2/19th Special Weapons Group Barracks
Restricted Area - Western Germany
Early Winter - 1986
Day: Twelve

The tiny little chrome bead snapped off the chain with a click and I swept it into the little hole on the bedframe. The beds in the barracks were designed to be made into bunk beds by dropping pegs into the holes on the head and foot boards, then stacking the next bed. Normally Bomber and I used them to hang things from the bed, but this time we were using the one on my bed to keep track of the days by dropping a metal bead taken from my long dogtag chain each morning.

"And a metal bead in a bunk bed." Nagle said softly, imitating the Christmas carol.

"Six more days till Christmas." Bomber added. "Provided we live that long."

"I want Santa to bring me 10 minutes with Oakes in the laundry room." Nagle snarled, flexing her fingers. The scar on her face deepened in color. It'd become a sure gauge of her real temper over the last year, and it gave her a look I'd found more and more attractive.

"I'll take three minutes with the LT." Bomber chipped in. "Break him like a fucking maverick."

I nodded, sitting down on the weight bench and staring at my hands. Bomber was standing at the window, staring out at the snow. Nagle was sitting in the chair by the desk. We were wearing our PT uniforms, one of the guys guarding us had agreed to wash our uniforms for us, and they were in the laundry room. Logan seemed like too good of a guy to be one of the LT's minions, and his lack of sudden promotion had me thinking I was probably right.

"What do you want for Christmas, Ant?" Bomber asked me after a few moments of silence.

"The Rangers to show up again." I answered, laying back. "Before it gets much worse."

"Much worse? We had the shit beaten out of us, how can it get much worse?" Nagle snarled.

"Him." Bomber answered, tapping the glass. "It's only a matter of time now."

The building punctuated what Bomber said with a low groan that I could feel under my feet. There were a few pops, as loud as nearby pistol shots, above us.

"Cheap ass contractors." Bomber said.

"Lowest bidder, baby. Trucks by Tonka rifles by Mattel." Nagle added. I just snorted. "Ant, come here, I want to see your front teeth."

I sighed theatrically and got up, moving over to kneel in front of her. She pulled my lower lip down and shook her head. "They hurt too bad?"

"No." I told her, running my tongue over my broken teeth when she let my lip go. She pulled me close against her chest, hugging me tightly, then pushed me away and waved at the weight bench. I moved over to sit back down on the weight bench.

"You still want to do this the easy way?" Bomber asked. "I'm not too willing to take another ass kicking while some paranoid fucking nutcase screams questions at me."

"That bitch Oakes touches my face again, and I'll tear her tits off, Ant, I'm not kidding." Nagle added.

"We open that door, there isn't any going back." I said. "We start spilling blood, and Tandy will go into a fucking frenzy again. He goes into a frenzy, things will get really bad really fast."

"It's already really bad, Ant." Bomber said, slamming the bottom of his fist against the baby-shit yellow painted cinderblock. "It's fucking bad for us." He turned from the window and pointed at his nose and the heavy bruising under both eyes. "Why should we be the only poor bastards who it gets bad for?"

I sat silently for a long time, staring at the floor.

"Answer me, goddamn it." Bomber said, taking two steps forward.

"Private Taggart is pregnant." I said. I looked up into his face. "You want that on your soul, brother?"

Bomber turned away from me, going back to looking out the window. "Shit."

"Why is she still back? I thought we sent the preggo's TDY." Nagle added.

"Didn't find out until the day before that shiner bastard ended up in charge, so take a fucking guess what happened." I tossed out. "She was supposed to be shifted to Darmstadt."

"Any idea which side she's on?" Bomber asked.

"John, she's 17, what do you think she's doing?" Nagle said softly. "She doesn't belong here, she thought she was joining the Army, not being sent to Hell. She's 17, chained up in Hell's Icebox, pregnant, and has a madman in charge. What would you do?"

"I'd just try to get through." Bomber admitted. "All right, I see your point, Ant. Still, think he'd really go after a pregnant woman?"

"How the fuck should I know?" I asked. "It's not like we're pen pals." Bomber snorted in amusement. "What do I do, write 'Dear Tandy, please don't kill and eat the pregnant girl. Thanks, Stillwater. PS: Get a manicure.'?" John and Nancy both laughed.

"What do you think he is?" Nancy asked, stretching. I got distracted watching her boobs lift up. She didn't have on a bra, and her nipples stood out.

"Revenant?" Bomber suggested.

"Who knows?" I shrugged. "All we know is that he vanished in the old barracks, vanished while being transferred back to the States, either the coffin got to the States empty or he disappeared from the morgue here depending on who you believe, and he shows up when it gets cold."

"I hate this fucking place." Bomber said. "Hey, hand me the bar, will you?"

I took the weights off the ends and then handed it to him. He opened the window, the snow and wind blowing in, and held on the end to lower the bar, leaning way out the window. My stomach clenched, and my hands twitched to pull him back in before long white arms snatched him out the window. He lowered it as far as he could then pulled it back up. There was snow on the last two feet.

"Shit, it's only about five, maybe six feet down there." He said. "This snow keeps up or gets worse, and it's going to be over our windows."

All of us turned to look at the door when someone started screaming. Not out in the hallway, but further away. We could barely hear it, but it was unmistakable. Someone was screaming in horror and agony.

"Boots on, now." Nagle said, grabbing hers. I turned and grabbed mine from beside the bed, pulling them on. Bomber moved over and pulled his own, and the zzzziiiip of us pulling the speed laces through was in unison.

We moved up to the doorway, standing there silently. The screaming was still going on. It was too loud to be in a room, but too faint to be in the hallway.

The three of us were really familiar with the way screams carried in the building.

We heard pounding bootsteps heading away from us, and I leaned my head against the wall, wondering what I was going to hear next. Nagle was leaning her ear against the door, listening closely.

The screaming stopped.

"Wait for it..." Bomber murmured.

Another voice screamed, louder, and someone fired a rifle on full auto. The scream changed, becoming higher pitched, and the weapon fire stopped. I knew by how long it took it wasn't because they'd let off the trigger, but because the magazine had run dry.

"Rob! Rob!" A voice outside our door. "Fuck, Rob!"

An icicle slid through my skin and lodged in my shoulder joint.

"Hit the light." I whispered, crouching down. Nagle flipped the switch, dropping us into darkness. I swore. "On, turn them on." I whispered urgently. "For fuck's sake, turn it..." Nancy hit the switch, turning it back on.

"What?" Bomber asked quietly.

"No light under the door. The lights are off in the hallway." I answered, keeping my voice low.

"Who's there? Who is that?" The voice on the other side of the door asked. "Identify yourself. I'm armed."

"It won't help." Nancy whispered.

Slow, plodding footsteps we could hear, and the building felt like it was holding it's breath.

"Halt! I'm not kidding you! Don't fucking..." Our guard said, his voice rising.

"Get back from the door, move move move." Nagle said, and we all scrambled into the main room. "Get down." We all laid on the floor, listening, straining to hear.

There was a single shot.

"Don't come any closer." Our guard shouted.

A low, liquid chuckle answered him.

"RUN YOU IDIOT!" Nagle shouted.

"Stay back! I'll shoot!"

I looked at Bomber. He had his eyes squeezed shut. I looked at Nagle, and her eyes met mine, wild and terrified eyes.

There was another shot.

Another cold, liquid chuckle that sounded almost like a cough.

My brother had gotten pneumonia in November, and it took him almost two weeks before he was released from Darmstadt. When he'd coughed, it had been a thick, liquid thing.

The laugh sounded more like that.

"Who are you?" The guard's voice trembled.

Another shot.

"RUN!" We all shouted at the same time.

Something clattered, and we could hear him running away.

"Whew." Nagle breathed. "I was worried he'd go down shooting and we'd take one through the door. I know they're steel, but why take the chance?"

Footsteps moved up slowly to the door, and we stood up, moving so we could see the door.

"That door opens, I'm out the window." Bomber said softly.

The handle turned, and the door shook, then the handle slowly went back to normal.

That chuckle again.

Footsteps moved away from us.

"Christ, look at the door..." Nancy breathed.

The middle had frost in the middle, slowly spreading out.

The lights flickered, dimmed, and settled into a sullen glow that did little to provide any light.

Someone else began screaming.