The Glooming (Wrath of the Old Gods Book 1) (2 page)

“Uh, G?” a voice behind him said.

Gyle turned around. It was Sergeant Winston, a huge black guy from Tennessee. He remembered doing a recon with Winston’s squad on the first day of operations. “What is it, Sergeant?” Gyle said.

Winston took off his helmet and sheepishly rubbed his forehead. “I dunno if I should be saying this, sir, but I saw something last night. I tried telling the captain and the lieutenant about it, but they said I was just seeing things.”

“You don’t have to call me sir, Sergeant. I’m attached to the CIA, remember? That means I’m technically a civilian so just call me G. Go ahead and say what’s on your mind. What did you see?”

“G, something weird happened when we passed through Al-Shirqat last night, sir.”

“What happened?”

“Remember those old ruins? I think they told us it was some sort of a temple before those IS ragheads blew them up or something.”

“It’s called Assur. It’s an Assyrian archaeological site.”

“Yeah, that one, sir. Anyway, when my two MRAP vehicles passed alongside of it, my driver, Specialist Carruthers said he thought he saw some sort of weird lights around one of the ruins, you know,” Winston said.

“Lights? What sort of lights?”

“I dunno, sir. I was on the top of my MRAP as gunner on the Browning Ma Deuce, so I swung it around because you never know if any of those ragheads might try to sneak one by us you know.”

“And? What did you see?”

“I saw something alright, I’m not sure if it was lights or maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me or something, but it seemed like one of the ruins was like, glowing, sir.”

“Glowing?”

“Yes, sir. Like some sort of glowing lights on it like you know, when there’s smoke effects on the dance lights when you go to a club or something,” Winston said.

“You sure it wasn’t a reflection from our vehicle lights?”

“I don’t think so, sir. It had a different color and it was glowing.”

Gyle stared blankly at him. “Glowing lights, huh?”

Winston shook his head. “I know you must think I’m on drugs or something, but I swear everyone in my MRAP saw it! I tried telling the Captain, but he said maybe we we’re just seeing things.”

“Who knows, maybe you did see something, I can’t figure out what these IS combatants are doing. Maybe they saw it too before they ran away.”

“There was one other thing, sir.”

Gyle pretended he was still listening. “Yeah? Go ahead.”

“I think I might have seen something moving near the lights, but only for a second.”

Gyle frowned. What was this guy playing at? “Moving? Like men?”

“No sir, it seemed bigger than a man.”

Gyle was slightly confused. Was this guy playing a joke on him? “What then? A vehicle? A car maybe?”

“No, sir, it looked like an animal.”

“A mule or donkey then.”

Winston was agitated. He could tell that Gyle didn’t believe him either, just like his commanders. “No, sir, it was bigger, it looked like a big cow or a buffalo or something, but at least twice as big.”

“Well, there are cows here in this country so I guess that would be normal.”

“I don’t think it was a cow, sir. It was way bigger and dark skinned and it looked like it had wings.”

Gyle’s eyebrows furrowed. “A giant black cow with wings?”

Winston looked down. “I’m sorry if it sounds like a joke, sir, but I’m serious, I really think I saw it.”

Gyle crossed his arms and snorted. “Okay, Sergeant, maybe it was a mutant cow from the hidden Iraqi chemical weapons stash that we’ve been looking for all these years.”

“I knew you wouldn’t believe me, sir.”

Gyle looked away. “Anything else, Sergeant?”

“I think it might have had a weird looking head, sir, like a human head, only bigger. Just wanted to add that, sir. I saw it for a few seconds and then it was gone. Okay, I think I need to go back to my squad now, sir.”

Gyle thanked him and walked towards his Humvee, shaking his head. Matt was already in the driver’s seat. The windshield was caked with dust and there wasn’t any time or sufficient water to clean it. The upholstery smelled of sweat and there was assorted gear strewn around at the back. But Gyle was thankful they had a vehicle to themselves, he hated it every time he had to travel with a fully loaded Humvee. He could see the other soldiers getting into their vehicles; Bravo Company needed to move now if they were going to hit the outskirts of Mosul by the start time of the offensive.

Matt started up the engine. “What was that convo you were having back there?”

Gyle just shrugged as he put his helmet on. “One of the sergeants just told me he saw a giant buffalo with wings last night when we passed by Al-Shirqat.”

Matt started laughing. “Holy fuck. Do you think the NCOs in this unit are on drugs or what?”

“Well, it’s either that or the Apocalypse has already started.”

The lone highway to the city of Mosul was pretty much deserted. They hadn’t seen any civilians either on the road or on foot. The one time Gyle did see anyone was when they started their breakthrough two days before. A gaggle of refugees running south from the front lines turned into a full scale exodus. Since Matt spoke the language, he had interrogated a number of them, but nobody could give any specifics other than hysterical whispers about something terrible happening in Mosul. There were no more living souls within the city. The few IS combatants they had been able to capture told them the same thing—their leaders had disappeared and that any group that attempted to go north into the city were never heard from again. Matt had wanted to stay and question the refugees further, but the orders had come directly from the embassy in Baghdad to join in with Bravo Company for the push up north. Their mission was to report on the ground once Mosul had been recaptured.

As the convoy started towards the city in a single line, Matt drove the Humvee so it was just behind the lead vehicle. Just ahead of them was an MRAP, otherwise known as a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected armored vehicle driven by Sergeant Morris. So far, the only mines or booby traps they had encountered happened right when they broke through the IS front lines just north of Baiji, where there was an improvised explosive device at the side of the road just after the abandoned IS checkpoint. The mine blew up the lead MRAP, but thankfully nobody was seriously hurt. Captain Kelly quickly got a replacement vehicle and kept his unit going.

The only illumination now came from the vehicle headlights of the convoy as night had finally descended. For an hour, the MRAPs and Humvees kept the pace as visibility started to get worse. Gyle was reminded of his training in night diving when he was still with Force Recon, the utter blackness of the deep ocean around you with the only thing you could see was wherever your flashlight pointed at. As they kept advancing, the convoy was now immersed in a swirling dust of sand.

Sergeant Morris’s voice on the radio cut through the silence as the lead vehicle slowed down. “Visibility down to just a few feet. Can’t see for shit now.”

“Continue your advance, just take it slow,” Captain Kelly answered on the radio. “Any contact?”

“No contact, sir. Nothing. Not a goddamned thing. Not even any animals,” Morris said through the radio as the static interference began to build.

Gyle turned to Matt. “Are we still in contact with the embassy?”

“Let me check,” Matt said as he flipped the switch on the backpack radio beside him. He tried to call in, but all he got was static. “Negative.”

Gyle activated the vehicle radio to talk to the convoy. “Captain, we lost contact with the embassy, are you still in touch with division HQ?”

There as a lot of static in the reply. “G … can … bare … hear … we … push … on….”

“Goddamn it,” Gyle said as he turned to look at Matt once again. “Do we still have GPS coordinates?”

Matt was pushing the button on the console near the dashboard. “No, I’ve been sending out the signal for the past half hour, but as soon as we entered the sandstorm … nothing’s come back.”

“Is it working?”

“Yes, it’s working, I’m still able to turn it on.”

At that moment, a loud thump on the passenger side window startled both men. Gyle pulled out his pistol and turned to his right, but was instantly relieved to see Lieutenant Zwelinski outside banging on the window with his palm.

As Gyle rolled down the window, he noticed the pace of the convoy had slowed to a crawl. “What’s going on?”

“We’re gonna stop, CO’s orders!” Zwelinski shouted to him as he ran forward to try and get the lead vehicle’s attention. The lieutenant succeeded and the whole convoy was now stopped. Gyle got out of his vehicle after putting on his goggles and wrapping a bandana over his nose and mouth. The sand storm was unexpectedly mild as only a fine curtain of particles hung in the air. In fact, it seemed to be more like a fog than a massive dust devil, but visibility was still only a few feet. As Gyle turned to his right, he could only see the faint white headlights of the vehicles behind him.

“Wait here, I’m gonna talk to the captain,” Gyle said to Matt as he turned and started running down the convoy line. As he passed about a half dozen vehicles, he noticed the captain’s MRAP with its extra antenna and he ran over to the side passenger door.

Captain Kelly noticed him, opened the door and got out. “I’m ordering Bravo Company to hold here. We have no visibility and we’ve lost communications with Division HQ. If we encounter anything ahead of us, we can’t call in any air support. We’ve got to wait until this storm clears or we regain communications. I’m not risking my men till I know what’s out there.”

Gyle thought about it for a minute. “Understood, Captain. Matt and I will be going ahead. My orders are to find out what the situation in the city is.”

“Are you sure about that? If you go too far ahead, we may not be able to offer you support. You’ll be on your own.”

“Understood, but so far we’ve encountered no resistance whatsoever. If anything goes wrong, we’ll try to make it back here.”

“Well, you’re not part of my command so there’s not much I can do to stop you. I’m ordering my men to set up a perimeter around this convoy. If you find yourself in any kind of trouble, try and make your way back here.”

“Roger that,” Gyle said and then he turned and started running back to his vehicle.

As he got back in the Humvee’s front seat, he noticed Matt was still trying to get the GPS locator to work. “Damned thing just isn’t getting a signal back,” he said.

Gyle grabbed his carbine from the backseat and placed it on his lap as he pulled the bandana down to his neck. “Bravo Company is holding up here and setting up a perimeter. I told Captain Kelly that we’re going ahead.”

Matt looked at him. “Are you sure about this?”

Gyle looked at his watch. “We’ve been on the highway for almost three hours now. We should be close to the outskirts of the city. Since we encountered no resistance, I don’t think we’re in any danger.”

“Famous last words, but the Lord hates a coward,” Matt said as he twisted the steering wheel and stepped on the accelerator so that the Humvee started to bypass the lead MRAP. Zwelinski saw what was happening and looked confused. Gyle waved goodbye to him as the Humvee got ahead of the convoy and continued on slowly past it. Within minutes, the vehicle was surrounded by a cloudy darkness, with only the first few feet ahead of it illuminated by the light truck’s headlights as they continued on the deserted highway. It felt like they were in a misty dream.

Both men kept quiet as the vehicle drove on. Within half an hour, they came upon on what seemed to be a few dozen stationary cars facing south. The vehicles were all partially covered with sand. Matt didn’t notice any movement as he stopped the Humvee in front of them.

Gyle checked to see if there was a chambered round in his carbine. There was. He put his bandana and goggles back on and then pulled out a flashlight. “Stay here, I’m going to check it out.”

Matt grabbed his own rifle from the backseat and chambered a round. “You want me to get on the turret?” The top of their vehicle had a ball turret with an MK-19 grenade launcher mounted on it.

“No, stay on the wheel. If things get hairy, give me some time to run back in the car, okay?”

“Wilco.”

Gyle got out of the Humvee and started walking slowly to the line of cars ahead of him. Even though his vehicle had its headlights on full power right behind him, he could only see the faint outlines of the other cars. The lead car looked like a light truck with an improvised recoilless rifle mounted at the back. As Gyle looked inside, he noticed two corpses on the driver and front seats. The bodies had no clothes on and looked mummified, drained of all body fluids with their mouths open in silent agony, it looked like they were flash burned alive. As he went to the second vehicle, he saw it was a minivan packed with corpses that looked just like the ones in the previous car. Examining the vehicle more closely, he noticed that whatever burned the occupants miraculously hadn’t affected the cars themselves, other than the dust that caked the van. Looking down at the wheels, Gyle noticed that all the tires had no rubber on them. Shining his flashlight further down the road, he could see at least a dozen fainter outlines of cars ahead, with no end in sight. It looked like this convoy was on its way south from the city, as if they were all fleeing from something.

As he turned to face the Humvee and started walking back to it, Gyle saw hazy flashes of lights and heard the sound of gunfire and explosions towards the south of the road. Quickly breaking into a run, he realized the light show and the noise must have been coming from Bravo Company’s perimeter. They were under attack.

“Go, go, go!” Gyle said as he got in and slammed the door shut.

Matt heard the sounds too as he quickly made a U-turn and started to accelerate southwards before slowing down again due to the minimal visibility ahead. “I’m sorry, I can’t go any faster. I’m afraid we might collide with another vehicle if I go faster than this.”

Gyle said nothing as he merely nodded and then climbed in the back of the vehicle, stood up, and opened the turret hatch. The automatic grenade launcher was caked with sand as he wiped some of it off the barrel, then he racked the massive bolts on both sides to ready it for firing. Gyle pulled at the lever near the turret ring to rotate it. Although it traversed slowly because of the fine sand seeping into its ball bearings, the turret could still rotate a full circle. Gyle adjusted the sights as the sounds of fighting got closer.