Bullet casing were leaping through the air, clanging down onto the rocky surface at Carlyle's feet. Blood splattering as each casing displaced bits of the puddle pooling there. Carlyle never stopped shooting.
I gave him my gun to use for this last push. He didn't have much firepower with the lighter weapons he carried. Being our scout, he never really needed something like my gun weighing him down. But at a time like this, the best option was the biggest gun he could use.
Carlyle couldn't carry this girl fast enough to have made it to the blast door with us. Only I could do this since Sarge had to fight off aberrations with his fists and then use his hands to pry open the door. It's up to Carlyle to hold the line when we're breaching.
He stood behind Sarge while the hulking man tried prying open the blast doors. His massive, augmented arms weren't only given the gift of strength, but also a specialized device that could disable magnetic shielding.
The blast doors were typically held together by such a powerful magnetic force that opening them was impossible without first disabling it. With the control panels all shut down in this vault, there wasn't a way to open the doors. At least, not without Sarge's special arms.
Slowly the 1-ton doors were shrieking and spreading apart. I was running in place anxiously as the doors opened. I looked back for a moment. The sound of bullet firing had stopped, the clicking of the firing mechanism had not.
Blood. A fountain of crimson and entrails flowing out from what was left of Carlyle. His torso had been shredded apart from his ribs up. The arms were barely still hanging on by tendons, but his grip on his rifle's trigger wasn't letting up. Despite no rounds being present in the gun, the mechanism kept trying to shoot.
I opened my eyes wide and took in the sight before me. Ignoring the gore of my friend, I stared at the aberration approaching me. A creature with a worm-like body, but an eagle's beak and no eyes. Two long arms protruding from under its neck with spindly limbs, stretching out, one elbow joint, and stick-like finger all with a large talon at the end. The body has dozens of smaller taloned feet.
The eagle face twisted and looked at me upside down, then rights its position and stares at the girl on my back. A screech. A terrifying, blood chilling sound that sent my mind into a dark place. I couldn't move. I imagined this beast tearing me limb from limb. I watched it lower its body and start to crawl across the ground at an incredible speed.
I try to move and get away. But.... I can't?
Why am I frozen? I want to run and shout for Sarge to save me. I want him to have that door open. Then we can both go. I'll take the girl. I'll be the one to tell Carlyle's parents about him. I just want to move. I want to run. I can't.... I can't.
I can't move my legs. I can't speak. I can't turn to look behind me. I just watch this creature slithering closer and closer. It's only a few feet away.
It lunges. It's a foot away. I feel my body freeze to receive the attack. I move.
My body is being pulled. I don't understand anything about it. As I fly backwards, I see a large arm. Muscular. Dark. A little hairy. Bits of metal breaking through the skin. Sarge.
[Sarge] "Get going! You got this!"
I flew through the air. I felt control come back in this moment. I turned my body. I knew the girl was on my back. I can't land on her.
It stings. My face scraped across the concrete below me. My chest was pressed tightly against it. I involuntarily took in a deep breath. This almost hurt just as bad as the landing.
Was I paralyzed? Was it fear? Was it a spell? I couldn't figure it out. I lifted my body with the girl still clinging to my back. She seemed to at least know to hold tight.
[Gajjet] "Shit, Sarge, thanks. Saved my ass. Let's get going."
I didn't hear a response. I didn't really hear anything. After standing up, leaving the girl sitting next to me, I turned my head around. I just see the magnetically shut blast doors. Sarge wasn't with me.