Cry Wolf

When the Ukrainian-Russian war began, NATO responded by stationing troops to the boarder to deter Russia of further attacks into Europe. My unit was one of hundreds, if not thousands of units selected to perform this tasking. I was stationed in the one of the Baltic States, though for the life of me I cannot remember which one. It could had been any of the three. We were a National unit out from New Hampshire, and a team of us were sent to the Baltics to assist in training exercise.

We were stationed in an airfield, not too far from the capital, and to be honest, it wasn’t bad. The food could be better, but there are restaurants that deliver on post if you want it. We were allowed off post during the weekend, and me and my team would spend time exploring the city. The beer was good, the people were in general very nice, and I had to admit I was having fun.

The only bad thing during the whole experience was the guard duty for the ammo point. They were divided into two twelve hour shift. The morning shift was 0700 to 1900 and the night shift was from 1900 to 0700. To be honest, it wasn’t a bad gig. We sat into small shacks, which had air conditioning, water, and though it was kind of weak, we did get signal out there so we could watch something on Netflix, Hulu, or whatever other streaming service we had. We also had to inspect vehicles that came by confiscate cellphones before they entered the area and raise and lower the gate to let vehicles entrance into the ammo point. The only thing was we couldn’t sleep at night, and I could get a bit nippy outside, but all in all, it wasn’t a bad gig.

I was performing one of these guard shift when I saw two things strange out there. One could be easily explained away, but the other was something I can’t as easily use reasonable deductions to understand. It was almost midsummer when it happened, and we were sitting in the shake, myself and a fellow National Guardsmen named Yates. We had out lab tops, cigarettes, water, and monster energy drinks to keep us going. I was watching a new series on Disney Plus, but with one eye always trained on the cameras at all time. The camera was divided into nine different camera points, which were dotted around the area of the ammo point.

Around 12 am, it had finally gotten dark enough for the night vision to turn on. Where we were, the sun didn’t set until 0030 or 0100 in the morning. When the final camera finally went from full color to a greyish color, I looked up and saw something truly strange. Several of the cameras seemed to be going in and out of focus and one was completely grey. After staring for a long moment, I saw what looked like strange, wraith like things flying across some of the cameras. I could still see through most of the cameras, despite the ghostly things flying passed the cameras, save for camera 16, that was point to where several military trucks were being parked by two of the bunkers were ammo was being stored. I called it in to the local military security detachment. They said they would check it out and get back to me.

Me and Yates stared at the cameras for several minutes, until I decided to go outside to check out the ammo point for myself. Yates stayed to watch the camera and I walked down the road until I got to the bunkers. I found the affected camera and looked up. A thick layer of fog was covering it, and looking at the other camera points, I saw more fog moving around them, causing the effect I was seeing on the camera. I smiled at my silliness, feeling like a damn fool, and turned around. I walked back to the ammo point, called back to security, and said it was just the fog. They confirmed it and said goodnight to me.

For almost two hours, nothing happened, save for having finished my monster and now feeling the need to pee. A porter-potty was there on the other side of road gate, but it smelled terrible, and I had seen a ton of bugs in it. Sense I didn’t have to do anything other than piss, I went to a blind spot behind the shack where I could piss by the fence that separated the base from the woods.

I was doing my business when I heard a rustling in the woods. This wasn’t overly concerning to me. Despite intelligences briefs and dangers or Russian spies, there were a lot of animals that lived in those woods, over 99.9 percent of the time, it was a bird, or some other animal running around in there. But then the sounds got louder, and it reminded me of a horse galloping.

I looked up and something large slammed into the gate. The impact caused the post and the metal wires that made up the fence to bend in, as I saw in the slowly coming twilight a brown shape land on the ground, temporarily stun by its own impact, and shaking his head to clear it. It was the size of a large brown bear, but it looked more like a wolf then a bear, with long legs, paws the size of dinner plates, a thick furry body and, long tale. Its head was that of a wolf with pointed ears, and jaws were large and full of white gleaming teeth.

I was so stunned and shocked at what I was seeing that it had time to turn and lock eyes on me. Its fur bristled and its teeth showed in a snarl. But it was the eyes that got me. They weren’t shaped like that of a wolf, but that of a human, and it wasn’t the cold indifference glare of an animal that froze my heart, it was the glare of a person in a state of pure rage. It began biting at the metal fence and chewing slowly through the metal. I ran back inside the shack, slammed the doors and the windows that were opened, stopping the data flow from Yates’ phone. He stood angrily, “What the hell man.”

Before I could say anything a loud slamming sound it the side of the shack, shaking it, and the sound of a growl, low and rumbling vibrated through the room. We looked to the window I shut and saw a large furry back stalk past, looking for a way in other then my locked door. Quick as a flash, we lowered the bullet proof coverings we had installed in the shack windows, slamming them. There were two more crashes and loud howling roars outside the window. I went to the radio and called in the local military security again, saying, “This is Ammo Point to security, is anyone out there. Something is attacking the guard shack. It got through the fence.”

The thick accent of the police chief came over the radio, “This is security, we are on our way.”

Me and Yates grabbed the M4s that were inside. I guarded the door and window next to it while he guarded the other in the back. The banging continued for three more hours until it suddenly stopped. I looked over at the camera and saw, despite it being 0300, the sun had risen, and we went back to the cameras. On and off we had checked them to see if the thing was still there when there was lulls in the attacks. Each time, we saw it circling. But this time, we saw it was gone.

My weapon still in hand, I unlocked the door and slowly walked out. The creature was not in the blind spot, and a quick circle around the area made it clear that it was gone. What was left of it was a trail of footprints from the hole in the gate around our shack and going back to the hole. I walked over to it. It was large enough I didn’t need to bend down to walk through, and the sides were wide enough where it wouldn’t snag my military uniform. That put the thing at least six foot tall and a least as wide as me.

That was when the local security forces came out. They came over to me and met Yates in the shack to observe the security footage, and study what had happened that night. I saw two of the local soldiers, guns in hand, saying something in their native language. I couldn’t pick up much, having not learned it, but I did pick up on two things. “Wolf” and “Not again.”
I went to one of the soldiers and asked, “What was that thing.” One of the soldiers looked back at me, gave me a fake smile, and said, “Sorry, no English.” I knew he was lying but I decided to be tactful and went back in the tent, were the soldier was studying the camera. I asked again, “What was that thing?”

The soldier looked up, shrugged, and said, “Probably a bear.”

Again, I knew he was lying but I also knew this guy wasn’t as closed mouth as the others, so I pushed, “That was no bear man, come on, what was it?”

The man looked out the door, then back at me and said, “It happens on occasion. Stuff like this happened in these woods long before. Before the Soviet Union, or Germany, or any other time in Latvia history. But it was when the Soviets came when the attacks happened more frequently. They built the building you’re in to withstand tank rounds because so many troops died here. But I know this. Nobody has ever seen it twice and lived.”

He then left and headed out to the others checking out the area where the thing had gone. Me and Yates stood there and were relieved at 0700 and drove back to the barracks we were staying at. We got a few hours of sleep, snoring through the day until we were woken up by our NCOIC at 1400.

“Start packing, you’re going back.”

“Huh?” I asked, “Where…”

“Hurry up. You need to be gone in two hours.”

I shook my head and did pack my stuff in the allotted time. Yates and I were downstairs and our LT and NCOIC were waiting by the TMP we used to travel and go to the store. We put our stuff in, they started the car and drove us to the airport. We were then given tickets and my eyes widen, realizing where they were sending us.

“We’re going back to New Hampshire?” asked Yates, “Did we do something wrong?”

“No,” said the LT, she looking nervous and irritated to get us on the plane, “No, this was a request by the local government for your safety.”

“Ma’am,” I asked.

“Just get on the plane.”

We did. We flew out of the Baltic State, had a layover in France and Ireland, and flew the rest of the way back to New York. Then, after we checked at Fort Drum, we were released and allowed to head back to New Hampshire. The whole process took less than an hour, and they didn’t even ask where our weapons were, which was good because they were still back at the Baltics. When we got back to New Hampshire, a Colonel was waiting for us and asking, “You two ok?”

“Yeah,” I said, “Why were we sent home?”

He stood there, thinking then just said, “Where you were stationed, the local government thought your lives could be in danger. That is why they sent you back here.”

“How…” asked Yates, but I then remembered what that soldier said back in the Baltics, “Nobody had ever seen it twice and lived.” I realized what ever happened out there in the Baltics, that thing was still looking for me and Yates, and it wouldn’t stop until it found us.

Credit: Robert F Jones