Doom 3™: Worlds on Fire

40

INSIDE DELTA

THE LIGHTS SPUTTERED AGAIN AND THEN STAYEDfull on.

MacDonald looked up, the room, the mayhem, the bodies, the creatures—

(The creatures…)

—now fully lit.

But with that burst of full power, he watched Pod One, which had grown quiet, now suddenly emitting a screeching sound, like massive metallic gears scraping, grinding.

A brilliant red glow began in the pod.

(Which MacDonald knew wasn’t a pod anymore, not a scientific device anymore. It was somethingelse .)

And as that glow bloomed, MacDonald could see, from his fetal position curled up behind an overturned table, a figure begin to appear, then emerge.

He saw Betruger, his skin reflecting the reddish color, or perhaps that glow came from him.

Only now Dr. Malcolm Betruger no longer held something in his hands.

MacDonald risked lifting his head to get a better look.

The object was gone—and now MacDonaldremembered that object. U1—from Site 3. An unknown object with an unknown purpose. Or what used to be unknown.

Gone somewhere, and now Betruger walked amid the beings in the room, grunting, shuffling, moving aside…making a path for him.

He walked to the sealed doors of Delta Lab.

MacDonald knew what Betruger was about to do. In minutes those doors would open. And what was inside Delta would come out…

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA

Ian Kelliher sat at his desk. The reassuring message from the commander of the joint UAC/USA armada did nothing to calm him.

No, not until he knew in detail what had happened on Mars—what may still be happening—he would not be reassured in the slightest. But with deep space communication still—apparently—limited, there wasn’t much he could do.

A holo-screen floated above his desk. Kelliher touched the air and saw the face of a man, an employee of Kelliher’s based here that the precious Dr. Betruger didn’t know about.

And not only didn’t know about, but would be livid if he found about it.

“Yes, Dr. Simonsen?”

“Sir, in light of the issues on Mars, do you want us to put a hold on further experiments?”

The experiments, secret, replicating what Kelliher’s team imagined Betruger to be doing on Mars.

“No. I think we can be properly…cautious. But stopping? I don’t think so, Dr. Simonsen.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you.”

The screen vanished from the air.

At least,he thought,everything is now secure on Mars. There will be investigations, reports, maybe even disciplinary action against Betruger or his team. All quite manageable stuff.

He nodded.

Totally manageable…

INFIRMARY STORAGE ROOM, MARS CITY

Theo looked around the room filled with boxes and crates. With symbols and words he didn’t understand.

He had a thought. There’s nowhere safe here. Not in this room, not out there.

Look what happened to his mother. How she got sick. Something bad happening to her.

And the same thing could happen to me!

He heard voices outside the door. They all sounded okay. But what if they weren’t?

The voices came closer.

Theo looked around the room, then up. He saw an opening in the ceiling. Small, but he could fit—he was sure of it. No one would look for him up there. No one could fit in that small space. But where did it lead?

The voices became even louder.

Carefully, Theo began climbing up the shelves, taking care to be as quiet as he could. He had climbed trees back home, always careful not to put his weight on a branch that could snap, sending him flying down.

He got to the top. Then, with a last look at the dark room, he crawled into the opening, pulling himself up, and in…

Until he was gone.

SITE3—beyond the cave

Nowhere to go,Axelle thought,but straight ahead. She had forced herself to ignore the grid of pulsing lines all around the walls of this…place.

Dreamlike. Surreal. And all that pulsing—as if sensing that she was coming.

Like—like—

She thought of an old movie: a young girl walking on a curling yellow pathway into the unknown.

Nothing else alive here. Unless—

(Just a thought, really…)

This whole place was alive.

She looked at the air level of her suit. Low. She’d need the spare tank soon. Her last tank. Either way, she wouldn’t be able to survive here for long.

Time was about to run out.

Her attempts to communicate with Mars City had proved useless, as if Mars City didn’t exist anymore, wasn’t anywhere on the surface here—as if she was thousands and thousands of light-years away from the dead Red Planet.

Then, ending the sense of being alone, more sounds.

Penetrating her helmet. Sounds. Voices almost. Except no one ever heard voices like that.

She stopped. The thought:How silly. There’s nowhere else to go, nowhere to walk but straight ahead.

ADMINISTRATION—MARS CITY

John Kane watched everyone moving, their speed increasing as the fear receded.

Fear…

Was there anything worse?

And as he remained seated, ignoring the pain that wracked his body, sitting just a few more precious minutes before he’d have to once again stand—

He wondered if everyone realized what the worst fear was. The fear of what was yet to come.

For now, Kane kept that thought to himself.