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

Bathroom Talk

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

The three snowmen sat there, button eyes innocently staring at us. I snarled and stepped forward to kick the middle one as hard as I could, rage at the memories of the last time we'd seen snow men boiling up inside me and my fury lending strength to the kick. The snowman exploded, and I waded into the two others, kicking and punching, snarling curse words.

The front doors of the CQ Area were covered in snow that had piled up around the building. The temperature had dropped to below freezing and when I stood amid the wreckage of the three snowmen, panting, my breath plumed out in front of me. I felt the building shudder around me, and a low creaking groan sounded from Titty Territory direction. The sign next to the double doors was covered in frost, obscuring the sign one of the female soldiers had put up that read "You must have titties 'this big' to live here!"

"Who the hell built those snowmen?" Someone behind me asked, but I ignored them, prowling through the CQ Area, my boots crunching in the snow.

"Watch my six, Nagle." I said, before pushing open the doors to the female's bathroom and walking inside. One look in the dim flickering light from the ceiling told me all I needed to know. Thick ice covered the walls, the toilets were overflowed and frozen, hanging icicles of water and urine and pink hanging from the seats. A splash of blood was frozen on the far wall, and the window high in the back wall was coated in thick ice that bulged out from the window's alcove and ran down the wall nearly a foot in thick runnels of white ice.

I stomped back out, grinding my teeth, and shook my head at Nancy before going over and pushing the door open to the male bathroom.

The bathroom was dark, pitch black, and all my flashlight did was cause the ice and snow in the bathroom to glow faintly and sparkle. I could tell from long years living in 2/19th that the window had broken, snow covering what little floor I could see, and ice coating the window. The sinks were full of snow, and thick ice from where water had mixed with snow and then frozen surrounded the doors to the toilet stalls. The mirrors were shattered, with ice covering where the glass had been.

A single boot was in the darkness and snow, sitting in the middle of the snow, with a splash of blood across the ice covered doors of the stalls. I was still standing there, silent in the doorway, when the door swung closed, my flashlight laying a bright spot of light in the middle of the door.

"What about that bathroom?" Taggart asked.

"No, honey. Don't even touch that door. Please get away from it..." Nagle said from behind, and I spun around, my mouth opening to yell.

But Taggart just stepped back from the closed doorway to the unisex bathroom, looking at the two of us like we were crazy. I let out an explosive exhale and moved toward her as she moved toward Nancy, putting myself between the pregnant soldier and the door to that bathroom.

The lights turned off and the emergency lights came on, bathing the snow and us in blood red light. Taggart gasped, and Nancy reached out and took her hand when a low liquid chuckle floated into the room from the vents.

"Who is that?" Logan asked from the door to the Game Room.

"You don't want to know." Bomber told him, moving up next to him. Bomber looked at me and shrugged. "What's the plan, Chief?"

"I really need to pee." Nancy bitched.

"Stokes room?" Bomber asked.

"Stokes room." I nodded.

"Why that one?" Nancy asked as I moved to the door and pushed it open.

"Because." I stated, looking at the hallway.