Soto turned around yet another corner in the god-forsaken labyrinth, sweeping the new environment placed before them with a weary eye, and the gun steady at his shoulder. He was weary; but by whatever gods controlled his fate, he had a right to be.
For hours that had felt like eons, they had trudged through a landscape of unspeakable filth and endlessly, and uselessly, twisting and turning tunnels that makes even him feel claustrophobic.
It had been bad when he could still hear the alien gnashing of fangs upon stone; it had served as a steady reminder of what had been sealed off by the improvised barricade of cement and stone they had left behind, cutting them off from the only exit he had known. It was worse now that even the echoes had died off.
Had the horrendous worms ceased their digging, clawing, tearing, or had they broken through? Soto didn’t want to think about it, but ever so often he threw glances over his shoulder, fully expecting to see the writhing wall of worm-flesh and the slavering maws he had seen before.
He knew that none of his soldiers was better off than him.
Once the rush of adrenaline had worn off, Vasquez had started limping, ever so slightly. And in their current environment, he couldn’t remove his protective armor to let Sulieman have a look at his leg.
The one that seemed to be doing the best job of keeping her nerves in check was Hagen, who was essentially walking backwards, with her phasegun trained down the tunnels behind them, always waiting for their pursuers to catch up; But she showed no signs of stress, even in this most bleak of environments. Soto envied her that unrelenting calm that seemed to surround her.
“Sir!”
Soto almost jumped out of his skin.
For next unto a hour now, there had not been a single utterance, a single word. The half-shouted word had suddenly ripped through the silence, and the rhythmical shlorping of their slow progression, to leave Soto breathing quicker.
“Yes?”
Ulrich, who had positioned himself next to Soto, reaches forwards with a hand.
“Look. I think there’s a light up ahead.”
Soto looks where the assault specialist is pointing, and he had to admit; It was so slight it had escaped his notice, but there was light up ahead.
“Alright people!”
his voice came out stronger than he had anticipated.
“We might have an exit coming up! Look sharp and keep your guns at the ready.”
It was the best damn thing that had happened to him today.
There was finally a hope. He raised his pace as he continued forwards, his squad following his example.
Just one more turn.
Just one more goddamn turn.
He turned around the final nonsensical curve of the subterranean hellhole, and he felt his heart flutter; his feet itching to dance.
Ahead was a section of sewer that had a roof far elevated compared to the previous; indeed, ahead lay something that immediately struck him as some sort of access station.
The ‘room’, for lack of a better word, had two ladders, one on each side, going up from the sloppy goop in which they were standing, to elevated walkways with lit lamps suspended on the wall.
And, to the great joy of Soto, a ladder leading up to what looked like manholes.
They did it.
They finally fucking did I-
Screeeeech
Fucking figures.
“Up the ladders! Now!”
He could see the writhing mass of the worms starting to come around the corner up ahead, but by some freak chance they seemed bottlenecked by their own mass.
“Hagen! I want covering fire on those worms! The rest of you get up those damn ladders!”
The marines sprung to action, and soon the tunnel was lit brilliant purple by a stream of energy exiting the barrel of the female marine’s heavy gun.
Soto himself sprung up the ladder to the left like a man possessed, and upon reaching the walkway, he turned to grab Vasquez’ arm as said marine was halfway up the ladder, only to haul him up with the ease of a man lifting a child.
The marine yelps in surprise, but doesn’t complain as to the nature of his accelerated ascent.
“Hagen! Your turn!”
Soto saw that both Sulieman and Ulrich had climbed up on the other walkway, and was now clambering up towards the surface.
Hagen ceases her continuous fire, and the press of xeno filth increases as the first of the worms burst through the bottleneck.
As if the dam had burst, hundreds of foot-thick, monstrous abominations started to flood in, and up, as Soto pulled Hagen up from the muck.
Drawing his sidearm, Soto fires down into the writhing mass, and sprays of alien blood fountain up as discolored guts spill; only to mix with the other unmentionable goop below.
Seeing that Hagen has already started her ascent up the final ladders, Soto slots his sidearm back in its’ holster at his tight with a practiced motion, and sprints the few meters remaining to the ladder.
He climbs, up and up, heart beating franticly in his chest as the slimy husks start to snap at his heels.
Just as his gauntleted hand scrapes against the rough cement of the road above; he feels his leg grasped by something his mind hardly even wants to comprehend, and a horrendous force starts pulling him downwards into the abyss.
On the verge of complete panic, he can hear the sound of metal against teeth.
Then a hand clasps around his wrist; then another, and another still.
“We got you sir! Vasquez, give those slimy fuckers something to chew on!”
At Hagen’s shouted command, Vasquez presses the button of a grenade, and flings it past Soto’s struggling form.
Pulled from the maws of doom by the power-armored assistance of Sulieman and Hagen, Soto pulls free his sidearm once more, and fires it once at the massive worm chewing on his leg, making the monster let go as its’ jaws are torn apart by the gun.
Just as the monster starts to flee back into its’ hole, the ground shudders as the grenade detonates, and the piece of worm sticking out of the ground is propelled into the air, spewing green goop all over the gathered marines.
Sulieman pushes the manhole cover back over the now once more dark pit from which they had escaped.
Soto laughs, as the first drops of rain fall from a grimy, gray sky.
“Hey, Ulrich?”
“Yes, sir?”
“I think I hate sewer levels, too.”