Private Monkey Ghost Story

Chapter 5

Where was I? Oh yeah, the third night I'd spent there.

I woke up early, it was around 0430 and cold as shit in the room. I got up, stretched, and pulled on my boots and BDU top. Curious, I took my lighter and lit it, then ran it around the edges of the windows.

Nothing, the flame didn't even flicker.

It didn't flicker near the vents either. There wasn't any air coming in the room through the vents or the windows. Dammit.

Wait. What?

Aw fuck, the furnace was out again. No. Hell no. I'm not going back in that room, ever. Not even with a gun. Not even with a rocket launcher. Not even with tank.

Coward bubbled up from my mind.

Against a man? No. Against a beast? No. Against a water heater that breathed and a furnace that was probably used to burn people alive? Fuck. Yes. It's not like I'm the only one scared; these guys and girls were all people who had been in for years, and they abandoned their rooms because of this shit. No. I refuse to be afraid. There's no such thing as the fucking bogeyman and no such thing as ghosts. It's the nineteen fucking eighties, nobody is afraid of ghosts anymore.

I slipped out of the dayroom and into the CQ area. Carter was leaned back in the chair, fucking with the rabbit ears on top of the little television, trying to get Sesame Street to come in clearer. Another guy that I'd seen around but not really interacted with was reading a book. I waved to both and headed for my room. The hallway lights were on, but it still felt... dim.

I unlocked my room, retrieved another uniform and some underwear, grabbed a towel, and took a shower and shaved. I felt better in a clean uniform. I gathered up my laundry bag and headed for the laundry room. I'd memorized the barracks map that was in log book when I had assistant CQ. I tossed in my dirty laundry into the washer and added some Tide, then headed out to the CQ area.

"Sleep good, Private Monkey?" Carter asked, stretching and yawning.

"Yup, sure did, Specialist," A moan drifted down the stairwell.

"Good morning, soldiers." It was Captain Bishop, and he sounded way too cheery for a man who had just spent the night in this hell hole. I could hear Sergeant Vickers waking people up in the day room. Bishop walked up to the CQ area, and rested his elbow on the counter.

"We're going to search the barracks today. There is twenty of us; we'll break into teams of four. I want every locker, every room, every closet, every bathroom checked. If the door doesn't open with the keys we have, kick the goddamn thing in," Captain Bishop said. I could hear Stokes lurching into the CQ area. Her knee didn't work worth a shit.

"What about the arms room and the NBC area? We don't have keys for the locks, and they're pretty serious locks," Carter asked, bringing a ring of keys out of the desk door. "We have six master keys, and four keys for each room, unless someone is staying in the room, then we only have two or three keys."

"We'll figure that out after lunch. We'll have breakfast, I'll assign teams, and we'll knock this out by lunch." Captain Bishop looked totally in control. "We'll go onto main post for lunch."

I nodded, and waited while everyone came out into the CQ Area. The whole unit, all twenty of us, was smaller than my AIT class. I was getting familiar with everyone. Cobb looked like he hadn't slept in a month, and I hoped someone had let Sergeant Vickers and Captain Cobb that he had been stuck here, by himself, for a month.