Primary Generator Room
Sub-Basement
2/19th SWG Barracks
2/19th Special Weapons Group Area
Secure Area, Alfenwehr
West Germany
28 October, 1987
0345

I could see the lizard looking at me through Stillwater's ruined eye and suppressed a shiver. Inhuman. Calculating. Ruthless. I briefly wondered how much of Stillwater's legendary ruthlessness was driven by that cold calculating creature that was staring at me. I turned away slowly, walking to the door. I could feel him behind me, a cold, almost malevolent presence behind me. The salt in my pant's pocket felt heavy and cold, but I ignored the feeling.

...follow me, half-dead, and we will sweep away our foes...

The thought, cold and slick, ran through my brain, and I pushed it away. One thing that Special Weapons had taught me was that some weapons should only be used when there was no other resort. And I'd seen what the thing was capable of. I'd rather have the living Stillwater with me.

I turned at the door, staring at the handles.

I could restore heat and power to the entire barracks. I knew where the food stores were locked. If nothing else, I could open the War Fighter Tunnels and break into the food in there. From what Tough Guy had told me, that they were out of food was... wait...

"Stillwater, do you think you can get us around to the Near Stairwell, the South Stairwell?" I asked, a sinking feeling in my stomach.

They'd been over a week without food and hadn't hit the ration stockpiles.

I watched his thought process move through his head. I could tell he had a plan by the way the thing staring out of that red eye shifted attention, and I counted to eight before he slowly nodded.

"All right. I'll follow," I told him. Again, an eight count before he slowly nodded. He moved forward and pulled open the door, moving into the small hallway that led to the stairs that would take us back up to the War Stocks Room.

The hallways was cold enough that the frost had covered all of the available surfaces with a thick layer. In some places it was thick enough to have converted to bluish/white ice. Stillwater was still blowing a light stream of condensation in contrast to the large cloud that billowed out in front of my face.

The cold had destroyed the chemlights I had been using faster than than the hours they should have lasted, but there was good enough light coming from it that I could still easily follow Stillwater out. I'd tucked it into the narrow loops of my LBE, part of it in hope that if we attracted any weapons fire they'd shoot me right in the Kevlar rather than in my face.

I kind of liked my face. It was cute, even with the scar on my cheek.

The door closed behind me, just a quiet 'wuff' as the hydraulic cylinder kicked in and kept it from slamming shut.

The sound still made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

One of the doors had no marking, just a stencil that read "NO ENTRY" and I stopped and thumped on it with my gloved fist. "Does this go anywhere that will help?"

Stillwater turned and looked at it, staring at it for a long moment, before finally shaking his head.

"Why?" I asked.

He just shook his head again.

"Is it too dangerous right now?" I guessed. He nodded at that and I nodded back. "All right, I'll follow you then. Nevermind this room."

When we entered that short stairwell up to the War Stocks Storage I still wondered what was behind that door. I'd seen fear in that red eye of his. I wondered what could scare that reptile that lived at the base of his skull, then decided that whatever it was, I didn't want to know.

Again, silently up the stairs, stopping in the hallway above after going through the door. There was a lift at the far end, but I knew that the lift raised up at the north end of the loading dock that ran behind the building. It would be blocked by the snow right now. The War Stocks Storage Room was cold when we moved into it and when something gurgled and clanked I almost screamed. It sounded like a dinosaur's gut and something deep inside me conjured up the massive clacking jaws of a huge predator snapping at me.

Then I noticed that Stillwater's ruined eye was glowing softly and I was suddenly afraid of that again.

We moved straight across, stopping in front of a water heater. Stillwater leaned forward, checking out the gauges on the massive water heater. I didn't bother, since I wouldn't know what any of them meant. After a moment he leaned back and turned to me.

"Warm. Soon." He growled out. His voice wasn't even close to human, but it was getting closer to his normal voice. The bruising on his neck was fading and I restrained the urge to reach out and touch them, to circle them with a Sharpie to check how quickly the bruising was fading.

"Good. The preggos need the heat. Will anyone else get it?" I asked.

He nodded slowly. "Aw-face. Fafth Flu-rawr."

Offices on the 5th floor. That would mean anyone who searched them would notice the warmth, but I'd take that problem when I came to it.

"We need weapons. Any ideas?" I decided. I wanted to check the Ready Room, but I knew that it wouldn't matter, because while Stillwater had a lot of keys, he didn't have the Armory keys or the Secure Item Storage keys.

I'd give both tits and my clitoris for the Arms Room Keys.

He shrugged and then moved deeper into the room. I followed him as quickly as possible, the painkillers not quite working yet. He reached the far wall, I heard his keys jingle for a moment, and then he turned around, waiting for me, a shadow in the darkness with a single red staring eye.

"Awr yew arr raght?" He growled.

"Fine," I told him, moving up next to him. He was next to three massive breaker boxes.

"Leempang," He continued, his hand coming to rest on my arm.

"I'm fit for duty, you big thug, I just got given a really bad day twice before you showed up," I told him, brushing off his hand. "It's nothing, I'm dealing with it."

There was another growl behind me. "At ease that shit, I'll handle it. You can help me make sure I deal with it later," I told him. He reached past me and tapped the middle breaker box. I opened it and he touched four different breakers. All of them with markings for the 5th floor. I snapped them one at a time. Two of them I had to snap back and forth twice to clear the ice before they held in place. He didn't point out any others so I shut the breaker box.

With that he reached out and closed the lock, locking the breaker box, and pulled his keys out of the lock. I heard them jingle as he pushed them back in his pocket. I could feel his presence behind me and again it made the hairs at the base of my skull stir. I was glad I had made sure my mid-shoulderblade length hair was tucked between my t-shirt and the long-johns.

He started back toward the main doors.

I'll admit, I was nervous that more troops from the guys who were holding me prisoner not too long ago would come barging through the door. My guts clenched at the idea and it took me a moment to push the fear away.

Part of me wondered if Stillwater was ever afraid.

He didn't yank open the door, instead he pulled it open a few inches, looking through the crack, then looking at me.

"Clee-are," he told me.

"Ready," I said softly.

...never whisper, it carries. just speak softly...

Bomber's voice.

Stillwater moved, pulling open the door, moving right and heading up the stairs. I followed him, not bothering to hold the door to keep it from booming shut. We were on the second floor mid-landing when it boomed shut. Stillwater was taking the stairs two at a time, moving fast and silent. I followed him, ignoring the pain in my guts.

There were voices below us and Stillwater started to slow down, clenching his fists with the crunching of knuckles that sounded like gunshots in the stairwell. I pushed on his back, moving him forward, keeping him from turning around and attack whoever had just moved into the hallway.

Part of me wished I could have left behind a Claymore land mine or a Bouncing Betty to make the day of whoever opened the door, but I pushed the idea back.

The voices were starting to move up the stairs, and Stillwater yanked open the door to Hammerhead Hall and I followed him. I expected him to go to the right, to head into Near Hammerhead Hall, instead he turned left, heading down the hallway.

He suddenly stopped, reaching out and pulling me against the wall, pressing one arm across my chest to hold me there.

I went to ask him what was going on when I saw it.

A puddle of darkness slid out from under the door less than five steps behind us. It was oily looking, almost glossy. As I watched the darkness slid up the wall, spreading completely over it like a sheen of liquid onyx that glittered in the green of the chemlight.

Stillwater shifted his arm, grabbing at the chemlight, his fingers slipping off of it.

I grabbed it with my right hand, pulling open my T-shirt with my left. I pushed the chemlight in my cleavage, burying it between my fat tits. My eyes were glued to the shadow covered door.

Something was pushing out of it. A tall featureless person. No sexual markers, no features, as blank as a mannequin and made up of solid darkness. Frost adhered to it for a moment then seemed to sink into the liquid looking surface of the figure.

It was eyeless, lipless, with a mouthful of sharp looking black teeth.

My knees went weak as it pulled itself free from the doorway with a faint sucking sound. The liquid darkness flowed off the figure, revealing what lay beneath the darkness as the black liquid was pulled back onto the door. A man in a Class-A uniform, an axe in his hands, his hair greasy and wild despite its short length, and eyes full of madness. Tears spilled from my eyes as I closed them. I began silently repeating the prayer my grand-mother had taught me. Not in English, but in Gaelic, just as she had taught me.

...Christ before me. Christ within me. Christ above me. Christ below me...

I felt bone chilling cold wash over me and it felt like someone poured thick viscous ice down my throat, freezing my insides.

"Look at me," the voice was a bubbling whisper. A soft, sibilant thing that wound through my ears and burrowed into my brain.

...Christ behind me. Christ to the right of me. Christ to the left of me...

"Open your eyes and gaze upon me," The voice whispered again. The cold washed across my face, freezing the tears that had rolled down my cheeks.

The cold moved slightly.

"There is no escape for you," the voice whispered. "The forest child cannot protect you forever. I have marked you, you will be mine and serve me just as this one does."

Nothing changed for a second, then there was a low, liquid chuckle and the cold moved away.

...what in the hell was that?...

Voices were moving closer, footsteps in the stairwell, muffled by the heavy door, but for some reason weirdly clear.

I kept my eyes closed.

The jingle of keys, muffled slightly, came to my ears, and Stillwater's hand shifted to grab my field jacket top. I heard tumblers move as the voices got still closer. The keys jingled again and then I heard the latch of the door click.

Right as the door of the Middle Stairwell screamed in protest at being opened.

Stillwater yanked on me, pulling me into the room of the doorway he'd pressed himself into.

My eyes opened reflexively as my hand shot out to catch my balance.

There was a man in BDU's standing in the doorway, his hand still on the door from where he had pulled it open. He was screaming, staring slightly up, obviously frozen in panic. At least three others were screaming, their voices weaving together into a shrill symphony.

In front of the man was already swinging the axe, his grip shifted to allow him an overhand swing even in the limited area of the hallway.

Stillwater pulled me into the room and slammed the door in the same motion.

But I still heard the man with the axe scream in madness fueled rage.

"YOU FUCKING TRAITORS!" he bellowed out.

The door slammed shut.

But I could still hear the screaming and the sounds of the axe hitting meat and bone.