Fifth instalment

Debrief

Saunders arrived at a tent that had been set up in the middle of the leveled base and waited next to the flap for Bates to come out. He waited ten minutes or so, and then coughed loudly to make his presence known. Seconds later, Bates’ head poked out of the tent and after seeing Saunders, he walked out of the flap, stood there for a second as Saunders waited for him to say something. “Lieutenant, you are aware that you salute a commanding officer, right?” “Yes sir.” “And you are aware that I am a commanding officer?” “Yes sir.” “Then why did you not great me with a salute?” “Oh, I did sir, but you were too busy rooting around in your tent for ten minutes while I stood here waiting to notice.” “You know Lieutenant, your tone sounds very insubordinate, and I’m getting sick of it.” “Oh, well we can’t have that can we Lieutenant Colonel, can we?” “I’m going to ignore it in the hopes that someone will knock some sense into you and save me the trouble. What did you find Lieutenant?” “Well sir, may I assume that Hernandez gave you the account of last night?” “You may. Last I heard you were off on some grand investigation. May I ask what it was?” “Well, if you’d listened to Hernandez’s story, as I’m sure you did with rapt attention, you’d know that some poor bastard tried to put a few six inch nails through the back of my skull last night. Now, he could use a few lessons in stealth, as instead he nailed a concrete slab and caught a round from my Colt in the gut. Seems that spooked him a tad, and he went and jumped out of a second story window, dragged himself to a cliff edge, and fell about twenty meters. Now, somewhere along the way down he broke a leg and got knocked unconscious. When I went to look after the sun came up and I’d sent Hernandez and the two survivors back here, he wasn’t there, damndest thing I’d ever seen. Poor bastard falls all that way and not only cheats death from its winnings, but sees fit to get up and leave before I can get down there and find out why exactly he tried to drive nails through my skull.” “Is this going somewhere Lieutenant, or can I just assume this ninja assailant can take a gunshot, survive a fall, and limp away leaving you stumped as to where the hell he went?” “No sir, you can’t assume that, you see, here’s the kicker, he didn’t walk away, the blood trail stops, but there was a bloody hand print on a doorway across the street. The poor bastard was carried away from the scene sometime between dawn and when I got there.” “Is there a reason you didn’t say that before?” “Yeah, I wanted you to look like an idiot. But more importantly, I followed the bloody hand print through the door, crawled through a small opening blown in the wall by a flying safe, and witnessed what I can only compare to some weird druidic ritual with the poor bastard I’d shot playing the role of the human sacrifice.” “Saunders, do you mean to tell me that on top of having to deal with residual levels of radiation, a population that’s scared shitless if they aren’t already dead and a complete lack of support from the chain of command higher than me, that I have to start worrying about some druidic human sacrifice-oriented doomsday cult?” “Yes sir, that’s exactly what I mean to tell you.” What followed was fifteen minutes more explanation of what Saunders had seen in the hotel lobby and his flight from the cultists.
Saunders was free of Bates by 1800 and grabbing grub in a large tent that was set up nearby when he spotted Hernandez sitting on a portion of what used to be the antenna tower next to the bases helipad. He grabbed his food and sat down a few feet away. “Hernandez, you guys make it back here without incident?” “Yes sir, let me tell ya, that woman is iron tough; we had gone about five miles without me hearing a peep from either of them, I turn around and she’s carrying the kid and still keeping up, malnourished as all hell and still keeping pace. I heard a few gunshots around 1100 from your direction, you run into any trouble?” “Just a few cultists bent on human sacrifice, but other than that it was a walk in the park.” “Shit man, that doesn’t sound to good, how’d that come about?” Saunders told the tale again. It took five minutes or so and afterwards he and Hernandez finished dinner off with a few jokes, then Saunders asked Hernandez to point the way to wherever their survivors had been set up for the night.