Doom 3™: Worlds on Fire

38

AS KANE ENTERED THE ADMINISTRATION AREA,he could see that chaos still ruled here. The floor was still dotted with bodies of things that had either been destroyed in the blast or transformed into the creatures, then shot.

Civilians huddled together, wide-eyed, looking as if someone might slaughter them next. The few space marines in the area kept whipping their heads right and left, the fear blatantly obvious.

They’re immobilized,Kane thought. Frozen troops huddled like they were stranded on an iceberg.

Kane touched his earpiece, and immediately heard Kelly’s voice. “Yes?”

“I’m here. It’s a mess.”

“Right. Un-mess it. Get that area secure, Kane.”

“Yup.” He disconnected from Kelly, then walked over to one group of marines. “Okay, listen up. I don’t care whether you’re new here, or you’ve been on Mars for a year, we are going to get this area patrolled.”

They looked at Kane.

“W-wait a minute,” a young guy with wide eyes spoke up. “Who says? We should stay right here. Till some brass tells us.”

Kane took a step toward the jarhead. “I’m telling you what’s going to happen.” Then a look at the others standing around. “We’re going to do this, and we’re going to do this now, understand? In two-person patrols. Report in every five minutes. Watch each other’s back. And Christ”—he looked at one marine who had only a handgun—“make sure you got some serious firepower. Shotguns, machine guns. You’ll need more than toys to deal with those things.”

Kane waited. They’d either respond to his assuming command, or continue fighting it, whining. Then things might get a little nasty.

But then, one by one, the heads nodded.

“Okay, good. Pair up. Start now. Decide which sector each team will do.”

Kane then moved over to another cluster of marines and delivered the same news. Luckily, they had seen the others follow Kane’s lead, so they fell into line immediately.

They’re all scared,Kane knew. But they each knew that the best way to stay alive was to work together. Just like what was happening now.

He stopped two marines. “You two. I want you to stay on guard here. Just make sure the civilians stay calm. Don’t let anyone back to their offices or rooms until we get an all clear.”

More nods. Kane was thinking,Maybe this mess is all over, when a woman came up to him, sobbing, heaving, grabbing Kane’s arm.

He turned to her. One of the receptionists, looking about as rocked as one can be.

“Yes?”

“My friend, Jane—she works with me. She felt sick, she went to the restroom.”

Kane took a breath. “Alone?”

The woman nodded. “I—I didn’t want to go. I was—”

“And where is that?”

She pointed down to a corridor past reception, heading toward Central Access.

Another breath. “I’ll go check.”

The woman nodded. A bit of a smile. Though Kane doubted he’d be bringing back any good news.

Kane pushed opened the door to the restroom. An overhead light sputtered, now flickering bright, then fading to darkness.

For a moment, he remained at the threshold. He hadn’t survived this day so far by rushing into things before he knew what the hell was happening.

He heard a heaving, wet sound. Deep breaths. Coming from down the end, near the last stall.

The lights sputtered out.

Damn, I better get a headlight. Something I can wear in case this whole place goes dark.

The lights flickered on again, the wet, huffing sound constant. Maybe the receptionist was okay.

“Jane?” he said.

The wet sound stopped. But there was no answer.

Funny about taboos, he thought. This room, forbidden to men. Even now, even today.

Again: “Jane?”

This time the sound continued, and Kane started a slow walk deeper into the room, past stalls where the doors were half open.

When he got near the end, he saw blood stains on the floor. From the woman, from some other unlucky person, or—

The lights flickered out.

He heard movement. And this time, the lights stayed out.

Instinctively, Kane took a small step backward.Something moving.

When the lights came on again, he could see what it was. And it was somethingnew….

The lights strobed, but he saw the four-legged thing in front of him. It had the woman’s neck, now stringy, tight in its bulldoglike jaws, still chewing as its head bobbed up and down, unperturbed by Kane’s presence.

It threw back its jaws, and what was left of the woman’s head went flying into its mammoth maw.

The front of the thing had a carapace with a slight reddish-pink color, unless that was from all the blood.

But the rear—narrow legs made of steel.

Metal legs…

Kane took another step back.The thing is part machine. Part goddamn robot, or—

Kane fired a quick look to his rear. Wouldn’t be too great to be sandwiched between two of these things.

But nothing was behind him. At least not yet.

Kane looked down to the thing’s forepaws, looking like forked hooves ending in sharp, stiletto-like points.

Nice weapon, and the teeth? No animal on Earth had teeth like that…

Another step back.

Weirdly he thought,Nice doggie…

The thing seemed stupid, finishing its meal before concentrating on Kane.

But with a teeth-cleaning swipe of its tongue, it leapt toward Kane. And though he jumped to the right, ramming into a row of sinks, he felt one of those front claws slice into his left thigh.

The pain sent a spike into his brain. A few more jabs like that and he could join the dead girl on the floor.

He pointed his machine gun at the thing, hesitating just a fraction of a second: where to aim?

The head resembled the hard shell of a long-prehistoric deepsea arachnid. The mouth too, and the eyes, maybe the machine legs in the back.

Or, hell, maybeall of it.

An ancient monster.

He started spraying bullets at the thing, the room filling with smoke from the ejected shells. The pink thing opened its mouth—you could fit a bowling ball into the space easily.

Kane just kept firing as if spray-painting the creature with bullets.

And then he noticed—it wasn’t trying to advance.

It wasn’t quite dead. Reflexes or something kept the tongue moving, an eye twitching. The right leg trembled a bit as if also trying to move.

But Kane realized—it was about as dead as the thing was going to get. And it was beyond hurting anyone else.

He turned and walked out. Best tell everyone to find another restroom to use. At least until that one was cleaned up.

Back at Administration he could see that the civilian workers still clustered together. But now there were marine guards looking alert. In his ear he heard the teams checking in as they reached each juncture of this part of Mars City.

And the reassuring words…

All secure here…

Kane hit his communicator.

“Looking okay here, Sergeant.”

Kelly laughed. “Here too, Kane. Good work. Now maybe someone will tell us what the hell happened.”

Maybe…

“Right, Sergeant. I’m going to check the patrols.”

“Okay, Kane. And when this is over, you and me…we gotta have a talk.”

When it’s over?

And Kane thought—hoped—thatthat time was right now.

He thought about praying.

But he’d given that up a long time ago.