Traces of Grey: Book Four of The Alexis Stanton Chronicles

by Phelps, J. C.

  He answered the door, “You’re kidding, right?”

  “Nope. It’s tomorrow. See you in about sixteen hours.”

  He checked his watch. “At least we’ll still have some light when we start. Remember, don’t leave the grid and no more than five dead within the first hour.”

  “Don’t worry. I know the rules. See ya.” I strutted away.

  Though confident on the outside, I knew they’d probably find me shortly after my first shot. It was just a matter of how many I could take in one sitting.

  As I hiked from the compound, my mind wandered for the first time since we’d started this training. I wondered what White was up to. I’d only been gone two weeks, but I missed him. Then my mind flitted to a vision of my laptop in my closet. I’d have to buy a new laptop when I got home. I knew I couldn’t open my old one again without delving back into my earlier project and I didn’t want to disappoint White by breaking a promise.

  He remained on my mind throughout the night. I thought a lot about our next encounter and those thoughts kept me moving at a steady pace. The moon was waning and I’d be stuck out here in the dark in a couple of days. But, even though the light from the moon was almost non-existent, I made good progress. Black and I had been all over the map for the past two weeks and I knew the area better than I knew the terrain around the company cabin I’d spent so much time at.

  My plan was simple. I wouldn’t worry about the traces I left behind because I didn’t plan on staying in my first location for more than a few seconds after I took my first shot. I’d try to cover my tracks so it would slow them as they tracked me. I refined my plan as I hiked and became more confident. The long arm of the sniper rifle could be my savior, as long as I was able to keep moving and found a good line of sight.

  Real .50 caliber bullets would rip through trees and maybe even rock to reach my targets. The laser on this rifle might be hindered by something as flimsy as a leaf. Yet, I didn’t have to consider ballistics. As long as I had a line of sight, I could take my target. I kept chanting in my mind, “Aim big, no head shots.” I’d had to readjust my sites with almost every shot I’d taken over the past two weeks. “One shot, one kill,” was still my mantra, but the prey was different. The best kill shot was the trunk of the body instead of the head. My intended victims wore no sensors on their heads. Though this had been fun, I’d have to let my partners know that this kind of training probably shouldn’t be utilized too often or the men might get used to the simplicity of shooting the laser rifles.

  The sun started to rise and I slowed my pace so I could pay more attention to where I put my feet. I didn’t want to step on any wet earth, if I could help it. There was something mystical about moving through the forest and leaving no trace behind. My light steps made me feel as if I floated over the ground and my movements felt effortless as I took in the sunrise and the surrounding beauty of the mountains. I knew I was doing it right when I walked up on a doe and her fawn.

  I drank in the scenery as I carefully made my way through the trees. Something about being out here alone felt so pure. Add in the impending game and the feeling became almost euphoric. This probably was as close to Heaven I’d get, so I might as well enjoy it while I was here. I’d questioned my role as Penumbra for various reasons but one of the biggest worries was how I’d explain myself to the powers that be, given the chance. I came to a realization as I glided through the forest. Black was right. I was made for this, so how could the powers that be deny me my reason for living?

  I reached my first objective long before I expected Black to be marching into range. If he did it right, he’d set up camps that provided cover for his troops. He wouldn’t let them mill about and he’d definitely have his own snipers on the look out.

  I’d not had any good sleep for days, but I seemed to have an endless supply of adrenaline. Though it seemed like a bottomless well, I knew it wasn’t. I couldn’t go on like this much longer so I forced myself to relax and nap against a tree.

  When I woke early that evening, I took in my surroundings. The nice thing about the area we were working in was that the outward edge of the grid was rimmed with mountains in a horseshoe with smaller hills and plenty of clearings inside. I’d made the middle of the outer rim earlier and could see the entire basin. We’d narrowed the playing field some from the larger area we’d been playing on these past weeks and I almost wished I hadn’t agreed on that. The more room the better off I’d be. But, I’d have to live with the agreement now.

  My search rewarded me with a clear view of Black’s army making a base camp not far from the first weapons cache tower of our prior missions. Obviously, Black had taken the outer ridge into consideration and had his troops set up their tents in a wall that blocked my line of sight quite well, but I still saw men on the edges of camp moving around. I worried about my lack of camouflage and hoped my position behind thick shrubs would be sufficient to conceal me.

  After five minutes of studying his camp I searched for his snipers and found two right away. They didn’t have the benefit of high ground yet and, were far enough away from camp that the men might still have a sense of security behind the tents before I started in on them. I worked quickly and took out the sniper the farthest from camp. Forty left, I made a mental note.

  I refocused on camp Black and watched everyone scramble around a bit before I clicked off another shot. Thirty-nine.

  I was well outside the first hour restrictions of only taking out five men, but I figured since this was for fun I’d count off five and wait an hour before trying for anymore. Three guys near the edges of camp heard their alarms in short order and I lost sight of the men after that. Thirty-six.

  I used the next hour to relocate to a better vantage point. I had to get eyes on camp and do a head count. If Black was serious, I’d have some determined trackers on my trail while the bulk of the men drew my fire at camp. I had the benefit of a sixteen-hour head start, but they had the benefit of starting their hunt in daylight. It wouldn’t take them long to cover what I’d done in the dark. I could only hope I’d get out of here in time.

  I made good progress in that hour, considering I still tried to keep my location secret. I stopped to get my bearings and check for any easy targets. The camp was in my binoculars and I could see a lot more detail from here. Yet, I didn’t get more than cursory glimpses of a few men. The sniper was gone from his previous location and I was getting nervous.

  My search of the entire basin revealed a few men slinking through the brush, trying to locate my trail. I picked them off as soon as I located them. Thirty.

  Only those six trackers, but where was Black? I didn’t expect he’d be back at camp. He was a hands-on kind of guy. I worked my way around the ridge throughout the night. I needed full eyes on that camp.

  With the light almost non-existent, my movements were extra careful and I moved slowly. I took out my night-vision goggles and picked up my pace a little more.

  Just as the sun lit the sky I was on the backside of the camp. The elevation was fairly level in this part of the basin but the trees were dense. This forced me to move in closer. I considered finding a hiding spot until dark, but the thought of a wasted day and infrared made me take the chance of getting closer to camp so I could see what was going on.

  I got within one hundred yards of camp Black and I could clearly hear them talking while I did my head count. Only four men. They had a table set up in one of the open fronted tents and played cards. Every couple of minutes one or two of them would get up and walk around, trying to look busy. It was quite the show.

  My pistol slid quietly out of the holster as I stepped gently closer to camp. The four continued to play cards while I made my slow advance. I snuck as close as I dared. They continued to simulate activity every two minutes. I waited until all four of them were comfortable at the table again and then squeezed off four rounds. Twenty-six.

  Alarms blared. One of the men had drawn his pistol, but the others knew they were out of the
game and struggled to shut off the piercing sirens. I waited a few seconds to make sure no other men would come out of the tents. I had no idea if Black had men watching camp from a distance. If I ventured in, I had to be quick.

  I kept my pistol drawn and moved it from side to side as I cautiously entered the half circle of tents. The men I’d shot stood at attention when I came into view, but I ignored them, they were dead. One of the rules I’d insisted on, once dead, the men could not talk or give any clues that might help the others figure out anything about me or my location.

  Each man had a radio strapped to his belt. That was something I wanted. I yanked the radio from the first man I came to and switched it on. I immediately did a quick check of the remaining tents, throwing back flaps on the ones that were closed.

  One of the tents housed several boxes stacked two high. I assumed they were supplies. Rummaging through the boxes yielded nothing worth carting around.

  I was exiting the tent when Black’s voice came through the radio. “Teams report.”

  The men I’d just shot were all watching me, but not moving from their current locations.

  “Team One Recon,” came over the radio. Then, “Team One Base reporting in.” It went down the line just like that, skipping Team Three Recon and Team Three Base and ended with Team Five Base.

  “All eyes on camp.” Black’s voice ordered. Damn, I had to get out of there.

  I hurried out of camp. I stowed my pistol back into its holster, turned the volume down to barely audible on the radio and readied my rifle again. I’d hoped they’d talk a little more. Maybe give up a location or two, but I had no such luck.

  Black still had twenty-six men at his disposal and they were all hunting me. The only option now was to start tracking them, one at a time.

  I started by looking for traces leading from camp. It was tough going because I had to stay under cover. The men had enough time to get situated on the ridge I’d been shooting from yesterday and I knew they’d have a good line of sight if I ventured too far out. However, that’s exactly where the trails led.

  If base camp was just a decoy, Black had probably distributed the men out in a search grid and they probably pushed toward the ridge, trying to flush me out.

  My attack on camp might have alerted them to my location behind them. However, having a radio was a definite advantage. They obviously didn’t know that piece of info yet because they hadn’t called radio silence.

  Our men were good but I found enough evidence to make me believe I headed in the right direction. My progress was tedious but about two hours later I happened upon a group of four. They searched for traces of me and carried automatic rifles at the ready.

  I hadn’t been on this side of the grid yet, so I knew anything they found wouldn’t be mine. I watched them for a couple of minutes and prepared to take them when Black’s voice came over the radio.

  “Report.”

  I guessed he called for a report every two hours.

  The men in front of me stopped and one of them held his radio to his mouth. “Team One Recon, reporting no signs.”

  There was a short pause then I heard, “Team One Base reporting. No signs yet.” Then identical reports came in for Team Two Recon, Team Two Base, Team Four Recon, Team Four Base, Team Five Recon, and Team Five Base. Again, I didn’t hear anything from Team Three at all. They must have been either the six men I took out as they made their way across the grid or the men at camp. I assumed this meant that Black still had four teams of six. The teams were split in two. One group of four scouts, the recon team, and I assumed the base teams were a sniper and spotter in place to watch their backs. That meant I could easily be in a snipers line of sight. The map of the area came to mind and I worked through it. With what I knew already, I thought I had Black’s plan figured out.

  I was on the northeastern edge of the grid and decided to leave these four men intact until I could locate their sniper and spotter. I wasn’t far from the location I thought would be best for them to set up. I worked my way to the very edge of the grid and worked along the outer edge as quickly and quietly as possible. Thankfully, I found the two men right where I thought they’d be. I skirted their position until I was directly behind them. Getting as close as I dared, I pulled out my pistol and took them out.

  “Don’t move. You’re dead.” I said over the alarms as I hurried into their little hide.

  The worst part about this was that the men, though out of commission, didn’t stop moving like a real dead person would. I dove between them and pulled the sniper rifle away from one of the men. His was already pointing in the direction I wanted to look. I wasn’t disappointed and located the four men I’d walked away from a few minutes ago. They obviously didn’t hear their teammate’s alarms because they still scoured their surroundings.

  My decision was made. It would only be two hours before the next radio check, so that meant I had to hurry. I took them all out in short order. Twenty.

  I searched the opposite ridgeline and was rewarded with another sniper and spotter. I took them down and then searched below them in an imagined grid. Four more men were easily spotted as they searched. They were out of the game before I took my next breath. Fourteen.

  I didn’t hang out with the dead men but looked back as I walked away and gave them a nod and a grin.

  I was as certain as I could be, without being in on the plan, that I knew where each team was located. Time would be my enemy now. I had to get to the next team before they reported in and I only had about an hour and a half if my guess was right. It was going to be close. Then, I’d have to change my tactics because they’d know my heading. If I could move fast, I could take out everyone with exception of Black and the extra sniper I’d missed back near camp.

  By the time I reached the next sniper and spotter I’d shut off my radio. I certainly didn’t want to alert them to my presence when the call for reports came out. I knew I only had a matter of minutes. I took them out with my pistol, exactly as I’d taken out the previous team and repeated the rest of the motions of locating their scouting team, removing them from the picture and locating the two on the opposite ridge and their scouting team. It was done within seconds of the next call for reports. Two left.

  The radio came on, “Report.” There was a full ten seconds of silence before Black called for the report once again with the same result.

  One of the men I’d just taken out let out a low whistle making me remember he really wasn’t dead. The other one responded to the whistle with, “Holy shit. Are you serious?”

  “Empty your pockets and packs, boys.” I demanded.

  This was something I should have done at camp. But, Black calling for a report put me in a hurry. Actually, it worked out for the best because I made it to the two other team bases just in time to get everyone before they knew what was going on. Now, there was no way to ferret out where I was by analyzing my shot order.

  I found the map that should have been given to each team leader with the grid and realized that what I’d called camp Black was Team Six, so Team Three must have been the men I took out at first. The extra sniper must be with Black. If they didn’t split up, I’d have a better chance. I wished I’d had this map earlier and I would have known I was right about the plan before I gambled. Thankfully, it had worked out.

  Unfortunately, Black didn’t have a grid for himself and neither was his role spelled out for me. The only thing I could think to do was return back to camp Black and start running down the trails that led away from there.

  It was dark before I got back to camp, so I hung back and took a short nap. The men talked and their relaxed chatting lulled me to sleep. When they turned quiet, I woke up. I scanned camp for a living member of the army but the men had stopped talking because they’d gone to sleep and not because someone was investigating and they couldn’t talk.

  I still had a couple hours before the sun rose and I couldn’t do any good tracking in the dark, so I took this time to dig into an MR
E. They always tasted better after a couple days out in the field.

  Day eight. I made note of every day as the sun rose and I ate my MRE. I really only knew how long it had been because I’d started with ten MREs and I was now down to two. I didn’t have the time to search out food and I couldn’t pillage from the dead men because they really weren’t dead and needed their own MREs. I would only pilfer camp Black when I had to. My main objective still was to take out Black and the other sniper I’d let get away.

  I’d spent the last six days running down all the different trails leading through the grid. The men were getting fidgety because they were required to stay dead at their exact locations. Of course, they’d get up and roam around their immediate area and this made my tracking efforts harder. But, passing the nights had been brutal. In my mind, every sound was Black sneaking up on me. The silence was even worse because I had nowhere to focus my attentions. I spent a good part of my day finding a place to sleep, but I didn’t sleep well. At least I knew every crevice and hole that I could fit into by now.

  Every time I’d come upon a death scene the men would scramble back to their place of death and stand at attention. I found it funny and started looking forward to walking in among the dead. That was until I got near the death scene for the sniper and spotter in sector two. Thankfully, I’d come across the spotter just as he zipped up after relieving himself. I made him walk in front of me back toward the hide. As expected, the sniper stood at attention when he saw us coming. When we drew nearer, the alarm in a pack near the sniper sounded and I bolted back toward cover.

  As soon as I got under cover, I double-checked my alarm, but it was silent. I’d gotten lucky. I didn’t know if Black or the other sniper had missed their mark and shot the man in front of me, but I decided to avoid the dead from then on out.