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Doom (Part 2)
By Aragorn
INT. THE RIFT - TAGGART'S P.O.V.
We fly at hyperspeed through a dazzling sea of red light with white lightning crackling all throughout, traveling through an interdimensional pathway. We fly through it and then come out on the other side.
INT. DEIMOS COMPLEX - LABS - COMMAND CONTROL
Taggart flies out of the Gateway and rolls under a console. The floor is caked with burnt innards and flesh. That's the first thing he notices. The next is the Gateway itself; He cranes his next to look at it and sees that the arch is now covered in blood and gore, etched with arcane and demonic symbols, dripping intestinal fluid in huge puddles on the floor. Red and blue lights flash from all sides as computers work overtime to maintain the portal.
A long white skinny leg peeks over the top of the arch. It's followed by another, and another...and another...and another. An eight-legged spider-like creature perches atop the Gateway and squeals. It’s body is an upside down, bald human head, with eight legs protruding from the side. It is a TRITE.
TAGGART
(whispering) They're taking it apart...
CHEN
(V.O.)
What?
TAGGART
( whispering) I'm here, Doc. Keep quiet.
He ventures another peek around the lab. Trites scuttle across the ceiling, hauling wires and sheets of metal in mouths. Undead PFCs stand guard against the walls. Taggart looks in the other direction and sees a pile of bloody skulls, some with a few pieces of flesh still on them. An Imp walks by, kicking one past him. Beyond those skulls is a clear path to the exit. He eases himself out.
The Imp is picking up a steel beam, its back to Taggart. Trying to keep his eyes on all of the busy creatures, he slowly rises to his feet and sidesteps toward the exit. However, because of that, he does not see the pile of skulls. The sound of his leg plowing into the pile of skulls is like a china cabinet falling on its face at a funeral.
He freezes in place, grimacing as every single monstrosity in the room turns toward him.
TAGGART
Fuck you guys.
Taggart races toward the exit, but a grate from the ceiling pops down and an Imp peaks its head out, hissing. It jumps down and lands in front of the exit. Taggart makes a sharp left and leaps into an open ventilation duct.
INT. DEIMOS COMPLEX - VENTILATION DUCT
The corporal sails into the ductwork, careening off the walls and plummeting into a diagonal shaft which is soon lit by fireballs from the Imp. The Imp rushes into the duct, tossing flame after flame at Taggart. Taggart swivels on his back so that he's facing the creature and fires the shotgun between his legs. The blast catches the Imp's shoulder and grinds its face against the wall; still it keeps coming.
TAGGART
Having fun yet?
The Imp lobs a fireball straight at him. He manages to roll aside, returns the favor with his shotgun.
INT. DEIMOS COMPLEX - SEWER TUNNEL
Taggart smashes through a grate and falls out of the ventilation duct. He lands in filthy brown water up to his waist. It fills his eyes and mouth and he flails madly, spitting and coughing as he returns to his feet. The Imp also falls out and slams into his back, causing both of them to go under the water.
Taggart surfaces with the Imp and slugs it in the mouth.
TAGGART
Have a drink on me!
He dunks its head under the water. The Imp's arms flail wildly, each blooming fireball extinguished with a splash. Finally it stops struggling and Taggart lets go of the body, letting it sink under the water.
His joints bruised & aching, Taggart pulls himself onto a concrete ledge and rips a syringe from a stimpack on his belt.
TAGGART
Ah, military-issue painkillers. Sugar water straight to my heart. Thanks Congress.
Chucking the syringe, he rests against the wall, getting a good look at his surroundings. The sewer tunnels are enormous, with walls and ledges of mossy brick & dried rivers of vile waste stained on the floor.
TAGGART
Okay. First things first, I gotta find those yellow and blue keys. Project leaders...
He jumps off the ledge and back into the water as he starts making his way down the tunnel.
TAGGART
Hey Doc, ya hear me?
CHEN
(V.O.)
Loud and clear. What was all that?
TAGGART
Just washing up. Listen Doc, who are the other project leaders?
CHEN
(V.O.)
Well, there's Doctor Ritch...and Lieutenant Weems.
TAGGART
Weems. Figures. You know anything about the layout of the sewage system?
CHEN
(V.O.)
I might be able to download an automap into your helmet.
TAGGART
That'll work.
TAGGART'S POV: The inside of his visor is lights up with a digitized image of the labyrinth that is the sewage system.
CHEN
(V.O.)
The south pumping station is right below Deimos Command.
TAGGART
(V.O.)
Then that's where I am now.
INT. DEIMOS COMPLEX - SEWER TUNNEL
Taggart snaps the visor up.
TAGGART
Exit is straight ahead, first shithole on my right.
CHEN
(V.O.)
Good luck.
Taggart resumes his slogging.
INT. DEIMOS COMPLEX - SEWER TUNNEL - ANOTHER TUNNEL
Driftwood and oily pools sweep past Taggart's legs. There seems to be an obstruction of some kind up ahead. As Taggart gets closer and his eyes adjust better, he sees that there are several Marines lying in various states of mutilated decay before an enormous red mass clogging the tunnel: a bulbous, rank thing that seems to be slightly moving and pulsating.
TAGGART
Chen.
CHEN
(V.O.)
Yeah?
TAGGART
How old is that friggin' automap?
CHEN
(V.O.)
I don't know, why?
TAGGART
Because there's something weird blocking the tunnel, and it looks like I wasn't the first poor bastard to get cornered down here by it.
Taggart spots one Marine’s dead body cradling a double-barreled shotgun.
TAGGART
Hello there, beautiful. Where have you been all my life?
Grabbing the weapon and dropping the pump shotgun into his other hand, he turns to face whatever horror claimed the lives of these troops.
Unbeknownst to Taggart, a huge yellow eye slowly moves towards him from the darkness of a side-tunnel. A roar from down the tunnel diverts Taggart’s attention and stops him from turning around and seeing the eye. A chaingun-wielding zombie walks through the water, approaching Taggart.
Taggart’s eyes go wide and he leaps and dives under the water as a torrent of gunfire sprays the water where he was just standing. The zombie gunner advances on Taggart's position as belt after belt of ammo is sucked greedily into the whirring chaingun. Chips of concrete break off from the walls as bullets rip into it. The zombie is tearing the tunnel apart and our hero is nowhere to be seen.
Taggart launches himself out of the water and empties both barrels of the double shotgun. The zombie's chest opens up like an instant autopsy, and he staggers, but quickly regains his footing. But in that split second, the chaingun has spun down, and it's just enough time for Taggart to slap two shells into his weapon and spit them into the gunner's face with a thunderclap.
He snaps up the chaingun with one hand before it hits the water. Score. Taggart nudges the corpse away and admires his prize. Behind him, a giant brown-colored floating ball, which the one giant eye belonged to, inches forward. It has a giant mouth filled with sharp teeth. It is a PAIN ELEMENTAL.
TAGGART
What the fuck did these guys eat?
The pain Elemental screeches and Taggart whips around just as it spits a Lost Soul at him. Taggart dives and the flaming skull skips over the water, missing him, and then makes a shrieking U-turn. The Pain Elemental then opens it’s mouth again and belches out several more Lost Souls which instantly home in on Taggart.
Taggart bats one aside with the chaingun, using it as a bat, and feeds a shell from his double shotgun to another. The Pain Elemental squirms and births more & more of the screaming fire skulls. They swarm around Taggart, nipping at his limbs, squawking at one another, trying eat him alive.
Just as he drops the chaingun, a Lost Soul flies up and engulfs his fist. With a mighty roar he punches the skull right into one of its siblings. The collision results in a deafening explosion as the two fire skulls explode. The others instantly scatter like fleeing fish.
TAGGART
Yeah! Take that!
They prepare to make a second run at him. He quickly picks up the chaingun as he loads a clip into the gun.
TAGGART
Bring it.
They come at him as one yowling wall of fire, and the chaingun cuts into the ranks in a series of blinding bursts, sending Lost Souls off-course into one another, into the wall, into the water with loud sizzles.
The Pain Elemental belches at his rear. He lobs the double shotgun over his shoulder and gives her a taste of it’s ammo. The Pain Elemental twists in agony and opens her maw. A bright red newborn skull appears in her fiery belly.
Taggart turns and points the chaingun straight at it.
TAGGART
Swallow this.
As Taggart lets loose with the gun, the Pain Elemental is deflated with a wet farting-like noise, smoke spewing from its blubbery lips. Suddenly tons of dark red water slams into the tunnel from the side-tunnel, sweeping Taggart off his feet and extinguishing the remaining Lost Souls.
Taggart bounces off the ceiling and is ground against the tunnel floor in the space of one second. He's being battered more by the water than anything the monsters have thrown at him. That’s when he realizes that it’s not water, but blood. A lot of blood. He flies down the tunnel, around the corner, speeding past rotting soldiers and jutting past stalactites made of metal and bone, and covered in blood smears.
Taggart grabs one of the horrid spears and holds on for dear life. The blood eventually calms, and lowers down. He lets go and jumps down into the blood-filled water, out of breath.
CHEN
(V.O.)
Taggart!
TAGGART
Present.
CHEN
(V.O.)
I found an alternate route that'll take you outside.
TAGGART
Hey, thanks. You're a lifesaver. It wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with a side tunnel near where I just was, would it?
INT. DEIMOS COMPLEX - MAINTENANCE SHAFT
Taggart is staring up a ladder which makes for a good hundred foot climb. On his right and left are radiation suits hanging from hooks.
TAGGART
Where does this lead, exactly?
CHEN
(V.O.)
The Toxic Disposal grounds.
TAGGART
This just gets better and better, sweetheart.
He grabs one of the suits and pulls it on over his armor. With the chainsaw and double shotgun strapped to his back, Taggart slowly & awkwardly ascends the ladder. Glowing green sludge
drizzles down onto his hood from above. He shakes it off and keeps going.
The top of the shaft is capped by a huge hatch. Grabbing the handle, Taggart braces his legs against the wall and twists. The handle groans, bends, and gives way, flakes of rust and toxic grime falling away. A good heave and the hatch flies open.
EXT. DEIMOS COMPLEX - HELL
Taggart is surrounded by barrels as far as the eye can see; barrels brimming with unstable waste, all packed together in a fenced-in pen. As unappealing a sight as that is, it's nothing compared to the terrain beyond.
The skies are blood-red and churning with something dark and cloudy, but not clouds at all; something alive. Jagged black mountains rivaling Earth's highest peaks stab into the stratosphere. Beneath the red sky, pyres burn at regular intervals, and great heaping piles of baking innards can be seen through the shimmering heat. Imps stalk across the barren wasteland, casting fireballs at humans impaled on giant wooden spikes with enough life still in them to wriggle like worms.
CHEN
(V.O.)
Taggart?
TAGGART
I think I know where Deimos went.
CHEN
(V.O.)
What do you see?
TAGGART
Hell.
He squeezes between rows of barrels, pulling off the radiation suit and flipping up his visor. A stinging heat accompanied by the odor of eons-old decay blasts his face. Mars's moon has been assimilated into the bowels of Hell. So has the base itself: the entire compound is covered in gore and bizarre and disturbing configurations of bone.
TAGGART
Deimos is in Hell. They're not aliens, Doc. they're fucking demons. I'm in fucking Hell.
INT. MARS CITY - DELTA LABS - COMMAND CONTROL
Chen looks up at the crimson Gateway but refuses to accept his description.
CHEN
Listen to what you're saying...
Even as she tries to find the right words to counter Taggart's revelation, her eyes wander from corpse to mutilated corpse in the lab. A halved PFC twitches on the floor and reaches out for her, his eyes white & empty.
CHEN
Taggart, you've got to get out of there.
EXT. DEIMOS COMPLEX - HELL
An unholy roar calls Taggart’s attention to a pile of rocks just outside the pen. A giant deformed shadow can be seen moving against one of the rocks and Taggart can hear heavy booming footsteps. A giant two-legged muscular monstrosity with a head to fit the size of the body, no eyes teeth-filled mouth, and fresh blood dripping from those teeth, stepped around the corner. It is a HELLKNIGHT. It lowly growls as it spots Taggart.
TAGGART
Hold that thought, Doc.
Taggart drops his visor as the Hellknight roars and unleashes a giant glowing blue energy ball from one of its hands. Taggart knocks every barrel out of his path and tears toward the fence as the energy ball slams into the waste dump, setting off a brilliant chain reaction of pounding explosions.
The earth trembles beneath Taggart's feet as he scrambles. The wall of fire behind him is growing at an fast rate and he'll be ash in mere seconds. He leaps - slams into the fence - the fire hits him.
Taggart is kicked into the air like a puny rag doll and screams all the way back down, hitting a rocky slope and sliding into a river of blood. Taggart surfaces, hauling his ass onto shore and dumping every sidearm onto the ground. He slams shells into the double shotgun, pumps the single shotgun, and feeds an ammo clip into the chaingun. He aims up the slope with the chaingun, attaching the other two guns to his armor, and waits.
A series of cries and roars echo across the wasteland. They increase in both number and proximity. The Hellknight’s coming and he's bringing a few friends.
TAGGART
If there's a Devil then there's a God. And if you can hear me, old
man, there's just one thing I wanna say.
The Hellknight appears on the hilltop with an army of Imps.
TAGGART
Let’s rock 'n' roll.
Taggart charges up the slippery slope with his gun blazing. The Hellknight roars and sends his troops down.
The chaingun chews their knees out, sending the Imps somersaulting past Taggart. Once Taggart runs low on bullets, he takes out the shotgun and pummels the Hellknight with shot after shot as it howls in pain.
Taggart falls to his knees in the rocks and crosses his arms, taking out three Imps with the shotgun, watching them sail into the river. The Hellknight rounds the corner and fires at him. Taggart whips out the double shotgun and fires, taking out a large chunk of flesh from the Hellknight. He begins to back up as he fires shot after shot into the creature as it takes one giant step towards him, an then another and another. Taggart puts the double shotgun away and takes out the chaingun once again. He turns and runs, reloading as he does so.
He hears the sound of an approaching energy ball and dodges, the ball slamming into a rock nearby and exploding. Taggart whips around with the newly reloaded chaingun.
TAGGART
Go to here.
He pushes down on the trigger and doesn’t let go until the giant Hellknight is on the ground in a bleeding pulp. Taggart steps towards it and sees that it’s still slightly bleeding. He takes out his double shotgun and fires a round into the head, exploding it in a grisly display of gore.
Taggart raises his arms in a victory cry. Then he begins his journey back up the hill and towards the Deimos complex. Near the top, he comes across a crashed Land Rover leaning against a boulder. He wearily throws the door open and sees the fried sergeant inside. But more importantly, he sees a rocket launcher on the seat next to the scorched body.
Taggart straps on the rocket launcher and heads back to the complex.
INT. DEIMOS COMPLEX - PROCESSING PLANT
The plant machinery is silent. Enormous pistons and assembly platforms lie still. Taggart weaves through the equipment without a sound. Crouching beside a generator, he peers into the darkness. Not one damn sound or fleck of movement.
TAGGART
I think someone's expecting me.
He turns his gaze upward, into the network of catwalks overlooking the plant and discover dozens of glowing red eyes glaring back down at him.
Taggart flips the rocket launder onto its butt and launches a rocket up into their midst. The fireball illuminates a staggering host of Imps and a few Pinky Demons, who immediately spread out across the plant with a chorus of squeals and grunts. Several of the surviving Imps start crawling straight down along the sides of the machines. Taggart peppers them with chaingun fire.
Too damn dark. He fires another rocket, this time into the mouth of a huge processor. It goes up like a volcano. The monsters squint & snarl at the light. Taggart takes the opportunity to pick off as many as he can in a 360-degree attack, then goes on one knee and reloads the rocket launcher.
A Pinky Demon roars at him from across the plant floor. Pounding starts coming from a closed door and soon the door is thrown off its hinges as a small army of pinky Demons rush into the room.
TAGGART
Oh shit.
The Imps fall back as the Pinky Demons fill the room and rush towards Taggart, closing in
on all sides. Taggart hefts the chaingun and fires, but discovers that it’s out of ammo.
TAGGART
Ah c'mon!
One of the creatures reaches him and slash at his back. Taggart cries out in pain just as another Pinky Demon slams its head into his face hard, knocking him back. They snort excitedly.
TAGGART
Fuck You.
Hurling the chaingun, he watches as one of the Pinky Demons’ back mechanical leg step on it, smashing it to pulp. Taggart lifts the double shotgun and blows the nearest Pinky Demon wide open, sending the shot through its spine and dropping the miserable creature to the floor.
Taggart gleefully opens fire. BLAM! Cock the gun. BLAM! Cock the gun. BLAM! Cock the gun. One leaps at him, but catches a faceful of shotgun pellets. It lands and into a boiling vat, trying to use its claws to stop, but to no use.
Taggart brings out the rocket launcher and fires. He watches a couple of the creature get blasted away, showering the rest with their innards. He fires another shot. Then another. Then one last one.
TAGGART
See what happens when ya play dirty?
There's nothing left alive to hear him. As darkness returns to the plant, Taggart winces and looks at his wounds. He pulls out a stimpack.
All the machinery suddenly roars to life, firing blinding lights straight into Taggart’s face as engines kick up with deafening groans and platforms begin descending all around him. The plant floor is reconfiguring into one narrow, zigzagging walkway with nothing on either side but a bottomless abyss.
The enormous machines - now suspended in mid-air from the upper catwalks - illuminate a single pillar which is rising from the blackness. On it, crouched in the fetal position, is a white, almost translucent humoid being.
The pillar stops at Taggart's level, about fifty feet away from him across the abyss. The glistening white creature rises and stares him down. Its torso is connected to its humanoid legs by a thick rope of bloody tissue and bone extending from beneath a broad ribcage. Black, glassy eyes above a fanged mouth regard Taggart with something that seems like curiosity. This is the ARCH-VILE.
Then, splaying its wicked foot-long claws, it lets out a deep laugh and fire begins to gather in its hands. Taggart lifts up the rocket launcher, preparing to use it to block a couple fireballs. However when the creature throws its hands out, roars, and claps them together, instead of a fireball hurtling at him, Taggart finds himself instantaneously bathed in burning flame.
He screams and topples from the walkway, grabbing onto the edge just in the nick of time and dangling helplessly as the magical flames die out on his armor. The double and single shotguns are strapped to his back, but the rocket launcher is gone. He glances down and sees it resting on a ledge carved out of the walkway, illuminated by a single torch.
TAGGART
I'm gonna need that.
The Arch-Vile summons another flame. Taggart crawls back onto the ledge and hand-over-hand away from the creature, around a corner and out of its view.
A fireball expands in the air next to him and quickly dissipates.
TAGGART
Fucker can't see me.
Taggart looks around and notices a handhold a few feet down. He jumps, grabs it, slips, and barely recovers. He's got to get down to that launcher.
INT. DEIMOS COMPLEX - PROCESSING PLANT - WALKWAY
The Arch-Vile suddenly leaps from its pillar onto the walkway, next to the corpse of a Pinky Demon. It splays its claws over the dead thing...and scattered bits of bone & flesh instantly fly back together in a surreal reversal of the Pinky Demon's demise, resurrecting it.
INT. DEIMOS COMPLEX - PROCESSING PLANT
Taggart drops to another handhold, cutting open his palm. A stream of blood trickles down into the dark abyss. He looks up and sees a Pinky Demon staring down at him. Then another appears beside it.
TAGGART
Bullshit.
INT. DEIMOS COMPLEX - PROCESSING PLANT - WALKWAY
We see the Arch-Vile reviving every creature on the walkway, and they begin milling over Taggart's position.
TAGGART
Still playing dirty!
Taggart is right above the ledge, so drops. His boot strikes the rocket launcher and sends it over the edge. Taggart drops and reaches down, grasping the strap with two fingers and holds onto it for his life. The creatures above scream at the thought of losing their meal.
TAGGART
Don't worry boys, I won't let you go hungry.
He rolls onto his back and fires a rocket. A half-dozen Pinky Demons are suddenly exploded into many pieces and plummeting into the abyss, out of the reach of the Arch-Vile. It only laughs however, as it stretches upward, resurrecting the Imps who were shot on the catwalks.
Fireballs begin streaking toward Taggart and he presses himself up against the wall, the fireballs exploding on the ledge right in front of his feet.
CHEN
(V.O.)
What's going on?
TAGGART
I'm in Hell, take a wild fucking guess!
He's pinned down with nowhere to go but down. The Arch-Vile's laugh echoes through the abyss.
TAGGART
Here goes nothing.
He leaps out, twisting his body to avoid the fireballs and drops into the dark abyss. ZOOM OUT from the Arch-Vile's enraged glare.
8/23/2005 9:32:13 PM
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