Time/Date Error (Damned of the 2/19th-Book Six) - Done

Epilogue

War Fighter Tunnels
2/19th Special Weapons Group Area
Secure Area, Alfenwehr
West Germany
02 November, 1987
0900 Hours

The alarm kicked on, klaxons wailing, jolting me out of a sound sleep in Groom's arms. I rolled out of the bed, grabbing my battle rattle and XM-16, shoving my feet in my boots, and running for the egg. I heard Groom behind me, yelling that I had forgotten my pants.

In the time it took me to get dressed, an enemy force could be in the egg.

The lights were spinning over the Dispensary Tunnel and I sprinted down it, waving at the two BDU clad figures coming out of the kitchen area and holding M-16's. They followed as we ran down the tunnel.

Someone had been able to open the doors despite the lockout timer the system kept displaying.

Halfway down the mile long tunnel the klaxon cut off.

"What's going on, Cromwell?" Groom asked, running next to me.

"Someone got the door to the Dispensary open," I told her.

"Maybe it's Ant," she gasped.

"Maybe it's not," I shot back.

She shut up, we kept running.

We came around the short corner to the ready room and slid to a stop.

Nine women stood in the entry-way, their hands over their heads. They were dressed in BDU's, and one had a sign around their neck.

TAKE CARE OF THEM, CROMWELL
ATLAS EXPECTS YOUR BEST

Stillwater's hand writing.

"Where is Stillwater?" I yelled, running up on the one with the sign and pushing the barrel of my rifle under her chin.

"He said he couldn't come in," She stammered. "He marched us down here at gunpoint. He looked half crazy. Said if we stayed up there, he couldn't guarantee our safety."

"He forced us in here. Shut the door behind us," Another said.

"He said to tell you that 'Cromwell's a fat tittied ice queen who left a bloody ass print on his Hotel-104', his words, not ours," A third threw in.

I stepped back.

They were telling the truth.

The detail of where I got my cherry popped was known by me, that Ranger Captain (and whoever he had bragged to), and Stillwater, who had found the print.

"He said that rescue isn't coming. The roads are out. If we stayed up there, we were in danger," A fourth said.

I lowered my M-16.

"From who? In danger from who?" Neelson asked, stepping forward and raising his rifle. "Tell me who else is up there, bitches!"

"From him! We'd be in danger from him!" One screamed.

Nine women.

And Stillwater.

Up on that bloody mountaintop alone.

They weren't lying.

"Lower your weapon," I said, moving over to Neelson. "They're telling the truth."

I looked up, as if I could see the surface through the granite bedrock above us.

"He's on his own."

Wurzburg Army Medical Center
Wurzburg Army Post
West Germany
05 November, 1987
1500 Hours

The beep and hiss of the medical equipment was the only sound in the room as the tall blonde entered the room, followed by two massive men. I was dressed in civilian clothing, the dogtags around my neck feeling like they weighed a thousand pounds.