The Baldie, The Clone, and the Sabre: Chapter 4

[Martzin]

Eventually, Reno was too tired to fight back. He had spent all of his energy trying to fight, and trying to escape the beast's hands, but it was to no avail. Reno simply gave up, and let his arms drag along the ground, feeling himself beginning to drown in a sea of regret and guilt.

Soon enough the monstrous creature made of the very night itself pinned him to the floor, and he could feel it's spindly fingers strapping mucous across his body. Reno was taken back at how fast it had froze like a rock upon it's placement, and soon enough he could barely even nudge his arms.
The lamp on his armor was the only thing illuminating the room, and he began to lift his head and look around. The small cell of membrane was completely empty, apart from himself.
Above Reno there was a woman strapped to the roof with the resin as well, with the same gaping red hole punched out from her chest, the blood still dripping.

He could feel the pain in his neck building, and Reno let his head go limp. It smacked against the weeds on the ground, and soon Reno's mind began to wonder; was it all worth it?
All his life spent cleaning floors, joining the military and painstakingly rising through the ranks to where he is now; witnessing his fellow men fight and die for the same causes he believed in, and the men on the other side of the battle zone dying for what they believed in, too.
Would all of it really amount to anything in the end?

Now Reno was going to be left alone to die on the cold ground of a cave on some backwater planet, where he would die like the rest of his men at the hands of a faceless fucking monstrosity, with nobody else left to witness him go but a dead woman hanging from the roof.

Reno continued to silently ponder, wondering how many of his men actually made it out. Not many, he knew, for they were sandwiched inside that one room, completely surrounded.
Out of the sorrow he held, he wiggled his ear, and to his astonishment realized the headset was still in.
He quickly got onto it, and immediately blurted out:
"Is anyone alive...?"

"Does that mean 'not nested'?"a marine had responded. The voice was easily recognized as that of Dubi's.

"Listen, marines... I'm sorry I led us into that death-trap, I never should've.." Reno grunted upon feeling a sharp pain in his forehead rise, followed by an uncomfortable bloated feeling in his stomach, but continued; ..."let us in here... I'm really, really sorry..."
"Don't sweat it sarge," Ray responded. "Some of us made it out... well, atleast me and Suro did."

"...Anyone else?"

There was a short pause. "Well, I'm not sure... just me and the engie."

Reno sighed. "Is.. that it?"

"Delta is pushing up, sarge. They're gonna piece us back together, got it?" Suro had now said, hoping to reassure Reno, but it was no use.
"...Okay," he responded.

Suddenly, another voice had nudged it's way onto the comms; a man violently coughing over and over, and desperately let out the words, "--Fuck!"
"Who's this?" said Reno.
The man continued to cough over the comms, before finally uttering: "It's-It's Caddy! Shit, where am I?"
"You're stuck with the lizards now," Ray replied.

"Fuck you mean, man?! They're holding me prisoner?"

Reno budged in,"Yes, they are."

"God... what are they gonna do?"

"Who the fuck knows," Ray responded.
"I... I think I'm with these two other guys, maybe they can..." Caddy grunted, and writhing slime could be heard in the background.
"Maybe I'll be able to break out?"

Reno sighed and replied, "Good luck, Caddy. I'm alone in my own little cell... maybe you can break out, save a couple of comrades with you."

"I'm doing my best, Reno... If I do get out, I'm not leaving you to die in here! Is Kopchek here?"

The radio was silent for a second, before Caddy quietly blurted "Oh god..." on the radio.

Ray sighed and said frankly,"Last I saw her she was being dragged the same direction Healy was."
Reno muttered hushed words of anger and regret, knowing his medic was now dead, too. Welling in his own regret, feeling he needed to remember his dead men in some way, Reno quietly said to himself,
"Lochlann and Kopchek, my best regards..."

"What was that, sarge?" Ray said.

"Just paying homage to my men," Reno replied. "Re-group at the FOB, and maybe tell Command that I'm a dead man walking."
"We've already alerted Command about our situation, sarge."

"And they haven't talked to me at all?"

"They think you're dead."

"Then tell 'em I'm fucking not, Dubi!"
"Alright, hold on... yeesh,"

Reno layed there for a second, deciding that before he is killed or abducted, before he loses contact forever he was going to get Charlie back on it's feet.
"Reno? Reno Story, come in." The CO had gotten onto the comms.

"This is Reno!"

"How in the fuck are you not dead yet, Reno?"the CO lightheartedly said.

"I... honestly, do not know, heh."
"Y'must have a guardian angel, Reno. Can you give us your sitrep?"

"These fucking lizards haven't killed me for some un-godly reason... I'm stuck inside the caves, they've trapped me in some goo that I can't get out of."
"Alright, Reno..." he responded, an air of empathy in his tone. "Give your squad the order to rally up."

"Already did."

The CO exhaled and finally said, "Alright, Reno. If we're lucky, Delta will get you out of that hell-hole... godspeed,"
"Godspeed, Simmons."

After that, the headset went silent. No voices came in or out from that headset. It was a total, utter, overwhelming silence.

Reno felt truly alone for the first time in his life.
He wondered what people would think of him after all was said and done, remembering him as that one SL with the sword who let his men perish under a storm of fanged extraterrestrials. He thought back, and soon realized one of his biggest mistakes was not bringing any extra supplies during the push... But maybe it wouldnt've mattered anyway.

And then suddenly, Reno heard repeated booming pops out in the distance, followed by men's voices yelling back at eachother.
He continued to lay still, focusing his attention on this new uproar of fighting...

And then suddenly, he could hear the sound of bullets whizzing past his cell, and the stomping of those beasts rushing to the source. He could feel the membrane walls being carved into by pure rifle lead, and Reno soon knew; it was Delta!
The glorious bastards must've fought tooth and nail to make their way inside, and maybe they could rescue the other marines still within... It appeared not all hope was lost.

Reno began to dart his head around, and could see the silhouettes of the lizards running to and fro from the battle, hearing the voices approach, closer and closer...

Until eventually, the screams of the monsters had gone off into the distance. Reno could hear the marines yelling out their orders and clearing out the rooms, carving a pathway through this heathenous cave.

Reno yelled out, "In here!" followed by a flow of voices, and soon after the 'door' to his cell was carved open, and out 3 marines popped.
"Got a live one!" one of them announced.
"Alright pal, let's getcha outta this shit-hole..." another said, as he lifted up Reno's shoulders.
The 2nd marine jabbed his bootknife into the resin, quickly carving it through and through, and the 3rd one grabbed Reno's feet.
Together they counted, "1...2...3... Pull!" and out they immediately yanked his body out from the adherent slime, Reno groaning with the sudden jolt of pain that was brought with it.
"There ya are!" the 1st one said. "You got a weapon?"
Reno reached for his pant pockets, and he could feel that familiar handle sticking out.
He slid the sabre from his sheath and said, "I got this... musta dropped my revolver."

"You don't have a rifle?" the 3rd one asked.

"Never brought one."

"You crazy, man. Go on, orders are to send any of our nested troops back up to the Sully... head to LZ2, it's closer."

The marines helped Reno up, whom immediately grunted under the pain in his body and fell forward on one of the marines.
"Hey c'mon man, stand!" he exclaimed.

"I-I can't walk!" Reno rebutted, still clenching onto the marine's sleeves.

"Fuck, we're gonna need a medic." another one proclaimed.

"MEDIC!" the marine yelled out, and after a couple of seconds another soldier had ran in, holding a medkit in his hand.

"What's the problem?"

"This uh... what's your name?" the marine said to Reno.

"Reno... Charlie's SL."

"Yeah, this guy's way too fuckin' hurt to walk, and he needs to get to the Sully stat."

"Alright, hold on..." the medic approached Reno, placing one end of his health analyzer to Reno's shoulder.

"Hm... broken skull, some nasty cuts 'n bruises, burns, yadayadayada... I got this, just hand him over."

The marine gently laid Reno back on the ground, to which the medic kneeled beside and started to rummage through his backpack.
Reno silently stared at the dead lady still hanging from the roof, to which another marine noticed and lifted his head. "Yeesh," he said.
"Here we are..." the medic pulled out a trauma kit. "Don't worry pal, you'll be up and running in no time..."
He laid there still, trying to hold in the aching pain that infested his entire body, holding himself back from writhing any longer so the medic can work on him.
Reno's vision was slowly turning black, and he could feel himself getting dizzy, desperately grabbed onto the medic's sleeve.

"Tricord... give me some tricord!"
The medic pulled out an injector from one of his pockets, before Reno's head went limp and bumped on the ground, Reno's vision now completely blanketed by the darkness...



Reno had came to, and the first thing he saw was the blankness of the night sky above him, gently moving his arm out from under his body. He painfully turned his head to the right, seeing the world pass him by.
"Hello...?" Reno weakly said.

"Shit, you're awake?"

"Yes... what's going on?"

"Taking you back to the pod, man. You're fucked up."

Reno sighed, and faced the dark sky again. "Did you get my squad out...?"

"Well, not me... I'm sure Delta got your men out, though."

"Did you guys pull out anyone called Robert Timmins?"

"Uhh... I don't think so."

Reno sighed and shook his head. "Guess that's another loss..."

"Yeah... platoon's not doing hot right now."

Soon enough, the 2 had reached the pod. The medic placed him into the chair, and threw the safety bars over him.
"There ya go," he said.
"Alright, I've gotta go back and drag more troops out. Got it?"

"Got it..."
And so the medic ran out as Reno laid his head back, his throat aching terribly. He could feel something squirming inside of his stomach, and began to re-position his legs in great discomfort...
Soon enough though, he could feel the squirming getting more and more intense, causing his entire body to shake relentlessly in his chair as he tried to lift up the safety bars and flopped over on the ground; desperately crawling his way out, letting out a weak "Medic!" before he felt his guts explode, screaming in agony at the wriggling of a horrifying creature trying to scrabble it's way out of his organs-- before his head fell back...

[Monoo]

Hmm... where will it go from here?

A pleasure as always.

[Karmac]

Still gives me shivers when I re-read it.

Rock solid work.

[Martzin]

So here's Chapter 4 for now. Pointing out errors and criticisms would be much welcomed.
And one more thing, I did say in the last chapter I was having some trouble. It's past now but the course of Chapter 5-6 may have a slight drop in quality because of said problems. Luckily though, Chapter 7 is doing pretty well.

Still gives me shivers when I re-read it.

Rock solid work.

10/10 barnes & noble

[Karmac]

Honestly don't see much wrong with this, you did good Marty.

[Eenkogneeto]

Such is the fate of most people who escape, bursting waiting for someone to send the damn pod up.

[McRipfist]

Top tier work again, man.