Chapter 2

The smell

All through the night an investigation was going on. Apparently one of the men in the bunker that fired first fell asleep and set of a loose round. After that they thought they were under attack and continued firing which brought in more orders to fire. As Cameron and Dillon watched they realized that command was very messed up. If they couldn't even handle a simple accidental discharge what would happen in a full out attack. Cameron never reported the cold blob that he shot instead he only told Dillon being that at the moment he was the only one that he trusted.

"Wow. I don't know I never heard of an animal or enemy that was that could or could take a blast and simply rush away" Dillon sat at the firing slit again watching out over the land. "Hey look at it this way" he said earlier "at least now we have some knew land to look at. See if you can find shapes in all the blast holes" Dillon suggested which didn't help Cameron any. He was truly disturbed and none of the officers seemed to care. Earlier in the mess Cameron had heard that the troop ship in orbit was going to a near by system to pick up more troops to help reinforce the garrison on the ground. And to top it all off there was still that horrible stench. Not it had sunken into everything. The clothes the food even his weapon seemed to smell of backed up sewage.

All patrols to the perimeter had been canceled now to. Instead they added more bunkers doubling the number they already had and had watches going in each bunker at all times, the officers now made it a court martial offence to fall asleep on watch.

Cameron sat with Dillon in the back of the bunker sitting on the built in cots cleaning their rifles. 2 grizzled old veterans sat watch at the gun slit making little to no effort to actually keep watch over the outcropping. They had no sense of humor and wouldn't even talk to Cameron or Dillon when they came in. "stuck up old fools" commented Dillon as the passed by. Now that they weren't having to keep watch Cameron and Dillon talked a little bit more freely and loudly. Talking of home and how life would be different if they hadn't joined the guard.

"I probably would have been a farmer if I hadn't joined" said Dillon "you? You moan and complain when we have to walk 100 meters to check out something how could you have survived plowing fields and picking crops all day?" Cameron said while furiously working the bolt of his rifle. "I didn't say I would pick it or anything" said Dillon with a smile "I would hire cheap labor to do all the work with me and reap the profits" Dillon leaned back with a smug look on his face "ah I see" said Cameron still rubbing at the bolt trying to disgorge a piece of dirt that smelt horribly of sewage. "so were would you have gotten all this money to hire people and how would you get money for your crops without getting off your lazy rear" Dillon stopped looking so smug and frowned realizing he hadn't thought of everything. Cameron smiled knowing he just made Dillon out to be a fool, now if only this chunk of dirt would come off. Suddenly it gave way. It just flopped off and on to his cot with a sickening wet splat.

When he and Dillon looked at it he realized it didnt look like dirt at all but instead it seemed to be a pinkish thing with what looked like a .. "holy feth it's a bloody finger part!!" screamed Dillon. As Cameron looked he saw it to. The blood from the piece of skin was slowly seeping into his cot leaving a horrible stench, a stench like the one that surrounded the village. "Hobbes I don't know what the hell is going on but im scared like no other"

By this time one of the veterans had walked back to the cots. He calmly picked up the skin of a finger and threw it out the gun slit. "cowards. You probably just sliced it off last night when you were humping around trying to fire at nothing" the veteran grinned to his comment and sat back down to grimace some more with his friend. Dillon and Cameron turned to look at each other still unsure of how to act. Dillon broke the tension first. "if I ever become like that please shoot me." Despite what had just happened Cameron couldn't help but smile.

Later when the veterans had been gathered back at the HQ leaving the bunker to Cameron and Dillon they began talking again. "do you really think that's what happened?" asked Dillon. Cameron looked away from the slit to look at Dillon. "do you see any missing fingerprints on these?" Cameron held both hands fingers outstretched to emphasize the point. "I suppose not. But then how? I mean bits of peoples bodies don't just appear out of nowhere." Cameron looked back out the slit as if there was an answer out there. " I don't know, but I think there is a place we might be able to find an answer at" Dillon looked puzzled at this comment. "what do you mean, somewhere?" "I mean" said Cameron "that we should go looking at those sewers" Dillon looked even more puzzled. "I don't get it what do the sewers have to do with it?" "Haven't u noticed? It doesn't smell like an ork turd out here does it? It smells like rotting bodies. Remember that siege on Calahan IX? When the chaos left all the dead in front of the gates to try and scare us? It's the exact same smell!" this got Dillon's attention as he began to remember "you don't think maybe there's something down there do you?" Cameron didn't answer afraid of the possibilities himself.

As they sat yet another watch over the outcropping the vets that were in their bunker earlier rapped on the steel door in the back. The one who flung the bit of skin out the slit stepped in and stood tall over the 2 of them. " we are going out on a recon tonight. Apparently they have been seeing more of your blobs." Cameron didn't know how to take this, was it an insult? Or a recognition that he was right? Before he could as any questions the vet spoke again. " there's going to about 30 of us out there so hold your fire on the perimeter. If you see something out there call it in to the channel 317 on ur com and for emperors sake make sure its not us if your going to shoot." With that the vet ducked back out the bolt hole and went on to the next bunker to presumably give the same info to the next group.

"see." Said Cameron "they are taking my find seriously. Their sending out a patrol to try and find the "blobs" Dillon looked at Cameron smiling "yea at least if they come in contact with any enemy their cold humorless banter will send the running to the hills"

when the vets did leave it was a quiet and dark occasion. A line of 30 men silently slipped into the night. The only way Cameron knew it was them was because he saw them with his thermal scope. The group wore all black but covered with the ash grey dust on the ground. They smeared it over all shiny surfaces and any off colored items making them blend with the ground. Once the vets got to the outcropping they spread into an arrow head formation and moved with deadly accuracy into the rocks leaving no sign of their passing.

For hours Cameron and Dillon watched hoping for a sign of the recon group. But nothing happened. The rocks stayed grey. The land did not move. And the smell lingered giving the impression that a dead body was always watching over your shoulder. When morning light broke Cameron was about to call in a request on the recon group when all of a sudden a scream burst out over the com unit. It wasn't a scream of fear or pain but a distorted warped scream that made the com box fizzle and begin to smoke. All of a sudden the scream ended just as it started. The only sound was the com fizzling and the smell of smoke in the bunker. Then Cameron saw him.

At first it looked like another black blob and Cameron was about to shoot it. Until he looked down his scope at the figure. It was the veteran that was so crude to him and Dillon. "Feth! What happened to him?' screamed Cameron. As Dillon bent down to look through his scope Cameron rushed out the door with his come running to go and help the vet. As Cameron ran across the ground he could hear his heart pounding in his ears, playing a musical beat with his feet making him fear what wasn't happening. The beat grew louder and louder in his head until he dropped to his knees and threw his hands over his ears trying to shut out the noise. He screamed in pain as his ear began to bleed. The pain was so intense his eyes went blurry and he became dizzy. He could see the blurry outline of the vet in front of him staggering towards Cameron swaying gently as if ready to topple. When the vet was right in front of Cameron the pain and sound stopped and he could finally see the once proud and arrogant veteran.

His uniform and flack jacket were ripped as if by giant claws. His arm and half of his face was black from what looked like frostbite. But what was most disturbing was that his eyes were gone. There wasn't any gapping holes or bloody marks where they had been, just 2 sunken sockets of skin as if they had never been there. Cameron reached up and grabbed the veteran before he tripped over his lass rifle. When he held on to him the veteran looked into Cameron's eyes with those empty sockets and whispered to him. "They came from the shadows. They were so cold so cold. They took the rest and let me go. They want me to tell you they are watching always watching." With this the veteran collapsed on the ground dragging Cameron to the ground with him.

Dillon was now pounding out to where Cameron and the veteran lay. His face was stricken with worry. All a sudden Dillon stopped and shouted "hobbes get the hel out of there now!!!!" Cameron was confused until he looked back at the outcrop. He saw the black things now, still a blob un identifiable but now there was many of them all standing in front of the rocks all staring. Cameron didn't know if they had eyes but he knew they were staring. He hefted the veteran up onto one of his shoulders and began to drag him back to the bunker. With his other army he fired at the black blobs.

The red of his lasers collided with one of the blobs and turned a black and then disappeared. Still Cameron fired and fired until his rifle went dry. By this time Dillon was there firing at the blobs screaming into a com box. Then the world erupted around the 2 of them. Heavy emplacement guns burst with titanic explosions tearing up the ground around the blobs the heavy lasers turning the ashy ground to glass and making the rock out cropping to rubble. The fire power was awe inspiring a legendary amount of disciplined fire poured on with accurate gunners. The black things reeled from the blows making them fall back and into the rocks. By this time Cameron and Dillon had the vet in their bunker and began firing their own rifles into whatever they could see. And just as it started it stopped. The weapons ceased fire by an order over the raido. Now all but one of the black things was gone. This one stood halfway between the outcrop and the bunkers.

What Cameron saw was as vivid as any nightmare he had ever had. It was 8 feet tall and built like a space marine. The armor was black with frost all over it. It had no true symbols or anything on it just the frozen armor. As it stood the world around it made a slow and quite moaning noise as if the air itself was being tortured with its presence. Then the frozen thing turned and walked away leaving great frozen puddles of dirt in its wake. It vanished into the outcropping and the rest of the day was as quiet and dead as it had been on the first day they had been here.

All through the night and well into the next day the air moaned and cried out leaving a bone chilling song in each mans heart. The vet had been taken to the infirmary and was being treated for his frostbite and missing eyes. The doctors knew that he would die from his wounds though. It was still a mystery as to how his eyes had been removed like they were. Personally Cameron didn't want to know.