GPS OFFLINE
INERTIAL MAP ONLINE AT 87%
LOADING LOCATION: 100%
DONE!
UNIT SPECIFICS ERROR!
FILE HEADER CORRUPT!
TIME/DATE ERROR
(R)eboot, (A)bort, (I)gnore
>I
I

I

I spread my arms and legs out, knowing I was going to hit face first into the snow, and my guts clenched. The lizard screeched, his fear of falling bursting the forefront, and started hammering on the panic button. I hit with a soft impact, despite the lizard's insistence that we were going to smash onto rocks where larger beasts would eat us because we wouldn't be able to get away, plunging into the snow after a second and a half drop from over thirty-five feet. It still knocked the breath out of me and made my previously numb skin tingle with impact pain.

Once I'd stopped moving I immediately began to swim upward, struggling and kicking at the snow until my head broke the surface and I gasped. I knew my face was bruised, the goggles pushed into my face.

"You always lead with your face, Ant," Westlin laughed, reaching down and pulling on my belt, helping me struggle to my feet.

Her hand was warm.

"'m a boy," I slurred, staggering forward. I knew where I was, only a few hundred yards from the Dispensary. I'd just have to cross the road, and there it would be. "Face just t'keep mah skull warm," I finished.

Westlin laughed, skipping across the top of the snow next to me, disappearing in and out of the darkness.

The TMC was three stories high, with a high peaked roof, making it forty-five feet high total, but higher up, nearer the barracks, the snow was at least twenty meters, sixty feet, since the barracks itself was completely covered, and that was five stories with a peaked roof.

Surprisingly, again, they'd cleaned the roof, unlike the motor pool and the barracks. The motorpool was roughly thirty feet high inside, so that was a lot of snow to move, where the barracks were less.

The Chow Hall had leadership in Captain One-Ear, and I was willing to bet that the Dispensary had leadership of some type.

Well, I wasn't falling for a sucker play again.

I backed off the roof, moving back to the ridge, and followed it till I found an easy way up. I took the time, moving slowly and deliberately, to sink in the pitons, tie off the rope, and then scale the cliff. Ten paces in each direction showed me the best firing position.

Toward the barracks.

I took the time to lay the rifle to the side, then started stripping away equipment and caching it next to where I'd set the rifle. I used the poncho to cover everything. I knew that it would get covered by snow, but a quick scratch on the rock at an angle that let me see it when I moved down the ridge shelf but wouldn't be visible from the ground. That, and it was exactly five steps from where I'd be firing.

I took two things as I headed back. I took the time to set up the Claymore again, down to only one more left on my ruck, leaving the wire coiled up and the battery disconnected so I didn't hit my own tripline and blow my fucking face off. The next part required me to be sneaky. To move slowly and carefully through the snow.

Nobody was on the roof clearing it, but it was easy to do what I needed to do, run the wire, and leave the clacker next to where I would be able to find it.

When I started circling the Dispensary, looking for the way in, I spotted it a split second before it hit, exhaling and closing my eyes. My skin prickled and my ears popped. I felt blood trickle down one ear as the temperature dropped to the point it sucked all the heat out of the gaps between the layers of clothing I was wearing.

Christ. The banding was terrible.

I felt the snow sweep back over me and opened my eyes, taking a slow breath to sip at the air. The air made my chest hurt, but it was no more than just pulling in low pressure frigid air into already punished lungs.

I'd somehow ended up on my knees, huddled over myself, my hands thrust into the pit of my stomach in order to protect my fingers. The lizard checked his monitors, hit the safety release, and let me get to my feet.

Twenty steps later I found the hole they were using into the Dispensary.

The ramp took me right down to the covered ambulance parking area, where someone had bothered to clear the snow before it had been covered up. It was dark, no light spilling out of the ten-fold glass pane doors and windows, and they hadn't set any guards.

The lizard pointed a few things out and I raised my eyebrows as I moved around the ambulances and saw that not only were they closed, but the inspection seals were still on the doors.

I moved over to the back doors and knelt down. The door was locked, big surprise, but I knew what I was doing. I removed my gloves, shoved my hands through a gap in my parka, and down my pants, my eyes watering when my painfully cold hands hit my genitals. The feeling came back into my fingers, pain coming with it, and I kept wiggling my fingers until I was confident my fine motor control had returned.

My fingers were shaking by the time I got the door unlocked, and I hurried to put my lockpicks away in my pocket and pull back on my woolen glove inserts. I put my trigger mittens in my pocket, then opened the ambulance door and ghosted inside.

I knew right where the chemlights were stored. Cromwell had gotten permission to station an ambulance out at Atlas earlier in the year, banking on whatever weird relationship she had cultivated with Chief Henley, and she'd insisted everyone learn where everything was by reminded the entire crew that when the site had detonated it had been all hands on deck to provide medical care. I knew she had laid out the interior of the ambulance exactly the same as the ambulances back at group.

Two sticks cracked and dead, but the third one gave out dim light. I knew which drawer I wanted and started looting the ambulance for medical supplies, waiting until I had jammed my pockets and an aid bag with the supplies I wanted before getting what I wanted.

A knee brace.

I put it inside my parka, then checked the window to make sure I was clear.

The trip to my cache and back nobody spotted me. I wasn't surprised, it was goddamn terrible outside. The wind was getting worse, even if the snow was getting thinner, and I could hear lightning off in the distance, further down the mountain.

When I moved back down there still wasn't a guard on the airlock doors.

I about started laughing when I found out that the doors were unlocked. I pulled it open, moved to the opposite doors (the gap between the outside doors and the inside doors was big enough to allow four people carrying a stretcher to be in the "airlock" and pull open the doors without the doors hitting the stretcher) and pulled them open, expecting them to be locked.

Nope.

...terminate with extreme prejudice, secure those warheads...

...fuck you, Henley...

The entryway was empty and I pulled my goggles and facemask down around my neck before pushing the parka hood back. I took off my cold weather cap and jammed it in a pocket, then cocked my head and listened closely.

The lizard highlighted that voices were coming from deeper in.

I moved past the waiting area, past the triage area, past the pharmacy, where I noticed someone had broken open the metal pull-down shield with an axe they'd just left sitting on the counter, listening to the voices get louder.

The smell of burnt pork started to get stronger.

...terminate...

...shut up...

I pushed open the door that led to the main treatment room

...goddamn it, hold him still...

...what the fuck happened?...

...they were doing a PT run on one of the trails and hit an old Nazi mine...

...let me fucking go, let me fucking go, my crew needs me...

...sergeant stillwater, hold still, we have to set your leg...

...call it, time of death, zero eight forty eight...

...goddamn it, cummings, you bastard, live, you son of a bitch...

...sergeant stillwater, you have to hold still...

...get the fuck off me, you fucking bitches. cummings, goddamn it, cummings, nobody gave you permission to die...

The memories shattered as the lizard hit the process interrupt button and I realized I was staring at a half dozen women, sitting around a small stove with their hands toward it. Their pale faces, blurred and fuzzy, were all facing me.

"Who are you?" One asked, licking her lips. "You're not with 32nd."

"Sergeant Stillwater, two one nineteenth Special Weapons Group," I said, moving forward slowly.

"Are..." one started. I heard her swallow. "Are you hear to rescue us?"

I shook my head, moving forward. "Sorry. This is a one way trip for me," I told them.

"Do, do you have any food?" One asked. "We're really hungry."

I squatted down across from them, tugging my glove inserts off and shoving them into my pocket. "No, sorry. I had to travel light, the storm is pretty bad."

"Oh," another said. I noticed their faces were hollow, dark circles under their eyes.

Someone had also beaten the shit out of them.

"How many of Charlie Company are left?" I asked them.

One snuffled, and all but one looked down.

"We're almost it," the sniffling one said. She cocked her head. "Are you having trouble seeing? You're squinting."

"Snowblindness," I lied, "Why?"

There was a thump from further in and I jerked my head around as I uncoiled, taking two steps back, my knee buckling slightly, my hand sliding up my parka sleeve and back out. Someone gasped as my hand slid out of the sleeve.

"Who else is here?" I snapped, bringing my sight picture back to them.

The Gerber's grip was familiar in my hand.

"Some guys from HHC," The snuffling one said. "They're with three others of us. The nine of us are all that's left."

"How many of them?" I asked.

"Four," One said. Her voice filled with venom. "Two of them like to take turns."

"Any others?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No."

It clicked together.

"When did they start killing and eating you?" I asked, drawing the .45 and moving toward the examination room hallway.

"Last month," One said. "What are you doing?"

"Carrying out my mission," I said coldly. I turned and looked at them. "Stay where you are, otherwise you'll be part of the mission."

One chuckled. "You obviously can't see or you wouldn't have said that. But no, sergeant, we won't give you away."

I pushed open the door, ghosting into the hallway. There was cold weather gear tossed on several of the waiting chairs in the hallway, and I could see flashlights shining in three of the rooms, both of them pretty close.

The smell of rotting blood and punctured bowel filled my nostrils and my gorge rose up in my throat, almost making me retch from the stench.

I glanced in the door and the lizard slapped the button to lock away my emotions before I could process what I was seeing.

The female soldier wasn't completely naked. Her pants were on the floor but her top was just open. She was staring off into the distance, her mouth still bleeding, while the man between her legs just had his pants pulled down between his knees.

I moved away from the window before either spotted me, then slowly opened the door. She was still staring off into space as I moved up toward them.

...yeah, it's pretty common for a guy to empty his nuts when he dies...

Cromwell's voice.

Well, she'd had enough problems lately, and I didn't want to increase them, so I grabbed the back of his neck, pulled him back off of her, and jammed the Gerber into his ribs, twisting it as soon as the hilt slammed into his ribs. I felt his heart shudder and die as he spasmed and shot cum all over the front of the woman. I dropped him, letting go of the Gerber, and slapped my hand over her mouth as his body fell on her, driving the breath from her.

My knee popped loudly and pain shot up my leg as I knelt next to her.

"Keep quiet," I hissed in her face. I was close enough to get a good look. Her lips had split and were swollen from bruising. Her nose was bent wrong and she had raccoon eyes. Her face bore the mute evidence of long term abuse.

Her eyes blinked, slowly coming into focus.

"You give me away, I'll come back and slit your throat too, got it?" our noses touched.

She nodded slowly and I moved my hand.

"I know it sucks, but he needs to stay here till I get back. Do you understand?" I said softly.

She just nodded.

I made sure to hold onto the door so the only noise was the click of the latch. There were several loud pops above me, coming from deeper in the Dispensary, that I ignored as I moved up to the second door.

Two men, the female troop between them. They were both looking down at her, their right hand on the other's shoulder, and I knew that when I entered the room they'd spot me.

I had to move on.

The third, he was slapping her face and her hands went up to her face as he stepped back from between her legs. He grabbed her thigh with both hands and started to roll her over.

...perfect...

The lizard mapped it out for me.

The door barely opened enough for me to slide through before I was in the room. She still hadn't completed the turn and he was already slapping her on the ass.

"Lift that ass up, bitch, I wanna fuck it," he snarled, raising his hand to slap her ass again.

I grabbed his wrist and drove my knife into his armpit twice, collapsing his lung. He opened his mouth to scream and I cut his throat, the blood spraying all over her ass, the inside of her thighs, and her pussy as I lowered him down. His last few heartbeats pumped out about six spurts of blood, and his dying response made him shoot jizz all over the front of the examination/treatment table.

She was weeping quietly as I stood back up, and as I watched she reached back and started rubbing the steaming blood into the cheek of her ass. I shook my head, moving next to her and slapping my hand over her mouth before kneeling down, my knee making a squishy pop.

"Shhh," I whispered, lifting up the bloody Gerber and tapping her nose with it. "If you give me away, I'll kill you too. Stay here, don't move, I'll be back," I told her.

She nodded and I got up, moving back into the hallway.

A glance showed me that they had rolled her over and switched ends, one of them reaching down to choke her, the other pressing hard on her thighs. I could tell by the way she was struggling they were hurting her, and hurting her bad, and by the way her tendons stood out on the inside of her thighs that she was reaching the breaking point.

...terminate, sergeant...

The door flew open when I slammed my boot against it. Both of them exclaimed, letting go of her, and starting to stand up.

Too late, too slow.

The first one fell to the side, trying to scream through punctured lungs, when I stabbed him low on the left side and then on the right side. The Gerber hung up on the bone on the right, the serrated edge cracking the rib when I tried to pull it free. I let go, turning to face the one who was trying to get out from between the female troop's legs.

She wrapped them around him as she half turned and grabbed the blood smeared hilt of my Gerber.

The guy screamed, once, as my hands came out in front of me, fingers bent, tendons standing out on the backs of my hands. I reached him, wrapping my hands around his neck, and shoved him backwards.

She opened her legs at the same time as my knife came out of the guy's side in a spray of arterial blood. I pushed him back as she swung her legs off the bed.

"SILENT!" I snarled, slamming the guy against the wall and lifting him up. He was grabbing my wrists, trying to pull on them, as I lifted him up almost two feet off the ground, tightening my grip.

She fell on him silently, the knife swinging in her hand as she started stabbing.

Behind me I could hear her stabbing the guy repeatedly while he tried to scream, unable to inhale.

I stared at the guy in my hands, taking in his features in the light of the flashlight.

His eyes were blue, he had a lightly tanned face with a thin mustache. Brown hair out of regs, and his mouth was open, with crooked teeth and a chew user's fuzzy tongue. His eyes were starting to go bloodshot as I squeezed tightly, feeling his trachea and windpipe collapse under my grip. I pulled him back and slammed him against the tile coated cinderblock, then did it again, and a third time.

He came all over my parka as he suddenly went limp.

I pulled him back and slammed him against the tile again.

His face was going from purple to black, the foam coming out of his mouth had taken on a greenish tinge, threaded with blood.

I slammed him again.

"I think he's dead, champ," the female troop next to me said.

I slammed him again.

She reached past me, stuck my Gerber into his gut, and yanked it out.

Blood just trickled out of the deep belly wound.

"Yeah, he's dead, champ," She said.

I dropped the body and turned around, looking down at her.

She stepped back with a gasp, one hand covering her mouth.

I held out my hand. "Knife. Now." I growled.

"Don't kill me, please," she whispered, handing me my knife. "See, I'm giving it to you, just... don't kill me, please."

"Get dressed. Go out where the other ones are," I snarled, turning around, pulling open the door.

I let it close behind me, moving over to the door of the second guy I'd killed. I walked in and grabbed him by the back of the BDU shirt, yanking his body off of the floor and tossing him to the side. She was still laying on the examination table, her ass up in the air, the blood still running down her thighs.

"Get up. Get dressed. Take whatever you need out of his pockets. Go out to the others," I snarled.

Her face went pale and she nodded slowly as she climbed off the examination table. "Please don't hurt me," She said softly. "Do whatever you want to me, just, please, don't kill me."

I turned away from her, going back to the first one. She reacted the same way when I yanked the male off of her.

"Just four?" I asked, moving back into the room where the others were, the last one, first one I'd killed her rapist, following me.

"Yes," One said. She was kneeling down next to the other girl and it looked like she was rubbing the female troop's ankle.

"What are you doing?" I growled, moving around to the other side of them.

"He can't see. Snowblind," the one who had spoken when I first came in. She looked at me and jerked back. "Jesus Christ," She exclaimed, her hand coming up and covering her mouth. "Why is your eye glowing red?"

"Pure hatred," I told her, then coughed. I could taste blood, and when I looked at my hand I could see that I'd coated it with a fine mist of blood.

"There, got it," the one said, turning to the other. I saw the female she'd been kneeling next to stand up and reach down to squeeze her thighs.

Oh. They were tied to the chairs. I felt like a goddamn idiot.

"You must be the reason they're so pissed," The second one said, squatting down and holding her hands out to warm them at the small kerosene stove.

"What do you mean?" I asked, grabbing a chair and dragging it over.

I saw a blood smear on the seat right before I sat down, but didn't care.

"They were pissed when they came in here," The one who had been being double-teamed said, her voice raspy. "Glad you came in, they were telling me they were going to kill me and keep fucking my corpse."

I just shrugged, suppressing a cough.

"Jesus, he's huge," One female troop whispered to the other.

...that's why you don't whisper, dumbass...

I stood up slowly, staring down at them. "I'm not here to help," I told them. "I've got my own mission going on."

They all nodded, the one untying her friends standing up and flexing her fingers.

"You're medics?" I asked.

They all nodded.

"I need patching up. I'm wounded," I told them, setting my knife down and undoing my parka. "Took a couple of stab wounds."

"You're here because of the nukes," One said as I removed my parka.

I just stared, my hand still held out over where I'd dropped my parka on the floor.

The one who spoke nodded. "Yeah, they were talking about it. Apparently, they're going to dig them out at daylight after they take back the motorpool from Bravo Company."

"And do what?" I asked.

"If they don't get a rescue, they'll detonate one," She said.

That made me chuckle and shake my head. "They're tank rounds. The W35A7 105mm nuclear tank shell, using the gun design. You can't just stack C-4 on it and blow it up."

"Can't they detonate them?" Another one asked.

I shrugged. "I can. They might be able to, but they're only 150kt peewee nukes, so all it will do is kill of them."

"They plan on doing it," she said.

"Well, that tears it then," I said, standing up and slapping my hands together in a wiping motion. "Come on, soldiers, lets get you armed and you can stay right here till I get back."

I heard the doors open right before the voice called out. I was already moving, the lizard having set me in motion as soon as my subconscious heard the heavy exterior door open and sensed the pressure change.

"You bitches better be ready, it's time to pay for your meals!" the voice bellowed out as I pushed through the door, the sound of the door covered by his yell. The flashlights were largely in the airlock area, turning the glass into mirrors, and the two who were in the hallway had turned around, some of them laughing. One and only one flashlight was shining down the hallway, but the beam was jumping and dancing at the wielder's laughter.

My hand wrapped around the axe handle as I went by.

...now...

The screaming started.