Halo_ Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe - Eric Nylund [114]
Thought she saw something else, too, near Orlav—one of those snot creatures—but, no, nothing when she spun, it must’ve just been something bobbing in the water. Part of the thing she’d just killed.
A glance down the passageway brought her a small measure of relief. Patchy fires singed churning sewage around a new barricade of ceiling and caved-in tanks. It’d worked for now—there was no other movement. The smell of mingled crap and the stench of the enemy made her cough. It’d gag her if she let it.
But so would the memory of them, those things, rising up despite being blasted full of bullet holes. They wouldn’t—couldn’t—be stopped for long. She could already feel the vibration of digging. The shit wouldn’t hold.
She surged to her feet, too fast, off balance, shook her head angrily—she needed clarity now more than ever.
A quick check, Clarence was okay, Gersten okay, just cursing a lot as he tried to lift Orlav.
Her hearing had started to return. Over the cursing, she could hear Orlav shrieking with agony. There was another sound, too, another kind of shrieking, like a man being devoured alive. It almost froze Benti, until she realized it came from the other side of the barricade.
Tsardikos, screaming as those things took him apart. Nothing Benti could do about it. Nothing that wouldn’t put the rest of them in danger.
She shook it off. She shook it off, even as it damaged her, and scrambled over to Orlav, shit bouncing from her shins.
“She’s bleeding bad,” Gersten said, supporting nearly all of Orlav’s weight.
That was the least of Orlav’s worries. This tainted water in her wounds would kill her anyway. It would just take a little longer. Benti leaned down for a quick inspection, and froze. The injury itself was long but not deep. She could see the blue curves in the dark muscle of her back, but the spine didn’t shine through. What kind of a victory was it when the medic in her leapt for joy that she couldn’t see bone? But fastened to the lower back was a quivering bulb of pus, finger like tendrils digging into the open wound ecstatically. Holy crap. It looked like a parasite of some kind. She reached for it, and stopped. Not here, not in this water.
“We have to get her out of here!” She threw one of Orlav’s arms over her shoulder, the other around her waist, taking some of the burden off of Gersten. “Head for maintenance. Clarence, come on, let’s go!”
They fled, dragging Orlav between them. Clarence staggered in their wake, watching the darkness behind them. He didn’t have any more flares. Their flashlights would have to do.
Benti flinched as she thought she heard something in the air ducts above them.
“Orlav,” Benti raised her voice, turned to yell in her ear, “Orlav! Report!”
“ ’s fadin’ . . .” she slurred, and her head dropped, eyes wide open, not even pretending to walk now, feet dragging in the water. “. . . where . . .”
“There’s the door!”
A burst of speed and they collapsed against it. Locked. They were trapped outside. Benti propped Orlav against the door, Gersten shouldering her weight again. “She’s bad,” he moaned.
Benti ripped the faceplate from the control panel, straightforward wiring again. She walked her fingers along the wires.
“Oh god, she’s bad, look at her face, look at her face, look—” Benti yanked a wire, and looked.
What looked back at her was not Orlav.
>Lopez 1503 hours
Lopez had her orders. Find out what the hell is up with this damn ship was down at the bottom of her priorities. Get to the bridge was at the top. But the more time she spent on this damn ship,