"She contaminated me."
"In ways I cannot describe"
"She contaminated my very soul."
"And changed my destiny forever."

2/19th Special Weapons Group Barracks
Restricted Area Bravo, Alfenwehr West Germany
Late Winter- 4 February, 1985
Day 3 of Repairs
Day 3 of the Third Incident
1345 Hours

Before I could step all the way through the door I heard my brother's voice as he stepped out of Titty Territory and into the CQ Area. Stokes put her hand on my arm and slowed me down.

"How can I help you, sir?" My brother rumbled, moving over to stand between the LT and me.

The suited men turned around. Four men in suits with earpieces and the bulge of a pistol under their armpits. The one they were bracketing had one a suit with an American flag lapel pin. That one smiled and stepped forward, holding out his hand. My brother shook it, smiling as the other man began talking.

"I'm Peter Ledbetter, Senior Executive Aide to Congressman Darren Warner, senior member of the House Armed Services Committee," the man said, smiling as he winced slightly. "Wow, firm grip there, Corporal Stillwater."

"Sorry, sir," My brother said. I noticed he'd slumped his shoulders slightly and he was using the tone of voice and accent when he wanted people to think he was an idiot. He let go of the aide's hand and gave an "aw-shucks" shuffle to his boots.

I moved up right behind my brother, kind of peering around him but making sure that my nametag was hidden behind my brother.

"Well, the Congressman sent me here to investigate what happened. Things aren't really clear as to what happened and the Congressman feels that having me right here will prevent any information from being garbled as it makes its way to him," The Aide said, still smiling.

The lizard noted how it seemed plastic, like a cheap mask covering something else up. It didn't trust the guy, not one little bit, and slotted him in the "potential threat" category before going back to watching his monitors.

"Understandable, sir," Monkey said, nodding slowly like he didn't really understand.

"Now, is there any chance you can walk me through what happened here, Corporal?" The Aide asked, looking around.

"I guess," Monkey said, reaching up and rubbing the side of his face. "I'm not too clear on what exactly went down though."

The Aide frowned. "I've heard you suffered a head wound, Corporal. Is that the reason?"

Monkey shook his head, stepping to the side to reveal me to the Aide. "Well, it was this Corporal Stillwater that was involved in last month's incident. I was out at Graf the entire time."

I could feel the childish glee rolling off of William as he spoke and had to restrain the urge to smack him for being a smartass.

The Aide looked at me, then at Monkey, then at me again, like he couldn't believe I existed. I knew what he was seeing. William's BDU top had "STILLWATER, W." on the nametag, I had "STILLWATER, A." on mine.

"Oh, well," the aide floundered. He held out his hand to me. "Peter Ledbetter, Senior Executive Aide to Congressman Darren Warner, senior member of the House Armed Services Committee," he told me. I gave him a firm handshake, letting go quickly, and just stared him in the eyes.

The four men in suits shuffled slightly, like they were trying to move away from me but stay close to him as I looked him in his eyes.

"Well, I, uh," Ledbetter said. He shivered for a second before looking away. "Well, Corporal, these gentlemen are with the Secret Service," he looked around. "Can you walk me through what happened here, Corporal?"

I stared at him for a long moment. "No, sir," I told him after a second or two.

"Excellent, excellent, I... wait, what?" He seemed shocked.

"I would need an S-2 representative, a member of my chain of command, and written authorization to discuss what happened," I told him. For some reason my voice was dead, emotionless, as I stared at him.

The Aide looked flustered, like he wasn't used to being denied something that he wanted. "Well, Corporal, I'm sure you understand that the Congressman sits on the House Armed Services Committee, which means that he's authorized to hear anything you might say."

"He is not here," I stated plainly. "And I would not reveal any information even to him, during a closed session, unless the requirement were met."

He stared a long moment and I could see the hamster running on its wheel while he tried to figure everything out.

"Corporal Stillwater," the voice was a calm, smooth woman's voice. I stepped back slightly, getting a view on who was speaking.

She was short, maybe five foot tall, clear blue eyes that were devoid of any empathy, button nose, black hair in a page cut, and wearing a black suit with a ChemCorps lapel pin.

Blackbriar Bitch

"Yes, ma'am?" I asked carefully. She was just out of range for me to reach if she went for her pistol and I'd seen how fast a Blackbriar Bitch could clear leather and start shooting. I didn't like the feeling one bit.

"Would you accept my permission to speak to the Congressman's aide?" She asked softly, her voice a razor hidden in a swath of silk.

I glanced Lieutenant Wright, who nodded slightly, then back to the Blackbriar Bitch. "Yes, ma'am, your authority is pretty clear," I admitted.

She looked around slowly. "Corporal Anthony Stillwater, I hereby allow you to discuss the events of the last two months with those investigating the incident," she said ritually.

"Yes, ma'am," I answered. I noticed that Major Mitchell had perked up at that and I knew that she'd be trying to interview me before the day was over.

Ledbetter looked relieved at the Blackbriar Bitch's willingness to allow me to talk to him and he adjusted his left cuff slightly before looking up at me, obviously attempting to let me know that he was in control of the situation.

"Well, Corporal Stillwater, can you walk me through what happened here?" He repeated.

"Which part?" I asked, staring down at him. He was only about two inches shorter than me, but I intended on making use of it. He wanted to play petty power games, fine, I was down with that.

"Well, when the Russians attacked," he said, frowning slightly.

"We killed them all," I shrugged. I turned and waved at the CQ Area. "After they jumped us in here, killed a couple of us, we retreated to a secure position and then a bunch of us chopped them into dog food."

I saw his eye twitch slightly.

"Please start from the beginning," Ledbetter tried again.

"Sir, I don't think interviewing Corporal Stillwater out here, standing around, is the best course of action," the CID investigator, Major Mitchell, tried, moving up next to me. Not close enough for me to grab her, of course, but near enough that she could pretend to be putting up a unified front with me.

Ledbetter looked around as if he was seeing the CQ Area for the first time then nodded. "True. True."

I just shrugged. The lizard flipped a couple of switches and the Plexiglass slowly lowered into place, locking me away from everything around me.

small. still. silent.

"Care to follow me, sir," Major Mitchell said. She glanced at me. "You too, Corporal," she gave me a slight smile that reminded me of the smiles my mother would give me right before she busted me in the mouth.

"Of course, um..." Ledbetter said.

"Major Mitchell, lead CID investigative agent for this incident," Mitchell smiled.

We weren't even in DC, Ledbetter wasn't even an actual politician, and she was already slipping his dick into her. Part of me sneered at her but the Plexiglass prevented any of my feelings from showing.

Together we went to the door, which Mitchell unlocked. Moving forward I grabbed one of the chairs as I waved the Secret Service agents at the door and they all entered before me. One of them automatically shut the door and I put the chair under the door handle and turned around, walking out of the CQ Area.

The Blackbriar Bitch's mouth twitched as she tried to keep from smiling at what I'd done.

"Was that really called for, Corporal?" She asked, moving so she'd be able to intercept me. I could hear the amusement in her voice.

"Not interested in talking to them," I shrugged.

Lieutenant Wright shook his head, moving toward the door as I made a beeline for where the vending machines were. "I'll take care of it," he nodded toward the Blackbriar Bitch. "Keep him from coming back out here and starting a brawl."

The Blackbriar Bitch just nodded.

"Dick move," William snickered as I walked by him.

The Blackbriar Bitch moved up next to me, remaining silent as she followed me into the alcove where the vending machines were. Past the vending machines were two pinball machines, the glass tops shattered. By the cold or by something we'd done, I couldn't be sure.

She watched me feed quarters into it and waited till I got my Orange Crush out of the machine.

"You're very resistant to interrogation, Corporal," she said, her voice soft. "Is it training or something more?"

"I don't know if I'm up to talking about what happened to them," I told her honestly, cracking open the soda. I took a long drink and moved over to the window, the pinball machines on my right. I stared out the window at the cleared back parking lot where vehicles were parked. "I'm still, hell, I don't know, I'm still..."

"Processing," She said gently, moving up next to me. She looked out the window. "With wind chill, right now, it's ten below zero. Cold enough to kill an unprotected man in minutes," she shook her head and put her left hand on the glass. "You survived up here, no food, no water, no heat, no power. An axe wielding psychopathic spree killer and then Soviet Vympel, all in your own barracks."

"We had food. MRE stocks. We had water," I corrected.

"To obtain it, you had to move into possible enemy territory," she mused. "There was no way to go for help during either incident. Even being Arctic trained, your chances were slim of making to help without the weather, the environment, or those big wolves killing you. Wolves like those," she nodded at the window.

I looked down and saw that there were four wolves sitting in the parking lot, all of them staring at the building. The wan sunlight didn't cast shadows and made them look surreal.

"Scouts," I grunted.

She nodded slowly. "Leaner and smaller than even the bitches. The hunters must be huge," she shuddered and pulled her hand off the glass. "You can almost feel them trying to figure out how to get into the barracks, to get at us."

"That's why Grouse is trying to get the windows fixed as fast as possible," I told her.

"They've been inside," she said, turning away from the window. "The second floor hallway and your room have no bodies present. I'm beginning to believe that the wolves came in and carried them away."

"Yes, ma'am," I said. I watched as the group of wolves suddenly went into motion. Two heading right, two left. "The window and door in my room were broken and the snow was only a foot or two below my windowsill. Same with the window at the end of the hallway and the windows in the Mag Offices."

"That would have given them access," she said. "I checked but didn't find any of... Artain I believe his name was? I didn't find any trace of his body."

That made me swallow thickly, remembering that we'd left him, cooling and dead, on the floor of my room. "We were too injured to carry his body."

"From the treatment records Specialist Nagle provided, I personally am surprised that any of you were able to return to the War Fighter Tunnels under your own power," she stated. "I'm not sure it was wise to force them to come at you in such a way, but it also feels that you had no choice but to make the best of a bad situation."

"It was the only way to ensure they wouldn't go after the other survivors," I said. It was already starting to get dark outside. "If they killed us all we hoped that they'd think we were all that was left. If we got all of them, or enough of them, the point would be moot."

She nodded as I lit a cigarette. "So all of you went into that fight willingly, hoping to finish the Russian soldiers off but knowing that your deaths could serve an additional purpose. Finish the Fight indeed."

"Never do one thing when you can accomplish two or more things with a single action," I quoted back at her.

I could hear angry voices behind me, in the CQ Area, but the little dogleg between the vending machine area and the CQ Area muffled and distorted the voices enough that I couldn't understand them.

"A wise precaution," she said. She fished an empty can out of the garbage can and set it in the broken pinball machine. "When did you come up with that plan?"

"After we took out their only shelter left by destroying the roof of the Chow Hall and breaking out the windows of the Dispensary," I told her. I flicked my ashes. "That was after the Motor Pool."

"The Air Field, that was in between the Motor Pool and the Chow Hall, correct?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Foster had picked up some radio chatter from what we thought was a numbers station before they got eaten by wolves. Echoes let me determine they were at the airfield, so I figured it was best if we scouted it armed and ready to repel or engage any sizable force we might run into," I sighed and rubbed the side of my face with one hand. "Turned out they'd landed choppers up there and had the majority of their troops at the Air Field."

The room seemed to dim as she nodded. "According to the Soviet Military Liaison, they landed a reinforced battalion up here."

I shrugged. "I guess. Didn't help."

She shook her head. "No, it didn't. Your use of the ice was innovative. Cold and merciless, but it achieved the most results for the least effort."

"If they had extraction we would lose," I said. I leaned my head forward until my forehead touched the glass. The back of my neck hurt. "I needed to break their morale, shatter their belief that they were going to succeed."

"That you did, Corporal," the Blackbriar Bitch said. She reached up and her fingertips touched the back of my neck, rubbing in small circles. "You used FLASH rockets, did you not?"

"Yeah. We carry some in the armory for possible biohazard or chemical incidents," I said. Her fingertips were warm and gentle, quickly finding the knots in the muscle and gently rubbing them. "I had the main group sucker them in and then dropped the ice sheet on them."

"Then came the attack in the CQ Area?" She asked, her voice soft. "Where your cousin was killed."

"Yeah. Sergeants Butch and White changed Lieutenant James's guard shift and the Vympel were able to kill the two guards and slip by the CQ Area where I was napping, get in with Rear-D while they were asleep," I admitted.

TELL ME HOW TO BRING MY COUSIN BACK TO LIFE

None of the rage left the Plexiglass.

"Afterwards you gathered your dead and retreated to the War Fighter Tunnels," she said.

"Yeah. We figured it was more defensivable than the CQ Area," I sighed. "We didn't know Major Mallory had given them a red-brick to get into the tunnels. That's how they came at down the War Fighter access tunnels."

"The fight where Corporal Lancer was blinded," The Blackbriar Bitch said. "Not an easy fight."

"No. We hit the Chow Hall, then the Dispensary. I got put out of action in the Dispensary basement," I said.

"I'm more interested in the Chow Hall battle," She said. Her fingertips vanished as she moved back slightly. "Would you be interested in showing me how it went down? From the War Fighter Tunnels to the Chow Hall?"

"I fragged the door controls," I told her, straightening up. I pulled down the last swallow of my soda, cursing my dry mouth, and dropped the empty can into the garbage bin.

The Blackbriar Bitch was slotting quarters into the machine, hitting the Orange Crush button.

"We can take a vehicle to the Chow Hall, if you'd feel up to that," she smiled, holding out the can to me.

"I guess," I sighed.

"We'll take anyone who wants to go," she shrugged. "I'll tell them that I'm lead on this and to leave you alone if you want."

I took the can of soda, nodding. "I'm just kind of tired."

Her smile was gentle, understanding. "It's all right, Corporal. I'll protect you."

"Thank you," I said.

And I meant it.

"Wait here, I'll come get you once I've made them understand the reality of this situation," she smiled.

She turned and left me alone, standing next to a pinball machine with a shattered top.

Behind me, outside, wolves howled.