He knew he couldn’t sneak in to the base undetected. That really wasn’t a problem, since he wasn’t planning to leave anybody alive, it actually would be more convenient for him if as many people as possible were at the front gate when he arrived.

He tried to keep up steady pace when he jogged over the slowly cooling sand. There was no use to drive yourself to the brink of exhaustion when your target wasn’t even expecting you. On the other hand he didn’t have much time to loiter around, water supply he left to Marie and Vasquez was more than sufficient, but sun was a merciless host to those squatting in the desert.

It was closer to dawn; sun was rising when he triggered the first line of motion detectors. They weren’t expecting anybody, so they should react to the alarms quite quickly. He hopped over the second line, then stepped purposefully straight on the third line, and kept hopping like that over random lines, trying to create an illusion of a much bigger creature approaching to those who kept an eye on the alarms.

He slowed down and walked the last hundred meters separating him from the front gate of the base. It was wide open. There were no guards. Nobody standing behind heavy artillery mounted on top of the thick wall surrounding the base. Absolutely nobody stood there waiting for him. As he got closer, scent of fresh blood and innards assaulted his sinuses, and his hackles rose instantly. He stopped in front of the gates, claws oozing from their sheaths. Nobody. The base was deathly silent. He raised his head and took in the cacophony of scents that hung in the air like a heavy, sticky blanket. Blood. Flesh. Gunpowder. Electricity. Barrels of the lasers on his knuckles were burning hot, adding the stench of his own charring blood to the mix.

He walked past the gates, small echoes from his silent footsteps the only noise aside from slight breeze that had picked up, and stumbled upon the first signs that something had indeed happened. Guards who should have been standing at the gate, all four of them lay on the ground, bodies torn and scattered to every imaginable direction. As he walked further in to the base, more bodies he started to encounter, soldiers and civilians alike. Bodies torn and dismembered, some of them partly eaten.

After covering the whole base he had to face the truth. Somebody had gotten here before him. Somebody had gotten in and somehow slaughtered the whole fucking base, stealing his opportunity to revenge what was done to Marie and his team. He took his frustration out to pile of uniformed corpses, tearing in to dead flesh, kicking, clawing and screaming his rage out to the sky. And another voice answered to the obscenities he spat out. High-pitched screech coming from above. He managed to catch a glimpse of something black and shiny, then he fell, creature stomping on his back and howling its challenge.

The other team had brought one of the black creatures greenies had been breeding back to the base. He struggled and managed to throw it off from him, then rolled quickly on his feet and faced the monster that had been stalking him on the roof of the mess hall.
“Holy shit…”

Creatures at the enemy base had been big. The one he was staring at right now was huge. Long, black head towering well over two meters high, on top of clumsy-looking, surprisingly agile bony, black and armored body. Long tail swirled in the air, razor-sharp tip of it sliding past his face, and he could feel it parting the skin over his cheekbone. Creature screeched again, revealing impressive set of sharp teeth, and second set of jaws hidden inside of its mouth.
“You’re one, big, ugly…” Creature moved fast. Faster than he had imagined, and its tail pierced his stomach.
“Fucker! Oh, shit!”

Creature swung its tail, throwing him against the wall of the mess hall, and he slid free. Wounds on his stomach and back were closing rapidly, but not fast enough. Creature hissed and stalked closer. He lifted his hand, lasers tore out from his knuckles and three bright beams pierced creature's head, blowing it up and splattering greenish blood to everywhere. He tried to curl as small target as possible, but generous amount of burning liquid rained on him as well, eating skin and muscle. Creature’s still bleeding torso toppled over and landed heavily on his legs, trapping him efficiently against the wall he was leaning to, spilling even more acid on him.

He was burning, trapped under heavy carcass and burning. Acid had burned through his pants, eaten off skin and tissues, and from the sudden coldness seeping through his whole body he knew that at least one major vessel had ruptured. He’d have to get away from the dead bastard before he fainted. If he stayed here the fucker could probably dissolve him for good.

“You fucking… pathetic excuse of a… Get the fuck off from me!” He used all the remaining strength in him to push the carcass off from his feet, then crawled what he assumed was a safe distance, few meters away from it.
“Christ…” His body was trying to heal, tissues crept over damaged parts over and over again, but as long as he had acid on him, in his wounds, it was futile. He’d have to find water to wash it off. Easier said than done. There was a gaping hole on his abdomen. Huge chunks of flesh were missing from his thighs and hips, rendering his feet useless, and he had a feeling he wouldn’t stay conscious much longer.

His head fell back against the dusty ground. He could feel the acid inside of him as it ate him, slowly, piece by piece. He didn’t have the slightest idea what would happen. Would it stop? When it would stop? He tried to roll on his side, but decided against it when he felt what was left of his internal organs starting to slip out from the wound on his stomach. Better stay still and wait. It would stop eventually. It had to stop. The pain and burning. It had to stop and go away because he couldn’t take it much longer.
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