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

"Come on." I barked, turning and heading toward the Day Room. I didn't even pause, not bothering with a key, stepping forward and kicking the door down the center seam and stepping through in the same motion. The three followed me in, Bomber slamming the door and pushing a chair against the handles before dropping the chocks so it couldn't be opened from the outside. At least not by those pussies.

Light was flooding in through the windows, the outside white, but I could tell that it was only up to the base of the windows, maybe a foot more than it had been since I'd gone outside. My D-ring was still attached, the 550 cord closed into the window. I moved up quickly, turning the handle and opening the window.

"The rope only goes a ways up the side, go right, put your hand on the building, follow the building around. It'll get us to the second floor windows." I told them, mostly speaking to Taggart. "Don't fucking stop, don't pay attention to voice, and above all, keep moving." Bomber held out his hand when I pulled my braid out of my pocket, pulling one out of his cargo pocket. It was longer and thicker than mine, and he let me know it with a grin.

Texas asshole.

"Bomber, when you reach the end, tie yours to the cord, then pull sharp 3 times, I'll take the D-ring, you keep leading the way to the window. I broke one of the windows so we can get into the platoon offices." Bomber nodded, stepping out of the window and into the snow, sinking knee deep. When Taggart walked up to the window I grabbed her arm. "Listen, do not let go of that cord, do not stop." She nodded, her face pale.

"Go." I said, slapping her on the ass. She squeaked and climbed out the window.

"Be careful, naughty boy." Nancy told me, kissing me and breaking the kiss with a bite to my lower lip. I nodded, pecking a kiss at the end of her nose, and watched her climb out before putting my hand on the cord and watching the door. It seemed to take forever before the three sharp pulls came.

I unhooked the D-ring, then stepped out the window and into the snow. I left the window open out of a bit of pique, knowing that it would cause the temperature to drop. The snow was knee deep, but Bomber had blazed a trail.

The wind bit the snow into my face, and I knew that the ice crystals were abrading the skin. I kept winding the cord up around my forearm, slogging through the snow. Total whiteout conditions, nothing visible beyond a few feet. The pale cream of the building vanished into the snow if I got more than a foot away, but brushing the building with my shoulder caused it to flare in agony.

The cold seeped into my flesh, and when my teeth started chattering I wanted to scream as the broken enamel of my busted teeth clicked together. Gritting my teeth was barely bearable, still pain, but a steady pain that I could handle. Every time I bumped against the building it hurt from my wrist all the way to my sternum. My balls hurt like I'd been kicked square, even the head of my dick hurt.

My toes burned, then went numb, my fingers grew clumsy and felt like they weren't even attached to anything. Watching them move was like watching someone else's fingers pull the 550 cord up and wrap it around my forearm. My neck burned for a few steps, then went dead. My ears gave a whimper and then were just nothing. My nose actually felt better, the pounding ache that I'd been feeling since I'd been hit in the face vanishing.

When a hand came out of the white surrounding me, grabbing my right arm, and yanking me, I screamed and starting fighting, aware I was being pulled through something.

"Ant!" Bomber's voice. I looked dumbly at Nagle in front of me, the broken window behind her. The snow was almost two feet deep near the window, and everything in the office was covered in snow.

"Now what?" Nagle asked.

"Motor Pool." I said, moving over to my desk and yanking open the top drawer. My compass was sitting right where I'd always left it.

"I can't make it." Taggart shivered, hugging herself. "I'm not you three."

"You are now." Nagle told her, moving over other to the window. She clipped a D-ring from her belt onto the end of the cord that was wound up at the window. I unwound the cord, letting Bomber wind it onto his arm.

"I can't do this." Taggart whined.

"You don't have a choice." I told her.

Outside, in the platoon area, Oakes screamed long and loud. There was a scraping sound on the door to the platoon office we were hiding in.

"We gotta move." Bomber said, taking the last of the cord and moving to the window. I nodded and tossed him the compass, he smiled and jumped out into the snow. I pulled a D-ring full of more D-rings. I pulled one off and threw it to Nagle. She nodded and clipped it to her belt loop and then onto the cord leading out the window.

"Your next, Nancy." I said. She opened her mouth and I glared at her.

"Taggart, follow Nagle." I said, moving up to her. I clipped a D-ring to her belt loop, then to the cord. "Keep moving."

She swallowed, nodded, and went out into the snow, vanishing less than a foot from me.

I moved over, grabbing a chair and putting it under the handles of the door, which was shaking as something began pounding on it.

"Just stay in there." I muttered, moving over to my brother's desk. In the bottom drawer I found what I was looking for, shoving it in my back pocket, then moved quickly over to the window.

I took a couple deep breaths, screwing my courage to the sticking point, and clipped my d-ring on before climbing out the window and into the snow.

For a little while the cord vibrated in my hand before it stopped, and I wondered if they'd reached the motorpool fence. I kept slogging through the snow, putting one foot in front of the other, following the trail that Bomber had made that was already filling with fresh snow. My face felt sunburnt, and my cheekbones felt like they were sticking out of the skin. My head was swimming, and I went down on one knee, retching into the snow.

Looking up, I blinked away the snow, my sister appearing in front of me, her lip swollen and her eye blacked from where the cop had put two punches into her face.

"Are you going to leave me, Stillwater?" she asked me, crying.

"Tammy..." I said, crawling forward.

"Get up, Anthony." My father said from behind me. "ON YOUR FEET!"

I struggled up, kicking at the snow, adrenaline flooding my system. I trudged through the snow, ignoring the warmth, ignoring the urge to close my eyes.

"Give up, Aodan." My mother said from the snow. I could see her shadow out there. "Just lay down and give up, stupid boy." She sneered at me.

"Fuck you." I grunted, anger pounding at my temples. I used the anger, like hard eyed drill sergeants had taught me to do, then officers and NCO's in the unit and the units we supported.

I stumbled over something in the snow, going down on my knees, then face first into the snow. If it hadn't been for my D-ring I would have lost my grip on the cord and gotten lost in the snow. I kicked out, hitting something that I'd fallen over.

Something that moaned softly.

Almost blind I patted my way back over until I found a figure covered in ice and snow, finding out that it was a person.

I pulled one arm up, pulling it over my shoulders, and started moving again. Whoever it was started moaning and batting at me, and their legs tangled in mine and we went down in the snow.

It took me a little while to struggle to my feet, my head pounding, and spitting coppery taste into the snow. I reached down and pulled on an arm, Taggart's face swimming into my vision.

"Wake up!" I screamed, slapping her hard.

Her eyes flickered, her eyelids opening to reveal eyes that had rolled back in head.

"Taggart, wake up!" I shouted again, slapping her once, then bringing my hand back and slapping again, and then repeating it again.

She moaned, pushing at me.

"Wake up, troop!" I screamed over the wind and snow, jamming one hand down her shirt and putting my frozen hand against her stomach. She stirred, and I pushed harder, into her pants and cupping her crotch, squeezing mercilessly, bunching up the sensitive flesh in my hand.

Taggart came awake, screaming at the top of her lungs and pushing at me. I pulled my arm out and slapped her before pulling her close.

"You've gotta keep moving!" I shouted.

"I can't." She said, her eyes rimmed with ice. It was too cold for her to even cry.

"You have to." I said, pulling on her. "I can't carry you."

"I can't." She repeated, sagging.

I turned back to her, seeing her go down to her knees, and I put my hands on either side of her face.

"You have to get up!" I shouted again. "You have to get moving."

"I can't, I'm not like you guys." She said, her eyes fluttering.

"Tandy is out here! He'll kill you, he'll tear your baby from your stomach and eat him!" I yelled. I slapped her hard, her skin too cold to even welt up. "Get up!" I grabbed her ear and pulled.

She screamed and lunged up, and I drug her behind me, struggling up the hill. When my hands found the wire I knew I'd started to cry. I slipped through the wire, pulling Taggart after me, and followed the cord as it wove between the vehicles.

She kept going down on her knees, and I kept pulling her up, screaming at her to go on, slapping her face, dragging her by her hair when her softcap came off and was whipped away by the wind. She screamed in pain, she tried to go down on her knees, but I was merciless.

Just two more steps...

She slumped against a vehicle, rocking back and forth, and I moved back, grabbing her hair and wrapping my hand in it, and then yanking her to her feet to stumble behind me.

Just two more steps...

We were moving up the back hill behind the motorpool building when I fell, still pulling her by her hair. She shrieked and went down next to me, sobbing as I kept crawling, yanking her head forward with each movement.

"Stop, please..." I heard over the wind.

"Two Nineteenth Special weapons!" I bellowed out, struggling to my feet. I grabbed her arm and pulled it over my shoulder.

Just two more steps...

"Born to fight!" I shouted, dragging her uphill through the waist deep snow.

"I can't..." she whimpered.

"Trained to kill!" I yelled, yanking her forward.

Just two more steps...

"Willing to die!" She shrieked, lunging up, scrambling forward.

"BUT NEVER WILL!" Both of us yelled, stumbling face first into the wall.

The cord ended in a wall, and I was staring at it when the door opened, a yellow rectangle with figure standing in it.

"FINISH THE FIGHT!" The figure bellowed into my face, grabbing Taggart and pulling her into the yellow square. Another figure stepped up and pulled at me.

"Two nineteenth!" The second figure yelled into the snow, pulling me in.

I blinked stupidly at the woman in front of me, standing there, swaying back and forth.

"Get them under the heater." The woman said, grabbing my arm and dragging me toward the middle of the room until I was standing underneath a warm downrush of air. Fingers pulled my field jacket off.

"Get the showers started, they're hypothermic." The woman said, stripping off my shirt and dropping my pants around my ankles. "Stand at attention, goddamn it!" she barked before she turned to another woman, stripping off her field jacket, top and shirt to expose her breasts. "Hurry up, redneck!" she turned back to me. "You call that attention! Back straight, chest out, shoulders back!" Bleerily I followed her instructions, wondering whether or not we were going to be inspected.

"Stay on your feet, brother." A man said, kneeling down to unlace my boots. "Kick 'em off. Stay up, Ant, stay on your feet."

"Two nineteenth." I mumbled, kicking off first one boot then the other. He peeled off my boots before he stood up.

"Finish the fight." he answered, grabbing my arm. "Come on, brother."

My bare feet slapped on the pavement, the chill in the concrete and the frost not even noticed as he pulled me.

"Get up, troop, get up!" came from behind me. "Bomber, get him in the shower and come back and help me."

I could smell steam when the door was pulled open, and the figure pushed me into the showers, and I stumbled and went down on one knee.

"Twisted steel and sex appeal." I mumbled, pushing myself to my feet to stand under the scalding water.

I screamed as the flames leaped up and the stench of Atlas burning around me filled my nostrils. I bulled forward, bouncing off the tile wall and back under the water. I bellowed again, charging forward, and bouncing off the wall again. Pain blazed up my arm, but I ignored it as I caught my balance and charged again, toward the heat, not away from it.

...I had to save my crew...

"Shit, he's going apeshit. Get in there, Bomber, we gotta warm her up and he's freaking out." The woman said.

Someone tackled me, and I tried to fight them, the smoke and haze of the destroyed site filling my vision. I tried to kick them off, but they got their arm under my neck, sat on my butt, and pulled me backwards.

"Ant! Ant!" Someone yelled.

"GET OFF ME!" I screamed, reaching back and trying to grab whoever had me.

"Bring her in, I got him." the man yelled. "Goddamn it, Stillwater, it's me, John!"

"Let! go!" I said, kicking, my feet slipping on the tile. "Let! Me! Go!"

"Not until you calm down!" The man yelled. "Nancy, I need you!"

I got my hands on him, grabbing under his jaw, and pulling forward, yanking him over my head and onto his back. Before he could move I lunged forward, smashing a fist into the center of his chest then driving my elbow into his face. I got to my feet, stepping back.

Someone grabbed me and hot lips clamped over mine, a tongue pushing into my mouth. One hand grabbed my crotch, squeezing gently, and the other hand went around my neck. Breasts pressed against my chest, and someone sighed into my mouth. When the kiss broke I felt a sharp pain in my lip as white teeth pinched into it.

My Nancy...

I blinked, the flames gone, and started shivering.

"You OK?" Nagle asked me.

"Yeah." I answered at the same time as Bomber, who had rolled and was getting up.

"Help me get Taggart up." She said, pulling my arm over her shoulder and pulling me close to her.

"Roger roger." Bomber said, moving over to Taggart, who was curled up in the fetal position under the shower. She was unresponsive as Bomber pulled her to her feet and drug her over beside us. Nancy grabbed her arm and pulled it over mine, looping her arm so it was around Taggart's waist.

"Huddle up, we gotta get the hot water on her belly." Nagle said. "We can't let her core temp drop too low."

We stood there, all four of us naked, under the hot water for a long time. Nagle started asking questions, trying to get Taggart to answer. It took a long time before her eyelids fluttered and opened, and even longer for her eyes to focus.

"Welcome back." Bomber smiled at her.

"Where are we?" Taggart asked, her teeth still chattering.

"Motor pool showers." Nagle answered. "Motorpool has its own generators, its own fuel, its own emergency supplies."

"Its own QRF armory." I said, smiling.

"What?" Taggart asked, leaning back and letting the water sluice across her face.

"It means, preggo," Nagle said, an ugly smile on her face, "That we can go back and kill every last motherfucker in that barracks."

"Do we have to?" Taggart asked. "Can't we just stay here?"

"No." Bomber said, his voice flat.

Nagle looked down and smiled before she looked up. "You boys are warmed up enough, go find us some clothing." Taggart looked down and turned beet red.

"Let's go, brother." Bomber said, and I followed him through the steam to the door.

"You two don't get dressed. I want you nice and docile around the two of us." Nagle called after us, and we grinned at each other.

"You check the lockers, I'm going to check the offices." I told him.

"Why?" He asked.

"Lieutenant Young is a control freak, and I happen to know he's gotten his swipe card replaced four times in the last two months, as well as claims one of his NCO's lost the warbook." Bomber nodded, and slapped me on the shoulder as we separated.

I went up the stairs, shivering in the chill, since the heavy duty heaters hadn't gotten to the stairs yet. The offices were warm, and I quickly tossed the desk, smiling when I found what I was looking far in the bottom drawer of his desk.

The fact he'd left his eight digit code on the back of the card made me thank God for paranoid control freak lifers. Even the warbook was there, and I scanned it real quick. They were supposed to be kept in the sensitive items locker, but LT Young was the type that wanted it right where he could get at it whenever he wanted.

I headed back down after tossing the other desks, finding a couple bottles of hard alcohol and two cartons of smokes. Smiling as I cradled them in my arms. Bomber was just coming over to the locker room off the showers, nodding when he saw me. He had a couple uniforms in his hands, along with some towels.

"We're back!" I yelled, sitting down on the bench. I passed Bomber a bottle and he took a long drink off of it before passing it to me.

"I'd rather you two stay nice and naked and docile." Nancy told us, exiting the steam, smiling at us. "But I need you two ready, and we need to plan." She paused, looking over her shoulder at Taggart, who was just exiting the steamy showers. "Plus, I don't want her staring at what's mine."

Taggart giggled, then got dressed with the rest of us, blushing bright red. I was smiling when the others finished getting dressed, running the swipe card across my cheek so what little stubble I had rasped.

"You have a plan." Nagle said, breaking into a smile.

"I've got a plan." I told her.

"Kurt Russel again?" Nancy asked.

"No." I answered, still smiling.

"What's a Kurt Russel plan?" Taggart asked.

"Ever seen The Thing?" Bomber asked.

"No." She answered.

"Then you wouldn't understand." Nagle said gently, reaching over and squeezing the other woman's hand.

"What's the plan?" Bomber asked.

I filled them in, and all three just stared at me.

"You're serious?" Nancy asked when I was done explaining.

"Goddamn right I am." I answered, still smiling. "Let's eat and get some sleep. When we get up, we go on the attack."

"Do you really have to do this?" Taggart asked.

"Enough!" Nagle shouted at her. "Don't you get it? They tried to kill us. They put us out in the dark and the snow. This is the second time the LT's little minions have tried to kill the three of us."

"You're one of us now." Bomber told her.

"You in, or out?" I asked.

She stared at the three of us, one hand going to her stomach. She was silent for a long moment, looking down twice. Finally, she looked at us.

"It's the only way I'm going to live to have this baby, isn't it?" she asked. We all nodded, and she took a deep breath.

"I'm in." She told us.