The Day We Died

 

    "I suggest you duck for cover Johnson, those things will tear you apart in melee," said first-sergeant Gabriel as he placed a hand on Johnson's shoulder and ushered him behind the blockade of furniture that had been set up. The sergeant pulled the pin on an old frag grenade. One that he had found within a storage box in the facility and he held it tightly in his hands until he was sure of the distance. "Let's see if they can handle a good explosion eh?" he snarled as he lobbed the grenade. He then ducked for cover behind a thick, wooden couch. His heart thumped in his chest, but he only heard it for a moment as the loud report of the grenade's explosion deafened him and left his ears ringing. 

    The sergeant counted slowly in his mind, steeling himself. Upon reaching the count of 'three', he drew his pistol and popped up from cover; ready to shoot at anything that moved. What he found however was a disabled mass of twitching bodies. It appeared that the explosion has shredded the pathetic joints off the crawler's emaciated shoulders and all of them appeared unable to move if either one or both of their arms had been destroyed.

    "Oh man, this is like some kind of house of the dead shit man! It's like I'm in the fuckin' house of the dead!" said Johnson, swearing loudly and shaking his head at the sight of the wriggling creatures. He slapped his right arm in order to stop it from shaking.

    

    "Actually they're more like Necromorphs these ones. Have you ever played that game Dead Space?" The sergeant smiled and stepped closer, testing to see if any would be able to lunge at him. It appeared that once a single limb was destroyed, the crawlers lost their ability to balance themselves and as a result of that: they seemed to give up entirely. "These creatures appear to die, or at least become disabled, once you blow off some of their limbs. A plasma cutter would have been a wonder in this case." Sergeant Gabriel was quite the horror buff and he enjoyed all kinds of the games where the dead came to life. It was probably those experiences that kept him calm during this unusual occurrence. The rest of his squad, save that one fellow Johnson, had lost their minds almost immediately and, in a state of total panic, had run to their deaths.

    Their story began about four hours prior: When the joint united nations military had been called in to deal with a "special threat". Their commanders told them that the facility they were being flown to had been a hidden base for scientific experiments. Until of course it had all gone wrong. In order not to risk a public panic, the threat needed to be dealt with as quickly as possible. Their leaders had been scarce on the details, but sergeant Gabriel assumed that it was some form of biological agent; probably one that had been highly classified and was probably highly dangerous.

    "So what are we gonna do sarge, we gonna call for back up. No way we can take these things!" said Johnson, "I don't mind dying with a bullet through my head. Least I know I'm getting military honours after that; but here, man I might even come back as one of those freaks!"

    The facility was mostly lit for now, it seemed as though the creatures had not gotten to the power cables yet and that made things a great deal easier. Gabriel kept his eyes open for labs and armouries, or key locations where a map might be displayed. He didn't find one, a map that is, but he did make his way to a security office.