Doom - Evil Unleashed 3.6

[dsm]

Inferno – Part 6

-

Blood.
A lake of boiling blood lay before me with a tiny island of green marble rock in the center. I was inside a huge hall surrounded by walls of blood red marble bricks. The bodies of a large group of bull demons, which I had just perforated with my chain gun lay scattered in the boiling hot blood.

I looked at them with a dull expression on my face. It felt like I had been in Hell for an eternity.
It had been some time since I had given myself the berserk injection at that evil cathedral-like building and I had fought my way through a strange demon town, where the buildings had been situated on a couple of islands in a rather huge lake of lava. Getting through that town had been the greatest ordeal yet and had worn me down. It had been the hottest place in Hell this far and seemingly had the largest demon population in any of the areas of Hell I had visited until now. I had also found more small “munitions depots” there, which was the only good thing about that horrible place.

I had decided that I had better save as much of my heavy firepower as possible for now and only use my shotgun as much as possible. I was exhausted, yet still I felt a strange sensation as if I was nearing the outskirts of Hell. The incessant babbling and howling of millions of voices in my mind had subsided and sounded as if they were very far away.
I had left a trail of destruction behind me and despite the many unnerving experiences I had encountered and the fatigue in my body, I felt a strange eagerness to carry on. What if there WAS a way out of Hell? The souls of the damned had to arrive to Hell through somewhere, but could a living human hope to go through that same entrance and was it possible to get out through this entrance at all?
I couldn’t think too clearly any longer and I could only cling to the tiny hope despite the improbability of there being a way out of this insanely evil place.

I stared at the large hall with the blood lake. It seemed as though this place was about to be filled with blood. A moment I thought I saw the blood level raise, but nothing happened.

-

My boots made a splish-splash sound as I ran through the pitch-black maze. The floor was covered in a layer of blood. Luckily, the blood wasn’t boiling hot. I was glad that I had my automap function. Without it, I wouldn’t have had a chance of getting out of this maze, as the map drew up the walls that I was facing – even though I couldn’t see the walls with my bare eyes. Checking the map every two seconds or so, I could draw up a good picture of the maze and ultimately, I would be able to find a way out.
I was constantly alert, knowing that I wouldn’t have a chance of spotting a potential monster while having the map screen activated as the map blocked out all vision except for the computer drawn map.

I looked at the map again. I had found all the dead ends in the direction I was moving, and I was now heading down a narrow hallway. I shut off the map function to check for possible hostile movement, looking around, expecting a pair of glowing eyes to appear every moment. I didn’t see any evil eyes. Instead I saw a dim light ahead. I moved forward with the shotgun pointing towards the light. There was no need for the map now, because the light source gave me a hint at where to move.
As I moved closer, I could see that the light was the kind of light emanating from fire, meaning that there might be a torch or something.
The floor began to feel strangely soft. Something tugged at my left boot.
Oh shit!
I began to run, but something suddenly grabbed on to my armor-covered lower leg, so that I almost tripped.
It felt like a slimy tentacle of some sort and made me think of an octopus or a squid. Whatever was lurking beneath me in the blood was strong as I felt its grip tightening and slowly pulling me down. A sense of panic rushed through my veins – I hated the thought of drowning in blood, and my grip on the shotgun got tighter. I began to fire at the ground with my shotgun. The roar of the gun echoed throughout the dismal maze and the sound was amplified in the narrow space. I heard something like a distant howl. It rumbled up from deep down. The mosnter loosened its grip on my leg and I managed to pull myself free and sprint towards the torchlight. The hallway ended in a small room. I could see a demonic button, carved like a demon’s face.
A former human suddenly leapt out in front of and raised its shotgun. I dived towards its stomach just as it fired. The spray of pellets whizzed clean over my head and I rammed right into the mindless possessed. It let out a surprised grunt as I hurled it to the dirty floor. It fought back, trying to push me away. I suddenly sat right up and swung the butt of my shotgun into its head, before it could dodge my attack. I continued to hammer the butt into the possessed corpse’s head, maddened by all my mind numbing experiences, until the undead soldier lay completely still. I got back up and looked at my handiwork. Its head was bloody and smashed beyond recognition. Its skull was cracked open and I could see its brains flowing from the hole.

Something suddenly pulled my feet away under me and I crashed to the floor. The shotgun flew out of my hands and clattered against the floor. The tentacle which had pulled my legs away under me now grabbed firmly unto both my legs. It was red, but a bit brighter than blood red and had small, black hairs all over it. I reached for my pistol, but remembered that I had emptied the last round a good while ago. Instead, I struggled to get my knuckle-duster out of my pocket and put it on. I could feel the warm blood against my legs. I fumbled with the spiked weapon. I was being pulled into the blood - my legs was beginning to sink into the blood and the monster's tentacle would soon be under the blood surface. I finally managed to slip the brass knuckles onto my hand. I clenched my fist, bending myself into upright position and pressed the electrified spikes of the knuckle-duster against the disgusting tentacle. Blue sparks sprung from the slimy flesh and I heard the distant howl again, but this time it was a prolonged scream. I could feel the tentacle wiggle and squirm, trying in vain to avoid the burning electrical shock.
I managed to get loose again. And backed away from the place where the tentacle monster appeared to be. I quickly picked my shotgun off the floor and collected the ammunition that the humanoid soldier had been carrying.

I fist hammered the demonic button. The eyes of the carved demon began to glow a bright whitish yellow and the whole steel wall with the button on it opened up revealing a teleporter. I also heard a lot of clicking sounds, indicating that I had just started a chain reaction of mechanisms. That probably meant that this button had done more than just opened the wall in front of me.

-

The path to the strange mini-tower in the center of the pool of blood had been raised. I had been hunting several switches to activate mechanisms that would open up the path to what I hoped was a way out, and I had now activated all the mechanisms this far. I let out a long sigh and stepped out on the raised path, which was made of the typical green marble. The path led to a door in the mini-tower. I moved towards it cautiously. My experiences on Mars’ two moons and especially those here in Hell had taught me to be ready for creatures that might suddenly teleport in or other dangerous traps, but nothing happened and I made it to the door safely.

I was slightly pleased with myself. I had made hundreds of demons suffer for their evil deeds and all that alone without anyone to aid me. As the green metal door opened with a rusty whine, I briefly thought of all my comrades who had died at the claws of demons and I felt that justice must have sent me to Hell to settle a score with the Hell spawn.
Behind the door was a teleporter – a square shaped thing where a bright white light glowed, lightening up the tiny room inside this odd tower.

I wonder where I’ll end up next was the last thought that entered my brain as I stepped onto the bright light’s source.

...

[DooMBoy]

Very good, dsm! Very nice story. My only possible qualm with this installment is that it wasn't long enough, IMO. :)

[dsm]

DooMBoy said:

Very good, dsm! Very nice story. My only possible qualm with this installment is that it wasn't long enough, IMO. :)

Yeah, but I was running out of good ideas when I wrote this one - the next chapter is going to be much longer (guess why).