Forever Blind Ghost - 4

>>12:23
>>Following Day
>>DALIAH SYSTEM: Kellidan, Ferzio city
>>Noble Four (Emile-A239)

Emile held his shot gun at the ready as he slowly crept down the hallway, Jun and Thom close behind him. He had been using the dog's blood trail to find what had attacked it earlier. As they walked farther, Jun pointed to something in the distance. When they walked up to it, Jun almost threw up his lunch.

They had found the missing dog… or what was left of it. It's bloody skeleton still had bits of flesh and fur hanging onto it. Due to the fact that the corpse was still steaming… Emile knew that whatever had did this… it was still here…

There was a loud squeal that caused the SPARTANs to jerk around to another dark hallway. To their amazement, there were over twenty grunts fleeing past for their life, failing to notice the gawking enemy. Emile took the liberty of shooting sixteen of them, but then grabbed one around its neck and picked it up so that they were eye to eye.

The grunt choked and gurgled as it squirmed in attempts to free itself. "Please! Let me go! Let me go! Run for your nipple lives!" The grunt whimpered as it peed.

"Aw, sick!" Emile dropped the grunt and took a step back. Jun and Thom snickered, but then shut up as Emile gave them a dirty look.

The grunt gasped for air and looked up fearfully at the SPARTANs. "You can't fight them! They're too powerful even for the big guys!' it stood up ready to run again, "Beware the one with the moons in her eyes! THEY SEE ALL-" the grunt screamed as it was pulled back into the darkness.

Emile jerked his light to the crunching and splurting sounds, and did not like what he saw. Jun and Thom took a few steps backwards as the shadowy figure stood up…

It looked like an elite… only… it had a crazed look in its bloodshot eyes. Blood seeped out of its nose, ears, and mouth. Some of its armor looked like it was missing. It spat blood and the grunts gas mask at the SPARTANs and roared in rage.

"I think we'd better listen to the alien before we get eaten as well!" Jun turned and sprinted back down the hall, Thom close behind him.

Emile did not back down that easily. He blew a few rounds into the elites gut.

The elite did not seem to notice the ammo bursting through its body, spilling its innards out behind it. It gnashed its mandibles together, drool dripping from its teeth, and lunged at Emile. Emile took a step back, continuing blowing rounds into the crazed alien, but the alien struck its head out, mouth wide open…

… and bit down hard on Emile's neck and shoulder.

Emile grunted in pain and staggered backwards, but did not cry out. "Eh? You like that? You like that!?" he pulled out his knife and embedded it into the elite's brain stem, "How does this taste, huh!?"

The elite moaned in pain, and fell heavily to the ground, ripping out a chunk of Emile's skin as it fell.

Emile pulled his blade out of the dead creature's head, blood dripping down his own arm as he retrieved it. There was another loud roar in the distance causing his head to jerk upwards. He didn't have to think twice as he saw four to six other crazed elites charging down the hall towards him. He spun around on his heels and sprinted like heck down the hall after his fellow Nobles. When he skidded around the corner, he saw Jun and Thom pounding on the door they had come from.

"It won't open!" Thom yelled as he rammed his shoulder into it again, "Someone has jammed the controls! It's almost as if this was planned… this was a trap!"

They all jerked their heads around again as more roars were heard. Emile quickly scanned his surroundings and spotted a flight of stairs that led to an elevator. Without warning, he dashed towards the stairway and sped up the steps. Jun and Thom quickly followed, hoping that Noble Four knew what he was doing.

As they hurried up the steps, Emile slaughtered any covies that got in his way. Jun tapped Thom's shoulder and pointed down at the steps they were climbing. Thom's eyes widened as he noticed blood splatters that seemed to grow bigger and more gruesome the higher they got. He kept his mind on extra alertness.

The elevator door came to view and Emile didn't wait for the motion sensors to open it. He shoved open the doors and rushed inside, his shotgun at the ready. Jun rushed in with Thom close behind him, but then Thom tripped as an enraged elite grabbed his ankle. Emile blew rounds into its face and though the ammunition seemed to peel back its hide, the elite continued to pull Thom away. Jun then aimed his sniper rifle and shot off the alien's arm.

The alien did not seem to notice the pain, but immediately backed away from the elevator as Thom rushed in and the doors closed shut.

Thom stamped on the twitching elite hand that was still grasping onto his foot. "Holy crap! Did you all see that!?"

"Duh, we were there with you!" Jun yelled back, "What do you think is wrong with them?"

"I dunno…" Thom kicked the hand away, "But it seems like they don't have a clue what pain is anymore… it's almost like-"

"They're instincts have taken over their minds." Emile finished Thom's sentence, "The only way to kill them now is to puncture their brainstems."

"How do you know this?"

Emile showed them the gash in his neck.

"Ah." Thom continued on with his theories, "They had a frenzied look in their eyes…except… they were glazed over as if they weren't really there."

"So you're saying that they're in some sort of trance?" Jun asked questionably.

Thom nodded.

Everyone watched the floor selection console flash to where they had intended on escaping… but then it passed it and continued to rise.

"Hold on…" Jun spoke with slight suspicion in his voice, "We've passed our stop-"

The lights started to flicker as the elevator moved faster. The elevator music started to play, but it was an odd mixture of country and techno-remix.  The elevator consol flickered and speedily rose with the elevator. The elevator started to hum…

"What the heck is going on!?" Thom yelled as he grabbed the sidebar.

The humming grew louder and Emile watched as the elevator numbers flashed all the way to the top floor. There was a loud explosion and the elevator lurched to a stop, throwing the nobles into the ceiling and back onto the floor in a tangle of armor. Emile's blood splashed onto his visor.

"Get off!" Not amused, Emile shoved Jun off of his face and kicked Thom off of his legs. He scrambled to his feet and viciously wiped at his face. Most of the red seemed to smear, but he managed to wipe away most of it so that he could see. Jun and Thom scrambled out of the elevator as if it was a horrible nightmare, and grabbed hold of their guns.

"The was totally not cool! Someone definitely rigged that elevator!" Thom dusted himself off.

"Most likely…" Jun agreed, "It's either the covenant is desperate to have us all killed AND somehow, have gained unthinkable intelligence; OR there's something else on this planet that does NOT want us here!" He walked towards the edge of the apartment building and peered down. He let out a low whistle as he barely saw the cliff it stood on and the waves that splashed against sharp rocks at the cliff's base. To him, they seemed like little black aphids.

"Would hate to be the one who fell off here." Jun said to himself before turning back to Thom and Emile, "I suggest that we contact the others. They need to know what's going on."

As if on cue, ironically, another elevator on the building next to theirs exploded, and Kat, Carter, and Jorge spilled out of its doors. After shaking themselves off, they scanned the area around them and spotted the rest of the Nobles. Carters hand shot to his com link.

>>"Status?"

>>"Yeah… ran into some crazed covenant and Emile got a chunk taken out of his shoulder, but other than that, we're all green" Thom replied.

>>"Good. We're all okay as well." Carter replied, "I don't think there are any captives. This whole place seems infected."

>>"Infected, sir?"

>>"Yeah." Kat joined in, "We scanned the blood of one of the dead elites and found a high percentage of blood toxicity…"

>>"Is it airborn?"

>>"Negative. Otherwise we'd all be in the same state."

>>"It probably had to enter through the victim's bloodstream." Jun chimed in, "The only way to get infected is to be bitten."

Everyone looked at Emile. He shrugged and set his hand to his com link.
>>"I wasn't bitten." He lied, "He bumped my knife as I tried to stab him and nicked myself by accident."

>>"Are you sure?"

>>"Affirmative." He lied again, not wanting to cause any more worry amongst the SPARTANs.

>>"Good." Carter answered, "We ran into a nasty looking Hunter… it has no mouth to begin with for biting, but seemed like it was trying to smash the whole place dow-"

A loud explosion erupted behind the others, throwing them forward. Fire and plasma lit up the area around them, making them look like silhouettes of a colorful painting.

>>"What the!?"

Something large burst from the burning hole in the roof. It was the hunter and it seemed really ticked off.

>>"Commander? What did you guys do to tick it off so frighteningly?"

>>"Nothing!"

The hunter roared and charged at the nobles, causing the earth to shake with each step it took. The team dodged out of the crazed creature's way and it butted its head against a large vent pipe. The pipe echoed and groaned as it teetered and started to fall towards the building Thom, Jun and Emile were on.

"Time to split!"

Everyone jumped out of the way as it came crashing down onto the building.

As Emile got up, he noticed that the vent pipe acted like a bridge from the other building to the building they were on.

"Quickly!" Carter yelled to Jorge and Kat, "Onto the next building! Now go! Go! GO!"
Carter pushed Jorge onto the vent in efforts to speed him up before running behind him. Kat stepped onto the vent, but then rolled to the side as the crazed hunter shot a plasma round from its cannon.
Kat quickly got up from the ground only to leap out of the way of the hunters swinging shield. The hunter roared in fury and tried to stomp on the rolling SPARTAN. By pure luck, it managed to kick Kat into the wall.

"Kat!"

Kat wheezed, trying to get air back into her lungs as the hunter got ready to charge again. She scrambled to find her gun as the giant creature ran on all fours. She leaped out of the way as it came crashing into the stone wall, causing wires and rubble to fly everywhere. Kat grabbed her pistol and started firing, but not matter how much orange blood sprayed from the hunter's flanks, it did not go down.

The hunter pulled itself out of the wall and swung its mighty shield at Kat again. She rolled between its legs, but was quickly running out of energy.

"Don't just stand there! Shoot at it!" Carter ordered the noble team.

"Our bullets don't even harm it and we might hit Kat!" Jun yelled, "There's no way we can help her-" Jun's face blinked into an expression of shock as Emile dashed past him towards the edge of the building.

"Emile!" Carter yelled as Noble Four leaped off the edge.

Emile barely made it across onto the other building, quickly grabbing hold of the edge. As he pulled himself up, he saw the hunter kick Kat again. She rolled to the other side of the building and struggled to rise. She was weakening. The hunter roared in victory and lumbered towards the spent SPARTAN.

Emile quickly pulled the rest of his body over the edge and dashed towards the hunter. As the beast raised its shield to finish Kat off… he jumped onto its back and pulled on its spinal quills.

The hunter roared in confusion and missed Kat by inches.

Emile continually stabbed the hunter in the neck, but to his dismay… the hunter had no brain stem. The hunter threw itself round and round, trying to buck Emile off of its back. From the orange mass, Emile could see Kat quickly limp across the bridge to safety. He then pulled on the hunters quills in a way, so that the hunter threw itself to the ground.

"Come on Emile! Hurry!" Carter yelled to Noble Four.

Emile burst up from the ground and was about to dash to the bridge, before he heard the hunter roar in rage and fire plasma in his direction. He dodged out of the way, but the line of plasma hit the vent and melted it.

With a loud groan and creek, the metal vent fell in between the buildings, leaving Emile trapped with the hunter.

Emile got up and shook his head, but then was greeted with a nice big swing from the hunters shield. He flew into the broken wall with a loud bang, causing his shields to go down quickly.

"Emile!"

Emile tried to raise his head, but felt pain all over. The hunter hit him again, crushing him against the wall. Lightning bolts splintered across his vision as the glass of his visor cracked from the force. The hunter raised its shield to strike him again, and Emile threw a plasma grenade at its haunches. He rolled out of the way as the hunter let out a puzzled "warf?" and the grenade exploded.

Emile lay on the ground for a few moments, oblivious to the nobles yells, before rising. He groaned in regret as her saw the hunter (or what was left of it) rush towards him. Emile dodged its shield as it came down and grabbed hold of it. As the hunter raised its shield into the air, Emile flew with it and landed on the hunters back once more. Emile growled in rage as he continually stabbed the hunter everywhere he could in attempts to bring it down.

The hunter roared in rage one last time before taking a step backwards. Its foot stepped right on the edge of the building causing it to lose its balance. Both Emile and the beast fell over the edge.

"No! EMILE!"

Emile jumped off the hunters back and reached for the edge of the building… but the tips of his fingers brushed against it and he started to fall too. The noble teams yells and curses quickly faded away as air rushed past him. The hunter flipped its position and swung at Emile again, clipping his hip.

Emile grunted in pain as he felt his leg pop from its socket. His vision of the Cliffside drew closer and he saw the hunter splatter against it. He braced himself as it rushed towards him…

… he heard loud snaps and crunches as he landed, sheer pain shooting up his spine and neck. The earth beneath him gave way and he continued to fall towards the ocean below. His shoulder clipped another Cliffside and he lost all feeling in his arm. Dark waves rushed towards him, and he smacked his head against one of the sharp rocks at the cliff's base. He splashed heavily into the water.

His body was completely limp. A trail of red blood was left behind as he slowly faded to the coldness of the ocean. The pain was no longer bearable, and water was seeping into his armor, causing him to choke. He was done for.  Giving up, he let the water run into his lungs.

As Emile's vision blurred as he sunk like a stone, he could see what looked like a bionic snake-like arm slither towards him.

Then all faded into darkness.