The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 33: Limbo

This time, Jack was the last one to teleport in.

As he stepped aboard the strange square of red and his vision went green, he was then stepping off of another identical square into a room that was filled with the sounds of battle. Though, he noted as he raised his shotgun, the battle was mostly over. Jennifer, Green, and Stratton had made quick work of the handful of Demons that had apparently been stomping around the room before they'd snapped in. He turned, aimed, and fired, pounding a slug shell into the gaping maw of a Demon coming right towards him.

The back of its head opened up in a plume of dark gore as he cocked the shotgun, turned and fired a second time. This shell tore away a solid chunk of the next Demon's skull, exposing some of its brain and causing it to stumble and growl furiously. He fired a second time into the exposed brain and splattered the dark matter all over the place. As it fell, he turned to check out the rest of the room and found that all the other Demons were dead. As he fed a few more shells into his shotgun, he studied the environment.

It was that same gray, pockmarked stonework that so much of this awful realm seemed to be made of. As he looked around, spying only a single door in the whole room, he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. It had been dully throbbing for a little while now, but the pain was starting to come back. He tried to push it from his mind. He was going to have a wicked scar from that damned ball of green energy the Baron of Hell had smacked him with. He rolled his shoulders uncomfortably, trying to get his head back in the game.

They were so close.

Just this and the Tower.

"We all ready to proceed?" Green called. She had moved over to the door and found a way to open it. The other three joined her and indicated that they were indeed ready to pump a lot more monsters full of bullets.

She opened the door.

On the one hand, Jack thought as he stepped through and secured the area, there weren't any hostiles in the immediate area. So that was good. On the other hand, there was a shitload of acid, a sea of it, immediately in front of them. That was bad. And then there was just the flat out fucking annoying part: he could presently see the teleport out of this place. And they couldn't get to it. Immediately, he began surveying the area, looking for some way out of this situation. They were in a huge rounded room, the walls more of that gray stonework. They were standing on an asphalt path that ran around the perimeter of the room.

It was maybe six feet wide.

Not a lot of room to work with.

Within that asphalt ring was a sea of bubbling green acid, and in the exact center of that acid was an island that held the teleport.

And there was apparently no way to get to it. He could also see three other exits, one directly across from where he stood, then one to the left and one to the right. Jack growled in frustration and took a moment to check over his ammo. His SMG was dead, his pistol had one mag left to it, and his shotgun had enough shells to be full. He still had his plasma rifle. It was full up as well, but he really didn't want to use it.

"Sergeant?" Jack asked.

"Ugh, let's check out these doors. Gotta be a way of getting over there," Green replied. He could tell her temper was getting shorter. He didn't blame her, all their nerves were becoming frayed at this point, so close to the damned end.

Provided it was the end, and not a shitty ending at that.

Jack shook his head, didn't want to think about any of that now. Just focus on the right here, the present. One boot in front of the other. One demon at a time. He held his shotgun at ready as he and the others followed after Green. She'd decided to head left. They moved over to another large, wooden door that slid up into the ceiling when the big red button next to it was pressed. Immediately, they were thrown into the shit again.