AWL's book - # 3 of 6

[Mare Tranquillitatis]

Chapter 2: Awakening

We stepped into the airlock and the door slid shut behind us.

“Who’s there?” said a voice from the speaker on the wall. I could tell that it was the voice of our resident explosives expert, Spider.

“It’s the freakin’ Easter bunny! Now let us in.” I said into the receiver by the speaker.

“Welcome home, mister bunny.” Spider joked, “I’ll get some of the bums down in the basement to scatter around a few plastic eggs for you. It should make you feel right at home.” He pressed the button and the air filtration units rumbled on. After the cycle had completed, the door in front of us groaned open.

“It’s good to be home.” Alex mumbled as he stepped through the doorway.

Spider slapped Alex on the shoulder as he walked past, “How many of ‘em did you kill this time?”

“None, James was the only one who killed anything.” Alex looked at James for a response, but didn’t get one. Alex and James had never gotten along very well.

“I guess 50 credits for each of you is fair payment.” I started dividing out the payment for everybody who had come with me.

“Wow, this is twice as much as I normally get. You DO care.” James said sarcastically

“I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m going to go spend some of this hard earned cash in the bar.” Alex started walking towards the entrance to Max’s bar.

“That is a very good idea.” I said, I needed a bit of downtime before our next scavenger hunt.

We walked into the bar, I could see that Max had heard of our arrival and had set out a few glasses for us.

“Welcome back! You know, I was starting to think you’d forgotten about your old buddy Max!”

“How could I forget about the guy who has had to help me stumble to my room on several occasions?” I said with a smile, “Maybe I should try not to drink too much tonight, I think they’ve got another mission for us in a few hours.”

“Well, that’s no good. You know in a past life I’d go with you on one of your adventures, but I’m not the strong and stupid young man I used to be.”

“We all gotta settle down some time, one of these days I’ll have to retire from this job. Hell, I’ve been fighting with these bastards since the virus first started spreading. It seems like it all happened a million years ago.” The room grew completely silent, I had never told anybody how I had gotten pulled into all this, and it was no doubt a story that they wanted to hear. I waited for somebody to ask, and sure enough, they did.

“So what’s your story? I’ve only been here a few days and I don’t even know your name.” The new guy spoke from the back of the room, his name was Rico.

“My story is just like yours and everybody else’s, just a few chapters ahead. That’s all I have to say about that.”

“Oh yea? Well what about Purity Control? I heard that you lead a few of your friends on a suicide mission back when the virus had first started to change people, it sounds like you’re pretty stupid to me.”

“Listen, kid. You’d better get with the program and let go of all this “better than you” bullshit you got in your head. I’m in a forgiving mood today so I’ll let what you just said slide, but don’t you ever say another word about Purity Control, I lost more than you could ever imagine back in 2012 when the s**t hit the fan. Just forget about all that because next time you’ll be staring down the business end of a revolver.”

I got up and left for my room, I had decided that it was time for some sleep, but there was no sleep for me that night, only dreams and memories of my past… dreams and memories… of the hell that I had managed to live through in 2012.. Maybe my friends were the lucky ones. I had often wished that I had died along with them in that facility, but I somehow knew that I hadn’t seen the last of DOC Pharmaceuticals and their horrific Purity Control project.  

[Mare Tranquillitatis]

Chapter 3: Sands of Time

I woke to the noise of somebody pounding on my door.
“Ryan! Get up! Get to the entrance hallway ASAP.” Somebody yelled through my door.

I got up and got dressed quickly and I ran to the entrance hall to see what the problem was. There was a man lying on the floor mumbling something, it looked like he hadn’t had any water or food for days. Karin ran out of the storage room with a glass of water, the man slowly drank it. After drinking and thanking her for her help he spoke in a deep shaky voice, “There are mercenaries on their way here to kill all of you. They are raiding each and every bunker and killing everything that they see, they just got finished with the sector 3 bunker, and they are heading this way.”

“How do you know all this?” I asked, kneeling beside the man.

“Because, I was in the sector 3 bunker when they attacked, and I barely had time to escape before they lit the place up. They’re looking for a man named Ryan Calhoun, and I think they mean to kill him.”

Everybody that knew my name instantly looked towards me, “Why would they be looking for you?” Karin asked.

“I don’t know why they are looking for me! I haven’t done anything!”

“We can’t risk an attack on this bunker, I don’t know why they want to kill you, but I would feel much safer if you weren’t here tomorrow morning.” Albert said behind me, he was the designated overseer of the bunker, and was responsible for the well-being of all its residents.

“You can’t be serious! The mercenaries are on their way, and according to this guy they don’t care if I’m here or not, you’ll need all the firepower you can get if you want to protect this bunker.”

“I understand that they will try to kill us whether you’re here or not, but I figure that if they’re looking for you, you may as well not be here when they arrive. Pack your stuff up and get going. I expect you to be out of here within 2 hours.”

I got up and walked to my room without saying another word and began to pack up my things. For years this room had been a place of comfort and protection, but now it had a darker feel to it. I knew that no matter what happened I would never set foot in this place again. I walked to the door and there was a crowd of people waiting there to see me off.

“Take care of yourself out there.” Karin said with a smile as I walked past.

“I’ll try.” I said grimly. After saying my goodbyes to everyone, I stepped into the airlock and the door closed behind me.

“Good luck.” Spider said as he pressed the button to open the exit door.

The familiar warm gust of wind rushed into the room, and I was alone again. Alone in the vast wasteland with my thoughts as my only companion, I began to walk east, and soon I was miles away from the bunker.

All this walking reminded me of my journeys across the United States after the incident at the DOC pharmaceuticals headquarters: I and a few of my friends had traveled all the way to New York to find the creator of the virus, but when we got there, we saw how bad of an idea it was. A sea of undead people crowded all the buildings and streets, all hope seemed lost. We managed to access the sewers and go right under most of them, and we exited directly in front of the DOC headquarters. There was a strange lack of people around the building. We went in and saw that the entire building was packed wall to wall with undead, they had all crowded in from the outside, as if they were looking for the same thing we were. We managed to fight our way through them and we eventually got to the pharmaceutical development room, our goal had finally been achieved. We went in to find that a crazed scientist named “Brian Gelling” had had taken shelter in the room, and was about to break a vial of the virus onto the floor, which acted as bait for the undead. We tried to reason with him, but he wouldn’t listen, he threw the vial and it shattered on the floor in the center of the room. Soon they began to flood into the room, we fought them off as best we could, but we couldn’t kill all of them, eventually we were overtaken, and my friends were torn to pieces before my eyes, I can still hear their screams. There was a loud booming noise outside, and they all began to retreat from the room. All of my friends were either dead or mortally wounded, but I had somehow been unharmed. I looked to the floor to see Rebecca lying in a pool of her own blood, she was the love of my life, I told her everything would be okay and that help was coming soon, but I knew she didn’t believe me. She died in my arms that day, I set her on the ground gently and covered her with my coat. I looked at my hands and they had her blood all over them, I was covered in her blood. I began to weep uncontrollably and I passed out next to all of my dead companions. I woke up about 3 hours later, or at least that’s how long it felt. I was still in the room with all my dead companions. There was a glass case in the back of the room that was labeled “Purity Control” and it was full of vials of an orange liquid, one of the vials was missing from when Dr. Gelling threw it to lure the undead into the room, I grabbed a bunch of papers from one of the desks in the room, and set them inside of the case. I lit the papers on fire with my lighter that I had with me, and soon the glass vials began to shatter. With the liquid acting as a flame accelerant, soon the entire room was bathed in scorching flames. I left the building to find that the entire city was completely empty of any form of life besides me. I wondered what had happened to all the people, but I didn’t stick around to find out. I began to walk, for days I walked, and soon I had made it all the way to Nevada. For years I lived by searching old abandoned stores for food, and one day I happened upon the bunker. There I lived for many years, until this day when I was forced out of my home, but I just kept on walking into the unknown. I had no idea of the horrors I would face next.  

[Mare Tranquillitatis]

Chapter 4: The Four Horsemen

I walked aimlessly for several days, and soon I had walked all the way to sector 5, in what used to be Colorado. I had always entertained the notion of visiting the mountains, so I decided that there wouldn’t be a better time than now. I slowly followed the road into the mountains and I made it into a medium sized ghost town just as the sun had vanished over the horizon. It was peaceful there; it had been evacuated by the government during the initial stages of the virus evolution. I spent many days in those empty mountains. There were plenty of shops in town so I always had plenty to eat and drink, it felt like a paradise, but as the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end.

One day I was in the general store grabbing some supplies, and I heard somebody whistling out on the road. I ran out to see who it was, and I saw an old man and his dog on a leash walking into town. I stepped into the street and waved to him, he waved back and began to run towards me.

“You have no idea how good it is to see another normal person for a change!” He said when he got closer to me.

“I couldn’t agree more,” I said with a smile, “I was just grabbing some food out of this store, what do you say we go ahead and eat some dinner? I haven’t had a meal with another person in ages.”

“That, my friend, is a very good idea!”

We walked into the community center that I had been staying in temporarily. I had already had a fire going so I could cook my food when I returned. We ate and talked and laughed, it was the most entertaining thing that had happened in months.

“So, I’ve been here for a while and I don’t even know your name.” The man said with a chuckle after we had eaten.

“Oh, I hadn’t even noticed,” I decided to use a false name because I figured that there was a bounty on my head, “The name’s Gordon Shepherd, I’ve been wandering for a while now and I decided to stay in this nice little town for a while.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mister Shepherd!” he said, shaking my hand, “My name is Brian Gelling, I’ve been wandering just like you. I used to be a doctor in New York, but all that’s ancient history now.”

When I heard the man’s name, it shook me to the core. The man that had caused the deaths of all my friends so many years was reduced to an old frail wanderer, and he was now sitting across from me with the light from the fire casting strange, evil looking shadows on his face.

“Tell me… Where did you work in New York?” I asked, barely holding back my rage.

“Just a little pharmaceutical company, I retired the day that the virus evolved.”

“Oh, well I guess it’s about time for me to turn in, I didn’t get much sleep last night.” I said, lying down on my bed.

“Oh yea, I’m pretty beat too, I guess we can talk more in the morning, right?”

“Right.”

He laid down and quickly fell asleep. While he was quietly snoring, I didn’t sleep, there was a war happening in my mind, I couldn’t decide whether or not I should take revenge on the man who had caused me so much pain and grief. After a few hours of thinking I finally knew what I had to do.


“What the hell? I can’t move! What the hell’s going on?” The man said when he woke up.

“Retribution, Dr. Gelling, retribution.” I said, stepping out of the shadows.

“What are you talking about?”

“Purity Control.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes you do, you were in charge of developing the virus that is now known as PTGV-328, and that particular virus was once codenamed “Purity” the other part of the name was added when you and the other 3 lead scientists discovered it had a particular trait of controlling its hosts.”

“I still don’t know what you’re talking about!” He was clearly lying

“Really? The name PTGV-328 was derived from the first letters of the last names of the doctors, and the 328 original test subjects. Paulsen, Thompson, Gelling, and Venditti, all last names of the people who developed Purity.”

“I’ve never done anything to you! How were we supposed to know that this would happen?”

“In 2012, on December 30th, you killed my friends, and now I can finally have my revenge.”

“That was you? Listen, I’m sorry about what happened! I wasn’t thinking clearly!”

“Sorry doesn’t bring Rebecca back, does it?” I pulled a hatchet out of my bag and started to sharpen it.

“You don’t have to do this! I said I was sorry! Not a day goes by that I don’t think about what happened that day, I wish I could bring your friends back but I can’t, what’s done is done!”

I swung the hatchet with all my strength, the man screamed in pain.

“That’s two fingers, who was the one who told you told you to develop purity in the first place?”

“You’ll just have to kill me.”

I swung the hatchet again, and he screamed once more.

“That’s two more fingers. it’ll be the other hand next. Who was it?”

“He was named Roy Lindeman, but he was infected with the virus, he left for sector 7 three days before the virus changed, he said he was onto a way to keep the virus from overtaking people’s bodies and minds. I haven’t heard from him since then. Now please let me go!”

“A cure? Is that all he told you?!?”

“Yes! Please let me go!”

I put the hatchet back in my bag and began to pack up my things once more, and took a piece of burning wood from the fire, I had soaked the entire room with gasoline from the gas station across the street. I left the building and threw the burning wood on the floor as I walked out. I looked back when I was out of town, and I could see the smoke rising from the burning building. I did not feel remorse for killing the man, he deserved much more pain than he got.

The day of reckoning had finally arrived for DOC Pharmaceuticals and all of its employees who were responsible for the destruction of the United States. They thought they were safe in their protective shelters with more than enough supplies to last them for a lifetime. They sucked the country dry while they prospered on the destruction. I knew that they had all been condemned to die, and I was the executioner....  

[Mare Tranquillitatis]

Chapter 5: Conquest

I had forgotten exactly how quiet the wasteland could be, there wasn’t any kind of sound except for a dull rumbling noise from the mountains to the east.

I had traveled a very long distance from that town in Colorado. I wanted to put as much distance between myself and what was left of Dr. Gelling as possible. One of my friends had a place in a fortress on the easternmost edge of Kansas; I thought I’d pay a visit and get some information on the other 3 doctors.

I traveled for several more days, and I eventually got close enough to the fortress to see its bright lights cutting through the darkness like a knife. It had been built to be a community in which civilians and military lived together, it worked well and they thrived, unlike the bunkers that might as well have been giant metal coffins buried in the ground.

A guard readied his weapon when he saw me nearing the entrance, “State
your name and business!”

“Relax, just traveling and I thought I’d stop here and do some trading, then leave out in the morning. The name is Gordon Shepherd.”

“Ok, you can go in, but don’t try anything funny.” He said, flipping the switch, the huge door groaned open in front of me and I stepped inside.

“Welcome to non infected stronghold 121-42B,” Another guard said, stamping a bar code on my hand, “Have a nice stay.”

I walked to the residential area, and knocked on the door that was labeled “M.B.”

A man opened the door, “What do you want?”

“Well a nice sit down inside would be nice, ya’ old lazy b*****d.”

He studied my face for a few seconds, then his eyes open wide, and a big grin stretched across his face, “Ryan! I was beginning to wonder if you’d ever come to visit again. Please, come in!” He opened the door and let me inside.

“Nice place, I need some information.”

His smile disappeared, “It’s always business with you, isn’t it? There’s never a ‘Hey, Mike. How’s it going.”

“Hey, Mike. How’s it going?”

“Good!” He said, smiling again and pulling out a bottle and two glasses from under a shelf in the kitchen, “Now what did you need to know?”

“I need some info on the whereabouts of the 3 doctors besides Gelling that developed purity.”

“Interesting topic, you’re lucky that I looked into it already, Paulsen died 1 day after V-day in a car crash, Thompson went with Lindeman to sector 7, and Venditti just happens to be staying in this very fort inside of a personal bunker.”

“Where is it?” Anger began to swell up inside of me once more, they had taken my life away, and I was going to return the favor.

“Take a right outside of my door and walk past the next two buildings, take a left when you get to the outer wall, the door looks like a giant vault, its always heavily guarded. Say, why are you asking all this anyway?”

“No reason.”

“Ok, then I suppose now that you have gotten the information you need, you’ll be leaving again.”

“I’m afraid so, I’ve got no time to w-“ A series of loud booms came from outside, and the house shook. I could hear the sound of gunshots outside, something big was happening.

“Gotta go!” I ran outside to see what was going on, there were several large holes in the outer wall, and in the smoke I could see people walking around, but they didn’t move like normal people did, I couldn't put my finger on what the difference was though. I took the directions that Mike had told me, and soon I was standing in front of the huge vault door, there were no guards and it was slightly ajar, I drew my revolver and stepped in.

The inner door was also slightly open, I walked into the room and saw Doctor Venditti sitting in a chair vigorously writing something on his desk.

“Hello, Doctor Venditti.” I said, pushing the muzzle of the gun into the back of his head.

“You shouldn’t have come here! “

“Why? So I wouldn’t kill you? Give it up Venditti, I know exactly what happened at DOC pharmaceuticals, consider this bullet as payment for all the lives lost because of your virus.”

“You truly are a foolish person, you don’t understand anything! I was trying to help all those people, purity wasn’t our creation!”

“What?!?”

“I expected better from you, Ryan, you were supposed to be the smart one.” A female voice spoke from behind me, it sounded strangely familiar. I felt something strike me on the back of the head, there was a second of intense pain, but then there was only darkness.  

[Mare Tranquillitatis]

Chapter 6: All Guns Blazing

I woke up in a dark room, I couldn’t move, I was tied to a chair with my hands behind my back.

“You’re finally awake! I’ve got so much to tell you!” It was the same female voice from earlier, I knew I had heard it before somewhere. The bright lights clicked on, my vision was temporarily blurred, I could see a girl standing in front of me, my vision cleared, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! Rebecca! Oh my god!” I tried to stand up, but I remembered that I was tied to the chair

“I’m sorry that you’re tied to the chair Ryan, it’s a precautionary measure.”

“Why? I don’t know how you’re alive, but you have no idea how good it is to see you, let me out of these ropes please!”

“I’m alive….because of purity.” It felt like I had been stabbed in the heart.

“But..how?”

“I was infected the entire time, I barely managed to escape when you torched the facility.”

“This is wrong! Why didn’t you tell me? Purity is evil!”

“No it’s not, it’s amazing! I almost died, but purity healed me, and now I’m healthier than ever, and I’m stronger and smarter!”

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing, you’re not the Rebecca I loved, not anymore.”

“Yes I am, Ryan! I still love you, please, become one of us, if you do I can cut the ropes loose and we can live together forever, purity makes us immortal!”

“Purity is a crime against nature.”

“Please Ryan, it’s so much better like this, you don’t have to worry about anything ever again.” She withdrew a small syringe out of her pocket, “This will only hurt for a minute, then there will never be any more pain.”

“No! Please don’t!”

“I have to.”

“Like hell you do! Drop the needle and back away slowly or else you’ll be eating through a tube from now on!” I recognized the voice, it was James! They had come to save me!

She screamed in rage, and pushed the needle into my neck, a shot rang out and the glass syringe shattered, “Try something else, I dare you.”

She screamed again and out of the corner of my eye I saw her pull a knife out of her pocket, and lunged at something behind me, I assumed it was James, he shot again, and there was a thud as she fell to the floor, “If you want to make nice with her, you’d better hurry, I’d say she’s got about 5 minutes left.” He cut the ropes off my wrist and I jumped out of the chair, Rebecca was lying on the floor bleeding.

“I love you, Rebecca.”

“I love you too.” She began to cough up blood

“I’m sorry this happened, but now you can finally have some rest.”

“Yea.. Hey, Ryan… Do you remember that song you wrote for me on our first date?”

I laughed, “Yea, I do. It took me 3 days to write it.

“I used to love that song, I even kept the paper you wrote it to me on.” She reached in her pocket and pulled out a folded up piece of paper, “I’ll always love you, Ryan.”

She took her last breath, and she once again died in my arms. I set her down on the floor, and stepped away, my rage had not subsided. I was going to kill anybody who had to do with the development of purity and anybody else who stood in my way. “Where’s Venditti at?”

“You mean that guy?” James said, pointing at the entrance hallway, Venditti was lying dead on the floor, he had been shot in the head.

“Damn it.”

“We should go make sure everybody else is okay, Karin, Alex, and Rico had things pretty much taken care of when I came in.”

“Okay.” I followed him out of the building, I glanced back at Rebecca and silently mourned over my lost love.

“Good to see you, Ryan!” Alex said

“Yea it is!” Karin agreed

“Where’d those mercenaries go?”

“We killed them, but the thing is, they weren’t mercenaries at all, they were infected people in armor, they followed Ryan all the way here and attacked, it’s a good thing we showed up when we did.” Alex said

“So I had those infected bastards following me the whole time? What do they want with me?”

“I don’t know.”

“I know where I can find out though, Sector 7.”

“Sector 7?!? You’re nuts! That’s right in the center of the hive! They all moved there for some reason, I heard rumors that they’re staging an attack to wipe out humanity for good.”

“Even better, I’m taking the fight right to their front yard, they won’t suspect that.”

“You’re sure you have to do this?”

“Yes.”

“Looks I got no choice but to go.” Alex said reluctantly

“Same here.” Karin mumbled

“Got nothing better to do.” James said

“Oh hell yea!” Rico said

“You sure are enthusiastic. You all know that we probably won’t make it back from this alive, right?”

They all nodded their heads. We were going straight into the belly of the
beast. Sector 7 was in the mountains, I heard rumors that the infected had dug huge tunnels all through the mountains and had made a huge network spanning the entire mountain range, this was going to be a tough fight, but I had a few tricks up my sleeve still, I knew that if I died there I was going to take all those bastards with me.

“Start packing and salvaging, we’re leaving in 3 hours.” We began preparing for our long journey to sector 7, where death waited with open arms.  

[Mare Tranquillitatis]

Chapter 7: War

“I appreciate your help, but it was stupid of you to come here. “ I spoke to the group

“We had to! Albert went off the deep end after you left. The
“mercenaries” attacked while we were gone gathering supplies, we got back and followed them here because we figured they would come straight for you.” Karin said

“Well, either way, it’s good to see all of you again.” I smiled

“So what’s the plan now, boss? This place is destroyed thanks to those damn monsters.” Alex stepped to the center of the group.

“All I want to do now is find out as much as I can about those things and their hive in the mountains. After that I’m going to go in and find Thompson and Lindeman and I’ll kill them.”

“Sounds like a plan. I haven’t played target practice with one of those uglies in a while.”

“How do you expect to learn about the hive without getting killed? This is crazy! I can’t believe - ..What the-?” Karin suddenly trailed off as the sound of helicopter engines filled the air.

A group of heavily armed helicopters appeared over the east outer wall, and began to last amongst the wreckage of what used to be large buildings. Soldiers began pouring out of the helicopters as soon as they landed, and soon we were surrounded.

A high ranking officer stepped through the circle of armed GI’s, “Put your weapons on the ground.” We complied and soon all of our weapons were scattered around us on the ground, “Here,” He threw a small knife towards us and it landed next to my feet, “If you can take that knife and cut yourself once, we know for sure that you’re human, those stupid infected ones can’t do any kind of action that will cause damage to their bodies in any way if it doesn’t benefit the overall well being of the rest of them.”
I picked up the knife and ran the blade across the top of my arm, it began to bleed slightly. I handed the knife off and everybody did the same.

“Good. At ease, men.” The soldiers lowered their weapons but still stayed alert to their surroundings.

He escorted us through the group of GI’s and led us to a blue tent that his men had set up during our meeting, “Please, sit down.” He pointed towards some chairs in the corner. We sat down promptly, “So, why are you here?”

“I’ve been looking for the doctors responsible for inventing PTGV,” I motioned to James and the others, “these guys managed to follow me all the way here because those huge mutants over there killed everybody in our old bunker while they weren’t there.”

“Interesting.” He leaned forward, “I’m General Roy Grandeaux.” He extended his hand.

“Ryan Calhoun, nice to meet you.” I took his hand and shook it.

“So you say you’re looking for those scientists? Well I’ve got good news,
we currently have Eric Thompson in custody back at HQ, I can let you talk to him if you wouldn’t mind helping us out a bit.”

I knew that Thompson could tell me what I needed to know about Doctor Lindeman’s whereabouts and the hive, “Sure, what do I need to do?”

“We’ve had reports about a new tunnel coming out of the mountains, I figure that if they’re planning an attack, then they’ll take all those paths out of the mountains to make things easier, we’ve been sealing them up for a while now, but we want to leave this one open, we need you and Lambda squad to do some reconnaissance for us and tell us if they are moving anything out of it.”

He pulled a small radio out of his pocket, “Hey, get Lambda out here for mission briefing.”

After a short silence a voice on the other end responded with “Roger that.”

“They’ll be here in a little while. HQ is about 4 miles away from here.”

“All right. Why was your response to the destruction of this place so quick? I thought the U.S. military was almost completely destroyed after the virus evolved.”

“Oh, quite the contrary, the U.S. military is still a force to be reckoned with, the government didn’t allow the soldiers to be infected due to certain health risks. The president officially put the entire United States into a state of martial law until the situation with the virus is under control.”

“Really? Things have changed a lot then. Do you have any ideas about why all the infected people went to sector 7?”

“I’ve heard that there’s an army being formed deep in the hive, and if what they’ve been sending at us isn’t already considered a big enough army, I don’t want to be around when they get ready to attack and wipe us out for good. They’re using our technology against us, tanks, helicopters, everything. This is a full blown war, and it doesn’t seem like it will end well for us, there’s just too many of them.”

“Why don’t you just send all of your soldiers in and massacre them?” Alex asked

“That would be suicide, they’ve got the advantage in this situation, we have no idea what the layouts of those tunnels are, and as I said before, there are way more of them than there are of us.”

“Why exactly do we have to go with those people to see the tunnel, can’t they just do it by themselves?”

“I have to make sure your intentions are pure, if you go with them and bring us back some good information, you have unrestricted access to all of our archives and information at Headquarters, and you can interrogate the prisoners to your heart’s content, maybe you’ll find something we haven’t.”

The sound of an engine stopped in front of the tent, and I heard a door open and shut, then heavy footsteps toward the front. “Permission to enter, sir?”

“Just come in. You can leave all that formal bullshit back at headquarters until this war is over.”

“Yes, sir.” The front flap of the tent opened, and he stepped in. He was absolutely enormous, “giant” is the only word that I can think of to describe him. He had a large scar running from the top of forehead, over his right eye, and down to the bottom of his chin. Needless to say, he was a very intimidating figure.

“You’ll be transporting these civilians to the new tunnel that opened up, this is purely an information gathering mission so don’t go trying to blow the place up. You’re to find the best spot to watch the entrance of the tunnel and watch it for the night, tomorrow morning you can return and tell me what you saw.”

“Yes, sir.” He turned toward the entrance, “Follow me.”

We stood up and followed him outside, we walked toward a large jeep, he walked to the driver side door and said, “Get in.” We climbed into the jeep and sat down in the back, there was a woman sitting on a small seat with her back towards the driver and passenger seats.

“Make yourselves comfortable, it’s about an hour drive to the tunnel.” The man in front said.

He began to drive away from the ruins of the so-called fortress; I couldn’t help but wonder what Doctor Venditti meant by “Purity wasn’t our creation.” Something strange was going on, and I knew I could get answers from Doctor Thompson.  

[Mare Tranquillitatis]

Chapter 8: Revelations

“So who are you guys anyway?” I asked, breaking the silence in the jeep.

“We are a secret team, a branch off of the regular military, only the best of the best are allowed into our ranks, and we're the only three left after the virus spread.” The man driving spoke.

“We get sent on missions that nobody else will do, we've been at the wrong place at the wrong time more times than I'd care to mention.” The woman in front of us spoke in a very calm and controlled voice, these were definitely some strange people.

“Now we have to go on a very simple mission, but I won't be surprised if we get there to find out that Grandeaux kept some information from us.” A man in the passenger seat turned around and spoke to us, I hadn't even realized he was there.

“So what are your names?” Rico said from behind me.

“We don't have names anymore, only squad based code names. I am Ghost.” The lady in front of us said.

“They call me Tank for obvious reasons.” Said the huge man driving.

“And I'm Cobra.” The man in the passenger seat said, his voice was shaky, like he had seen too much action in the field. I decided to keep my eye on him, he was obviously unstable.

“Not a very imaginative bunch are you?” Rico retorted.

“Our names are the only things we have left, you shouldn't insult us if you know whats good for you.” Tank said angrily from the front.

We spent the rest of the ride silently contemplating how we would ever manage to gather information without killing each other. I looked over at Karin, she was staring out the window, neither her or James had said anything, I wondered what was wrong.

“There it is.” Tank said, stopping the jeep on top of a hill, we could see over the edge of the hill down into a small valley. We stared at the giant yawning chasm bored into the side of one of the mountains that made the walls of the valley. “Get out, I'm going to park the jeep somewhere and hide it.”

We all got out and stood on the edge of the hill, the hole was gigantic, they were planning on moving more than just infantry through it if they were really planning an attack. I looked around and saw a few old brick buildings built next to the hill, it was surrounded by petrified trees, I assumed that we would set up a small base in one of the houses and watch the tunnel for the night and see what they are using it for.

“All right, lets set up base in the middle house over there, all the equipment is in the jeep, I parked it over there.” Tank pointed to a cluster of trees, he had expertly hidden the jeep inside them, I had to look very hard to see it.

It took about 2 hours to move all the stuff from the jeep and set it all up in the house, and there had still been absolutely no activity coming from the tunnel. We waited and waited, but nothing happened, until about 7:30 PM, Rico had went into one of the side houses to search for any supplies we could use, he was walking out, and he looked down into a part of the valley we couldn't see from our position, and saw a large group of people marching towards the tunnel.

“s**t!” He said quietly, he quickly ran into the house, “Big group of people, just around the corner over there, they are moving toward the tunnel, we should be able to see them any second.”

“Good, we're getting somewhere.” We waited, and sure enough, a large group of people came marching around the corner. Tank look at them through some binoculars. “Okay, it's about 10 people with some armed guards in front of and behind the group leading them. I've never heard of the them taking prisoners, what in the world is going on?” He held out the binoculars to let somebody else see, James grabbed them and looked.

“My god. I see Spider, they've got Spider in that group!” James proclaimed

“Let me see.” I said, taking the binoculars, it was obviously spider, he was in the front row of the group, he was bloody, he hadn't gone quietly apparently. “That's Spider, no doubt about it.”

“Well we have to go save him!” Karin said

“We can't risk it, I know he was our friend, but we cant just blow our mission to save him.” I looked again through the binoculars, they had reached the entrance of the tunnel and stopped. “Why did they stop?” I handed the binoculars to Tank, he watched intently.

“There's someone coming out,” He said, “He has a briefcase in his hand.” He kept watching. “He opened the case and handed it to one of the guards, it looks like there's syringes in it.”

“What the hell are they doing?” James asked, he and Spider had been good friends.

“They're injecting the people with something, probably PTGV. Is your friend Spider the third one in the first row?”

“Yea he is. Why?” I asked

“He's next.” He kept watching, “They tried injecting him, but he fought back, it doesn't look like they're going to try again, but they haven't killed him yet. That must mean that he has information that somebody else needs. They're taking him through the tunnel by himself, and they're injecting the rest of the people in the group with the virus.”

“Why would they need to inject the people with the virus by hand? I thought it spread through water and air.” It hit me, none of us were wearing masks, I hadn't worn mine since I left the bunker, but I wasn't infected.

“Apparently it doesn't, we've had our doubts for a while now, that's why nobody wears masks anymore, they seemed to be a solution to a problem that didn't exist, but I guess they told everybody that one to make people scared to go outside so they would all be in one place when they decided to come and take them all as prisoners.”

“I never thought about it like that.” It made complete sense, I wondered if there was even more to this that we didn't know.

“We gotta get some eyes in there.” He looked around and saw a small path leading up and around the mountain, “What if they have a base inside that ring of mountains, they couldn't possibly have the entire base under the ground, they would need a station to move air through the hive.”

“What are you trying to say?” I asked.

“Ghost, as soon as the sun sets I want you to take that path up and around the mountain and see what they have inside this ring of mountains.”

“All right.” She said.

We had about 20 minutes until it was completely dark outside, so we watched and waited, soon after they had finished injecting the prisoners with what we assumed was the virus, they moved the group into the tunnel and then there was no more activity.

“I'll be right back.” Ghost said as she walked out of the house to go up the path.

“Will she be all right?” Karin asked

“Yes she will, she's an expert at infiltration and an exceptional sniper, this is what she was trained to do.” Tank said

I looked at Cobra, he was sitting at the back of the room by himself, he had a look on his face that sent chills down my spine. We waited for Ghost to return, and about 30 minutes later she came back, she actually looked scared.

“You were right about the ventilation system, there are 10 giant fans running at full speed down there.” She said, I was stunned when I heard that there was 10 fans, the hive must have been huge to require that much ventilation, “But there was something else, tanks, jets, helicopters, every type of assault vehicle imaginable, and they have all of them. There is no doubt that they are planning an attack, and with that kind of force on their side, we don't stand a chance.”

“We gotta get back and tell Grandeaux about this, pack up, we're leaving, I know we're supposed to stay until morning, but he will want to hear this as soon as possible.” Tank said

We quickly packed up all the equipment that we brought with us, and sped away toward headquarters to tell General Grandeaux about what we saw.

“Don't worry Spider, I'll be there soon.” I kept saying to myself in my head.

We got to headquarters, a large fenced in area with guards posted all over, I could see several large buildings inside. We stopped at a gate, and Tank showed the man guarding it an I.D., he waved us through and we parked in front of a building and ran inside, Tank ran into a large room ahead of us, and opened a large set of double doors.

“Sir, they are planning an attack. They have tanks, helicopters, jets, everything that they need to eradicate us.” He said

We ran into the room, I could see Roy sitting behind his desk with a horrified look on his face. After a few seconds he regained his composure.

“All right then, I'm going to get as many government officials to come here as I can, we'll have a meeting in a few hours.” He picked up a phone on the side of his desk, “I need to speak to the president.”

“Let's go, I'll show you where Thompson is being held.” Tank said, leading me out of the room and down the hall. We stepped into a side hall that was lined with barred prison cells, but at the end there was a large steel door that would be used for solitary confinement, “He's in that last room down there, don't worry, he's chained to the wall and he cant go farther than 2 feet away from his side of the room, you'll be completely safe.”

He turned around and showed all my friends to the living areas of the base so they could get something to eat and rest. I kept walking toward the door. I stopped in front of it, and slid open the big lock on the outside of the door, I slowly pulled it open. I looked inside and saw him sitting in a chair, he looked up and saw me.

“Oh, hello there, I assume you're the one that's going to ask me questions.”

“Yes, I am.” I pulled the door closed behind me and looked back at him.

“I don't believe I've ever met you before.” He stood up and said, “My name is Jim Thompson.” He extended his hand to shake mine, but I refused.

“Sit down, I have a few questions to ask and I expect you to answer truthfully.”

“Why would I lie to you? We've only just met.”

“Your friend Brian Gelling lied to me, and I think by now you should know what happened to him.” He didn't respond.

“So you're here to kill me.”

“It depends entirely on how much you cooperate.”

“Then ask away. I'm ready when you are, Mr. Calhoun.”

“What exactly is Purity, and where did it originate? I have heard all the regular stories before, but I have a feeling that they're not entirely true.”

“Correct, Ryan. Purity wasn't created by us, it was found by Dr. Lindeman while he was studying the carcass of a giant squid that washed up on a beach somewhere in Asia. He quickly realized that as a virus, it had some very peculiar properties, he got the four doctors to study it and see what the effects were on more advanced animals, we slowly worked our way up the lines until we tested it on humans, it yielded startling results, we reported our findings to Lindeman, and soon after he disappeared for a while. He came back with large amounts of the virus and told us to give it to exactly 328 test subjects, and we would be paid handsomely. We did as instructed, and the virus soon spread all over the world. The rest is history.”

“Are you telling me that you don't even know where the virus originally came from?” I couldn't help but wonder how he had known my name, but I didn't ask.

“Precisely.”

This changed everything, none of the information we had on the virus was true, it was all just a clever facade used to make the virus easier to spread. Purity just showed up one day, and Lindeman decided that everybody needed to be infected with it.

“Why did Lindeman start spreading the virus in the first place? Why would he do this if he knew exactly what would happen?”

“Because he was the first person to be infected with it. It was all downhill from there, he went to a conference with a few government officials, and they got infected, then they infected everybody else, even the president was infected, for a few years the country was run by purity, which made it that much easier for it to spread out of the united states and go on to other countries, one domino fell and the rest had to go with it until most of the earths population was infected. Now that there's not very many of you left, you're facing extinction. If you don't do something now you'll all be six feet under.”

“So Lindeman was the cause for all this.” I was speechless, everything I thought I knew turned out to be false, and now I was facing a reality that was much more grim than before, we only had one shot to get rid of purity, and time was quickly running out. We had to act, or else we would have no hope of winning the fight against a truly superior enemy, I got up, and ran out of the room, I had to tell them what Thompson had said. I got into his office.

“If we don't attack, we're all going to die.”

“What do you mean? Did he tell you something?”

I told him everything that Thompson told me, and waited for a response.

“Okay, the meeting will be taking place in about 1 hour, I want you to be there and tell everybody what you just told me.” He picked up his phone again, “Start mobilizing our forces, we need them ready to go by morning.”

It was really happening, we were going to attack with all our might, we would destroy them, or die trying. It sure was a better idea than sitting there waiting to be annihilated.  

[Mare Tranquillitatis]

Chapter 9: Calm Before the Storm

We walked into the large meeting room, it had only a few people in it, who were all seated around a rectangular table in the middle of the room. They all looked like military men, except for one who was just in a suit and tie. We had tried to question Thompson further before the meeting started, but he wouldn't say a word.

“Roy, I want to know right now what the hell's going here, and why I had to wake up and drive out here so damn late!” A gruff looking man stood up and yelled as we walked into the room.

“Keeps your pants on, we'll tell you everything we know as soon as everybody is ready to listen.” All the talking in the room stopped, “Thank you.” Roy said, switching off the lights. He walked over to an empty spot in the back of the table, and flipped the switch on a refurbished projector, the room lit up and a large image of the group of people we saw earlier appeared on a screen in the front of the room. It seemed that Tank had taken some pictures of what we saw back at the tunnel.

“Roy, what exactly are we seeing here?” The man in the suit asked.

“This, gentlemen, is the newest twist in the mystery of the hive.” He walked to the screen, “Apparently, they have been taking prisoners into the hive right under our noses.”

“What exactly does this have to do with us?” Some man asked, I couldn't tell who.

“It means that we've been tricked. They have been lying to us since the virus first began to spread, the virus isn't airborne or waterborne at all. They have to directly inject it.”

“You brought us out here just to tell us that?” The gruff man from earlier interjected.

“That's not all of the bad news. I have reason to believe that they are in fact planning an attack, and will use our own technology against us.”

“How do you know all this?” The man in the suit said quietly.

“I sent a team of people to go check out the new tunnel that was just recently dug by the people in the hive. After they took those pictures I just showed you, they sent somebody up a side path to look down into the space between all the mountains. Her report states that there were hundreds of tanks, helicopters, jeeps, artillery, and even a few jets.”

“It would have taken them ages to get such a large amount of vehicles moved to that area, they would have had to have been moving them there before the virus evolved, back when things were actually organized.”

“Right you are, and now here's where Ryan tells you how such a large movement of weaponry was possible without any questions whatsoever.” He motioned for me to come to the front of the room.

I stopped next to him, and looked at all the people at the table, they were all staring at me. I hoped that my information would help them reach a decision. I explained the entire situation to them, beginning to end. I spoke of everything that Jim Thompson had told me, and stated several times that a counterattack before they had a chance to mobilize their forces would be in everybody's best interests.

“You mean to tell me that the former president of the united states was infected for the last year of his term?” The man in the suit asked.

“Yes, I do. You should also know all too well that you were elected only a few days before the virus took over all the less important people.” While I was telling them what I knew, an argument started between a few of the men. I asked Roy who the man in the suit was, and he said it was current president of the United States.

“Yes, of course I remember. I have the unfortunate duty of keeping my position as the president until we get things back in order, and we will never do that with the threat of that horrible virus hanging over us. I agree with Ryan, I say we attack.”

“There's no guarantee that it will even work. Compared to our estimates of the size of their army, we are outnumbered 10 to 1. I think I'm speaking for everybody in the room when I say I don't like those odds one bit.” Said a man in the back of the room, it was too dark to see who it was.

“I completely agree, we have absolutely no idea what the inside of the hive is like, or even how big it is. We could be running straight into a trap if we attack.” The gruff man said loudly.

“I think it is a risk we are going to have to take. If we sit and wait, we will definitely be dead soon, but if we attack, we actually have a chance of winning this war and taking our country back.”

The room was silent, the gruff man broke the silence, “He's right. Mr. President, I will be more than willing to serve under yours or anybody else's command as long as we have a shot at winning this.”

“Would anybody else care to join us?” The president spoke.

“I will.” Said a man in glasses from the back of the table.

“I'll get in contact with a few of the mercenary groups that are scattered around, we'll need all the help we can get.” Said another man from the group.

Pretty soon everybody in the room had decided that the best course of action would be to attack the hive, maybe we would win after all.

“Very good, Mr. President, when should we attack?”

He thought for a moment and said, “We will attack at dawn, that gives us 8 hours to get all of our forces ready to move out.”

“Alright, if you wouldn't mind gentlemen, have all of your forces gather just outside of this complex by then. They will be divided into teams, and they will all have different jobs to do.” They all nodded and left the room,“Tank, take Ryan and go get the rest of your groups, meet me in this room in 30 minutes for mission briefing.” Tank stepped out from the darkness in the back of the room, I followed him to the bunk rooms and found all my friends sitting around waiting for me to get back.

“Well hello there!” Karin said with a smile.

“Good to see you're still in one piece, where have you been?” Alex asked, he hadn't said anything since James saved me at the ruined fortress.

“I had to go to that meeting. We have to go back to the meeting room in a little bit for mission briefing. Things are going to get a little rough from here on, you don't have to come with me if you don't want to.” I felt a need to go in with all the soldiers, I had to have my revenge for what happened to all my friends.

“We're with you all the way, Ryan.” James said, and everybody else nodded.

“Thank you, just know that we might not come back from this alive.”

“Death is just another path of life, and it is something we all must face.”

“I hate to interrupt this, but we have to get to the meeting room now.” Tank said from behind me, I turned around and saw Ghost and Cobra standing behind him. We went to the meeting room and saw Roy sitting at the table with a set of papers.

“Take a seat, we won't be here long.” Roy said. We sat down and waited for a minute while Roy reviewed his papers, “You will all go in together as one team.” He slid a paper in front of us that had a diagram out the outside of the hive, “We will have 5 other teams entering the hive at the same time as you. One team will temporarily disable one of the fans, and enter through there. Another 3 teams will enter through the smaller tunnels on the other side of the mountains. One team will go into the place where they stored all of their weapons and plant bombs, when everybody else gets out of the hive, they will detonate them, crippling any attack they might be planning.”

“Sounds like we're going to catch them completely off guard.” Ghost said.

“We're going to try to, I've sent information to all the other teams, they all know what they're supposed to do.”

“What are we supposed to do?” James asked.

“You will enter through the new tunnel, and save any non-infected prisoners that you find. If possible, you are also to make contact with whoever is in charge and see to it that they won't cause us anymore problems.” Basically, we had to save spider and kill Lindeman, it sounded simple enough.

“I like this plan.” Cobra said.

“I want all of you to go get some sleep, in 5 hours you need to be suited up and ready to go.”

“Yes, sir.” Tank said as he stood up.

We went to the bunk room and tried to get some sleep. I quickly fell asleep, but I was haunted by strange dreams of the hive. I was walking around aimlessly through the hive in my dream, then I came to a large metal door, I opened it and looked inside, the room was full of objects, it was too dark to see what they were. I turned on my flashlight and shined it on one of them, and woke up, I wondered what it was that I was seeing.

“Hey, we gotta go now.” Rico said, we had been asleep for almost four hours.

We walked to the armory and got ready to wage war on a truly superior foe. I still couldn't get the picture of that door and the room out of my head. I had to find out what it was.  

[Mare Tranquillitatis]

Chapter 10: Masters of War

We got ready, and stepped outside into the bright morning light. We could see them, standing in formation, hundreds of people armed to the teeth, ready to fight and die so that mankind could survive. Roy ran up and greeted us, we went down a small set of stairs and stood in formation in the back of the group of people, beside us were a few jeeps, three tanks, and about fifteen helicopters, it wasn't much, but it was all we had.

“Men. Women. Soldiers. Volunteers. Today we are all equal. Today we will all fight for the survival of our way of life, so that our children may have a brighter future. What we do today decides the fate of humanity itself. If we win, we may rebuild, and help the rest of the world rid themselves of the threat of this plague. If we lose, then all of our allied countries will have no hope to survive. We do not have what we need to be able to defeat them, but we are going to show them what we are capable of. We will take the fight to them. We will show them the meaning of war. We will attack with all of our strength. This is going to be a battle that they will never forget. I want all of you to fight until you can't possibly fight anymore, show them why we made it to the top of the food chain.” Roy spoke from a raised platform in front of the group, “It's time for war. They asked for a fight, now let's give it to them.” He stepped off the platform, “Move out!”

“Pile in, eight at a time.” a man said, motioning for us to get into a helicopter. We climbed in and soon we were in the air, moving quickly toward the new tunnel we were supposed to enter through. We passed over the wreckage of the destroyed fortress, I couldn't help but remember how little I knew about the virus when I had first arrived there, but despite of everything I had learned since then, I was still scared. The hive seemed like a giant tomb, and I had a feeling that none of us would be making it back alive.

“What are you waiting for?” The pilot said, looking back at me. We had arrived at our destination and descended to the ground, and I hadn't even realized it. I jumped out to join my companions, and the helicopter flew away into the distance, getting ready to bring in a new load of troops.

“Make sure your weapons are loaded, there's no telling what we'll run into in this god forsaken place.” Tank said, checking the clip on his rifle. We all did the same.

“Well let's get to it.” Ghost said, taking point and leading us into the darkness of the tunnel.

We got inside, and it became apparent that it was way too dark to see anything inside the tunnel, “Everybody, turn your lights on.” Tank whispered.

I flipped the light attached to the barrel of my gun on, and everybody else followed suit. We kept walking and surveying the whatever parts of the area that we could, and it only was dirt and rocks. We walked for about thirty minutes, and still saw no changes in the rock walls of the tunnel, there were lots of footprints on the ground, so we knew we had to be getting somewhere.

“When are we going to find something? This place seems completely deserted.” Rico whispered. Immediately after he said that, I saw something shiny on a wall to the right, and walked over to investigate. It was a small switch, it had wires attached to it that ran up the wall, but I couldn't tell where they went to.

“Hey, I found a switch.” I said. Everybody else came up behind me to look at it.

“Should we press it?” Alex asked.

“We don't know what it does. It could be an alarm.” Tank replied.

“I agree, let's just leave it alone.” I said. We started to walk away, and we heard something click, I turned around to see Cobra standing at the switch, he had pressed it.

“Cobra, you idiot!” Tank yelled, there was a loud grinding sound, I shined my light back into the tunnel, a large metal door had sealed the tunnel. “What the hell just happened?” A faint electrical whirring filled the tunnel, and large floodlights on the ceiling began to flicker on.

With the tunnel almost completely lit up, we could see that just ahead of us, there were rows of metal doors on each side of the tunnel, I assumed that it was the part of the hive that prisoners were kept in.

“Ryan, check that door.” Tank said, pointing at the one closest to us on the left.

I walked to the door, and slid back the large metal latch that was holding it closed, and pulled the heavy steel door open. I looked into the dimly lit room, and saw several dead bodies slumped over in the corner.

“Anything?” Karin asked.

“Just dead bodies, this is definitely a place to hold prisoners.” I turned around to face the group.
“Well let's check the rest of the rooms, we need to try to find survivors.” Tank said.
We checked the rest of the rooms, but found nothing, “Why are they killing all the prisoners? This just doesn't make sense.” I said.
“We can't stay here to figure it out, we have to get closer to the center of the hive to try and link up with another team.” We began to move quickly down the hall toward another large steel door that sealed the hall off completely, we all switched our lights on, and I pressed a switch next to the door, the lights shut off, and the large door groaned open. “Let's get moving.” He whispered.
We quickly moved farther into the hive, a loud rumbling noise got steadily louder as we got closer to the center of the hive. We came to a fork in the paths.
“What now?” I asked.
“Ryan, you and your friends take the left path. We'll take the right.” Tank said. We split into two groups and walked down the paths.
We walked for a while with absolutely no signs of life, then we heard a few gunshots. We stopped and listened, then we heard more, and then an explosion. We ran down the hallway to see what was going on, we reached the end, turned a corner, then stopped dead in our tracks.
“What in the hell is that?” Rico asked, completely stunned.
“That. Is a city. A city of infected people.” Alex said.
In a giant cavern in front of us was a huge mass of buildings and towers, suspended above the void in the bottom of the cavern, above the city were hundreds of ventilation pipes going in all kinds of random directions. The city was heavily fortified, but the way it was constructed meant that it was never meant to hold in a fight with heavy weaponry for very long. There were soldiers holed up in similar enclosures overlooking the city like us, and were firing at the ones who were defending the keep. There was another explosion, and a tower collapsed and fell into the abyss beneath the city, I looked over to see that all of our tanks were firing at the city with no mercy. There was another explosion, and two of the support beams holding the city in place had been destroyed, the giant mass of buildings began to creak and moan. There was no hope for anything living in the city, it would crumble away and fall into the pit in a matter of minutes. There was a loud booming noise coming from the ventilation shafts above the city, some of the huge vent covers fell off into the abyss, and creatures began to pour out of the vents. They flew into all of the positions that our soldiers were in, I could hear them screaming as they were eaten alive.
“Holy s**t! They have flying things!” Rico yelled, we ran away from the opening in the wall, and turned down the path that Tank and his crew had took, we met them in the hall running toward us.
“What the hell are those things?” Karin asked.
“I don't know, but they killed a lot of the other squads, some of them weren't in the area so they should still be sticking to the objective. We have to keep going.” Tank said.
We ran down the hall, and I got a look at one of the flying creatures that they had killed, it looked like a demon, a small person with red skin and wings. The mystery of the hive was only getting worse, nobody knew that they had been doing outlandish science experiments in it, I couldn't help but wonder if they had any more atrocities like this to throw at us.  

[Mare Tranquillitatis]

Chapter 11: Where Death Seems to Dwell

We walked down the hall, and walked past the opening in the wall to see that the keep, although still intact, was getting ready to collapse into the abyss. We walked for hours it seemed, descending deeper and deeper into the hive. We passed a few rooms with scattered pieces of science equipment in them. After walking even farther, we once again heard the familiar sound of gunshots. Ghost rushed ahead to see what the problem was. She disappeared into the darkness, and the hall became completely silent. We heard a loud crunching sound, then something landed behind us with a loud thud. We looked to see that it was her twisted and mangled torso lying on the ground behind us, her legs were nowhere to be found.

“What the hell?” Tank exclaimed. He fired a few shots into the darkness, they were followed by a loud thumping sound moving toward us. A huge fist came out of the darkness and crushed Tank where he stood, the hand retreated back into the darkness, and Tank was left, broken and battered, on the ground. Both of his legs and his right arm were broken, he groaned in pain.

Cobra fired several shots into the darkness, this apparently angered whatever was hiding because it took a large step out of the darkness. We all gasped simultaneously at how enormous this creature was, it was almost twenty feet tall, and extremely muscular, it was deformed and grotesque. It looked angry, and began to walk toward us. Cobra shot it several more times, the creature didn't flinch at all, it lunged forward and grabbed him. It began to crush him in its grip, Cobra pulled out his combat knife and stabbed the base of its thumb, the beast roared, threw him on the ground,then smashed him with his fist several times. Needless to say, Cobra was no more.

“s**t. We gotta get out of here!” Alex yelled, he ran past the huge beast and continued down the hall. We followed close behind him. We ran through the darkness, and could hear the beast running behind us.

“Which way?” Karin asked as we reached a split in the paths.

“Right, if I remember these directions correctly, that's the way to the center of the hive.” I said.

We ran down the right path, shining our lights in all directions, Rico shined his light down the hall ahead of us and stopped.

“Guys, look.” Rico said. We looked at the area that was illuminated by his flashlight, we could part of a giant, pale skinned foot. It was another giant, the beast roared when he shined the light on its face., we turned to run only to see that the other giant had stopped close behind us, and was blocking our exit. “What the hell do we do now?” Rico said, looking at me.

“I. I don't know. Bullets don't hurt these things at all!” I said, desperate for a solution to our problem.

“Never give up, even if you're falling off of a cliff. You never know what might happen on the way down.” James said quietly from the back of the group, he dropped his rifle and pulled out his knife, he began to run straight toward the giant in front of us.

“What are you doing? James! You'll only make them even more mad, there's gotta be another way!” He didn't listen, the beast swung at him, but James dodged his massive fists, and ran behind it. He jumped at the creature, and stabbed it in the back of it's huge leg, the beast fell to a knee and roared in pain, James scrambled up the beasts back, got up to it's grotesque head, and sunk his knife into the creatures right eye, it roared in agony, the other giant, which had been slowly walking toward the rest of us, saw that the other was in trouble, and leaped straight over us to help it's giant counterpart. The giant James was occupied with had been trying to get him off, and the knife out of it's eye, but every attempt it made only sunk the knife deeper into it's eye. The other giant reached for James, trying to keep from bumping into the knife in it's friends eye. James saw the other giant coming behind him, and knew he had to end it quick, or we would all be toast. He pulled a grenade out of his satchel, pulled the pin, and tossed it into the injured giant's open mouth. He quickly pulled his knife out of it's eye, and jumped across to the other giant, only managing to keep from falling to the ground below by forcing the knife into the top of the giant's head, he almost lost his grip, but managed to hold on long enough to grab another grenade, pull the pin and put it into the other beasts mouth, but it hadn't been stunned like the other, the giant's jaws clamped down tightly on James' arm, sealing both their fates. The grenade exploded inside the other giants mouth, and the headless mass of flesh and bone fell to the ground with a loud thump. James looked down at me and smiled. The other grenade exploded, and the headless body of the other giant fell to the ground next to the other one, I looked around for James, and saw him laying on the ground gasping for breath. My friend was slowly dying.

“James! I didn't think any of this would happen. Please forgive me, this wasn't an end I had anticipated. I knew this was a bad idea from the very beginning." I said, running to him.

“End? No, our story does not end here. As I said before, death is just another path, one that we all must take. Things are coming into focus, I can see it.”

“What? James? See what?”

“White shores, and a beautiful green countryside. I see my family. Ryan!” He grabbed my arm and looked at me, “Never give up. Please, you gotta finish this, for all our sakes. Good luck, Ryan. I'll see you on the other side.” He said, smiling. James then died with a big smile on his face, I wanted to cry for him, but that was no place for tears.

Karin came behind me, “Come on, Ryan.” She tugged on my arm. “We have to go, time is running out.”

“Yea. Let's finish this.” I said, the anger once again swelling up inside me. There was nothing but anger now. I vowed to kill Lindeman for releasing this plague upon humanity.

“Where do we go now?” Alex asked.

“We find Lindeman, and we kill him.” I said quietly, we began to walk down the tunnel toward the center of the hive. There was no turning back, we had to destroy the source of the virus, or die trying.