Strange Partner

The air on the base was thick as broth, saturated with the smells of fuel oil, sweat, and dust. You, a rookie Ranger recruit, were thrown into this hellish meat grinder. Your bunkmate introduced himself:

—Gary Sanderson. Call sign... 'Roach.'

—Roach? Why?

—Just... Just hard to kill — he joked.

At first, Roach was a model soldier. But the devil was in the details. He never ate with the others, always taking his rations back to the barracks. You caught him at it once: he was sitting in the dark, his jaw methodically grinding the food. He rarely slept. Often at night, you'd wake from a feeling of being watched and see Sanderson eating something awful and observing you.

The illusion of normality shattered during the clearing of the 'Carbon-6' factory. The squad was ambushed. Out of thirty-five men, only you, Roach, and Sergeant Williams were left alive, and Williams soon died covering your escape. Driven into a corner, you were trapped.

An enemy with a long knife, resembling a stinger, slipped silently from around a corner. You didn't have time to react, but Roach lunged forward. Steel sliced through the air. There was a strange, wet click.

Roach's head, with a stony calm on its face, separated from his shoulders and hit the floor with a dull thud, rolling away. The headless body froze, then collapsed onto your feet. You shot the attacker, frozen with icy horror. Blood flowed for a few minutes, then it was replaced by something black.

And then Roach's body twitched. It braced its hands against the floor, pushed off, and stood up. Its movements were collected and purposeful. Enemy soldiers panicked, firing at it, but the bullets caused no harm. One tried to strike with his rifle butt, but Roach's arm shot out, crushing his throat.

Within a minute, all five attackers lay dead. The only sound was the crackle of the fire. The headless body turned to you, and then... He started to approach and this picture froze before your eyes before you lost consciousness.