So my knowledge on military stuff is not great but it'll probably only be for the first few chapters.
I grabbed the bar above my seat and breathed deeply as the chopper shook again. I really didn't like flying but I had too.
My name is DJ Williamson and I am a united states marine sniper. Right now me and 19 other privates were in a helicopter, currently flying over the African wilderness.
A little about my appearance. I'm six foot two with medium build and hazel eyes with dirty blonde hair. I'm dressed in a yellow camouflage army uniform covered by a bullet proof combat vest with the same coloured pants.
I heard laughter to my left and looked over at my best friend, Derek. He had black hair and brown eyes with the same build as me. Like me he was in a combat vest with a camouflage army uniform underneath, but he had an m4 beside him instead of a remington m24. And his suit was green instead of yellow.
"Still don't like flying, DJ?" he asked smirking. I shook my head and he just clapped his hands and laughed even more.
"Okay, back when we were kids sure I get it, but come on man your 19" he said still laughing. Suddenly a thought came to my head and I started laughing.
"Yeah embarrassing I know. Hey you still scared of clowns?" I asked as he slowly lost his smirk and mine grew.
"That's different and you know it, clowns are evil, pure evil" he said yelling the last part. I suddenly heard laughing from my right followed by "oh wittle babies don't like flying or guys in makeup."
I turned and my smile vanished instantly. I forgot that Baxter Smith was next to me. He was the loud mouth of the group but he was mostly all talk, no punch. He still pissed me the hell off.
I looked over his shoulder and seen that through the door, one of the pilots was preparing for more turbulence so I mentally prepared myself. The chopper shook again, but this time more viciously.
Now it was Baxter's turn to scream and he screamed like a girl. The whole group laughed including our commanding officer sargeant Mike Henderson who was sitting at the front, let out a chuckle.
"Okay" his voice boomed once baxter had calmed down. "Now that everyone has gotten their squeals out" he said as another round of laughter went out towards baxter.
"Can I do the debrief?" he asked holding up a stack of folders. "Sir yes sir!" we all yelled as he nodded and stood up.
"Okay" he said setting the stack onto one of the soldiers laps. "Take one and pass the rest around" he ordered as the soldier nodded, took one and passed the rest down the line of seats.
"Our target is a group of very bad people. A week ago the african army sent a squad of soldiers to neutralize an organization that are mostly know for human trafficking. But they have also been known to participate in poaching, armed robbery, homicide, ect" he red off the list as I got my folder.
"Now unfortunately, information about this attack got leaked and 20 or so targets escaped into the wilderness to lay low and recover".
"Now, because the african government does not know where the leak came from, they are only sending their most loyal squads out to canvas the area".
"However they didn't have enough squads, so they called us and you privates had just graduated. It seemed like a perfect opportunity for to train you lot in some real combat" he said as I continued reading my folder and memorizing the photos of the targets.
Their leader is by far the scariest person I've ever seen. A few teeth missing in his smile. along with that, his left eye was completely white and he had what looked like a knife scar running over it.
"Now, we will enter our search zone in one h-" "Uh sir can I see you for a moment?" one of the pilots asked. We gave our c.o a look of concern, but he just pointed at the folders before disappearing into the pilots area.
"Ugh I hate it when I can't hear anything" Derek said as we only heard muffled voices from the cockpit. Our commanding officer then came out and looked over us again.
"Okay" he said gaining everyones attention. "Apparently, there's a storm blocking our path. So we need to make a detour over some uncharted territory, it'll take a minimum of four hours. Now if you did read mission dossiers, pass them up and you can get some rest. Daybreak is in 5 hours" he then sat down and closed his eyes.
one by one the rest of the group did the same. Some just closing their eyes, others tilted their heads back and using their helmets to cover their eyes.
I looked around and seen I was the last one awake which was good. I quietly opened my vest pocket and got out some pictures.
The first picture was of my mother, my father and my older sister a few weeks before they died. Nineteen years ago, give or take a few months, my mother went into labor with me and my father and sister were driving her to the hospital.
Along the way, a transport truck had a driver that I guess just didn't care about road safety because he was hammered, stoned or something.
Anyway, he tried to go through a red light and my family got t-boned. The car was flipped about 4-5 times before it hit a corner store and stopped. They told me my sister and father were killed almost instantly. But my mother survived all the way to the hospital where they did a c-section on her to save my life.
Unfortunately my mom wasn't given the chance to hold me. Or even see me before she passed away from her injuries.
For the next 7 years, I was raised in an shitty orphanage in some small town in ohio. Then at seven I was adopted by a family and to be honest, I don't know what was worse orphanage or those hell spawns in disguise.
At age fourteen I left and wound up in Texas. I stayed in an abandoned building, I think it was an old church or something like that. After that I just worked odd jobs to keep myself supported, ones that no one would question a young teen to be doing.
I smiled and took a look at another photo. This one was me and Derek covered head to toe in mud because we started fighting in a pig pen.
I smiled and looked over at my best friend. Derek was also working at one of the pig farms where I would frequently work and we just kinda hit it off.
He liked hunting, I liked hunting. He liked to hotwire cars and go for joyrides, I liked to hotwire cars and go for joyrides. It was a match made in heaven.
Then after a few years, I heard that Derek's dad was forcing him to join the army. He said that if he didn't 'honor his family by fighting' he would kick him out. Guy was a serious prick. Anyway Derek was scared as hell, anyone would be. He did wanna join eventually, but he wanted to get his life in order first.
So because my friend needed me and I always wanted to serve my country, I joined with him. My mind suddenly drifted back to my own family.
Looking back at the photo, I blinked the tears away and dried my cheeks. I then kissed the tips of my index and middle finger and touched the photo.
I put the photos back inside my vest before leaning my head back and trying to go to sleep. After a few minutes of just sitting with my eyes closed, I finally felt sleep take me.
I jolted away at the sound of my commanding officer's voice he sounded angry and worried. I looked at my watch, it was an hour to daybreak. So we should be in the search zone by now.
Slowly I got unbuckled and stood up. I set my rifle on my seat and walked to the cockpit where my commanding officer's voice was coming from.
"How the hell did you idiots get us lost!?" he shouted at the pilots who from what I could see over his shoulder were cowering and trying to talk, but were afraid to.
"Sir?" I asked. I seen him jump a little before he turned his head to me. Once he did, he calmed down a little.
"Oh, williamson" he said turning fully. "I didn't know you were up" he said.
"I just woke up a moment ago sir, is everything okay?" I asked. worried that we were about to crash or something.
"Ah yes just computers and shit like that" he said laughing. I gave a chuckle and nodded my head.
"Hey" he said suddenly his voice laced with happiness. "Derek once said you took a computers class in collage?" he asked.
"No, high-school sir. I never went to collage" I corrected. He shrugged.
"Yeah, well still better education then me or these two" he said moving out of the way.
I could now see that the screen which usually showed a satellite map of where ever the chopper is. Only now it was all static and I couldn't make out anything.
"Okay" I said a little nervous. The last time I've worked on a computer was 2 years ago and that was just when the disk tray wasn't opening.
I approached the screen and turned it off and then back on. Nothing.
"We already tried that" one of the pilots said shaking his head. I muttered a curse and crouched down. I found the wires connecting to the maps screen.
"Anyone got a flashlight?" I asked looking up. My c.o nodded and disappeared once more into the cargo hold. He then reappeared holding his tactical flashlight.
"Here you go" he said handing me the light
"Thanks" I said taking the flashlight and turned it on before looking back up at the wires.
I looked for a few minutes before i found the wire I was looking for.
"Okay sir, tell me what the screen does?" I commanded i then smiled. "That was fun" I added muttering as he laughed.
I unplugged the wire and waited for a few minutes. "It went black" he said.
"Okay, we'll wait a few seconds and then I'll plug it back in that should reboot the system".
I plugged it back in and stood back up and watched the screen. It booted back up and went to a black screen and said 'tracking' in red letters. But it went back to static.
"Ah, shit sorry sir" I said handing him back his flashlight. he just waved and smiled.
"Ah don't worry about it Williamson, this puppy's an older one anyway there's always something wrong with her. Probably a problem with the inside of her" he said patting the wall.
"Yeah either that or..." I said going into deep thought thinking if it was possible. It actually could be.
"Or?" Mike said snapping me out of my trance. I quickly became flustered at being caught in my imagination.
"Oh sorry sir" I said slightly embarrassed. "Or there's a signal jammer around here" but i immediately regretted it as the pilots broke out into laughter.
"Oh, please you rookie" one of the pilots said. "Even if we were in one of the search areas, these guys maybe human traffickers and poachers but they don't have the money for a military grade signal jammer that can reach this height, right Mike?" he said laughing.
"Mike?" he said as my c.o didn't respond. He just rushed out of the pit. I looked at the pilots who just shrugged. I walked back to the hold and found him looking through his folder.
"Sir?" I asked only to have a folder roughly shoved into my hands.
"Look for a list of weapons" he ordered. I didn't understand the situation, but I knew his tone of voice. So I started to look through the folder for a list of any kind. I then seen a list of weapons and patted my c.o on the shoulder.
"Sir here" I said giving him the folder. He scanned it quickly before he swore and threw it on the ground.
"Pull up you idiots! Pull up!" he yelled as the pilots immediately pulled up. Because of the sudden altitude change, alarms started going on which woke up most of the group. They screamed and wondered what was going on.
Suddenly I heard what sounded like bullets ricoching off the side of the heli. And I was right as one of the windows above the seats bursted open.
"Okay" I yelled "Everyone get unbuckled and get down" I said unbuckling a still sleeping soldier and throwing him onto the ground.
The others followed my orders as more windows busted.
"Shit" my c.o yelled laying down. "Everyone stay down, Williamson with me. And will you two get us the hell outta this area!" he yelled at the pilots.
"We can't. The storms still to our right and the shots appear to be coming from the left" one of the pilots yelled as the front window shattered and a bullet struck him in the chest, killing him instantly.
"Shit" the other pilot yelled and struggled to control the aircraft by himself. Me and my c.o crawled down the row towards the back of the cargo hold while the other soldiers laid on their stomachs avoiding enemy fire.
"So you wanna tell me what the hells going on?... sir" I quickly added after checking my tone.
"The african army sent me a list of weapons that went missing a few months ago. They think it's because this group got them through whatever contact they have".
"And on the list was a jammer that could reach this altitude. So all they had to do is drive in a vehicle with it underneath us?" I asked as he nodded.
"So" he continued. "There's a 50. cal sniper in a locker back here. When we get to it I'm going to tie a rope around you and you are going to hang out of the door and find those muzzle flashes, okay?" he asked.
But before I could respond there was an explosion and I could feel wind being sucked out of the chopper. I turned to my left and seen a huge hole in the back of the craft.
'Rpg' i thought as the heli shook viciously while red lights and more alarms started to go off.
"Prepare to crash" the pilot yelled as everyone grabbed onto something. Except for me and my c.o that is who just tried to grip the floor and crawl to somewhere and grab onto something.
I felt us hit the ground and or what ever we were over and the chopper started to barrel roll. My c.o made it to the side and grabbed the leg of a seat. He then tried to reach out to me but it was no use.
"Williamson!" he yelled as I felt my body start to lift off the ground. Before I knew it I went flying in the air and was heading for the hole in the side of the helicopter.
I felt my head slam against the top of the hole and I started to feel dizzy. I started to see blackness in the corner of my vision.
The last thing I felt was my body hit cold water before everything went completely black.
I slowly opened my eyes and looked around just moving my eyes I was in a white bed in a white room with no windows and only one door. I heard the door to the room open and looked towards it. I seen a little girl in a white dress walk in.
I looked her over before gasping, this was my sister the same age she was when... she died.
'wait am I dead' I thought but I didn't have time to think about that now because my sister who I never met was standing only a few yards away.
I went to get up and hug her but I couldn't move. I was confused until my sister put her hand on my chest and shook her head.
"Not your time" she whispered before walking to the end of the bed. "Get up" she said lightly pulling on my boot.
"GET UP!" she suddenly yelled and started to pull and twist my foot. I yelled out but didn't hear myself scream.
My eyes shot open and I was blinded by the sun for a second. I looked at my foot half expecting to see my sister pulling my boot still. Not a goddamn crocodile with its jaws clamped around my leg trying to do a death roll.
"Whoa!" I yelped before kicking his face repeatedly with my free foot. I pulled my ka-bar out and lunged forward. I plunged the knife into the crocs eye and killed it instantly. I felt its jaws slack slightly, but not enough for me to get my foot out.
I breathed heavily and fell back onto my back. I was on the bank of whatever body of water I fell into. I looked out at the muddy, grayish coloured water. I could see the tail end of what was my helicopter.
I put my hands on the crocodile's jaws and tried to open them but I couldn't get the strength to.
"Great" I muttered before pulling him forward as I started to scoot up the bank. Last thing I wanted was for another croc to come out and try to take a bite outta me.
Once I got far enough away I looked around. The sun was high in the sky but it wasn't high enough to be noon yet. And the only woods were behind me anywhere else was just rocks. I sighed and put my hands onto the crocs jaws again and tried to open them.
All of a sudden I felt a hand on my shoulder. My training kicked in and I grabbed whoevers hand it was and pulled him close to me before I put the knife to his throat ready to slit it.
However I recognized that camo uniform. I let the figure go and pulled my knife away, but I kept it ready just incase I was wrong.
"Baxter!" I said with happiness in my voice dropping my defense as i seen the unit bully rubbing his throat.
"Jesus man, I forgot that I should never sneak up on you" he commented. I laughed and nodded.
"The hell happened to you man? Last I seen you were airborne" he asked I gestured to my leg.
"This big bastard happened to me" I said as he looked at it in horror.
"Oh don't worry though, I don't think he broke through my boot" I said as he took the top jaw and I took the bottom. We both pulled with all our might and with a sickening crack the jaws popped open. But I still screamed in pain.
"But I do think he sprained it" I said through gritted teeth.
"Okay" he said as I sheathed my knife. "Let's go" he then put my arm over his shoulders and hoisted me to my feet. I groaned as I tried to put pressure on my foot.
I looked at him and shook my head as he nodded and started walking into the woods behind the lake while I hopped beside him.
"So you find anyone else?" I said breaking the silence. He nodded. But I didn't know whether he was happy or sad.
"There's 7 of us, 8 now that survived the crash" he said as I nodded.
"The hell happened" I asked. Was Derek okay, did we get out an SOS what.
"Well after you got... Oh let's call it 'unceremoniously jacked' from the chopper, we continued to barrel roll until we hit around the middle of the lake" he said.
"Yeah" i said. "I seen the ass-end of the chopper" I said.
"Anyway, Mike ordered us all out while he tried to grab the pilot who got knocked out from the final roll. But he also tried to get the other pilots body as well so he was even slower then the rest of us. And the blood from the bodies attracted some crocodiles" he said looking down as I paled.
"No" I said shaking my head. But he nodded.
"Yep, didn't even get halfway out of the door before one was on him. It took the dead pilot and his arm completely off" Bax said as I just shook my head and looked down.
He was the only experienced one among us what the hell are we going to do now it thought.
"But that's not all" Baxter said gaining my attention. "The group, the one we were hunting. They also shot us when we got to the shores, which is where the sargeant officially died".
"But I don't think we are in a search zone" I said as baxter nodded.
"That's what worries us. Now they won't get caught and nobody knows where to look for us". I chuckled.
"well they don't call this 'uncharted territory' for no reason." I said trying to lighten the mood.
"Hey hold up" I said after a few minutes of walking. My foot throbbed in pain. "I need a break" I said.
"Thank god" he said before setting me down. "Your heavy as shit" he said as I laughed.
I took this time to look myself over now that I was with someone else. I had lost my helmet, my rifle, one of my boots and my watch. My vest was also torn to shit. More than likely from crocs or some other kind of predator. But at least I still had my sidearm and my knife.
"So who else survived" I asked as he went into thought. I really hoped that Derek survived.
"Well for one Derek just to make you feel better. Then there's Dennis, Andrew, Matthew, Mac and Jack" he said as I nodded.
"okay so most people I like" I said rubbing my foot lightly.
"Why do I feel that was directed at me?" he asked as I smiled.
"Because it was" I said before standing back up. He went to help me but I declined before picking up a stick and hopping beside him again.
We walked for five more minutes before coming to a clearing with the rest of the survivors in it.
"Hey" baxter yelled getting everyones attention. "Guess who I found with a gator on his ass?" he said before side stepping and letting the group see me. They all smiled. Glad to know I was missed.
"One" I said. "It was a croc, two it was my foot, and three I killed it long before you showed up" I said as Derek and Mac came and helped me the rest of the way.
They set me down and derek crouched down next to my foot.
"Is it broken?" Derek asked since he was the unit medic. I shook my head.
"No, I think just spra-ah! But it still hurts when you do that!" I yelled as he put his hand on it in the middle of my sentence.
He laughed and patted my back.
"Just making sure you still have feeling there" he said. I was about to punch him unconscious, but Mac interrupted me.
"So what are we gonna do now?" he asked leaning on a tree. Everyone then turned to me with questioning looks. I looked behind me half expecting to see sarge there, but nope.
"Me?" I asked stupidly pointing to myself. Derek shrugged.
"You're the only one who aced wilderness survival according to drill sargeant" he said. I sighed and nodded.
"Okay, first" I said grabbing a pair of binoculars that we're sitting by Mac. "Someone needs to climb a tree and see if they can see the poachers" I said as Jack nodded. He then took them and started the climb up one of the trees behind us.
"Next half of us are gonna search for our guns. The other half is gonna find as many bodies of our guys that they can" I said getting into a sitting position.
"Why?" Andrew asked scoffing. I met his bored gaze with a piercing one.
"If it we're you, would you want hyenas and vultures chewing on your balls?" I asked looking him in the eyes. He looked down and shook his head.
Jack then landed on the ground scaring us all. Making some us jump back and some of us even fell back.
"Sorry" he said laughing slightly. "Didn't see the poachers, but I did see a patch of green that way bout 4 or 5 clicks" he said pointing to the right.
"Okay, Jack, Mac, Baxter, go see if you can find our guns. Derek, Andrew, Dennis and Matthew. Drag the bodies somewhere crocs ain't gonna get them. We'll see if we can bury them before tonight" I commanded. they all nodded.
"Meanwhile I'll get camp set up. I can get a fire pit and... Hey Bax?" I said he turned around and nodded as if to say 'yeah?'.
"Drag that croc back if you can. Save us the trouble of hunting something else." I said.
He nodded again as they all walked back towards the lake. I sighed and started to work on camp.
later
I had finished setting up camp. I looked around satisfied we can stay here for a while. I had dug out a fire pit, deep enough so the wind wouldn't blow it out.
Surrounding the fire pit there was three long logs for sitting on. Since my leg was starting to feel better I was able to drag them back to the camp all by myself.
Now I was board so I was throwing my ka-bar against a tree. I walked forward and pulled it out when suddenly bushes to my right rustled. I was about to throw my ka-bar out of instinct, but two hands came out before I could.
"Wait!" a voice yelled before Derek came forward with Andrew, Matthew and Dennis behind him. I sighed and put my ka-bar back in it's sheath.
"Now that's two team mates I've attempted to attack with my knife" I said as derek scoffed.
"It's your killer instincts" he said laughing.
"Literally" I said laughing. "So the bodies out of the water?" I asked as the smiles dropped. Which was understandable.
We always knew that there was a chance that we would end up loosing someone on the team. But not this many.
"Yep" Derek said "we got 10 bodies in total and these were all the dog tags we could find" he said holding up a bundle of dog tags. I nodded before taking them and putting them in my shirt pocket.
"A couple of our guys must've got some of the poachers. We found at least five bodies that we didn't recognize, wearing civilian clothes" dennis said.
"Good" I responded while they laughed. Suddenly more bushes rustled and I reached for my knife.
"No" Derek said grabbing my arm along with Andrew and Dennis.
Baxter, Jack and Mac then came through the bushes with our guns on their backs. I guess they seen the situation because they suddenly went into confusion.
"What the hell are you guys doing?" Bax asked dropping the medium sized crocodile down near the fire pit.
"Dead eye dick here, was about to shish kabob you guys" Derek said letting go of my arm as I relaxed.
"Oh, of course he was" Jack said. "But guess what we found?" he asked as he gestured to the gun straps along their chests and shoulder.
They started handing out the guns. I was passed my m24. I looked it over and made sure the scope was undamaged.
"Okay, everyone do a shell count and then we'll go... Have a funeral" I said as everyone looked down. We loved the guys we graduated with, they were our friends, our brothers and sisters. And sarge... Man, he was one funny guy.
"Okay" I said putting the clip back in and chambered a round. "I got fifteen shots for this big guy and I got two full clips for my sidearm" I said.
"All together we got three full mags for each soldier that has m4s and for the sig mpx, we got two mags. For those that have sidearms, we each got two for them. Then we have two flash bangs" Derek said loading his m4.
"Okay, let's go bury our friends" I said standing up Derek gestured for us to follow him and I started limping after him.
We all looked into the hole as 10 of our brothers and sisters laid on their backs with their hands folded over their stomachs. Or at least what was left of their hands over what remained of their stomachs.
"So um, what do we say?" I asked as I have never been to a funeral. Everyone kinda looked around at each other.
"Um I guess" baxter started. " We say that they were good guys and girls who if given the chance would have served their country with pride and honor".
"And that I'm sorry there wasn't more that we could do to help you guys" he continued as we all folded our hands and did a moment of silence for the fallen.
After it was done we put about a foot of dirt on the bodies and then started piling rocks on top. Just to make sure that nothing could dig them.
"Oh shit" Mac said. "Almost forgot, we can't drink the water from here" he said passing me another rock.
"What?" I said dropping the rock, covering some exposed dirt. "Why?" I asked.
"The chopper's gas, oil all that stuff, spilled in the water" Mac explained. We had out canteens, but at most all together they would last three days.
"Shit" I said dropping a rock. "Quick, everyone do a water count" I said grabbing my canteen.
"Half a can" I said as everyone else nodded and said "same."
"Okay, Jack" I said he looked at me. "How far did you say that green patch was?" I asked. He went into thought.
"4-5 clicks, uh...That way" he said pointing a direction.
"Okay" I said looking back up at the sky. It was probably three thirty four by now. Too late for us to start the trek, especially with me still injured.
"Okay, daybreak, we head for the green. Then maybe from there we'll be able to see some kind of civilization." I said. we continued to fill in the grave until it was level with the original ground. We then put a cross with our squad name on it, just incase someone came across it.
sunset
"Huh, who knew crocodile tastes like chicken?" I said picking my teeth with a small bone. The others laughed as we all sat around the fire.
After we had finished the grave we came back and began to cook the crocodile and tell a few stories. We were trying to lighten the mood and distract ourselves from reality.
"Okay" I said gaining their attention. "I say we do a four rotating shifts during the night. Each two hours, 50 yard circle round the camp. Just to make sure that nothing or nobody sneaks up on us" I said as they all nodded.
"Alright, Derek can you take first" I asked as he nodded. "Okay then Dennis, me and then Matthew. Scream out and wake us, then we'll mow down whatever is the problem."
"OO-RAH!" we all yelled.
3 person view
Dennis walked up to DJ. But suddenly thought better of it, knowing what he was like and walked behind him, next to his head.
"DJ?" he shouted lowly careful not to wake up anyone else. As predicted DJ jumped up and put his hands up into fists.
"It's Dennis" he said making sure not to get hit or shot at.
"It's your shift" Dennis said laying down and laid his rifle down on the ground beside him.
"Okay" DJ said yawning and getting up. He checked his chamber one last time and made sure he had one loaded.
He was about to start making his rounds when he seen Baxter sitting up and looking at a photo by the fire.
"Better not have been up all night" DJ said walking up to Baxter. "We got a long voyage in four hours." Baxter chuckled.
"No just woke up, couldn't sleep. Too much on my mind." DJ sat down and looked at the photo. It was baxter with a girl he had never seen before holding hands on a dock.
"Your old lady?" DJ asked as Baxter nodded.
"Yeah, officially too." DJ looked at him wide eyed.
"Oh congrats man" he said patting him on the shoulder.
"Thanks" he said looking back at the photo. He chuckled thinking back at the memory of his wedding.
"Yep, snuck off the base night of graduation. Right after we heard that we were going right into combat after."
"That's why you sneak off base?" DJ asked. "Man, me and Derek did it to get drunk. But you, you get married" he said laughing.
"Well I got drunk too" Baxter said looking over at DJ. "It was my wedding night" he said blankly.
At that DJ laughed and clapped his hands. After that the area drifted into silence. Until DJ just smiled and slapped Baxter's shoulder.
"Don't humanize yourself man, that's how people in horror movies die" he said standing up.
"Yeah, well if Leatherface comes out of the forest with his chainsaw revving. I think 8 highly trained marines can take him" Baxter said laying back down.
"I get the saw as a trophy" DJ said disappearing into the dark forest. Baxter laughed and closed his eyes. Both unaware of the pair of eyes that watched from the shadows. It watched both men with interest, before running away, laughing hysterically.