Lauren glanced over her shoulder at the queen-sized bed in which she had slumbered the previous night, unable to remember enjoying a better night’s sleep in a legion of days. Then she tugged on the belt of her bathrobe to unravel the knot, allowing it to fall free from her shoulders and onto the floor.
She had grown accustomed to taking cold showers ever since her move to the cabin and fully expected this one would be no different. But, upon noticing that steam was now rising from the tub, she hesitated before stepping in.
With inquisitive regard, Lauren reached forward and placed two fingers under the flow. “Ouch! Shit!” She recoiled backward from the scalding hot water. She examined her fingers as her body tensed and shuddered in unison with her senses. “Okay…I wasn’t expecting that.”
Lauren adjusted the faucet so the water would be less likely to inflict third-degree burns. Then, stepping in finally, she closed the shower curtain behind her and pulled on the plunger to divert water from the tub faucet to the showerhead. She stood motionless underneath the cascading streams in a veritable trance of blissful enjoyment, allowing them to soak her face, head, and neck. Then she ran her fingers through the lengths of her hair as the water gradually saturated it.
Lauren’s eyes tracked downward into the tub, seeing the water at her feet had already turned a shade of muck, and rivulets of clear liquid were now scurrying down her stubbly legs in rows amidst small patches of dirt and grime. “Criminy. You are one disgusting ball of gross, Lauren Jane Russell,” she mused. “How did you allow this to happen? How did you become so hideous?” She sighed. “It’s going to take some work to get you looking halfway presentable again. But, since I’ve clearly been bestowed with the requisite tools, short of a razor and some decent shave gel…I think I might be willing to go the distance.”
Lauren hoisted a pint-sized purple bottle of shampoo and rotated it so she could read the directions for her own recreation. “Lather a dollop of shampoo in your palms and massage into scalp. Now, rinse and go show off those hydrated locks.” She giggled to herself. “I don’t think a dollop is going to be nearly enough for these locks. There might be some lather, wash, rinse, and a lot of repeat in there somewhere.” Lauren shook the bottle before squirting its contents into her hand. “It might take everything left in this bottle.”
Her shower completed, Lauren got out of the tub and wrapped herself with a towel, using the second to swathe her sopping wet mane. She then brushed her teeth and grabbed a hairbrush, taking it along with her as she exited the bathroom.
While brushing the knots out of her hair, made simpler by the use of conditioner, Lauren got dressed and then exited her room, turning right into a long narrow corridor dimly illuminated by lighting mounted at waist level on the walls. Barely able to remember her way around, she soon found her way to the large conference room where she had last seen the others the previous evening before turning in.
The door was closed, and Lauren could hear chattering coming from inside. She contemplated knocking, but instead, impulsively pushed the door open and stepped in.
There, she found Dave Graham, Woo Tang, Tim Reese, and several other semi-familiar faces huddled around a bench. Upon noticing her entry, the discussion they were having ceased, and each man turned to look at her.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Lauren said as she ran the brush through her hair. “I didn’t exactly know where to go this morning. I figured this was as good a place as any.”
Dave looked away without saying a word, returning to his business-as-usual bearing.
Staff Sergeant Tim Reese, the arm below his injured shoulder bandaged and suspended in a sling, used his other arm to wave. “No worries, Miss Lauren. It’s good to have you with us. I take it you’ve found the accommodations to your liking?”
Lauren smiled and nodded, her face aglow. “Hell yes, it’s to my liking. A lot better than anything I ever expected.”
“Did having electricity catch you off guard?” the tall sergeant asked.
“It did…but not nearly so much as the hot water. That about scared the shit out of me.”
The soldiers laughed and one by one returned to their discussion while Woo Tang broke from the group and strolled over to her.
“The entire complex used to run on solar,” Tim explained. “Now it’s just a couple of buildings, including this one, and a hangar we use for storage. There’s a field of panels out there, most of which still work. It’s one of the reasons Dave decided to…take it over.”
“Take it over?” Lauren asked, her eyes squinting.
“Commandeered,” Dave grunted. “And repurposed for our use.”
Lauren nodded. “Oh, you mean tactically acquired,” she said, smirking.
“Something like that.”
“What happened to all the people who worked here?”
Dave peered over at her momentarily. “They don’t anymore.”
With a rarely seen snarky grin, Woo Tang leaned in and sniffed the air inches away from Lauren’s hair. “Yes, this is much better. I approve. The scents I was able to detect the other day when we found you were nowhere near this becoming.”
Lauren tossed her hair over her shoulder and continued to brush. “Why, Mr. Woo Tang, sir, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were flirting with me.”
Woo Tang erased the grin from his face. “I would like to believe you know better, because I would not dare. But that is not because I do not find you attractive. I have always considered you stunning, but I maintain the deepest respect for you, and for your father, as well.”
Lauren cocked her head to the side and put her hand on Woo Tang’s shoulder. “Jae, it’s okay. But being honest, that is probably the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me in my life.”
Woo Tang leaned in closer to whisper in her ear, “To add to that, while I am aware it is hard for most to recognize…because I simply do not look it, I also happen to be more than twice your age.”
Lauren giggled. “I know. And that’s okay, too,” she whispered back to him, then resumed brushing her hair. She gestured over Woo Tang’s shoulder to the others. “What’s going on over there? Looks intense.”
“What makes you say that?”
“The air is so thick in here, you could slice it with your sword.”
Woo Tang nodded slightly. “We are finalizing plans for the next op. Our final assault of the month.”
“And the year?”
“That, too.”
Lauren sighed, lowering the brush. “I was really starting to like this place. Electricity, hot water, soap, conditioner, a comfy bed. I mean, you guys even had toothpaste and a damn hairbrush for me. Alas, all good things must come to an end, I guess.”
“I need to get back,” Woo Tang said, motioning to the group. “It is crucial for me to be on the same page with the other team leaders.” He turned to walk away, only to stop and reach out to her. “Care to join us?”
“Are you sure it’s okay? I don’t want anyone here to be mad at me for being somewhere I shouldn’t be.”
“There is no other place for you to be,” said Woo Tang. “What we are about to do might necessitate some youthful intuition. And seeing as how you happen to be the youngest in present company, I do not see how it could hurt.”
Dave bayed from his position at the bench, “Tang? Janey? Are you two just going to stand there all day chitchatting and wasting my damn time? We got a ton of stuff to go over. I’d appreciate a little urgency on both your parts, if you don’t mind.”
Lauren followed Woo Tang’s invitation to the bench and joined the others. The discussion commenced, and she listened along while the soldiers used terminology and acronyms she wasn’t familiar with. She did her best to follow along while studying a topographical map that had been unfolded and stretched across the bench.
The map had been marked on with pencils and chalk to display locations of buildings and other targets, and one particularly noticeable circle labeled ‘detention area’. The
map itself had been titled with the word stalag.
Lauren recognized the word. She knew it was a contraction for the word Stammlager, a term used for Nazi prisoner-of-war camps during World War II. She reached forward, placing her finger on the map. “Guys, I’m sorry to interrupt, but what is this place?”
The discussion now halted, Dave removed a well-worn ballcap and set it down on the bench nearby, then wiped his forehead with his sleeve. “It’s a prison camp, but not like the one we found you in. It’s nothing like the one in New Creek, either.” He turned away with a grave expression, unwilling to look Lauren’s way.
“So it’s one of the other camps, then,” Lauren filled in, the look on her face cloning his. “The ones you mentioned but have yet to go into detail about. The ones where they’re keeping the children. Right?”
Dave didn’t respond immediately. He fidgeted a moment as if he had become decidedly uncomfortable with the topic of conversation, or perhaps the audience. “I’m not going to lie to you, Janey. Potentially, there’s some downright atrocious things occurring in this place. We’ve known about it for a few months now, and we’ve been sending recon units there periodically to bring us intel ever since we discovered it.”
Lauren’s expression slowly turned mordant. “What does that mean? What do you mean, atrocious? What are they doing with the children?”
“We don’t know the full answer to that,” growled Dave. “And part of me is thankful we don’t. We just know it’s contemptible, and those kids shouldn’t be there. Personally, that’s all I need to know in order to fuel my desire to stomp the entrails out of some hostile ass.”
“Fuckin A,” Tim Reese added.
Lauren passed Dave an angry look. “This is some sick, twisted shit, isn’t it? Like continuance of a bloodline or controlled breeding…the eugenics premise I’ve read about, where some sick perv tries to generate a master race while killing off those less desirable. Is that why you labeled it a stalag?”
“Janey, calm down.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down,” Lauren scoffed. “Jesus—who in God’s name are these people?”
Dave sighed and backed away from the bench. “Listen, kid…something inexplicable happened back on the day. These folks didn’t just turn bad all at once. Near as we can figure, a few thousand inmates somehow got released from their cells…from a half-dozen maximum-security penitentiaries in and around western Maryland and the Mountain State. That’s who these people are. Ex-cons. Murderers, kidnappers, armed robbers and thieves, and rapists. The worst of the worst, some of whom were no doubt serving life sentences. That’s who took you and your friends prisoner. That’s who we’re fighting.”
Lauren put a hand to her mouth while remembering the ominous sights she had seen on the day her father had taken her to visit North Branch Correctional Institution. “Dear Jesus…”
Dave continued. “We’re not sure if the EMP somehow caused it, if some bleeding hearts cut them loose, or if something else entirely was to blame. But once they got their taste of freedom, they did what escaped convicts tend to do…the same shit that got them locked up in the first place. They massacred thousands.”
“And you’ve been fighting them ever since?”
“We don’t see any other way around it,” Dave said with a shrug. “We can’t achieve forward progression with them in the way. So far, we’ve cancelled hundreds of them and dismantled quite a few of their camps, but this one is a bit different. They’ve seized a former West Virginia National Guard base and taken possession of their armory as well. It’s going to be a tough nut to crack. But I made a promise to take these fuckers out before we rang in the New Year, and I intend to keep that promise.”
“So when are we going?”
Dave stepped closer to Lauren and placed a hand on her shoulder. “We?”
“Yes, we.”
“This isn’t going to turn out like one of those movies where everybody makes it home safe and sound and gets a happy ending, Janey. There’s no champagne and confetti and no ticker-tape parade. This is the real deal, and it is not going to be pretty. There’s going to be a lot of booms and bangs, and a lot of blood on the ground. If I were you, I would stay behind on this one.”
Lauren looked at Woo Tang, who didn’t return her stare. Then, in a circular pattern, she shared stares with everyone in the room before returning a stone-cold glare to Dave Graham. “There is no way in hell I’m not going to go. In fact, I dare you to try to leave me behind.”
Dave nodded and placed his cap back on his head. “I figured you’d have something to say along those lines. Fine. I’ll allow you to go along…but here’s the deal, so listen up. The prospect of collateral damage on this one is immense, and I wouldn’t put it past these cowards to use human shields. So, as a provision to my usual Norman Schwarzkopf-esqe shock and awe routine, we will be relying heavily on our snipers, placing them in these locations all along the perimeter.” Dave used an index finger to indicate the spots. “If going along is your intention, this is where you’ll be planting your ass, far away from the kill zone. No questions.” He paused to adjust his posture. “We’ll hit them early in the boogie dark and scare the living daylights out of them; then we’ll pick them off with precision fire, and I mean precision fire. No funny business, no fucking up will be tolerated, or my boot gets surgically inserted in someone’s rectum. Can you still shoot?”
Without hesitation, Lauren nodded. “Damn right I can.”
“Very well.”
“Can I team with Sanchez?” Lauren asked.
Dave sighed and folded his arms while the others moved away from the bench and stirred. “If Sanchez agrees, I don’t see why not.”
“He’s never told me no.” Lauren turned away and resumed brushing her hair, heading toward the exit. She stopped just before reaching for the door handle. “You know, I’m confused…why didn’t you come right out and tell me this? Why did it have to wait until I came barging in asking questions? Are you trying to protect me somehow?”
Dave sighed. “Janey, I will always do whatever I can to protect you. After finding you again and hearing what you told me, I’m obligated. There are certain things happening in this world that should not be allowed, and quite frankly, it bugs the tar out of me as a God-fearing man that the big man upstairs permits them to happen. And that is why I cannot permit them to happen.”
Lauren turned to him and moved closer, concern building in her eyes. “Elaborate.”
“I’d be happy to. Once a soldier has seen combat, certain things that occur in combat simply cannot be unseen. Sometimes, it changes him forever. It changes the way he views the world. And regardless of supernatural beings and whether or not they truly exist, it has become undeniably evident to me that a war is being waged behind the scenes. The forces of good and evil are continuously going toe-to-toe. It is a never-ending battle, and if God can’t put all the evil down with his great vengeance and furious anger, then it’s up to people like us to do it for him.”
Lauren nodded, ruminating over Dave’s words, taking them all to heart. “You never said when we were going.”
“That’s correct. I didn’t. Major pain and his militia boys are set to join us over the weekend, and we have some gabbing and a lot of serious training to get in. So I’m figuring two weeks from today.”
“Um…that’s Christmas Eve.”
“I am cognizant of that fact,” replied Dave.
“Lauren Russell,” Woo Tang began as he turned his head her way, “evil knows no holiday. And no evil I have ever encountered has ever taken a day off. Should we be any different?”
Lauren stood there, nearly thunderstruck. She removed the brush from her hair and took turns looking into the eyes of each of the tenured soldiers in the room, doing so until an answer occurred to her.
When she went to offer a reply to the sword-wielding Korean-American soldier in her midst, she stopped herself, having come to the realization that a response wasn’t required. If any one of these m
en believed she felt any other way, they wouldn’t be involving her, and she wouldn’t be standing among them.
Chapter 27
North of WV Army National Guard Camp Dawson
Preston County, West Virginia
Friday, December 24th. Present day
It was a few hours before the sun would expose its face over the horizon to the east. The temperature had dropped to below freezing overnight, causing the dew clinging to the earth and vegetation to change state into a layer of frost.
In the bitter cold predawn hours of Christmas Eve, Lauren shadowed Sanchez in pitch darkness along a barely perceptible trail to the position he had chosen as his sniper hide for today’s assault.
Both were wearing a PVS-7 single-tube night-vision device. They had been distributed to the unit the evening prior, and the two were now using them to light their way along the path.
Lauren’s PVS-7 extended outward from a flip-up mechanism mounted to a ballistic helmet she had been assigned and instructed to wear, something she was only now starting to get used to. She knew it was for her own protection, but it was foreign to her, and the contraption felt clunky on her head, and she knew she had a long way to go with it.
While getting accustomed to the greenish-hued, nearly two-dimensional reality the monocular provided, she remained on alert, her senses invigorated by the chill in the air. She glanced left and right continually, same as she had always done while traveling on foot through the forest.
Occasionally, Lauren would look ahead at the tall Hispanic man leading her and reminisce about the first time she had met him and trained with him. The drag bag he had draped on his shoulders looked like the same one he had brought with him that day. With countless new routines to get used to since her decision to remain with the unit, the familiarity was comforting to her.
Divided We Stand Page 27