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Hidden: Chapter 10

A Soldier's Duty

"Fuck it, Fuck it all to hell." I roared as I ran down the hall, followed closely by seven others who were desperately shooting behind us. Typical, as soon as we left the relative safety of the bridge, we're automatically targeted. It didn't matter that the cameras showed only a few werewolves in our path to the infirmary. The god damn vomit. It stank, but not only to humans, it drew those things in from all around. It wasn't long after we left the bridge that we heard screaming from the J&H employees we had to leave behind and now they were after us. One of us probably got a bit of the bile on our suits, or maybe it was the blood from all of the bodies. I don't know and at the moment I didn't care.

"They're gaining on us and I can't keep this up forever." Sergeant Crane yelled frantically, occasionally stopping between words to fire a few more rounds behind him. I myself didn't look back. I had fallen into the role of navigator and I didn't dare look back out of fear that if I did, we would miss a turn. The map on my hud showed that the next turn wasn't for another fifty yards, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

The howling and constant barking that I could hear whenever there was a break in the yelling and cursing on the radio was indeed getting closer and it wouldn't be long before they were on us. The infirmary was roughly one mile from the bridge. One mile of long and twisting corridors. Normally I would be able to run a mile in six minutes comfortably, but I was not comfortable. I had been sprinting for three minutes straight and adrenaline and a desperate need to live was the only thing keeping me from just collapsing. At this speed we would be at the infirmary in just another minute and a half. The last three minutes didn't exactly fly by.

"Bogeys up ahead." Someone's finger shot out somewhere from my right and pointed at six werewolves coming at us from ahead. One was a Mastiff and nearly took up the entire hall as it charged at us. Its teeth were bared and its sleek black fur bristled. It was horrifying and I was running straight at it. It would occasionally use its front paws to propel itself in a more dog like manner, but primarily ran on just two legs. I instinctively raised my gun as my training kicked in. Aim and shoot and remember to breath. It was what I had been taught when I first picked up a gun. It required time and patience. We didn't have that so I just pulled the trigger and let out a roar of my own.

My gun combined with a few others let loose dozens of rounds in just a few seconds. It was the first time I fired the new rifles and it was dazzling. The super-heated metal that shot out glowed like lasers and left clean cauterized thumb sized holes were they passed straight through the Mastiff's body and partially into the werewolf right behind it. Two down, four to go and just 20 feet separating us now. There was no way we would kill them before they reached us.

The contact was short but brutal. I fired several more rounds which hit another werewolf in center mass and someone shot another one, scalping it. The two remaining werewolves pushed past the fallen and leapt the few remaining feet at us. One was going directly for the nearest target, me. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl. It was a Doberman, it's thin, but muscled body glided through the air ever closer to me. Arm out, mouth open and legs stretched out behind it, it looked more like a leaping cat than a dog. I barely managed to fire and saw the round sail right past it and into the wall behind it. I had never excelled in marksmanship, but this was the worst time to make it known. I was surprised to see another round fly past my head and into the face of the Doberman and exit through the back of its head. There was no explosion of brain matter or skull fragments, it went straight through. Even though I was in no threat of being torn apart by this one werewolf, its body was still coming at me.

"Shit." I muttered as the body crashed into me, all of its dead weight and momentum throwing me to the floor. My head cracked against the metal flooring and everything blurred. I was on the edge of passing out. A light was flashing on the hud, something about a minor facture and concussion, but was too dazed to pay it any mind. A red smudge appeared on the center of my visor and there was the distant sound of yelling. The words were all mashed together in my head and my thoughts scattered. A hand roughly grabbed my arm while another pushed the dead body off of me. I was lifted up into the air, causing the blood to rush out of my head. As the darkness enveloped me, I did notice that at that moment one of the other vitals on my hid dropped drastically. I didn't see who it was.

Where there was once darkness, light replaced it. Everything in my head pounded and throbbed under the constant beam of whiteness that filled my vision. I raised a hand to block it out, an unprotected hand. Peach colored and vulnerable. I couldn't feel the safe shell of my suit on my body and panic began to take hold.

"Hey... hey. Calm down, you're alright." The familiar voice broke through the light that my eyes had failed to adjust to in a timely manner. I could see the blurry outlines of two people looking over me. A hand reached down and squeezed my shoulder reassuringly. The blurry figures started to take shape and I could now see Sergeant Crane and Ivan looking over me with concerned faces.

They were wearing their suits, just without the masks. I could see where sweat had poured down their faces, leaving small trails through he grime that had collected on their skin. Great bags were under their bloodshot eyes. After everything that had occurred, it was nice to see a human face again. No soulless eyes behind snarling teeth coming at me, no claws and incessant barking. Just people and I sighed a breath of relief.

I began to take my surroundings in. I was laid on a gurney, my head rested on a feather pillow. It was heaven and the white walls of the room only added to that atmosphere, for a moment I felt safe and all I wanted was to keep that feeling. The top of my head was wrapped tightly around my head and the pressure from it made the headache slightly worse. In fact, every single muscle in my body was stiff and burned. That run through the ship really took everything I had even though I fainted partway through. It was a miracle that I was still alive, hell it was a miracle that we got away at all. I should have died so many times on the way over and yet here I was.

The vital that had dropped before I fainted. It came back to me. "Who died?" I tried to sound urgent, but only a faint noise came from my labored lungs. The two of them looked at each other for a moment and then at me. "Don't delay it, just spit it out." I needed to know who died when I lived.

"Sergeant Millard sir." My heart sank. "He shot the werewolf that was about to hit you and wasn't able to shoot the other one that was coming for him." He saved my life and lost his. A wave of guilt took me and I just closed my eyes with a groan. "By the time we got the werewolf off of him, his suit was punctured and his carotid artery was severed. There was nothing we could do. He died on the way here." Crane pointed to the gurney next to me. There was a body lying on it with the sheets pulled over him, shrouding him from my view. Blood soaked through near the neck was.

"I need to see him." I gripped the side of my gurney and lifted myself into a seating position, facing Millard, despite the protests of Crane and Ivan. The simple action left me breathless and dizzy, but this was something I had to see. Sergeant Crane and Ivan were standing next to me, solemnly. "I need to see him." I yelled. Neither of them flinched, but Sergeant Crane walked over to the corpse and looked at me one more time before pulling the covers back to expose Millard's head and upper torso. They said the carotid was severed, but it was much more than that, half of his neck was gone, the spine was the only thing keeping his head on. With spinal cord still attached, he would have felt nearly everything up until the moment he would have lost consciousness. I couldn't see his face, his helmet was still on. The lower half of it was completely shattered. I could see his chin, there was stubble growing there.

"We kept his helmet on, it's the only thing that's really keeping him all together." Ivan said. "We can remove the faceplate though."

"Do it." I just stared at the grievous wound. The dog must have taken a bite out of him. The one that had almost gotten me, the one that he shot to save me, would have done the same.

Ivan knelt over and started undoing the various seals and switches. In a few moments he was peeling back the darkened face plate that hid him from view.

There was no look of terror anywhere on the timid man's face. It was neutral. Eyes looking forward and mouth slightly open. Blood was coming from his nostrils and mouth, but other than that, he looked rather bored of all things, bored and peaceful. I saw everything I needed. I had scolded him on the bridge, reminding him of our duty as Spec Enforcers and he had died doing that duty, he wasn't just a man anymore, he became a true soldier in those final moments. I reached out to him, bot avoiding the wound, but rather going for the dog tags that were still wrapped around what was left of his neck.

"His family should know he died a true soldier's death." I wasn't talking to anyone in particular, just to anyone who would listen. I had some of my strength back and used it to cover his face again with the blanket. "He saved my life, I will honor that debt by ensuring this mission is finished." I pocketed the dog tags without looking at them. I would mourn later when the time was right, when everything else was done.

"Welcome back captain." Captain Krauss walked over to my side and slapped my back. I nearly knocked me over and I grabbed onto Sergeant's Crane arm to steady myself. "I'm glad you didn't die, I would hate to lose you after carrying your limp body while being chased like an elk." I didn't respond, knowing Krauss, he was coming over to get me moving again. He hated sitting still.

Krauss looked at the covered body in the adjacent gurney for a second, but didn't say anything. I just told myself he was giving a moment of silence for Millard.

"It was close." He said, still looking at the body. "But, we made it." He turned to me. He had a very square face, only rounded at the top of his head where there was a buzz cut. I could see veins going up the side of his head betraying his stress. "Now that you're awake, we need to get moving. The doctor is waiting for us." I looked past the captain and spied the old man sitting in a chair at the far side of the room. He had a stereotypical lab coat on and some thick rimmed glasses on. His hair was thin and very gray, but a bit long as he had to brush it out of his face every once in a while. The werewolf body that was shown in the security image was pushed off into the corner. It had civilian clothing on, but had a naval officer's cap on.

I wrapped my arm around Sergeant Crane's neck and he helped me up. It wasn't bad, just slow as every muscle in my body protested. We left my gurney and slowly walked over to the doctor who looked up at us. His eyes narrowed and he looked at each of us carefully. Scientists. Always calculating even when in the middle of a mini apocalypse.

"Why are we being exposed to the air? We were given strict orders to avoid breathing the ship's air." We were going slow enough that it would take a bit for me to get over to the doctor and I didn't care to walk in awkward silence.

Sergeant Crane kept his eyes forward, but smiled. "Ah, you noticed. I was beginning to think that your concussion was affecting you." He used his hand to poke me in the side of the head. I was too tired and sore to put up any resistance. "It turns out that the infirmary has its own life support system and a small reactor to power it. The entrance is an airlock as well. It's all meant to keep the area as sterile as possible." It made sense and I wasn't going to complain, it was nice to be out of the suit for a bit. The sweat that had just soaked me for hours was now wicking away.

When we reached the other side of the room, Sergeant Crane lowered me into the chair next to the doctor and Krauss remained standing with his arms crossed.

I would take the first shot. "So." I said leaning over towards the old man. "Why are we dying to save your pathetic ass?"