2/19th Barracks
2/19th Special Weapons Group Area
Secure Area
Alfenwehr, Western Germany
TIME/DATE STAMP ERROR
!!WARNING!!
CRITICAL SYSTEMS DAMAGE
!!WARNING!!

The kiss wasn't one of those TV ones. No exploring tongues, no savage mashing of our faces together. Just a light pressure on my lips, her hand cradling my head. I kept my eyes open, staring at her face, as she closed her eyes and made a pleased sound in her throat. Outside the room someone shouted and boots thundered down the hallway. She opened her lips slightly, grazing mine with her tongue, then shut them tight.

I knew it had less to do with attraction and more to do with almost two weeks since she had started up the mountain.

Still, I kissed back, gently, my left hand on her hip. More boots ran down the hallway, and someone shouted something that I could almost understand, but I refused to listen to. I squeezed her hip, feeling hard Army muscle under the sweet softness of a healthy woman.

After a moment she broke the kiss, leaning back. Her brown eyes were soft as she sat down in the chair and looked at me.

"God, I needed that," she said, then blushed and giggled.

"No kidding," I said, grinning.

"Don't do that," She said, "It ruins the mood."

I nodded, knowing she was only half joking.

She slumped down slightly. "It's been bad in the barracks. Lights keep going out, temperature fluctuations, and worse."

That moment chose for someone to start screaming in agony, and it sounded like their boots were slamming against the tile floor as they kicked. The sound grew closer to my door.

"Is it like this every winter?" She asked me.

"Sometimes it's worse," I told her. She didn't ask how, just nodded. "How bad are the barracks?"

She got up, walking over to my desk, and grabbed a clipboard. I could see graph paper on it, that I normally used for maps for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, and she sat down. Outside the room it sounded like someone was kicking in doors.

Probably me.

"First floor is a loss. No heat, ice on most surfaces, discontinuities in doors and appearance. I've written it off unless there is no other choice," She said. She flipped the paper. "The Mag Offices are all right, so far. Near Hammerhead Hall has frost on the walls, but no major discontinuity. Fat Hammerhead Hall has heat, light, and no frost, although there are audio discontinuity."

Someone chose that moment to rattle the door. I notice she winced.

"Third Floor, the offices are all right. They're locked, no major cold damage. The Lobotomy Ward and the far section are covered in frost, with lighting issues," She told me. I nodded at that. "Fourth and Fifth floors are No-Man's Land. Heavy icing. Evidence of fighting. Blood frozen in the ice. Light and sound discontinuities, variable structural damage."

She tapped the graph paper. "Near and Middle Stairwell are accessable, the Far Stairwell is a death trap. Middle Stairwell is unusable above Hammerhead Hall. Orderly Room and Supply Rooms look fine, but stay dark. Chemlights fail within 120 seconds."

When she looked at me I shrugged. Outside the window someone began screaming as if they were being chased. After a moment the sound trailed away. I noticed that she waited until the screaming stopped to keep talking.

"The War Stocks Room? Well, I just throw a flare to either side of me and sprint for the door to check the fuel levels," She admitted. She looked at me. "Don't laugh, but I think there's something down there."

I shook my head. "I'm not laughing, Debra. I'd agree. Whatever it is, it doesn't like us. It's lived down there since the first barracks."

"I forgot about that." She nodded. "Other than that, we're snowed in, and will be till probably late March or early April. This winter is particularly severe up here."

"Shit," I said. I waved at her. "Give me a smoke, will you?"

She nodded, digging out a pack of smokes and lighting it before handing it to me. I could hear automatic weaponsfire in the distance. It could have been from main post, a unit at the range. Or, and more likely, it was echoes of something that had happened up here. She gave me the empty soda can, which I set beside me.

I noticed that one of my stuffed rabbits had been put next to me.

"Not to complain, but when do I get some clothing, or at least a blanket?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "Sorry. I want you feeling vulnerable and a little docile," She smiled. "No offense, but even with all those injuries, you're still a big guy."

That made me look down at my waist with a smile and then glance at her.

"Stop that," She laughed, reaching out and slapping my right thigh.

"Fair enough," I said. "There is one matter."

"What's that?" She asked, cocking her head slightly.

"Unless you want to smell me pretty badly, I'm either going to need a sponge bath or you're going to have to help me into the shower," I looked at my right leg pointedly.

She'd made a field expedient traction device out of an ankle-brace, some weights, what looked like part of one of the Nautilus machines down in the First Floor Gym, a knee brace, and a thigh brace.

The bruising was terrible, starting at my toes and running all the way up into my groin. Purples and reds, with some yellow banding.

My leg was fucked.

"I'm not sure how long that thing's going to have to be immobilized," She admitted. "The manual doesn't really cover something as bad as that was."

I sighed, taking a drag of my cigarette. "So I get to be nasty?"

She shook her head. "I've been giving you sponge baths," She shook her head, "I owe you one, by the way."

I flinched when someone in the room above us shouted in German and boots slammed into the floor. I looked at her. "What did I do?"

She blushed. "I didn't want your, um, privates to get all nasty, so I was cleaning them."

"And they went off?" I grinned.

"Right in my goddamn face. Got it in my eye and up my nose. I gasped in shock and BAM, right in the fucking mouth. Just splattered my face," She said, then started laughing. "Part of me wishes you could have seen my expression in the mirror."

"That's probably someone's kink," I said, laughing. "Surprise cum-shots are probably a whole German porn mag industry."

She smothered her giggles. "I'll bet."

We sat in silence till I finished the cigarette. Twice a woman started screaming, the second time I could make out that she was begging someone to stop hurting her. Little-bit waited until I was finished with the cigarette, took the can and walked over to the desk, pausing there for a moment.

"Are you in pain?" She asked me softly.

"Nothing I can't handle," I told her honestly. The woman outside stopped screaming, devolving into sobbing, scratching at my door with nails that my brain told me were cracked and broken, blood oozing out from under them.

The lizard shut that horror show off quickly.

She shook her head. "That's not what I asked. Chief Henley was very specific with the fact that if you were injured, I was to help you recover by making sure you weren't in pain."

I sighed. "Little-bit, sweety, I'm always in pain."

She turned around, holding a syringe that she tapped. When I looked at her she smiled. "Just a little fenatyl to take the edge off of your pain."

I sighed again, shaking my head, but didn't argue. I knew better than to bother. She had her orders, and would follow them the same way she followed my orders. She pulled some of the saline out of my IV and then slowly injected it into the line.

It burned going into my arm.

"How long?" She asked, standing back up.

"How long what?" I watched her thrown the syringe in the garbage can.

She turned off the light. "It'll make you light sensitive," was all she said. She sat down and looked at me. "How long have you been in pain, Tony?"

I thought about it, feeling the slight nausea rear up. I hiccuped and she put a tray on my chest so I could vomit if I needed to. "Since I was a kid."

That made her eyebrows raise. "Birth defect?"

Her face was shadowed, but I could still see her eyes clearly. "No. My parents were abusive."

That made her eyes widen. "The Sergeant Major beats his kids?" I could hear the shock in her voice.

I shook my head. "No, not the Sergeant Major. My real parents. He adopted my twin sister and I when we were ten."

That made her nod. "Oh."

I chuckled, hiccuped again, but kept the stomach acid where it belonged. "Can I have some crackers?"

She stood up. "Sure, I should have thought of that."

She got them, snapped them into 4 pieces, then tore open the foil. While she was doing that crazed laughter came from outside the window, and the glass creaked as if it was going to shatter under pressure. She gave me a can of Orange Crush after popping it.

I chewed on the dry cracker and stared at her.

"So, since you were a kid?" She said. I nodded. "Is the rumor true you were in jail before you joined the Army? I've heard some of the other guys mention it."

"Yeah. Juvenile Maximum Security. I caught a cop molesting my sister, me and my brother William put him in the hospital. Judge gave us the choice of joining or being tried as adults."

She just nodded at that. "You're not that old, are you?"

I shrugged, then hissed at the pain in my right shoulder. "Guess not. I mean, I'm nineteen, I'll be twenty this coming spring."

She looked up at that. "Jesus, Tony, you've been here since, what, 1985?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I turned 17 the day we found Atlas."

She looked at her hands, shaking her head. "Christ. I'll be honest, Tony, I thought you were like twenty-five or so by now."

I tried shrugging again. Less pain. Something shifted in my shoulder and there was a release of pressure.

"Stop moving it," Little-Bit snapped. "I see you over there."

She leaned forward, putting her hand over my heart. "I was there, remember? After Atlas blew up. I know how fast you can heal. I want you to take it slow, take it easy, heal up all the way before you start moving around."

I sighed, leaning back. "Fine."

"I'd offer you a book, but you'd probably choke on it," She tried to lighten the mood.

"Choke on this," I snapped back, reaching down and waggling my dick at her.

She snorted when she laughed.

We were silent for a while, and for a little bit I drifted back and forth between the pain in my leg and shoulder and the gentle tidal lapping of the fenatyl. Little-Bit sat in the chair, once in a while reaching forward to put her hand over my heart.

Her hand was soft, and warm.

We ignored the noises, but a couple of them made us both flinch. When someone kicked, hard, on the door, she stood up and I jerked awake, crying out in pain as it shifted my leg.

"LET ME IN!" A voice bellowed from the hallway.

Little-Bit sat down, looking at me. I shook my head, putting my index finger to my lips.

After a moment boots walked away.

And someone tried the door handle again. Once. Twice. The third time it sounded like they put their shoulder into it.

Little-Bit hugged herself, shivering.

Bootsteps walked away.

"Has it been like this the whole time?" I asked her.

"Since two of the gennies failed. Since I had to cut power to the rest of the building, except for Hammerhead Hall and two of the water heaters, yeah."

I reached out to her and she took my hand, squeezing it.

"How did you guys survive up here?" She asked.

I shook my head. "Lot of us didn't," I made a face, "Of course, I killed more than my share of them too."

"You or them, Tony."

"Doesn't make it any easier," I told her. "Hell, they were kids. Most of them were just scared, or confused, but I didn't care. They were in between me and survival, so I butchered them just as quick as I'd kill anyone else."

She squeezed my hand. When I looked at her eyes were soft again. "I've known you for three years, Tony. You can say what you want, but I've watched you through my scope, watched you with my own eyes."

She shifted her hand and put it over my heart.

"We're up here a long time, Tony. Maybe I can teach you to stop lying to yourself and see what all of us see," She said softly.

"And maybe I'll be more than just a boy..." I started.

She put her finger on my lips. "Shh."

When she moved her finger, she kissed me again, cradling the back of my head.

When the kiss broke she stared into my eyes.

"We know where we stand right now, Tony," She said, her voice low, rough, but it send a twinge through me. "It's at least four months before we can hope for rescue or evac."

I nodded, my mouth going dry.

She laid her head on my chest. "I'm just glad I'm not alone."

Outside the room tap shoes ran by, and I could faintly hear singing in Yiddish.

...except your never alone up here, in the winter...