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The Biomass is a highly cancerous, mutagenic disease. An infected individual has their DNA destabilized, allowing the organism to manipulate it's biomatter in ways not intended. Much of the time, this leads to the commonly seen examples, brain dead masses of mutated animals. In rare cases, however, the infected and the disease achieve true symbiosis, resulting in greatly increased abilities, as seen in James.

Three months on the road, three months of constant trial and a couple of thousand miles behind me. Eirren, Nero, Nat, Zack, Mya Shannon, James, Benjamin and then Alex. We knew each other in a past life, briefly, before nuclear fire burnt the skies to ash. Rhino Crew was new, I wondered what their stories were, what it was that had brought them together. Regardless, we acted as one team now, and possibly would continue to do so for the foreseeable future. For Eirren, Nat, Nero and myself, we were here again, entering the corpse of a city stiff in the murderous embrace of radiation and the twisted forms of life that the war had left behind. There was so much more than just our lives riding on this. The lives of those at Dock 41 all depended on nothing short of our complete success here. If we failed, Evan and his animals would all fry, becoming just a few more tally marks on the scoreboard of all those the war had claimed. Who knew what would happen to those who survived us, I wasn't sure what Anthony's plan of action was if he died on this mission, but I imagine Skeve would likely just assume command of Rhino, who knew where they would head after that. I would like to say, after everything we had been through, we were prepared for anything. In the back of my mind, I knew that was bullshit. We had no clue what we were heading into, and we knew it. Somewhere in it's dead, irradiated heart, the savior of an entire community was lurking, and we weren't leaving without it.

The ride to the Greenville MRC was done in mostly silence, especially as we drew closer to the city limits. The sky began to darken and a radiation storm began to set in. Nero and Mya were camped out under the lead blanket in the back of the Sequoia, as mostly a safety precaution. According to Evan, Mech Spec rides were insulated up to about a thousand rads a second of radiation, nothing that would protect anyone besides Nat, Ben and James from the hell that Greenville was supposed to be. Radiation storms could be compared to thunder storms, except instead of rain, you got radiation, and a whole lot of it. If I said that the thunder and lightning was far stronger than any thunderstorm I had experienced, well, I don't think it would be entirely accurate. The lightning was viscous, growing far worse the closer we drew to Greenville, the thunder more so, threatening to break the windows out of the panes of our Tundras. Nerves I thought I had squashed, and fears of not being up to the task at hand I thought I had ended when I put my boots on Arctic ice, were beginning to well up. About ten miles from the Greenville city limits, Truck flashed his turn signal into an abandoned Bucees, pulling ,to a stop underneath the covered area.

"Radiation's gonna be coming on a whole lot stronger from here on out. Arien, just you, James, Eirren and me from here."

"Like hell it is", Nat said, "Ben and I are coming with."

"No, we need you guys to sit back in case something happens, that way you can come pull us out. If we aren't back in three hours, do whatever you have to do to find the medications."

"You ain't my CO", Nat said, "I give you two hours, then we'll find you and drag you back with extreme prejudice."

"Two hours?", Truck protested, "that isn't long enough!"

"Best we can do", Ben insisted, "Take it or leave it."

"Fine, two hours, MRC shouldn't be difficult to get to, from there...well, I guess that's a bridge we'll cross once we come to it", Truck suggested.

"I can get us down to where the last known team went missing", I stated, "we'll have to go through the Biomass, and according to Evan's intelligence, they're getting pretty big down there."

"Because why not?", James asked, "no matter, I always love the chance to get some kills in. Let's fuck some shit up."

"Let's fuck shit up is my legal middle name", Truck joked, "let's get evil. Are we going in my truck or yours?"

"We'll take mine", I said, "that way your team won't be stuck in an unfamiliar ride."

"Okay", Truck said. At that point, he cut his mic. Through his back window, he turned to Tess, and flashed two fingers. She nodded and leaned in, saying something in his ear. Truck looked shocked, then nodded and hugged her tightly, before exiting his vehicle and coming to join us.

"Let's get this show on the road", he said hopping into the rear passengers seat, a Kalashnikov USA KS-12T in his hands.

"Nice shotgun", James noted as I put the Tundra in drive.

"My baby", Truck said, "you don't wanna step in front of a gun in general, but definitely not this one. Made it a machine gun after the bombs fell, this fucker get's it on!"

"They're nice pieces for sure", James noted, "my best friend Taylor had one. Before he passed away, his wasn't full auto, but he got us out of so much trouble with his."

"What happened to him?", Truck asked.

"He died in my arms. Radiation poisoning", James fibbed, "we were trying to recover some ingredients to cook some makeshift rad drugs from a local pharmacy, but the Scourged chased us out. Had to be several hundred of them there. I tried four times to go back, would have tried a fifth, couldn't let him go, not alone."

Eirren and I exchanged glances, Truck put his hand on James shoulder, "sounds like he was lucky to have you as a friend. I'm sorry, really, truly sorry. But with any luck, we'll keep that from happening to a lot of other animals tonight."

"Eirren, how far is the MRC from here", I asked.

She consulted the map Evan had given us, "Looks like it's about fifteen miles. You can stay on this road almost all the way there, and it looks like we take an exit ramp to reach it with the final quarter mile. From the pictures and the map, doesn't look like it'll be easy to miss."

"Cool, simple, for now at least."

Eirren stuffed the map back into her plate carrier, "did you ever think we'd end up here?"

"What do you mean?", James asked.

"Heading to war yet again", She said, "I mean, when Arien pulled those rapists off me, I sure didn't expect to be going to war against a paramilitary company just to beable to pass through a city."

James shook his head, "Nah, never occurred to me. We're here now, let's just focus on the mission and see if we can wrap up this trip in one piece, hopefully, we all live to see the final chapter of the mess this is shaping up to be."

"You know this isn't it right?", I asked, "we're going to have to move on Shadow Company before we have any hope of getting out of this city. This is just step one."

"Hey, long as I get that air strip, I've still got almost a full combat load. I'll make one or two passes and then all we have to do is round up the survivors. Now, having said that, this is the worst fuckin' apocalypse ever", Anthony groaned, "Got these rotten things gathering up all of the dead shit they can find. Those rabid bastards biting and attacking anything that breathes, the walking biohazards that are the Scourged, and now psychotic mercenaries boiling animals for refusing to follow unlawful orders. I miss the simple days."

"What simple days?", Eirren asked.

"When all had to worry about was staying dry", he stated flatly, "I've spent the bulk of the last few years in Russia, almost since the bombs fell. Alex, my Pilot, grew up in an orphanage in a really remote area near the northern coast line of the country. He always talked about how life might have been a bit hard, but it was rewarding. Apparently the animals that ran the place taught all the kids to be self sufficient, so they had clean water, fresh food, good defenses and a well maintained campus. With the air force base next door being the Presidents secret fall back location, Makarovich had us stationed there and we were reporting to him directly. Sure, the plane can get a bit cold in the winter, but other than that, we were warm, dry, protected and fed."

"What made you come back to America?", I asked.

"President Makarovich sent us out on a long range recon mission", Anthony said, "survey run, check and see how bad the damage in the US, and some other major Russian cities is", he paused, shook his head, "He's not gonna be happy when I hand in my report."

"What happened to Putin?", Eirren asked.

"Makarovich won't say", Anthony stated, "government matters I'm assuming. Money is on the idea radiation got to him before they could get out of Moscow."

"So you're still active duty with the Russian military then?", I asked.

"Yep", Anthony said, "we'll probably return to Russia when this is all over. Skeve and I are gonna collect our parents from Fort Stockton, then head home."

"Are you planing to leave as soon as we're done here?", Eirren asked.

"Not sure yet", Anthony said, "we're authorized to return and leave as we deem necessary, so long as we maintain radio contact with the base. We checked in and alerted Makarovich right after you hailed us about the storm, so he's expecting us to be radio silent for a least a while."

"Anthony, you've done a lot for us already, and given you're choosing to come with us to this dead zone, I don't feel like I have the right to ask you this...."

He stopped me mid sentence, "Arien, by all means. Ask."

"Our final stop is Brazoria. My hometown. I have no idea what to expect, so, if it turns out to be uninhabitable. Would your animals back in Russia have us?"

Eirren stared daggers at me.

"Eirren, you know that the South American Empire tried to invade the US through Mexico, I was four hours from the border. You know as well as I do that attempt was a war in and of itself."

"Don't talk like that!", she hissed, "it'll be fine!"

"And what if it isn't?", I asked, "We're not raising a child in a toxic desert. Period."

"What happened to pitching a tent and rebuilding from scratch?", Eirren asked.

"If I may?", Truck interjected.

Eirren looked at him, I turned my focus back to the road.

"Based on what I've seen so far", Truck said, "I doubt that'll be much of an issue. However, if your destination proves to be unlivable, I would be more than happy to have you guys as Condor Ground permanently. We've done great work together so far. All are welcome back home, Makarovich was pretty clear about that."

Okay, at least we had a fall back plan. As we drew closer to Greenville, the radiation storm came on stronger, so to did the thunder and lightning. Eirren and I had long since pulled radiation suit hoods over our heads, while James and Truck were still staring out the windows. The modified Geiger counters that had a lowest reading of one Terrarad a second had already begun to chirp, and were growing louder as we neared Greenville.

"Tak chto eto dolzhno byt' to, chto eto pokhozhe na ... vvodu v Novochekamensk. Chto na zemle otpravila etu vspyshku? YA dumayu?", Truck mumbled to himself.

"Are you speaking Russian back there?", Eirren asked.

"Yeah...sorry. It's become a force of habit lately", he explained, "we all speak Russian to each other on the plane, and meeting ya'll is the first time I've really spoken any English since the nukes."

"Surprised you still speak it well", Eirren noted.

"Yeah. I am too", he shrugged.

The rest of the drive to Greenville was done in almost complete silence, except for some cursing when the thunder would catch us off guard. Eirren instructed me after several minutes of quiet driving to take an off ramp, and before long, we were in the parking lot of the MRC, which the Geiger was already not fond of.

"Good lord almighty", Eirren gulped, she made the sign of the cross as she stared unblinking at the Geiger strapped to the hood of my Tundra, "that's a lot of radiation."

"We're still good inside the truck", Anthony said, "My Geiger is quiet."

"Guess this Mech shit is better than Evan thought it was", I breathed a sigh of relief. In truth, I hadn't even thought about what the insulation might have been rated for. It made me feel better knowing that the radiation vulnerable among us were safe.

"Okay", Eirren took a deep breath, zipping up her suit, "are we really ready for this?"

"No", James sighed, tightening his grip on the Shambler, "but were we ever ready for this?"

"Hope these big ass shotguns perform for how heavy they are", Eirren thought aloud.

"And that we can keep them on target", I mused, stepping out of the Tundra, upon which I was shown just how much it was truly sparing me from the elements. The radiation just outside of my door was nearly 110 Terrarads a second. The smell of burnt metal, flesh, lava flows and death penetrated even through the suit's respirator and radioactive ash fell like burning snow. Greenville, except for the sound of the thunder overhead, was dead. There was no way anything could survive here, a thought that even James seemed to share.

"Nope. Mask!"

James set the Shambler against the truck and then let his Biomass cover him. Picking the shotgun back up, it was strange that it looked proportional to his mass, like it was designed just for them.

"There...stings less now", James said, "Thanks buddy."

"It is pleasant out", Prysm noted, he seemed to be fond of the high level of radiation, "why do we come to this place master? It is not safe for our friends."

"We're here to help others Prysm", James noted, "that's what we do."

"How may I help?", Prysm asked.

"By watching our backs", I stated, consulting the map of the MRC Evan had given me.

"Where we going from here?", Anthony asked, "the less time my non reptilian ass has to spend in this shit hole, the better.

I could hear the uneasiness in his voice, Eirren obviously did too.

"You okay there?", Eirren asked,

"No I am not okay", he stated, "last time I went to a place like this I almost died."

"That Novochekamensk place?", James asked.

He nodded, "yeah...Greenville isn't as bad, not by a long shot, radiation there is strong enough in some places to peel the brick off of buildings."

Examining the map of the MRC more closely, it looked like the entrance into the MRC's vault was in the bottom level of the subbasement. The shading on the notes suggested the radiation in the basement could be as high as a thousand Terrarads a second based on the levels of radiation emitted by the crater that was directly behind this building. The spooky thing was that none of the windows were even broken, and the bomb had fallen less than a hundred feet from it.

"Vault with the medicine is in the basement, could be as much as a thousand Terrarads a second behind the door. Ren and his team never even made it that far", I sighed aloud, "I dunno how the fuck I'm gonna pull this one off."

"Allow us", Prysm suggested.

"I'm the volunteer here", I stated stuffing the map back into my pocket, "if anyone is doing this, it's going to be me."

"Don't be a hero Arien", Anthony said, "I don't wanna have to tell that puppy of yours you got cooked like a TV dinner."

"Prysm and I can do it Arien", James said, "it's really not safe for you guys to even be out here. Just give me the map, and we'll go in and get the meds."

"Yeah, and what if the Biomass down there gets the better of you and Prysm?", I asked.

"It will do no such thing. We will eat it", Prysm said.

"And if it bites back?", I asked, "You saw the tape Prysm. You saw what it did to that team."

"They did not have one of us", Prysm stated, "they did not have friend."

"No one plays hero", Eirren said, "this shouldn't even be a question, we do this together. We came here together, we're gonna fucking do this together. You boys got me? We move as one, act as one, kill as one."

James and I exchanged glances, then looked at Anthony.

"Don't look at me, I'm just along because I'm hoping to get some Saiga kills in."

"Okay", I sighed, clutching my flamethrower tightly, "let's work for a living."

"We will take point", Prysm said, "may we have the map?"

I handed it over. They opened it, studied it for a few moments and then closed it, handing it back.

"This way", Prysm said, starting towards the building.

"Here we go", Truck gulped, letting the bolt on his Saiga ride home, placing the selector on full auto. The lobby of the MRC must have been quite fancy at one time, or at least, it appeared that way. The lobby was massive, a good fifty or so feet up with two giant staircases flanking either side of the large reception counter with about seven monitors on it, or at least, what was left of them. A large seal hung on the wall, looking like it had been engraved into a disk of solid copper. An intricate design of a hawk holding a medical syringe in one talon and some kind of plant in the other, with the traditional medical wings and snake staff behind it, it was flanked on the top by "Medical Research Center", in a fancy italic front, on the bottom, "Greenvile, Texas, since 1904" There were two large aquarium tanks behind the seal with the glass broken out, everything inside plant wise had been turned into stiff, thin sticks of charcoal, though I assumed the biomass living in the basement had gobbled up all of the dead fish. Passing by the charred chairs and lobby furniture, Prysm held up a balled fist, stopping the group. He didn't have any eyes, but the way he moved his head seemed to suggest that he could smell his prey, which perhaps was looking at him as their own prey.

"We are not alone in this building", he stated, his tongue rolled out of his mouth as he licked the side of his head, a low growl escaped his throat. It almost seemed like he was daring them to come out and attack us, "there are dozens and dozens of mutants in this building."

"How many is dozens and dozens?", Anthony asked, "mutants are cheap, ammunition is not."

Prysm tilted his head again, he, and maybe by extension James, seemed to be in their element, "I can't count them all, but they are here, waiting to ambush us perhaps."

"Where are they hiding at?", I asked.

Prysm seemed to scan the room again, "Can't clearly see them, I'm not sure why."

"Better hold onto your ass", Eirren commented, "hope these big guns are everything we've been told they are."

"Arien has that flamethrower too. I think we'll be just fine."

Up at the receptionists counter was a map of the complex that showed all of the facilities floors where patients and research were treated and carried out. Going down the list, we realized it did not show the basement levels, where the vault was rumored to be.

"Doesn't show the basement on here", I noted.

Eirren consulted the map, "no, looks like we can only access the stair well from the second floor."

"Then up the stairs we go", Anthony commented.

Prysm had point on the way up the stairs, at the top, he stopped the group again, "they come."

We fanned out, forming a line with weapons trained at the approaching masses of mutants. One at a time, they started to come out from seemingly no where. They looked, at least their shadows did, mostly like mutated wolves, definitely biomass examples, given their ragged, bloated outlines. First it was just a few, three or four. Quickly, that number became 10, then twenty, then more. Low snarls and hissing filled the lobby as a few Southern style examples joined the mass.

"So...much...food", Prysm growled, I could see his body tense, his shotgun was halfway in his shoulder, and his grip on it seemed tight. He was torn between wanting to run that shotgun, and just tear into everything he could get his claws into. He seemed eager for me to give him the go ahead.

"We're surrounded", Eirren shivered, peering behind us, "there's dozens more piling up downstairs."

"Sure is an ambush if I've ever seen one", Truck put his 12 gauge in his shoulders, nodding towards the mass of slowly approaching mutants concealed by the darkness in front of us, "Arien, why don't you kick us off? Fuckin' roast 'em."

"With pleasure", I acknowledged. I clicked off the flamers safety. With a crack, the vaporization nozzle lit, a small flame protruding from the bottom of the nozzle. Then, with a press of the top trigger, came a tsunami of fire unlike anything that I had witnessed from a portable weapon. The inferno billowed out into a six foot wide hell cloud that put even the Xl18 to shame and engulfed the entire room in suffocating black smoke and flesh ash as the mutants wailed and screamed. The fires stripped the skin from the bones as acetone did cheap spray paint from a slick surface and the mutants made no attempt to push through, towards me at least. Within seconds of igniting the weapon, the room fell silent except for the heinous cackling of the very happy flames, who had been left with plenty of nourishment for the time being. It was difficult to tell the blackened and charred examples apart from one another now, as they had somewhat melted together. Eirren turned the Shambler loose behind us as we turned to greet the mutants now approaching us from behind. She had the heavy belt fed shotgun awkwardly in her shoulder, trying to keep the muzzle from climbing off target, not an easy feat from the looks of it. Of course, every target she managed to land a hit on simply popped, ceasing to exist on the spot with the only evidence of it ever living being the red, chunky smear where it was standing. Of course, 32 rounds of 4 gauge 0000 Kilnshot on tap didn't matter a whole lot when there were no fewer than sixty small, fast moving biomass examples currently trying to eat you. I lit the flamethrower again, as Eirren's weapon fell silent. I stepped forward as she retreated, popping open the Shambler's dust cover. I sprayed a jet of fire down the stair well, easily catching a good dozen of them in the stream, when Truck started running his shotgun off to the side.

"Where the fuck are they all coming from!?", he shouted, shooting three of them off the side of the railing they had perched on.

"They must be coming from the surrounding area!", James said, bashing a mutant off him, stepping on it's neck and turning it into a read smear with a single shot from his own Shambler, "and now that they know there's food here..."

"Every mutant in Greenville is gonna be coming for us!", I couldn't tell if Prysm was actually excited, sure sounded like it.

"How are we going to find the Vault with all of this heat!?", Eirren asked rejoining us.

"We're just going to have to fi...", I stopped in mid sentence, feeling something close around my ankle. Before I could react, I was face first on the floor, something pulling me backwards.

"Holy fuck something fucking got me!", I shrieked, trying on instinct to sink my claws into the ground, but couldn't through the metal suit I was wearing. I felt a second tendril close around my other ankle, and a third seize me by the neck.

"EIRREN!" I whimpered, "EIRREN SOMETHING GOT ME!"

In the chaos of fighting off the mutants, I guessed that no one heard me. The creature now lifted me off the ground, and, despite my frantic attempts to get free of it's grip, I couldn't.

"GET IT OFF!", I tried to spin around in it's grasp to get the flamethrower on target, but I couldn't hardly move against it's grasp and fight it's suffocating grip on my neck at the same time, "SOMEONE GET IT OFF ME!"

My pleas went unheard by everyone but Eirren. At the last second, she turned around and saw me being dragged by this thing and, I guess without thinking , threw the Shambler away and came running at me, jumping out to try and grab me as the Biomass yanked me down a tunnel that was barely big enough for us to fit through. Being dragged down the hole ripped through the concrete and rebar of the building, the flamethrower caught on something, and judging by the way the mutant was increasingly tugging on my legs and neck, it was either ditch it, or get ripped to pieces. So, against my better judgment, I worked my right hand free and pulled the quick release on the flamethrower's IOTV mount. The mutant then continued dragging me down towards it's lair, tearing the suit off me layer by layer by violently bashing me against the jagged rebar and torn concrete. By the time I was dragged out of the tunnel, it was only the respirator that hadn't been fucked. I was almost ready to pass out too. Then, to ad insult to injury, it slammed me as hard as it could against a slab of concrete coated in at least an inch of what smelled like raw sewage. The radiation down here was fucking potent too. Like I had seen in the video when Ren and his team opened that utility door, little green and yellow sparks were flying through the air like fireflies. In the channel beside me, there was what looked like raw sewage flowing with green and yellow light flashing through it, my heart skipped beats, it was terrifying to look at. With my suit being as shredded as it was, my immunity barrier had been trashed about halfway down the hole, and I was already starting to feel light headed, course, that could have just been from brain trauma.

The mutant that dragged me down gurgled from somewhere in the darkness, "why not dead yet? No survive hole trip, worm always kill prey in tunnel."

From out of the darkness, it just leapt at me. It took me by such complete surprise that at first I didn't realize exactly what had happened before I was on my face in the sewage again.

"YOU NOT WELCOME HERE!!", the mutant screamed, "YOU PAY! MY HOME!"

I managed to spin around, get the 226 out of it's holster and pistol whip it off of me, and surprisingly I felt it give into the strike rather easily, which was surprising, considering what it had just done to me. Shining my weapon light on it, it was another Biomass Example like James and Goliath, but this one was tiny, six feet at the most. It's arms could touch the ground when it was standing straight up and it was wearing what looked like a child's bed sheet, albeit a shredded one, as a cloak. Bandages and torn fabrics, again looking like children's clothes, covered it's nasty greenish, brown purple looking body. Unlike both James and Goliath, this one had visible eyes, bright blue ones, perhaps the only unaltered part of whatever host critter this particular mass had inhabited.

"My home!", The mutant hissed, covering it's eyes with it's large, four fingered clawed hand and swiping at me blindly. It was trivial to just back away from it and let it swing, or it would have been, if I didn't collapse on my left leg as soon as I took a step backwards. Fucker must have been broken, because I felt it twist something awful when I went down.

Panicking, and trying not to get my throat slashed by this thing, I raised the 226, intent on unloading the contents of the magazine into it, when a second paw closed around it's neck from behind.

"You get the hell away from him!", Eirren hissed, slamming the mutant head first into the sewer wall so hard I heard it's skull crack. When it tried to push away, she just slammed it's head into the concrete again, and again, and again, until there was brown paste on the wall. The mutant at this point had lost a couple of teeth, and it's eyes were rolling around in it's head when Eirren threw it to the ground and finished it off by stomping it's skull in.

"Oh god Arien", she whimpered rushing over to me, "Holy shit...fuck, fuck, fuck! God...it tore your suit up...shit this is bad!!"

"I'd hoped you wouldn't be brave enough", I sighed, pulling her into a hug, trying hard not to start crying, thinking about what my actions had led to, "I didn't want us both to die..."

She grabbed my head, forcing me to look her in the eyes, I could barely see them through her visor, "listen...I told you we were doing this together. Where ever you go, I follow. Even if it is to the bottom of a storm drain. Now, get up, the radiation's gonna cook us if we stay here."

"Left leg's shattered", I said as she pulled me up, "it needs a splint at least. I lost all my gear in that damn tunnel."

"Not all of it. You still have your duty belt, do you have a splint in there?"

"No. That's in my ruck back at the dock."

"Doesn't do us any good here", she said reaching into her pants pocket and pulling out a flashlight. Looking around, we were in some kind of utility/sewage tunnel. High voltage wires and pipes marked "steam-from boiler", labeled with arrows went one way and pipes marked "water-to boiler", had arrows pointing in the opposite direction. We needed to find away back into the MRC, and I didn't doubt we could follow the pipes, but then again, who knew where we would end up, how long the pipes ran for, since they looked like they were heated pipes both ways, or even if this boiler supplied the MRC. Another thing I didn't fail to notice was the biological waste material, like a cross between snot, barf and burned flesh, covering the walls, teeming with these insect and worm like critters that didn't seem to like the light very much.

"Pipes go both ways", Eirren noted, shining the flashlight around, "Mutant that dragged us down here could be anywhere in this murky shit. Doubt that little thing could have dragged you like that."

"Yeah, that's what concerns me. Do you have any weapons?"

"Just my Beretta", she said, "five magazines, and four boxes for the Shambler."

"But no Shambler", I grunted, putting pressure on my leg by mistake.

"Yeah", she sighed, "no Shambler."

"We'll have to make do well enough without it", I checked behind us, "let's follow the pipes leading to the boiler for now. Maybe we'll get lucky enough to stumble back into the MRC's basement."

"If we don't?", Eirren asked.

"Then we find away to the surface. If we can get up high enough, we can maybe try and recon for the MRC, it shouldn't be hard to spot from a roof top. First, we need to find a way out of this tunnel, so you take point, I'll use the wall for support where I can."

Eirren drew her side arm and slowly, we started down the hall. Supporting myself with the wall, sort of trying to avoid the disgusting brown and yellowish green biological waste material covering the wall, I managed to keep a slow limp at best. Eirren wouldn't go more than five feet from me at a time, so the progress was painfully slow. I didn't really have much of a sense of time, since I wasn't wearing my watch, but after a little bit we did finally find the boiler room. One thing we both took note of immediately was the torch that was mounted outside of the steel utility door that lead inside. It had been burned down to the mount, with the ash piled up on the floor, with a few nubs of previous torches scattered about. The slime that was covering the walls of this underground hell seemed to have stayed clear of the torches, as there was an area of three or so feet on either side of the torch spot where the material wasn't growing.

"Someone lived down here at one point", Eirren noted, trying the door, "wonder if they're still around."

"Doubtful. Even scorpions would have trouble with this much radiation."

"This door is open", she raised her side arm, peeking the door a little at first, and then she walked right in, pausing when she was fully in the room, "holy shit...."

"What now?", I asked, limping in behind her, shutting the door behind me. Turned out, someone not only lived here, but, given the burned candles on the table, and the dry but not moldy dishes in the sink, they were likely going to be back. The room seemed to be a forward observation post of some kind. It had two bunk beds side by side in the back of the room that had made up spreads, so perhaps those that occupied them were maybe not to far off. The table, though clean, showed signs of heavy use, both for eating and recreation, given the tape recorder and notebook on the table. Eirren stepped around, checking the room while I sat down at the table. Opening the notebook, it looked like it might have been somebodies diary, but it was all written in Spanish, which I didn't speak. The tape inside the recorder was marked with "80's Hits 1" and there were some other letters and a phone open to what looked like an Email app of sorts with a name in the corner that read "Blue Tooth Mail" There were several entries on the list, all listed with "Come Burn This Shit Please!"

"Eirren."

"Yeah?", she asked, checking behind a curtain.

"Someone left their phone here, seems like it's a voice mail to someone."

"Their phone? Probably wouldn't have gone far without it. Play it", she said, replacing the curtain as she'd found it.

I hit play.

"Roberto!", an angry female said, "drop everything and get your fireteam down to Sub Charlie level as soon as you can! Alex and his crew are all down and haven't burned the shit here in four days and now I'm up to my ass in fucking worms and leeches! There are fucking colonies on every wall and they're bringing the fucking radiation in from the tunnels with them! I've got five animals that need opened up and I can't do that with the worms lurking in the vents!"

I played the next one, a male answered in a heavy Mexican accent, but perfect English, "Alice, Roberto here. I've been by myself for about a week now. I've got two guys down in the infirmary in my station that have Waste Sores, two more trying to help those government guys fight off the slime near Hydroponics and Farming and then my partner is out near the Chillers burning some extra thick shit. I've got plenty piled up, but I'll be out there as soon as I can."

The next message, Alice took a darker tone, "Roberto, Alice. Two of my patients got eaten by those fucking worms last night, and I woke up with a fucking leech on my neck! Now this shit has to stop! The slime is growing so thick here that animals are starting to get radiation poisoning! I can't leave the hospital or I'd go burn this shit myself! Please Robert! I need help!"

The very last message had only been sent a few hours ago, "Alice, Roberto. I'll try and get out there this afternoon. I've gotta go down to the boiler and burn a mass off of the compressors down there, just hold out a bit longer."

"Sounds like this Alice chick wasn't very happy with her situation", Eirren noted, "worms, leeches, wonder if what ever is going on outside is what she's ranting about?"

"Those walls are covered in something", I sighed, glancing down at the geigers mounted on my wrist. They were both quiet.

"She said that the worms were bringing the radiation in with them. I wonder if this material on the walls is why the geigers are quiet?"

She glanced down at her own, "Huh, well how about that? Why don't you sit here, and take a few moments to catch your breath, I'm gonna look around and see if I can't find weapon with a bit more oomph behind it."

"Sure...I'll just do that. You know...the messages in this phone were only sent a few hours ago. Should we try and contact these animals?"

"Yeah, probably. Why don't you see if you can ring 'em up, and poke around and see if I can find any thing."

"I'll try", I sighed, being thrown into a coughing fit, "good lord."

Eirren looked concerned, "I'll be back in a bit, try and see if you can contact someone...anyone."

I nodded as she slipped out the door. A rudimentary search around the phone revealed that this app had a texting program in it too, and this Roberto must have been a pretty well known figure, because he had some names in this phone.

"Alice-Medical Director, Jason, Fireteam Coordinator, Tyler-Head of HVAC", I thought aloud, trying to ignore the increasing pain in my leg. Since the most recent messages had been to this Alice animal, I figured I'd try her. As I was beginning to type up the message, the Geiger counters spiked. As I lifted my arm to check it, something pounded on the door. I flinched, hard enough to lose the phone. Another bash against the door had the biomass example coming through. It looked like a cross between a rattlesnake, scorpion, wasp, worm and a nightmare. A large, nasty and shrieking example that looked so hideous I could smell it through my gas mask. I pretty much threw the table at it and started trying to crawl out of the room as it beat it's way through the door. I managed to get the 226 out, only to have it swatted away and be stabbed right through the chest. The example lifted me up, and then out of nowhere, Eirren appeared again.

"You put him the fuck down!", she hissed, cracking a Molotov cocktail open on it's face. The creature hissed in agony and let me go. Eirren hauled me up with her Beretta in her offhand, "it's not ending like this! Get up let's run for it!"

"Where we going!?", I asked.

"Anywhere but here!"

I followed her out, using her as support as I limped along, and the example chased us out, moving with a certain speed and ferocity that just about scared the soul out of my body. As it became clear we weren't going to escape, I heard a voice from down the hallway.

"Guys! The worms are chasing someone! Come on let's help them!"

At the end of the tunnel, a bunch of flashlights came on and about six animals in heavy armor cam clanging down the hallway, three of them got close and then shouted at us.

"DUCK!".

Eirren grabbed me and pulled me down, the animals, seeing we were out of their line of fire, then cut loose. As the closed in, they alternated fire, one, one, one. When one would run out of ammunition, they would call "strip out, and then another would cycle forward, and the cycle repeated until their flamethrower units reached us. At that point, the soldiers carrying the rifles pulled me up, pushed Eirren behind us and then shouted at the flamethrower units.

"Roast it!"

The three soldiers then doused the example chasing us in fire as the soldiers hauled us to a defensive line of sorts, where a female rat wearing almost no armor was on a MaDecue and two other guys were behind her, they looked like US Army Remnants. The soldiers herded Eirren and I behind a barricade and set me down, she sat next to me. One of the soldiers ducked his head inside a door.

"Medic! Someone get Rachel and Alice we've got two irradiated and one out here!"

"Hold on Arien!", Eirren held my head up so she could look me in the eyes, "hold on love! Help's on the way!"

The longer I sat there, the colder I started to get. I could feel myself slipping away.

"No...", Eirren choked, "no...no, Arien! Arien please stay awake!"

"ALICE!", a male with a heavy accent shouted, "ALICE WE NEED YOU NOW!"

"Hold on!", a female from the back shouted.

"Hey!", one of the soldiers, a green Gila Monster said, looking me in the eyes, "hey bro. Stay awake for your girl, help's comin!"

I rolled my head back, Eirren had taken off her gas mask, she was crying something fierce.

"I love you baby girl", I said, Eirren's complete panic is the last thing I remember before slipping into the dark.