Doom: Hell's End

Chapter 6 - The Spire

The Texan stood on the catwalk, grinning at his teammates. He was carrying a large toolbox in one hand and a wrench in the other. Pyro joyfully ran over to him and raised a hand. Engineer put his toolbox on the ground before giving the pyromaniac a big high five. 

"Nice to see ya, Pyro!"

"Engie!! Have you lost your mind?!" Medic asked incredulously. "You're vandering around zhe facility all by yourself!!"

"Oh, calm down Doc, I can handle myself perfectly fine," the Texan took out his shotgun, the Frontier Justice. "Especially with this beauty in tow."

Sniper suddenly put two and two together as to why Pyro had run off. "Did ya tell Pyro to bring us here and meet with ya?"

"Yeah, I asked Pyro to lead y'all here when I passed by your hideout. Did he run off by himself?"

"What do ya think happened?! It's not like we're covered in blood!" 

Engie let out a long, drawn out sigh. "Told him not to do that...."

All of them decided to ignore the major inconvenience caused by Pyro. The pyromaniac simply didn't know any better.

"Vhy'd you vant us here of all places, anyvay?" 

"Well fellas, I think there's a way for us to get out of this place," Engie replied. "While looking through the facility maps, I found a so-called 'teleporter room'."

That statement caught the mercs' attention. Everyone was listening intently now. Ever since the demons attacked the facility, the entire team had been trapped deep in Hell. Their skills had kept them alive so far, but the demons were endless.

"Vell, vhere is it?" Medic asked, intrigued. 

"I dunno Doc. The map said it's somewhere inside the central tower right there," Engie gestured towards the looming structure before them. "It's probably up in the upper levels. The elevator needs electricity to work so we need to restore facility's power if we want to access the teleporter room."

"Vhat about zhe ozher mercs? Did you tell zhem about zhis?" 

"I did. Heavy's group is trying to find Soldier and Demo. They'll meet us at this tower. Spy is still nowhere to be found." 

"Eh, forget about him. He can stay here and smoke as much as he'd like," Medic remarked distastefully.

Engie kept speaking, ignoring Medic's comment. "Now we wait here for the rest of the team to arrive."

"And how long would that take?" 

Engineer just shrugged and went about setting up his buildings. Medic grumbled under his breath, but decided to go along with the Texan's plan. After all, they didn't have any other mean of escape. Pyro had no idea what was even happening, judging by them staring in awe at the pit of molten magma below. They had no choice but to wait for the others.

***

Sniper was keeping watch while Medic and Engie chatted behind him. Their incessant talking and the sentry's constant beeping were slowly chipping away at his patience. Pyro's rubber ducks didn't help in the slightest.

"So," said Engie while taking swigs of his beer. "Where's your dove, Doc?"

"Vhich one? Archimedes? Oh, I have him right...here!" Medic replied enthusiastically, pulling a large birdcage out from under his blood stained lab coat.

Sniper could hear the dove chirping confusedly as it hopped around its cage. Yet another distracting noise for him to deal with. 

"Ah, Archimedes. When did ya give him those new robotic parts?"

"Ve had a bit of a scuffle with the TFC crew. Don't vorry, he's still the same Archimedes I stole all zhose years ago. I just made him a bit more...robotic."

"That's impressive, Doc. I always knew you were the mad scientist type, but-"

Engie stopped mid sentence as his beer bottle dropped to the metal platform. Confused by the abrupt silence, Sniper turned to face his teammates. His eyes widened as he stared at the sight before him. 

"Bloody hell..."

A massive tentacle bigger than 2Fort had emerged from one of the fleshy growths on the tower. Rows of sharp, bony teeth lined its flesh, and a large jagged claw protruded through the tip. Even though it had no eyes or ears, the beast could still sense them. For a few moments of intense silence, the tentacle loomed over them motionlessly. 

Suddenly, Engie's sentry gun beeped loudly as it spun around to fire at the gigantic tentacle. An explosion rang out as the cluster of rockets detonated on impact. The beast responded by slamming its huge claw into the platform; tearing away a large portion next to the sentry. The metal gave way with an ear piercing screech. 

"Ah, hell!"

Engie quickly got up from his chair and grabbed his shotgun. He ran along the railing; firing wildly with his Frontier Justice. That distracted the tentacle and allowed the sentry to riddle its flesh with rounds for several seconds. The beast's sheer size allowed it to easily shrug off small arms fire. But the creature soon honed onto another target. 

"Oh scheiße!"

Medic barely managed to jump away from the beast's next thrust. The tentacle's claw punctured the central tower with an loud, thunderous CRASH. As it struggled to break free, Pyro ran over torched its sensitive flesh. Its skin turned a hideous shade of black. The beast roared and convulsed violently to try and avoid the flames. However, when it did break free, the pyromaniac was quickly sent flying with a single swipe. 

Sniper winced at the loud crack when Pyro hit the railing. Definitely a few broken bones. He looked through his scope and scanned the tentacle for weak points. Since headshots were off the table, he decided to fire into the jagged hole where the tentacle had originated. Maybe his shots could sever the tentacle, somehow.

The other mercs running around gave Sniper ample time to rapidly fire shot after shot at the beast. Boulder sized chunks of flesh flew out from the hole. A river of blood poured from the opening, running down the dark steel tower. A high pitched shriek came from the tower as the tentacle's movements became more erratic and frenzied. It was like a rabid animal. It repeatedly swept the platform in wide arcs, not aiming for anything in particular. Medic and Pyro quickly retreated away from it.

"Engie!" Medic yelled while healing the battered Pyro. "Get over here!"

"Workin' on it, Doc!"

The Texan was still running around, drawing the beast's attention away from his sentry. The turret repeatedly clicked as it had run out of ammo. Upon hearing Medic, Engie ran towards his sentry and picked it up before running to join his teammates. 

Unfortunately, Engie was still within the tentacle's reach. The Texan was smacked in the torso while carrying his buildings out of harm's way. His toolbox landed near the edge of the platform and he flew right over the railing.

That was one long hiatus, wasn't it? Yeah, that was on me. Sorry for taking half a year to write anything at all. Now that I'm waiting out my summer break, I'll try to write more often. Hopefully, I don't jinx myself this time.