Close Call

Faolan had his back pressed against the wall as he peeked around the corner. A sheen of sweat was on his forehead. In his line of sight there was a mass of bodies that were being mashed together by a bunch of creatures that resembled beetles. But they had the faces of people, albeit twisted and made grotesque due to worms that covered the faces. They moved in and out of the skulls and sliding into the neck entering the carapace of the creature. Not knowing if his current arsenal and amount of ammo would be able to take on just one of these things, he chose to stay hidden and try to find a way around them without getting notice. Inside the mass if bodies he noticed not only men but also women and some children. Their faces distorted in pain from their final moments. Shivering, he inched back and started to walk away from the creatures when his transmitter went off.

"Wolf it's Shark, respond." Came from the transmitter loudly. The silence that followed was deafening as the creatures stopped moving and turned to listen to any sounds that followed. Even Faolan froze, quickly looking around for a fast escape route. His eyes locked onto an air duct and quickly used the wall as a springboard to grab ahold of the grate. Using his momentum, he forced the it to open and slipped inside, resealing it just as one of the beetles turned the corner. Grabbing his transmitter, he debated on cursing Shark for nearly getting him killed. Deciding not to he brought the transmitter to his mouth.

"Wolf here, and damn Shark you almost got me fucking killed. Was that your plan?" he whispered into the transmitter, not wanting to draw any more attention to himself. He also turned down the volume on the transmitter just to be safe.

"Why are you whispering? What do you mean almost got you killed? Why the fuck did your pet wake me by shocking me damn near to death." Her voice came in through the transmitter quietly though he was sure she was yelling into the transmitter.

"Ok, First, I got hostiles right below me. Searching due to your loud voice. Second, we need you up and about in order to protect the civilians." He replied to her.

"Well shit, aren't you up shits creek without a paddle. Now why should I even listen to you? You could decide to just leave us all high and dry. You aren't reliable to us, but you want me to be useful to you." She responded, anger dripping from her voice.

"You are not helping me, your helping them. And you are not in any danger there. Besides my hounds will be getting provisions as well as protecting your perimeter but should something sneak through, the civilians do not have proper protection. That is where you come in. Simple, right?" he asked.

After a few minutes of radio silence and checking through the grate of the duct he saw that another beetle joined the first and were looking around, as if they were sniffing the air. Faolan felt as though his time was running out, and the last thing he wanted was to join the victims in the mass around the corner.

"Fine, I���ll protect them, but not for you but because you are right. They do need protection, if not from these freaks then from you. Cutting transmission." Sighing to himself, Faolan started slowly moving away from the grate, not wanting to make a noise. Once he was a few meters away from the grate, it shot up and a head that was attached to multiple tentacles 'stared' right at him. Freezing in place, he slid his hand to his sidearm slowly. He pulled it out and as he moved backwards, opened fired on the face. It recoiled as if in pain, howling in rage. Suddenly the vent started to shake as if something massive just slammed against it. Now sweating profusely, he moved as fast as he could backwards. Not realizing that a drop was coming. He continued to fire at the face, until he felt himself sliding backwards. The blood left his face as he started to fall down the chute. The sudden feeling of weightlessness hit him hard. He felt his stomach flop inside of him as he fell. He tucked his body in to prevent himself from accidently hurting himself as he fell. After a few minutes he finally hit the bottom, the pain from the landing caused him to black out.

'Initiating Reboot Protocol'

Suddenly Faolans body started glowing, the nanobots in his body started moving repairing the damage from the fall. Once the damage was repaired, the nanobots sent shocks through the body, trying to arouse Faolan. It took a few minutes for his mind to catch up to his body. Once it did, Foalan saw something odd in his line of vision.

'Are you fucking shitting me, a fucking HUD. What is this DOOM or HALO mutherfucker.' He thought to himself. It showed that his body was healthy and showed a small map of the vent he was in but nothing more. Sighing to himself he pressed forward.

**

Shark looked at the group of people that were around her. Shaking her head, she moved towards the armory. Her plan was to arm the civilians that could and would fight. "Look everyone, as you know this is now officially a shitshow. Those who want to live stay here. Those who want to fight come with me. The Wolf will do what he can, if the asswipe stays true to us. He said his god damn pets would get us provisions. But we cannot trust him. So, we will need to do it ourselves. Who will come with me to get some provisions before we run out?"

Not a single person raised their hand, no one wanted to go back out into the nightmare that was their vessel. No one wanted to risk their lives, not when Wolf was already taking care of everything. Seeing this Shark felt defeated. She did not want to, but she had to admit these guys were smart. Even she did not want to go back out into the shitstorm. Sighing to herself she could only sit down and let the Wolf do whatever he planned on doing.