The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 35: Industrial Zone

"So you're bringing a bomb to that huge glowing thing in the middle of the city?" Vekovious asked as they all finished settling into their seats.

"Yep," Jack replied. "We good drivers?"

"Ready to go," Spencer reported.

"Cortez just arrived, we're set," Holtz said.

"Get to it then."

He'd sent Cortez over to the other APC now that they had another able-bodied Marine around and Wells had left a vacancy. Jack sighed softly as he thought that. Sometimes it was easy to slip into a disturbingly casual mindset about death and those who had fallen. He shook his head, trying to clear it, as the APC rumbled and then started driving again.

"What's so special about it?" Vekovious asked.

"It's experimental. Honestly, I don't really know. All I know is that it's our best shot right now," Jack explained. That seemed to satisfy the Sergeant and he sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. Probably could use a nap, like all of them.

Jack managed to make it maybe three minutes before activating his radio and trying to reach out to one of the other teams again. He tried all three of them, focusing on Jennifer's team a bit longer, but heard nothing in response.

"Piece of shit comms," he muttered.

"She's gotta be fine," Diaz said from her spot in the nest. "She's a complete hardass."

"Yeah," he replied quietly.

Jack sighed heavily and sat back in his chair, doing the same as Vekovious and just closing his eyes. He was exhausted. He was hungry. This day just kept going, and going. And he knew that it wasn't going to stop anytime soon. In a way, it felt like this day had begun the second he'd set foot onto that transport bound for Phobos. It did not seem even remotely possible that he had hit Phobos less than a week ago.

It felt like a decade had passed since he'd argued with Stanmore about leaving the shuttle and heading into that dark, doomed facility. Trying to rescue his fellow Marines, his friends, any humans that might still be alive.

And only he and Jennifer had made it off Mars.

She might be dead by now, but she probably wasn't. It felt like providence was keeping them alive, somehow, someway.

At some point Jack nodded off and then jerked awake as he heard someone shout a warning. A second later he heard the chattering of the chaingun overhead and Diaz shouting. He and Vekovious shot to their feet and Jack slipped into the driver's compartment.

"What's-" he began, and then cried out as something smashed into the front of the APC with explosive force. He heard cursing coming from several different directions, and just caught sight of a Revenant out there in front of the APC before its top half blew into so much free flying bone and metal under the onslaught of the chainguns. Several warning lights and an alarm began flaring inside the cockpit and Spencer cursed sharply.

"Diaz, we clear?!" Jack called as the chaingun chattering stopped.

"Clear!" she called back. "Just some skeletons."

"What's going on?" Jack asked.

"Gimme a minute," Spencer muttered as he pushed a few buttons and flicked a switch. He stared at a screen, muttering to himself, then sighed heavily. "The engine's damaged."

"Can you fix it?"

"Yeah, I can fix it. Just need to replace a part, but it'll take a bit to get the engine open and do the swap."