by L. T. Ryan
He made his way back to camp and managed to get an hour of sleep.
Four
Sean awoke to someone kicking the bottom of his boots. He squinted his eyes open and instinctively brought his hand to his face to shield himself from the bright sun that crested over the distant hills. His other hand went for his side arm.
“Easy there, Ryder,” Turk said.
Sean blinked away the sleep and adjusted his head so that Turk’s body stood between himself and the sun. Sean propped himself up on his elbows and looked around the camp. He and Turk were the only ones who appeared to be awake.
“Time is it?” Sean asked.
“After six,” Turk replied.
Sean shook his head. He’d lain down at two a.m. Jules should have woken him at four, but apparently his partner hadn’t managed to remain awake through his shift, leaving them vulnerable for at least the last two hours.
“Come on,” Turk said. “Me and you need to take a walk.”
Sean picked himself up off the ground and stretched out the kinks. He followed Turk away from the camp, casting a look down at his partner, who was sleeping while leaning back against their packs. During Sean’s shift, the night had been silent. No howls. No movement. Nothing at all, in fact, and that concerned him. It made him wary that whatever those things were, they were close by, and every living creature made sure to get as far away from them as possible. He couldn’t help but think that’s what they should do, as well.
He caught up to Turk and said, “Why isn’t anybody else up?”
“Some are,” Turk said without looking back. “They’re waiting. Conserving energy.”
Sean thought about asking what for, but didn’t. Instead, he said, “Where’re we going? Back to last night’s location?”
Turk turned his head a notch or two, and looked at Sean out of the corner of his eye. “Nothing to see there.” Then he picked up his pace and pulled a few feet ahead. Was that a hint that Sean should shut his mouth?
Sean kept a few feet of distance between himself and Turk as they ascended a dirt-packed hill that rose two hundred feet or so into the air. Sean kept looking back over his shoulder every thirty seconds to get a wider view of the terrain below them. He located the path he and Jules had taken to reach the SEAL team the night before. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he might have seen the spot where the attack occurred. Thick vegetation walled both sides of the area. It made sense that those things would hide in there. Not that anything about them made sense to Sean.
Turk stopped a few feet shy of the smooth hill crest and turned to face Sean. He said, “All right, here’s the deal.”
Sean crossed the distance between them and stopped. He faced Turk and mirrored his stance and said nothing.
“Delta Force came through here a week ago. They communicated that they had run into forces of,” he paused and wiped the sweat from his brow, leaving a discernible line across the bottom of his forehead like a squeegee on a windshield, “humanoid beings. Apparently, that’s the exact phrase they used. They located an underground facility, scouted it. They saw no one enter or exit, but continued to run into these, things. One or two at a time. They lost nobody on their team, and managed to take out everyone they encountered.” He stopped and gave Sean a slight nod, as if asking if he were following along.
“Okay,” Sean said. “Guess that means I’m not crazy.”
“No,” Turk said. “I thought so last night, though. I received this information less than an hour ago.”
“So why are you telling me and not your guys?”
“I’m getting to that.”
“Okay.”
“Can I continue?”
Sean extended his hand. “Go ahead.”
“They lay in wait for about four days, again, Delta, watching. They see a truck pull up to the entrance and block it. A couple guys get out. They look like they are armed to the teeth and wearing body armor. At least, that’s the impression the Delta guys relayed after viewing the men for a couple seconds. They disappear behind the truck, then the truck drives off and the men are no longer in sight. Gone inside, supposedly. The order comes from above that Delta is to infiltrate the place.”
“Why?” Sean asked.
Turk shrugged, brought his hand up and scratched the stubble along his jawline. “I wasn’t given that information. I was told that Delta had to wait for the Rangers to arrive. They were being sent in to provide backup and security.”
Sean felt a lump rise in his throat. “Battalion?”
“Third,” Turk said.
“Company?”
“Bravo.”
Sean exhaled. He knew that they wouldn’t be in Nigeria right now if members of Delta Force and Bravo Company of the Third Battalion of the U.S. Army Rangers didn’t need to be rescued or recovered.
He felt relieved, too.
Sean’s brother, Nick, was a Ranger.
Third Battalion.
Alpha Company.
“Don’t worry,” Turk said. “If it was your brother’s Company, you wouldn’t be here.”
Sean lifted a curious eyebrow. He was not aware that Turk knew about his brother. “Okay, so what’s the deal then? Some of them were killed? Guys hurt? Taken? Are we in rescue or recovery mode?”
Turk shrugged and shook his head as he lowered his eyes toward the ground. “We don’t know, Ryder. Delta went in, and the Rangers didn’t hear anything. They went in, and no one has heard from any of them since. It’s been ninety-six hours of total silence.”
Sean felt a cold bead of sweat drip down his back and settle into the waistband of his pants. Shivers branched out along its path, tracing his nerves. He grabbed his canteen, took a sip of water. “Why are you telling me this?”
Turk looked up and made eye contact with Sean. “Well, you and Jules are here because of potential trauma to the victims, maybe even to my team. I brought you up here because you encountered one of those things. We all heard them, as much as we don’t want to admit it. But you saw one. Jules did, too, but he seems worthless now. What on earth could scare a man like him that much? How did that thing move? How did it react? Eleven shots, man. Did all of them hit?”
Sean nodded. “Every bullet hit. The first three dead center. He… it stumbled for a second, but kept moving. Hell, he moved faster than I’ve ever seen a man move, and that was after I shot him.”
Turk massaged his temples and nodded, presumably taking in the information.
“It wasn’t until Jules got a head shot that it, the guy, went down,” Sean said. “Look, Turk, I saw the body both alive and dead. I can tell you one thing for certain. It might have looked human, but it had no soul.”
Turk turned away, leaned his head back. It looked like he was surveying the short distance from where the two men stood to the top of the hill.
Sean followed the man’s gaze and made his own assessment of the area. He knew if there was a secret underground facility, they’d have monitoring or security devices spread across the area. Or were those beings the only security the facility needed? Then a thought crossed Sean’s mind that scared him to his core. What if the underground facility was full of an army of those things? What if they bred or created them there?
He saw the look on Turk’s face and felt certain that the SEAL team leader had the same thoughts.
“Okay,” Turk said. “Nice and easy to the top. The entrance is in the ground, past the hill. I want to scout the area and get everyone ready to move.”
“You going to tell them what you told me?” Sean asked.
Turk shook his head. “Just the basics. I don’t know if they could handle the rest. Shit, I don’t know if I can handle it.” He took a deep breath, blew the air out in a long stream. “I’m going to tell them about Delta and the Rangers and that we think some are dead and some are being held hostage. We’re going to operate on the presumption that this is a rescue mission, but I’ll prepare them that they need to be ready for a battle.”
Sean nodded and said n
othing in reply.
“Okay,” Turk said. “Let’s get to the top.”
Both men crouched as they neared the crest of the hill, dropped to their knees, flattened onto their stomachs. Sean pulled out a scope and surveyed the land beyond the hill. He scanned inch by inch, looking for anything out of the ordinary. He tried to find signs of survivors or the bodies of the dead. However, all he saw was scorched brown earth and thick inhospitable shrubs.
“I got it,” Turk said as he extended a muscular arm and pointed with his index finger. “Over there.”
Sean moved the scope to the side and followed an imaginary line extending from Turk’s finger. He saw a spot on the ground where the dirt didn’t match its surroundings. It was loose and browner that the rest, like it had been turned over recently.
“See it?” Turk asked.
“Yeah,” Sean replied. “I see it.” He brought the scope to his eye and studied the area surrounding the hidden entrance. Nothing seemed out of place. If there were any security measures taken, he couldn’t spot them from the top of the hill. He knew they’d have to be careful when they approached. Setting off an IED would not only be deadly for the team, it would also alert whoever was below ground to their presence.
“We’re gonna wait here for a little bit,” Turk said. “I want to see if anyone, or anything, comes or goes.”
“Okay,” Sean said against his better judgment. He didn’t want to stay there, on top of the hill. What if those things were watching them from behind? He didn’t think he was in a position to argue with Turk over how they should handle the mission, though. He remained flat on his stomach, studying every square foot of land between himself and the hidden entrance to the underground facility. He scanned the area to the left and to the right, a hundred feet in either direction. Sean wanted to make sure that he could navigate the area with his eyes closed if necessary.
“It’s opening,” Turk said.
The words took a moment to filter through Sean’s brain. He’d been studying a spot where the dirt appeared to be disturbed. The mound of soil was much too large to be the location of an IED, though. It appeared to be about six feet long and two feet wide. A grave, he presumed. There were a couple dozen of them scattered throughout that section of the landscape.
“Ryder,” Turk said. “Look.”
Sean let his eyes float back to their natural position and then inched his head to the right until his gaze settled on the dirt-covered entrance, which was now propped open a few feet. A pale hand reached out and wrapped around the edge of the door. A matching hand poked out and flattened onto the dirt. Sean moved his scope into position to get a better look. Matted and tangled brown hair appeared next, semi-parted in the middle and hanging over the face of the person exiting the facility. A female form emerged, clothed only in a tattered gown that had probably been white at one time, but now was stained dark red and brown. Sean didn’t want to acknowledge the possible causes of the stains.
“Sweet fuzzy ducks, what are we looking at?” Turk said.
Sean squinted, as if the action might provide him with a better view. The woman started walking in their direction. She shook her head side to side, the motion jerky, then she reached up and pulled her hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ears. Sean gasped at the sight of her face. Her eyes were bright and golden brown. Her skin was pale, with dark purple rings surrounding her lips and eyes. She had a gash on her left cheek that gaped open an inch. Faint traces of dark red smeared the area between the cut and her chin, but the wound had stopped bleeding some time ago. The edges of her severed skin were black, appeared to be infected.
“What in God’s name are we looking at?” Turk said.
“I don’t know,” Sean said. “Like I said, they aren’t human.”
The woman kept shuffling in their direction, stopped. Her eyes closed, revealing purple eyelids. Her head dropped back. She rotated her head to the left, then the right. Her nostrils flared open. She appeared to be trying to sense if something, or someone, was nearby.
“What is—”
Sean jabbed his hand into Turk’s side and let out a quick shushing sound. He didn’t say anything. If that female thing heard them and started toward them, they’d be forced to kill it. Sean wanted to see what she would do, hoping it would give them an idea how to detect and possibly avoid unnecessary encounters.
The woman’s head returned to its natural position, and she opened her eyes. They seemed even brighter, and without looking back, Sean figured that a cloud had slid past the sun, letting its rays hit the woman in her face. She turned to her right and shuffled toward the mounds of dirt Sean had noticed earlier.
“I thought you said they were fast,” Turk whispered.
“They are,” Sean said. “I guess only when they want to be, or need to be.”
“Come on. Let’s get back to camp and get everyone ready to move.”
Sean continued to follow the woman with his scope. “Wait. I want to see what she does.”
“What?” Turk said.
“Serious. This might help us later.”
“Five more minutes. Got it?”
Sean nodded and then returned to watching the woman. At the first grave she came to, she bent over and grabbed a fistful of dirt. Her hand lifted the dirt from the ground to her face. She brought her other hand up and held the loosened earth in both hands. Tiny rivers of brown fell from the cracks between her fingers and cascaded to the ground. She placed her nose in the center of her palms. Sean heard her moans carried on the wind, and then the woman let her hands slip apart and watched the dirt as it fell back on top of the grave. She repeated the process again at a second grave, then moved on to a third. This time, when she brought the dirt to her face and stuck her nose in it, her body straightened and became rigid. Her arms lifted and the soil fell from her hands. Some of it was swept away with the wind, while the remainder of it fell across her hair and shoulders. Then the woman let out a piercing scream before falling to her knees and letting her torso cover the mound that Sean presumed held the body of someone she loved.
Five
The team moved out as the final rays of the sun were swallowed up behind the horizon, casting long shadows across the camp. Anything the men didn’t carry with them had been buried two feet in the ground. The packed soil hadn’t been easy to dig up, but Turk had said he felt better if all traces of them being there were removed. Sean didn’t have anything left over, but he pitched in and helped the other men who did.
Turk had given the team a watered down version of the events. He had said that they were there to rescue members of Delta Force and Bravo Company of the U.S. Army Rangers Third Battalion. He didn’t give his men false hope that they’d find all of the men alive, though the mission was still classified as rescue and not recovery. He warned all of them to be prepared to face extreme danger once they breeched the entrance of the facility.
Turk appeared to deviate from the tactics that Sean expected. He kept all the men close. They didn’t question him, although the looks in their eyes appeared to cast doubt on how he was leading them. Sean wondered if he was reading them wrong because he knew something they didn’t.
Jules and Sean stayed toward the back of the group as they climbed the hill. Every few seconds, Sean found himself looking over his shoulders to see if something was following them. He no longer believed he’d see a person following the group. Those beings were not human. Not anymore, at least.
They stopped at the top of the hill and everyone dropped to the ground. Each SEAL had an assignment at that point, and they carried out their duties.
Sean immediately turned his attention to the graveyard. He wondered how long the woman had stayed out there. Had she had truly been grieving, or were her actions some primal instinct that was carried out because of a series of electrical pulses from the deepest recesses of her brain?
“Shit,” Turk said from Sean’s right.
Sean adjusted his head and looked toward the hidden entrance to
the facility and saw two armed men crouching near it. They appeared to be human, although Sean wasn’t sure he could be positive about that.
Turk whistled and Ruiz and Gilmore crawled forward. They each set up their RAD M91A2 sniper rifles and settled themselves in preparation of the shot.
One shot, one kill, thought Sean. Though technically the slogan of Marine Scout Snipers, he found it to be appropriate for the current situation. He watched the men who guarded the dirt covered entrance. The only parts of their bodies that moved were their eyes. Sean wondered if perhaps the men had taken notice of the group and had sent a silent alert into the facility, preparing another dozen or so armed guards in anticipation of the team’s next move.
Turk gave the signal to Ruiz and Gilmore, and the two men fired in unison, each sending a single .300 Winchester Magnum .30 caliber bullet toward the heads of the unsuspecting men that guarded the entrance.
Sean held his breath as he watched the heads of the men flinch upon impact. A dark hole in each man’s forehead signaled the entry wound. Blood trickled, then flowed freely. Although he couldn’t see the exit wounds, he assumed the bullets did their job and destroyed most of the gray matter inside their heads, as well as the backs of their skulls. He knew if he were closer and had the proper lighting, he’d see a pink cloud consisting mostly of blood, but also brain and skull, falling to the ground.
All fourteen men waited in silence. Sean presumed that Turk wanted to wait and see if the guards were being monitored by forces inside the facility. If so, they’d come out through the entrance, the perfect bottleneck, within the next minute or two. Or perhaps they’d unleash some other kind of attack. Sean didn’t want to think about that, though. He continued with the belief that if someone was going to come and retaliate, they’d be human and a single bullet to the chest would stop them.
The final twinges of pinkish-red sky faded behind the horizon. Sean switched to his night vision goggles. He tried to remain focused on the entrance, but his sights kept drifting toward the graveyard. Perhaps it was simply human nature, a need to fill in the blanks and have all questions answered, but he couldn’t stop wondering what was buried under the dirt mounds. Had those things buried the man Jules had killed the night before, perhaps alongside the bodies of the creatures Delta had killed? Or were the bodies that lay there those of humans who perished at the hands of the beings?