Pray For War

Don't Fear The Reaper

It's a truth that in love and war,
World's collide and hearts get broken

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John, Sam and I took cover behind the safety of an auto door that clicked shut upon John's interference with the touchpad. Closing just fast enough to sever a creature's arm that reached for us. No. Not a creature. A mutated worker. It yowled at the steel that cut through bone and flesh. Blood rimmed the silver metal, trailing to the limb that flailed for a moment.
A louder creak told us the door was locked. Yet those creatures threw themselves at it. Their nails scraping like rats in the walls. This wouldn't hold. Not when one of those bigger demons could damage the steel. A horde would demolish it.

My hands were steady while I passed John objects to jam against it. Heavy objects that would buy us time. A table. A barrel of oil. Anything. But the room was no more than a utility closet. A shed for tools and spare wire.

"Fuck" I murmured to red flashing of my PDA, I could hear the robotic voice even though I had ripped out my earpiece.

'Warning: Critical damage'

"How long do you think we have?" I asked John to take my mind off the pain in my abdomen but he returned my concern with something else. His mouth opened while he positioned a roll of wire against the metal door. I surveyed his hostile movement, listening for it in his speech.
"Long enough for you to explain what the fuck is going on up here",
It was a justified question. And it wasn't that I wanted to hide the truth from them but once they knew there was no going back.
"What's going on Sin?" Sam asked weakly and I reached for the next barrel to barricade the door. My chest constricted, so tightly compressed beneath my black kevlar vest. My second skin wasn't comforting as it had once been.  The armour was moulded to my form to be light and agile. But against my skin, it felt heavy and cold.
The armour wasn't the problem. It was me who didn't fit it. Me who had kept too many secrets for the Corps. Who had lost enough friends. And for it, I was made to be expendable. Sent on another goddamn suicide mission.
I didn't owe the UAC or the Corps a thing. But John...I owed him my life. So I opened my mouth, speaking the words that had been relayed to me.

"The Alpha labs were built over the site where the first UAC scientist found evidence of the only lifeforms known to live on Mars. In the lower levels of the Delta labs was an underground passage where they brought up new DNA and fossils to replicate.", I groaned under the weight of the orange barrel, pressing it snuggly into our barricade with effort. But I stopped to explain the rest.
"After a while, the scientists went insane and killed themselves with the facility's machinery. A special ops team was sent to retrieve the scientists and their research, Only one soldier came out alive. They claimed they had been teleported to hell, where the Satan's servants were spawned and they had seen the end, before jamming a hunting knife through their eye socket and into their brain. GPS tracking in their PDA showed they never left the facility. The UAC lost close to twenty scientists and a tactical squad of eight but that was almost thirteen years ago." I stated simply and reached for the table that John passed me to push against the door. His interest was limited even though he'd asked the question.

"Thirteen  years?" Sam asked stilling John in his step. He met my eyes with a dreading expression.

"The rock slide outside the facility was a result of the collapse of the tunnels. Collateral damage", I spoke clearly and rammed the table firmly against the silver surface. I didn't need to look at them to read their expression. The UAC killed their parents.

"I guess doctor Carmack decided to resume the experimentation"

They were both silent which was usual for Sam but not for John. Not when I had sat on that information.