punch, where he then cocked his shotgun and sent a blast into the creature’s stomach. That didn’t stop the imp though, it was poised as if to pounce, but, before it could pounce, Ghost put the barrel of the gun into the creature’s mouth and pulled the trigger.

There were claw marks all over the armor of Ghost, but he merely cocked his shotgun again, and pointed it back down the pit to the next imp. With the pull of a trigger another imp was sent back into the darkness.

The marines helped one another out of the pit as the dark brown bodies of the imps clamored at their feet. One by one, they were shot away by Ghost and Viper that stood near the edge.

The imps kept coming from the pit, with ghastly cries when each one was shot. “Drop a charge down there!” yelled the captain, and Chubbs swiftly followed his order. The husky soldier reached into his duffle bag, pulled out a round canister and twisted the top of it.

With the charge set, Chubbs dropped it down the center of the hole as the imps flowed up from it. He yelled, “Ten seconds!” The marines continued to fire at the imps, but one grabbed the foot of Manny. The rookie tried to shoot at the imp, but then a second set of hands grabbed at Manny’s other foot.

“Fire in the hole,” yelled Chubbs, just before Manny’s legs were yanked out from beneath of him. While the imps held onto Manny’s legs, Sam and Austin held onto his arms. It was a struggle, until more imps clamored up the body of Manny to escape the pit!

The imps forced Sam and Austin to let go of Manny. Sam quickly took out a pistol and began to shoot bullets into the face of one of the imps, until a shot gun went off and blast through the body of the imp.

Manny was dragged down below the ground, and Sam tried to reach into the hole for Manny’s hand one last time. However, Sam was dragged away from the hole by Austin who clutched onto Sam’s armor.

An explosion came up from the pit, and the entire lab shook with red rubble that flew up from the hole. The marines were stunned, but the imps were not. Two imps pounced on Mason’s body and clawed at his helmet. One of the roared as it tried to pry off his helmet like it was the head of a victim.

From the barrel of Chubb’s shotgun came a blast that saved his brother’s life from one imp. The other imp was kicked off of Mason and then shot by Viper’s shotgun. Afterward, Mason merely looked up to Chubbs and stood up to his feet.

Sam rose slowly and looked at the hole. It was completely sealed with hard red rocks from below the surface of Mars. Sam then looked over to an imp that was caught in the rubble and struggled to escape.

With a swift movement, Sam unloaded what was left in the pistol clip into the head of the imp. There were brown bodies and green marines everywhere around the hole, but Manny was gone. Sam uttered the phrase, “He’s not dead.”