Traitors (Damned of the 2/19th - Book Five) - Finished

Clothing and Fear

2/19th Special Weapons Group Barracks
Restricted Area - Western Germany
Early Winter - 1986
Day: Fourteen

"Open the door, Corporal Stillwater." The command was yelled through the steel door of the room.

"Go fuck yourself, Kebble!" I yelled back.

"Open this goddamn door, you inbred fuck, the CO wants to see you!" She yelled again.

"Fuck him too!" I yelled back. "I ain't comin' out!"

The handle jiggled, unable to turn all the way because of the top of the chair blocking it.

The room was brighter, the light bulb having gone back to normal the night before. We still had heat, we still had MRE's, and we still had water. The bruising on my face was fading pretty quick, but my teeth still ached. Nagle was standing behind me, as naked as I was, watching me and Kebble scream at each other through the door with a smile on her face.

"We'll break it in, Stillwater!" She warned.

"Go ahead and try! We'll be waiting, you ugly whore!" I bellowed back.

They'd been trying to get us to unbarricade the door for 2 days, trying every couple of hours. Our uniforms were still in the laundry room, and after wearing our PT's constantly for the last couple days, we'd stripped naked, washed them in the shower, and now had them hanging from the shower curtain rod and drying. Nagle walked around naked, no body modesty at all, and Kebble had started banging on the door, interrupting our poker game. We were playing for matches and cigarettes, and I was ahead by a handful of match stick and almost a full pack of smokes.

"We should let them in." Nagle smiled. "Let Kebble see what a woman actually looks like, instead of that sorry excuse she sees in the mirror."

"I don't want her staring at my junk." Bomber tossed out from the main room.

There was some argument on the other side of the door that I didn't catch. Nagle stepped up behind me, pressing her breasts against my back, her hands going around my waist to clasp together below my belly button. She breathed softly in my ear and then licked the bottom of what had been my ear lobe before most of it was cut away due to frost bite.

"You know, you could open the door and let her see something else." She whispered into my ear, the hot breath tickling.

"Be good." I murmured, playfully slapping her hand.

"Sooner or later we're gonna kick in the door!" Kebble yelled, and we could hear her stomp off. She'd forgotten to lock it after her.

"Fuck that bitch." I snarled.

Nagle's hand dropped lower. "How about fuck this bitch?" She teased.

"That sounds like a good..." I started, just before someone knocked on the door.

"Open the door." Sergeant Tee's voice.

Nagle's hand stopped moving. "What's he doing up here?"

"Hurry up, open the door."

I pulled the chair away from the door and pulled on the handle. I opened the door, the cold air blowing across my naked body. The lights were still off in the hallway, and the light from my room flickered as the lightbulb buzzed and suddenly dimmed. The darkness was almost a palpable thing as it pushed into the dimming room.

There was nobody in the hallway.

"What the shit?" I asked.

It was risky, but I stuck my head out the door, looking first left, then right. Bomber, me, sometimes Nagle, and sometimes some others played a game. You knock on the door, stand to the side. When they look out the door, you wait till they look at you, then you punch them in the face.

I half expected a punch when I looked to either side of the door.

Toward the mid-way doors there was nothing but darkness, not even light in the glass of the double doors. To the other side there was nothing but darkness. Not even the emergency light was kicked on.

shit

"Ant, get our uniforms." Nagle whispered. "I'll stand in the door."

"No way." I answered, trying to pull back. Nagle put one hand on the small of my back and shoved hard, sending me half stumbling into the hallway.

"Go, Ant..." She hissed, but I was already moving, running as fast as I could in the darkness.

I'd walked these halls drunk so often I could navigate them concussed, black out drive drunk, or half asleep.

I slid to a stop, bumping into the double door, my bare feet skating across the thin patina of ice on the floor. I almost busted my ass, but managed to turn it into a (hopefully) suave looking slide into the laundry room, opening the door by slapping the handle and the edge of the door simultaneously.

Ice coated the ceiling, frost down the wall, and while all of the washer lids were open, three of the dryers were closed.

Bingo

I hurried to the dryer, shivering, and dug in the dryer for the laundry bag. In the moonlight streaming in through the window high up in the wall I couldn't tell who's uniforms they were, but I could tell they were uniforms, and that's all that mattered. I opened the laundry bag and started jamming everything inside. When I caught bras, I figured this was Nagle's shit. I hurried as fast as I could, feeling my feet go numb and my toes start to hurt. I'd broken my toes at various times over the last few years, so they all had stabbing pains in them as the old breaks started complaining. Halfway through the second dryer my nose felt like it was going to break off and my ears were throbbing. By the time I got done jamming everything into the laundry bags, I couldn't even feel my genitals, ears, nose, lips, toes, and my fingers were clumsy.

I yanked open the door, and the darkness of the hallway enveloped me.

"Nancy." I hissed into the darkness.

"Hurry, Ant." She hissed back, and I moved down the hallway, my bare feet slapping on the frost covered tiles.

"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhnnnnt" The sound was sibilant, more like a low bubbling exhalation than anything.

"Oh, God, RUN ANT!" Nancy yelled. I could faintly see her arm waving back and forth in the dimness of the hallway, and I took off sprinting.

The double doors behind me crashed, and I heard the wire strengthened glass shatter behind me.

"Aaaaaaahnt" that exhalation again.

Cold air washed over me, making me stumble as it felt like I was frozen all the way into my core. My breath froze in my lungs, it felt like ice covered my eyeballs, and my lips felt like chunks of ice.

Darkness was next, the light vanishing, and I was stumbling, trying to keep ahead of my feet, the three laundry bags being drug on the ground. I wasn't sure exactly why it was so important to keep my hand in a fist, to hold onto the barbed wire laced across my palm.

Between one step and the next a hand shot out of the darkness and grabbed my arm, yanking me almost off my feet and out of the hallway.