For Your Eyes Only

Sleep was a hard fought victory that night, something that had become an unfortunately regular occurrence. The doctor had declared that they were going to return to the ruins the next day, bringing morale down even further. The troops ate their dinner in silence, unable to look at each other, their own fear reflected in the faces of those around them.

Seven AM came too quickly, and the troops formed up next to the mess table, awaiting their orders. I was a bit surprised to see Private Twitch in formation, but found myself glad as well. Her presence might bolster the others some.

“Alright everyone. It’s going to be the same drill as yesterday. Three of you are staying here, the others are with the Sergeant and I.” I scanned the thin ranks for a moment before calling out names. “Quill, you’re the only one here with legible script. I want you to head up the home guard again. Twitch, you and Blooms will stay here and report to PFC Quill. Everyone else, fall out.”

When the others had left, the remaining three moved forward. “Quill, Blooms, I know yesterday was stressful on you two. Keep yourselves sharp, and write down everything. I mean it, everything. Someone’s watching us, and I need to know who. Any details you can get will go a long way.”

I turned to Twitch. “Private, you’ve got some real guts being out of that gurney already. Don’t push yourself too hard. We don’t need you getting any worse.”

“It’s no problem sir. I couldn’t lie there anymore anyways.” She said, a mixture of weariness and determination in her voice.

“Alright then, you three have your orders. Dismissed.”

I walked over to the waiting Sergeant, gesturing him to follow me towards the gate.

“This is the last day we go out there, Sergeant.” I said, staring out towards the path.

“Yes, sir. But what about the Doctor?”

“To hell with her. If anything else happens, we’re pulling the plug. She can scream all she wants, but I’m getting those kids out of here before I lose anyone else.”

“I understand, sir.”

We walked back to the lab tent, and walked inside. “Ready to go, Doc?” I called out.

She looked up from her desk, having been staring intently at something out of view. “Just a minute!” She said, moving the item into a drawer and standing up. “Okay, I’ll get my team and meet you out front.”

We walked back out and the Sergeant called for the field crew to fall in.

We found ourselves back at the ruins half an hour later, standing in the atrium we had dug out. I stood before the troops and began to speak. “Nobody is to touch anything, got that? The scientists can poke and prod all they want, but if they ask you to move anything at all, you get me or the Sergeant first.”

“Yes sir!” the replied in unison.

“Follow your science crew, and be careful. Everyone takes one torch with them. Don’t go too far away. If you can’t hear the others, start heading back. Fall out.”

The five of them walked over to the waiting scientists, and broke off into groups. Dr. Opal stood at the side, waiting for the Sergeant and I.

“Yet another rousing speech, Captain.” She said, walking over to us. “But it sounds a lot like most of your others. You’re beginning to repeat yourself.”

“We’re here to do a job, and that doesn’t involve getting killed. I wish you’d realize that fact.”

“Well, accidents do happen.” She said, starting towards the hallway. “Come along, now.”

The doctor began checking the rooms along the hallway methodically, moving from one to the next after nearly tearing them apart looking for whatever it was she wanted. We found a few more of those strange angular objects, but thankfully she left them where they lay. She seemed uninterested in them as of late. Little of value was found in most of the rooms, but she seemed most curious about a small black rectangle she had found in one of the rooms. It had buttons on the top, and a small pane of glass on the back. There was a circle of some sort of strange material on the front, bisected into two equal parts that slid open easily, revealing a glass circle underneath. She prodded at it for a while, making me nervous that someone else would be hurt, but it appeared to be inert. She placed the black rectangle in her bag, and continued on her way.

“Isn’t this just fascinating, Captain?” She called back to them as she entered yet another room.

“Honestly, this just seems like old junk repeating itself.”

“Oh, you have no imagination. You military types are all the same.” She said, smiling as she began to dig through another drawer. “You don’t seem to see the raw potential a place like this holds. We could be on the precipice of a new era, and all you care about is going home.”

“Given what we’ve seen so far, that seems like a rather fair request.”

Suddenly we heard screaming coming from down the hall. Opal looked up, her eyes wide, and said “That sounds like Tom!”

We ran down the hallway towards the sound, turning a corner and finding a large open room. It was a good thirty feet on each side, plated in metal. Two rows of counters lined the sides, and stoves ran along the center of the room, creating two aisles. We walked inside, the Sergeant raising his torch to illuminate the way. We stopped dead in our tracks.

Private Starch was huddled in the corner, curled up in a ball. He was still swinging his leg-knife wildly in the air at nothing, gibbering to himself. On the floor near him was the mangled body of one of the scientists.

“What have you done?!” Opal cried, running over to the body of her associate.

I walked over to the Private, still swinging his knife, and kicked him in the side. He jumped, and looked up at me with tears in his eyes.

“I couldn’t stop it…” he said, choking on the words.

“You little freak! You killed him!” Opal screamed, still kneeling by the body.

I looked at the knife, and noticed the blood on it seemed off somehow. I slowly took the knife away from the panicked soldier and walked over to the Sergeant. We stared at the blood on the knife.

“It’s… wrong.” I said, still staring.

“It seems almost oily.”

I set the knife down on the ground and walked over to the corpse. I could tell immediately that Starch hadn’t done this.

“What are you going to do about this, Captain?!” Opal yelled. “Your troop killed one of my researchers!”

“Not unless he got hungry halfway through.” I said, turning the body over with my hoof to reveal a large section of his right side was missing.

Opal covered her mouth and scooted back away from the body.

“Seem familiar, doc? I seem to recall seeing something like this just the other day.” I said, staring at her.

“W-what happened to him?” She said nervously, still staring at the gaping hole in the corpse.

“Same thing that happened to Twigs, I suppose.” The Sergeant replied.

“Still think it’s perfectly safe, doc?”

“I…No. We have to continue.” She said, standing up and straightening herself. “Tom’s loss is a tragic one, but we have come too far to just give up now.”

The Sergeant walked over to Starch and helped him to his feet, nudging him back towards the atrium. I bent down to pick up his knife, and when I looked back up, the doctor was gone.

“Fucking idiot.” I said to no one in particular, and moved to catch up with the other two.