PROLOGUE
A misty fog traveled throughout the night as the Sergeant sat on the deck, his M15A4 slung across his back. He knew tonight wasn't going
to bring anything special, but he still felt the need to keep everyone in his platoon on guard. After hearing about the Spencer Estate explosion
the night before, the mayor had called in for possible help from the army, and the general, having been close to the man, was only too happy
to extend his services, and there he was, sitting in the cold freezing his ass off because two men went to college together. He rubbed his hands
together absentmindedly as the fog seemed to shift, expand, making it that much harder to see.
He sighed, the cloud of his breath appearing before his face. The man was dangerously close to falling asleep, and contemplated doing so; it
wasn't as if the general were going to come by; he was too busy being chummy with Mayor Harris and his daughter, probably sitting around the
dinner table with a nice, warm turkey, laughing together at some inside joke like it was Christmas Eve...
Footsteps crunching in the ground interrupted his fantasy of a hot meal, and the Sergeant brought the gun back to his hands, wondering if his
sarcastic mind had been wrong about the general. Those worries quickly washed away into the fog as he heard a voice younger than his own
call out, "Sarge?" His grip on the weapon loosened and he sighed inwardly, keeping a straight face and biting his tongue to keep from laughing
at his own paranoia.
One of the new recruits stepped into view, holding the same weapon in shakier hands. The man looked positivitely blue as he spoke with seemingly
dry lips. "I'm about to freeze, Sir. Permission to try and get some of this frostbite off?" Under less formal circumstances, the Sergeant would have
accepted the request as a joke, but he himself had to admit that it was pretty goddamn cold outside, and he looked at his recruit as he said, "Granted.
In fact, let's gather up all the boys. We're packing this one in tonight." The younger of the two nodded, turned around and walked off the scene.
The gun was once again slung onto his back, and he thought about calling his wife once he was back inside. He hadn't seen her or their daughter
for days now because of the alert Harris had them on lately. His thoughts were interrupted yet again by those footsteps, but his recruit was nowhere
in sight. "Private?" The Sergeant called out for him, but with no response. Maybe this goddamn cold is just getting to my head again, he thought to
himself. Lord knows it's not the first time it's happened.
Still, he had the distinct feeling that someone was close by, and he was starting to get angry. "Report, solider!" The man raised his voice with the
most stern tone he could muster up from inside, and it wasn't until the sharp pain ripped through his neck that he found it in him to cry out in a decibel
level greater than he knew he possessed. Something was tearing away at his skin, and despite the cold, the Sergeant could feel a rush of blood draining
down his shoulder, his chest. He screamed, and managed to struggle away from the submissive position of his attacker, and the two fell hard onto the
ground, the Sergeant feeling an instant pain in his leg. With a quick motion, he grabbed the attacker's head with both hands and pulled, snapping his neck
and stopping the offender's struggling as he fell limp to the Sergeant's grasp. He was lightheaded now, and he fought his blurry vision to try and get a look
at who had attacked him, to see what deviant dared make a mark on his flesh. He was part of the goddamn army, he was trained to kill, and this man
dared have the audacity to try and take his life?
The Sergeant lost the fight to see the other man; the only thing he could see clearly was his inevitable death as the blood from his dripping neck began to
wet the hands that were shakily pressed onto the ground. He swallowed hard, his chest sagging with every breath, and he no longer had the strength to
hold himself up any longer. He fell onto his blood and let out his breath as he could not win the battle to save his own life.