1987

The Boogeyman

"Sir, how did you earn your nickname?" curious Nikolai asked his squad leader as they prepared to go on their next assignment to the Afghan desert.

"We are all wondering the same, sir.", the rest of the squad circled their squad leader like moths to a flame.

Alexander cleared his throat. "Well, you are all wondering the same thing, huh," Alexander said, getting into the truck that would take them. "You see, I was only 20 years old in 1980 when I was assigned to capture an outpost in Angola; I was with our senior Lieutenant, back when he was only an Ensign. High Command told us to take one prisoner, and High Command needed only one. So we waited in the swamps till the cover of darkness. The Lt tasked me to dispatch the four guards in our path, so I grabbed a pebble from the murky water and threw it into the night; 3 of the guards went to investigate while I dragged the last one down under and slit his throat. He couldn't make a sound before my blade snuffed out his life. I climbed out of the swampy water that covered the lower half of my body; I cradled the lifeless body and weighed it down with rocks, so it sank to the bottom. I intended to leave it for the Crocodiles to get rid of the evidence. But, instead, the Lt helped me set up a spike trap for the remaining guards that we're oblivious of their fate. As they sprung, the trap one died immediately from a spike to the throat, the other clinging to life with a Spike in his chest.

As the man Gargled on his blood, he only mustered one phrase "go to hell."

I murmured in his ear, "hell is where you'll spend your eternity." I pulled the trigger to my sidearm and left his body there. While this was occurring, the lt shot the surviving guard in the knee. I looked at the living guard and grabbed him by the neck, pinning him against the wall with my knife to his neck. I whispered to him, "If you attempt to scream for help, I will kill you where you stand, understood?'

The guard quickly nods as he has no room to struggle or resist.

"What is it, you want?" the guard muttered angrily

"I want all the intel you know, and make it quick.", I demanded

As I waited for the man to give a response, the Ensign called for my attention.

"Alexander, look over here," The Lt said,

I looked over to what the Ensign pointed out, and it looked to be a door leading into the outpost. The door was primarily made out of wood native to the area, and it didn't look secure; it barely had a lock. It's as if you could blow on the door, and it would open as if you were the big bad wolf.

"I see it, sir. Let me handle our little helper first.", I joked at the guard's expense

The remaining guard at this point had told me everything and started to press his neck on the knife

"For the MPLA," The guard muttered

quickly I realized what the man was doing, and I pulled my knife away from the man's neck.

"Wrong choice, comrade." I proceeded to plunge my knife into the man's chest cavity and shove my hand into his rib cage, shifting around as if I were digging for leaves out of the gutter. I ripped my hand out of the gaping wound, the man's heart in my hand. I squeezed as hard as possible.

"What did I tell you, comrade" I let the man's body drop to the ground as I grabbed a knife off of the man's now corpse and plunged it through the currently empty heart, and pinned it to the wall.

"Alexander, what the hell are you doing?" The Lt asked confused,

"What does it look like Boris, I am leaving a message.", I answered. And that is what I did. I left a message for the enemy.

Be careful as the Boogeyman is coming for you

"Did you do that, Sir?" Nikolai asked

"Nikolai, that is what I did. Do I need to lie to come up with a good story?" Alexander answered,

"Alexander, we should be there in 20 minutes, were you briefed?" The Driver asked,

Alexander responds, "Why, of course, comrade, we know what our objective is. So back to the story..."

"Alexander, take point.", The Lt orders.

I responded with, "Yes, sir." as I went to the left side of the door, I opened it gently. The Lt went in immediately and faded into the dark corner as a patrol went past and saw the carnage we created. I dropped down and hung onto the edge of the wall waiting for them to go back inside. What felt like an eternity was only about a minute.

"What is this shit." Soldier 1 said

"We are being stalked like prey.", Soldier 2 responded

"Jesus, get back inside, right now!" Soldier 3 yelled

As the soldiers went back inside and right past the Lt, he held the door for me, and we crawled on the floor until we reached a small room where The Captian gathered them.

"Captain, what are we going to do??" Soldier 3 asked

"I don't know. We have never seen something like this before.", The Captain answered hopelessly

As they spoke about the scene earlier, I grabbed the foot of one of the men at the door's base and dragged him into the darkness as I snapped his neck. I took the blood that had run down from his nose and wrote on the wall.

Time is a venture, a virtue that you don't have because the Boogeyman is after you.

At this point, the entire outpost was in a riot. They all tried to run over each other, which gave us the perfect opportunity to grab two men from the crowd. I grabbed a belt of grenades off of one of them and managed to toss one through the small door window, and after about ten seconds, all that was left of the combatant force were body parts and red mist.

"Good job, Comrade Alexander.", The Lt said, patting my back

I responded with, "Why, thank you, Boris. Don't you think I did well?" I looked down at our two new prisoners.

Prisoner 1 responded with, "Screw you," as he spat on my face. The Lt grabbed him and dragged him to his side of the room.

"I want you to remember this and this exactly; we only need one of you two, is that understood?", The Lt muttered into the prisoner's ear.

I chuckled, "Took the words right out of my mouth Boris..."

"Well, you will have to walk the rest of the way, Sergeant," Driver 1 said

"Well, no matter, I've finished with the story anyway," Alexander said, getting out of the Military truck.