"Assess the situation, resources, and
personnel. Assess the enemy. Plan
accordingly. That's the Army motto.
How do you assess a crazy person?"

With a snarl I plucked my dogtags out of the snowman's face, then kicked it down, cursing and snarling the whole time. I was vaguely aware that I was hovering on the edge of losing control, that I was wavering between panic and going completely ape-shit. The tight rein I kept over my temper was quickly starting to fray between the frustration of what was going on and the very real fear that we'd freeze to death in the near future.

That's not even mentioning the fact we were missing four men.

The snowmen had crystallized everything, that there was someone out there.

From outside came laughter, dark evil mocking laughter.

That did it. The lizard hit every combat button he could find, and the fear was gone, replaced by blinding red rage. Hatred welled up, mixed with the high octane rage, and roared through me in a firestorm that left nothing behind. Not thought, not fear, just the raw primal need to kill wrapped up in hatred and rage.

"I'll fucking kill you!" I screamed at whoever had built the snowman, who had probably killed the CQ, and was laughing at us from outside. My fists clenched and I rolled my shoulders, turning and taking a step toward the outside doors. Before I could take the second step Bomber had me around the neck, pulling me back in a full nelson while Nagle moved in front of me, grabbing my face in her hands.

The laughter kept going, still audible over the wind. The lizard was paying attention to it, cocking its head, but I was past that, consumed with the need to find whoever was laughing.

rip tear kill smash crush rend

"Don't! Don't go out there! Please, Anthony, calm down!" She said. Suddenly she leaned forward and kissed me, the taste of her lips, the feel of her tongue darting into my mouth, the pressure of her mouth against mine, suddenly bringing me back to reality. The lizard shunted everything from 'kill' to 'breed' and my mind cleared up slightly, confusing impulses and instincts warring inside me as the image of Nancy as I had last seen her naked on my bed filled my head.

The laughter trailed off.

It's what somebody wants... slithered through my brain. My Father's voice?

I relaxed, and Bomber slowly let me go, Nagle keeping her lips on mine. I'd dropped my flashlight in the snow when I'd started for the door.When Nagle finally ended the kiss and let me go I picked it up, moving slowly, the rage making my head pound.

"What the fuck is going on?" Nagle asked, moving toward the doors. Bomber moved over to her, walking with her to the outer doors and keeping watch as she kicked the chocks up to close them.

Beyond her, in the snow, dark shapes moved around just beyond the reach of my flashlight, as if they were edging toward her but unwilling to brave the light. Bomber kept swinging his heavy flashlight around, as if he was trying to catch them, but they slid away just before the light landed on them.

Four shadows... the lizard insisted, outlining them.

Despite the lizards insistence that someone would materialize out of the snow and snatch my friends, nothing happened.

Once the outer doors were shut, the wind cut down, letting Nagle shut the inner doors. Bomber went into the day room to shut the windows in there.

I simply stood there keeping watch on my two friends, next to the ruined snowman, shaking with the after effects of too much adrenaline. Whoever had done this had been in my room, had gone through my stuff, and had done this knowing I'd find it. I kept mulling over everything as they shut the doors to cut out the wind. I ran the numbers, pinching the bridge of my nose as I thought about the various bits of data the little lizard had highlighted.

"We've got a psycho." I said quietly when the others moved into the CQ area. My flashlight was skittering across the frost covered glass of the trophy case, reacting to my shivering with the cold and my reaction from fear and rage. When I spoke, breaking the silence, Nagle and Bomber turned and looked at me.

"Shit." Bomber said after a moment, looking around the CQ area, panning his flashlight. Snow was thick on the floor, deep enough we could leave clear footprints. The wind had scattered the paper from the bulletin board everywhere, leaving the board bare for the first time since the unit had gone active. He walked behind the desk and stopped. When I shined the light on him, his face was bloodless.

"What?" Nagle asked.

Bomber wordlessly held up the phone receiver, the black plastic looking unclean in his hand somehow.

Three inches of curled cord dangled from the receiver.

Shit.

"What about the log?" I asked. I wanted the Red Case so I could get access to the War Fighter Tunnels if shit went south. Hell, if they went South? They'd already gone South, and I had a bad feeling that they were going to get worse. If we pulled back to the War Fighter Tunnels, we might have a chance.

"Gone." He said, dashing my hopes.

...shit...

"What do we do?" I asked. My brain was whirring, running through the logic chains and permutations.

The majority of the decision trees ended up with all of us dead.

"I don't know, Ant. Punt?" Bomber came back around the counter and stood next to me. Nagle was on the other side of me, keeping her flashlight on the doors of the hallway and the rec-room.

And the bathroom that Tandy had vanished from.

"We need to get back to the others, we'll have to form up in Lewis' room; I don't want to move Carter." Nagle said. I nodded wordlessly, trying to figure out our next move. Nagle was the authority on Carter, she at least had some idea of what to do with a casualty.

No matter what we did, we were in danger.

...roll the dice or play it safe?...

"Roger that." I said, deciding to play it safe.

Bomber led the way, through the doors, the wind shrieking and the door hinges screaming in protest. The snow scattered across the hallway from Bomber's boots, Nagle's tennis shoes then scattered the snow from Bomber's boots, and my jungle boots scattered the snow from Nagle's as we walked without speaking. The sound of our shoes was muffled, even our breathing was swallowed by the cold and cement, making it eerily quiet. It was nerve wracking; the loudest sound was my own heartbeat thudding in my ears.

The lizard didn't like it.

"Do we tell them?" Bomber asked suddenly, breaking the eerie quiet.

"I don't know. This is way above my pay grade." I answered.

"We need to tell them. There's a psycho loose." Nagle added.

"Except for one problem." I told them as we pushed through the second set of doors. I started to reach for the door handle to the middle stairwell and stopped.

"What's that?" Bomber asked. All three of us stood at the door to the middle stairwell.

We knew that on the other side of the door, above us in the darkness, the landing was coated with red ice. To the right of the door, the wall was coated with the same from where it had flowed down the wall from the landing.

Red ice made up of someone's life blood. There was too much of it for whoever had bled everywhere to have survived.

"One of them might be the psycho." I told them.

"Shit." Nagle summed it up. Bomber's heavy flashlight chose that moment to give out, the lens crackling as the lightbulb shattered. When Bomber lifted up the flashlight to shake it, the bottom of the case fell away, steaming liquid falling to the floor. Bomber dropped the flashlight with a curse, kicking it away.

"Figures." Bomber snarled as the remains of the heavy flashlight skittered into the darkness, leaving a trail of battery acid behind it.

"Let's head back." I said. "We need to let the others know what's going on."

Bomber nodded, his face serious. Nagle chewed on her lower lip, her eyes narrowed as she thought about it. Without discussion, we started walking to the end stairwell rather than take the middle one.

I led the way, checking up with my flashlight. Nagle came in next, flashing her light onto the stairs and swearing at the ice that was starting to coat them. Bomber closed the door behind him and we all stood for a long moment in the stairwell. The door screamed, the frozen hinges, springs, and hydraulic cylinder that was supposed to make the door shut slowly all protesting loudly. We waited for the echoes of the sound to die away, the shouts in German from above to stop, a woman's scream that descended into sobs, and someone to run down the hallway above us, before we entered the dark stairwell. After a few moments of silence, broken by the sobbing from upstairs, we began plodding up the steps to the second floor.

We pushed the door open and headed into the hallway. It was cold, but I'd stopped feeling it awhile before. I knew I was shivering, but it was like it was happening to someone else, not to me. We passed the doors of the other people we knew were still in the barracks, glancing at each of them and wondering if the men I'd just spoken about were still in there. After a sobbing moan drifted past and wound around us, I glanced at Bomber and Nagle, and both of them were pale, shaking slightly as they walked down the hallway with me. A woman started screaming as we approached the mid-point doors, her screams gaining in volume to the point that we couldn't hear the springs as we opened the door. The screams abruptly cut off right before we reached Hewitt and Daniel's door, soft sobs that were barely within hearing range replacing them.

I hammered on the door, yelling for someone to open up. After a long minute the door opened with a shriek that echoed down the hallway, and Hewitt popped his head out the door, his short hair tousled.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on yet?" he asked.

"Tell Daniels that we're forming up in Lewis' room, 298." I told him. "Bring all your blankets."

"Fuck you, tell me what's going on." He answered. I could smell the booze on his breath and the urge to smash, kill, and rend flooded back, despite the lizard hammering on the abort button. I wanted to break his face. I'm trying to save him, and he wants to act like a dick.

"Stay in your room and freeze to fucking death then." I snarled back, moving past him and heading to Jacobs' room. He said something that I missed, and Nancy snarled at him to shut up. Hewitt slammed the door as we headed down the hallway, leaving us alone with the dark and the cold.

When we got to Jacobs' room I knocked on the door.

"Who's out there?" Jacobs' voice sounded tight.

"Stillwater, Nagle, and Bomber." I called out. There was a thumping noise and then the deadbolt that all the doors had shot open. The lever style handle turned slowly and Jacobs opened the door slightly, peering out at us. He had his entrenching tool in his right hand, his left on the door handle.

"We're all meeting down in Lewis' room, room 298." I told him, ignoring the entrenching tool.

"Wait for me, I'm going to grab the blankets." He looked pale. "Someone tried my door, and I when I asked who it was, they fucking laughed. When I asked again, they started to unlock my door, still laughing, so I jammed a chair under the door handle." He paused for a moment. "They've got a fucking master key, Stillwater."

"Stay frosty." I told him. Bomber chuckled, and I knew he was looking at the thick frost coating the inside of the hallway.

"Dude, I'm telling you, whoever was laughing like that is messed up. It wasn't a normal laugh, Stillwater." Jacobs continued.

"Grab what you can, be fast, we'll stay with you." I told him, trying to break him out of the fear. He nodded and left the door open as he vanished into the darkness.

He had 2 other roommates, both of whom had gone back to CONUS for Christmas, and he grabbed their blankets too, coming out into the hallway with us. He followed us, carrying a huge pile of blankets in his arms, as we moved to Hernandez's room. Hernandez answered on the first knock, his arms full. His eyes looked a little wild in our flashlights.

"Someone's out here." He told us, lifting what he was carrying. Nancy swept her flashlight onto it and we saw that Hernandez's arms held more than just blankets; hewas holding more than one sleeping bag.

"You grab your room-mate's stuff too?" Nancy asked.

"I busted the locks on their wall lockers." He admitted.

"Good man." Bomber said, taking one of the sleeping bags. "Good thinking. You got batteries?"

Hernandez nodded, moving back into his room. We heard his fridge open then shut, and he came out, stuffing batteries in his pockets. They were wrapped in tinfoil, like pretty much everyone in the barracks did.

"Let's go." I said. He joined us, shutting the door tightly and locking it.

We all walked down the hallway. Outside the wind was howling, inside moans and screams echoed through the dark hallways. Bomber asked Hernandez for a pair of batteries, then quickly changed out his dead ones after Hernandez had handed them to him. It seemed a lot further to Lewis' room than it actually was.

I unlocked the door to Lewis' room with my key and we all went in.

I was half afraid that the room would be empty except for Carter's corpse.

"Lewis?" I asked into the darkness. Our flashlights didn't seem to be penetrating the darkness as well as logic said they should.

"I'm here, Stillwater." He answered from the darkness.

I almost wept at the sound of his voice.

"How's Carter?" I asked, moving further into the room. The others followed me.

"He's shivering, but I think he's warmer." Lewis answered. "I think he'll make it."

"Thank God." Nagle breathed.

"We're going to form up in here; I'll explain when everyone gets here." I said. Nagle walked over and sat on one of the empty beds, taking a blanket offered by Jacobs with a wan smile and wrapping it around herself.

The temperature in the barracks was still dropping.

I was almost ready to go down to their room and drag them out when Hewitt and Daniels showed up. Hewitt wasn't carrying anything, but Daniels had blankets in his arms, including the quilt he usually kept on his bed.

"What the fuck is going on, Stillwater?" Hewitt asked. The lizard hissed at him.

"I don't know." I admitted.

"Someone needs to go down and start the generators." Daniels said.

Nagle barked a harsh laugh and held up her hand when everyone looked at her. "Sorry, it's just that that ain't happening."

"What do you mean?" Hewitt again, still with the nasty tone. I caught myself looking at his hands.

They were clean.

But the lizard still muttered.

"The generators are gone." Bomber answered. "I don't think they were ever there, but even if they were, someone stole them and probably sold them to the Black Market."

"Bullshit." Hewitt snarled. "You three are full of shit."

"Then go check, high speed." I snarled back.

I'd hated Hewitt since he'd gotten there in June. He was a nasty, big mouthed bigot who trash-talked about people behind their backs while being all nice to them in person. During REFORGER he'd taken my Walkman from under my pillow and took it out to guard duty with him. I caught him putting it back with dead batteries and he still tried to deny that he'd taken it.

All of that, combined with his attitude, made me want to crack open his fucking skull.

"I don't need to go down and check to know you're fucking lying." He sneered.

"Call me a liar again." I snarled, taking a step toward him. My muscles were still thrumming with the adrenaline from that fucking snowman, and my frustration and fear had built up into a temple throbbing rage. The lizard was watching eagerly, it's tail flicking in a steady tic that corresponded with my accelerating heartrate.

"You're a fucking liar, Stillwater." He sneered, "What are you going..."

Dropping my flashlight and swinging in one smooth motion, I hit him while his mouth was open, catching him right on the lower part of the jaw. I felt one of my knuckles pop and knew I was smiling viciously. He started to spin with the blow, blood flying from his mouth, but I wasn't done with him. I put my left into his stomach, folding him up, and drove a knee into his face when he doubled over. I grabbed him around the neck and took him to the floor. Everything went red as I went down to the floor with him in the darkness, holding onto him and punching. We were both yelling, mine nothing more than wordless rage and Hewitt's squeals of pain.

Bomber and Hernandez started to drag me off of him. When they had me halfway up Hewitt lunged forward, wrapping his hand around my throat. With a roar of rage I tore free of the hands holding onto me and drove my left hand into the center of his face. Something went crunch, pain shot up my forearm, and Hewitt fell backwards, his head thumping on the tile. With a wrench on the back of my jacket, Bomber snatched me away from Hewitt.

"Let it go, Ant." Bomber yelled.

"Bust him up, Ant." Nancy added, licking her lips and leaning forward. The lizard informed me that he knew, and thought I should know, that her nipples were probably erect and provided me a memory of them.

"I'm going to beat your ass for that goddamn snowman bullshit, you jumped up little punk!" I yelled, trying to get loose from Bomber, who'd managed to get me into a full Nelson.

Hernandez and Daniels were staring at me as Bomber lifted me off the floor and I kicked my feet, futilely trying to hit Hewitt.

"Let me go, goddamn it, let me go!" I raged. "He's had this coming."

"Let it go, brother." Bomber said in my ear.

Lewis was sitting up, and it was obvious that both he and Carter were naked under all the blankets.

Eyes went from me to Lewis, and I stopped fighting to look over to see what they were staring at, and seeing nothing but both men on the bed naked from the waist up.

"Lewis... why are you and Carter naked?" Daniels asked. Nagle was in the process of kneeling down next to Hewitt, checking his pulse. I looked at her and she nodded, straightening up.

...dammit, I was hoping I'd killed the little weasel...

"Hypothermia." Lewis said. "Gotta warm him up or he's going to die." He laid back down and pulled the blankets back over the two of them. "Arctic survival, man, remember?"

"Oh." Daniels said, then turned to me. "What snowman?"

I filled them in on what we'd seen so far. They all stayed silent for the most part, even though I could tell they had questions for us, but they were used to military briefings, and kept their questions till the end in case the question they asked had an answer later in the briefing.

With a couple of twitches and a groan, Hewitt woke up during the recounting, his glare as he sat up told me that he didn't think it was over. I hoped not. I wanted to beat on the racist bastard some more.

"Blood? No fucking way." Jacobs protested when I reached the part about blood being all over the stairwell.

"Go look." Nagle said.

"Fine." He said. "Bomber, come with me."

"Sorry, dumbass, I'm short." Bomber shook his head.

Jacobs borrowed Nagle's flashlight went out the door, and I locked it behind him.

Less than five minutes later he was hammering on the door. I opened it up and he rushed into the room, his face pale.

"There's fucking blood everywhere!" He half yelled.

"No shit, Sherlock." Bomber answered.

We filled them in on the rest, including the snowman. Thankfully Bomber omitted the part where I almost went charging out into the snow.

There was a loud crash outside the room right as I finished recounting it all, and all of us jumped.

"It's getting cold as fuck in here." Hernandez said, hugging himself and rubbing his upper arms. "We've got to do something."

"I've got a plan." I said, and everyone turned to look at me.

"Bomber, Nagle and I are going to go outside the barracks." I said.

Their looks went from expectant to shocked at the thought of going out into a raging blizzard.

Outside the door to the room there was a long drawn out scream.