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

And Back Out Again...

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

Taggart was caught out in the open, kneeling down, facing the door that revealed Kebble and Logan, Kebble pushing open the door, Logan leveling a rifle. Taggart's rifle was against the hollow of her shoulder, her left hand wrapped around the hand grip, her cheek against the butt of the weapon.

Her finger pulling the trigger.

Logan's rifle shattered, the upper and lower recievers flying apart, the buttstock shattering, and Logan screamed and fell back.

She kept pulling the trigger, and Kebble screamed, throwing herself away from the door. The bullets hammered into the door, and Taggart stopped shooting only three shots into the door, coming to her feet and screaming profanity at the top of her lungs. She took a step forward as I scrabbled up the steps.

"Halt!" Nagle yelled, and Taggart instinctively stopped just before her hand hit the door. "Don't do it, Taggart."

"They fucking doubled back." Bomber snarled.

Up above us the stairs shook as heavy footsteps started down. The light coming in through the windows dimmed, and a shriek boiled up from further downstairs, back the way we had came. The blood on the landing crackled and glittered, and the air hurt to pull in.

"Down! Down!" Nagle yelled, jumping to her feet. I turned around and hurried down the steps, taking them two at time. My side still hurt, but I ignored it, my leg throbbed, but it didn't matter.

Snow blew down the stairwell, and the wind bit into us as it howled down the stairwell. Nagle gasped, and Taggart stumbled against me, her rifle falling to hang from the body sling we'd showed her how to use. My ears had turned to throbbing chunks of ice, and the wind seemed to strip away all the body heat I'd built up, the sweat from fighting in the darkness freezing on my skin, my shirt burning the small of my back from where the sweat had frozen. My balls felt like two hot coals dumped into my belly as I hit the second floor stairwell with my shoulder, falling into the snow filled hallway.

Taggart landed on top of me, her rifle barrel hitting me in the face. Before the door could shut, Bomber stumbled through, falling to his hands and knees, his teeth chattering. He wasn't bleeding any more, the wound gray and sickly looking, the blood frozen to his face.

Nagle came next, slamming the door behind us, and began kicking us, avoiding Taggart's belly and instead concentrating on her thighs.

"Get up! Get up! ON YOUR FEET!" She bellowed, kicking at us until we started getting up. "Tandy's coming!" she yelled, grabbing Taggart by the arm and pulling her.

I rolled over, and Bomber grabbed my LBE, pulling me to my feet. He leaned forward and slammed his forehead against mine, grinning at me when he pulled back. "We got this, brother."

"Twisted steel and sex appeal." I grinned back, starting to feel better.

"Run, you idiots!" Nagle yelled from further down the hallway. She was standing next to a door, and Bomber and I stumbled after her. When we got to her, she grabbed me, pulled me close, and dug into my top to grab my dogtags, pulling them off me and jamming the key into the lock.

Bomber and I stood there grinning at her.

When the door swung open, she pushed Taggart in, then turned and grabbed both of us by the front of our LBE's and yanked us into the room.

"Get in here, you two morons." She snarled, slamming the door.

Bomber and I started laughing, leaning against the wall lockers where we had fallen. He leaned forward, putting his hand behind my neck and slamming his forehead against mine.

"WHOO! WE FUCKING MADE IT!" he yelled.

I started laughing, holding my side.

Taggart had crawled further into the room, collapsing on the floor, sprawling out. She started laughing too.

Nancy slumped against the door, letting her rifle drop, and joined us.

"I can't fucking believe that shit! You fucked them up, Taggart!" Bomber howled, holding his side with one hand and pointing at Taggart with the other.

"I dropped the M-60 when the grenade went off! They're gonna fucking bill me for it!" Taggart laughed, rolling onto her back.

"What are they gonna do, bend your dogtags and send you to Germany to live on a fucking mountain?" Nancy laughed, slapping the floor.

"They're gonna take away her birthday, put her in full battle rattle and camou, and make her do standto in the shower!" I laughed, holding my aching side and laughing.

That got us all howling, the image of Taggart standing in the shower like that sending us further into hysterics.

"Nancy, the boys are losing a lot of blood. Are you sure they'll be able to get it up without all that blood?" She laughed.

"It's not like they use it for their brains!" Nancy laughed.

"You know, those two are going to try to kick in the door and kill all of us." I laughed, which caused the others to howl with laughter. Taggart raised her rifle and fired over all of our heads, putting four bullets into the door in rapid succession, and we all started laughing harder.

"I've got an idea." Taggart hiccuped after a long moment.

"We're gonna die here?" Bomber laughed, making the wound on his cheek crack and bleed again.

"No, you dumbass." She hiccuped again, pointing at the window. "We go out the window, down to the mag office, and come at them from behind while Tandy can have the stairwell all to himself."

We all stopped laughing, looking at the window, then at each other.

"Fuck it, let's do it." Nagle said, struggling to her feet, Taggart doing the same. They'd left a bloodsmear on my floor where they had each been sitting.

So did Bomber.

So did I.

We opened the window, the wind and snow blowing into our faces. Without even bothering with D-rings, cord, or any safety measures, we stepped out in the snow, still giggling and hiccuping.

Behind us, as the window vanished into the snowfall, something hammered on the door loud enough to be heard over the wind.

The snow enveloped us, isolating us from each other, only our hand on the wall keeping us from wandering out into the storm and vanishing.

Four little Indians...
Struggling through the snow...
Four little Indians...
With nowhere left to go.