The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 34: Tower of Babel

The first thing Jack saw upon snapping into existence was a corpse.

And he recognized this corpse. "Oh shit," he whispered to no one as he stepped off the pad and took a quick look around. He was in a relatively small, octagonal room, the walls made of gritty, cracked masonry, the floor made of white stone. Though most of it was covered by bodies. There had to be over a dozen of them in here, all of them Space Marines. There were weapons, a lot of them actually, scattered among the bodies.

Although there were four doors out, they were all closed and he couldn't hear anything in the immediate vicinity. He moved back over to the corpse he recognized and crouched, frowning deeply, staring intently. Whatever had happened, Watts had apparently been subjected to fire. Half his skull was blackened, most of his hair singed off. His armor was pitted and blackened in several areas, his helmet missing. He'd died sitting with his back to one of the walls. Jack looked around as another green flash occurred.

This place felt like a bad place. Why were there so many corpses here specifically? "What happened?" Jennifer asked.

"Not sure," Jack replied. "But we seem to be secure."

She stood beside him. "That's Watts," she murmured.

"Yep."

"Goddamnit."

"Yep."

Well, the guy was a hardass survival type, he probably had some very useful supplies on him. It was probably what he would have wanted. It's sure as hell what Jack would want, if he died. For whatever he had on him to go towards someone else's survival. He reached out and opened the first of several compartments on the green security armor the man was wearing. Empty. He moved over to a second one. Oh hey, two magazines of-

Watts's eyes shot open.

"Fuck!" Jack snapped, falling back.

"Who're you?" Watts croaked. There was another flash.

"Oh shit," Green said, immediately moving to join them.

"Ward," Jack replied. "I'm Ward. What happened? We've been following you, Watts. We got your messages."

He laughed weakly, then coughed, spraying Jack's visor with a thin haze of blood. "Wondered if anyone was gonna see those fuckin' things." His face hardened. "Listen," he wheezed, "it's out there." He reached up, weakly gripped Jack's armored shoulder, causing a bolt of pain to shoot through it as the armor rubbed against his burned flesh, but he ignored it. "Got one weakness...I think." They waited, listening.

"Backpack," he whispered, then his hand fell away and his breath left him in one long, wheezing exhalation.

He didn't inhale.

"Fuck," Stratton snapped.

Jack hadn't even realized the final member of their party had joined them, he'd been so focused on Watts.

"What was he saying?" Green asked.

"Something's out there and apparently its weakness is its backpack...whatever that means," Jack replied quietly.

With a sigh, he finished his search. "Gather up whatever you can," he said quietly. "Obviously there's something really nasty out there."

He imagined that it was something they hadn't seen yet. No real clues as to what, but it was what his gut was telling him, and so far, on this adventure, his gut had been pretty dead accurate. Watts didn't have a whole lot. Just some magazines for the SMG and some shotgun shells. Jack began to stand up, then hesitated.