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His head pounded. The world seemed to tilt on its axis, forcing him to lurch to the side, emptying what few contents remained in his stomach.
Somewhere alarms blared in warning, confirming his suspicions. The mission failed. The planet is now doomed. And- and he, Jason, would stay dead.
Roy looked over his shoulder, or what remained left of it, and could see the pool of red liquid under the rubble. The blood blended in with the flashing lights, giving the illusion that everything continued to stay fine, and no one died.
He retched again.
“They’re down here! Do NOT let those traitors getaway! I want their heads on a stake!” Someone screeched from down the hall.
Crap.
With one last look at what should have been the body of his best friend, Roy turned to the only open hallway. Most already collapsed from the explosion, but he memorized the map, they all did, and the last one should at least get him to a pod.
His arm might be missing, his shotgun torn in half, and his right ankle bent the wrong way, but he swore by the power of fucking Superscout that he will make it back. He will not let Jason’s death be for nothing.
Grasping the wall with his remaining arm, Roy made his way down the hallway. Listening for the troopers behind him and anything else that could breathe. Looking back now, he should have never taken this job. Yes, the mission could potentially save the planet, kill the invaders, and make them extremely rich, but now? Nothing was achieved, his friend was dead, and he still has yet to hear back from Kori. All because he couldn’t say no to a stupid job.
His breathing began to labor, the hallway went longer than anticipated. Suddenly, his ankle caught on rubble, sending him careening down to the floor. On his missing arm.
He screamed.
Click, click, click.
The world silenced. Soldiers forgotten. His pain no longer mattered. From the vent above her, he saw it. What should have died. What Jason blew up. What killed his partner. A silver tail slinked out, almost like a snake's tongue, searching for its prey.
He couldn’t move.
He couldn’t breathe.
He needed to get up.
He needed to run.
Before he could consider crawling back, that thing landed in front of him, vent clattering to the floor, echoing down the hall.
It loomed over him, mouth open revealing hundreds of teeth that protected the long tongue extruding towards him, causing him to let out a small whine in fear. Every eye surrounding its horrid face snapped toward him, flashing deadly red from the alarms. The monster moved closer, each step echoed like gunfire throughout the hall. Slowly widening its mouth more, the monster's tongue reached out for Roy, inches away from his foot.
“Over here! I heard something!” shouted from down the hallway.
The monster snapped its head towards the noise, tongue retreating back into its mouth. A trooper rounded the corner, gun raised, but not expecting their target to have changed from an average human to an eight-foot beast with eyes promising death.
Time seemed to slow, both Roy and the soldier frozen, stricken with fear and apprehensive about what the monster would do. And at once, the soldier screamed, letting loose with bullets, hitting anything they deemed a threat.
And the monster? An organism that thrives off destruction? A living species that can and has withstood explosions?
Tore their head off.
And left.
Roy doesn’t know how long he laid there, seconds, minutes, and maybe he would have stayed until he bled out. But he has a job to finish, no matter the failures.
Rising slowly, he winced, hell beast or not, falling had damaged his ankle to the point of stars appearing in his vision when pressurized. As much as he would enjoy taking the opportunity to patch what little up he could, that trooper was not alone. He will continue to get hunted throughout this death sentence of a ship unless he can make it to a pod. Roy will not write off the beast just yet, he doubts it got bored and left. It will be back, and he can only fulfill the role of helpless prey unless he finds another ten pounds of dynamite lying around, Jason or not he is not afraid to use it.
Jason, I hope the afterlife is kinder, anything is better than this shit.
Alarms still blaring, flashing red to black, Roy makes his way down the winding tunnel and finally finds his escape.
It doesn’t open.
“Of course. Of course, the only way home doesn’t have power!” He shouted, his voice ringing over the alarms. He leaned against the door, breathing heavily from using energy he did not have, “At what point does a mission become a death sentence?” he muttered hopelessly into the door.
“Find them! Now!” His head snapped up, recognizing the enemies closing the gap.
“Fuck alright. It's all fine. I can jumpstart a pod, it can't be too different than Kori’s ship." He took a deep breath, puHed off the door, and started to work his way through the panel. All he needed was to get in, lock the door, then leave. The voices grew closer, his imaginary timer ticked closer to his death. Missing an arm did not help.
I am about to blow this chum bucket like Megamind did to Metro Man.
Hiss.
The doors opened.
Not fully but enough for Roy to fit through, he felt it first, the attention of a predator on her. Judging him for the little meat he is, a bead of sweat sliding down his neck. It was not a promise of capturing, but a promise of a slow painful death.
Click, click, click.
He scrambled the rest of the way through the door. The thump of the monster dropping rang out, echoing inside his mind. Roy glanced back and saw it staring at her, almost mocking his lousy attempt at departure. Ignoring the threat, he got to work on the door, it needed to close now. Soldiers made their way through the chamber entrance, embarrassingly too late. Almost like deja vu, the monster and soldiers meet again, one party frozen from shock.
Instantly gunfire goes off, grenades are thrown, and the monster does not waste a second. It pounces, ripping limbs, tearing off torsos with its teeth. Roy uses the blood bath to his advantage. The pod shudders, lighting up like a Christmas tree, and he reboots the systems that originally should have never turned off.
The monster pauses, mid-crush of a soldier's skull, and recognizes its original target's motives. Quickly closing the gap between the floor and the soldier's head, the monster slashes its tongue out to obtain Roy. But, the power was back.
Roy slammed his remaining hand into the side button, closing the doors. The monster's tongue gets caught halfway falling to writhe on the metal pod floor. Through the walls, Roy can hear the monster scream, shaking the walls surrounding them. Without wasting time he sets a course for home. He held his breath waiting for the pod to detach and once it did he was gone. Pulling back from the console he turns to the door, watching the monster, left surrounded by a soldier's guts and its own dripping blood, become a small dot in the distance.
Turning back to the stars in front of him, he sat down in the pilot's chair. Letting out a breath of air, Roy passes out with one final thought.
Goodbye, Jason.