Snippet #2485532

Thomas Blackthorne

"Dive! Dive! Dive!" The boat coxswain roared at the top of his voice as the assault boat slowed to twenty miles an hour. Thomas, seated third in the row on the starboard side of the vessel gripped his regulator tightly with one hand and allowed himself to fall backwards into the water as the man in front of him vanished into the white wake.

The water hit him like a prize fighter, momentarily spinning him around like a rag doll. It took him several seconds to orient himself, clap the regulator between his teeth and do a quick check to make sure his gear was still attached. He was sinking slowly and a quick burst of air into his floatation vest stabilized him, allowing him to hang virtually motionless in the water.

"Charlie Team, confirm." The words crackled loudly in his ear and he winced slightly, his tongue flickering out to adjust the volume control inside his helmet. He waited as Charlie One and Charlie Two checked in before speaking.

"Charlie Three, confirmed." His words sounded hollow in the strange helmet he wore. It was the first time he had had access to such gear. The Canadian Combat Engineers, while being arguably the best in the world, did not have the same budget as their US counterparts and he had admit, he was damn jealous.

The remainder of the team sounded off. Their mission at this moment was to advance on a small island on the edge of the harbour and take it from the enemy force that was holding it. For all purposes it was a terrorist base with heavy security. Due to the nature of live fire however, there weren't actually any enemy troops on the island. Rather they would have to approach and infiltrate undetected by a whole range of electronic warfare systems.

"Charlie Team, close on me." The order came through and a quick glance at a wrist mounted map showed him the bright little dots indicating his five team mates. He began to slowly kick towards the dot indicating Charlie One.

"Charlie Four is that you?" Charlie One suddenly came in over the radio again. "Why the hell are you on the bottom?"

"Negative Charlie One, I am not on the bottom. "

"Then who the fuck is that?"

"Is it a person?"

"I don't know, looks like, I'm going to investigate. Close on me."

There was something about the situation that suddenly didn't feel right to the seasoned combat veteran inside Thomas Blackthorne. Of the team he was on, he was the oldest and the only one who had actually seen combat. The majority of the two teams out today were new bucks, only he and the engineer sergeant on Delta team were actual combat veterans.

"Charlie One, Charlie Three, do no approach alone, wait for the team to assemble."

"It's a..." Whatever else Charlie One had meant to say was cut off by a horrible scream that nearly burst Thomas's ear drum. He didn't wait as he ordered the team to close on Charlie Ones position and make contact.

It's got to a be shark. Please Thor, let it be a shark. Thomas could feel the blood pounding in his temples as he swam as quickly as could through the murk. He was on top of Charlie One almost before he saw him and only his height off the ocean floor saved him from what had befallen his brother in arms.

Four of them had him, they had ripped his helmet off and one was chewing off his lower chin and lip. It looked ridiculously comical, the slow movements of the attackers and the quickly weakening struggles of the dying soldier made even more slow motion by the water. Thomas could see that they were human, or had been once upon a time. Their features were distorted, their skin grey, their eyes like strange white orbs as they turned their attention from Charlie One and tried to reach up towards him.

"Holy shit..." He said aloud into his mic.

"Charlie Three, say again." The voice in his ear almost scared him to death and forced himself to focus on the situation at hand.

"Charlie One is down. I repeat, Charlie One is down. Do not approach, hostiles appear to be humanoid and..." His words faltered as he watched in horror as Charlie One began to move again, small jerks at first, then more violent until suddenly the head rotated towards him despite the yards of small intestine that floated freely in the murky brown cloud of blood. The eyes had gone white and arms began to reach towards him.

"Jesus christ!" Charlie Four had arrived, barely avoiding the now five creatures that were clawing up at them. "Charlie One is, what, jesus, fucking holy christ."

"Calm soldier." Thomas snapped into his mic as the stunned youngster joined him.

The five creatures, one of them now still in it's black military issue dive gear, were trying to reach up, white eyes fixed on the two floating men. It took Thomas a moment to realize that Charlies Two, Five, and Six had not checked in. He tried to raise them on the mic but got no response.

"Mother fucking Christ..." Charlie Four suddenly spoke again. "Sergeant, what the fuck."

He was pointing and Thomas became aware for the first time of a mass of dark shapes moving towards them along the sea bed. There must have been at least a hundred of them, all of them wearing bathing suits, beach wear, or nothing at all. One had a military issue dive mask wrapped around its head, it could explain why nothing had been heard from the other team members.

"We're bugging out." Thomas ordered, filling his vest with air and rising towards the surface. They had been down for no more than 30 minutes and he wanted out. A cold fear he had not felt since his first night patrol was taking hold. "But first."

He raised his weapon, the standard issue M-16, and fired two rounds into Charlie Ones torso. It wasn't rational thinking, he couldn't even imagine what that would be like right now. Cold had training had taken over and he could hear his own heavy breathing loud in his mask. It took a moment for him to realize that the bullets had done nothing and that the dead eyes were still reaching up towards him.

A swift kick and he had changed position, steadied his aim as best he could and put a bullet right between the milky white eyes. In an instant Charlie One was gone, his place taken by other creatures as they reached towards him. Nothing made sense and it was all he could to keep from vomiting into his mask as he kicked towards the surface. As it got closer he prayed it was just a dream, that he would break the surface and wake up in his own bed.

Instead he found himself on the edge of a city engulfed in hell.