The Night Calls

     As investigators leave the scene of a unidentified vehicle at B<C Base 14, night sets over the land. The moon reflects over the swaying waves of the lake, water breathing in and out of the sand, trees rustling in the distance. Officer Perdue lights a cigar, takes off his shoes, and relaxes on the cold, sandy beach. The night is quiet. Too quiet. Too calm. Too silent. He can feel the moisture tickle the pores of his body, as his heavy eyelids roll over his tired eyes.

     The calm silence dissipates, being replaced by an eerie static. And as his muscles relax and his head cranes back, the static reveals itself not to be the sound of a dead TV, but echoes of distant lives. He takes it in. He hears the screaming of a woman, the booming of mortars in Novenae. A campfire song plays on the far end of the lake, and the occasional car horn from a distant road. The noises, lives, people, begin to merge, coalesce, into a calmness, that is not quite silence, but not lifeless static either.

     And as Perdue's body heaves downward, he grabs his jacket and wraps it around himself, grinning at the thought of waking up tomorrow morning and dancing with the birds and the deer in the nature reserve, before heading back to his usual job at 12 PM. He relaxes, shifting lower into the sand, and goes to sleep.

BONITANA ARMED FORCES CASUALTY REPORT FATALITIES - 1 (OFFICER RONALD PERDUE)

Cause of death: Strangulation, injection with substances via hypodermic needle.

OFFICER PERDUE WAS PERFORMING A INVESTIGATION AT BLACK<CON BASE 14. AT APPROXIMATELY 12:34 AM 11/17/18 WEST BYFAIR TIME HE REPORTED TO HIS CO THAT HE WAS GOING TO SLEEP ON THE BEACH. THE ██████ ████ ███████ ███ AT █████ THE ██████ ████ ███ OVER ███████, PATROL FORCES FOUND ████████. VEHICLE WAS REPORTED APPROX. 167 HOURS OLD AND SHOWED NO RECENT ACTIVITY. SUSPECTED ████████. OFFICER PERDUE WAS FOUND DEAD HOURS LATER AT ▮:▮▮ AM.

DATE 11/17/18 UNCLASSIFIED - DISCLOSED