chapter 14 - bonfire

I wipe the blood from my nose as I look for the medpack, I see the last injector over to the side, I go to get it, but notice a straggler from the flood, I take out my remaining pistol, and shoot at the flood that's left behind. The covenant on the other hand continue to retreat, but the flood finally pushed into their ranks

The grunts throw what grenades they can as the elites fire as quickly as possible. The leader looks at me in the distance struggling towards the med pack, and orders his men to fully retreat. They keep shooting as the grunts start running away, the flood pounce on those closest to them. I run out of ammo as I killed the one near me, my breath cut short for a second as my grip weaken, and I drop my pistol. I fall down as I trip trying to breath, but I don't know what I tripped on, once again I'm on the floor crawling. Tears drip down my face, as I struggle again, this is what I fear, to be infected, and turned by the flood. seeing that the rest of the flood are attacking the covenant, the leader looks one last time at me, and shakes his head, he focuses on the flood before them, as they're finally out of my view.

I reach the injector, and use the last one, the cooling sensation made me nauseous, but I can breath again, I felt like I was having a heart attack, but with the adrenaline, I move to grab my things. They slip out of my grip, but I kept grabbing them as my blood made them slippery, I wipe my hands as I put what I could into my backpack, and reload the sniper, I holster my pistols, and head down the ramp. Feeling dizzy, I try to distract myself while slowly making my way through the long corridor, I never saw Sylvie, so she must have hidden from the covenant.

I don't see any flood in the corridor as they're still going after the covenant, but once I reached the other room, I noticed more flood as well as the bloated ones looking away. I slowly make my way through the side as they're unaware of me, thinking I was through I hear a loud rupture as I saw through the glass that one of the flood creatures had a needler. it shot it, and caused a reaction that set the others off. I hurried away as I heard the little ones squirming around, I had to make gasps of air to breath as I rushed through, my body still healing through the injectors effects. The door opened as I rushed in, my heart beating in my ears, once it closed, I looked back, I didn't see the little ones, but I kept pushing through anyways.

I go through the door as everything starts to get hazy, the cold air hitting me in my face, I struggle to see, but I don't notice any flood ahead of me. I keep rushing, as I slow down, banshees in the air. they notice me, and start heading to my direction, only to turn away, surprising me. I think of the leader of the elites, he likely called them off of me, but I don't know. I start rushing again before they can change their minds, I rush through into the next entrance, I stop in my tracks as the covenant are there waiting for me. the covenant laugh at my reaction, "our leader says hello human, he is surprised your alive." I look at them, but in a way I'm relieved they haven't killed me, "there's a bunch of small parasites and flood forms in the next room after the corridor."

The elites look at me in surprise, and the one in charge of the group nods at my words, "I'll pass him your message human, rest, you look like you'll die at any moment. You truly have shown us your a capable warrior, and we still have to meet the demon before anything is decided." I look at the elite, his words still worry me, but I can't see clearly anymore.

in a way, I feel relieved, but I also feel lightheaded, it's getting harder to keep my eyes open. I start to sit down, as I lose control, and fall to the floor. it's cold, but I feel hot, I want to take off my clothes, but I cant. I look at the ceiling as my eyes begin to close, I just want to rest a little, just a little....

.....

The elites look at the human in surprise when he first came in, he's covered in blood from head to toe, his lips a pale blue, smudged in red from the blood he lost.

They send a live video to their leader, he tells them to wait for his reply. after a while, their leader patches them in to the demon, some of them grunt as they're uncomfortable, the demon killed many of them so they're reaction is normal. The demon looks at them, and a transparent lady shows up in their video. she looks at them and asks, "how long has he been like that?" Their leader chimes in to reply, "he has barely fallen, he was wounded during his fight with the parasites. He has shown great ability as a warrior" she glances once more to the man on the floor, "we're sending men to you now, he's dying, he needs warmth, as well as blood. scan his body, we know you have an understanding of human anatomy, we need to see what else is wrong with him." Their leader nods, "take care of the human, we will clear the parasite in the next room, and bring someone to scan his body, demon, we need to talk about what to do next" The blue lady next to the demon agrees, "we definitely do, we need to set up a private feed". Their leader nods.

Right then, the feed cuts off for the rest of them, they look at each other, they don't have anything to warm his body. One of them asks if they should burn the bodies of the parasite near the human, and seeing no other choice, the rest agree. They grab the corpses, and pile them nearby, pelting them with plasma until the fat in the flesh catch on fire. They move the human a little closer, as the elites move away from the smell.