Never Dead: Beyond Nightmares

XX

Log 14:

Bridge...

Gavin Borne...

August 13, 2413...

"Alright, everyone! We've got to make sure that none of those things are getting through that door!" Gavin called out to the rest of the crew on the bridge. It had only been a few minutes since the initial signs of violence, before those... creatures showed up on the security cameras.

"Lurkers. They're called Lurkers," Fredrick Borne said. Gavin was aware of the hallucination, and ignored it.

"How long will the doors hold?" Gavin asked Nicolas, who was trying to barricade the door with a few heavy objects.

"Well, the Lurkers won't be kept out for very long. These doors weren't built with holding off attackers in mind," the man replied. "But maybe if the Marines get back soon, they'll be able to force their way through."

It had been bad intuition to let all of the Earth Alliance Elites leave the bridge, especially when the Marines were in the morgue. 'Jacob needs to be supervised,' they had said. Ugh... "Lurkers? Where did you get 'Lurkers' from?"

"Well, they're dead... and they're clearly made of humans. Dead, lurking. Lurkers," Nick responded as he grabbed a nearby power block and set it up in front of the door, which barely made a difference.

"That's ridiculous! Why not just settle for 'zombie'?"

"Sir! We've got an unknown contact that just got done shocking out! Unknown if they're hostile or friendly! Wait... Three contacts!" a communications officer yelled out to the Captain.

"Goddamn it! Could this situation get any worse? Hopefully they're some Earth Alliance reinforcements; those damned... things are getting through!" Gavin yelled in anger. He began pacing. But what if they aren't? What if they're part of those damn anarchists going around? ... I'd better get over to one of the escape pods, just in case.

Suddenly, the pounding on the door stopped and was replaced with a louder, more metal-on-metal pounding. "Let us in! They're gone, but only momentarily! Hurry!" It was Jack Anderson. Simply by hearing another human voice, the crew moved to push the piles of objects away from the door to let the Captain through so he could unlock the door to the outside hallways.

When the door indicator's color changed from orange to cyan, it was only a second before it disappeared and the Marines charged through the opening doors, pulse rifles at their sides. They, in turn, helped move things back into position so that the creatures couldn't get through.

Gavin noticed a glare coming from the IMC Sergeant. Without saying a thing, he seemed to be accusing the Captain of something.

"I don't trust the look on his face," Fredrick said, sounding slightly worried. Gavin nodded.

One of the Marines broke down into tears and collapsed into the fetal position. Jack wasn't amused. He kicked the Marine right between the eyes with the metal boots that were regulation for marines to wear. "Get the hell up, soldier! You're a Marine; you're trained to deal with this shit!"

"But, sir! We—we aren't trained to deal with goddamn zombies! And those things got Mario and John! And Jenkins! They got Jenkins!" the Marine cried out as he continued to sob.

"And you're just going to break down in front of all of these bridge jockeys? Huh?" He slapped the Marine on the back of the head. "Get a goddamn grip!" Jack turned his attention to the Captain. "You..."

"Sergeant—"

"Don't you talk to me, you coward!" He raised his rifle to meet Gavin. "You thought you could get away with it, eh? You thought you could just kill someone and get away with it, huh?"

"What are you talking about?" Nicholas Hill asked as he realized what was going on.

"You remember Jason James? We found his murderer," Jack said with a glare on his face toward the Captain. "And you almost got away with it, too."

"What? That's absurd! What on Earth makes you think that I would murder... anyone, let alone the first mate?" Gavin reasoned, trying to prove his innocence with reason.

"Gavin Borne, you are being placed under military arrest by order of the Interstellar Marine Corps. Cease and desist." Jack ordered the Captain to put his hands up, which he did. Jack slapped the sobbing Marine on the back of the head. "Handcuffs. Now."

The Marine stood up and went over to the Captain, clipping handcuffs onto the wrists of the man. The Captain sighed. He was innocent, and he knew it, despite what the man with a gun claimed. Still, though. He had a gun. And as long as there was a gun around, Gavin would be much safer than he would be without one. "There. Are you happy now?" Gavin sighed in annoyance and prepared to sit down in a nearby chair.

He was, instead, knocked down with a punch from Sergeant Anderson. The marine turned around. "Alright, I'm taking over the ship. Martial law. Now what's gone on in the past few minutes that I'm not aware of?"

"Well, three ships have appeared within this planet's general vicinity. Unidentified." Nicholas agreed that it was about time for a new Captain, not the incompetent one that they currently had.

"Have they made any attempt to contact the Tyr?"

"Negative. Also... the Earth Alliance Special Forces team down planetside shortly before the outbreak started."

Jack flinched at that. Dak Middleton and his men were good soldiers. He needed them up on the Tyr at all costs. "Can we set up communications with them from here?"

The Comm. Officer from before spoke up, "My computer can set up long distance communications to PDT's. There's one down on Tyr, so that Greg can communicate with the Captain's PDT."

"You think I give a damn? Get off the computer; I need to make a call." Jack sat at the computer and pressed a few buttons before a new screen opened up, with several new names appearing. Greg Payton. That was the Head Mining Official; it would make sense to contact him. He pressed the name, and a video-link opened up. He immediately turned away. Before him was the face of Payton, but it was split vertically into two. There was a shocked expression on each half. "Goddamn it... Looks like they were less lucky than the rest of us..."

He closed the link and tried to open a different link. When it opened, he came very close to having a heart attack. The link opened to show one of the unusual creatures mid-roar. He immediately closed the link and tried to slow his breathing.

Several new names appeared on the list of links. Dak Middleton, George Seabrook, Danni Weber... Good enough. He clicked on Dak's name. It opened to the soldier, in full gear, laughing in glee and shooting his gun around, murdering anything that got in his way. "Dak?"

"Ha ha ha! Hello, Sergeant! What can I help you with?" he asked with a laugh. "God, I haven't had this much fun in ages!"

"Um... right, then. I need you to return back to the ship. Now," Jack said with a sigh. He didn't like asking for help, it made him feel... inferior, somehow.

"No can do, Sarge. These things destroyed my shuttle, killed Izzy along with it," Dak replied before reloading his gun and opening fire again.

"Her name was Danni, sir!" an anonymous voice yelled out, probably another Spec-Op soldier.

"Whatever. We can't return now. Maybe you feel like joining us? There's a lot less—is that a god damned sandstorm!"

"Oh, right. The sand storm. The captain warned us about that." Jack personally hit himself for forgetting about that. "We might need to actually need to join you. Three unidentified ships have entered the airspace around Tyr."

"Wonderful. Hope you're hungry, dinner's almost done, sweetie!" the insane man yelled before firing his grenade launcher at some unidentified target. "Ha ha ha! See you soon!" he yelled before closing the link.

Jack sighed and prepared his gun. The man was probably right. The ships were almost positively hostile. Why else wouldn't they have opened communications with the Jericho. "Ready up, Marines. We're going to have to make a run for the shuttle bay. Anyone who wants to live should probably also do so." Jack observed the shocked reactions from most of the crew. They probably wouldn't make it. He readied his gun. Those things killed my men. That shit ain't gonna fly with me.

He took a look at the Captain, who—"Where the hell is the Captain? No!" He ran to where the escape pods were. Gavin, who had his hands free now, saluted before he jettisoned his pod, apparently having already released all the others. "No! Who was responsible for this? Who let the Captain go?"

The Marine who had broken down earlier raised his hand shamefully. "I did, sir." He couldn't even apologize before he was shot in the unprotected head.

"Piece of shit." He spit on the dead body. "Alright, we're going to need to make a run. A just plain run. Don't stop for anything. Don't try to be a hero if there's anyone alive. My men will cover our exit, but if their lives are in any more immediate danger than they will be normally, don't expect them to help." He stood in front of the door, and prepared to wave his hand in front of the OPEN panel, having no one locked it prior.

When the door opened, a creature with scythes bursting out of its collarbones appeared before him, only there for a second before Jack shot it in the head and shoved it out of the way. He charged out, opening fire in front of him and tackling whatever got in his way. Behind him, the Marines covered both the right and left sides of the hallway, shoving the creatures that were made of the crew out of the way of the bridge's crew and them, respectively. It was like this for what seemed like hours, with a few members dying on the way.

Suddenly, the ship's alarms burst on. "Attention, crew. Large projectile inbound. Nuclear-based... confirmed. Impact within five minutes. Evacuate immediately." Jack looked in horror at the PA system that alerted him to this. He started running faster, packing down his gun and now just tackling anything that got in his way out of his way.

Soon, they made it to the shuttle bay. Four shuttles remained. Jack turned around and ordered to his squad, "Split up into the shuttles! Make sure those bastards don't get off the Jericho!" He turned around and prepared to fight off the creatures, knowing that as Sergeant, it was his duty to ensure the squad's survival. The remaining team ran past, and the creatures followed. They didn't get far before being fired upon.

Jack found that aiming for the limbs did more damage to them than body- and head-shots, so he aimed for the scythe-arms instead of the normal policy. Grenades didn't do much to the crowds. "Sir! Fall back now!" one of his Marines ordered. He didn't need to be told twice. He turned and ran for the nearest shuttle. The creatures mainly went after the others, and Jack gunned down any that came close to his.

"Necessary thrust for liftoff in ten seconds," the piloting Marine reported through radio. Ten seconds? It's gonna be the longest ten seconds of my life... Jack continued to fire and began panicking. He didn't have very much ammo left. He pulled out his Seeker Rifle and began to take shots. One got through, and killed two of the bridge's crew, before Jack turned around and fired, ripping off both limbs and the head. The shot didn't stop there, though. It continued, and decapitated Nicolas Hill, the acting first mate. He paused once he realized what he had done before turning and continuing to fire.

He heard a scream of terror, and turned toward the source. The furthest shuttle was being overrun by the creatures. His men were being cut down as he could only watch.

"There we go! Liftoff initiated!" The shuttle's doors closed, and the ship began lifting off.

Jack sat down as he felt the gravity change. He sighed. But then came the explosion. Even in space, he could hear the nuke detonate. He facepalmed.

The Jericho was no more.

***