The Thing 3: Assimilation✔️

Chapter 02: Down Among the Dead Men

The stairwell led into another, larger storeroom, also packed with all sorts of crap. Neither man spoke as they ran through towers of crates and shelves and lockers. Overhead, a fierce firefight was in play and they could hear the faint sounds of screaming. For now, Blake just wanted to put some distance between him and the bursting out Thing beasts. He felt naked without a flamethrower. He didn't even have his pistol anymore. As he walked through the storeroom, he patted himself down and found that he had nothing.

Not even a bullet to his name.

"Burrows, where are we?" he asked as they reached the end of the underground storage area.

"We're about to enter a network of tunnels that Gen Inc set up over the past month. They lead all over the region and they were supposed to take the weather problems out of the equation of moving troops, equipment and specimens," Burrows replied.

"Supposed to?"

"Yeah. They lost control of most of the tunnels. There's tons of Thing creatures down here," Burrows replied. He stopped as they came to another door, turned to face Blake, who stopped and took a step back.

"I'm not infected," Burrows said.

"You know that statement is basically a waste of breath, right?"

Burrows sighed. "Yeah, it is. Sorry, force of habit. I, uh...well, let's just say that, where I grew up, a man was his word, and I worked hard on making sure I could be trusted by my word. Kind of tough to make the adjustment. Here."

He set his pistol down on a nearby barrel. Blake realized the thing he'd snagged on the way out was a flamethrower.

"Maybe I should have the flamethrower," Blake said. "I mean, I've had more combat training and experience."

Burrows stared at him for a moment, then he sighed. "All right, look, I'll give it to you on one condition. I've got one test kit on me. You use it, and pass, you get the flamethrower."

"Fine."

He pulled out a test kit from his pocket and set it down next to the pistol. Blake reached out and picked it up, noting that Burrows was covering him with the flamethrower. He did the test as quick as he could. When there was no reaction, Burrows sighed softly, then reached out, grabbed the pistol and replaced it with the flamethrower.

"Fair enough," Burrows said.

"Thanks," Blake replied. "So...what happened to you?"

Burrows nodded towards the door. They moved over to it and opened it up. Beyond it was a huge, open space, a tunnel, Blake realized. It reminded him, as he stepped cautiously out into it, of the tunnel he'd been in earlier, the one that ended in a giant Thing beast and a bomb. He hoped this one turned out a bit better. Overhead and off in the distance, there were a few working lights, most of them were flickering. From what he could see, the tunnel was choked with debris, abandoned vehicles, crates and dead bodies.

"Jesus," Blake muttered.

"Come on," Burrows said, leading him away, off to the right, sticking close to the wall. "After we got dropped off back at Carpenter Station, we stuck around for awhile. Then Whitley sent us out again, gave us another Captain. We ended up getting attacked as soon as we arrived at the other outpost. Knocked us all out with tranq darts. We woke up in holding cells, where they held us until Mac led his breakout. Managed to find North and Weldon again. Dunno what happened to the Captain. What about you? You kill Whitley?"

"It's a long story," Blake replied. "But yeah, MacReady and I did. Whitley burst out, he infected himself like a goddamned moron. Lost a lot of good men hunting that bastard, but in the end, we got him. Now it looks like we've got someone else to kill."