Kilo-29 (Damned of the 2/19th, Book 15)

Part 46

Site Kilo-29
Winter-1993
Day ???

"I did." Donaldson told me, appearing in my vision.

"Let me the fuck up." I told him. "Get me off this fucking gurney." Donaldson just shook his head.

"Back to sleep, Sergeant." Donaldson told me, and jabbed a needle into my IV.

That was the last thing I remembered for awhile.

I dreamed of 2/19th, of pain and fear, of dark and cold.

Of bloodshed and death.

Of Tandy.

It took me awhile to throw off the meds, to finally wake up. I came close a couple of times, but then my arm would go cold, my stomach would roll, and I'd be dragged back down into the dreams.

Finally I woke up to see Donaldson staring down at me.

"Open your hand." He told me. I followed his directions and he put his fingers on my palm and told me to squeeze them. I squeezed and he shook his head.

"You're still really weak." He told me. "Can you read that sign?" He pointed at a simple one, warning everyone to was our hands. I read it off to him and he nodded. "Still seeing anything that shouldn't be there?" He asked.

Bomber grinned at me with bloody teeth from where Catherine and Nancy were dragging him into the room. His eye was swollen and he had a neatly stitched cut on his face.

"Except your friends." Donaldson added, and I chuckled.

"No, nothing I wasn't seeing before we ended up in here." I told him. "How's Jacobs? Did he make it?"

"Yeah." Donaldson undid the strap across the my forehead then stepped back, waving his hand at the gurney next to me.

Jacobs was asleep, doped up with a bandage across his stomach. Donaldson explained that he had used the books to figure out what to do, followed the very detailed instructions, and now there was nothing to do but wait until he woke up. Donaldson had followed the directions for carving into my skull, immobilized my arm, cleaned my other wounds, and then doped me up until he felt like it was safe to let me wake up.

Donaldson let me up once he tickled the bottom of my feet to make sure I could feel it, held up fingers for me to count (once he put my glasses back on me), and checked the circulation by pressing on my fingernails and toenails and watching how fast they went from white to pink. Even then he asked me questions on what I planned on doing as soon as he let me up, then helped me sit up and made me sit up for awhile before undoing my legs.

The whole time, Kincaid sat in the isolation unit, watching me and running his fingers across the barrel of the flame thrower ejector. Nancy sat in there with him, smiling at me, stroking the barrel with him.

"What's the plan now, Sergeant?" Michaels asked me.

"Fist I put some clothing on so I'm not running around with my dick hanging out." I told him, looping on my belt. Luckily Shads was supporting me or I probably would have fallen when my knees kept buckling. Even once I got dressed I about collapsed when I tried to put on my Kevlar and my LBE, it all weighed a ton.

Donaldson was right, I was weak as a kitten.

Hell, I had to sit down and rest after putting on my boots.

"What's the plan now?" Michaels repeated.

"Not sure. What did I say we were going to do before?" I asked. My memory was unreliable at best.

"Once Jacobs wakes up we fall back to the Humvee, then we take care of the infestation problem like the Sergeant explained to me." Donaldson said, walking over to the isolation bay. He banged on the plexi and then motioned at Kincaid.

"I thought that since Sergeant Ant was awake again he was back in charge." One of them said. I didn't recognize him, and a small part of me instantly distrusted him. He had the face of a sheep killing dog.

"Donaldson's got it." I said, watching as Kincaid waited for Donaldson to punch in the code to let him out. "It's called delegation of authority."

"The Sergeant filled me in on what to do if he went down." Donaldson said. I stared at my feet, exhausted from the effort of getting dressed and putting on my gear.

"What about the others?" Meathhead #2, Mellins, asked.

"Yeah, what about them?" Asked the private who asked a question earlier.

"How long did you keep me out?" I asked, raising my head to look at them.

"We're not sure, the clocks stopped a long time ago." Donaldson said, "The lights kept coming off and on, and shit like that."

"Yeah, we don't know how long we've been in here." Waters said. "So what about the others?"

"Kincaid." The other man looked at me when I called out his name. "You had to take a shit yet?"

"Twice." Kincaid said, shrugging. "So?"

"You shit in that suit? Ew." Mellins sounded like a 5 year old girl.

"Hey, I'm not taking it off." Kincaid said. "I threaded the dick wire, but that's as far as this thing's got."

"How many meals have you guys eaten?" I asked.

They all said different numbers, but I was listening more to Kincaid and Donaldson. Both of them had self-discipline, and I knew Kincaid wouldn't eat unless he was nearly starving, even though he'd obviously been in the isolation room since we'd gotten here.

"Four times." Donaldson said.

"None. Just been drinking the sauce." Kincaid tapped the bag on his side. "My guts hurt like a son of a bitch."

"How many times have you slept?" I asked.

The others answered various things, but I pretty much ignored them.

"Twice, I couldn't stay up any more, I was trying to keep an eye on Jacobs." Donaldson said.

"Lots. I've pretty much been sleeping the whole time." Kincaid laughed. "Not much to do in here or in this suit but sleep and shit."

"I've probably been out two or three days then." I said. When two of them looked at me with an odd look I shrugged. "Figure Donaldson stayed up the first day about twelve hours, counting surgery, then..."

...Bomber and Nancy were staring at me, leaning against the desks in the platoon area. Their faces were windburned and they had grease on their ears. Their hair was frozen, and ice was all over the coveralls they were wearing...

...Bomber lit a cigarette and handed it to me, then lit one for Nancy and finally for himself. He took a long drag off of it and smiled at me...

"Sergeant?" Donaldson was standing in front of me, holding onto my upper arms tightly.

"What?" Vertigo about dropped me, but Donaldson held me up.

"You zoned off on us, Sergeant." Kincaid said from behind me.

I was suddenly very aware of the hiss of the flamethrower.

"I did?" I looked around. "We've gotta get Jacobs up topside and call in a biohazard team."

Donaldson looked at me oddly and then nodded. "Right, Sergeant. We're gonna head up and take care of the infected first, then meet up with the Major."

I nodded, and one of the Privates looked at me weird. Meathead #2 or whatever his name was.

"Here, Sergeant." Shads said, holding out Martin to me. I nodded quietly and took him, tucking him in the sling that I didn't remember putting on that cradled my right arm.

"Thanks." I told him. He nodded and moved back.

"You remember what we have to do, Sergeant?" Donaldson asked.

"Right, we go to the NB..."

"Good. Let's go. Shads, you make sure the Sergeant doesn't lag behind." Donaldson said, turning around and heading for the door. "Kincaid, anything comes at us, you roast them"

"Flamethrower, fuck yeah!"

"Waters and Mellins, you two move the gurney that Jacobs is on." He finished, grinning at Kincaid's outburst.

"Come on, Sergeant." Shads said, taking my left elbow. I nodded and followed

...Stokes held her hand over my mouth, keeping us in the shadows under the desk in the X-Ray tech's room. Taggart was holding my legs under her arms as I shivered and shook from the pain. Nagle, Bomber and Riley were hiding somewhere else, unwilling to let anyone know where we were hiding.

..."I don't think they're here." Norton said. "Christ, it's colder than hell in here, there's no way they're here." The whole building shuddered as the wind slammed into it.

...Agony rolled up from my stomach, and I knew tears were running down my face from the pain. It had hurt like a son of a bitch when Catherine and Stokes had carried me to the X-Ray room, and the only reason my screams hadn't been heard was because of Stokes' hand over my mouth.

..."Hell, they're probably fucking dead." Bunch said. "There's no way that Ant or Bomber survived that blast."

...Their voices were fading as they moved through the X-Ray room and into the opposite room. Another uncontrollable shudder went through my body and Taggart held my legs tightly. Stokes kept her hand over my mouth as I tried to scream again.

..."Shhh. Shhhh, baby, I know." She said softly in my ear. "Mama Stokes' got you, baby."

..."You heard Long, if we don't find the bodies, those two psychos aren't dead." Ballinger snapped.

..."Shut up you assholes, keep searching so we can get back to the barracks." Mettings snarled. "It's fucking cold in here, so there's no way they're here. Besides, we've"

...The door closed, shutting off their words.

..."Shhh, baby, shhh." Stokes said softly. "Hold the monkey we found you, baby, Mama Stokes' has got you."

...I held tight to Martin as another wave of pain rolled through me and I screamed against Stokes' hand while Taggart held me still so the men searching the dispensary where we were hiding wouldn't hear me.

And kill us all

We were standing in front of the Gypsy Wagon, the snow halfway up our shins. The Meatheads were standing on the lift with the truck and the gurney where Jacobs was covered with heavy blankets. Shads was standing next to me, another flamethrower fuel pack on his back and Kincaid was running checks on the ejector.

"You guys get to the Major, tell him that the four of us are going to handle the problem with the creatures infesting this place." Donaldson was saying.

"Are you sure about Sergeant Ant?" Meathead #3 asked.

"He'll last long enough so that we can do what we need to do." Kincaid said, letting the ejector hang from the strap and reaching out to grab the control box for the lift. "This conversation is boring the shit out of me." He pushed down on the activation button and the lift began to slowly raise, groaning as it shuddered upwards.

Donaldson waved his arm, and Shads helped me follow as we headed back down the main corridor. The sound of the lift echoed and shivered through the tunnel until we managed to put a blast door between us and the lift.

"Does this place have built in decon, Sergeant?" Donaldson asked.

"No." I told him, slogging through the snow.

Behind us the lights started going off.

"What's the plan for eliminating all those fucking things then?" Kincaid asked, his voice muffled by the suit. He had obviously gotten used to pitching his voice right to be heard easily outside.

"Get me to the primary deep storage military armory, and we'll go from there." I told them.

"Hang on, let me check the maps." Donaldson said.

Another bank of lights clicked off behind us.

"Hurry up, Dee, I think we might have company soon." Kincaid said.

Donaldson rustled through the papers quickly, scanning one, then tracing a route with his finger. "Got it." He folded up the maps and stood up, tucking them back into his cargo pocket.

"Lead the way." Kincaid said, "But hurry up, man."

Donaldson hurried down the hallway and we followed him, slogging through the snow. I was feeling well enough to walk on my own.

Behind us, more lights went out.

"I think your friend is back, Sergeant." Kincaid said.

"He's not my friend." I snapped back.

"Well he sure as shit isn't mine." Kincaid laughed. "He's like that fucking annoying dude that hangs around who isn't actually anyone's friend."

More lights went out. We were barely ahead of them.

"Except he kills you instead of eating off the munchies and smoking your last pack of cigarettes." Donaldson finished.

"Yeah, those friends really suck." Kincaid laughed as we took a left at the intersection and started following the red line.

The lights kicked on as we reached the next bank, then slowly dimmed and died before we'd taken more than two dozen steps.

"Shit." Shads said softly. I heard something rattle and Donaldson turned on his flashlight, panning the beam around.

"We need to hurry." He told us.

"Ya think?" Kincaid said, breaking into a shuffling jog. I managed to break into a shambling run, keeping up with Kincaid, as Shads dropped back to the rear and Donaldson led the way.

We kept doubletiming through the dark and cold, watching the red line get more and more narrow as we kept moving.

When we reached the door, we heard a woman giggle in the darkness. Donaldson threw the bar and Kincaid turned around to watch behind us.

"There's no escape." Kebble giggled. Even dead her goddamn laugh annoyed me.

"You're all going to die down here." Oakes laughed.

"Don't they ever fucking shut up?" Kincaid bitched. "They keep just saying the same bullshit. It isn't even scary any more."

"Don't you want us to love you, Sam?" Kebble asked.

"NO! SHUT UP!" Kincaid yelled. Oakes giggled.

"Door's open, let's go!" Donaldson moved through first, following his own advice. Shads was last through and hit the bar twice, cutting off Kebble's voice as she graphically described what she'd do to Donaldson with her mouth.

"Where to now?" Donaldson asked.

"Follow me." I told them, working off of memory.

Snow started drifting from the ceiling, covering the polished tile.

...Nagle and I moved into the bathroom, looking around the corner where the sinks, mirrors, and toilet stalls were, Nagle's flashlight picking up the small window high in the far wall that was only six inches high and maybe a foot and a half wide. A light dusting of snow covered the tile, but the door was wedged open by the packed snow that had been forced into the CQ Area.

The bathroom was completely empty.

No tracks, no blood, no bodies.

Only Daniels' flashlight shining up at the ceiling.

"Fuck." Nagle breathed.

"Let's go." I said, turning around. We went back out into the CQ Area, and I checked behind the counter, coming up empty for the first aid kit. Nagle kept flashing her light around the room, often pausing on the open doors of the rec room, the dayroom, the two bathroom doors (male and female), and the open dark maw of the unisex bathroom.

I looked up, opening my mouth to tell her we were out of luck, that I couldn't find the first aid kit.

Behind Nagle a dark form stood, and when I passed the flashlight onto him, I could see his one good eye, bloodshot, staring at Nagle.

Nagle, who was right in front of him, maybe two feet away.

Behind him, footprints disappeared into the first floor hallway.

He brought the bayonet up as I started to move, yanking my knife free from my belt.

"Ant?" She asked asked I put one hand out to vault over the CQ counter...

"Sergeant Ant!" Donaldson was yelling, holding onto my arms again.

"Huh?" I looked at him.

"You zoned out on us, Sergeant." Kincaid said, nervously snapping the igniter.

"We're not going to be able to carry through with the plan, Sergeant." Donaldson said, staring into my eyes. "You keep zoning out, and I don't want to even try what you're talking about if you keep on fading out on us."

I nodded and my vision vanished for a second. I almost fell, but Donaldson held me up.

"Fuck this, we're aborting the mission. Let's head back." Donaldson said.

"We need to eliminate the infected." I said, my vision sparkling.

"You're not in any shape to trigger the system without killing all of us and I'm not about to fuck with something I don't know anything about." Donaldson said. He began pulling me behind him through the darkness. I tried to pull away, but just didn't have the strength.

"We'll take the stairs back to the others." Donaldson said.

"Except for one small problem." I told them.

"What's up, Sergeant?" Shads, on my left.

"I'm blind."