Traces of Grey: Book Four of The Alexis Stanton Chronicles

by Phelps, J. C.

  The officer’s quarters, like at the other compounds, were on the second floor.

  “I’ll be over in a bit,” Black said and went down the corridor to his own room.

  I stepped into a small apartment with an open floor plan. It felt familiar and comfortable. The only door, other than the exit, led to the bathroom. There was a small dining area, a small kitchenette to the left of the dining area, and a full sized bed sat back in its own small cubby with a couple of dressers.

  Within seconds of walking into my room a light tapping had me back at the door. A young man stood on the other side with his arms full of items.

  I stepped aside and let him walk past me. He walked to the small dining table and poured the goods out of his arms. A bottle of shampoo almost rolled to the floor, but he caught it just in time.

  “Commander Grey.” He addressed me with a salute as soon as his hands were free.

  “Hi.” I smiled.

  I didn’t know if I should address him as cadet, recruit or some other title. Saluting and ranks just weren’t my thing and I didn’t care for either. I could understand the need for rank when it came to missions. Someone had to be in charge. But, the system had always confused me. The same went for saluting. I knew there was a correct way to salute and several incorrect ways. I’d spent more time in front of my mirror practicing sticking my legs out of various dresses than I had saluting. Actually, I’d never spent any time in front of the mirror to practice my salute.

  The poor guy stood for a full twenty seconds with his hand at his brow before he gave up.

  “Ma’am.” He turned toward the table. “These are for your stay.”

  He lifted a pair of bath towels, wash cloths and hand towels, then retrieved the shampoo he’d saved, a bottle of conditioner and a bar of soap still in its box and laid them on top of the towels in his arms. He stood still, holding the pile.

  I reached out awkwardly with both hands, intending to take the items from him.

  He pulled them closer to his body and said, “I’ll take care of it, Ma’am.”

  He turned on his heels and carried it all to the bathroom.

  I took the opportunity to start rummaging through what remained in the pile on the table. There were three changes of clothes and a pair of boots in my size. I took one set of clothes and laid them out on the bed and put the remaining clothes in the drawers. The man was standing stiffly behind me when I turned around.

  “The refrigerator isn’t stocked. I apologize.”

  “That’s okay.”

  The two of us stood staring at each other for several seconds.

  “Thanks.” I finally said.

  “Of course, Ma’am.”

  He remained.

  “You aren’t getting a tip. I left all my cash at home.”

  This brought a flash of a smile to his face and his voice was a bit lighter when he asked, “Is there anything else I can do for you, ma’am?”

  “Oh!” I caught on. “You are dismissed.” I said as if I’d just accomplished something.

  He smiled briefly and looked me in the eye. “If you need anything else, please ask for Cadet Clemment.”

  As soon as the door shut behind him I changed into the clothes waiting on my bed. Black was at my door before I finished lacing up my boots carrying a stack of clothes.

  “I already got my clothes.” I pointed to the bundle in his arms.

  “Good. Bring them.”

  I went directly to the drawers and pulled out my extra clothes and set them on the table while I bent down to finish lacing my boot and Black sat across from me.

  “Hurry up with those laces. We’re leaving in about an hour and we still have to gear up and address the men.”

  “The men?” I picked up my pace. “We aren’t going out alone?”

  “No. We’re teaching the class.”

  This was new. “I’ve never taught survival training before.” I didn’t know what was expected of me.

  “Just follow my lead. Ready?”

  I picked up my clothes and followed him out of Headquarters to the equipment building. There were ten men milling around the building when we walked up. When they noticed us they fell into formation.

  Black walked past them as if they weren’t even there. He held the door open for me and entered the building behind me.

  “Are the packs ready?” He asked the recruit behind the desk.

  I assumed they were since there was a nice straight line of twelve packs against the wall.

  “Yes, sir.” He had also stood at attention.

  “Which ones are mine and Commander Grey’s?”

  The man stepped from behind the desk and grabbed up two packs and hauled them back to the desk.

  Black immediately inspected the contents of his pack, so I did the same. It had a couple canteens, some Meals Ready-to-Eat, or better known as MREs, the standard issue knife that had come in so handy for me at other times, and a multi-tool with a shovel.

  “That’s called an E-Tool,” Black said when I held it up. “It’s an entrenching tool, but it’s good for lots of things.”

  There were several other items, including a nice pair of binoculars, that I put back and then shoved my clothes on top of it all.

  “I’ll send the men in for their packs,” Black told the recruit.

  “Yes, sir,” he barked.

  When we stepped out of the building it looked as if the men hadn’t moved a muscle since we went in. It was impressive to see a line of fit men, willing to do whatever we told them. Black walked in front of them and looked them up and down.

  “Packs!” he yelled at them and pointed to the building.

  They hustled, single file, into the building. In less than two minutes the assembly line was complete and the line of men was adorned with packs.

  “Fall in!” He commanded. The men obeyed without question and we began a hard jog toward the tree line.

  We kept up this pace until it became too dark to see clearly. Black stopped near another small clearing that was barely big enough to hold all twelve of us. The men walked around in circles, huffing. Some held their sides and both Black and I were out of breath as well. Black and I opened our canteens and took long swigs.

  In a low voice Black told me, “We’ll stay here for the night. Keep close to me tonight.” I gave him a strange look I didn’t know if he could see in the low light and he added, “You and I will leave early in the morning and I don’t want to disturb the men to come find you.” It was only then that I realized there were no bedrolls with our packs. It was going to be an unpleasant night.

  “Pick a spot, men. The work starts tomorrow,” Black said with no hint he’d been out of breath at all.

  The two of us sat down by the nearest tree. The men followed our example. I used my pack as a pillow and fell asleep right away. The first time I woke up it was because of some rustling off in the trees. The moon had risen and there was some light to see by. The rustling sound came nearer and I watched as one of the men came back into the clearing and lay back down on the ground.

  My next waking moment was because a stick had, somehow, crawled under me and was trying to meld to my hipbone. I removed the offending stick and did a quick head count. When I was satisfied I went back to sleep.

  Over the course of the next few hours I was in and out of sleep as my shivers woke me. Eventually, I gave in and rummaged through my pack for my survival blanket. It was folded up into a tiny square and made considerable noise as I unwrapped it. I didn’t care. Black already looked comfortable inside his own blanket. How he’d done it so quietly was something I’d have to ask him later.

  I didn’t wake up again until 4:00 AM, but this time, I folded my blanket back up as quietly and small as I could and put it back into my pack. I looked around at the men strewn across the ground and noticed some had their blankets over them but the rest were huddled together or in fetal positions.

  “Morning.” Black whispered from behind me. He sounded subdued and a
little tired.

  I turned to face him. “Morning,” I replied. “Wish we had some coffee,” I whispered as I rubbed my hands together to warm them up.

  “Me too.” He looked around at the men then hiked his head off to the side. “Lets go.” We grabbed up our packs and hiked away from the men for several minutes. The moon still lit our way, so the going was easy.

  When we stopped he pulled out a penlight and a map. “The men are here and our destination is—” he slid the light over the map a considerable distance, “here.” It would probably take us at least two days of hard hiking to make it, if the terrain was favorable and according to the map, it was anything but.

  “Okay?”

  “The catch.” Black looked at me, “The men will be hunting us. They each have a briefing packet in their packs. It’s just a matter of time before one of them finds it. They’ve done these kinds of drills before so, the odds are they’ll be hunting us before too long. They don’t have our rendezvous point, so they will have to track us. We are not allowed to do anything but evade, but,” he lifted the light back up to the map, “you see this spot?” He highlighted what looked like a ranger tower.

  I nodded.

  “This is a cache of training weapons. If they’re smart, that’s the first place they will head and someplace we should completely avoid.”

  “Understood,” I said.

  “But,” he added, “There’s a radio at that location that we need to retrieve. We can’t complete our mission without it.”

  “Of course,” I said.

  “So, that is the first place we need to go, as well. Speed is the most important part right now, since we know where they will be going and it doesn’t matter if they find traces of us on the way. We just have to stay at least one step ahead of them before we get to the cache. Then we need to be miles away. Let’s get moving. I’ll explain in more detail on the way there.”

  We started out at a hard run and kept this up for an hour. The moonlight was strong enough that we were able to avoid almost all hazards. We each stumbled a couple of times, but managed to keep our feet and our pace. By the time the sun started to light the sky we were comfortable enough with our small lead to walk for a bit. Black took this time to finish briefing me.

  The cache of weapons sounded really cool. According to Black, the clothes we all wore had micro sensors in them that would detect a hit as if a real bullet had been fired at us. Of course, this all relied on laser technology, and the sensors were a little more sensitive and faster than a real bullet. So, essentially, if we made it into their sites, and they pulled the trigger, it was game over. An alarm, located in our packs would go off and we were supposed to sit and wait for the team to retrieve us. It also had its drawbacks. If the shooter didn’t have a clear line of sight, the laser wouldn’t reach us. Something as simple as a leaf could get in the way.

  Black told me, “If one of us gets shot, the other needs to get the hell out of there. We still win if one of us completes the mission.”

  Then he went on to explain when we reached our destination we would find a strong box with our very own set of weapons and a code in it that we needed to radio in. Once we did that, the tables turned.

  “As soon as they get that order, they will set their sites on their new destination.” He continued to tell me that they wouldn’t be as limited as we were because they were allowed to use their weapons for defense while trying to reach their rendezvous point.

  “I’d like to do this as a team, but if you’d rather split up, we can.”

  “Teamwork sounds good to me.”

  “Good.” We moved into a hard jog and made good progress for the rest of the day. It was late afternoon when we reached the cache. If we were lucky, we had at least an hour on the men and maybe more. Two people could move faster than ten.

  We entered another small clearing that held a wooden and rickety looking tower.

  “Up there.” Black pointed.

  I didn’t hesitate and started climbing the ladder. Once I reached the top I went directly to the green metal box I spotted in the far corner. When I opened it, I found several different weapons. Ten pistols, eight automatic rifles and two sniper rifles. My fingers itched but I only grabbed one of the radios lying on the top of the stash.

  I took a second to rummage around in my pack for my binoculars. If I could find out how close or far the men were, it would be helpful, and this was a great vantage point.

  It didn’t take me long to find them and they were maybe thirty minutes away if they were moving at our pace. I hurriedly stowed the binoculars and radio in my pack and slid down the ladder.

  “About thirty minutes hike that way.” I indicated the direction we’d just come from with my head.

  “Lets move,” was all Black said and I fell in line behind him.

  I hoped it would take the men longer to distribute their weapons than it took us to grab our radio.

  After fifteen minutes of hard moving, Black slowed and said we needed to start moving more carefully, covering our tracks. Chances are the men would approach the cache with caution. They didn’t know we were given orders not to engage. That would give us a little more time to get a little farther ahead. And, we needed to be cautious after they gained the tower with their own binoculars and sniper rifles.

  “We need to get to higher ground,” I told him as we took care to cover our tracks.

  “Good idea.” He stopped and took his map out of his pack. “Here it is. We aren’t far.” He pointed to a ridge on the map. “We might have to do some free climbing. You up to it?”

  Free climbing was dangerous, but, “Hell yeah,” I said and we altered our course slightly.

  Within half an hour we were at the base of a sheer cliff. Both of us looked up and opted to search for a different starting point with better handholds and a better angle. We walked carefully along the base for five minutes, but finally I saw a good spot.

  It would be dark in a few hours and I was tired. But, we couldn’t rest if we wanted to make it through the night. I was sure we weren’t the only ones with the cool binoculars. When night fell we’d have to be out of sight and have a significant lead.

  “What do you think? We’re starting to lose the light.” I said, pointing up.

  Black looked up from putting back a rock he’d overturned. “You’re the faster climber. Get up there and tie off a rope. I can climb the rope pretty quickly.”

  “Here.” I handed him my pack after I fished out a rope and slung it over my shoulder. “You think we have time to haul it up? I’ll move a lot faster without it.”

  “Probably, if we hurry. If not, I’ll try to carry them both up.”

  “Think the rope is long enough?” I asked as I started to climb.

  “Standard issue is a hundred foot rope. Looks like sixty feet to the top. Should be enough.”

  “I hope so.”

  We quit talking and I made excellent time, considering I was free climbing. I decided that it was best that I’d gone first. My hands and feet fit into more places than Black’s would and I wasn’t as cautious as he was. When I reached the top I couldn’t help but knock some dirt loose. I just hoped it wouldn’t be obvious enough to let the men know we were on top of the ridge.

  When I reached the top of the cliff I realized I still wasn’t at the top of the hill. After a short distance of fairly level footing the ground continued up several more feet before it crested. I went straight to the closest tree with a large enough diameter to hold Black’s weight, tied off the rope and threw it down to Black. When I turned around I got a great view of the tower off in the distance.

  “Shit,” I said and dropped to the ground. I crawled to the edge and said to Black in as quiet a voice as possible, “I can see the tower from here.” He put his fingers to his eyes and pointed in the direction of the tower, meaning I should scope it out. I threw the rope down and pointed at my pack at his feet. He quickly tied it to the rope and I hauled it up as fast as I could.

&
nbsp; I backed away and took cover near some thicker bushes and trees near the edge and dug out my binoculars. The tower was empty and so was the small clearing so I moved my search in a little closer to our location and still didn’t find them. I scanned the clearing and tower to find the same thing, nothing. I broadened my search and I finally thought I saw some movement on the edge of the clearing. When I was sure it was them I told Black, “Hurry and get your ass up here. They don’t have their weapons yet.”

  I heard a little whistle so I tore my eyes away from the troop of men filing into the clearing long enough to look down at Black.

  “Rope,” he said.

  “Shit.” I swore again and quickly untied my pack and tossed down the rope. As soon as I let go of the rope I put the binoculars back to my eyes and watched two of them carefully approach the tower. The rest of the men held back on the edge of the clearing. One of the men climbed the tower ladder and my stomach jumped into my throat. I glanced at Black’s progress.

  “Hurry,” I hissed.

  He was within five feet of the top. I heard an angry grunt and the sound of dirt and rocks hitting the ground below. My eyes were glued to the men as the first one reached the top of the tower. The rest of the men around the clearing had slowly started making their way toward the center of the clearing and they made a quick sprint when the one inside the tower gave the all clear.

  By this time, Black joined me at the ledge.

  “You made good time.” I moved behind the tree the rope was tied to.

  “The hardest part is always getting over the edge.” He rolled over on his back and took in some deep breaths.

  The rope untied, I made a nice coil as I pulled it to me. Black joined me so I nudged the binoculars I’d laid at my feet.

  “Keep an eye out, will ya?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He retrieved the binoculars and brought them to his face as he leaned around the tree.