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The Traumatised Marine by Traumatised Marine
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The Traumatised Marine (bitesize part 1)
Date: 10 March 2003, 10:04 PM
-Note from Traumatised Marine: OK, this story follows up the painful, tragic last few hours of Private Kennedy, after he survives the encounter with the Flood on the Jenkins video.
So you could say it's a bonus chapter to 'Under The Sergeant's Cap', and although you won't need to have read 'Under The Sergeant's Cap' to be able to enjoy this one, you might find if you really liked this one that you want to read 'Under The Sergeant's Cap' also.-
The Traumatised Marine
"URGH!! ARGHHH!!! GET IT OFF!!" Cried Kennedy through pain-gritted teeth, he could feel the little monster worming it's tentacles into his chest, burrowing relentlessly. The pain was like being skewered with crooked bits of white hot, jagged barbed wire.
"HOLD STILL! HOLD STILL!!" Cried someone, tugging at the furious little creature.
The little monster gave Kennedy one last malicious tear before it was wrenched from him.
Kennedy lay back in dazed agony, he couldn't fight, and if he could of he wouldn't have wanted to, he wished he could sink through the floor and disappear.
The chamber echoed with the sounds of gunfire and the cries of men being ripped at, alive.
Kennedy tried to sit up to see what was happening, and it was at that point he realised something that saved his life.
He saw the creatures, how they swarmed around the flailing soldiers as they fell, he saw the Sergeant roaring and thrashing and trying to smash the creatures that ripped at his body, yet this just seemed to encourage more of the creatures to latch on.
They were attracted by the Marines' movement.
And so, (in act of desperate, split second, self-preservation,) Kennedy lay back, motionless, closed his eyes, and tried not to listen to the agonised screams and moans of his suffering comrades.
And nothing attacked him.
He lay motionless there until the agonised screams became whimpering moans, then despairing gurgles, and finally silence.
The room was silent but for the horrible, skin-crawling sound of the scurrying, burrowing little creatures. It was a squelching, hissing, crawling sound, the sound of all the things that human beings find repulsive rolled into one.
He lay there for a further five minutes, before, finally, he risked it.
Slowly he began to sit up.
Slowly and quietly.
Slowly.
Slowly.
Slowly.
Until finally Kennedy had risen to an upright sitting position.
He had to hold back a terrified cry.
The bodies of his friends, his comrades, lay on the ground, motionless but for the occasional twitch and the horrifying movement that came from inside their chests.
There was a creature inside each of their chest cavities.
Kennedy counted them, the Sergeant, Jenkins, Mendoza, Bisenti and the two Marines wearing bandanas whom he didn't even get the chance to know.
Though he couldn't see the Captain's corpse, it was missing, all there was, was a pool of blood where he remembered Keyes had been.
Oh the blood! It glistened in great pools on the floor, flecks and spatters of it everywhere from the thrashing of the Marines when they had been getting bored into by dozens of the little monsters. It was surely still warm.
Kennedy began to tremble.
There were more of the little monsters still left, those who didn't have a host and hadn't been exterminated by the Marines.
The little monsters sensed Kennedy's trembling, they all turned and paused, motionless, scrutinizing the air in front of them with their three sensory stalks.
Kennedy tried to stop his trembling, but he couldn't, it was uncontrollable, his traumatised body was going to give him away.
All of a sudden the creatures scurried towards him, now convinced he was there.
Kennedy cried in terror, leaping up as if he'd been electrified, and grabbed an assault rifle from the floor.
He let rip into the little creatures and didn't take his finger off the trigger. Bullets tore through what remained of the creatures. In fact there were now few left, about a dozen.
He might actually survive this.
But then Kennedy's gun stopped ringing it's powerful staccato, it merely gave a despairing "click" and then silence.
Kennedy's hands were shaking too much to reload, he was cornered in the room and the creatures were nearly on him.
Desperately he charged, trying to leap over the scurrying creatures.
He did it!
He had leapt over them, he could still hear them scurrying after him but now he had somewhere to run.
He sprinted desperately to the other side of the chamber, picking up a new assault rifle as he ran, he prayed it still had ammunition.
He hit the other chamber wall with his back, facing the monsters.
He roared and squeezed the trigger, to his relief it fired, he fired and didn't stop until they had all burst, leaving smatterings of thin, green fluid on the floor.
Kennedy gave a struggling breath and fell to his knees, shaking uncontrollably, in trauma.
He may have lain there for a few minutes, falling into madness, before his sanity made one last desperate attempt to reclaim him.
"" came the Sergeant's voice in his mind, he sounded distant and muffled, as if he were shouting from the bottom of an ocean.
""
Kennedy managed to stutter a whisper,
"Y-yes S-s-sir!" He whispered weakly.
He stood up and supported himself against a wall.
With a shaking hand he drew his hand comm.
He forced his trembling finger to be still long enough to activate it.
"A-any UNSC f-forces, p-p-please respond..." He croaked.
No response.
He waited a bit longer, every second of silence making him more and more desperate.
"ANY UNSC FORCES!! PLEASE RESPOND!!!" He wailed into the comm hysterically.
No response.
It had to be because he was underground, he assured himself, once he got topside he would be able to get help, he would call for a Pelican.... and then... then he would kill the pilot... he would steal the dropship and he would fly away from this godforsaken ring, away, away, away!
He would fly to peace and safety... no damn monsters... all he had to do was get to the surface.
He shakily reloaded his rifle, his face convulsed with manic resolve.
As he began to go to the door that the squad had originally come through, he heard a gurgling plea.
Kennedy swung around and tried to aim his rifle, shaking uncontrollably, his eyes wide and bloodshot, filled with insanity.
He saw movement.
One of the bodies hauled itself up to an unsteady stance.
It was Mendoza, he was alive.... barely.
Mendoza began to stumble towards Kennedy.
"... Kennedy......" He gurgled, "We've got to get evac....."
Kennedy backed to the door, away from the stumbling, advancing Marine.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!!!" He cried.
".....p-please....." begged Mendoza tearfully, weakly holding out his arm for help.
"NO!!" Cried Kennedy insanely as he backed into the door, and then reached for the MF scrambler, about to key the door shut to trap Mendoza on the other side.
"....don't leave me....." gurgled Mendoza, who desperately made a stumbling run for the door.
"NO!!!!" Yelled Kennedy, Mendoza was a meter from the door; he fired a burst from his rifle into Mendoza's stomach, sending him wheeling forward.
Kennedy keyed shut the door and heard Mendoza's limp body slump against the other side of it.
"Must get out of here.... must, must, must, must, must!" Babbled Kennedy to himself.
So Kennedy retraced the steps his squad had taken into these metal catacombs.
As he ran along one of the energy bridges he saw a group of Elites trying to fight off a mass of the little squid-like creatures, who were stubbornly refusing to retreat from such small enemies.
They were too busy to bother with him.
As he ran along the passages he came across a terrified Jackal. He charged at it, roaring, knocking it's shield out the way and slamming his rifle butt down on it.
The poor creature was dead on the floor but he continued to brutally smash at it's corpse with an insane passion, and only stopped when it was smashed beyond recognition thick fluid glistened all over the passage walls.
It was when he was running across the final energy bridge that he saw the first of the mutated bodies.
They were green and decayed, they moved with speed and power, but with no care for the state of themselves.
Kennedy somehow knew what these creatures had been and why they were that way.
He could see from the size and basic shape that they were Elites, (or at least they had been Elites,) those creatures had gotten inside them and mutated them, it was like something from a bad sci-fi horror film.
The monsters ran about the floor attacking a group of hapless Grunts and Jackals, the way the mutated monsters moved was without any real regard for the actual mechanics of the body. It was as if the little squid-like creatures that now controlled the hosts' bodies couldn't care less if the hosts' legs were broken or the chest had a gaping hole, it continued to force the body to try to run and fight, until the body was so damaged that it was physically unable to do so.
Kennedy had run to the other side of the energy bridge, and was now stood on the landing, watching the spectacle in horror but yet with a strange fascination.
Suddenly one of the creatures seemed to notice him, and with a powerful leap it jumped and landed on the centre of the energy bridge, it turned and began to charge along the energy bridge towards Kennedy, flailing it's arms like a demonic apparition.
Kennedy shrieked in hysteria, panicked, but once again his quick thinking saved him, he turned to the holo panel beside him and keyed the bridge off.
The energy bridge disappeared from beneath the creature, and it dropped back down to the ground below.
Kennedy smashed at the holo panel projectors until the translucent screen frizzled out, nothing would follow him out now!
Kennedy reached the hover lift they'd come down in and tapped the holo panel, the lift shook, chimed, and started flying upwards.
Kennedy hopped from foot in anticipation of finally getting radio contact.
The lift rumbled and he stepped off, seeing the jungle beyond the huge entrance of the echoic great chamber he stood in.
He opened up an all frequency channel to the command shuttle and spoke.
"Does anyone read me? Respond! Please!" He cried.
A voice crackled back, it was laced with static and very distant, but it was a response.
"At last! //*/-_//..... trying to contact you lot..//--**//..lost contact with Keyes ship ages ag..//-**.././/-the hell's going on?"
Kennedy hopped up and down
"You have to get me evac, now!!" Grated Kennedy urgently.
The voice crackled back,
"Before we lost contact///**-//.. 2nd squad requested reinforcements; they said they were under att..//--*//.. we sent in Pelican Victor 933 and the squad of Marines that had been rescued from the..//**-_//
that were on board. Now we've lost contact with Packham from Vict**///-_// need to tell us what the hell's happening!!"
Kennedy's heart sank.
"NO!!" Shouted Kennedy hysterically into his comm, "YOU have to get me out of here."
The voice sounded sorry.
"//***//-/ left, repeat, there are no Pelicans..//**//-//"
"What about Foe Hammer!?" Begged Kennedy desperately.
There was a pause.
"///**// is out of contact range //**// you hold on we can get her to pick you up when we get contact //**-// just have to wait!"
"I'm gonna die if you don't get me out now!!" Wailed Kennedy, who began to break into tearful sobs as he looked around fearfully.
There was an even longer pause.
"//**// we've got no Pelicans.. //**// we do have that Covenant dropship that Captain Keyes stole..//**//
use that to get to you!"
"OH THANK YOU!!" Cried Kennedy joyously.
"Hold tight, Marine, we'll get there as soon..//**//"
Kennedy switched off his comm.
He had to find a way of signalling the craft when it came.
His hope rekindled, he began to run into the steamy jungle ahead.
However as soon as he stepped into the open he began to shake again, he felt so vulnerable, there could be more of those monsters hidden behind every tree.
As he slid down a steep muddy bank he began to sweat feverishly, his heart pounded.
He went splashing through wet marsh.
The environment around him started to feel distant, he felt detached from his body, the sounds of his splashing strides were distant and slightly warped, while the sound of his heart got louder and faster, until it sounded like the beating of rocks against a cavernous cave wall, far louder than any other sounds.
And it was when he began to hear voices he knew that he was going insane.
Whispering, malicious, evil voices.
"We will get you. You ultimately run in circles."
Kennedy shook his head, trying to run from the voices, but all was warped, for all he knew he was running in thin air.
"We've taken more than you can imagine, we've survived for longer than you can imagine, we are more unstoppable than anything you can imagine. Others have run, they ran faster, longer and further than you have, and they did not escape us.
We will get you!"
Kennedy was about to fall to the ground whimpering, when he spotted a blue light cutting through the mist.
He drew strength from the little light, he ran towards it in, he wanted to be in it's glow.
The voices in his head disappeared as he got back hope, but they still called maliciously in the back of his mind,
"We will get you!"
The Traumatised Marine (bitesize part 2)
Date: 10 March 2003, 10:09 PM
He found the source of the light, it was a chemical light rod, used to attract attention and direct Pelicans, etc.
It lay scattered amongst gun ammunition and medical kits.
Kennedy looked up from the spread of supplies to see a crippled, grounded Pelican.
'Victor 933' It said on a small plate.
It was the Pelican the person at the command shuttle had mentioned over the comm, it was in a bad state, it had hit the ground hard, and was smoking, it had crashed not long ago. Kennedy distantly remembered who the pilot had been... Packham.
But neither the pilot or the Marines were anywhere to be seen, and this craft was ruined, it was no use to him.
He picked up one of the glowing blue light rods and put it in his leg pocket, picked up a few clips and waited there, this was the most likely place that evac would come for him.
He waited, the longer he did the louder the voices got, but they weren't just voices this time, they had faces now. They were the faces of his squad. The Sergeant, Bisenti, Jenkins.
They were there, whispering with those awful voices,
"We'll get you!"
Kennedy saw Mendoza's limp body, sprawled against the door of the chamber he'd killed him in. Suddenly Mendoza turned his face towards him and began to stumble at him. His eyes had rolled back into his head,
"You- you killed me..... they will kill you!"
Kennedy heard a deep rumbling, he turned to one of the doors in the chamber, the creatures were behind it, they rumbled powerfully-
"ARGHHHHHHHH!!" Screamed Kennedy, throwing forward.
He was back by the Pelican, but he could still hear the rumbling.
He looked up to see the rumbling was the throbbing sound of a Covenant dropship.
He instinctively ducked for cover, before realising that it was the Covenant dropship that they had stolen, the one that had come to save him.
How long had he been hallucinating?
He waved the light rod frantically to attract attention, but it didn't notice him, it flew overhead.
"NOOOOO!!!" He cried, drawing his rifle and firing up at the dropship. It had to notice him!
The craft reacted to this, but not the way Kennedy wanted.
The craft careered clumsily in the air as it hastily tried to come down, it seemed the pilot had little idea how to control it. The dropship came into a steep descent, tusks forward, down into some jungle out of Kennedy's sight, it didn't slow, there was a loud crash and the ground shook.
"NOOOOOOO!!!!" Screamed Kennedy desperately, sprinting for the crash site.
He arrived to find the dropship in an awkward position on the ground, tusks down, against a titan-sized tree.
It was out of action.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" Shrieked Kennedy to the canopy above him.
His only means of escape, gone, his hopes extinguished.
Out of one of the side doors of the tusks came a banging sound.
Kennedy jumped and levelled his rifle in fear.
The slamming sounded exactly the same as the creatures slamming against the door back in the chamber when he first saw them.
"" he begged fearfully.
WHAM!
WHAM!!
WHAM!!!
WHAM!!!!
The hatch burst open.
It was a Tech!
He'd been slamming against the hatch to open it.
Kennedy fell to his knees in grateful relief.
The Tech strode forward,
"What the bloody hell's going on here!? What were you playing at!? Didn't the Marine who I spoke to on the comm tell you lot I was coming to pick you up in the stolen Covenant dropship!? Now how are we gonna get out of here!? Where the fuck's everyone else!?!" He spat in rage.
Kennedy just shook his head, sat on the ground, mumbling to himself.
"Speak up!!" Snapped the Tech.
Kennedy turned his head up to look at the Tech, his eyes were bloodshot, streaming with tears,
"Y-you!" He blubbered, "Y-y-you ruined my chance to g-get away!"
"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE!?!?" Boomed the Tech.
Kennedy recoiled in shock, he collapsed to the ground, shaking and crying softly.
The Tech came down to his side,
"...I'm sorry, look, I know whatever's happened here has been very bad for you, but I need you to tell me so I can let the guys at the command shuttle know. Can you do that for me?"
Kennedy nodded feebly.
The Tech patted him on the shoulder and helped him up.
"Good. I promise I'm going to get you out of here, I'm Ensign Carter"
Kennedy hastily tried to dry his eyes.
"Private Kennedy" He replied sullenly.
Carter nodded and smiled,
"Now, first of all, what happened to Victor 933?"
Kennedy straightened up.
"Follow me!" He said.
"And where are the others?" Carter pressed on.
Kennedy paused,
"I don't think there are any."
Carter pressed on.
"What about the weapons cache? The structure? 2nd squad said they had been guarding it."
"They aren't there anymore." Replied Kennedy hopelessly.
"Then where are they?" Demanded Carter.
"I DON'T KNOW!!" Burst Kennedy in a flood of tears, "STOP ASKING ME QUESTIONS!!"
Carter stepped back,
"Okay, okay, let's take this a step at a time. Come on, show me where Victor 933 is, yeah?"
Kennedy nodded, tears streaming from his eyes.
"Oh shit!" Groaned Carter.
He looked at the crippled wreck that was Victor 933,
"No wonder we lost contact. I wonder if the radio is beyond repair? Maybe we can send a distress call. After that we can head into the structure for cover."
He entered the open hatch and went through the access door to the cockpit.
He surveyed the controls with a disapproving look, then he tried to get the communications systems running. The panel lights flickered feebly and every so often something sparked. Kennedy smelt burnt plastic.
"Oh, this is going to be fun!" Grumbled Carter, who proceeded to wrench off the damaged repair panel and stuck his head into the control station, his arms disappeared underneath it too as he began to tinker.
"Tell me what happened while I fix this." Came his voice from inside the control station.
Kennedy leaned, still trembling slightly, against the pilot seat, and proceeded to tell Ensign Carter everything.
"And that was when the green squid monsters bashed through the door and attacked my squad."
Kennedy heard Carter's tinkering pause for a moment, it seemed Carter was thinking. After all, what Kennedy had just said sounded pretty insane, and his mental stability was certainly questionable at this point.
However the tinkering recommenced after a moment,
"Go on." Carter encouraged him to continue to talk, in the same way a psychologist analysing a lunatic would encourage him to continue to talk.
"So my whole squad is dead," continued Kennedy, "and I think they're going to become monsters just like the mutated Elites I told you about, earlier."
"I see." Said Carter slowly from within the control station, "Including Captain Keyes?"
Kennedy dug back into his mind, remembering the bodies that had been on the chamber floor. He was certain that Captain Keyes' body had not been there.
"....I-I think they must have taken Keyes away. Maybe they could tell he was important, maybe they wanted to use him as a hostage or something." Kennedy thought out loud.
"So Keyes has been captured?" Asked Carter.
Kennedy nodded, but of course this was stupid because Carter's head was in the control station and he couldn't see the acknowledgement.
"Hey Kennedy! Answer the question!"
"Yes, he was captured!" Replied Kennedy obediently.
Kennedy continued to talk, he was glad to have someone to talk to. It helped him ignore the voices in his head and the visions of his squad... and of Mendoza.
"Right!" Announced Carter, interrupting Kennedy, "I hope this is going to work."
Kennedy fell silent as Carter reached for the distress call record button.
The little panel's lights and buttons lit up.
"YES!" Hissed Carter happily, "Hang on a sec," He said, addressing Kennedy, "the Pelican's memory database was fucked in the crash, I'm gonna have to manually input the frequency ranges and audio filters, nothing serious."
His fingers proceeded to dance across the keys, setting it up to record his message and broadcast on all UNSC frequencies.
"Right," He said, surveying the little lit up panel that stood out against the rest of the dead system controls, "I don't know what kind of quality this is gonna be, but it's the best I can do."
Kennedy leaned forward,
"You have to tell them that we are under attack by the little monsters! Tell them they took Keyes, tell them we need to get out of here!" Said Kennedy urgently.
"I know! I know!" Snapped Carter.
He flicked a switch and a small round light lit orange.
"Dropship Victor 933 to all UNSC forces from the Pillar of Autumn, we are in need of assistance.
We are under attack by some new kind of life form, it isn't Covenant, repeat the new hostile isn't Covenant!"
"Tell them about Keyes!" Prompted Kennedy.
"Captain Keyes has been captured by hostiles. You will find us dug in at a large structure in a swampy area. We need to pull out. Please, send help! I will set this message to repeat at standard given intervals. Dropship Victor 933, clear."
Carter switched off the comm and turned to face Kennedy, his face was now set differently, a sort icy relentlessness.
"Right, let's head back to that structure you came from, I want to see these monsters to satisfy me you aren't a nut!" He said coldly.
With that Carter left the cockpit, picked up a rifle, examined it, and when he was happy, reloaded it with remarkable speed for an operations officer.
Kennedy followed after Carter as he strode through the vegetation.
"Please!" Pleaded Kennedy, "Please don't make me go back there! Please!"
Carter stopped and gave Kennedy a hard look,
"Buck up you pussy!!" He snapped, "You've faced death before, we all have. You're alive aren't you? So don't worry! And if you die, it won't matter 'cause you'll be dead!"
With that Carter continued on.
Kennedy considered what he'd said briefly, before realising how far he was from the surprisingly tough Ensign and began to tail after him.
The pair crossed over the great rotted log that Kennedy and 1st squad had crossed before.
They proceeded upwards, passing the unmanned Shade turrets.
It was at this point Kennedy remembered about the lotus mines.
"Ensign Carter!" He hissed.
"What now?" He asked impatiently.
"There have been lotus mines planted here!"
"Proximity or remote activated?" Asked Carter.
"Remote, I have the activation frequency and code."
"Good." Approved Carter, "We may need them later, where are they?"
Kennedy wasn't actually sure where they were, the only one he knew the rough whereabouts of was the one that Bisenti said he'd planted in front of the structure entrance.
"Well" Said Carter briskly, "If we need to use it let's make sure we aren't in the entrance!"
They proceeded carefully into the structure.
They could see the hover lift.
The voices in Kennedy's head began to get louder, with more intensity.
"WE WILL GET YOU!!"
Kennedy let out a cry collapsed to the floor.
"HEY!!" Shouted Kennedy, "Don't you have a breakdown on me!!"
He came forward to help him up when the holo lift rumbled and chimed.
"Holy shit!!" Choked Kennedy in horror as Carter helped him up, "Something's called the lift down!!"
The pair quickly dashed to hide behind some Covenant crates in the back of the chamber.
They heard the sound of the lift as it rose from deep underground back up to the surface.
"Oh god! Oh God the things, the things are coming!!" He whimpered feebly.
"Shuttup!!" Hissed Ensign Carter, shoving him angrily.
The lift surfaced, but it was not the creatures that stood on it.
It was a group of Jackals and Grunts.
The creatures were obviously frightened, they hastily ran for the great entrance out of the chamber into the jungle.
"Kennedy!!" Hissed the Ensign, get your rifle ready and hand me the remote detonator.
Kennedy did as he was told.
"We can't let them secure the area outside or we'll be trapped in here. OK," Said the Ensign, "CHASE AFTER THEM!! CHARGE!!!"
Kennedy followed the Ensign, sending bursts of bullets after the fleeing Covenant, the creatures panicked and scrambled out of the structure, without a glance back.
When the creatures reached the entrance of the structure and were fleeing into the jungle outside Carter detonated the lotus mine. The explosion scared the shit out of the creatures, but all it hit was a Shade gun turret, flinging it forwards.
Carter had set it off too late to harm any of them.
"GET ON THE LIFT BEFORE THEY REALISE THERE'S ONLY TWO OF US!!" Yelled Carter, running onto the lift.
Kennedy stood, paralysed.
"I-I d-don't want to g-go in there!"
Carter was reaching for the holo panal.
"Fine! Fight the Covenant alone up here!" He called.
This made Kennedy panic, he didn't want to be alone, faced with the voices in his head and several Covenant.
In a split second decision he leapt on to the lift that was already beginning to descend.
It took him a second longer than it would have normally for him to hit the descending platform, due to the fact that it was descending.
He landed heavily.
"I want to see what it is that makes a leatherneck quake in fear!" Said the Ensign, ignoring the fact that Kennedy had had the wind knocked out of him, his face was set with suicidal determination.
"You're n-not gonna like it." Choked Kennedy fearfully.
The lift chamber they descended into was deserted, but the next chamber on was a different story.
The Ensign strode in to the next chamber to be greeted with the plasma fire of a group of Grunts on the floor below.
He tried to fire back, but he didn't even have standard Marine armour, and within moments he was on the floor, charred holes smouldering in what was left of his chest.
This sent Kennedy over the edge, he'd been drawing a kind of strength from the incredibly tough and courageous Ensign, and now his last lifeline to sanity was severed.
He could hear the monsters' voices. Malicious, evil, and pounding in his head like he was haunted with some hell-spawned demon that plagued his soul.
Kennedy wailed madly, leaping from the landing and landing painfully on the floor below, disregarding the pain in his legs like one of the mutated Elites, Kennedy tore across the chamber, dodging the Grunts streaking hot plasma.
He made it through a door, and continued to run, no longer caring what he ran into, he just wanted to get away from the horrible, horrible voices of the monsters.
The Traumatised Marine (final bitesize part 3)
Date: 10 March 2003, 10:16 PM
Kennedy slumped against a wall-like support that held up a landing above him, he faced the door he'd just come into the chamber from.
He'd lost his rifle in the corridors some time ago, he didn't know where, he didn't even realise he was without it.
He distantly recalled being in this chamber before, it was the one with the huge, smashed, glass containment case and it was where they'd found the mangled Elite.
Kennedy now knew what had been in that case, he flinched and brought on more convulsing trembles just thinking about the little monsters.
Mental images of them tearing into his squad burned on his eyes, no matter how much he shook his head or rubbed his sockets, he couldn't get rid of them.
The monsters' voices were so loud, like a roomful of people screaming in his head.
Their evil, malicious voices hissed spitefully and malevolently at him, the same thing, over and over;
"We will get you!
We've taken more than you can imagine, we've survived for longer than you can imagine, we are more unstoppable than anything you can imagine. You cannot escape, no matter where you run!!
WE WILL GET YOU!!!"
"NO YOU WON'T YOU FUCKING MONSTERS!!!" Screamed Kennedy inside the echoic chamber in desperate, fearful defiance.
Kennedy waited for the voices' reply.
Nothing.
No reply.
Silence, sweet, blissful silence.
The voices had stopped!
He gave a gibbering, triumphant chuckle, but then-
"We will get you!" The voices whispered with cruel sadism.
"Shut up!" Growled Kennedy insanely through gritted teeth, shaking uncontrollably.
Beads of cold sweat were glistening all over his face,
"Shut up! Shut up!! SHUT UP!!!"
"We will get you!"
Kennedy drew his pistol and levelled it at his temple,
"I'll make you shut up" He hissed manically, with a sudden insane grin.
His sweaty finger was about to pull the trigger and silence the voices when the door he faced hissed open.
In the doorway stood one of the rotted green mutants, it was large and bulky, with an assault rifle and a single, burning, yellow eye, a huge cycloptic eye.
The green monster strode towards him with surprising stability.
Kennedy didn't care, it wasn't going to get him!
He levelled his pistol and fired a shot at the advancing creature, screaming,
"STAY BACK!! STAY BACK, YOU'RE NOT TURNING ME INTO ONE OF THOSE THINGS!!"
The bullet cracked loudly as it hit the monster and bounced off it. The creature flashed a brilliant gold when the impact struck it.
The green humanoid continued to advance.
"I'LL BLOW YOUR BRAINS OUT!! GET AWAY FROM MEEEEEE!!" He screamed again, firing another shot.
This time the creature was ready, it dodged the bullet so fast Kennedy didn't even see it duck.
The voices were pounding in his head now, in anger and spite.
"GAAAAHH!! AAAAAAAHH!!" Screamed Kennedy hysterically.
The creature tried to come forward but Kennedy fired another shot, and again the creature dodged it.
"Don't touch me you freaks, I won't be like you, I'll die first!!" Babbled Kennedy defiantly.
Kennedy realised that the single, burning, yellow eye was actually a reflective gold visor.
It was the Master Chief!
Where had the Chief been when they were being torn at by the creatures?
It didn't matter now, he was too late.
"Find your own hiding place the monsters are everywhere!!" Kennedy shouted angrily at the Chief, firing another shot at him.
The Chief had disappeared from Kennedy's view, to explore the rest of the chamber. The Chief had realised Kennedy was insane, so he left him there and decided to examine the chamber to try to get some answers.
"Play dead!" Called Kennedy to the Chief, whom he could no longer see, but knew was still in the chamber.
"That's what I did, played dead. They took the live ones"
Pictures of his squad being torn at burned even clearer in his mind, he could hear their screams.
"Oh God!! I can still hear them!"
Kennedy sobbed,
"Monsters!"
The voices of the monsters hissed in his head so loud he felt as if his head were being pried open.
"AHHHHHHHHH!! AHHHHHAAAHHHH!! AAAAAAAHHHHAAAAA!!!!"
He wailed hysterically, trying to drown the voices out.
They continued to chant their evil chant.
"We will get you!"
"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!!!" He screamed out at the monsters.
His thoughts turned to his squad, it was the only other thing he could think about.
"Sarge. Mendoza. Bisenti. Oh God, the things took them." He blubbered and cried, but he knew he couldn't bring them back.
"THEY'RE GONE!! GET IT!?! GONE!!!" He shouted to himself in lunacy.
"They won't get me!!" He assured himself uncertainly.
"Yes we will!" The voices whispered horribly.
"Oh God... oh God I don't want to be like them, please, please no, nooo...!!" He begged the voices desperately.
"We will get you!" Was the voices' only cruel reply.
Kennedy knew that the Master Chief was no longer in the chamber, he didn't care, he had the gun pointed at his temple with a trembling hand, he was going to kill the voices.
He would have silence, blissful, peaceful silence.
But before he pulled the trigger he heard a sound.
It was a chilling sound, a hissing, squelching, scurrying sound.
It was the sound of all things human beings were repulsed by rolled into one.
Kennedy froze, the pistol slipped from his hand and landed with a loud echoing clatter, upon hitting the floor it discharged the shot that had been destined for his head.
The sound was coming from the other side of the door Kennedy faced.
Kennedy could hear the creatures massing on the other side of the door.
The creatures stopped writhing and wriggling for a moment and froze briefly, as if they were communicating with one another.
Then, with a terrifyingly, purposeful malevolence, the creatures began to slam against the door with repeated, synchronised impacts.
Kennedy whimpered and curled up, trembling against the wall-like platform support he sat propped against.
He covered his face with his arms and peeped from beneath his arms at the door.
The mass of revolting, green, writhing evil was smashing the door through, just like it did before.
The door strained, buckled and with one final slam it blew forward, and the creatures flooded towards Kennedy.
Kennedy shrieked and cried like a terrified child as the little creatures smothered him.
Tentacles wriggled their way into his flesh as the little monsters all eagerly fought for a patch of skin to get at.
Kennedy thrashed and shrieked in vain, his agonised screams muffled by the relentless, ravenous little creatures as they teared at him.
Finally one of the creatures got on the right spot on his back.
The little monster furiously plunged it's squirming tentacles through the skin of his back, bringing more cries of searing pain.
It's tentacles wormed their way around his spine, and then with a final powerful jerk the creature wrenched itself into his chest. It severed his spine and sent his head upwards, the neck broken from the very base.
With that movement Kennedy's pain strained whimpers suddenly ceased and his thrashing stopped as his body became limp.
The rest of the Flood around the body began to disperse, in such a way one could have almost thought they were disappointed.
They left the successful Flood alone inside it's twitching host...
THE END
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