Bad Stacks Story Collection Box Set (29 page)

Beside him, Raines heard the technician mutter, “That’s not caused by expanding gases, I’ll guarantee you that.”

Raines’ combat alarm was ringing full blast by now and he had little doubt that his companion was right.  He impatiently drummed his fingers against the tabletop.  ‘Come on, come on, show yourself, you bastard,” he whispered at the screen.

As if in response, something else suddenly emerged from that stagnant pool of water and death.

The rain and the lightning conspired to prevent them from seeing clearly, but it looked almost human.  It was even dressed in the tattered remains of what had once been a business suit and had a few wisps of thin hair on its skull.  That is where the similarity ended, however.  Its fingers were longer than normal and even in the poor light Raines could see the claws that extended from their tips.

As they watched, the creature rose up out of the muddy water like an apparition from the depths of hell.  It glanced cautiously, left and then right, before rising to its feet and moving toward the corpses it had just rescued from the pit.  It shook the water off itself like a dog and then grabbed one of the corpses by the arm, dragging it further away from the water before squatting down beside it.  Raising the dead flesh to its mouth, the creature tore off a chunk with its ragged teeth and began to eat.

“Jesus Christ!” Simmons exclaimed in disgust.  “What the fuck
is
that?”

Smiling grimly, Raines answered, “It’s dead meat.  It just doesn’t know it yet.”  He moved to the other side of the console.  “Can we get thermal and UV from the drone as well?”

Without a word Simmons activated two more screens.

Under the thermal imaging, the newcomer looked nearly identical to the corpses on the ground beside it, removing any doubt that what they were dealing with was even remotely human.  If it had been human, it would have shown up under the infrared light.  The ultraviolet light gave them no more information than had the infrared.  Raines had Simmons go to the night-vision lens, but that proved even less satisfactory than the other options they’d tried so far.

Frustrated, Raines went back to watching the creature under normal light conditions.  It was enjoying its dinner and didn’t appear inclined to move soon, which was something the sergeant was pleased to see.  The creature also seemed oblivious to the weather, squatting there in the mud while the thunder boomed and the lightning flashed overhead.

As Raines watched, a sudden flash of lightning lit the scene once more, revealing something metallic hanging about the creature’s neck.  Just to be certain it hadn’t been a trick of the eye, Raines waited until the next flash before turning to Simmons.

“Can you get any closer with that camera?”

Simmons thought about it and then answered, “I can bring it all the way down on the deck if you want.  Thing is, that baby’s pretty damn big.  Its wingspan is something like fifty feet.  Too much lower and that thing out there will know we’re watching.”

“I thought I saw something around its neck. Bring it down another 100 feet and let’s see if we can get a better look.”

Simmons complied.  The picture improved only slightly, but the two men decided it would be best not to bring the drone any close to the ground and chance scaring the creature away.  After watching the thing for a few more minutes, Raines suddenly pointed at the screen.  “Can you freeze that?”

The technician did and then printed a hard copy image.  The picture was taken from the creature’s left and slightly over its shoulder. Its face was turned away and tucked down out of sight, but the image clearly showed what it was that Raines thought he had seen earlier.

“Son-of-a-bitch,” both men said at the sight.

Hanging around the creature’s neck were five sets of US military dog tags.

They had found their killer.

Instantly, Raines began considering what it would take to get there.  It was about two klicks to the excavation site.  Considering the weather and the condition of the countryside, it would take him some time, even if he took one of the unit’s ATVs.  That would mean he would need Simmons to keep the drone in place and keep the creature under surveillance until he could get out to the site.

“How long can you keep the drone in the air?”

“Another forty minutes or so,” Simmons answered, after looking at the fuel readouts on the control panel.

“Good enough,” Raines replied, turning away and heading for where his equipment was stacked beside the door.

“Hey, wait a minute!” cried Simmons.  “You’re not really going out there alone, are you?”

Raines snorted.  “Do you see anyone else lining up to volunteer?” he replied sarcastically. He pulled on his cape and picked up his weapon. “I’ll take one of the ATCs.  That should allow me to get there in about 20 minutes, even with the weather.  I need you to stay here and let me know over the radio if that thing starts to move.  Without you, I’ve got no way of knowing what its up to until I get too close to do anything about it.  Got it?”

Simmons nodded and caught the headset that Raines tossed to him.

“Don’t leave me hanging out there, Simmons, “ Raines warned as he went out the door.

The rain had picked up in the last hour and was now coming down fairly hard.  Raines hoped it wouldn’t cause any difficulties for the drone.  Wrapped in his poncho, he passed through the camp like a wraith in the night, nothing more than a dark shadow against an even darker background.  He entered the hanger that had been erected to serve as a vehicle pool and signed himself out one of the ATCs.  The private on duty didn’t ask to see his orders, no doubt figuring that no one in their right mind would go out on their own initiative after all that had happened.

The same held true for the men stationed at the perimeter.  After a perfunctory check of his ID they let him out the side gate without any trouble.  With a quick turn of the throttle, Raines headed overland.

He’d considered taking the main road, which would have gotten him to the site faster, but he couldn’t quite break the years of habit that told him to remain undercover and out of sight.  His pace was slower off-road than he would have preferred due to the weather and the condition of the landscape, but he felt that was a fair trade for his peace of mind and the decreased chance of falling victim to a sniper’s bullet.

Not that anyone but a maniac would be out on a night like this, he thought, grinning wildly and enjoying every minute of it.  The rain pelted down with savage ferocity, whipped into a frenzy by the wind and the motion of his ATC.  It wormed its way past the protection of his poncho to run down across his clothing beneath, leaving him cold and wet soon after setting out.  Overhead, the thunder boomed and the lightning flashed, robbing him of his night vision at regular intervals.

The ground here had been carved into a seemingly endless series of trenches that stretched for miles, evidence of how savagely contested this area had been prior to the arrival of the UN peacekeeping forces.  Raines was repeatedly forced to backtrack to avoid the shell craters and other debris that littered the landscape.  At one point, riding along the berm between two deep trenches, he almost lost control when the ATC’s tires slid sideways in the mud and left one rear tire hanging suspended over thin air, but a quick burst from the throttle allowed him to recover control sufficiently to escape the danger.

Fifteen minutes into the journey, a figure suddenly loomed out of the darkness in front of Raines as he crested a small rise.  Raines expertly slewed the vehicle sideways with one hand and brought his weapon to bear with the other, but stopped himself from firing at the last second when he realized the figure wasn’t moving.  A closer examination showed it to be a scarecrow dressed in a soldier’s uniform, bound to a crude wooden cross to hold it upright.  Dozens more were revealed on the plain before him in the next flash of lightning.  He could feel the weight of their stares like a physical thing, heavy and menacing in the gloom.

For one long moment, he considered turning back, rather than making his way through that grim, silent company, but then his sense of purpose reasserted itself.  Raines remembered how the Allies had used the same technique to make their numbers seem higher in the trenches along the Maginot Line in World War One.  He wasn’t about to let a bunch of scarecrows turn him away from the job that needed to be done.

Even if some of them look suspiciously like real bodies instead of stuffed dummies.

He slowly began to wind the ATC through the silent throng as quickly as he dared.  On more than one occasion, he could hear the crunch of bones beneath his tires, but he did not stop to see who it was lying forgotten in the mud of this aging battlefield.  These were not his comrades, and deaths months old had no interest for him.

Not knowing how good the creature’s senses were, and not wanting to give it advance notice of his arrival, Raines used the GPS mounted on the handlebars of the ATC and stopped the vehicle several hundred yards away from the excavation site.

“Simmons, this is Raines.  Can you hear me, Simmons?”

Simmons voice came back to him immediately, the high quality communications gear making it seem as if the other man were whispering in his ear.  “I’m here, Raines.  The thing hasn’t moved.  It should be about 300 yards ahead of you, on the other side of that small hill to your right.”

Raines looked around until he had spotted the landmark.  “Got it,” he replied.  “I’m headed in.” Dismounting, he slid his Mark 23 combat pistol from its shoulder holster, chambered a round, and headed out on foot toward the site.

The mud was thick and pulled at his feet, while the rain and steadily increasing wind conspired to push him back in the direction he had come.  He’d been trained by the best the US military had to offer, however, and very quickly crossed the remaining distance to the foot of the hill.

Speaking in a voice no louder than a whisper, Raines asked “Simmons?”

The other’s voice came back to him once more.  “Still there.”

Raines clicked his mike in reply.  He bent lower to the ground and slowly made his way up the side of the hill.  Just below the top, he lay face down in the mud and inched the rest of the way to the top.  With all the skill his training had given him, he slowly raised his head and peered over the top of the hill.

The creature was right where Simmons had said it was, less than 150 feet away on the other side of the excavation.  It was turned partially away from him and was consumed with its dinner.

Raines slowly brought his arms up over the edge and pointed his weapon at its target.  He got himself into a comfortable firing position, and then waited for the next crash of thunder.  As soon as it began, he thumbed the switch that activated the targeting laser.  A thin red beam of light shot across the watery grave and came to rest on the left side of the creature’s chest.

Raines didn’t waste any more time; with the ease of long practice he fired two swift shots.

Both bullets found their mark.

Without a sound, the thing toppled over facedown into the mud.

“Nice shooting!” Simmons’ voice whispered in his ear.

“Thanks,” Raines replied dryly.

It had been far easier than he’d thought.

“I’m just about out of fuel on the bird,” Simmons said.  “Unless you object, I’m gonna bring her back in.”

“Go ahead.  Nothing more to see out here anyway.  I’m gonna grab the body and head back to camp.  I’ll meet you at the motor pool in about half an hour.”

Raines heard the hiss of an empty radio channel and turned off his headset.  With his weapon held casually in one hand, he carefully made his way back down the hill in the direction he had come, and then walked around the perimeter of the excavation site until he stood next to the creature’s corpse.

Squatting down on his heels, Raines reached out with one hand and turned the thing over.

This close, Raines did not need any high-tech equipment to recognize what he was looking at it.  His Polish grandmother would have crossed herself at the sight and flashed the sign to ward off the devil.  She would have called it an
upior
, but Raines was happy enough calling it by its American name.

Ghoul.

The creature’s skin was wrinkled and gray, as if it had spent a long time submerged underwater.  Its nose was partially decayed, resembling a snout now more than a pair of human nostrils.  Its teeth were yellowed and roughly filed sharper to help it tear the meat of its prey.  At top its misshapen head, a few straggling wisps of thin blonde hair were plastered down by the rain against its skull.  Its eyes were closed, as if it were sleeping.

The bullets from Raines’ gun had entered just to the left of the sternum and had blown a fist-sized exit hole right about where the thing’s heart used to be.

“Well my friend,” Raines said to the corpse. “Whatever you were, ghoul or not, now you’re nothing more than one dead critter.”

Raines reached out to remove the dog tags from around the thing’s neck.

Before he could touch them, the creature’s eyes snapped open.

Overhead, the lightning flashed, and by its light Raines could see the thing’s eyes were a strange yellow hue in which sat a blood red pupil.  All the world’s malevolence seemed to be bottled up inside those eyes and for the first time in what seemed like years Raines grew scared.