2/19th Special Weapons Group Area
Secure Area, Alfenwehr
West Germany
29 October, 1987
1630 Hours

Everything slowed down.

Eight people at the table, counting me. Two men at the far end of the bench table, three women on my side, two opposite of me, with "Captain" Rebel in front of me. Bacon fat lamp in the middle of the table. Three other tables in the room, empty. Four windows across from me, the wan light filtering through the snow having faded to nothing. One man behind me, armed with a pistol. A single door behind me.

The lizard had already thrown the map to the chow-hall up. Main room designed to fit two hundred at once with eight bench tables capable of seating fourteen on this side of the room, ten on the opposite, and six normal tables seating ten down the middle, sixty people sitting at the benches. The tables were gone, but they had been wood. At the back was a single set of double doors, two male bathrooms on the left, two female bathrooms on the right, mop closet between the male, supply closet between the female. Fry line, small hallway with a desk on my side, dogleg, then door. Behind fry line was the main kitchen. Unisex bathroom. Cleaning supply closet. Mop closet. Double doors. Pantry. Back loading dock.

On the side of the map of the chow-hall was an air pressure and elevation marked map.

The lizard knew the escape routes.

Wet fire slid down my spine, pain washed away, and everything went into overdrive as the bandage came off my head and exposed my ruined eye. The woman who had yanked me around  by my headband was staring, her eyes wide, as that side of my face was exposed to light and she saw the bruising, the scarred, and that one red eye.

I was staring at her as my hand came forward, my fist sinking deep into her side. Her mouth opened in agony but I was already moving, turning in the seat, both hands coming up. Seize control of the pistol arm with one hand, chop at the inside of the elbow, pull down, use the momentum from the pistol wielder pulling back to help pull me around, up on my feet. My knee brace squealed, my knee almost buckled, and the lizard flooded more adrenaline and endorphins into my system.

The man hadn't shaved, his blurry face contorted with sudden fear as his arm collapsed at the elbow and he realized I still had control of his arm. I yanked him forward, pulling him down, so he went face first on table, my hand around the back of his neck as I stared at "Captain" Rebel.

And slammed the knife into the man's back.

He screamed, loudly, but it choked it off as I rammed my knee up between his legs and crushed his balls. The pistol in his hand fell to the floor, and I held onto the grip of the Gerber as I just stared at Rebel.

The lizard was hammering the kill button.

I stared at Rebel.

"Don't make me do this," I told her. I looked down the table at everyone half up. "SIT. DOWN!"

They sat.

The guy across the table was sobbing.

"Listen to me, Captain. When your men come through that door, you get control of them or everyone in this room dies," I warned her. "First person that touches me..."

I let the threat hang.

The door behind me burst open and the lizard claimed it was four people.

"Get off..." one of them started.

"STAND DOWN!" Captain Rebel shouted.

I kept staring at her, holding onto the knife.

"Fuck..." someone started.

I twisted the knife. The guy screamed, high, breathless,  agony filled.

"STAND! DOWN!" She shouted.

Two people moved up behind me. I could feel them. Both scared, both angry. Another moved up on my blind side, I knew just from the way he moved that he had a rifle. The one that moved up on my right, putting his hand on the woman I'd gut punched shoulder and pulling her back.

"Are you all right, Sergeant Atchinson?" He asked.

More worry than normal in his tone. The way she reached up for his hand on her shoulder as she kept gasping and shook her head told me that there was a relationship there.

"You and your officers lost control of the unit, and now V Corps sent me," I told Rebel, staring at her, but pitching my voice loud enough for them to hear. "Your Battalion CO split the unit, didn't rotate them out because of the storms, and lost control."

"Let him up," Someone said from behind me. His voice was full of malice and the lizard trembled in excitement at the promise of violence in his voice.

I straightened up, stepping backwards, pulling the knife from the guy's back. He slid down onto his knees as I backed up, shoving between the two men behind me as they moved forward to grab him.

"Your FSB consists of four companies. HHC, which I'm assuming this is part of, Alpha Company, probably Class-V and grunt work, you wouldn't be up here unless you brought your Class-V section, Bravo Company, largely mechanics, who's job it was to work on the vehicles that had ended up deadlined the past year," I said.

"Look, mother..." one of the said, coming around and reaching for my throat.

The lizard was still holding down the button.

I stepped into him, pushing my forearm against his throat, slamming the knife into his stomach, then kneeing him in the balls and shoving him off of me at the same time. My knee buckled slightly, so I wasn't able to trip him as he stumbled backwards, his knees hitting the bench. He went backwards, falling against the one I'd stabbed and left on the table.

His buddy was turning, raising a knife in his hands. I could see on his face that he already had won in his own mind, figured that he's already stabbed me and was being praised.

His eyes widened when I slapped the knife away and I slashed him across the face, from the right side of his chin, across his face, and up the left side of his forehead.

He fell back, screaming, and I moved in on the one behind the woman I'd gut-punched. He was just looking up, looking at me, and his eyes widened as I came at him. Before he could do anything I had him kneeling, his head pulled back, the bloody Gerber against the side of his throat, and my knee between his shoulder blades.

"Lastly, you have Charlie Company, your medics, which you better pray to God are still alive," I told Captain Rebel.

"Get away from him, asshole," Someone shouted from the door. I turned and looked, able to make out the blurry shapes. Two people, one with an M-16.

"Drop the weapon or he dies," I said flatly, turning slightly. I pulled him backwards as I stepped to the end of the table.

The lizard licked his chops.

"You don't have the..."

...why do they always say that?...

Both of them shouted in denial, maybe fear, as I opened the guy's throat, shoved him, and grabbed the woman sitting next to one of the men, yanking her half off the seat by her hair and laying my knife against her throat.

"Drop. The. Weapon." I said flatly.

...goddamn you, Henley, for making me do this...

"Drop it," Captain Rebel said, choking on the words.

"Your command lost control of the situation, and now I've been sent here," I said flatly, watching the two of them both set down weapons.

"Who..." It looked, through the blurriness, like Captain Rebel licked her lips. "Who are you?"

"Sergeant Stillwater, 2/19th Special Weapons Group," I said, watching the two at the door. I tilted my head. "Go over there, against the wall, or this one dies too."

The man beside me shifted, tensing his muscles, and I knew he was about to try me.

He went back with a cry of pain when the knife whipped out, slashed across his face, laying it open to the bone, and returned against the woman's throat.

"There aren't enough of you," I said coldly.

"Do as he says," The one next to Captain Rebel choked out. Grief, rage, or maybe terror squeezing her throat. The two at the doorway moved over to the wall while I watched.

"I could have sat 300 meters out with my M-203 and blown the roof off this place with HEDP rounds," I stated, still staring at Captain Rebel. "Instead, I came in. Tried to defuse the situation. Tried to reason with you." I let the left side of my face jerk, l felt the left side of my mouth pull up, "Tried to avoid something like this from going down."

They were staring at me.

"Tell me what happened to your HHC," I let the threat hang in the air.

"They're all dead," The man opposite told me.

I didn't bother looking at him. "I know that, dipshit," I said. "What happened, Captain? Where's your S-2, your XO, your Sergeant Major?"

Silence.

"I don't care who killed them," I said, "But I am losing patience. What. Happened."

"The enlisted from Alpha and Bravo Company, they felt like the CO was starving them," Captain Rebel said slowly, "They started getting insubordinate, so the CO locked them down in the rooms., the troublemakers by themselves, the rest in pairs."

"That was stupid. Lockdown would just make them worse," I stated. I let up on the knife and let go of the woman's hair. She started to turn around and I pushed on the back of her head, pushing her forward.

"We were all in the barracks at the time, sending people in the CUC-V to the chow hall for food each day. He left the cooks from HHC in here to guard the food and make meals," She told me, looking down at her hands. "Members on Charlie Company were left at the TMC

"TMC?" I asked. The guy on the floor shit himself and died. The lizard kept rubbing on the button, keep it pressed down. The one with the stab wound in his stomach was glaring at me, one arm pressed across his gut. It hurt, but I hadn't stabbed anything vital.

"Troop Medical Clinic," She said, I just nodded as she kept going, "We lost contact with them. Then Captain Dowd caught two men engaged in homosexuality and Colonel Bradford confined them both. The one of them committed suicide, and a riot started. Colonel Bradford had the doors to the living areas locked, figuring the riot would run its course."

"And they went full blown blood crazy," I stated flatly. I shook my head, "This place is dangerous, it's a pressure cooker at the best of times. And the motor pool?"

"Bravo Company," She said. "They stopped responding to the Colonel the day after the rioters were locked in the living areas. He sent a team up that evening, but they never came back."

I nodded. "They wouldn't. They were killed before they reached the motorpool if they went up in the dark." Her voice was starting to grain strength, I could hear and edge of defiance. "When did the murders start? The weird ones?"

"How did you..." She started.

"Don't bother lying to me. The rioting started because someone, or something, was killing them and your Colonel refused to let them patrol the halls or enact safety measures," I shook my head.

One of the ones by the door was busy sidling up close to me. He was within three paces and thought I didn't see the pistol he was hiding. "They were being terrorized, picked off one at a time, and your Colonel just up draconian measures."

"You don't understand, you don't know what..." Rebel started again.

"No, you don't," I told her simply.

The guy had thought that being on my blind side meant I couldn't feel him, couldn't track him by movement and sound.

"Sergeant," Rebel said, trying to pull my attention from the guy who had just started to shift, who was leaning forward slightly in order to take that first step.

It didn't work.

"He takes that step, he dies and one of you dies, and I cut your fucking ear off, Captain," I said.

The guy against the wall froze.

"Can you get control of this gaggle of fuckups?" I asked. "I mean, they'll try to kill for you, but can you take control of the entire unit? Or did you fuck it up beyond any hope of control?"

She looked down.

"Yeah, you compounded the Colonel's mistakes," I said.

Rebel stared at me.

"You tried to withhold food to force compliance, and they got even worse. Before it dropped ten meters of snow on you, you ended up blowing through the majority of your ammunition in a firefight with your own men," I stated. I could see it playing out in my head. I sighed.

"The men in the barracks, sections of HHC, Alpha, and Bravo Companies?"

She nodded.

"You raise that pistol, I'll feed you this knife," I told the guy against the wall. "Set it down or eat it."

The guy knelt down and laid the pistol on the floor.

"Charlie Company is still holding the Dispensary, the enlisted have the barracks, you all have the chow hall and control of the food," I shook my head, "Who's at the motor pool?"

I knew, from listening, that the people originally at the motor pool were all dead, but I was willing to bet that she didn't know that.

"Colonel Bradford had the Bravo Company NCO's and officers remain in the motor pool," She said.

"To keep control of the vehicles," I said.

"To keep control of the vehicles," she agreed.

"You aren't getting out of here  alive," The guy on the far side of the table.

"People like you always say that," I told him, shrugging. "I'm still here."

"There's over fifty of us," he tried.

I looked at Captain Rebel, "You don't want it to go down like that. I guarantee you that nobody in this room will come out unscathed," I flicked the knife, spattering a few people with blood. It his what I did with my left hand, "Order your men to stand down, walk with me to the exit, and I'll try to get this under control."

"And afterwards?" She asked.

"That'll be for court martials to decide," I told them.

"Why are you here?" She asked.

The people outside of the room were bunching up. I could feel them moving, feel them working up their courage to charge into the room.

"Because there are dozens of unsecure tactical nuclear weapons, all in the hundred kiloton range, thanks to your incompetence," I said. "I'm here to secure the area."

That got a couple of sharp inhales while I was stating the last part.

"And us?" Rebel asked.

"I'll be testifying at your court martials," I told her.

I could feel the tension ratcheting up.

...six outside the door...

The lizard's map was updated.

"Get ready, Ant," Westlin told me, popping her gum.

"You won't be there as a witness, Sergeant," Captain Rebel said.

"Don't make me do this, Captain," I begged.

...goddamn you, Henley...

"Take him," she snapped and nodded at the doorway. "Alive."

Westlin laughed.

Two came through the door.

The spoon flew free as my hand came out of my sleeve and the grenade arced through the air.

...now...