He does his best...

Nicholas stared at the onrushing monsters, frozen in place, his face twisted with animal terror, his lips working uselessly to form words that wouldn't come. He watched as Marie cut down one creature, then another, their deformed twitching limbs continuing to writhe even in ****, spewing streams of yellowish ichor across the deck. The pilot's knuckles whitened against the grip of his rifle, and with a **** effort he yanked the weapon up, the muzzle bouncing wildly. His finger trembled against the trigger, but Nicholas hesitated to fire - out of concern for hitting Marie or sheer panic, even he could not tell.

Another creature fell to Marie's blade in the wild melee, and the monsters seemed to back off for a moment, as if re-assessing their ****. But one of the slender beasts, with scythe-like claws on its grotesque arms, slipped past her and charged at Nicholas, judging him to be softer prey.

The sight of the nightmare charging at him finally broke through the pilots stupor. With a wild scream, he pulled the trigger, sending a hail of hypersonic rounds towards the beast. The projectiles slammed into the Slasher, tearing out chunks of its infected flesh, yet the creature kept coming. Nicholas stepped back, still screaming, and kept firing wildly at the monster, fighting against the recoil. The rifle chattered in his hands as the ammo counter on his weapon cycled rapidly. Finally, the creature's run faltered and it pitched forward to the deck, thick orange and yellow fluids leaking from its torn and mangled body. Nicholas kept firing at the twitching corpse until his ammunition counter flashed an ominous red. He lowered his shaking arms, his chest heaving with rapid breaths.

"Nicholas!"

Marie's cry drew his attention forward once more. He saw another creature lying in pieces at her feet, but behind it three more were already coming toward her. Slashers, leapers, he couldn't tell, and didn't care. Behind these, more of the deformed monstrosities writhed in the corridor, pressing forward, some crawling on the walls or the ceiling.

"Aim for the legs! Shoot! Shoot, you bastard!"

Nicholas brought his rifle up again, trying to steady the muzzle and sent a burst of bullets toward the charging creatures. A lucky shot bowled over one of the beasts, and another leapt to the side with inhuman agility to avoid his fire, leaving Marie to deal with the last. As she slashed at the creature, Nicholas fumbled at the rifles magazine, reloading in time to send another hail of bullets toward the approaching horde.

"ELEVATOR REPLACEMENT COMPLETE"

The emotionless, disembodied voice came from the repair station behind him, and Nicholas almost collapsed with relief.

"Marie!" the pilot shrieked, his voice sounding high pitched and foreign in his own ears, "Marie, its done, come on!" He stepped back to the station, his palm frantically smashing against the "Open" button again and again.

Marie slashed at the approaching monsters, then turned and broke into a sprint. She covered the ground quickly, but one of the infected beasts surged forward in a great leap, landing at her heels, its claws scrabbling against the thin steel plates of her RIG. Marie slashed back wildly, missing. The monster hissed, drool and spittle flying from its open maw, to match the pre-cum dripping from its inhuman cock, and reared back to strike again, before a burst of bullets tore into its skull, sending it tumbling to the ground. Marie looked up to see Nicholas, white-faced and wild-eyed, standing in front of the open elevator doors, his rifle pointed toward the on-coming monsters.

The engineer did not hesitate to use the momentary relief, and charged past Nicholas into the interior of the elevator. The pristine off-white walls of the replacement cabin, pleasantly lit from above seemed to be from another world when compared with the approaching chaos and depravity.

"Nick, come on!" Marie yelled out, fingers hovering over the control panel.

Nicholas fired off a last burst toward the monsters, then turned to follow. As his eyes met Marie's, a screech of metal cut through the tumult, and a large metal grate crashed to the deck at Nicholas's side, followed by a gurgling hiss from above. Nicholas's eyes widened in panic.