The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 18: The Refueling Base

"You really think it's in there?" Harper asked.

"Only one way to find out," Jack replied.

They stood before the last door in the area, the one leading to the ill-defined room. The storage bays were clear now, the maintenance area was checked, and that fucking hallway was now dealt with. Although, Jack thought, looking down at the plasma rifle now in his hands, he had to admit: it was worth it. Obviously it wouldn't have been if he had died, but that was gambling. He'd lived, come out the other side intact and with a fucking plasma rifle. It felt good in his grasp. But man was it ever still kind of weird-looking.

With that black, accordion-like, long muzzle and the strange, blocky shape of the gun. He at least was a bit more sure of how it worked this time around. Jack was currently warring with himself over whether or not to save it for later or keep it for use now. After that run-in with the Baron, he ultimately decided to hold onto it. Fuck knew what was beyond this next door. On the map, it looked like a triangle, with the door at the top of the shape. It was a weird design and he didn't feel comfortable with it. Then again, he wasn't comfortable with fucking any of this. But there was only one way to face these kinds of problems: head on.

So he hit the button and let the door slide open.

Immediately, he could tell that this place had been reworked by the hellish forces occupying the starport. There was more of that water-stained, time-chewed sandstone making up every surface of the room. Walls slanted away from him to the left and right, towards the bottom of the triangle. The room was empty save for a few corpses, and they were badly chewed, with little more than bitten bone and gnarled gristle in a smear of blood left. There were footprints in that blood, big ones. He felt a chill settle over him as he realized that they belonged to the Demons. And judging by the amount of footprints, there could be a lot of them.

But where were?

The footprints all led towards the rear wall, where...Jack squinted, he could just make out an outline of two broad panels at the back.

"Harper, get back!" Jack snapped.

Too late. Behind them, the door snapped shut, causing Harper to cry out, as he was barely out of it and into the room. Jack didn't bother looking back as he hefted the plasma gun. Ahead of them, those two panels slid up into the ceiling, revealing...

"Oh my God," Harper whispered, awash in sheer terror.

Jack knew exactly how he felt. A dozen Demons were revealed by those rising panels, all of them snarling, sneering, menacing terrors from beyond time and space. Dozens of glowing golden eyes zeroed in on the pair of Marines like starving pigs loosed in an all-you-can-chow-down buffet. They began stampeding towards Jack and Harper, the entire area shaking under the thunderous roar of their many feet.

"FIRE!" Jack screamed at the top of his lungs as he aimed the wide-bored plasma rifle at the Demon horde and opened fire.

The room immediately became awash in a blue-white flickering pulse as the black-gold gun spoke. It was power. Jack laughed loudly as he hosed the onrushing mob of mindless pink fuckers down with plasma. Wherever the energy hit, it caused massive damage. Demons roared and screamed as their flesh blackened and crisped, disintegrating on contact. Several of them staggered within the first few seconds, and as the next wave of plasma energy came at them, they slumped to the floor, the life bleeding out of them.

Jack took down almost all of them with three sweeps of the rifle, and then reigned himself in. This thing was way too useful to piss away all of the ammo here and now. By the time he switched back to his shotgun, there were only three wounded Demons left, and he and Harper took them down pretty easily.