Stowaway Read online

  Night movements get easier as time goes on, and soldiers are exposed to them. Like his seasoned platoon that night, everyone on the movement relaxed and began to process their sensory information better. Keying only on abnormal or important facts. This mission like the last, which was supposed to be Zade’s last mission in Afghanistan was uneventful so far.

  Approximately one kilometer away from the objective Zade ordered all of his trucks into blackout drive. It wasn’t the standard operating procedures, in fact it was strictly prohibited due to risk of accidently running someone over, but nothing about this mission would fall under the standard operating procedures. Zade then ordered the trucks to move into a herringbone formation off the sides of the road. The objective was inaccessible to vehicles so the last 800 or so meters would have to be covered on foot. Leaving gunners, drivers and one dismount with every vehicle Zade began the movement up the ridgeline toward the objective.

  Zade was just preparing to crest the ridgeline and get eyes on the objective. It had been about 100 meters, and ten minutes since he moved out of the radio range of his trucks. He could hear them due to their antennae and larger power sources, but they could not hear his much smaller man pack. As he peaked over the edge, Zade saw exactly what he was expecting, and exactly what he suggested to the commander in the brief. Sitting on a small 400-meter round plateau were four jingle trucks.

  “Fern on me” Zade whispered

  “What’s up sir?”

  “Take a look, just like I said some trucks that are just staging to get on the FOB. Looks like 6 isn’t going to get his shot of glory as the last commander engaged in combat during the Afghan war.” Zade snickered.

  “That may be true sir, but how the hell did they get up here?”

  Both Zade and Fern had patrolled this ridge hundreds of times during the deployment, and they had never been able to bring trucks anywhere near it because of the terrain. Somehow, that fact had completely slipped Zade’s mind. Both men had been around the backside of this plateau, the other side was just a 400-foot drop. Neither men could figure out how four poorly maintained jingle trucks had made it onto the center of a plateau that sits 400 feet above any accessible roads.

  “Fern set up a perimeter at the very edge of this plateau, as far from the vehicles as possible. I’m taking my RTO back down so I can communicate with the trucks. Maybe 6 can give some guidance.”

  “Roger sir”

  “Ohh and we’re coming back up this side, make sure none of the boots are pulling security over here. I don’t want to be gunned down on my last day here, especially by some cherry jackass.”

  With that Fern began giving orders to his squad leaders who would then relay them to the squads. With any luck, they would just finish setting the perimeter when Zade got back up to them to tell them the mission was complete and to start heading back to the trucks. Zade headed back down to get in range of the trucks. After a quick descent Zade could finally raise the trucks.

  “Demon 36d this is Demon 36, over”

  “This is 36d what’s up there? Over”

  “Don’t worry about it, I need you to relay back to 6 for me. You’ll hear everything as I talk to him, over”

  “Demon 36 this is 6 go ahead”

  “6 we are at the objective; the strange lights are coming from four jingle trucks. Doesn’t seem like there is anyone around, over”

  “Roger, send one of your men to get hands and eyes on the trucks, if everything is clear RTB, 6 out”

  I shouldn’t have expected any less from him. Hasn’t he learned that you don’t go investigating strange vehicles, possible VBIED’s, with no support.

  After instructing the trucks to have the dismounts switch with the gunner, to keep them fresh, Zade headed back up the ridge. On the way up Zade contemplated how he would handle the investigation. On one hand, he was pretty sure that the vehicles were no threat, on the other he wouldn’t ask any of his guys to take a risk he wasn’t willing to take himself. At the crest Fern was waiting for instructions.

  “I could hear the trucks from here. Who do you want to send sir?”

  “Come on Fern you have to know me better than that. I’m not sending anyone; I’ll go myself.”

  “You sure that’s a good idea sir? There is something very fucking weird about these vics.”

  “I’m as sure as I’m gonna be. I am tired, and I want this thing done fast and right. I’ll go up look for any wires, see if they smell like HME, listen for ticking, you know the usual bomb stuff. When I’m satisfied, we can get the hell out of here.”

  With that Zade dropped his assault pack, no sense carrying it since the radio didn’t work. If he did have to move there was no sense carrying an extra eighty pounds on his back. Stripped of extra weight he began moving towards the trucks. As he closed within 100 meters of the vehicles Zade noticed something strange. The wheels of the trucks didn’t seem to be making contact with the ground, it wasn’t much maybe a half an inch or so, but Zade could tell that something was wrong. The headlights of the trucks were bright enough to wash out Zade’s NOD’s but not bright enough or pointed in the right direction to clearly see the details of the vehicles making it impossible to see the vehicles clearly. As Zade got within arm’s reach he stretched out his hand to touch the vehicle, but to his surprise he couldn’t feel anything where his hand should have been making contact.

  Walking around the first truck Zade could see space between the front of the truck he was by and the side of the next truck. As he moved forward expecting to see the side of the truck opposite his in the gap, Zade was astounded to see nothing but mountainside. Stepping into the gap, Zade felt a hard thud where his NOD’s had hit something, but there was nothing for them to hit. Finally, panicked enough to retreat, Zade found that he seemed to be frozen in place.

  “Fuck, someone help me I can’t mo…ahh.” Before Zade could finish a severe pain shot through him and he blacked out.

  ​Already on edge, as soon as Fern heard Zade start to speak he began moving toward him. Something bad had clearly happened when Zade’s sentence turned into an agonizing scream. But as Fern closed with the trucks they disappeared. The men watched in horror as the ship, now in place of the four trucks began to take off. The seasoned combat veterans were so shocked that none even got a shot off as their platoon leader disappeared into the night sky.

  ​The platoon sat in stunned silence for a few moments, when Fern was brought back to reality by his radio.

  “Demon 36 this is Demon 36d, over”

  “Demon 36d this is Demon 37, over”

  “We heard what sounded like a sonic boom from your location. It seems to have riled up the locals, looks like we have a group of foot mobiles heading your way, over”

  Apparently, the ship had been causing the interference and communication failures. Fern was still trying to process what he just saw. How does he report it? Even with a platoon of witness’s no one is going to believe their story. But most importantly, what happened to Zade, is he alive, how do we get him back? Fern ordered his men to begin movement to the vehicles. Zade was nowhere to be found, and there was no sense being away from the security of the trucks when the angry group of locals descended on them. Halfway down the mountain Fern decides to inform Demon 6 about the situation.

  “Demon 6 this is Demon 37, over”

  “37 this is 6 go ahead”

  “Sir there has been an incident, Demon 36 is gone, not injured or killed, just gone.”

  “What the hell happened. Explain yourself”

  “Something took him, we can’t explain any more than that, because we don’t know.”

  “How the hell does someone just disappear? You know what, I don’t care. Your mission is over; you are to RTB immediately. I will not have my time as last commander in Afghanistan tarnished because some LT went AWOL.”

  “Sir he didn’t go AWOL, something took him.”

  The following radio silence signaled that there was no help coming. Third platoon demon
company loaded up their trucks and headed to their FOB before local interaction could lead to any more loss. None of the men spoke during the drive back to base, none spoke on the flight to Solarno. It seems that everyone was still trying to understand what had happened earlier that night. Some were shocked at the events that took place, some, like Fern, were shocked that the commander would leave a man in the field without even attempting to mount a rescue.

  When the platoon arrived at Solerno they were greeted by armed guards and a very upset brigadier general. After a staunch dressing down, Maj McElry was led away by guards, and a plain clothed man claiming to be from CID requested to speak to Fern and the squad leaders. The rest of the platoon was led to temporary billets, every flight out of Solerno had been canceled.

  “Sgt Fern I am CPT Mathews and I think we need to have a discussion about last night.”

  While talking with Mathews Fern discovered that some interesting electromagnetic readings surrounding the objective area had been found by the Airforce, and to investigate, high ranking Airforce officers had been sent to Solarno prior to Demon 3 starting their patrol. Solarno was having problems with communications, they could receive transmissions but not send them. The Solarno TOC had heard Zade requesting air support prior to the mission but, could not respond. In an attempt to regain communications, the radio operator dropped down to Demon’s internal frequency. After hearing the location of the objective while listening to internal chatter, the radio operator realized it matched the objective that the Airforce guys were flown into Solerno for. The radio operator told the battle captain who then informed the general and Airforce personnel, who all crowded into the TOC to monitor events. Everyone in that TOC herd the Major falsely charge Zade with desertion and refuse to send out a follow-on recovery mission.

  “The general has put together a list of charges and the court martial will happen here. It appears that the major came into country as an Army officer but, will be leaving as a felon. The dereliction of duty charge is pretty bullet proof.” Said the captain.

  “That’s probably for the best, but what about Zade. I saw him get taken away. We have to go back and look for him.”

  “I’m not sure what you think you saw, but it appears that Zade had accidentally stepped off the cliff on the north side of that area. Ariel reconnaissance has confirmed that there is a body at the bottom of that ravine. A team of PJ’s has been dispatched to recover it.”

  “I don’t know who the fuck you think you are captain plain clothes, but I know what my platoon and I saw, and it wasn’t a clumsy lieutenant falling off a cliff.”

  “Sergeant I understand that this has been a stressful situation for you. In either case there is nothing you can do for lieutenant Zade. However, if you stick to this ludicrous story, I am sure you will find yourself on the dangerous end of a court martial, as you were complicit in the major’s actions. Now thank you for your input, it has been helpful. Go to the billets with your men, shower, eat and grab some sleep, you deserve it.”

  After six weeks the court martial was finished. Major McElry kind of got what he wanted; he was going to be remembered long into the future. Difference is; he wanted to be remembered as the last great commander in Afghanistan, in reality he was going to be remembered as a pompous ass who intentionally left a wounded, possibly dying, fellow officer in enemy territory so his timeline didn’t change. The day before the platoon was supposed to fly to Manas, after returning from lunch, the men noticed official envelopes on all of their gear. Somehow, all of them had pulled special orders for different units. Some of the older guys like Fern got orders stating that due to drawbacks they would be forcibly separated with a full retirement.

  After Manas, none of the men of Demon 3 ever saw each other again. It was claimed that Lieutenant Zade’s body had been recovered, but none of his platoon had seen it. Just before leaving Ft. Bliss for the last time Sgt. Fern, now mister Fern grabbed one last stars and stripes. Flipping through it he froze on a page refusing to believe what he was seeing. His former boss was in the obituaries.

  “First Lieutenant Alex Zade, KIA Afghanistan 2017. Because of his excellent service, and courageous actions lieutenant Zade was posthumously awarded the Bronze star with V and combat action badge. Let his character and bravery be an example to us all.”

  Chapter 2

  A constant buzzing slowly crept into Zade’s head, bringing him closer and closer to consciousness. Without opening his eyes Zade slowly started taking stock of his body. Ever so slightly tensing his muscles starting from his neck, to see what hurts. Nothing seemed to be broken or wrong.

  There is no way I survived whatever happened to me without an injury. Which means; Great I will be remembered as the idiot lieutenant who went and got himself killed by a god damned jingle truck. Begging the question, what am I going to open my eyes to.

  As an army office who had utilized air strikes, which weren’t always as discerning about their targets as necessary, and a regular hellion there was the distinct possibility that playing dead was the only thing protecting Zade from an eternity of brimstone and the likes. However, Zade had never done anything super terrible, and he did die in combat so he should be opening his eyes to see Valhalla, and a huge mug of beer surrounded by history’s greatest warriors reminiscing about their exploits. Although Zade wasn’t a devoutly religious man, widespread beliefs are widespread for a reason and with his luck they were probably true.

  Fuck it, here goes.

  ​Zade slowly began to open his eyes, giving them time to adjust to the light around him. The scene unfolding around him was not, at all, what he had expected. Zade was in what appeared to be some type of medical facility. It was extremely high tech, much better technology than anything around Afghanistan. Straining to remember what exactly happened before he blacked out, pieces of the incident started to come back. Zade remembered not being able to move, hitting his head, then just before he went unconscious he remembered seeing what looked to be some kind of UFO.

  Impossible, I must have been hurt bad. Unconscious for weeks while I was transported back stateside to recover.

  As Zade continued thinking about what had happened, he began to realize that he was thoroughly parched. So he summoned the strength to sit up and look around his bed, nothing seemed to be out of place. Zade was in a small one-person hospital room. Medical bed in the center, door towards the foot of his bed, small table on his right side, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. The lack of an IV was the cause of his thirst, but it also indicated, to Zade, how long he had been out. Zade decided to lie back down and wait for a nurse to make her rounds. When she comes in Zade would ask for something to drink. Hours seem to pass, with no interaction with the medical staff, so Zade decides to gather himself up and head out of his room to look for someone, or at the very least a water fountain and bathroom. As Zade made it to his feet and began heading for the door, he realized that he was stark naked.

  Not the craziest thing that has happened in my timeline, but it is weird that I’m not even in a hospital gown.

  As Zade turned around looking for something to throw on for his foray out of the room, he froze. The head of his bed had been butted up against a floor to ceiling viewing window. On the other side of which appeared to be someone in a lab coat and another person in fatigues. Both rapt by a computer screen and based on their body language were having a heated discussion about something. Neither has noticed that Zade was again mobile. Either Zade had taken a pretty bad knock on the head or the glass window was thick enough to change the perception of things outside because, neither one seemed to be the right color. Standing and observing the two for a while, Zade noticed that the doctor, or at least the one wearing the lab coat had green almost scaly skin. It reminded Zade of the news stories about the new designer drug sweeping across China, Krokodil. But that was only supposed to turn the injection site green, he had never heard about it turning someone’s whole body green and scaly. He seemed to be a stout well-built individual.r />
  The other one, in the fatigues, had distinctly feminine characteristics. But like the first her skin didn’t seem to be quite right. Unlike her green counterpart her skin seemed to be the slightest bit blue, not enough to notice right away, but enough to notice upon closer inspection. She carried a sidearm making her, most likely, a MP, meaning that Zade was in a military hospital. She also appeared to have a Mohawk meaning that she was probably one of those super butch soldiers who’s only dream is to be the first female ranger.

  Having seen enough Zade moved back into his room trying to find some way out. He started with the door, which was obviously locked if there was an MP on the floor watching him. Scanning the room Zade could see no other characteristics, no vents, closets, cupboards, nothing. Moving back to the window, Zade saw the two individuals still arguing over the computer screen.

  Well let’s have some fun with these two.

  While standing as close to the glass as possible, ensuring that his better parts were fully pressed on the window, Zade started pounding on the glass in hopes of scaring the two outside near the computers. Both almost jump out of their skin, just as Zade begins laughing they turn to look at him. Zade’s laughing abruptly stops as he saw their faces. Croc doc had two bulbous eyes with vertical pupils, no nose or ears, and a huge toothless mouth. Lady Ranger had normal features, but they seemed to be the wrong proportion specifically her eyes. They were almost human like in shape but about twice the size and bereft of irises.