The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 14: Military Precision

"Hey, how are you holding up?" Jack asked as he sat down next to Jenkins. They'd been in the tram for a few moments now, Blackmore silently assuming the role of conductor once more and driving them to the Military Base now. It was, hopefully, the last stop before they hit the Phobos Anomaly, wiped it out and got the hell off this moon.

"Stomach hurts like shit and I'm not sure but I might've pissed myself once or twice so far. Other than that, I'm fine," Jenkins replied.

Jack laughed. He remembered first meeting the kid. His assessment seemed to have not been entirely correct. Jenkins had fought well and hard, and hadn't folded under the pressure. Well, not since the beginning at least. And he was still going, even through all this shit and with a gutshot. "What about you?" Jenkins asked.

"I'm good...you know, all things considered," Jack replied. "This wasn't exactly what I was expecting when I got up here."

"Yeah, definitely," Jenkins muttered. "I wonder how much they knew."

"Who?"

"The people who sent us here. I mean, this is like an exile assignment. Did they all send us here just because they didn't want to deal with us anymore...or because they knew something like this was going to happen?"

Jack considered it. He did wonder that. "I can't imagine the UAC let the people back on Earth in on much. Probably the guys who sent us here knew that something was up, something dangerous, and they were hoping that maybe we'd get offed up here one way or the other. I can't imagine anyone was expecting this," he replied.

"I guess so."

"Guys, I think we have a problem," Jennifer said.

Jack turned to face her.

"Yeah...been getting a little worried about that myself," Blackmore replied from the front of the tram.

He immediately saw the problem. Outside the glass tunnel, in a lot of directions, he could see the awful burning sigils of the Lost Souls and the looming dark shapes of the gun-toting zombies in their suits, which were apparently atmospherically sealed. Jack felt his heart begin to pound harder in his chest, straining against his ribcage. There were a lot of them out there. And...they seemed to be taking interest in the tram.

"Oh shit..." he whispered.

Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, a rocket suddenly streaked from its dark metal nest somewhere off from the right and slammed into the glass tunnel about twenty feet ahead of them. The glass cracked, then shattered, and then huge pieces of the framework fell across the tracks. Blackmore snapped out a curse as he hit the emergency brakes. Jack continued watching in horror as he saw the floor of the tunnel open up and collapse below. A dark hole cut off access to the rest of the tunnel. He grunted as he was thrown from his seat.

All of this happened in the span of just a few seconds.

"Suit up! Get ready to fight!" Blackmore called as he left the front compartment. "We're heading back to the surface. We're going to get alongside the exterior tunnel wall and fight our way to the auxiliary airlock. Ready?!"

"Ready!" the three of them shouted back as they regained their feet and readied their weapons.

"Let's do it!"

Blackmore opened the door and leaped out into the atmospherically compromised tunnel. The oxygen inside of the tram was sucked out, making it that much easier to leave the once safe vehicle. Jack was out next, hitting the metal deckplates beyond, pistol in hand. His shotgun was still dry and he didn't want to use up his SMG. Chances were they weren't going to be doing much fighting out here anyway, just running.