Bathroom Talk
2/19th Special Weapons Group Barracks
Restricted Area - Western Germany
Early Winter - 1986
Day: Fifteen
The three snowmen sat there, button eyes innocently staring at us. I snarled and stepped forward to kick the middle one as hard as I could, rage at the memories of the last time we'd seen snow men boiling up inside me and my fury lending strength to the kick. The snowman exploded, and I waded into the two others, kicking and punching, snarling curse words.
The front doors of the CQ Area were covered in snow that had piled up around the building. The temperature had dropped to below freezing and when I stood amid the wreckage of the three snowmen, panting, my breath plumed out in front of me. I felt the building shudder around me, and a low creaking groan sounded from Titty Territory direction. The sign next to the double doors was covered in frost, obscuring the sign one of the female soldiers had put up that read "You must have titties 'this big' to live here!"
"Who the hell built those snowmen?" Someone behind me asked, but I ignored them, prowling through the CQ Area, my boots crunching in the snow.
"Watch my six, Nagle." I said, before pushing open the doors to the female's bathroom and walking inside. One look in the dim flickering light from the ceiling told me all I needed to know. Thick ice covered the walls, the toilets were overflowed and frozen, hanging icicles of water and urine and pink hanging from the seats. A splash of blood was frozen on the far wall, and the window high in the back wall was coated in thick ice that bulged out from the window's alcove and ran down the wall nearly a foot in thick runnels of white ice.
I stomped back out, grinding my teeth, and shook my head at Nancy before going over and pushing the door open to the male bathroom.
The bathroom was dark, pitch black, and all my flashlight did was cause the ice and snow in the bathroom to glow faintly and sparkle. I could tell from long years living in 2/19th that the window had broken, snow covering what little floor I could see, and ice coating the window. The sinks were full of snow, and thick ice from where water had mixed with snow and then frozen surrounded the doors to the toilet stalls. The mirrors were shattered, with ice covering where the glass had been.
A single boot was in the darkness and snow, sitting in the middle of the snow, with a splash of blood across the ice covered doors of the stalls. I was still standing there, silent in the doorway, when the door swung closed, my flashlight laying a bright spot of light in the middle of the door.
"What about that bathroom?" Taggart asked.
"No, honey. Don't even touch that door. Please get away from it..." Nagle said from behind, and I spun around, my mouth opening to yell.
But Taggart just stepped back from the closed doorway to the unisex bathroom, looking at the two of us like we were crazy. I let out an explosive exhale and moved toward her as she moved toward Nancy, putting myself between the pregnant soldier and the door to that bathroom.
The lights turned off and the emergency lights came on, bathing the snow and us in blood red light. Taggart gasped, and Nancy reached out and took her hand when a low liquid chuckle floated into the room from the vents.
"Who is that?" Logan asked from the door to the Game Room.
"You don't want to know." Bomber told him, moving up next to him. Bomber looked at me and shrugged. "What's the plan, Chief?"
"I really need to pee." Nancy bitched.
"Stokes room?" Bomber asked.
"Stokes room." I nodded.
"Why that one?" Nancy asked as I moved to the door and pushed it open.
"Because." I stated, looking at the hallway.
Ice glittered on the walls, icicles hung from the ceiling, and a thick layer of snow covered the tile floor. We'd walked down the hallway less than an hour before, and the hallway had been cold but clear.
"Why is there all this snow?" Taggart asked.
"Do you really want to know, honey?" Nagle asked, following me, tugging Taggart along by one hand.
There was silence for a moment, then Nagle kept speaking. "This barracks was an old SS training barracks, away from the rest of post. Back when Ant first got here, there was less than 20 of them in the unit." She paused for a long moment while I pulled my key out and opened the door to Stokes' room. "One day a man vanished from that bathroom I told you to get away from. There isn't a window for him to get out of, he went into the room in front of almost 20 people, and he never came out. Only his shaving kit and his boots were found..."
Only his shaving kit sat on the sink, opened and ready for use, the bathroom cold and empty. He was wearing his boots when vanished... I corrected her silently, remembering that day.
"...Nobody saw him for months, until the unit went to the field, when some guys manning an observation post found his body. It was on the other side of the mountain, five miles from here, and after they came and got him, his body vanished from the morgue." The two women followed me into the room. Stokes' lights came on when I hit the switch, the feeble light stronger than any light I'd seen all day. I turned and nodded, and Nancy opened the bathroom door, quickly checking the shower and leaving the shower curtain open, still talking the whole time.
"Last year, we had an axe murder stalking all of us, but Tandy came back. He killed at least two people, snatching one of them out of his boots right in front of Ant and another guy." I heard Nancy continue from the bathroom as she peed. "Now, windows have been opened, the Winter let into the barracks, and he's stalking these barracks looking for a chance to kill us all."
I looked at Taggart, who looked greenish in the lights. She looked at me, and I nodded, and her eyes grew wide.
"Someday, he'll come for Ant." Nagle finished, and I heard her belt jangle and knew that she was pulling her pants up and buckling them. "Someday, he'll come for all of the people who were in the First Twenty, who escaped when the barracks burnt down, and one by one hunt them down and kill them."
I felt goosebumps erupt on my skin, knowing in my gut that she was right, that someday Tandy would come for me, my brother, Stokes, and everyone else. I could almost feel it echoing down through the years, and I closed my eyes at the sudden feeling of dread that almost overwhelmed me and made my knees weak.
Nancy came out of the bathroom and waved Taggart in, turning and shooing me back a few steps, keeping her right leg in the bathroom, her thick thigh against the doorjam. I heard Taggart's belt jangle, and wondered briefly how the woman's ass looked, and how it would feel in my hands. I looked at Nagle, who shook her head and waved a finger at me. She knew what I was thinking, she always did, and was warning me off.
"I can't pee with you looking at me." Taggart said after a moment.
"Would you rather Ant watch you?" Nancy asked.
"No, but do you have to watch me?" Taggart asked.
"I turned around for five seconds one time, and the person vanished." I broke in, "It went dark once, only a seconds, all I heard was a scream and a crunching noise, and when the lights came back, there was nothing there. He picks off the most vulnerable, he attacks when you're at your weakest and most vulnerable, when your most afraid. Do you still want her to look away?"
"No." She whispered, and I smiled at Nancy, who was glaring at me.
asshole she mouthed at me, but I smiled as I heard her start to pee.
"We're going to need to have everyone go to the bathroom in shifts." I told Nancy, partly to preserve Taggart's modesty, and I could tell by the warmth on my cheeks that I was blushing.
"Break into two groups?" Nancy asked. I nodded. "We can use Sergeant Micheal's room, since her room is right by the doors." She saw me shake my head. "What?"
"My key doesn't work on her room." I told her.
"Damn." she grumbled. "Perfectly good plan down the shitter." I nodded.
"I'm done." Taggart said. Nancy grabbed he hand and tugged her out of the bathroom.
"What?" She asked, when I sighed in relief.
"He was just afraid that the door would slam shut and you'd be gone forever, weren't you, Ant?" She smiled at me and I nodded. She turned toward the door, then stopped and looked at Taggart. "You're pregnant, and you have no idea what that means as far as Stillwater's concerned." She looked at me and smiled again. "But I do understand what it means to my wonderful boy."
I knew I was blushing when she opened the door. Taggart screamed, Nancy started to turn around, and I started moving when my flashlight illuminated what was standing in the doorway.
My knife whispered as it cleared the sheathe, the weight of the Gerber comfortable, the grip fitting my hand like a part of me, and I held it low as I moved toward the two women.
The LT stood in the doorway, his face pale, his eyes wide and crazy, his perfectly groomed hair wild.
And a fireaxe in his hands that had 2/19 MOTORPOOL burned into the haft.
"YOU FUCKING TRAITORS!" he screamed, raising the axe.
...are you fucking kidding me?...
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