"The vault in hotel 5 is down again" stated Master Sergeant Francisco to the airmen.
Who all replied with a sigh and "Really? That has to be the 8th time this month, you have to be kidding"
The nuclear weapons storage vault had been shall we say fussy the last couple months, ever since it was a hot vault at least. MSgt. Francisco selected the team of Staff Sergeant (SSgt.) Birch, SSgt. Sykes, Senior Airman (SrA.) Nichols, SrA. Hobbes, and Airman (Amn.)
Stevens the team of maintainers went along prepping the equipment arming up with M-16's and M-9's, grabbing all the technical manuals off the shelves and loading into trucks. Airman Stevens jokingly said " you know how ghosts supposedly fuck with electronics? That is what I think is going on ha ha" once everything was packed they headed out to the PAS (Protective Aircraft Structure) containing the faulty vault and luckily security was already set up.
While lining up outside of the structure with a big H-5 painted on it somehow ominously, despite it being so generic compared to all the other PAS's around the flight line, the team did their typical complaining to security. As the maintenance team was in the middle of processing through Airman First Class Jones, one of the security guys, collapsed.
At the time everyone attributed it to dehydration, which wasn't really a stretch considering it was 103 degrees Fahrenheit and at 80% humidity fairly miserable to anyone, and that isn't including wearing gear. The rest of the processing occurred without a hitch.
Once inside the team went right to work unlocking and opening the weapons vault and setting the equipment as it was opening. The team chief did the safety briefing that is custom for any military maintenance operation . Once the vault was open the team removed the floor plates and started inspecting all the sensors trying to figure out what was wrong, when Sra. Hobbes dropped his flashlight into the pit of the vault.
"Great now I have to go down there and get it" he said, understanding the fuss and bureaucracy involved in going into the pit of the vault, with it being classified a "confined space" he climbed out and started the CO2 sensor so it can warm up. And while this happened Amn. Stevens was suiting up to go down below with SrA. Hobbes.
The setup for them to go down was finished and they started to climb down the attached rope ladder when they were down there the temperature seemed to jump 15 degrees. "wow this seems be opposite of common knowledge than the normal cooling effect of going underground" said Stevens to Hobbes.
"I know this is strange, think it could be due to the metal siding? "
"I don't know. Oh well grab your flashlight and we might as well check the sensors down here while we are at it." They start opening up the sensor panel when a large centipede crawls out and across Hobbes hand, "Gah I hate these things!" shouted Hobbes . At hearing that Staff Sergeant Birch, the team chief, calls out " you guys ok down there?"
Both the airmen reply "yes just some centipedes and spiders as per usual." Hobbes still hadn't notice that he had been bitten by the centipede. They continue checking the sensors and see nothing wrong with them, they check with an Ohm meter and still find nothing wrong. At that point SSgt. Sykes screamed from above them. Both of them dropped what they were holding and looked up towards her.
Her face was pale with fear and she had a look of pure dread in her eyes Amn. Stevens asked her "What's wrong?", no response she began to sway and started to fall into the pit, luckily Ssgt. Birch caught her and laid her down on the cool cement floor in the PAS. "that was close, I wonder what scared her that much" said Stevens "we should get out of here and check on her." they started passing the equipment up to SrA. Nichols. Stevens climbed out first followed by Hobbes.
At that point Hobbes finally noticed the bite on his hand cause it had swollen by quite a bit, but he decided not to tell anyone they already had too much to deal with. Suddenly the phone in the PAS rang and Birch picked it up "Sergeant birch speaking" he said, shortly followed by "What little girl?... on the camera? ..... I haven't seen anyone" he hung up the phone.
Having a puzzled look on his face he knocked on the door to get security's attention he asked them " Did you let anyone in without my knowing?"
"No sir" they replied, "no-one has even approached since you guys came in".
Birch closed the door and said "well our box of nasties should be coming soon perhaps food will make things, make more sense around here" he went back to tending Sykes.
Shortly after Sykes woke up and everyone asked what scared her so much. She said "I was checking jack screws when all of a sudden I saw this little girl crawl out of the ground behind you guys and look up at me with the most wretched smile. I swear her smile was oozing the most horrific sight I have ever seen. Not only that she seemed to be covered in those spiders and centipedes, they seemed to fall off of her in unnatural concentrations something just seems completely off."
After that Nichols piped up " is that her?" pointing to the far corner to the PAS at which Birch and Stevens drew their guns and started firing. They got out about 2 to 3 rounds before she vanished.
"Okay we need to calm down everyone" birch said, "we are all just hungry and letting things get to out heads that is all" then there was a knock on the door from security and Birch opened the door.
Security asked " what's going on in here is everything okay?"
Birch replied " we are all fine we just though we saw something, are our box of nasties here yet?"
"They just arrived" the security guy grabbed the bags with the boxes in them, and placed them on the ground inside the PAS. Birch then said
" Okay lets take 10 minutes to eat then we can get back to work" everyone grabbed their boxes and started to eat when Stevens froze looking straight ahead and catatonic. no-one really noticed as he stood up spilled his lunch all over the ground and walked straight for the vault and walked in and fell into the pit. Seeing him fall Birch quickly set his food down and asked Sykes and Hobbes to check on him while he called for emergency rescue from the pas phone. Hobbes started to wobble and vomit violently covering the vault processing units in bile and he doubled over and collapsed. Nichols rushed over and pulled Hobbes aside who was still vomiting violently.
Once Nichols placed him down Hobbes seemed to be dragged across the floor by an unseen entity towards the vault and he went right into the pit.
Nichols starting to panic screamed "What do you want? What you little bitch? Answer me!" suddenly his eyes glazed over and his hair grayed in a matter of seconds.
He picked up an M-16 aimed it at Birch who raised his M-9 and said "Drop your weapon!" Nichols maintained his aim.
Without any real choice Birch fired and shot his comrade, killing him. He called over to Sykes "Quick lets close and lock the vault NOW" they ran over to the control panel and pressed the lower button the vault started lowering into the pit before it was halfway closed Nichols body slid across the floor into the pit.
When the emergency personnel finally arrived they found the PAS to be empty aside from the equipment, some food, and a single M-16. the vault was closed and locked the security had pardoned off the PAS a few maintainers retrieved the equipment, but the vault remains locked no nuclear bomb is worth opening that again heed this warning you can never enter the PAS labeled H-5 it will always remained sealed.
Later review of security tapes from the PAS, which the main focus is on the vault and control panel showed the little girl several times throughout the whole operation, from the moment the vault is opened to thee point where the vault is closed. The official investigation did not clarify many things like who or what the little girl is, what about the nuclear weapons set her off, and why she attacked the maintenance team. These are things we may never know.
