Chapter Fifteen: Counter Rebellion

The shotgun felt heavy and grim in his hands. It was a necessary instrument for what he was about to do. Allan led the way almost by accident. Somewhere along the line, he had gotten in front of Sergeant Lynch. Who seemed almost glad to let someone else take the lead. They were just now emerging from the underground.

Dawn was approaching, but it offered no solace; no hope. Everyone knew the bleak, immediate future that awaited them. No, they had other, more immediate things to attend to. There weren't many of them, but Allan couldn't bring himself to care about numbers. All he cared about was getting to Kurt, and making him suffer for as long as possible.

For the first time in what felt like ages, Allan was truly pissed off about something. He had been spending most of his time lately, what felt like years, being afraid or lonely or subdued. But now, anger, burning, searing hot rage, was boiling through his veins like acid or liquid fire. He was ready for blood, and this time it wasn't alien.

Allan, Lynch, Jena and a half dozen others made their way up out of the underground part of the installation into the surface structure. Already, they could hear the gunfire. Allan exited the first structure and immediately surveyed the area to assess the situation. The other structure was across the way, and under attack.

The sky was painted in gray, a dull, overcast cloud cover. Somewhere, a storm was brewing. Already, lighting painted the horizon. Allan felt it appropriate for the situation. Up ahead was a gunfight. A small collection of traitors were holed up in the command center, blindfiring and taking potshots out of the windows.

Allan could see the rest of the squad assembled behind a random assortment of boxes, crates and debris. Allan knew immediately what to do, and was glad he was in such a position to do so.

"Cover me." he murmured to the rest. He immediately broke away from the group and began to head up to the natural wall that surrounded the base. As he made it to the wall, he could sense someone else had followed him. He turned around and saw it was Jena.

“I’m coming with you.” she said in a voice that suggested he had absolutely no room to argue the decision. Allan nodded tightly and turned back around. The pair made their way quickly and silently along the interior of the wall. His plan was simple, infiltrate the back entrance and end Kurt’s reign of insanity with a shotgun to the back of the head. It was a simple plan, and in his mind, he couldn’t fail.

They continued their silent approach, moving as quickly as possible while staying low. It was paramount that they remain hidden from view. So far, no one had seen them. Allan kept his eyes on the base and studied it for any signs of movement. He finally spotted a secondary entrance and immediately broke away from the wall. It looked as if everyone had committed themselves to the frontal defense.

This would be easy. Allan and Jena continued their brief incursion into enemy territory and slipped up to the back. Allan let his shotgun enter first and stepped inside. He spotted a single, solitary man standing guard; who was focused wholeheartedly on the barrel of the shotgun which happened to be pointed right at him. He remained totally still.

“I give up.” he said, and dropped his guns immediately. Allan chuckled darkly and kept the shotgun trained upon the man’s face.

“No, really. I do.” he said more intently. Allan slowly began walking towards him,

“We’ll see.” he replied, and immediately bashed the man’s nose in. The former ODST crumpled to the ground, unconscious. Allan took his weapons away, secured them to himself and Jena, and then continued along. A few seconds later, he found the entrance to the central room of the topside structure. Allan and Jena remained crouched and silent, undetected thus far. Kurt was standing there.

Allan studied him intently. The man was definitely wounded. His helmet was off, as was the upper part of his armor. It appeared as if he’d been shot and worked on briefly, but not enough to save himself. There was no one else in the room, and probably very few soldiers left to his rebellion at all. He was going to die.

Allan stepped forward, shotgun ready. He remained absolutely silent. Eventually, Kurt recognized that someone else was standing behind him. He turned around, the pain on his face was obvious. But when he saw Allan standing there, he smiled grimly. He broke the silence, finally,

“It was worth it.” he said darkly. Allan lost any trace of emotion and raised his shotgun. Kurt stared down the barrel of it, still smiling that damned smile. Allan began to squeeze the trigger, but then felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Wait.” Jena said, stepping forward. She reached forward and pushed the barrel down.

“I want to do it.” she said. Before either of them could do anything, Kurt snapped up a pistol off the table and fired off a shot. Allan yelled and tackled Kurt to the ground immediately, ripping the pistol out of his hand. Allan heard a soft whimper from behind him and twisted his head around, he cried out as he watched Jena collapse to her knees, hands clutching her stomach. Allan turned back around and grabbed the pistol, he shoved it into Kurt’s smiling mouth.

“Go on.” he said best he could with the gun barrel stuck between his teeth. Allan was shaking with rage, he began to squeeze the trigger. Someone stepped into the room.

“Don’t think so.” another familiar voice said. Both men turned to look at the new arrival. Sergeant Gray stood there, smiling dark and mirthless, holding a battle rifle that wasn’t pointed at anything in particular.

“This is our revenge.” Kate said. She walked over to Jena and helped her to her feet. Allan saw that, while pained, Jena still looked determined as hell. The two women walked over and stood beside Allan and Kurt. Allan slowly got up and stepped away, taking the pistol and any weapons around with him.

Kurt smiled up at them.

“You were both a good screw.” he said. “It was worth-” his sentence was interrupted by an explosive, agonizing scream as Jena slammed her heel down on his crotch and crushed it between her boot and the floor. Allan watched in absolute dismay as blood spurted out from the wounded area. A bullet to the head was a miracle compared to what they were doing to him. Allan suddenly found himself glad he had hesitated.

“What I am about to do to you is only MILD compared to what you did to me!” Kate screamed. She dropped down and shoved her finger into the bullet wound in Kurt’s stomach. His screaming reached a new level of intensity right then as the wound was torn open. Kate continued that for a while, eventually ramming a second finger into the wound. Kurt was screaming almost nonstop now.

Eventually, Kate got tired of that and from then on, they took turns stomping on him. They stomped a trail from his ruined crotch up to his head. At the end of it all, Kurt was lying there, barely alive, still clinging to life by an immeasurably thin thread, staring up at them both. He was coughing up so much blood.

Kate raised his foot and brought it down on his head with a sickening crunch. As she continued stomping and screaming at his corpse, the others, loyal to Hayes, filed into the room. The gunfire had ceased minutes ago. They all stared in horrid silence at the display, Kate stomping and crying and screaming, so much blood and pulpy brains. Eventually, she either realized or started caring that other people were seeing her.

She stopped and simply stood there, covered in blood, breathing hard. Slowly, the other filed into the room. Allan turned as he heard someone collapse and he cried out as he realized it was Jena. He ran over to her as Hayes came into the room and began studying one of the computer screens.

“Medic!” Allan screamed.

“I’ll be fine.” Jena said quietly through gritted teeth, her hand over her stomach. Allan stared down at her.

“You’ll be fine.” he agreed, and leaned down and kissed her. Someone pushed his way through the crowd and knelt next to them.

“Look out.” he murmured, his hands going for a medpak on his hip. Allan let him get to work.

“Change of plans.” Hayes said suddenly. Everyone looked over at him.

“The Covenant are nearly here, radar indicates several thousand. Lance Corporal Miller put the final ICBM on a countdown timer, and it appears that there are a group of Pelicans on their way here. He must have called them, too. But the timer will detonate before the Pelicans get here. Alright, Allan, take Collins down to the bomb to see if he can delay the timer. Some of us might be able to get out of here. Everyone else, topside.” Hayes said.

Everyone began to head out of the room, gathering any weapons they could find, until only Hayes, Allan, Collins, Jena and the medic remained. Hayes was staring at the medic, and Allan could see he was debating whether or not to make him go up, too. Hayes looked up, at Allan, and both men stared at each other for a long time. Finally, Hayes turned away and left the room. Relieved, Allan turned to Collins.

“Come on, let’s go.” he said, and both men headed down into the depths of the outpost.