The screams of his friends after an IED attack, a land mine that took another friend’s legs clean off. The list of horrors went on. Things he never talked about with anyone, but relived seemingly every night. He thought moving to a small town and becoming a teacher would allow him to get away from all that, and yet still it haunted him. He was sweating despite how cold it was. He jumped. Someone was beating on the window of his truck. He shot awake and reached for the gun he had left on the seat beside him. His pulse was up, but as he lifted the weapon, he realised it was Emma. He gasped and lowered the window. That's when she spotted the near empty bottle of whiskey on the seat beside him.

  "Do you always carry a bottle of whiskey in your truck?"

  "Yeah," he replied unapologetically.

  But she was still looking at him with judgmental eyes. At least she had gotten over the worst of her shock from the night before.

  "It's not like I was driving," he added to justify it.

  "It's cool. I won't tell."

  "Tell? Tell who?"

  She didn't reply, but they both knew he could get into plenty of trouble at work for it. He was surprised to see how awake and lively she was, as if spurred on by something.

  "Maybe you don't believe me, maybe you do. I don't care. But one thing I know for certain. I went out there with Sam, and I came back without him. He is out there somewhere, and we are gonna find him."

  She climbed into the truck beside him. She noticed the gun in his hand and immediately changed her tone.

  "What are you doing with that?"

  "Last night you came to me for protection."

  "I came to you for help."

  "And you told me something may be out there. Something that meant you harm."

  She nodded in agreement.

  "Don't be afraid of the gun. Be afraid of the person wielding it."

  "That's pretty much what Sam was trying to tell me."

  "Yeah? Well, he's a smart kid," he said, wondering if he was going to be okay, "Look, I'll take you to see the Sheriff so he can get you up to speed with things. But you aren't going back out there, you hear?"

  "Why not? You can't..."

  "Yes, I can. You aren't going back out there, and that is final, you hear? If something went down out there, something violent, then you are not safe. And there is nothing you can do that the Sheriff's office isn't more than capable of doing. So you will not go back there, you promise me, you hear?"

  "All right, okay, I promise."

  "You came to me for safety, and I am going to take care of you, and take care of whatever this situation is, alongside the Sheriff's office. You have my word.”

  "Thanks." She slammed the door shut so hard it made him wince.

  "I'm here to help, but please, don't break my balls. It's too early in the morning."

  "Maybe you should cut back on the drinking?"

  "Yep, and maybe we could all live in a perfect world, how about that?"

  She looked out to her Mom's car gathering dirt on the driveway. Even the storm hadn't managed to wash it all off. She'd been gone for weeks.

  "You know when I was your age, I didn't see much of my parents either."

  "No, how come?"

  "My dad was a Marine, same as me."

  "And your mom."

  "Not around."

  "I guess it's easy to accept it when they're off serving their country. It's not like you have a choice where the Army sends you."

  "There’s never been a soldier in my family."

  "That's right, sorry, I mean a Marine."

  "Any other day I'd bust you for a mistake like that, but you've been through the ringer, so I'm gonna let that one go. But a word of advice, don't slip on that one, or you'll have a whole lot of angry bastards on your hands."

  "It matters that much?"

  "Yeah, it does."

  "Why?"

  "Because it's a part of who we are."

  "Not anymore, Mr Burns. You are a teacher. You retired."

  "You never give up being a Marine, Emma."

  He fired up the engine and pulled away. The rain had finally come to a stop, but the entire town was still soaked through.

  "I hope he's okay and this is all some big joke. I'll kill him if it is, but I still hope it is."

  "I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for it all. It was wet, and you were alone and scared. Who knows what tricks your eyes and ears could have played on you."

  "You're saying I could have imagined all this?"

  "The mind works in weird ways. Sometimes it just does and sees what it wants to, without rhyme or reason."

  "When did you become the philosophy teacher?"

  He laughed.

  "No, I'm no philosopher, but I've seen my fair share of stuff in life. The good and the bad."

  "When you were a soldier, sorry, Marine."

  He couldn't help but smirk.

  "Yeah."

  "Do you miss it?"

  "Yes and no, in equal measures."

  "Would you recommend your students joined up?"

  "Those that are up to it, hell, yeah."

  "Even though you've had to go through some horrible things?"

  "Life can be horrible. Only way it isn't is if you get born with a goddamn silver spoon in your mouth. Then it's easy, or it should be. But some stupid bastards sure manage to make it difficult for themselves."

  "Knowing all that, and you still became a teacher?"

  "Sure."

  "Why?"

  "Because I saw the kind of kids that tried to join the Corps. The ones that were up to it, and those who never had a chance."

  "That doesn't make any sense."

  "Sure it does. What you make of these kids is down to parents, teachers, and anyone else that have much influence in their lives. I figured I could make a difference. Grassroots and all that."

  "And do you think you have?"

  "I'd like to think so. You were in trouble, and you came to me. That has to mean something, doesn't it?"

  "You were the first person I saw that I knew would help me, and was capable."

  "That’s good enough."

  They rolled up to the Sheriff's station. A few of the football team were waiting outside, and they approached as soon as they saw her. Mikey and Foster were with them.

  "Hey, why'd you leave Sam out there?"

  "You took his ride and left him high and dry?" asked another.

  "Hey, back off." Burns stepped in between them.

  "She took his wheels and left him out there in a storm, what more is there to say?"

  "You have no idea what I saw!" she yelled.

  One of them went to reply, but Burns closed in, and with a finger pointing at his nose, brought him to silence.

  "Don't you dare throw accusations about without a shred of evidence! You want to find Sam, so does she, and so do I. So how about you quit your bitching and do something to help."

  "Sheriff says there's nothing to do now."

  "What?"

  "Yeah, said he'll probably show up again soon. He said people don't go missing in this town."

  "What in the..." he snarled, stopping himself before he burst into a rage. He ripped the door to the Sheriff's station open and stormed in with Emma close by. The Sheriff was sitting at his desk reading a newspaper and drinking coffee. He was way past his prime, and in his early seventies. He was out of shape and not really interested in anything that interrupted his easy life.

  "Sheriff, one of my students is missing, what are you doing about it?"

  "One of my deputies went out there last night, and I swung by this morning."

  "And?"

  "Look, we found some blood, sure, but it's probably from an animal. If a person had lost that much, we'd have found a body."

  Emma gasped, covering her mouth in horror.

  "Have a little compassion, will ya?"

  "Look, Burns, what I am telling you is that blood wasn't Sam Marshall's."

  "How do you know, how do you know that for sure?"

  "Look, I've been Sheriff in this town for over thirty years. I've seen all there is to see. Unless we suddenly got some psycho killer draining people out, that blood ain't from a citizen of this town, you hear me?"

  "So where is Sam Marshall?"

  "How the hell should I know? Probably got drunk and fell somewhere stupid. He'll be back as soon as he finds his feet."

  "And if he isn't drunk in a ditch somewhere, what then?"

  "Look, what am I supposed to do? I've got five staff on at any one time. There're thousands of acres of land out there, and we can't even begin to cover one percent of it if we go looking. People don't go missing in this town, but when they do, they soon show up. This is Wood Point, safest town in the state. Maybe even in the whole damn country. He'll show up sooner or later."

  "That's some real fine police work, you know that?" Burns stormed out, leaving Emma alone. She was going to say something when she realised the condescending tone the Sheriff had already taken.

  "More than thirty years in the job? Maybe it's time for a change. I'll be able to vote next time an election comes around. We're the next generation of voters, Sheriff, and I want someone in the job who actually gives a shit."

  She stormed out after Burns. The Sheriff was silenced, although he sat back down and sipped his coffee, as if waiting for it to all blow over.

  "He's useless." She climbed back into the truck, "What are we supposed to do now?"

  He opened his mouth to speak, but was silenced as two black Chevy Suburbans pulled up outside the office. They were in mint condition with smoked out glass, and were identical to one another. They stood out from a mile away, even Emma noticed as much.

  "They aren't from around here, Mr Burns."

  "No they're not."

  The doors to one of the vehicles opened, and two men got out. They were dressed as civilians, but he could tell they were anything but. Both carried side arms beneath their jackets, and had the look of operators trying to look like civilians, without much care for who noticed they weren't. It was Jack Ross and Max Ramos.

  "Who are they?"

  "I don't know. Come on, Emma."

  They got out and went to the office door as the two armed men went inside.

  "Who the hell are you supposed to be?" The Sheriff sighed and put his coffee down.

  "You can call me Mr Black, and this is Mr White," said Jack.

  "This some kind of joke?"

  "Not at all. We're out of Fort Campbell and in the area on orders. You can confirm that directly if you wish."

  But he didn't seem to care.

  "Okay, and what do you want?"

  "Just to let you know we are in the area. A courtesy is all. We'll be staying out of your way, and we expect the same in return."

  "What is it you are doing here?"

  "That's classified."

  "All right, where will you be operating?"

  "Well outside of town."

  "Okay," he said as if not having a care in the world.

  Ross and Ramos left without a word, at least until they got outside.

  "Out of Campbell, no uniforms, civi cars. This ain't no training exercise," said Burns.

  Ross stopped in his stride and turned back to face off against him as if threatened by him.

  "You been in?"

  "Not in any army."

  "Jarhead, then," he replied with a smile.

  "Damn straight."

  "What do you want, Marine?"

  "This girl's boyfriend went missing last night. Out to the North."

  "So what do you want me to do about it? That's the Sheriff's business."

  "You know how much good he'll do. Now what she saw, it sounded crazy at first. This kid just vanished, blood left, and she saw something. She doesn't know what, but she saw something. Now you boys are out here, and don't tell me this is a training exercise. I'm willing to bet those trunks are loaded with as much firepower as you could carry."

  "What are you saying?"

  "That this isn't a coincidence. You came looking for something, and I think this girl found it."

  "Sorry, I have my orders. I’m sorry to hear about this missing kid, but there's nothing I can do about it. I'll tell my people to keep an eye out for him on our travels. If we see or hear anything, I'll be sure to report it to the Sheriff's office."

  "So that's it?"

  "You know the job, we have our orders. You look after yourself, Marine."

  They got into their cars and tore off into the distance.

  "That was helpful," said Emma sarcastically.

  "He said more than he should have."

  "Like what?"

  "Look after myself? He should have busted my balls for interfering with a covert operation."

  "What are you saying?"

  "That he knows, or suspects there is danger. He either doesn't know what, or can't say."

  "So, what now?"

  "For you, nothing. Time to get you home, and you're staying put, you hear me?"

  "You aren't my father, or my teacher out here."

  "No, but I am looking out for you. Stay put and wait for me to contact you, you hear?"

  Chapter 5

  Ross pulled the vehicle over as they reached the end of a dead end. He got out and went forward to look at the vast forest ahead of them.

  "This is as close as we're gonna get."

  "We're eight klicks out from target," said Dunn. Jesse Dunn, the sharpshooter among them.

  The ground was rough, and it would be slow going, but they didn't have much of a choice.

  "Where's a chopper when you need one?" Jose Ortiz asked.

  "You're one lazy son of a bitch," remarked Payne.

  They were looking out across a vast wilderness.

  "It's a lot of ground to cover. We're looking for a platoon in all of this?" Bobby Olsen asked.

  "We know where they were inserted and what they were heading for," replied Ross.

  "Yeah, if any of that info is true."

  "Even if the Major was planning something on the side, he'd have at least some of the fireteams carrying out the exercise. It would raise too many questions otherwise. So we have some references to work with."

  "And we know the extract point, too."

  "Crews waited there thirty minutes as they were supposed to, and nobody showed, so not gonna be a lot to see there, Max," said Jose.

  "Unless someone showed up late," replied Payne.

  "They could have activated the beacon and called the birds back," Max replied.

  "Too many maybes. I want to know what happened here," Ross said sternly.

  "Nothing smells right about this," said Jose.

  "No shit. Gear up, we move out in ten."

  They opened up the backs of the trucks to reveal a well stock armoury, enough hardware to go to war. It wasn't long before they were fully geared up and on the move. They wore MTP camo equipment, but with no insignia at all.

  "You think if a platoon got into trouble, we might need a little more help in getting them back out?"

  "Rookies, at night. No NVGs, a small amount of ammo. No radio comms, and they aren't us, Max."

  "Still, a platoon ain't gonna roll over easy, no matter what they're carrying."

  That worried Ross, too, but he wasn't about to admit it. They all knew the mission was highly unusual, as were the circumstances.

  "What are we even doing out here? We should be on a beach drinking Margaritas by now."

  "You can keep that girly shit to yourself, Jose," replied Payne.

  "He's right though," added Olsen.

  "Yeah, what are we doing out here?"

  "We're carrying out orders. That’s what we are doing out here."

  "The Captain told you a whole lot more than you shared with us."

  "Yeah, Jose, and how's that different to any other day?"

  "Here I was thinking we were a team."

  "You're a whiny little bitch, aren't you?"

  Payne half meant it as an insult, and half as friendly banter.

  "I'm sorry, but I had some ladies waiting for me this weekend. Maybe you like spending all weekend with the only girl you're ever gonna lay your hands on, but that ain't for me."

  "Gunta and me, we've got history," he said, holding up his beloved light machine gun.

  "You know it's weird, this whole relationship you have with your weapon, you know that right?"

  "You have your ways and I have mine," he replied with a smile.

  "Seriously though, Jack, there’s shit here we need to know that you aren't telling us," said Jose.

  He groaned as he turned back to address them. It was clear they all felt the same. He was the only one with a big enough mouth to say it.

  "The truth is, the Captain didn't know much at all, and that's what worries me."

  "Well, what did he tell you?"

  "That there have been a number of unexplained incidents across the country. Surveillance aircraft missing and satellites down."

  "That sounds like an attack," said Jose.

  "Yep, it could be."

  "And you didn't think we needed to know that?"

  "We don't know shit right now. Nothing is confirmed. All we know is the teams are spread thin and that Major Boyd is missing. We need intel. We need to know what the hell is going on. You won't get that from me, because I don't know it."

  "And the story from that jarhead?" Ramos asked.

  "What story?" asked Jose.

  "Some kid from the town went missing last night. It’s probably nothing."

  "Didn't sound like nothing."

  "I'll admit it sounds connected, but even if it is, it’s no concern of ours. Boyd has some answers, more than we do. We find him and work out what the hell is going on."

  "The country could be under attack, and we're out here looking for a group of rookies that are probably just lost? The Major should have taken someone competent along."

  "Yeah? Maybe, Jose, but I'll reserve judgment until I find the Major."

  They carried onwards, armed to the teeth as if on a three-day operation in a war zone. It was a lot of gear to lug over the terrain, but they'd trained for it. It was like any other day to them. They'd been going for three hours when finally Dunn called out over the radio.

  "We're half a klick out from B," he said from a vantage point ahead.

 

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