A doomed interlude: A safe Haven?

Authors note: I had been playing the game for way too long when I cam up with this story. It wont be a very long story , as the title implies, it's just a glimpse of the hell in which they are living. It's based on the game not the movie. Yes my marine's name is John, but it's not John Grimm…I don't know why I like the name John.

Also, I'm from Quebec, meaning, I speak French. Please forgive my mistakes and point them out to me.

*****

A doomed Interlude.

*****

«We'll rest here.»

I looked at him bewildered; he had said those words with such finality, as if he thought I was going to argue. I was utterly exhausted and in such a constant state of terror that arguing to find another refuge was very far from my mind. Moreover, I had prayed for a respite for such a long time that I felt like crying hysterically when he said those words.

Shaking like a leaf in the wind as I clutched my arms nervously, I looked at him as he kneeled on the ground rummaging in his backpack. I couldn't help it; my eyes constantly darted at the end of the long and dark corridor, expecting to see one of those creatures from hell in the only swinging shaft of light. I started as I heard a soft sound behind me, twisting around nervously I saw John beckoning me inside the dark room. Gulping and frowning, I entered almost reluctantly. Who knows what could be lurking in the pitch-black corners? Biting my lips, my wary eyes hastened around the sombre dwelling. It was too easy. I felt like a thief who had entered too easily in a bank, waiting for the alarm to start ringing. Since the beginning of this hell nothing had been easy and I refused to think for a second that I might be safe. I had seen people die horribly for less.

I almost screamed in terror as I heard the ringing metallic noise of something heavy landing behind me. Swirling swiftly with my ineffective fists for only means of protection, I bit back the words of anger that rose in my throat. John, crouching on the ground staring into a hole he had just made into the wall, was oblivious that I had almost died of sheer fright because of him. I felt like slapping him until my hand bled, but when he turned around to hand me the flashlight, I merely grabbed it and directed its shaft of light into the hole. I looked at him as he plunged his hand into the opening and pulled on a handful of wires. As they dangled from the gap, he began to examine each one. They all looked the same to me, greyish. Choosing one that he isolated from the group, he took a wickedly sharp knife from his boot and in one swift motion cut the wire. The door closed silently. Testing the small operation he had just performed; he put one large hand on the metallic door. It stayed close.

I stood behind the closed door and looked around the exiguous room that would serve as our refuge for the night. Night? Was it even the night? Maybe it was day? I frowned as I stared at the ground. I didn't know. Tried as I might I couldn't estimate how much time had passed since the beginning of the apocalypse. When the only thing important is to survive, time seems oddly frivolous. What was time when each moment lived might very well be the last? If I could I would have laughed. I had been living my life under a strict agenda where time was money, where time was the all-powerful ruler. It had no meaning anymore and even if I survived, it would never again have meaning.

Clutching my trembling arms, I watched John, as he seemed to be making an inventory of the huge utility rack that graced the wall. On my left were several large barrels, as I stepped closer I realised that they blocked all that side of the room. I soon gave up the inspection and I lowered myself heavily on the ground beside the wall. I felt like a puppet that had no more guiding hand, no more strings to keep it upright.

Since the beginning of this all too real hell, I never once had a chance to rest. I never once had a chance to try and understand what had happened. Were these monsters from somewhere deep under the surface of Mars? No, it couldn't be. Some of the personnel of the research facility had been transformed…into…into…No creature already living here could have achieved that. The people came from Earth, like me, and yet they had been turned into flesh eating corpses. Creatures too horrible to have been devised in this realm now walk the metallic hallways of the facility on a killing rampage. Eviscerated, decapitated, dismembered. Some had even disappeared in a disgusting explosion of bones, flesh and blood. I grabbed my head with my hands as I force my mind not to think about them. About all that I had seen. When the haunting visions abated, I breathed and let go of my head. What had the UAC been working on?

I stared at my bloody hands for a moment and turned them into fists to try and stop their shaking. I couldn't stop my body from trembling though. I couldn't stop being afraid either. Even here, where I was relatively safe, I couldn't feel secure. I felt like a wild animal thrust into a cage. Putting a pale hand on my chest I felt my heart beating madly. Closing my eyes in a vain attempt to calm myself, I was suddenly assaulted by a rapid succession of some of the horrific things I had witnessed. The apparitions felt so vividly real that I felt like vomiting. The stench of entrails and blood filled my nostrils as if I was still there, hiding among the mutilated bodies, praying for the mad man with a chainsaw not to notice me. Feeling a moan building in my throat, I compressed my lips together to prevent it from escaping. I was so afraid to make a noise, lest he hears me, that I pressed both my hands over my mouth. I squeezed my eyes shut, as if by doing that I could block out the visions. Opening my eyes again, I recognized the dark room and saw John sitting on the ground taking his guns out of his backpack. I tried to feel relieved that I was still alive, but couldn't. I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I didn't want to cry; I knew that once I started I wouldn't be able to stop. I pressed my hands on my eyes and bit my lips, banging my head on the wall behind me softly, noiselessly. After several deep breaths I felt the hysterical wave recede and thought myself stable enough to try and rest for a while. I direly needed to rest and I refused to take for granted that other havens would come. I had the opportunity now.

Letting out the air of my lungs I rested the back of my head on the wall and closed my eyes. I don't know if I fell asleep immediately but I suddenly felt myself falling backward as if a pit had just opened under me. All of a sudden, I saw one of those big brown creatures lunging toward me, its sharp claws glistening with blood and gore, clawing the air in front of me, to eat me as they had William. Terrified, I swirled around with the hope to flee but I saw with dread that an army of flesh eating cadavers were marching toward me. Their moans and groans filled my ears. All I could see was walking mutilated corpses in desecrated lab coats. The once pristinely white uniforms were smeared with coagulated blood and humanly parts that shouldn't have seen the light of day. They were all around me! I couldn't escape! No I didn't want to die! No! I felt myself slip. They were so close I could see their wide opened mouths with sharp little teeth, their faces covered with ghastly wounds and blood. I shrank on myself, trying in vain to prevent my death. I didn't want to die! I wailed pitifully as bloody feet and dirtied pants came into view. Suddenly, like snapshots from a mad photographer, I saw the dismembered bodies of my friends who had died. I saw blood smeared walls. I saw that scarlet pulp of blood and gut that seemed to be ever expending to cover everything. I saw torn legs and arms. I saw my hands slip on a smashed brain as I tried to scamper away. I saw myself slipping and falling on the ground littered with broken bodies.

I snapped my head up when a loud crunching hit my ears, it sounded like someone eating a hard candy. In a swinging shaft of light, I saw a dead child squatting in a corner as it voraciously ate torn fingers and at its side; a sprawled woman was staring incredulously at her blood spurting hand as she screamed and screamed. This couldn't be real. Dear lord! It couldn't be real! It was nothing but a nightmare. As I shrank even more on myself I grasped that thought like a lantern on the darkest night. It was nothing but a nightmare! Nothing I had seen was real! It wasn't it wasn't it wasn't… I rocked myself softly as this confuse litany of incoherent words filled my mind.

«Hey! HEY! Come back here! Hey!»

Suddenly, I felt something grabbing me by the shoulders. They had finally got me! I was going to die. No! Dear god I didn't want to! Terrorized, I opened my eyes and found myself staring into the lifeless evil eyes of one of my former colleague. I opened my mouth in a scream that never reached my ears. The blood that seemed to be covering most of its body was the perfect contrast with the sheer paleness of its dead skin. It opened its blood-smeared mouth in an inhuman growl and I saw its small deadly sharp teeth. I felt a wave of dread submerge me. I was going to die through that mouth. Through a once human mouth! I finally manage to croak out a small pathetic yell and began trashing for all I was worth in the arms of my doom.

«Marianne! Stop it! Marianne, stop it, it's me!»

Through my desperate struggle a familiar voice reached my ears. The words were coherent but somehow I couldn't make sense of them. The bloody teeth came closer to my face and I filled my lungs with one last scream, as I knew I couldn't escape. All of a sudden, my face twisted to one side and pain exploded on my cheek. With my ear ringing, I put a hand on the offended area and I blinked repeatedly, feeling like a thick veil had abruptly fallen over my eyes and mind. Distinguishing a dark shape I fastened my eyes on it, frowning to try to and make sense of it. The veil finally lifted and I recognized the worried face of John. His hands were gripping my shoulders painfully as if he was afraid I would slip and disappear. I looked behind him and saw the now familiar dark corners of our refuge. I let out a shaky breath and let my head fall back on the wall heavily.

«You must stay strong Marianne. You hear me? I need you to stay strong! If you lose it I wont be able to protect you!» He let go of my shoulders and took hold of my head, lifting it so he could plunge his piercing gaze in mine, as if he wished to make me understand with his eyes how serious he was.

« I don't care what you'll busy your mind with but don't think about it! Don't think about any of it! If you lose it, I will leave you behind. You understand me?» His hands left my head slowly as if he was afraid I would fall back to the place I was a moment ago.

I felt my voice too unsteady to try to answer him so I weakly nodded. I looked at him as he stood and went back to sit beside his guns. It felt like an eternity since we had unexpectedly stumbled upon each other. Too busy to flee and survive, we hadn't even exchange more than one phrase. He was a soldier, I was a civilian; he had wordlessly, instinctively taken me under his protective wing. I had been so afraid, so busy trying to have eyes all around my skull, so busy developing a new talent for marksmanship that I had not even looked at him. I had fell behind him and we had marched on. I had no idea with who I had so intimately bound my survival. His dark hair was kept ruthlessly short. Behind the small wounds, the blood, the dirtiness and sweat, I saw a strong angular face on which a dark beard had started to grow. His dark eyes in the darkness of the room were as strong as his features as he sent a glance toward me.

«I don't know what came up over me» I wringed my hands nervously. « With everything that has happened since, since…I must have fallen in shock.» My psychological mind taking over, I began to blabber about the causes and their effects, about what I could do to try and control and prevent any more breakdowns. As I talked, I saw a corner of his mouth lift ever so slightly in a small smile that never reached his eyes. I stopped talking abruptly suddenly feeling ridiculous.

«That's good. Don't think about it.»

I smiled the same parody of a smile he had given me, thinking I had managed to busy my mind as he had bid me.

*****

«I'm sorry I hit you.»

His grave voice in the surreal silence of the room startled me. Dear god, was this fright ever going to leave me?

«I saw on your face that you were about to scream. I couldn't allow that.»

I turned my head weakly toward him. He was sitting beside the rack, his guns all checked and at the ready beside him. Only his plasma gun, that he seemed to prefer, laid on his thighs a tired finger holding the trigger loosely. His other bloody arm hung, as if lifeless, by his side. His long legs lay sprawled in front of him. Everything in his posture seemed to scream exhaustion.

«No» I said softly as I touched my painful cheek. «I'm actually grateful, you pulled my out of a nightmare.»

For a long time silence reigned in our small haven. At one point I wondered if he had even heard what I had said. Maybe he had fallen asleep? I suddenly felt very much exhausted myself. I laid myself down slowly on the cold hard ground, feeling the coldness of the floor like a balm on my achy back. As I turned on my side, putting my back against the wall, I heard his barely audible words.

«The nightmare is not over.»

I looked at him for a long while, too troubled to say or do anything. I lay my head down on my arm and fell instantly into a heavy dreamless sleep.

*****

I woke up abruptly. My motionless body was stiff and ready to react. Almost panicking, I regretted the loss of the shotgun I had found on the torn body of a Marine. My eyes wide open and my heart beating wildly, I perused my surrounding, searching the reason for my brutal awakening. The rapid flow of blood buzzed in my ears preventing me from hearing anything. Nothing moved. I stayed where I was, not even daring to breathe.

I slowly began to calm down. With infinite precaution, I raised and sat on the ground realizing with a pang that another light had died down during our respite. My muscles, stiff because of my nap ached fiercely, and I groaned in pain rubbing my shoulder. Maybe it was just another nightmare that had waked me up. In the darkness I heard a muffled sound, like something rubbery falling on the ground, after it a choked moan reached my ears. John! I had been so afraid that I had failed to think about him. Was he all right? I heard the semi metallic noise of his armour hitting the wall and another strangled complaint reached me. I felt my heart swell with sympathetic pain. On my hands and knees I advanced toward him, pronouncing his name in a soft question.

He lay on his side huddled up against the wall. The plasma gun, which he held in a dead grip, lay against his chest armour. The cartridge holding the plasma plunged his face in an odd mix of shadows and soft blue light. His face was covered with sweat and I could see fat drops glistening as they rolled on his forehead leaving a clear path behind them. He was frowning heavily and all his body seemed to be rigid as if in throes of a painful torture. When his lips parted in a silent snarl, I softly laid my hand on his naked arm. I felt his muscles stiffen under my hand and it was as if a spell had fallen on him for he seems to stop breathing, frozen. Not once did it come to my mind that I was about to wake a harden soldier having a nightmare in the middle of a hellish war.

Moving my hand from his arm to his shoulder, I shook him softly his name on my lips. Unexpectedly, I felt a vise encircle my throat and the room spun, my back hit a hard surface knocking me dizzy for a second. The clamp suddenly tightened and I grimaced in pain. Not understanding what was going on I tried to talk but I found myself incapable to draw or to expel air. Panicking, I opened my eyes and forgot instantly that I couldn't breathe. My gaze was swallowed into the dark barrel of the gun held barely an inch before my eyes. I tried to talk again only to feel John's hand squeeze harder. Frightened I tried to push the barrel away from my face, but it wouldn't move. Abandoning the gun, I clawed at his hand around my neck, trying to pry his fingers off. When I couldn't even lift one finger I began battering his arm with my fists in a panic. I started to feel dizzy, my fists becoming heavier and it was getting hard to make them hit their intended target. I felt as if my energy was being sucked right out of me, my shoulders slumped and I had to grip his wrist to try to hold me up right. Black dots began swarming in my vision and as more and more came I felt one of my hand letting go of his wrist, almost lifeless. I tried to say his name but could only move my lips.

All of a sudden, the hand strangling me let go and I slumped to the ground breathing and coughing gratefully. I vaguely heard my name but I was too concentrated on regaining my senses and comforting my bruised trachea to react to it. After a fashion, I felt somewhat better and I opened my eyes to see John bent over me, one hand holding my arm firmly. His face was a powerful mixture of guilt and concern; he seemed to be searching with his eyes a proof that I would not die on him. I wanted to try and smile, to reassure him but could only cough in pain. With a softness I didn't know he possessed, he lifted me from the ground so that I could sit.

«Marianne, I…I'm sorry, I almost killed you. I…»

I raised a hand to hush his apologies. «I'm the one who should be sorry,» my voice sounded raw as if I had spent an evening screaming my lungs at a concert. « What I did was pretty stupid, I shouldn't have tried to wake you up…not while you're holding a gun anyway.» I smiled weakly a hand on my throat. « Not that your hand wasn't going to be effective.»

Seeing I wasn't about to collapse and die he let me go and sat further away.

«I had my lesson, next time I'll beat you with a staff, or something, and I'll throw myself on the ground.»

This time I was able to fully smile and I saw his large shoulder slump slightly in what I thought to be relief.

I had smiled! I couldn't believe I had just smiled. Covering my mouth with a hand I felt somewhat ashamed, how could I try to smile when so many people had been slaughtered?

« It's ok you know, we're still alive, we have to keep going.» John had his piercing dark eyes locked on me «There's nothing we can do about the dead except keep on living.»

I coughed once before talking. «I know. I know all of that…I don't know how many time I've repeated what you just said to some of my patients who had lost a dear one. They felt guilty of trying to pick up the pieces of their lives, of trying to move on.» I felt unable to go on for a moment; a ball of misery was forming in my throat. I swallowed the sadness down and blinked back the tears. « Somehow, those words are meaningless. I understand how it was for my patients now.» A small mirthless laugh escaped my lips. «You know, I don't think any classes at University could have prepared me for what is happening here. There's not a book written about how to cope with such a madness.» I thought for a moment. «Well, if I survive I'll write it myself. I can just picture the title: Surviving Doom.» I small smile spread on his lips at my words.

« So I take it you're one of the psychologists hired by the UAC.»

I nodded.« Yes I was hired temporarily to help the personnel deal with the spreading wave of psychosis. I have to say; when I first came here I thought it very unusual. Mental disorder is not a contagious malady. Anyone can have a psychosis at one point in their lives, you don't have to be «crazy» to suffer from one, but so many people in such a short period of time is quite…bizarre.»

John snorted silently, his voice as always, was grave and silent. « I don't believe they were suffering from mental disorders.» Checking the cartridge of his gun he went on. « Or maybe we're having one ourselves and none of this is really happening. I don't know which is worse; living this waking nightmare with you or being locked up alone in a funny farm wearing nothing but a long sleeves shirt.»

I couldn't say which reality I would prefer but I was glad to have him with me and I told him so. One side of his mouth lifted slightly as we looked at each other. I think we both had similar thoughts; we were both relieved not to be alone, to have a little comfort in such a desolate reality. Without really knowing why his dark gaze on me suddenly made me feel ill at ease. I blushed and looked down at my bloody grey pants. When I looked up again from under my eyelashes, his eyes seemed even more intent than before, it was as if he had just seen something he had missed before and was now seeing me anew. I felt my cheeks burn and I looked away, unable to sustain his piercing gaze. Feeling very much ill at ease, I rose from the ground and looked around the room. It's then that I saw a glowing redness at the far end of the room behind the barrels. Dread fell on me instantly. I had seen such a glow before and a massacre had soon followed. I could hear my heart beating wildly in my chest and ears. In one quick motion John was beside me following my gaze to the back of the room. Grabbing me by the arm he pulled me behind him and cocked his plasma gun. I was so afraid that I could do little but shrink in one corner of the room. He had disable the door, if it were one of those hellish floating heads more would follow. We had no escape. The memory of the scientist who had been assaulted by those screaming heads resurfaced in my mind. They had burned and bitten him to death, big morsels of his flesh had fallen to the ground, blood splattering everywhere around him as he had tried to fight them off. I bit my lips to stop the whimper from escaping. I dreadfully watched him advance in full battle stance. He stopped for a moment, observing. I almost screamed in surprise when in one powerful jump he landed on the barrels, his gun ready to unleashed the deadly plasma on whatever lay at his feet. My muscles were stiff with expectation, would I have to fight? To flee? I couldn't breathe, nor move.

When I saw his stance relax I let out a shaky breath in relief. Tears welled up in my eyes, dear god I was an emotional wreck.

John jumped down and pushed his gun on his back. Using all his body he began to move some of the barrels out of the way. They must have been really heavy for I could see the muscles of his arms bulged with the strain of pulling them. Still sitting in the corner, I couldn't help but admire him as he put all his strength in moving the containers. What a sight it was! I forgot for a moment where I was, what had happened. For a blissful moment it was as if nothing had happened and I was just a normal woman admiring a well built man.

Coughing pulled me out of my reverie. I blinked and saw to my horror that John was looking at me with a puzzled yet mildly amused expression on his face.

«I think you should come see what I have found.»

I was already mortified that he had surprised me as I was admiring him, I now felt like digging a hole in the ground for I was blushing like a high school girl in front of the school's jock. Holding my head high in an attempt to regain some dignity. I pushed myself off of the ground and went to him to see his findings; fastened to the wall was one of those small medical units, the red cross on it glowing red faintly.

*****

No it's not the end. I just thought to stop here to see if people were actually interested in this story. If you want to know what happens next, you know what to do.