The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 05: The Calm Before

                                         -PART TWO: THE NIGHTMARE BEGINS-

Jack felt a cold wave of ominous foreboding slither through him as he stepped into the hangar bay with the others. It was chillingly empty, only a single ship remaining. He couldn't stop seeing the image on the console in the decommissioned communications facility, the red thing with the spikes and the leathery skin and the glowing red eyes. Was that what was waiting for them up on the far side of Phobos? There was something about that image, something that reached into his core and triggered a surge of instinctual, primal fear the same way a spider or a snake did with a lot of people. There was something fundamentally evil about it.

The group hurried across the immense, lonely room, heading for the airlock at the back of the troop transport vessel that was powered up, waiting for them. Jack had been on a lot of combat missions, a lot of them, he'd lost count, and there was always a touch of fear there, and that pre-battle adrenaline as he amped up for what was ahead of him. He was as afraid to die as the next guy, he supposed, but he'd gotten good at handling his fear and his thoughts as he was dumped yet again into the meat grinder.

But this was different.

Now, he just felt a cold, stark terror. This was the terror he had experienced as a child in the darkness of his ramshackle Missouri home, terrified of what might be lurking beneath his bed or in the midnight blackness of his closet, which didn't have a door. He felt like he was being walked to the gallows. Jack swallowed as he got into the airlock to cycle through, forcing himself to maintain control. He was a goddamned Marine and he'd faced down a decade of hellish warfare all over Earth. What was this shit?

But his bravado wasn't doing him much good now. Much as he tried, he couldn't help but continue to feel that slow, frozen dread.

Once he was cycled through the airlock, he got into the main cabin, which was a tight, compact tin tube with rows of chairs along either side. Hardly any room to maneuver. Sighing, he sat down and strapped himself in. Slowly, the others cycled through and took their seats. Blackmore was the last one in. He walked down the aisle and paused. Jenkins had taken up the seat directly across from Jack. Blackmore looked down at him.

"You're in my seat, Private," he said.

Jenkins stared back at him with a kind of 'deer caught in headlights' look, then he stammered out an apology and quickly began to undo the buckles and straps. Blackmore resumed his walk forward. He poked his head into the cockpit and gave the pilot the all-clear. Jenkins re-situated himself and Blackmore came back in and sat directly across from Jack. As the ship began to rumble with takeoff, Blackmore strapped himself in, then fixed Jack with a hard, flinty stare. Jack stared back at him, unsure of what the man wanted.

"All right, Ward, spill the beans," he said.

Everyone was looking at the two of them now.

"Sergeant?" Jack replied, honestly not knowing what the hell he was talking about.

"If you haven't picked up on it yet, I sent you after Ishii for a reason, Ward. I caught hell for it but I don't think they know why I did it."

"They?" Jack replied.

"UAC Command, the administrators that run that place. Something fishy's been going on for a while now and Ishii is one of their top scientists. He was panicking, heading for that comms station for a good reason, I'm sure. What did he say to you?" he asked.