Hellspawn chapter 2

2
 
“Hey! Marcus! Wake up man!” something screams at me, I jump. It was all a dream, a terrible dream. I squeeze my eyes shut and rub my temples. “man, you feeling ok? You’ve been thrashing around for about ten minutes. Everyone thought you had a snake in your tent or something.” I blink at him, to confused to answer. “you should probably get up, I think somethings wrong. We havn’t heard from Logets team yet when they should have been back an hour ago, and they didn’t signal anyone either.” This wakes me up. I shoot up off the ground.
“they’re not back yet? Shouldn’t we of sent a squad in then?” I say very nervously, Derek gives me an appraising look.
“you feeling ok? Your acting, well, different.”
“no! I mean, yea I feel fine.” I really don’t feel fine though, I feel terrible. The dream is haunting me. I can almost feel the boy ripping out my neck, as if he’s waiting for me in the village
“well you better get up man, we gotta get ready.”
“I’ll be ready in five.”
By the time I’m dressed and out of my tent many men are eating trail rations in a large circle, talking quietly. The sun isn’t up yet, but im guessing it will be soon. I sit down by private Vegrent who has a bandage wrapped around his side now.
“feelin’ ok Cooper?” he says through a mouthful of food, I nod gloomily, and pull out a pack of food myself, eating in silence. The lieutenant walks up to the circle in silence, he seems a lot paler.
“listen up marines. We havn’t heard from Loget and his team, our radios aren’t working, so we don’t know if they have been captured or just unable to contact us.”
“you think they could be dead?”  Private James asks him, who replies with a shrug.
“We better find out, shouldn’t we?”
“so whats the plan?” Sergeant Joseph shouts out from across the circle.
“we’re gunna break into our three squads. Joseph, I want you to take your men and flank around the back, get ‘em from the rear. Sims, take your men in from the east, and Jackson and I will head in from the front. With any luck they’ll all flee to the middle of their village and we can capture ‘em there. After that we can check the houses.”
“ok men, lets form up and get this over with.” Sergeant Sims shouts out, I hop up and walk over to her, followed by the other men.
“be there in twenty!” the lieutenant shouts to us.
We shoulder our gear and head off. I turn around and see my fellow squad mates, walking single file behind myself. First I see Derek, who smiles briefly at me. Private James, a very muscly man who I’ve known since I first enlisted, he too smiles at me. Next came Corporal Maeves, she glares at me as she passes. She definitely thinks I’m crazy. I make a mental note not to do anything crazy in front of her anymore. She is followed closely by the Dane brothers, both two privates who I get along fairly well with. Bringing up the rear is private Cheing. He's the only person in my platoon from an eastern culture. He's really quiet, some people think he's as crazy as I am, but he's ok really, just too quiet.

"hold." Sims whispers. One after another the men stop, occasionally bumping into the person in front. From where I stood I could see the village clearly, the village had about thirty houses, all not very large. I can't see anyone outside though, it must be too early. 
"ok. Here's the plan, we're going to stick In a tight formation. Barnes, I want you on point with me. Maevee, James, take the left. Danes, right. Cheing, Cooper, I want you to cover our six. Hopefully we can wake them up and send them into the centre of the village."
"and what if they hide in their houses?" Maeve asks.
"then we go in. Let's hear a hoo-rah." 
"hoo-rah!" we mutter under our breath.
I grab my gun that has been dangling on my side and check the magazine, my gun is in working order. I pull the M4 up to my shoulder to get into the feel of it.
"let's move In marines!" Sims barks back at us. Derek takes to the front, his gun swaying from side to side as he searches for an opponent. The Dane brothers are close behind him, their large machine guns held at their shoulders. Maeve and James a step behind, watching their side. I'm close behind Private Cheing, who's walking backwards more often then forewords. His eyes are darting from left to right, his gun shaking in his hands. 

We pass one building without seeing anyone. Then another. Then another. The town gives off an eery silence, putting me on edge and making me watch all sides, instead of just my own. We get very close to the centre of town when I hear Derek whisper, "what the hell happened here?" 
We must have reached the centre of the village for a small circle has formed. I turn to see what everyone is looking at, what I see springs tears to my eyes and forms vomit at the back of my throat.  

Formed in the centre of town is a pile of bones surrounded by four high stakes. The bones consist of skulls and arms, legs, and what looks like spines. But the part that really demoralises me is the stakes, piled with fresh bodys from top to bottom. One filled with young children, another with some older men, a third with a mix of young and old women, and the last with two bodys-
"holy s**t! That's Loget and Buch!" private James shouts. I loom at their bodies, Both are speared through the chest, and Loget is missing an arm.
"looks like someone ripped it clean off." Sims mutters under her breath. I hear a retching sound and turn to see Cheing on all fours, I rush to help him up. 
"who did this!" the younger Dane brother shouts at no one in particular.
"shut up! They might still be around!" Sims says to us, we all raise our guns and turn in all directions, searching for the murderers.
"contact!" the older Dane says, I spin around and see that he's already giving chase, he runs around a building and out of site. 
"after him, Cooper!" Sims barks at me, I nod and run around the corner after Dane. I can just see his back turn right and out of sight as I come around the corner, I chase after him, gun raised. Dane is waiting at the entrance of one of the houses, he must of stopped and waited for backup.
"whoever it is, they're in here." he nudged his arm to indicate the building.
"ok private, on my six."
I flick a light attached to my gun on and enter the building.

The building is made entirely out of stone, and isn't very large. There is only four rooms, all made in a square shape. The first room we enter is filled with what looks to be makeshift chairs and a table off to one side. My light shines on the wall, where blood seems to be stained into weird patterns.
I point Dane to the room to our left and he creeps off, I continue forward into the next room. This room is filled with long sheets that look like they've been used to sleep on. The Walls are similarly patterned with blood.

"Corporol! I found him!" I hear Dane shout, his voice seems too high to be normal. I turn on my heel and rush over to where I sent him. I see him kneeling beside a black human wearing clothes that match the patterns on the wall. I flash my light on him and gasp.
It's private Mells.
I kneel by him. What I mistook as his clothes is his skin, something has burned his pale skin into a horrible black. The patterns have been engraved everywhere on his body; around his arms, on his chest and  back and down his legs.
"who did this to you?" I whisper to him, his eyes are fixed on mine, but he doesn't answer me. His black hand reaches up and grabs my own, I can feel the heat still off it. 
"get sergeant sims! Now!" I shout at him, he dosn't hesitate for a moment, I can tell he dosnt want to be here. 
"who did this?" I whisper again, I look him up and down. "who did this private, I'll see them murdered."
His eyes close momentarily and tears roll down his face.
"hell. No where safe." he chokes out, his voice barely audible. I lean closer to him so I can hear better. "they find you. Rip. Tear. Got Loget and Buch." 
Just then Sergeant Sims walks in with the rest of the squad. Many of them look queasy and I hear Maeves mutter, 
"d****t, Mells."
"Maeves! Barnes! See to him, James, get back and find the Lieutenant. Dane! I want both of you to search every Building! Cheing, get on top of a high building and signal me if you find anything. Cooper. With me." Sims starts saying to everyone, a hard look has set upon her face. One that I've seen only when she's determined. 

I step outside with her, and she turns to me. Staring me down. After I while she gets fed up and says, "well? What happened!"
"when I caught up with private Dane he was outside, and we just found him on the ground there."
"then why was he running? Did someone chase him here?" 
"he wasn't making sense." I say shaking my head, "he said something about hell and something finding him."
"then what happened to Loget and Buch? And all those Bodies?"
"I don't know, like I said, he wasn't making sense! He said they got Loget and Buch."
"they? And what exactly is they!" she shouts at me, getting spit in my face.
"something inhuman! What kind of person would do that? Mells mentioned something about hell too!" I scream back at her, hitting my fist off the stone building beside me.
"of course he'd say that just look at him! I'm sure he thinks he just went through hell and back! That dosent mean he has though!"
"did you see those Walls? Do you think anyone just does that! This isn’t a normal village Sergeant!” she steps back now, as if I slapped her and said in a whisper, “you really must be crazy if you think that corporal.”
I’m about to respond when the lieutenant walks up with what looks like the rest of the platoon. He looks as if he’s heard every single word we’ve said, which he probably has.
“I want everyone to spread out and tear every god damn building apart if you have to, just find who did this to our men! Sergeant Sims, if you could come with me. You too, Sergeant Joseph, Sergeant Jackson.”
The men start to break off and search the few buildings in the village, Private Vegrent, who now has a large wrap on his side, approaches me with a man who I know as Private Eeken. Eekens is fairly short, about a head shorter then myself, although he makes up for it in muscle. I know he is very hot headed too, for I heard on his last mission he yelled at his sergeant, and had to be transferred after.
 “we’re with you Corporal.” Vegrent says to me, Eekens nods his assent.
“right. Ok, lets go.”
We searched every building. By the time we finished the sun was well overhead and the heat made us drain our water supplys. Derek spotted me just after noon and called me over, I notice Vegrent and Eekens walk off to talk to Sergeant Joseph.
“What’s up Derek?” I ask him as I approach him, he too seems to be sweating and sporting a tan from the sun.
“Private Mells isn’t getting better, I think we’re gunna lose him man.” He says in a gloomy tone.
“What’s wrong with him?”
“we don’t really know, he will be unconscious but he keeps thrashing and screaming in pain.”
“its this damned village, Derek, something isn’t right here.”
“it cant be. We searched every building here and there wasn’t anything!”
“but there was those freaky patterns on most buildings, and some had weirder stuff in it.”
“weirder how?”
“some had these weird shrines built in them, all with weird goblets filled with blood and severed fingers lying around and such.”
“that’s weird. Is the Lieutenant making us camp here for the night? There isn’t really much we can claim from this village now that everyones dead.”
“I dunno man.” I say to him, then lower my voice as I add, “but somethings not right with the lieutenant.” 
"I know, he's been different ever since we got off that helicopter."  he pauses as he sees sergeant sims approach.
"any new orders, Sergeant?" I ask quickly, she stares at me darkly, then addresses Derek.
"we're staying here for the night private. We're sending two squads out to refresh our water supplies, there's a river not far from here."
"our squad and Sergeant Jackson's. I'm hoping to convince Sergeant Jackson into burying those bodies and bones. Be at the centre of town on ten." she then walks off without looking back. I turn to Derek and let out a small groan.
"I really don't want to stay here."
"Me neither man, but I bet it was the lieutenants call."
"well, unless you want to talk to Sims about it then there isn't much we can do."
"whatever man, let's just go."
We head off for the centre of the village where Josephs squad of fourteen is already assembled and ready to go. I don't talk to many of the men In Josephs squad, many of them shoot looks towards myself and Derek as we come into view.  Sergeant Sims hasn't arrived yet and the only other one who has arrived is Private Cheing. He is sitting against a wall holding something in his hand, muttering under his breath.
"Private Cheing, what do you have there?" I ask him, I take a seat by him and Derek follows suit.
"it's a dream catcher Corporal." he says quietly, looking away.
"aren't those used to keep away bad dreams?" Derek asks, a wide grin on his face.
"oh no! Where I come from we believe they ward away demons and spirits too." he says, his face screwed up in concentration.
"I dunno where you come from man, but we're in the middle of nowhere right now. I don't think there's and demons or spirits out here." Derek says, looking around, as if looking for a demon.
"oh shut up Derek." I say, my dream still in the back of my mind.
"why? What's the m-" he starts, but he never finishes. Just then a gunshot rings through the village. Every jumps and points there guns where they heard the noise. I start to move towards the noise, but Sergeant Sims exits a building with my squad. Their faces are blank, and I'm already suspecting the worst when Sims answers the question my face asks.
"Mells is dead. The lieutenant killed him."