The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 25: Cold Reality

"This is what happened," Green began.

They had made it out of the Nuke Plant and to the last tram out of hell. Or at least Jack damned well hoped it was. Up ahead, the Hangar loomed, though it was a long ride. He didn't like their odds about crossing the surface, given how many monsters were out there, but the tram tunnel was intact and there didn't even seem to be anything inside of it. So now they sat in the tram, listening to Green's and Stratton's tale of blood and death.

"Stratton and I are the only surviving members of Gehenna Squad. We were one of a few squads that, before the incident, were sent regularly into Hell to provide protection for an outpost the UAC had constructed there. We've since learned that they've known about this place for close to a year, and have multiple operations going on. Not just here on the two moons, but elsewhere in the solar system as well. Unfortunately, we have no idea where or what their status is. They made it seem like this was brand new, like we were the first into the region, but it was all BS. Anyway, we'd recently been shifted over to Deimos, but they wouldn't tell us why, so that's where we were, in the Deimos Anomaly, when it all went down."

She stopped talking then. She'd taken off her helmet. Green looked harrowed and haunted, her eyes bloodshot and baggy. She'd produced a pack of cigarettes, Yeheyuans, from somewhere and had given one to Jack when he'd asked for it. The two of them smoked now as everyone listened to her miserable tale.

"We fought. And fought. And fought. They were endless. I watched most of my squad die, most of the staff die. Then one of the Imps got on me and choked me out. I thought I was dead. I woke up a few times, being dragged through the base, but I don't really remember it. The next thing I know, I'm strung up, naked, with about a dozen others. Only four of them were still alive. I managed to get myself unhooked and the others down as well before anything came looking. We found out we were in Command Control and skulked around for awhile. I had Stratton, two Space Marines, and a terrified tech with me.

"After quite awhile of creeping through vents and crawlspaces and the shadows, we managed to get together uniforms and some kind of weapons. We started pulling guerrilla tactics on them, taking the things down wherever we could. They were everywhere in Command Control. We decided to head back to the Anomaly, to see if we could figure out some way of getting these assholes out of here, since it's obvious that's where they came from..."

She trailed off, a miserable look on her face, and took a long pull on the cigarette. She exhaled a huge formless cloud of blue smoke that wreathed her tired face. "It was a total fucking waste. Lost the tech and one of the Marines in the process, only to find out that the gateway wasn't going to be any damned help to us, especially when we realized where we were."

"Wait...where are we?" Jack asked.

"You mean you don't know?" she replied, looking at him evenly.

He thought he did know. He glanced uncomfortably at the others, who stared silently back at him, then returned his gaze to Green and shook his head.

"We're in Hell," she replied simply. "The whole moon got sucked in somehow. I'd recognize that goddamned sky anywhere."

Jack felt his stomach turn over again. He thought that if he had anything left, he might have puked right then. With an effort, he got himself back under control.

"So then what happened?" he managed to ask. He needed something to keep him distracted, and Green's story of survival was fairly compelling.

"Well, we fought our way back through the buildings. We managed to find a bigger arsenal on the way, so we started kicking ass and taking names. We were going to head for the Hangar. Unfortunately, we got bogged down back in the Nuke Plant and ended up losing the other Marine in the process...and then you showed up and saved our asses."