Chapter 14 – The Swarm

I suddenly felt a gust of heat on my face. It was ridiculously hot and stuffy in this area. I wondered why. I looked around the place and saw some metal staircases around the area leading up somewhere. I approached one of them and began going up.
It seemed to be a series of platforms ordered neatly in one huge room. I knew I had to be careful as down below were plenty of tanks with lava. This must’ve been one of the places where they get energy from volcanoes. I thought of perhaps reaching the top and so started making my way up one staircase at a time.
Suddenly I heard buzzing. I thought that was just ringing in my ears, but after a reality check it sounded too real to be an illusion. I looked around the place but nothing could tell me where the buzzing might be coming from.
I continued going up the stairs and here something flew into my face and knocked me down. I fell down the staircase and hit my head hard.
I didn’t enjoy that at all, so after getting up I began going back up very slowly and here saw some Ganos. They suddenly began coming out of all the possible corners of the place.
- “Must be my luck.” I said and didn’t move from place.
The swarm of Ganos began approaching me. I quickly went back down those stairs and began running towards another staircase leading up. The swarm of Ganos looked really neat, not a single Ganos was out of place. They began catching up, so I quickly turned around and shot out of my SSS. A couple of Ganos fell out of the swarm and died. I then shot again and two more died.
- “This is not enough.” I said to myself.
Here the swarm reached me. I quickly dived out of the way, but a few Ganos flew into me still and so I slid towards the edge of the platform and fell over the board. My reactions saved me as I grabbed onto the edge with both of my hands. My shotgun however didn’t get so lucky and plunged right down into the steaming lava tank.
- “Perfect.” I commented sarcastically and pushed myself back up onto the platform.
The swarm began approaching me again. I got out the V-blast SMG that I found earlier and began firing at the swarm. It seemed to work a bit more effectively than SSS as a few bullets were enough to bring one down and rate of fire was pretty good. However I was killing only a tiny part of the swarm and so instincts told me to keep running, so I did.
I finally reached the desired staircase and began the ascension. There were a few more platforms left to the top. I then ran along another platform towards more stairs. There were a couple of dead bodies here and they seemed fresh. They wore a strange uniform of dark red colour. This told me that I was close to the secret base.
A few Ganos caught up with me and attempted to sting me, but I dodged them in time. One of them managed though to snatch my V blast SMG with its mouth and to bite it in half.
- “Now that is just great.” I said sarcastically again, “Only a V pistol left now.”
I knew for sure that with V pistol I wouldn’t stand a chance, especially that the bulk of the swarm was approaching again.
I quickly braced myself for the worst and sprinted as fast as I could towards the last staircase and ran via it up to the top platform. It seemed to lead to a big metal double door. I ran up to the door and attempted to push it open, but it was electronically locked. There was also a security camera next to it. As soon as I saw it I stepped out of its field of view because I didn’t want enemies to expect me.
The swarm then reached my location but stopped a few metres away from the door. Something kept them back, but I couldn’t understand what. As if there was some kind of force there.
I turned back towards the door and tried to figure out a way to open it, but nothing seemed to help. I was stranded there.
My instincts started to go crazy again and so I began looking around the place frantically. There must’ve been another way. I then spotted a broken wall a few platforms down. After some thinking I decided to check it out as it was my only way. I looked at the swarm carefully before moving and then at the destination, planned my moves and then instantaneously took off. I jumped from this platform to the next one down. The swarm resumed following me. I recovered from the jump and continued running towards the next jump. That jump was a lot rougher, but I still got up after that and kept on running.
The swarm was still on my tail when I reached the hole in the wall. I dived into it and slid a long way down through the darkness, losing my consciousness at the end of the fall.